At the distant horizon, a giant ford of swirling clouds was beating True Person Gua half to death, but Wang Yulou was no longer in the mood to watch them.
Under the effect of an innate divine ability, a faint blue barrier coated the massive gray tortoise shell like a protective shroud.
The Great Annihilation Immortal Sound was incredibly difficult to block with conventional thods, but the strongest aspect of tortoise-attribute great demons like the Stone Ancestor was their defense.
The onslaught of the Great Annihilation Immortal Sound was terrifying, but under the protection of the tortoise shell of a formidable divine ability great demon like the Stone Ancestor, neither Wang Yulou nor Lin Ying suffered any harm.
Even the Foundation Establishnt cultivators who had fled alongside Wang Yulou survived under the Stone Ancestor's aegis.
Yet, certain matters had to be faced eventually. As the aftershocks of the Great Annihilation Immortal Sound continued flying toward the rear of the crowd, the Stone Ancestor awkwardly sent a voice transmission to explain himself to Wang Yulou.
'Wang Yulou, if I told you I suddenly transford from a miscellaneous demon into a great demon just because I ate too well while following you around, would you believe ?'
Suppressing the unease in his heart and the chaotic tangle of thoughts in his mind, Wang Yulou took a deep breath and said,
'I believe you!'
Who was the Stone Ancestor? A great demon of Dripdrop Cave, the master of Cui Dingyi, soone who had t Wang Xianzhou once and gifted him an egg, which later hatched into the small stone tortoise that Wang Yulou had kept by his side ever since.
But how exactly had that small stone tortoise hatched?
And how had it advanced to the mid-stage of the Miscellaneous Demon realm?
Why did the small stone tortoise have such a bottomless appetite, devouring all kinds of spiritual food without ever getting full?
Wang Yulou hadn't noticed any problems when looking at these matters individually in the past, but stringing them together now, the discrepancy was simply boundless.
Why had He Laosan suddenly broken through to the Small Demon Realm after lacking the opportunity for so many years?
Furthermore, when Yuan Zhengju went to River Bend Fishing Port to discuss the iron crocodile dragon attack, how had that woman managed to notice his arrival before even Wang Yulou realized it?
A cultivator’s mory was incredibly potent, allowing Wang Yulou to recall every single detail of his past interactions with Bai Xiaoyu.
Where had their acquaintance begun?
Following the death of Cui Dingyi, Wang Yulou, having newly entered the true arena of conflicting interests in the cultivation world, reshaped the governance structure and organizational system of River Bend Fishing Port. He ordered Qin Churan and Zhang Xuewu to assemble all the Qi Induction cultivators of the fishing port at the Monster Taming Platform.
Wang Yulou was absolutely certain that this had been his first ti seeing Bai Xiaoyu.
She had suddenly appeared, been naturally accepted by Wang Yulou, and then, she had even beco his Dao Companion.
Reflecting on his past within Dripdrop Cave now, all those details he either hadn't noticed or had been unable to notice were fully exposed.
Qin Churan had once reported the total number and cultivation bases of the Qi Induction cultivators in River Bend Fishing Port to Wang Yulou; among them, there were four at late-stage Qi Induction.
When Wang Yulou reorganized the personnel appointnts and organizational structure of River Bend Fishing Port, the number of late-stage Qi Induction cultivators had suddenly beco five—with the out-of-nowhere addition of Bai Xiaoyu.
The terrifying part was that Wang Yulou hadn't felt the slightest bit of suspicion at the ti.
If Bai Xiaoyu truly was that supre entity, or an incarnation of hers, then the magic seal placed upon him by Perfected Man Hongli was perfectly understandable.
When he first arrived at the West Sea, Wang Yulou carried imnse pressure, unable to see where his path lay. He only knew for certain that he had beco so unknown pawn, a price to be paid.
Only now did Wang Yulou realize that back then, he had actually drawn the attention of multiple grand cultivators.
Why ?
Wang Yulou couldn't quite figure it out.
Whether or not the Stone Ancestor had achieved his cultivation base through eating was an unspoken understanding between them, so there was no longer any need for him to hide it. He directly transford back into the appearance of a small stone tortoise and perched on Wang Yulou's shoulder.
