"From the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, Palace Lord Sima Baihong of the sixth star, the Kaiyang Palace, was killed in battle. Five hundred twenty immortals of the Kaiyang Heavenly Palace were slain, and one thousand two hundred forty-seven wounded;"
"From the Six Offices of the Southern Dipper, Palace Lord Feng Yanqiu of the Siming Palace was killed in battle. Six hundred ten immortals of the Siming Heavenly Palace were slain, and one thousand eight hundred wounded;"
"From the Six Offices of the Southern Dipper, Palace Lord Sun Yuanjiang of the Silu Palace was killed in battle. Six hundred seventy-seven immortals of the Silu Heavenly Palace were slain, and one thousand nine hundred wounded;"
"From the Six Offices of the Southern Dipper, Palace Lord Zheng Dabiao of the Yanshou Palace was killed in battle."
Dou Department, Dakui Hall.
The reporting officer compiled the reports from each palace and read them aloud word for word. Hearing this, the Three Realized Ones of the Central Dipper remained silent.
Of the Three Realized Ones of the Central Dipper, the first palace was Heling Dugu Palace, held by Xu Ying; the second was Hanhua Shangsheng Palace, held by Huo Changge; and the third was Zhonghe Yude Palace, held by Si Chuanzhao.
However, Celestial Venerable Xu Ying, the original lord of Heling Dugu Palace, had rebelled and descended to the lower realm as a traitor. The current palace lord was surnamed Yang, given name Yanlong, known to others as Realized One Yang or Celestial Venerable Yang.
When the reporting officer finished reading, the Three Realized Ones of the Dou Department remained quiet.
After a moment, Realized One Yang Yanlong glanced at Huo Changge and Si Chuanzhao, speaking in an unhurried manner: "Brother Daoists, our Dou Department has suffered grievous losses. Four palaces of the Eastern and Western Dippers, the Six Offices of the Southern Dipper—palace lords slain, casualties immense. If word of this gets out, our Dou Department will be placed in an extremely passive position. You two cannot remain silent forever. What should be done about this? We must establish a course of action."
Realized One Si Chuanzhao exchanged a glance with Huo Changge and drawled, "A bad thing can also be turned into a good thing. Hasn't the Heavenly Venerable of the Thunder Department already done so? Of the three offices in the Thunder Department, two were destroyed, suffering terrible casualties. Yet the Heavenly Venerable turned it to his advantage—recruiting unaffiliated immortals into the Thunder Department, and releasing a few ascension quotas to allow mortal Qi Refiners to ascend."
Huo Changge chuckled. "In an instant, the Heavenly Venerable's personal faction grew considerably. Everyone praised his brilliant methods. If the Heavenly Venerable could do it, so can we."
Si Chuanzhao said, "Whether it's the Heavenly Venerable, the Imperial Monarch, the Primordial Monarch, or even the Taisui Heavenly Venerable, all of them want to plant their own people in our Dou Department. If we are slow to react, the Dou Department will turn into the Wanchun Brothel, where they can play however they please. We must immediately fill every division with our own people so our power won't slip away."
Huo Changge smiled. "Our Dou Department can also release a few ascension quotas to the mortal realm and round up some unaffiliated immortals loyal to us."
Yang Yanlong said, "As far as I know, when the Thunder Department released ascension quotas this time, not only did no one become an immortal, but the Heavenly Venerable ended up covered in mud, cursed for ages, and utterly humiliated. The Heavenly Dao of the Heavenly Dao world has already fallen under Xu Ying's control. Every disciple from the Immortal Realm who tried to ascend was struck dead by lightning."
Huo Changge and Si Chuanzhao looked at each other in surprise. "Could it be that the Heavenly Venerable held nothing back regarding the Heavenly Dao runes?"
The two began chatting back and forth, speculating on whether the Heavenly Venerable had concealed anything in the Heavenly Dao runes when he created the Heavenly Dao world. They droned on and on without ever touching upon the actual subject.
Yang Yanlong flew into a rage and slammed the table, rising to his feet. "You two have been dodging the question this entire time, never getting to the point! That Xu Ying killed so many of our Dou Department's palace lords and immortal masters. If we don't deal with him, where is the dignity of our Dou Department?"
