Chapter 1246: Sky Sword News Emerges

Angry Squid:

Around Wu Ninglu, there was only darkness, and she couldn't find the source of the sound.

The voice, however, continued to cackle unsettlingly, constantly provoking her.

"Get out!" Wu Ninglu shrieked hysterically.

The other party ignored her. Instead, a series of images illuminated the darkness.

Wu Ninglu looked, and the resentment in her heart immediately intensified.

It was a lively scene: Sun Tianci, the Sun family's "Qilin child," had been born aligned with the Dao, shaking the entire world. All the major families of the Myriad Immortal Alliance had sent representatives to offer congratulations.

This even included her own family, the Chen Family of the Medicine Hall! Despite having previously broken ties with the Sun family, they still sent envoys to offer congratulations. As the saying goes, "one does not strike a smiling face," and out of respect for the newborn Sun Tianci, they generously accepted the gifts.

As for Wu Ninglu, Sun Tianci's birth mother, who had inexplicably disappeared, no one cared about her at all.

"All this glory and praise should have been mine!"

Such a stark contrast in circumstances between mother and child drove Wu Ninglu further into madness in the darkness.

She cried and wailed, like a ghost howling.

At this moment, the voice finally spoke again.

"Do you..."

"...want to take revenge on them?"

Instinct urged Wu Ninglu to burst into curses, but what little sanity she had left allowed her to slowly calm down.

She answered without hesitation: "Yes, I do! Senior, please save me!"

"Hahahaha!"

A burst of wild laughter echoed in the darkness: "Your body and soul have both vanished from this world, leaving only a remnant of your divine consciousness. Even if you could be resurrected, how could you possibly contend with the five Dao-aligned cultivators of the Sun family?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Ninglu's mind instantly went blank.

Right, not to mention her current state. Even if she successfully devoured the essence of heaven and earth and achieved Dao-alignment, how could one person alone be a match for the rapidly rising Sun family, an emergent power?

Wu Ninglu was filled with despair, but then it suddenly occurred to her that this senior, who had saved her in front of three Dao-aligned cultivators, surely wouldn't just be amusing themselves at her expense.

The reason for saying this...

Wu Ninglu immediately understood.

"Please, senior, instruct me! Whether I succeed or not, Ninglu is willing to be your servant, to serve you like an ox or a horse!"

Wu Ninglu said through gritted teeth.

"Hmph, you are merely a wisp of residual thought clinging to life. Do I need your consent to manipulate you?"

A powerful oppressive force enveloped Wu Ninglu. In the terrifying suffocation, she felt as if her cautious consciousness could be utterly shattered at any moment.

Her thoughts grew weaker and weaker, and Wu Ninglu's heart was filled with despair.

Just then, the suffocating pressure around her suddenly vanished for some reason.

"Fortunately, you are not entirely foolish."

The voice, like a heavenly melody, sounded in her ear again.

At the same time, an extremely profound text appeared in her mind.

The Three Calamities and Hundred Tribulations Enlightenment Method.

A single thought giving birth to ten thousand ghosts – this was a supreme divine art capable of compensating for the disparity in the number of cultivators.

Wu Ninglu devoured every word of it with fervent eagerness.

"The Sun family, the Sun family..."

Supported by the terrible obsession for revenge that intensely consumed her mind, the first malevolent, heaven-shattering Mental Demon God slowly began to form.

Hidden in the darkness, Li Fan's clone, who had witnessed the entirety of this transformation, nodded slightly.

Although the Sun family's Saint could be said to have been personally nurtured by him, it didn't stop him from creating a natural bane for them.

As for when this future peerless fiend, now only driven by a desire for revenge, would be unleashed, or even if he would be unleashed at all...

...it remained an unknown.

Everything was merely a contingency he had casually left behind.

"In this era, many preparations are already complete. All that remains is to quietly await the curtain to rise on the grand show."

"Considering the Holy Emperor's character and the current balance of power between the two sides, their first battle won't be long in coming."

Three months later, the Holy Dynasty's first confrontation with the Myriad Immortal Alliance unfolded in a way no one had anticipated.

The conflict arose from a sword light that originated from beyond the heavens.

On that day, a golden light, like a rainbow, glittered across the firmament.

Beyond the Star Sea, beneath the High Wall, the Profound Merchant Immortal Vessel drifts through tribulation.

Within the seven-colored rainbow light, visible throughout the entire Xuanhuang Realm, sixteen characters shone brightly.

It seemed to be a peculiar form of information dissemination; even when members of the Myriad Immortal Alliance tried to erase it, it had no effect whatsoever.

The rainbow light was left to drift silently in the sky for seven days before slowly fading away.

However, the shock brought by these sixteen characters was far from settled.

Instead, it intensified.

Roaring across the abyss, shattering the Immortal City with a severed palm.

Shang Shaojun recalled these sixteen characters, lost in thought.

"I knew he wasn't dead. Beyond the Star Sea, beneath the High Wall..."

"Has he gone so far already?"

