Due to their power and prestige, the delegation from the central region had taken up residence in an exclusive palace, kept separate from the other accommodations.
Among the seven masters sent to protect the two envoys, six had reached the realm of the Stellar Sovereign, while only one had attained the realm of the Cosmic Emperor—a height of cultivation that nearly everyone in the outer regions of the Celestial Heavens could only dream of reaching.
He was an elderly man with dark, deep-set eyes, a shaved head, and gentle features that betrayed nothing of the terrifying power coiled within him.
Seated in a ditative posture, he controlled every wave of his aura with extre caution, careful not to disturb the environnt around him. Normally, soone of his level would hold the position of a lower-ranking elder in the Orthodox Alliance, and his presence would never be required on a mission to such a remote location.
The only reason he was there was, quite frankly, pure politics.
In truth, the outer regions held no importance to the central region. And yet, the central region cared.
The reason? The golden dragon, the most powerful expert of the Celestial Sky and leader of the Celestial Orthodox Martial Alliance.
Long Tianjin.
He strove at all costs to maintain prosperity in the outer regions, to prevent demons from dominating them, and to ensure the relationship of respect and honor between the two sides remained equal, despite the absurd disparity in power.
A single peak Stellar Sovereign would have been more than enough to protect those two. Even so, the old man himself, accompanied by six of the alliance's most powerful Stellar Sovereigns, had been sent simply as a show of respect.
"Ah…" The old man's lips parted in a faint sigh as his eyes slowly refocused on the present.
In the distance, he could hear furious footsteps approaching, and he was already fully aware of what had happened.
One of his subordinates had been keeping watch over Long Aoxue and had promptly reported everything to him.
'Reckless brat...' The old man shook his head with a stifled sigh.
Almost on cue, the door to his cultivation room swung open with a forceful crash, slamming against the wall and shattering the stillness of the chamber.
He maintained good relations with Long Aoxue's powerful family, so he limited himself to forcing a polite smile onto his face.
"Master, you must avenge !" Long Aoxue roared, storming in without any ceremony. His pants were still soaked and stained with urine.
"That damned Long Qingyi not only humiliated , but humiliated the entire central region! For the sake of your friendship with my father, I beg you to avenge my na and cripple his cultivation!"
Upon hearing those words, a vein throbbed on the old man's forehead.
To barge into the cultivation room of a peak Cosmic Emperor and still dare to speak with such arrogance… wasn't that child overstepping his bounds?
"Calm down," he said through clenched teeth, holding back the irritation rising in his chest.
Aoxue's family had a Celestial Emperor as an ancestor, one who harbored a deep love for his grandchildren.
He couldn't simply punish Aoxue for his arrogance without first obtaining permission from that Celestial Emperor.
"Tell , exactly, what happened."
Naturally, Aoxue flashed a broad smile upon hearing that, believing he had won the old man's sympathy.
"That Long Qingyi started right off by threatening , challenging to a duel to the death, and showing utter contempt for both the Celestial Orthodox Martial Alliance and the fact that we are led by a golden dragon!
When I refused a fight to the death and preferred a friendly match, he even tried to use his Qi to win once he saw he was going to lose!
His arrogance simply knows no bounds!"
The more he listened, the more the old man grew irritated.
Did that young man have no sha at all?
Did Aoxue truly believe that, just because the old man remained constantly secluded in his cultivation chamber, he had not established his own ans of observing the outside world?
Aoxue wanted to use the old man's fury to force him to cripple Qingyi in the heat of the mont.
Later, he would invoke the na of his grandfather, who loved him deeply, to escape the consequences once the truth ca to light.
Seeing through the ga, the old man continued listening to the increasingly absurd story, fabricated for the sole purpose of stoking his anger.
Well, it was working. But it wasn't Qingyi the old man was beginning to feel anger toward.
His subordinate, tasked with watching Aoxue, had delivered a fairly detailed report via sound transmission, and even that didn't account for ten percent of what Aoxue was now telling him.
Before long, however, the old man's anger shifted direction.
'Long Qingyi… where have I heard that na before?'
He vaguely recalled hearing sothing similar within a very closed circle of elders, a matter treated with absolute secrecy.
He had once asked the master of the pavilion he served why that na carried such weight, but he had never delved deeper into the conversation, his mind elsewhere at the ti.
When he finally pieced the fragnts together, the old man's eyes widened, and a slight chill crept down his spine.
Long Qingyi. A black dragon of unmatched talent and arrogance.
"Aoxue, tell , have you heard anything about the origin of this Long Qingyi? Is he from the Immortal Heaven?" the elder asked, his voice suddenly cautious.
"Uh? Well…" Aoxue thought for a long mont before nodding.
"I rember hearing sothing about it. Apparently, he is, in fact, from the Immortal Heaven! Just one more reason to cripple him. How dare he scorn our glorious alliance, coming from such a miserable little place?"
The old man did not reply, sinking into deep thought.
Long Qingyi was, in all likelihood, the heir of the Dragon God of Corruption.
He rose imdiately, ready to seize a transmission crystal and send the news to the Martial Alliance. Before he took his first step, however, he hesitated.
No. Transmission crystals could be intercepted, especially over such a great distance.
He would need to deliver this information in person.
There were two people to whom he could bring such news.
The first would co to fetch Qingyi himself, turning the young man into a great hero in the eyes of the Orthodox Alliance.
The second would send a horde of assassins to exterminate Qingyi, his sect, and everything connected to him in this world.
The old man clenched his teeth. He was a neutral elder, belonging to no faction, and had been born only after the death of the Dragon God of Corruption.
As a devout ortodox cultivator, he truly believed that a man's worth lay in his actions, not in his background.
For now, he would remain in the northern region and observe Qingyi from afar.
Only by understanding the young man's personality could he decide who should receive this information.
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