Some time later.
Tian Yongheng finally appeared before Pei Shuanzhen as his voice echoed in the latter’s ears.
"Is fellow daoist here for a normal duel or a fight to the death?"
This voice had no emotions whatsoever, and Tian Yongheng’s face remained as cold and expressionless as ever.
Seeing him, Pei Shuanzhen blinked once before coming back to his senses.
His appearance is indeed extraordinary.
Worthy of being a reincarnated individual.
As he thought of this, a system notification appeared before Tian Yongheng.
[Pei Shuanzhen has developed favorability towards you.]
[Current favorability: 1-Star]
Tian Yongheng simply ignored this and focused on the other party.
He wanted to hear Pei Shuanzhen’s explanation.
If it was a battle to the death, then he would directly insta-kill Pei Shuanzhen using the Heaven Earth Quintessential Sword Finger.
If it was just a spar, then he could spare him, but not without heavy injuries.
No matter the reason, if one dared to become enemies with another in the cultivation world, they had to be ready to pay the price.
Letting the opponent live was already the greatest form of mercy!
Otherwise, enemies had to die!
As Tian Yongheng was thinking of this, Pei Shuanzhen finally spoke up.
"I wish to fight to the death. There’s no need for the Master of Eternal Peak to show mercy. Just that if you can, please help me remove the Immortal Isolation Curse on my soul and I’m willing to be a subordinate of yours for all of eternity-"
However, before he could even finish speaking, a strong light entered his vision and blurred out everything in the world.
It was as if the world had returned back to its origin paleness that existed before the arrival of creation.
Pei Shuanzhen couldn’t think straight as his consciousness was consumed by the extreme power enveloping around him, as if the end of the world had come.
Just before his consciousness disappeared, he vaguely heard a single sentence.
"Meet me in your next life, and I’ll dispell the Immortal Isolation Curse placed on your soul."
*BOOOOOM!*
A loud sound echoed throughout the heaven and earth as void shattered with cracks appearing in the space around the radius of 10,000 miles.
This place was hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Eternal Peak, so it did not effect anyone.
Pei Shuanzhen’s body was directly destroyed by the strong explosion and his soul lingered in the sky.
As the strong light slowly dispersed, Tian Yongheng’s figure was revealed with his right hand raised, pointing towards the now destroyed body of Pei Shuanzhen.
Despite having used Heaven Earth Quintessential Sword Finger at almost its full power, he was not exhausted at all and went up to the floating soul of Pei Shuanzhen.
He left a Dao Mark on it before disappearing into thin air as the surrounding Spirit Qi, worldly laws and heavenly rules began to fix the damage caused to the area.
This battle went completely undetected by everyone except for those who already know about it such as the Great Yang Venerable.
At this moment, a dark void cracked open in the ground as two shadowy figures stepped out of it.
Their faces were covered by dark mist and aura was incomprehensible, surrounded by a threat of karma that couldn’t be seen through.
One of them was a tall figure who wore white robes and a long hat with letters exuding Dao runes engraved on it while also holding a black colored hand fan.
The other, who seemed a bit shorter than the white robed figure, wore black clothes and a hat while also holding a white colored hand fan, he had a chain wrapped around his right arm.
Both of them looked at the soul of Pei Shuanzhen before them in silence as many things processed through their minds.
The black robed figure looked at the white robed figure before speaking in a low voice, "So this is the reason why you insisted on us coming here personally."
His voice was heavy and his expression could not be seen because of the dark mist covering his face.
"Yes, exactly. Taking someone with the Immortal Isolation Curse to the Netherworld should be a great responsibility that the Yin Soldiers or Ghost Immortals cannot shoulder alone. With our presence, we can do it with ease."
The white robed figure replied, his voice mature and seeming more like an old man.
"Was that really the only reason?"
The black robed figure couldn’t help but ask.
"Of course not. The Black and White Impermanence appearing to take away a soul personally, I wouldn’t suggest it without a good reason. The restriction of the Heavenly Dao is too great for Immortals and Gods to enter the Lower Realm, after all."
The White Guard replied, turning his gaze towards the spacial cracks in the area with conflicting thoughts.
"Someone with so much power and to have reached the Immortal Ascension Realm at the very least before the age of 600...is he really a former Immortal God from the Upper Realm?"
He said slowly, turning to look at the Black Guard.
Because Tian Yongheng had already gone back to the Dao Field where the heavenly secrets had been concealed by the system, no one, not even the Black and White Impermanence could detect him or the Dao Field, as such, they could not see through his true cultivation base and only assume from what they had seen.
"There’s a high chance it’s possible, specially since we never saw his soul in the Netherworld. Perhaps only that Ghost Immortal who is the closest subordinate of the Goddess knows. Should we ask her?"
The Black Guard replied, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"No, let nature take its course. The Great World is about to change."
The White Guard shook his head as he turned around and walked towards the portal which had been opened up earlier, Pei Shuanzhen’s soul floating towards him as it hovered over his other palm.
"Let’s go back. We can’t stay here for long."
He said before entering the portal.
The Black Guard looked at the spacial cracks in the void one last time before following the White Guard into the portal.
As soon as he entered, the portal closed by itself and all of its traces disappeared in an instant.
...
Back to the Eternal Peak.
All those who were paying attention to Pei Shuanzhen heaved a sigh of relief when he finally disappeared from the sky and got back to their own things.
Tian Yongheng didn’t enter his cave abode but instead sat outside of the entrance, in a meditative stance.
Inside of the cave abode, Tian Yongheng’s original body recounted the gains from this battle of his for some time before pushing them all to the back of his mind.
The him who fought with Pei Shuanzhen earlier was actually just a clone which he had recreated with his current cultivation base.
At the peak of Nascent Soul Realm, he was invincible under the Half Immortal Realm!
This was what he deduced this time.
And since this battle had been carried out discreetly, almost no one could guage his true strength!
Perfect. Now, I can just wait till I’m invincible in the mortal world.
My enemies will always underestimate me thinking I can at most match peak Tribulation Transcendence Realm, while my true strength will have already crossed the Half Immortal Realm threshold by then!
And that too will happen if I have enemies in the first place. I’m going to give Lu Qingfeng a lesson when he comes back to not act recklessly or not involve me in his actions first.
Now, even if the Great Yang Venerable comes to find me, he won’t be able to break into the Dao Field or even locate it because of its strong defenses.
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Thinking of this, he slowly closed his eyes and started cultivating, hoping to breakthrough to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm as soon as possible and test his strength against the Half Immortal Realm.
It was only after reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Realm could he relax for a couple of years and then go back into cultivation. Otherwise, he won’t feel safe in the world.
For him, reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Realm was equivalent of obtaining the strength to contend against the Half Immortal Realm and some of the most powerful beings in the mortal world right now.
Despite that, he still couldn’t underestimate the Immortal Gods above.
Although almost no records say that Immortal Gods could enter the Mortal World except for the cleansing which takes place at the end of every Heavenly Karmic Cycle, there were also no records in the normal cultivation world about the existence of the Half Immortal Realm.
Which means that the top tier figures knew secrets ordinary cultivators didn’t, and there was probably a way for Immortal Gods to enter the Mortal World.
This thought made him feel inexplicably uneasy, which was one of the reasons he didn’t want to stop cultivating.
Thus began another period of long seclusion, with Tian Yongheng aiming for the Tribulation Transcendence Realm this time.