Upper Realm.
Suddenly voices rose one after another: "Found it." "I found Zhong Wuwang!" "I found him too!"
"Locked onto his location, he's on Xingcha Mountain!"
"Quick! Go notify the three ancestral masters!"
……
More than nineteen hundred celestial gods stood at the edge of the Upper Realm, peering downward, searching and monitoring the mortal world day and night. At last they traced Zhong Wuwang's trail, and could not help but feel inexplicably excited.
A celestial god immediately reported to Yang Bi. Yang Bi was cultivating; upon hearing the news he hurriedly asked, "How was Zhong Wuwang discovered?"
One celestial god said, "The Innate Dao Embryo is essentially a minor True God and has a strange link to the Celestial True God. When Zhong Wuwang invoked the Innate Dao Embryo, it affected the moon in the sky, dimming the moonlight slightly, which exposed his location!"
Yang Bi's expression shifted. He promptly issued an order: "No one may contact the Lower Realm! Relay my command at once! All deities in the Upper Realm are forbidden from informing the Lower Realm!"
These celestial gods were the sect leaders from various great clans. Having held high positions in their past lives, they each frowned at the news.
It would be one thing to appoint a junior to oversee the Thirteen Great Clans, but to subject even their ancestral masters to discipline irritated them. Yang Bi was indeed talented. The underworld had long been fragmented into rival powers; after he went there he quickly made the underworld orderly.
The Thirteen Great Clans had tangled interests in the mortal world and many internal grudges. After Yang Bi went to the mortal realm, he did not take long to subdue the sect leaders and make them willing to obey.
But there were only thirteen sect leaders in the mortal world, while the Upper Realm had over nineteen hundred masters!
Getting all those people to think as one and act as one was simply too hard.
Yang Bi knew his voice carried less weight; it would be difficult to make those others obey. After issuing the order he immediately went to Jade Firmament Heaven to meet the ten ancestral masters, bowing as he spoke: "Zhong Wuwang's purpose is to lure us out and find the location of our Upper Realm. Right now Despair Slope must have powerful figures hiding in the dark, waiting for news. Once they find the Upper Realm, they will strike. I beg the ancestral masters to order that no deities of the Upper Realm transmit information to the three ancestral masters Yan, Gu, and Fei!"
Xia Gongjin said, "Yang Bi, I trust your calculations, but how do you know that if we transmit news, Despair Slope will detect it?"
Yang Bi said, "Do the ancestral masters know how many Heaven's Listeners there are in both the mortal and underworld?"
Xia Gongjin smiled, "I don't know. How could it be counted?"
Yang Bi said, "I had men tally them. There are 104 major regions across the mortal and underworld; each region has ten thousand Heaven's Listeners, so a total of 1,040,000. If a Heaven's Listener dies, a new one immediately appears, keeping the number constant at 1,040,000. They are distributed across every region, gathering information and covering almost every place in both realms. Right now the Heaven's Listeners should all be listening to the sky, trying to pinpoint the Upper Realm's traces. If we transmit messages, they'll detect it."
The ten ancestral masters parted the clouds and peered down, their expressions growing grave.
Exactly as Yang Bi had guessed, the Heaven's Listeners across the regions were fixed in strange postures, staring at the sky like frozen by a binding talisman, unmoving even for a blink.
The ten ancestral masters inhaled coldly.
At that moment, a wisp of incense-offering energy flew out from the Upper Realm and headed toward the Lower Realm.
Yang Bi's face changed instantly, and he cried out, "Who is sending a message with incense?"
Gao Xuan, Zhang Longhu, and the other ancestral masters' faces turned pale. They sprang up and charged out of Jade Firmament Heaven, shouting, "No incense messaging! Cut it off immediately!"
Their voices, wrapped in divine power, spread across the vast Upper Realm in an instant.
The wisp of incense-offering energy drifting toward the Lower Realm snapped off at once.
Gao Xuan, Zhang Longhu, and the others' eyes twitched as they anxiously scanned below, trying to detect any abnormal movement in the Lower Realm.
Yang Bi went pale, his vital energy reversing and rushing back to his heart, making it hard to breathe.
He steadied himself and said in a low voice, "Ancestral masters, prepare for the worst. Please bring forth your immortal artifacts! Ancestors, be ready at all times to invoke the Nine Halls of the True King."
Yang Yingning, the Yang family ancestral master, croaked, "Yang Bi, is it really that serious?"
Yang Bi said, "Better safe than sorry."
Yang Yingning was about to say more when Xia Gongjin interrupted, "Brother Yang, no more words, prepare."
Li Zishi glared at the deity who'd erred, intending to scold him, but then decided scolding would be pointless and quickly went to prepare.
When the True King crossed west and came to the Western Ox New Continent long ago, he brought many immortal artifacts. Among the migrating Hua Xia folk were Buddhist and Daoist sects who took several immortal treasures to establish their footing on the new continent. After the True King's era ended, most of those artifacts fell into the hands of the Thirteen Great Clans.
Each of the Thirteen Great Clans holds one or two: besides the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, there are items like the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle, the Qingyang Parasol, the Purple-Green Double Qi Rings, Milky Way Star Sand, and the Sun-Moon Pearl.
The ten ancestral masters each prepared an immortal artifact and invoked them, ready to merge Dao and fight to the death with the invaders at any moment.
The other more than nineteen hundred celestial gods made ready to marshal magic power and activate the True King's Nine Halls in Western Capital, raising those nine halls.
The nine halls were immortal artifacts the True King used to refine demons; their power was extraordinary!