Filled with righteous indignation, he fumed, "Yet you two keep rambling on about trivialities, blathering about good things and bad things! If Xu Ying isn't eliminated, every shred of our Dou Department's dignity will be lost!"
Si Chuanzhao raised a hand with a smile. "Ah, little brother, I know you're anxious. Don't be in such a rush; let's discuss it slowly. Our Dou Department's dignity was already battered away forty-eight thousand years ago. Getting anxious now won't help."
Huo Changge chuckled. "Back in that battle, our Dou Department suffered countless deaths and injuries. In the end, it took the Imperial Monarch stepping in to settle Xu Ying. That dignity of ours vanished long ago."
Yang Yanlong swept his sleeves and stormed off with a sneer. "If you two gentlemen don't care about dignity, I do! If you won't deal with Xu Ying, I will!"
Si Chuanzhao and Huo Changge looked at each other and smiled. Huo Changge remarked, "The newly promoted are always so hot-tempered. But all things considered, selecting the lords of each palace and planting our own people remains our priority. Since Realized One Yang ran off so quickly, the Six Offices of the Southern Dipper, along with one palace of the Eastern Dipper and two of the Western Dipper, are ours to divide between us two brothers."
Si Chuanzhao laughed. "As for the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, they've lost their sixth star. That bunch in the Northern Dipper forms their own faction and won't submit to our control anyway, so let the remaining six stars play by themselves."
With their plan decided, the reporting officer arrived once more to report, "The lords of the Six Stars of the Northern Dipper—Xiu Yushu of Tianshu, Liang Hao of Tianxuan, Realized One Qingke of Tianji, Ren Xuanji of Tianquan, Chen Bin of Tianheng, and Fu Hui of Yaoguang—request an audience."
Si Chuanzhao waved his hand dismissively. "Tell them our old injuries have flared up, so we cannot receive visitors."
The reporting officer acknowledged the order and went to inform Xiu Yushu and the others.
Fu Hui, Lord of the Yaoguang Palace, flew into a rage. "Huo Changge and Si Chuanzhao were injured forty-eight thousand years ago! What kind of injury lingers until now without healing?"
Xiu Yushu raised a hand and said impassively, "Those two are old foxes. They only want benefits without paying any price. Since they won't handle it, we of the Northern Dipper will!"
He turned and led the group away, his voice chilling. "All divisions of the Northern Dipper, hear my command! Select a new palace lord for Kaitian Palace and prepare to descend to the lower realm. We must make Xu Ying pay the price!"
At the Imperial Monarch's residence, the Imperial Monarch had been keeping a close eye on the Dou Department's movements. Seeing this, he finally relaxed and smiled. "The Dou Department still couldn't sit still. Now I can rest easy. At a juncture like this, the more one does, the more mistakes one makes."
He stood up, gazed toward the magnificent and awe-inspiring Immortal Court, and murmured, "To accomplish great things, one must keep one's composure. Only by keeping one's composure can one harvest the greatest fruit. Heavenly Venerable, you think so too, don't you? Xu Ying dismantled your Heavenly Dao world and crippled your Thunder Capital Office and Myriad Gods Thunder Office, yet you remain entirely unmoving. It truly commands my admiration."
In the Ancestral Court, the Northern Wilderness.
The sky gradually closed up, and the heavenly palaces of the Immortal Realm faded from sight. Xu Ying recalled the eight palace-guarding treasures; immortal blood still dripped from the Hunyuan Bell, the Longevity Saber, and the others.
In the sky, the corpses of immortals drifted like rootless duckweed, contaminating the Ancestral Court's sky.
Though the immortals were dead, the remnants of immortal dao within their corpses still produced contamination.
Furthermore, the flesh, blood, and broken immortal artifacts of some immortals had fallen into the Ancestral Court; all of these needed to be cleared away.
Ling Siyi approached Xu Ying. Seeing him purifying the immortal dao contamination everywhere, she stepped forward to help. The demon woman looked at the magic treasures forged from the nine realms behind him, curiosity swelling in her heart.
"Young Master Xu, can others use these nine magic treasures of yours?" she asked.
"Of course."