"Yulou, this..." Senior Martial Sister Lin wanted to ask, but Wang Yulou simply shook his head. She instantly understood that now was not the ti for questions.
The other Foundation Establishnt cultivators rely assud the Stone Ancestor was a trump card prepared for Wang Yulou by a True Person of the Behemoth Lineage to help him gain a foothold amid the mountain of knives and sea of fire on the front lines, so they naturally didn't pry.
At the distant horizon, Immortal Venerable Mang Xiang was still brutally slamming True Person Gua, using raw violence to interpret what kind of powerhouse possessed the qualifications to put the ambition of my destiny is my own into practice.
But Wang Yulou had no mind to watch that side; he and the Stone Ancestor were communicating via voice transmission.
'You revealed yourself so suddenly. Did you properly consider the timing?'
Timing, occasion, stance—these were all irritating yet essential details that demanded attention.
Wang Yulou lacked Mang Xiang's strength and couldn't pin down a Peak Purple Mansion expert like True Person Gua and brutally slam him, so he needed to obey the order—those various rules that even the current him had to submit to.
'If I waited until you all were blasted to pieces by the Great Annihilation Immortal Sound before coming out, that would be an even worse ti.
'If the grand cultivators of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect press for answers, just say I left Droplet Cave Heaven to head to the Great Heaven to seek opportunities for attaining the Dao. That reason should suffice.'
The small stone tortoise's tone carried a hint of worldly weariness. Having tagged along with Wang Yulou for so many years, it had stubbornly played dumb for just as long.
It was difficult. Being human was difficult, being a cultivator was difficult, and being a demon was difficult too.
The good days belonged to the grand cultivators, to the supre experts of heaven and earth. The grand illusions constructed by bottom-tier cultivators would all shatter into fragile bubbles the mont they lost any hope of advancing further.
'You couldn't find an opportunity to attain the Dao in the Great Heaven?' Wang Yulou asked.
The Stone Ancestor felt so stifled he was practically nauseous. After not speaking for years, he was finally able to communicate with soone, but the other party turned out to be this irritating Wang Yulou.
If he spoke even slightly incautiously, Wang Yulou would imdiately grasp the hidden information within his words.
It was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable.
'Stop asking, stop asking, I can't say anything.'
The small stone tortoise shook its head like a rattle-drum, indicating that its lips were sealed tight.
Loyal to Dripdrop!
It wasn't just every cultivator who was struggling hard to survive; demons were exactly the sa.
'Alright, I understand.'
The Stone Ancestor really wanted to ask what he understood, but ultimately didn't dare to inquire further.
Its master was Immortal Venerable Dripdrop. As Immortal Venerable Dripdrop's little lover, Wang Yulou was roughly equivalent to half an Immortal Venerable to beings like the Stone Ancestor who were born within her grotto-heaven.
A grand cultivator's dog could be considered an extension of their control, so wouldn't an Immortal Venerable's little lover be half an Immortal Venerable?
Of course, this half an Immortal Venerable status was strictly limited to the beings born within Droplet Cave Heaven.
——
"You slaughtered billions of living beings belonging to the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, including tens of millions of mortals and over ten thousand cultivators.
"Old Gua, why did you think I wouldn't intervene? Or did you think you could suppress ?"
Mang Xiang, transford into a giant of clouds, fought with an absolutely ruthless style.
He was immune to the vast majority of True Person Gua's attacks, and he possessed ample experience dealing with the remaining thods.
Mang Xiang's cultivation of the Formless Art had already reached the absolute limit of what he could attain, and his various developnts of it were countless.
As for branch thods like the Return to Origin, Return to Truth Minor Formless Art and the Minor Formless Sword, Mang Xiang had mastered if not a hundred, then at least several dozen of them.
Furthermore, Mang Xiang was a ten-thousand-year-old demon profoundly versed in both the old cultivation arts and new thods. The old cultivation arts he mastered were inherently powerful, and the grotto-heaven he had constructed was over eighteen hundred miles in radius, falling only slightly short of Immortal Venerable Dripdrop's.
It could be said that his accumulation and strength in magical combat were key reasons why he dared to continue striving to attain the Golden Core despite failing five attempts.