The ethereal and unrestrained demeanor of the Holy Embryo Li Fan reappeared in Shang Shaojun's mind, filling him with a sense of nostalgia and a faint touch of loss.

"Beyond the Xuanhuang Realm, indeed."

"If I had cast everything aside back then and gone with him, what kind of scene would it be now?"

After spacing out for a while, Shang Shaojun finally regained his composure and began to attend to important matters.

He began sending messages to Di Yijing Lun, Ji Hongdao, and others.

"Have you seen the rainbow light in the sky these past few days? That is precisely the White-Robed Sword Immortal I introduced to you before. You claimed I exaggerated my words back then; what do you say now?"

After his satisfied boast, Shang Shaojun then checked the quantity of Ethereal Flowing Crystals in his private treasury.

Although the Myriad Immortal Alliance had long ago listed it as a forbidden item for circulation, the various major families within the Alliance secretly held varying amounts of it.

Previously, this item had almost been forgotten, but with the appearance of the seven-day rainbow light, the Ethereal Flowing Crystals returned to public attention.

The world didn't know how Holy Embryo Li Fan had truly left the Xuanhuang Realm.

Thus, people instinctively speculated that the method used was the same as that of the sixteen Dao-aligned cultivators who had previously left the Myriad Immortal Alliance.

The sixteen Dao-aligned cultivators had gone deep into the Star Sea for unknown reasons, but the information conveyed by the rainbow light was clear.

Beyond the Star Sea, in a place called the High Wall, there was a Profound Merchant Immortal Vessel.

This Profound Merchant Immortal Vessel possessed supreme methods, capable of traversing tribulations!

These mere sixteen characters, however, caused countless cultivators to become restless, their minds racing with imaginations they couldn't control.

The brilliance of Holy Embryo Li Fan's message lay in its vagueness.

It fully exploited the subjective initiative of the Xuanhuang cultivators, making their imagined Profound Immortal Vessel even more mysterious.

Some cultivators even searched through ancient texts and found records of the Profound Merchant Immortal Vessel from antiquity.

"Able to travel through various realms for trade, and after so many years, it's clearly far more developed than our tribulation-ridden Xuanhuang Realm!"

"The Profound Merchant Immortal Vessel – even its name makes one yearn for it."

"You think that previous rainbow light... it couldn't possibly be..."

"Fellow Daoist, watch your words!"

Regardless of the truth, Ethereal Flowing Crystals indeed became the most sought-after item in the Myriad Immortal Alliance once again.

Although the Immortal Alliance reissued its ban, it couldn't stop the various families from secretly acquiring Ethereal Flowing Crystals.

After all, this time, far too many cultivators were doing it.

It truly reached a point where the law couldn't punish the masses.

Therefore, they could only make an example of rootless, low-level cultivators to barely maintain deterrence.

In fact, even the high-ranking officials of the Immortal Alliance themselves held differing opinions.

The Sun Family.

Sun Luyuan returned to the Boundless Mirror's secret chamber, full of worry.

"Brother, are you worried about the recent commotion over the rainbow light message?" asked Sun Luyao, the spirit of the Boundless Mirror.

"Sigh, it's more than that. The crucial point is that this matter involves too much. Even the Mirror Master Fu Du, who was punished with secluded cultivation by the Law Transmitters, has come out early because of it. He specifically asked me about Tianci. That old geezer..." Sun Luyuan said bitterly.

"His meaning is that although this time there's Law Transmitter Jiang holding things down, the uproar is too great. All cultivators in the entire Myriad Immortal Alliance now want to know what the situation is like outside the Xuanhuang Realm, beyond the Star Sea. If no explanation is given, it might destabilize the Alliance's foundation. And inconveniently, Celestial Venerable has been out of contact since the last message..."

"To stabilize the situation, the Immortal Alliance plans to soon announce to the world that they will create Ethereal Rainbow Light once more and fly out of Xuanhuang."

"Controlling the rainbow light requires cultivators at the Dao-aligned realm. Our Sun family has gained too much renown recently; a single family with five Dao-aligned cultivators is known to everyone in the Myriad Immortal Alliance. I worry that if they truly seek suitable cultivators to go into the starry sky, our Sun family might not be able to escape the duty."

"Indeed, fortune and misfortune are unpredictable. If only we had known, we shouldn't have so widely publicized Tianci's birth-aligned-with-the-Dao. It was our miscalculation, we got carried away for a moment." Sun Luyuan sighed.

Upon hearing this, Sun Luyao, the spirit of the Boundless Mirror, also frowned, immediately feeling that it was a difficult situation.

"Based on the clues I previously gathered within the Heavenly Profound Mirror, it's likely that beyond the starry sky, dangers abound. Even with the precedent of the Ethereal Rainbow Light, going there means an unpredictable fate between life and death. If a Dao-aligned cultivator from our Sun family is indeed sent, we must be prepared for sacrifice." He said in a deep voice after a long pause.

"We few have already discussed it. This matter is essentially unavoidable. If the imperial decree truly comes down, then Luchang will go. I'm just afraid..."