Xu Ying raised his hand and flicked his wrist. The Five Sacred Immortal Mountains, the First Mystic Pass, the Water-Fire Huntian Cauldron, and the other treasures flew over to hover behind Ling Siyi.
Immediately, the demon woman felt her Qi Gathering stage become immensely profound. Then, one realm after another—Knocking on the Pass, Intertwined Refining, and so forth—broadened her Dao foundation, causing her cultivation to grow vastly more powerful with each succeeding stage!
By the time it reached the Ascension stage, she felt her cultivation surging like a boundless ocean, dozens of times greater than before!
A wider, more stable Dao foundation did not merely yield simple addition; it resulted in an almost geometric multiplication of power.
When Ling Siyi returned the nine treasures to Xu Ying, she felt that abyss-deep cultivation sharply ebb away, leaving a lingering sense of loss in her heart.
The sensation of commanding such power was truly incomparable.
Purifying the surrounding immortal dao contamination alongside her, Xu Ying asked, "Miss Siyi, what realms exist for immortals in the Immortal Realm? How do they differ from the realms of Qi Refiners?"
Ling Siyi smiled. "I am a demon, not an immortal. How would I know such things?"
She was a half-immortal. Having cultivated to the Ascension stage and set half a foot into the Jade Capital City, she could advance no further.
This was due to the incomplete Great Dao of heaven and earth in the Ancestral Court. Because the Heavenly Dao was incomplete, Qi Refiners could not undergo heavenly tribulation and could only cultivate to the Ascension stage, unable to step into the next realm.
Even someone as formidable as Little Celestial Venerable was no exception.
Little Celestial Venerable was mending the heavens not only to give the people of the Ancestral Court a better environment to survive, but also to make the Great Dao of heaven and earth whole so that he could break through the shackles of the Ascension stage.
At that moment, another woman's voice drifted over: "I happen to know a little about the realms of immortals."
Ling Siyi turned toward the voice, her heart skipping a beat. *It's that woman in red from the immortal raft again!*
Xiyue flew over aboard her immortal raft, coming to a halt not far from Xu Ying.
Xu Ying glanced at her without speaking.
Xiyue said, "As far as I know, there are seven realms of immortals. The first is Human Immortal, the second is Earth Immortal, and the third is Heavenly Immortal. Above Heavenly Immortal are Immortal King, Immortal Monarch, Heavenly Monarch, and Supreme."
Ling Siyi looked at the silent Xu Ying, then at Xiyue, and asked with a smile, "Then how does one distinguish between these seven realms?"
Xiyue explained, "A Human Immortal opens the Domain of Six Immortals. In terms of cultivation and raw power, they are roughly on par with an Ascension stage Qi Refiner who has opened all six secret depositories. However, their attainments in the Domain of Six Immortals are far less profound than those of a Qi Refiner with all six secret depositories open. They cannot remain at their peak condition anywhere and anytime, nor can they achieve true imperishability. An Earth Immortal, on the other hand, is remarkable. An Earth Immortal merges the six domains into one, forging what is called a Dao domain. Once the Dao domain is formed, one can link the Dao manifestations into runes known as Dao rules—meaning the rules of the Great Dao."
She explained in detail, continuing, "Once Dao rules are forged, one can use them to transform the Dao domain into a bodhimanda. A bodhimanda is the field of the Great Dao and the place where the Dao is transmitted; it is of utmost importance. Forging a bodhimanda earns one the title of Heavenly Immortal. That is the realm I currently occupy."
Xu Ying and Ling Siyi listened intently. Ling Siyi pressed on, "What about Immortal King, Immortal Monarch, Heavenly Monarch, and Supreme?"
Xiyue said, "To reach the Immortal King realm, one must possess an enfeoffed territory to have any hope of a breakthrough. A so-called Immortal King is the sovereign of a bodhimanda, whose Dao rules evolve into Dao chains, completely mastering all life and death within the bodhimanda. The reason I amass wealth so aggressively is precisely to break through to the Immortal King realm. Yet after more than forty thousand years of running the smuggling routes, the immortal herbs and immortal spiritual qi I've accumulated are still not enough."
She paused, then added, "If an unaffiliated immortal wants to become an Immortal King by doing labor or mining for the various offices of the Immortal Court, let alone forty thousand years, not even four hundred thousand or four million years would be enough. If an unaffiliated immortal wants to become an Immortal King, they must either squeeze their way into the Immortal Court to secure an official post, or head to the fringes to engage in shady business."