Against such a Mang Xiang, forget one True Person Gua—even if three of him ca, he wouldn't be afraid.
"Mang Xiang, do you really love pretending this much now? What 'tens of millions of mortals'?
"Before opening your Purple Palace, you slaughtered every single relative in your clan just to refine a treasure pill.
"You were also the one who guided Zhou Bojiao on the recipe for the Blood Marrow Restoration Pill.
"Yet here you are, putting on an act! Hah, ridiculous!"
Although the four-legged True Person Gua was being ruthlessly battered by the cloud giant, he still had the spare energy to exchange insults with Mang Xiang.
Moreover, this frog, True Person Gua, was incredibly cunning. He was clearly arguing with Mang Xiang, yet he deliberately used a divine ability to broadcast his revelations to everyone within a radius of over a thousand miles.
The Blood Marrow Restoration Pill could increase the success rate of opening the Purple Palace, and the price was sacrificing one's entire family!
Just like the Pirate King telling future pirates that his treasure was hidden at the end of the Grand Line, the mont True Person Gua spoke these words, who knew how many ambitious schers in the future would tread the path of sacrificing their entire clan to attain the Dao.
"Old Gua, stop talking nonsense and trying to pin the bla on . You killed so many Red Lantern Illumination Sect disciples, and you must pay—"
Mang Xiang wasn't angry. He simply calmly intensified his assault while maintaining the facade of a good person seeking justice for the slain disciples of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
How to put it? This was standard operating procedure for grand cultivators. In front of their own people and fellow players, they held no reservations.
But as one of the current true rulers of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, Mang Xiang had to put on an internal front and make a show of things, so that the sect's internal stability could be better maintained.
The logic was simple: if the Red Lantern Illumination Sect fell, Mang Xiang wouldn't die, but he would be put in a passive position.
This was akin to a special rule of 'never bowing your head unless you've lost.' In short, the Ancestor ultimately hadn't reached the level of Sole Venerable.
Even Shen Guang, the absolute floor of the Golden Core realm, might actually be stronger than the Ancestor.
Shen Guang hadn't been attained the Dao for long and lacked accumulation, but his cultivation base was ultimately a level higher.
Mang Xiang was an old monster of ten thousand years with profound accumulation, but he truly hadn't yet attained the Golden Core.
Therefore, it was actually very difficult to make a judgnt on whose strength was greater.
"Pay your ancestors to the eighteenth generation! Mang Xiang, you really love putting on an act. Hypocrite!
"Don't forget, you were the one who went to our Sky Serpent Sect's Heavenly Serpent Valley to kill people first. You broke the rules first!
"You even found a ridiculous excuse for war—hah, a missing disciple! Ridiculous!
"Today, I've only killed over ten thousand Red Lantern Illumination Sect cultivators. It's not enough! It's far from enough!
"Let tell you—this is only the beginning!"
While the two True Persons argued loudly in the sky, the disciples of the Sky Serpent Sect, their faces flushed with impassioned excitent, charged toward the frontline defense nodes of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
After True Person Gua's Great Annihilation Immortal Sound had plowed through, these defense nodes were completely empty.
Just as soone was about to discover Wang Xianmao, Mang Xiang in the sky finally decided he didn't want to tolerate it anymore.
Of course, this had nothing to do with Wang Xianmao; Mang Xiang simply intended to step onto the stage himself.
If it's civil war, then civil war it is. It might as well be fought.
He stopped holding back completely, instantly grabbing hold of True Person Gua's left hind leg.
Mang Xiang, with his profound mastery of the Formless Art, was too good at hiding his strength. Only now did True Person Gua realize that Mang Xiang had actually been holding back earlier!
"You killed Sky Serpent Sect disciples, I killed Red Lantern Illumination Sect disciples. We're even, Mang Xiang."
True Person Gua dropped a not-so-ruthless threat, then kicked his legs and easily broke free from the cloud giant's restraints.
As it turned out, this True Person of the Sky Serpent Sect didn't want to fight a civil war either. He had only intervened so that the Sky Serpent Sect wouldn't appear too cowardly or suffer too great a loss.
