Chapter 262: Mingyou's Fury

Immortal Gate, Bliss Immortal Peak, Sun and Moon Lake.

At the center of the lake, where the black and white waters met, the youth-like Mingyou stood holding a Whisk. He had stepped out of the thatched cottage where he usually meditated, his expression calm and profound.

All around him, streaks of spiritual light materialized, revealing the figures directly tied to the Wood-Damaging Lifespan-Seizing incident. They were the key individuals involved in this sudden upheaval.

In the left corner, dark clouds gathered before a bolt of lightning struck down, coalescing into a human form. The rumbling thunder resolved into a recognizable voice. This was the Grand Ancestor of Great Shun, the Corpse Dissolution Immortal Shunhe, who had sealed his Grotto-Heaven and hung up the True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript after surviving a strike from the Heaven's Will Profound Blade.

Among the figures present, his entrance carried the greatest momentum.

However, this wasn't because he was the strongest. On the contrary, it was because he was too weak, his injuries so severe that he could no longer control his aura.

In stark contrast, the other arrival was far more subdued.

To Mingyou's right, Tianxing stepped out of the void in Daoist robes. He said nothing, though his deeply furrowed brows betrayed his heavy thoughts.

The three faced each other in absolute silence.

After a long while, Mingyou finally spoke in a soft voice, "I thought I was merely keeping a pet cat for idle amusement. I never expected to be rearing a tiger."

Hearing this, Tianxing finally looked up.

As a fellow Qi Refining practitioner, he was slightly younger than Mingyou, but they still belonged to the same era. He understood the Immortal Gate's once-dazzling Qi Refining practitioner very well.

'Rearing a tiger... For him to say such a thing, he must be mad with rage.'

Indeed, Mingyou's mood was far from the calm he displayed on the surface. If he truly didn't care about Wang Ping, he wouldn't have spoken up earlier.

The response itself was a statement of his stance.

At that thought, Tianxing's expression grew even more solemn.

"This person cannot be allowed to live."

Beside them, the Grand Ancestor of Great Shun chimed in. "And that First Seat of the Martial Dao. She is the chief culprit behind this situation spiraling out of control. She must be eliminated as well!"

"Easy for you to say." Tianxing shook his head and cast a sneering glance at the Grand Ancestor. "Are you going to do it, or will Mingyou and I? If we truly enrage that immortal blade, even a True Monarch's decree won't save us. Furthermore, Great Shun's national destiny is currently in the hands of the Immortal Prescription Courtyard. You can't even tap into it right now."

The Grand Ancestor immediately bristled with anger at those words.

Yet, buried beneath his rage was a sliver of guilt and lingering fear. After all, he had come terrifyingly close to being slain by the Heaven's Will Profound Blade that day.

"What is the Immortal Prescription Courtyard's stance?"

Mingyou looked toward the Grand Ancestor.

The latter looked increasingly helpless, forced to answer in a low voice, "After the last incident, my ties with the Immortal Prescription Courtyard cooled. I can't pry any information out of them."

He was originally a Corpse Dissolution Immortal of the Immortal Prescription Courtyard who cultivated wood qi. Yet, he had actively cooperated in damaging wood qi just to extend his lifespan. How could the Immortal Prescription Courtyard ever let that slide?

It was only his unique status—tied to Great Shun's exploits and protected by the True Monarch's Handwritten Manuscript—that had saved him. Otherwise, the Qi Refining practitioners of the Immortal Prescription Courtyard would have struck him down long ago. And because of this transgression, an opportunity internally earmarked for his Gongshun Grotto-Heaven had slipped through his fingers.

That opportunity was Xianfu's official conferment.

According to the original plan for Xianfu's conferment of civil and martial officials within the Eight Trigrams Furnace, the civil official position was meant to be filled by a disciple from his Gongshun Grotto-Heaven.

This way, if Xianfu truly achieved a monumental deed and guided the Profound Firmament Governance-Bestowing Talisman-Wielding Qi back into the natural sequence of heaven and earth, he would have secured a share of that grand fortune. It should have been a magnificent boon... but because he had acted as an accomplice in damaging the wood qi, the civil official conferment had nothing to do with him anymore.

This was exactly why he was being so proactive now.

The one currently holding the civil official conferment was Wang Ping. If they simply killed him and vacated the seat, someone from his side might still have a chance to take it.

Even if they didn't—

'It's still worth it just to eliminate a hidden threat!'

The Grand Ancestor gritted his teeth inwardly, his killing intent toward Wang Ping and the First Seat surging to its absolute peak. After all, he held significant karmic grudges against both of them.

On the other side, Tianxing simply shook his head at the sight.

'A Corpse Dissolution Immortal is nothing more than a Corpse Dissolution Immortal. His vision is too narrow; he will never be fit for the grand stage.'

The Grand Ancestor knew the least about the causes and consequences of this entire affair. He didn't even realize that Tianxing and Mingyou had long since reached a private consensus:

Their goal was to sabotage Great Shun's exploits and force the Mid-Heaven Orthodox Origin Blended Harmony Qi to revert to mortal qi, using it to fuel their own cultivation on the path to immortality.

The crux of the matter was that the Immortal Prescription Courtyard was crystal clear on this plan, and so was Xianfu. Yet, not a single person had bothered to reveal the truth to the Grand Ancestor. From this alone, Tianxing was certain that the Immortal Prescription Courtyard had entirely abandoned him. Right now, he was nothing more than a walking corpse.

'No wonder Mingyou called him here as well.'

At this thought, Tianxing shot another glance at Mingyou and chuckled inwardly. 'He wants to squeeze every last drop of value out of Shunhe.'

Just then, Mingyou spoke.