"If Despair Slope really finds us, ordinary cultivators, even immortals, would not be our match," one celestial god told Yang Bi. "Why do you make such a grand fuss and act so nervous?"
Other celestial gods nodded. They were the former sect leaders of the Thirteen Great Clans, each a prodigy in their past life, each peerless. Though dead and with decayed bodies, centuries of incense offerings had made their golden bodies surpass their mortal flesh!
With the ten ancestral masters able to step into the immortal realm at any time, plus all these artifacts and the True King's Nine Halls, some even believed they could invade Despair Slope!
They thought Yang Bi was being overly cautious and anxious without cause.
"We formed the Upper Realm and sustained it for over six thousand years not to hide from Despair Slope's pursuit, but to wipe out Despair Slope!" a deity from the Zhai family complained. "Now we cower here, timid and hesitant. When will we strike at Despair Slope?"
Yang Bi's voice was grave: "The enemy is strong and we are weak. We must wait for the right moment and find Despair Slope's flaw. Our weakness is clear: last time Chen Shi came to the Upper Realm he easily probed our vulnerabilities. But we know nothing of Despair Slope's weaknesses. Only by understanding them can we hope to defeat it."
All the celestial gods scoffed.
"How long will you wait, Yang Bi? Until you die and become like us?" a deity of the Gu family said. "Then you'll enter the Upper Realm and keep waiting."
Yang Bi lightly nodded, "If necessary, then we'll keep waiting. We've waited over six thousand years; another hundred years of me won't matter."
A Ma family deity sneered, "Left and right must wait! If we knew we'd have to wait, why appoint you to lead? Wouldn't we lead ourselves?"
Yang Bi said, "That's why we must obtain the Innate Dao Embryo. With that embryo, perhaps we can strengthen the Upper Realm enough to stand a chance against Despair Slope."
Voices rose in dispute. Some said the Innate Dao Embryo was all show and not that powerful; the three ancestral masters had once beaten back an opponent. Some said even if Yang Bi obtained the embryo he'd still wait—he was a man who dared not face the enemy. Others said the True King had once been defeated; Yang Bi showed mercy and prudence and deserved praise.
Time dragged on with no further movement.
"Could Yang Bi be wrong?" one celestial god sneered. "Maybe Despair Slope never planned to deal with our Upper Realm. Maybe they haven't even noticed us. Would you pay attention to something you can't see or touch? I think Yang Bi is worrying needlessly."
Many agreed with him.
Sadness crept into Yang Bi's heart. He had been appointed at a young age to coordinate ancestors who had lived for thousands of years; his words carried little weight and his cultivation was lower. If he were as powerful as a Great Ascension realm or an immortal, his elders would not doubt him so readily.
"Chen Shi, perhaps you were right. All great power must start from self. If one is not strong, even among kin it's hard to stand firm."
Juzhou Province, Xingcha Mountain.
Zhong Wuwang extinguished three incense sticks with his hand and smiled, "The Yin-Yang Sun-Moon Rings must truly have turned traitor… Sure enough, the first to find me was the Fei family ancestral master. Brother Fei, since you're here, why not reveal yourself?"
Fei Zichong, white-haired, strode forward walking above the clouds with ease, and said leisurely, "Zhong Wuwang, today you have no escape. You do not deserve the Innate Dao Embryo; relinquish it willingly. I will help you find a new owner."
Zhong Wuwang said, "If you obtain the embryo, shouldn't you return it to its original owner?"
Fei Zichong fell silent.
Zhong Wuwang smiled, "Then what difference is there between you and me?"
Fei Zichong snorted coldly, "You have reached a dead end…"
Zhong Wuwang shook his head, "You are the ones cornered. I have been waiting for you to make a mistake, and you finally did."
He smiled, "I know the one who ordered you to kill me won't make mistakes, but there are simply too many people in the Upper Realm; with so many, disorder creeps in. Orders cannot be perfectly unified, and mistakes become possible. My Despair Slope's Feng immortal should already have arrived in the Upper Realm."
As he finished speaking, a tall old man appeared among the Upper Realm, wearing a green robe with white inner garments. His long sleeves flowed; a peachwood twig was tucked into his hair as if just snapped from a tree, with peach blossoms—three in full bloom and six or seven in bud—still clinging to it.
The celestial gods of the Upper Realm stared dumbfounded at this suddenly appearing old man. They had no idea when he had arrived or how he had entered the Upper Realm!
"Fellow cultivators, I am Feng Ruotong, a Qin-era Qi Refiner. Greetings," the old man said with a broad smile and a bow, chuckling as he spoke. "You have hoarded the world's spiritual energy so that True Gods have prematurely closed their eyes. That is a crime. Why not return your cultivation to the world?"
A chill ran through everyone's hearts. Xia Gongjin quietly invoked the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle; Zhang Longhu activated the Qingyang Parasol; Zhai Zhongming unleashed the Purple-Green Double Qi Rings; the other celestial gods marshaled their divine power and the True King's Nine Halls rose.
Feng Ruotong looked around with a smile: "It appears you refuse. Then this old man will personally send you back to the world."
In Baozhou Province, Chen Shi was climbing a newly risen mountain, searching for a temple in the heights. Suddenly the sky turned as red as fire. He looked up and saw the sky crack with a crisp sound, revealing an extraordinarily magnificent sight of the Upper Realm.
Then, like a small mountain, the head of a celestial god rolled down from the Upper Realm, dragging billowing smoke as it smashed toward the earth.
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