The Formless Art was excellent, but its ability to detain opponents was extrely poor. If True Person Gua wanted to leave, Mang Xiang truly couldn't keep him relying solely on the Formless Art.
However, the Formless Art wasn't the only thing Mang Xiang knew.
As the massive, mountain-like Demon King put all his effort into retreating toward the Sky Serpent Sect, Mang Xiang sneered and retracted his divine ability, transforming into a streak of clear light.
Mang Xiang's true body was a wisp of vast, ethereal qi!
How could True Person Gua possibly outrun Mang Xiang, whose true form was a wisp of qi?
Easily catching up to True Person Gua, the streak of clear light transford into a rope and coiled around True Person Gua's leg.
Curses!
True Person Gua imdiately realized sothing was wrong.
It had been too long since anyone had attained the Dao in the sa manner as Mang Xiang. From Tianshe to the Mountain-Flipping Flood Dragon, none of them had known in advance exactly how strong Mang Xiang truly was.
After all, Mang Xiang wasn't the type to boast about his strength to the world.
In reality, as a key general under the Frog Emperor, True Person Gua had attained his Dao for over five thousand years; his strength was not much inferior to Qiu Mile's.
But the problem was that when a twenty percent difference in absolute strength existed between grand cultivators, in actual magical combat, it spelled the difference between life and death.
It seed like rely a twenty percent gap, but that twenty percent was enough to crush the weaker party to death.
The reason was simple: among the grand cultivators who could reach the Purple Palace, not a single one was unskilled in magical combat.
"Die for !"
Immortal Venerable Mang Xiang's voice was like a freezing wind from purgatory, chilling to the bone, harboring this grand cultivator's unwavering conviction to attain the Dao.
Like the most piercing cold wave of winter, it struck fear into the hearts of everyone who heard it. Even from over a thousand miles away, Wang Yulou subconsciously shuddered.
True Person Gua hadn't wanted to fight a civil war; he only wanted to retaliate against the Red Lantern Illumination Sect and display the Sky Serpent Sect's tough stance.
But Mang Xiang had never feared a civil war.
At his level, if you were afraid, you would undoubtedly die.
Cowards possessed no right to attain the Dao!
With the civil war starting, his path to the Golden Core might actually beco smoother.
Crisis was relative; bottom-tier cultivators faced the danger, while for soone like Mang Xiang—who took from others and made them bear the cost—the danger equated to opportunity.
Just as Mang Xiang went all out, at the exact mont he was about to slaughter True Person Gua, the world of the battlefield they occupied was torn open by grand cultivators.
Two black portals appeared in midair. From the first portal, a pink tongue shot out, surging toward Mang Xiang with the montum of thunder.
From the second portal, a blaze of intense crimson fire took the shape of a phoenix. Wreathed in boundless might, it also surged straight at Mang Xiang.
The Frog Emperor and Zhuzhao had struck together.
The forr was the Demon God of the Sky Serpent Sect; the latter was the Demon God of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
They intervened at the precise mont Mang Xiang was about to kill True Person Gua to ignite a civil war, acting collectively solely to stop him.
Mang Xiang was naturally aware that he couldn't force a kill on True Person Gua against the interference of these two—he could, but it would be incredibly foolish.
He was the one responsible for his own Dao. If the sky fell on Wang Yulou, he had Mang Xiang and Dripdrop; if the forr didn't intervene, Dripdrop would.
But if Mang Xiang couldn't withstand the pressure and overplayed his hand, his ten thousand years of bitter cultivation would turn into an illusion.
Because of this, Mang Xiang had never let anyone know his true strength for a long ti. Thus, even facing the easily obtainable chance to slay True Person Gua, Mang Xiang forcibly held himself back.
He couldn't kill recklessly; reckless killing would ruin the entire ga!
However, Mang Xiang wasn't an underling of the Frog Emperor or Zhuzhao. He was a power faction of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect in his own right.
Therefore, even though he couldn't kill True Person Gua, Mang Xiang still didn't stop. Only after ripping off True Person Gua's left hind leg in one go did he belatedly halt his pursuit.
"Mang Xiang, your temper shouldn't be so great."
The Frog Emperor mildly rebuked Mang Xiang, then Absorbed True Person Gua into his grotto-heaven, keeping him protected.