Sun Luyuan paused and sighed again, his voice suddenly much lower: "I'm just afraid they won't just send one person from our Sun family."

The underground secret chamber instantly became much quieter.

"Brother, I have a brilliant plan."

Just then, Sun Luyao suddenly suggested.

"Hmm?"

Sun Luyuan listened intently, his eyes lighting up.

Soon after, rumors began to circulate throughout the Immortal Alliance.

The high-ranking officials of the Myriad Immortal Alliance had agreed to the plan of recreating Ethereal Flowing Crystals. This time, the number of cultivators who could leave Xuanhuang and enter the starry sky might be even greater than before.

However, the specific cultivator slots had likely already been divided among the upper echelons and decided internally long ago. Some powerful families might even have more than one slot.

Such earth-shattering news immediately spread like wildfire.

Upon hearing it, cultivators were all filled with righteous indignation and intense anger.

Beyond the starry sky, what immense opportunities and fortunes awaited?!

And they were just going to divide them up like that?

They completely disregarded the feelings of those grassroots Dao-aligned cultivators who worked tirelessly to suppress unrest in various states.

Although the Immortal Alliance quickly refuted this news, as long as the list wasn't finalized, the controversy was destined to be difficult to quell.

Many Dao-aligned cultivators who had been stationed in various states for years and hadn't returned to the Immortal Alliance headquarters made an unprecedented return, just for an answer.

As for the Immortal Alliance's repeated emphasis that venturing into the Star Sea carried potentially fatal dangers and the chances of safe return were minuscule, those in a rage dismissed it all as mere excuses.

They also had a set of counter-arguments.

"If one understands the Dao in the morning, one may die content in the evening," they said. "What's a little danger to fear?"

To achieve Dao-alignment, who hadn't walked a difficult and treacherous path?

Trapped in Xuanhuang for a lifetime, if one could die in the Star Sea, there would be no regrets.

The Dao-aligned cultivators guarding various states were the cornerstone of the Immortal Alliance's rule.

Now that these individuals had united, even the Law Transmitters found it a headache.

Finally, after serious deliberation, they gave their reply.

The Immortal Alliance would carefully reconsider the drafting of the personnel list, striving for fairness, impartiality, and public trust.

With the personal assurance from the Law Transmitters, the Dao-aligned cultivators guarding the states finally left the Immortal Alliance headquarters.

But at the same time, this confirmed the previous rumors that the Immortal Alliance intended to recreate the Ethereal Rainbow Light.

For a time, cultivators in the Immortal Alliance privately discussed this matter excitedly.

With a first and a second time, the Myriad Immortal Alliance's exploration of the starry sky would certainly not stop there.

Although they hadn't achieved Dao-alignment yet, who knew about the future?

And even if achieving Dao-alignment was hopeless in this lifetime, the Ethereal Flowing Crystals were something they could at least get their hands on, right?

If they couldn't eat the meat, couldn't they at least get some broth?

In the private market, the price of Ethereal Flowing Crystals surged again. As soon as they appeared, no matter how high the price, they were instantly snatched up.

Meanwhile, some shrewd individuals had already begun heading to various secret realms and minor worlds, digging deep everywhere to search for traces of these Ethereal Flowing Crystals.

The Holy Dynasty's Great Inauguration.

Seated on the Holy Emperor's throne, Li Ping's disciples were arrayed before him.

They were all aware of the commotion in the Myriad Immortal Alliance.

However, all matters of the Holy Dynasty were decided by a single word from the Holy Emperor.

Since Li Ping hadn't spoken, they could only act as if the matter hadn't happened at all.

"Master, regarding those Ethereal Flowing Crystals, should we get involved?"

"Breaking out of the Xuanhuang Realm and exploring the unknown Star Sea, just thinking about it is exciting." It was still Ouyang Tian, the boldest, who asked with a chuckle.

"Since the Myriad Immortal Alliance wishes to court death, let them. The more Dao-aligned cultivators they send out, the better it is for us." With a single, indifferent sentence, the Holy Emperor determined the course of the matter.

Ouyang Tian showed a hint of regret.

However, the others pondered the meaning behind the Holy Emperor's words.

"Next, you must be strictly vigilant and always prepared for battle."

The Holy Emperor's subsequent words, however, invigorated them.

Sun Erlang nodded: "Those Myriad Immortal Alliance cultivators are now like madmen, searching for those Ethereal Flowing Crystals everywhere in various minor worlds. Our Holy Dynasty is fine; they surely won't encounter us. The most important thing is the numerous subsidiary minor worlds we have already conquered..."

Li Ping said: "For now, avoid direct conflict, but there's no need to deliberately evade them either."

"When you act, be decisive, and do not reveal any information about the Holy Dynasty."

The Holy Emperor's words made all the disciples eager to try their hand.

"Sun Erlang."

"Your disciple is here."

"Yi Shu has been with us long enough. You and he, go back to the Grand Divination Sect once more," the Holy Emperor said indifferently.

"Your disciple obeys," Sun Erlang bowed and replied.