Wang Wei activated the Communication Array, and Yan Hai's beautiful but stern face showed on the other side. "Boy, I'm still busy with your affairs, and your constant call won't speed up things."
"I'm not here about that."
"Then, why are you contacting ?"
"I want to know about soone called Madam Lu."
"Who?"
"Madam Lu, also known as the Heavenly Serpent Empress — she's the behind-the-scenes person of the Sunshine Pavillion."
"The na Sunshine Pavillion rings a bell, but not the others. Hold on, let check." Yan Hai disappeared while Wang Wei spent the next few seconds thinking about scandalous scenarios in which his ancestor learned about the Sunshine Pavilion. He doubted they were true, but it was fun to sully her na in his mind. Of course, even if the world were to collapse, he would never reveal to anyone what devious thing his mind was cooking.
Yan Hai's face appeared, holding a scroll. She read it for a few seconds before a realization dawned on her: "Oh, it's Lu Chuntao or the Boulder Serpent Empress. Has she changed her na again?"
"You know her?"
"Yes, she's from my era," Yan Hai nodded. "Are you going to deal with her? You should be extra careful. As a matter of fact, I recomnd you don't in your current state."
"She's that formidable?" Wang Wei asked. "Can you tell more?"
"I don't really know much since my interactions with her were far and few."
"Is that so? I figured she would be in your woman's support group," Wang Wei stated.
"We invited her, but she was a loner and refused," Yan Hai explained.
"I see," Wang Wei nodded. "What else can you tell ?"
"She's very cunning," Yan Hai explained. "Her rise started after successfully stealing the bloodline of a Primordial Earth Serpent, a one-of-a-kind Primordial Chaos lifeform under the watch of both the demon and the Innate Demon God race.
"After that, her reputation was mostly because of her beauty and lustful nature."
Wang Wei nodded. The information he knew did ntion how Madam Lu liked to collect handso n into her harem.
"She then showed her power during the Paragon Heaven Will Battle, becoming one of the final 33 winners. Afterward, no one paid true attention to her until the Ultimate Taboo."
"So, she did participate?" Wang Wei asked.
"Yes —"
"So, why is she still alive?"
"Can't you let finish?" Yan Hai stared at him,
"Sorry," he swiftly apologized.
Yan Hai cald down before continuing: "She is one of the quitters." Wang Wei did not ask and waited for her to explain.
"My mory is vague, but a few things remained vivid," Yan Hai continued. "The taboo was this endless world divided into three areas: outer, middle, and inner. Each area contained countless ruins, each containing so information about transcendence. However, there were two types of ruins: free ruins and trial ruins.
"Trial ruins contained rewards and way more information, but as the na suggested, the participants needed to pass a trial to access the information. During that trial, Lu Chuntao revealed the strength of Primal despite the world always believing she was only a peak Paragon."
Wang Wei frowned: "Has she always been hiding her strength, or did she have an opportunity during the taboo?"
"No one knows truly, but my intuition told it was the forr," Yan Hai replied.
"A cunning woman indeed," Wang Wei nodded. Primals are the equivalent of nuclear deterrents in the cultivation world. So, that ans it is in the ruling factions' best interest to know who is one. It is not a simple matter to hide one cultivation before experts of the sa level, and anyone who has succeeded and done so for an extended period can be labeled as [competent].
"So, what does it an to be a quitter?" Wang Wei asked.
"After passing a trial, everyone had three choices: random reward, ticket of exit, and accumulated points. The rewards were random but the weakest level was Tier 12. And as you can imagine, a few more Primals were born from those rewards.
"The exit ticket is self-explanatory — no one could leave that place without one. However, the deeper the area, the more tickets were required to leave. While we were in the middle area, Lu Chuntao gathered enough tickets and left early."
"She left? Why? Is it because it was getting too dangerous?"
"Not necessarily."
Wang Wei waited for her to explain but no sounds ca out of her mouth for a few seconds: "What other possibilities are there?"
"If she found an incomplete thod."
"Incomplete thod? Isn't that the sa as, you know, those two?"
"No, it's not the sa," Yan Hai shook her head. "Their thods are flawed, aning there are so restrictions and the probability of success is low. Incomplete thods an the creator was in the right direction but they never even succeeded."
"So, incomplete thods cannot be cultivated and must be perfected?"
"That's right."
"So, she found an incomplete thod, left early, and started to repair it. She even destroyed her cultivation during those two's clean up so she would not have to enter limbo," Wang Wei summarized. "I think I know why she captured the Primorigenator Devil's descendant."
"She did? Why?" Yan Hai asked.
"Don't you rember what happened to the Primorigenator after his death?"
"Him? Or, are you insinuating that his transcendent artifact fell in Lu Chuntao's hands?"
"Most likely," Wang Wei nodded. "She needed his blood to control the artifact, and it might also be the source of the transcendent thod that she fixed."
"Hmm, Brother Qiyuan once theorized that Heavenly Dao took the artifact to use as a fortunate encounter for soone worthy, but your explanation is also possible," Yan Hai comnted.
"In fact, the more I think deeply about this woman, the more suspicions that I have," Wang Wei continued. "How did she survive under these two people's watch? I'm sure they were both interested in her thod, but here she is, alive and well."
"The artifact could explain how she hid from them."
"In that case, why did she destroy her cultivation," Wang Wei continued. "The artifact should allow her to keep her strength while remaining in hiding. It's possible that she did not want a target in her back since these two would feel uneasy with such a powerful Paragon in their corners, but based on what I know of her so far, she doesn't seem the kind of person to back down because of such challenge."
"You overlooked another possibility: she did not know how to use the weapon to hide before," Yan Hai added.
"Even after having it for so long?"
"That artifact was a weapon of killing, not for hiding. So, you can imagine the knowledge required to use it for other things."
"I see," Wang Wei said with shining eyes. "She had no choice but to destroy her cultivation and get them off her back. However, while these two were reaching higher levels, she used the knowledge she had acquired from the taboo to better understand and utilize the artifact."
"That's probably the closest truth we can deduce without knowing exactly what happened," Yan Hai nodded.
"However, my suspicions about her cultivation have increased instead of abated," Wang Wei added. "It's been so long, so it's possible for her to return to her peak secretly and hide it with the artifact. At the very least, she has returned to the Paragon Realm."
"I guess Wrath will be disappointed," Wang Wei sighed. He knew of his intuition, so he was not surprised by this outco. However, he shook his head and regained focus; he still had questions about the ultimate taboo.
"Ancestor, what about the other quitters?" Wang Wei asked. "Lu Chuntao cannot be the only one, right?"
"They were hunted," she replied.
"By the two suns?"
"Only a tiny portion of them," Yan Hai explained.
"Then who?"
"Many cultivators did not have the ball to enter the taboo and waited outside," Yan Hai elaborated. "They hunted these quitters to take their rewards or thods."
"So, there are people who did not participate in the events with thods? That's good to know."
"The number is not as high as you think," Yan Hai responded. "Only the middle area rewarded incomplete thods, and few people could get their hands on one and get enough tickets to escape. Those capable people will not be killed easily, and that's not to ntion no one can pry the information from their souls."
"You an?"
"There is a powerful restriction on this knowledge, so unless they open their mouth and willingly reveal it, no one can get it from their mind or souls," Yan Hai said.
Wang Wei nodded. Grand Dao did its best to prevent these incomplete or flawed thods from spreading far and wide.
"What about the accumulated points you ntioned?"
"We pass trials, accumulate points until the inner area where we should have been able to exchange for a perfect thod."
"Should?" Wang Wei asked, quite curious.
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