The Frog Emperor harbored no hatred toward Mang Xiang; he simply felt it was unnecessary for Mang Xiang to be so ruthless.
You couldn't possibly intend to fight our Sky Serpent Sect until the end of ti, right?
True Person Gua had rely killed to 'get even'. Was it really necessary to sever one of his legs?
A three-legged toad was so ugly. How unlucky!
Zhuzhao didn't say a single word, once again fading away beyond heaven and earth.
Far away from heaven and earth, absent from reincarnation.
This was Zhuzhao, and this was the Immortal Venerables.
“You couldn’t find an opportunity to attain the Dao in the Great Heaven world?”
Wang Yulou asked. The Stone Ancestor felt a wave of ntal exhaustion.
He had kept silent for so many years. Now that he finally had the chance to speak, it had to be with an absolute nace like Wang Yulou. A single careless phrase was all it took for the boy to seize upon the hidden implications.
It was deeply frustrating.
“Stop asking, stop asking. I can't say another word.”
The small stone tortoise shook its head like a rattle, its lips sealed tight. Dripdrop Cave demanded loyalty!
It wasn't just human cultivators who struggled with all their might to survive; demons were doing exactly the sa.
“Fine, I understand.”
The Stone Ancestor desperately wanted to ask what exactly he understood, but ultimately didn't dare probe further. His master was Di Shui Xianzun.
Given that Wang Yulou was Di Shui Xianzun's young lover, to a creature born within her grotto-heaven like the Stone Ancestor, the young man was practically a quasi-Immortal Venerable.
If even a grand cultivator's hound could wield its master's authority, then an Immortal Venerable's lover was surely nothing less than a quasi-Immortal Venerable. Of course, this 'quasi-Immortal Venerable' status strictly applied only to the creatures born within Droplet Cave Heaven.
---
“You slaughtered hundreds of millions of living beings under the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, including tens of millions of mortals and over ten thousand cultivators. Old Gua, what made you think I wouldn't act? Or do you genuinely believe you can suppress ?”
Manifesting as a colossus of cloud and mist, Mangxiang fought with incredibly unprincipled tactics. He was completely immune to the vast majority of True Person Gua's attacks, and he possessed extensive experience in neutralizing the rest.
Mangxiang's mastery over the Formless Art had reached the absolute limit, yielding countless variations and applications. He had mastered dozens, if not hundreds, of branch techniques like the Return to Origin, Return to Truth Minor Formless Art and the Formless Sword.
Furthermore, Mangxiang was an ancient powerhouse who had spent ten thousand years deeply refining both old cultivation arts and modern thods.
The ancient thods he commanded were inherently devastating, and the personal grotto-heaven he had constructed spanned over eighteen hundred li—only a fraction smaller than Di Shui Xianzun's.
His accumulated combat experience and raw prowess were the primary reasons he dared to forcefully attempt Attaining Golden Core again, even after failing the Five-Council selection. With strength of this caliber, Mangxiang had no reason to fear True Person Gua, even if three copies of him attacked at once.
“Mangxiang, have you developed a taste for sanctimonious posturing? Spouting nonsense about tens of millions of mortals. Before you opened your Purple Palace, you slaughtered every single mber of your own clan just to refine a spiritual elixir. Even Zhou Bojiao's formula for the Blood Marrow Restoration Pill ca from your guidance. To think you'd play the righteous protector now. Ha, laughable!”
Although the four-legged True Person Gua was pinned down and beaten rcilessly by the cloud colossus, he still retained enough strength to trade barbs. Moreover, this frog was incredibly devious.
While shouting at Mangxiang, he intentionally infused his voice with a divine ability, ensuring his revelations resounded clearly in the ears of everyone within a thousand-li radius. The Blood Marrow Restoration Pill could increase the success rate of opening the Purple Palace, but the price was sacrificing one's entire family!
This revelation was akin to the Pirate King telling future generations that his treasure was hidden at the end of the Grand Line. The mont True Person Gua uttered these words, there was no telling how many ambitious figures would embark on the path of sacrificing their clans to achieve the Dao.