For her to have reached Heavenly Immortal in just over forty thousand years was already considered astonishingly rapid among unaffiliated immortals!
Ling Siyi asked, "What about an Immortal Monarch?"
Xiyue replied, "Don't even dream of Immortal Monarch. It's useless even to think about it."
Ling Siyi was puzzled. "Why?"
Xiyue said, "If becoming an Immortal King is already this difficult for an unaffiliated immortal, when even the wealth I've monopolized through this single smuggling route is still insufficient, then reaching Immortal Monarch is on another level entirely. One would likely need an Immortal Realm territory as vast as a world of the heavens—drawing immortal spiritual qi night and day without ceasing, receiving tributes of immortal herbs from all corners, seizing immortal spirit veins, harvesting spiritual springs, gathering yin and yang, and cultivating tirelessly. Only then could one hope to become an Immortal Monarch, and who knows how many ages that would take."
Ling Siyi was taken aback.
Xiyue continued, "I roughly calculated that if I start saving immortal spiritual qi and various immortal herbs from today, it will still take about thirty thousand years to gather enough capital to reach Immortal King. To cultivate from Immortal King to Immortal Monarch, I would have had to start accumulating capital from the dawn of creation, and even then, it would take another four million years or so before I could advance."
Ling Siyi's eyes went wide, and she stammered, "Then how can there still be so many Immortal Monarchs in the Immortal Realm?"
"There are many Immortal Monarchs in the Immortal Realm because resources are abundant," Xiyue said.
Ling Siyi was completely bewildered. "If resources are abundant, why is it so hard to become an Immortal Monarch?"
Xiyue couldn't help but chuckle. "Little sister, because not a single one of those resources belongs to you! Every one of those resources has an owner. If you want them, you have to earn them with your life!"
Xu Ying cast a glance at her. Xiyue hastily pulled back her smile and stood there silently.
After a moment, she drew a hairpin from her sleeve and offered it up respectfully with a bow. "Master, this hairpin was given to this disciple by you when I attempted to assassinate you in the Dou Department."
Xu Ying asked in surprise, "You are my disciple?"
Xiyue was stunned, then asked tentatively, "Master hasn't recovered the memories of your first life yet?"
Xu Ying shook his head, took the ancient hairpin, and said, "You repeatedly plotted against me. Is that how a disciple behaves?"
Xiyue said, "This disciple knows her wrongdoing. Please punish me, Master."
Xu Ying was surprised. "You're not going to defend yourself?"
Xiyue shook her head.
Xu Ying examined the hairpin. It was extremely aged, weathered by the vicissitudes of time. It was a phoenix hairpin, evidently handmade. The phoenix was roughly crafted, and the hanging ruby bead was casually polished.
Hammer marks could still be seen on its surface.
Just as he was about to put the hairpin away, his mind suddenly drifted, and an ancient memory unbiddenly surfaced before his eyes.
"Brother Jing, come see the gift your son gave me! He's much more thoughtful than you!"
He saw a young woman, beaming with joy, asking the scholar to pin the hairpin in her hair. It was a crude phoenix hairpin forged from Kunlun's immortal gold, its gemstone retrieved from a mountain stream.
Though rough, it had taken little Xu Ying several months of work to polish.
"Ah Ying will definitely be more popular with women than you. Who knows how many girls he'll bewitch when he grows up."
Gripping the hairpin, a warm smile appeared on Xu Ying's face as he murmured, "So it was a gift I gave to Mother..."
At that moment, another memory awoke.
"Is this Xu Ying? Someone told me to give this hairpin to you."
A youthful Xu Ying had been exploring the mysteries of the Ancestral Court when someone approached and handed him the hairpin.
"Who gave you this hairpin?"
He grabbed the person and asked urgently, "Where is the owner of the hairpin?"
"The owner of the hairpin is in the Immortal Realm."
"The Immortal Realm?"
Xu Ying's expression shifted between storm and clarity. Pacing back and forth with the hairpin clutched in his grip, he suddenly looked up toward the sky and muttered, "I must make a trip there."
Chapter 467