"Fellow Daoist Shunhe makes a valid point. However, due to the restrictions of the Great Rebellion Exploits, if we want to kill Dousheng, we can only send a cultivator of the same Realm."

"That's simple!"

The Grand Ancestor immediately said, "My disciple mastered a Major Divine Ability long ago. With me personally overseeing him and bolstering him with my Grotto-Heaven, he will certainly be able to strike him down."

"Then I must thank you, Fellow Daoist Shunhe."

Mingyou clapped his hands and smiled. "Tianxing and I currently have no capable disciples under us. We will have to rely heavily on the Gongshun Grotto-Heaven for this battle."

"Consider it done!"

The Grand Ancestor thought about it. It made sense. You Xuexin had been turned into a protector wisdom consort, Lian Shengyue was dead, and Kunlun and Kunyun were entirely out of the question. Who else could they rely on but him?

"Then I'll go make the preparations."

With those words, the Grand Ancestor's figure vanished from Sun and Moon Lake. Only Mingyou and Tianxing remained, and the atmosphere instantly shifted.

"There's something off about this," Tianxing was the first to speak.

"How could a single person forge an entire cultivation system? That First Seat of the Martial Dao isn't a Heavenly Exalted. Could she alone pioneer an orthodoxy nearing the level of Qi Refining?"

"I don't believe it."

"What are you implying, Fellow Daoist?" Mingyou looked over from the corner of his eye.

"A lost orthodoxy."

Tianxing provided his answer. "Perhaps it's a lost orthodoxy buried by time, and the True Person who helmed it has finally awakened and returned."

The Immortal Gate had not always been like this. Once upon a time, it possessed far more than eight immortal peaks. It was only after countless sword duels and doctrinal wars that it finally settled into the current structure of the Eight Immortal Peaks. Looking back at that era, an uncountable number of mighty figures of the Immortal Dao had perished in the strife.

Yet, resurrection was all too common within the Immortal Gate.

The higher the Realm, the harder it was to truly kill a True Person or a True Monarch. Even if they died, there was always a chance they could awaken and return from the depths of history.

So, how could one tell?

The answer was simple.

Look at the orthodoxy. The reemergence of any defunct orthodoxy meant that a powerhouse—at least at the level of a True Person—had awakened and returned from the depths of time.

"The Martial Dao might be one of them."

"It's just that its history is too ancient, and the cultivation tied to it has long been buried and forgotten. Because no one knows of it, we mistakenly assumed it was something entirely new."

At this point, Tianxing unconsciously lowered his voice. "Otherwise, Mingyou... how could that True Person behind you have failed to notice this upheaval?"

"..."

Exactly. That had been Mingyou's greatest suspicion all along: prior to this, Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang had given him absolutely no warning about the upheaval.

It was obvious that another True Person was treating Wang Ping as a pawn, yet Mingyou had no idea what that entity's goal was or what they were thinking.

Under such circumstances, he couldn't act rashly; otherwise, he would simply stumble into a True Person's trap. This was exactly why he had called upon the Grand Ancestor to act as the vanguard. It was a probe to test the waters. He would watch the results and then decide whether to participate. After all, the Grand Ancestor didn't have many days left to live anyway...

But right at that moment.

"Hm!?"

Mingyou abruptly looked up at the sky. High above Sun and Moon Lake, the firmament suddenly parted. A radiant rainbow arced across the heavens, reflecting the dazzling colors of the Three Talents, Five Elements, and Twenty-Four Qi.

"..."

Tianxing saw the spectacle as well. His pupils shrank sharply. He then lowered his gaze, focusing on his nose, and then his heart. Without a word, he stood perfectly still and waited.

A moment passed before the rainbow faded. Only then did Mingyou lower his head and exhale a long breath. "The True Person has issued a decree. Shunhe will still act as the vanguard, but you and I must also make a move. We cannot let this Dousheng truly overturn the locked Divine Powers. We must sever the exploits tied to him."

Tianxing's brow arched slightly at those words.

'To think a mere cultivator whose Divine Powers were locked could directly draw a True Person's attention... This means the locking of the Divine Powers wasn't actually Mingyou's idea.'

'It was actually the scheme of Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang!?'

"...Alright."

Not daring to hesitate with this realization, Tianxing said decisively, "Among the disciples in the Divine Weapon Courtyard who are still at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer, the strongest should be the eleventh True Transmission disciple."

"I can send him in."

"...Not enough."

Mingyou's gaze was ice-cold. "A battle at the same Realm is still too precarious; there are always variables. It's best to have a disciple at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer strike to guarantee victory."

Tianxing frowned. "But the restrictions of the Great Rebellion Exploits..."

"The Great Rebellion Exploits aren't invincible."

Mingyou let out a cold scoff. "There is always a loophole. No matter how great the rebellion, can it surpass an immortal? We simply need to use destiny to offset it."

Tianxing immediately caught his meaning.

"You mean... find someone about to face their life tribulation?"

Below Qi Refining, a life tribulation was the supreme power with the highest priority. Even the Great Rebellion Exploits would have to yield to it. There was indeed room to manipulate that.

Mingyou gave a small nod.

"Don't worry, the True Person will provide assistance for this... The True Person is very eager to discover exactly who is placing pawns on Dousheng and opposing him."

"As for this Dousheng..."

Here, Mingyou shifted his gaze. Brilliant lamplight flared in the depths of his eyes, instantly revealing the figure inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. He saw Wang Ping looking around:

[Who wants to fight me?]

"An ant trying to shake a tree, completely oblivious to the height of the heavens..."

Flames abruptly ignited in the depths of Mingyou's eyes.

"Since that's the case, we will give him an unforgettable lesson and make him realize his own ignorance."