“Old Gua, do not attempt to deflect and slander . You slaughtered so many disciples of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, and for that, you must pay the—”
Mangxiang showed no anger. He rely intensified his assault with complete composure, maintaining the appearance of a righteous figure seeking justice for the fallen disciples.
Simply put, this was standard operating procedure for grand cultivators. In front of their own people or those trapped within their grand sches, they acted entirely without scruples.
However, as one of the current controllers of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, Mangxiang had to maintain a certain outward stance to preserve internal stability. The underlying logic was simple: even if the sect fell, Mangxiang would not perish, but his position would beco highly disadvantageous.
It resembled a specific rule: never back down unless you have clearly lost. Ultimately, the ancestor had yet to reach the realm of the Sole Venerable.
Even Shen Guang, who occupied the lowest tier of the Golden Core realm, might actually possess greater raw power than the ancestor. Shen Guang had attained the Dao relatively recently and lacked deep accumulation, but his cultivation base was objectively higher by a full tier.
Mangxiang was a ten-thousand-year-old monster with imnse accumulation, but he had not yet successfully attained the Golden Core realm. Therefore, determining their exact hierarchy of strength was a highly ambiguous judgnt.
“Pay with eighteen generations of your ancestors! Mangxiang, you truly love putting on a show. Hypocrite! Lest you forget, you were the one who first entered our Sky Serpent Sect's Heavenly Serpent Valley to slaughter our people. You broke the rules first. Your sect even concocted a ridiculous pretext for war. Ha, a missing disciple, how farcical! Today I have only slain ten thousand of your Red Lantern Illumination Sect cultivators. It is not enough, nowhere near enough. Let tell you—this is only the beginning.”
As the two True Persons exchanged thunderous argunts across the heavens, the disciples of the Sky Serpent Sect pushed forward with flushed faces and ecstatic fervor, charging directly toward the defensive nodes of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
Following the devastating path carved by True Person Gua's Great Annihilation Immortal Sound, those defensive positions were entirely devoid of living defenders. Just as a few individuals were on the verge of discovering Wang Xianmao, Mangxiang, high above in the sky, finally lost his patience.
Naturally, this had nothing to do with protecting Wang Xianmao; Mangxiang had simply decided to end the preamble. If it took a full-scale internal war, then so be it.
A war might actually clear the air. Dropping all restraint, he instantly clamped down on True Person Gua's left hind leg.
Mangxiang's mastery over the Formless Art allowed him to conceal his true depth so perfectly that True Person Gua only realized in this exact mont that Mangxiang had been holding back during their previous exchanges.
“You killed Sky Serpent Sect disciples, I killed Red Lantern Illumination Sect disciples. We are even, Mangxiang.”
True Person Gua delivered a parting remark lacking any real venom, then kicked out with both legs, easily breaking free from the cloud colossus's restraint. It turned out that this True Person of the Sky Serpent Sect had no desire to wage an exhausting internal war.
His intervention had rely been driven by the need to ensure the Sky Serpent Sect did not appear weak or disadvantaged. The Formless Art was exceptional in many regards, but its capacity to trap an escaping opponent was distinctly lacking.
If True Person Gua committed entirely to fleeing, Mangxiang truly could not detain him using the Formless Art alone. However, the Formless Art was far from the only tool at Mangxiang's disposal.
As the mountain-sized demon king threw his entire weight into a retreat toward the Sky Serpent Sect's lines, Mangxiang sneered, dispelling his cloud manifestation to transform into a streak of clear, ethereal light. Mangxiang's true form was a strand of primordial, boundless essence air!
How could True Person Gua possibly outrun a being whose fundantal body was a formless current of air? Overtaking True Person Gua effortlessly, the clear light shifted into the shape of a binding rope, wrapping securely around the demon king's leg.
Disaster! True Person Gua imdiately realized the peril of his situation.
It had been far too long since anyone had pursued the path to the Dao via Mangxiang's specific thod. From Tianshe to the Overturning Flood Dragon, none of them possessed an accurate assessnt of just how terrifying Mangxiang’s actual combat strength was.
After all, Mangxiang was hardly the type to advertise his power paraters to the world. In reality, as a key general under the Frog Emperor, True Person Gua had possessed his Dao for over five thousand years; his combat prowess was not significantly inferior to that of Qiu Mile.
The critical issue among grand cultivators, however, was that even a re twenty percent disparity in absolute capability translated directly into a boundary between life and death during actual magical combat. A twenty percent advantage was more than enough to utterly crush the weaker party.
The logic was elentary: not a single individual who managed to ascend to the Purple Palace stage was deficient in the art of combat.
“Die!”
Immortal Venerable Mangxiang's voice resembled a freezing wind rising from the depths of purgatory, chilling to the bone. It resonated with the absolute, unyielding conviction of a grand cultivator pursuing his path to ascendancy.
Like the bitterest cold wave of deep winter, it struck an involuntary chord of dread in the hearts of all who heard it. Even across a distance of a thousand li, Wang Yulou shuddered instinctively.
True Person Gua had no desire for full-scale internal conflict; his sole intent had been to retaliate against the Red Lantern Illumination Sect and demonstrate the unyielding stance of his own sect. Yet Mangxiang had never harbored any aversion to internal war.
At his tier, to allow fear to dictate one's actions was an absolute guarantee of death. Cowards were fundantally denied the qualification to attain the Golden Core.
If an internal war erupted, it might very well clear the obstacles from his path to the Golden Core. In tis of crisis, while low-level cultivators faced existential peril, figures like Mangxiang saw only opportunities arising from the prices extracted from others.
At the exact instant Mangxiang unleashed his full power to execute True Person Gua, the fabric of space within their battlefield was forcefully torn open by supre entities. Two pitch-black portals materialized in mid-air.
From the first portal, a pink tongue shot forth with the velocity of a thunderbolt, striking straight toward Mangxiang. From the second portal, a blinding torrent of crimson fla assud the majestic form of a phoenix, carrying world-incinerating energy as it similarly locked onto Mangxiang.
The Frog Emperor and Zhuzhao had struck simultaneously. The forr was the supre Demon God of the Sky Serpent Sect, while the latter was the guardian Demon God of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
They had acted in unison at the precise mont Mangxiang sought to execute True Person Gua and trigger a total factional war, interceding solely to halt his hand.
Mangxiang was naturally fully aware that he could not forcefully slay True Person Gua against the combined intervention of these two entities—it was technically achievable, but monuntally foolish. He was ultimately the sole custodian of his own path to ascension.
When the sky collapsed above Wang Yulou's head, Mangxiang and Di Shui stood ready; if the forr chose to ignore it, the latter would step in. However, if Mangxiang overplayed his hand and failed to withstand the resulting backlash, his ten thousand years of painstaking cultivation would instantly dissolve into nothingness.
Thus, Mangxiang had carefully guarded the secret of his true strength for millennia, and thus, when the opportunity to slay True Person Gua was within arm's reach, he forcefully mastered his impulses. He could not engage in indiscriminate slaughter; to do so would entirely derail his grand plans.
Nevertheless, Mangxiang was by no ans a subordinate to the Frog Emperor or Zhuzhao; he was a powerhouse who commanded his own distinct faction within the Red Lantern Illumination Sect. Consequently, although he refrained from taking True Person Gua's life, Mangxiang refused to halt his strike entirely.
With a brutal wrenching motion, he tore True Person Gua's left hind leg completely from his body before deliberately arresting his forward montum.
“Mangxiang, your temperant shouldn't be so volatile.”
The Frog Emperor offered a detached, indifferent rebuke, then exercised his authority to Absorb True Person Gua into his own grotto-heaven, placing him under his protection. Toward Mangxiang, the Frog Emperor harbored no genuine malice or hatred; he simply believed that Mangxiang had no reason to push matters to such an extre.
Surely you don't intend to wage a war of attrition against our Sky Serpent Sect until the end of ti? True Person Gua had rely slain people to settle the score; was it truly necessary to sever his leg?
A three-legged toad was an incredibly unsightly, unlucky thing to behold. Zhuzhao, anwhile, uttered not a single word, his presence fading instantly back into the void beyond the world.
Existing far beyond the mortal realm, remaining entirely outside the cycles of Reincarnation—such was the nature of Zhuzhao, and such was the nature of the Immortal Venerables.
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