The Last Lord of Ziwei and Nan Ziyan looked toward Xu Ying in unison. At the same time, the gazes of the fair senior and junior martial sisters fell upon him as well.
Everyone wore peculiar expressions, having spotted the lamp inside Xu Ying from afar.
The lamp looked strange. Its base was made of bronze, adorned with the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. The center of the bronze plate was hollowed out into patterns of intertwined tree roots.
Above the bronze base stood a gilded Fusang tree with nine winding branches, each tipped with a glazed lamp. All nine lamps radiated a faint, eerie glow.
Although the lamplight was not particularly bright, beneath its illumination, Xu Ying's physical body seemed nonexistent.
This was the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp, a treasure forged in the Great Luo Realm, now known as a Supreme treasure!
Meeting everyone's gaze, Xu Ying did not bat an eyelid. He looked down into his own body, and upon seeing the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp, he feigned profound astonishment.
"Could this lamp be Dao Brother's Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp?"
Xu Ying appeared completely stunned, as though laying eyes upon it for the very first time. With an earnest look, he said, "It was far too dark in the imperial tomb, and since I needed to see clearly to unravel the Supreme rune seals, I spotted a tree lamp hanging on the wall and took it down to light my way. I never imagined it would be Dao Brother's glazed lamp."
The Last Lord of Ziwei wore a gentle expression and chuckled. "Ignorance is no crime. You did not know this lamp was my artifact, and We are no tyrant—how could I execute you over such a matter?"
Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to draw forth the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp, the Last Lord of Ziwei suddenly asked, "In that case, Minister Xu, what is the story behind the other treasures in your Realm of Xiyi?"
Around the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp was a dazzling array of treasures. Their radiant light soared straight into the clouds, penetrating the azure heavens with such brilliance that his Realm of Xiyi could barely contain them!
Among them were imperial carriages, phoenix carriages, and jewel carriages—two of each—along with several ceremonial canopies, a trove of jewels, and hundreds of magical artifacts including axes, battle-axes, hooks, and pitchforks. It resembled a veritable vault of immortal artifacts!
There were also artifacts in the form of pavilions, terraces, ceramic vats, and urns, as well as royal imperial wares, funerary bronze figurines, gold and silver utensils, jade artifacts, and more.
With so many treasures gathered, it looked as though someone had ransacked the Immortal Court itself.
Xu Ying maintained his composure and said, "These belong to my personal collection. I have a habit of collecting odd trinkets on ordinary days."
While carving tally marks onto his own tombstone, the Last Lord of Ziwei chuckled. "So that is how it is. And here I thought they were funerary treasures from my imperial tomb. The Ziwei Ancestral Court currently lies in ruins, awaiting reconstruction, and the Three Realms Tide draws near. We happen to lack the wealth needed to revitalize the Ancestral Court. Minister Xu, could you find it in your heart to donate these treasures?"
Xu Ying hesitated. Watching the stone chips fly and recalling Emperor Ai's awe-inspiring might as he shattered layer upon layer of seals earlier, he replied solemnly, "Naturally! How about I donate thirty percent?"
Purple mist billowed around the Last Lord of Ziwei, and his hand moved even faster, etching tally marks in rapid succession.
"Fifty percent!" Xu Ying gritted his teeth.
The Last Lord of Ziwei raised three fingers. "You keep thirty percent."
"Deal!"
Xu Ying agreed readily. He brought forth the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp, kept one imperial carriage and two canopies, piled the carriage high with treasures, and returned the rest to the Last Lord of Ziwei.
The Last Lord's expression softened slightly as he received the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp. The moment the treasure settled in his hands, it erupted with boundless, dazzling brilliance.
Watching this, Xu Ying felt a pang of heartache.
This was a supreme treasure forged by a Supreme. The moment he had picked it up, he had recognized its extraordinary nature, which was why he had tucked it into his Realm of Xiyi in hopes of slipping away unnoticed.
The Last Lord of Ziwei activated the lamp. The nine glazed lamps blazed with radiance, and the light surprisingly slashed straight toward Xu Ying!
Xu Ying stood rooted to the spot, allowing those incomparably sharp beams—capable of severing flesh, Primordial Spirit, and soul—to sweep past him. A moment later, the sky-filling lamplight snapped back, retreating into the wicks.
The Last Lord of Ziwei lightly raised his hand. The Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp drifted upward, floating between the two of them. "I used this treasure to shield you from causality. If no one has plotted against you, all is well. But if someone has, their calculations will be thrown off. However, that person is a master of divine divination and will certainly sense the disturbance. Once they realize someone has meddled, they will deduce who did it, and the flames of my lamp will stir."
Xu Ying grew tense, fixing his eyes upon the flames of the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp.
The Last Lord of Ziwei chuckled. "Rest assured. Although I cannot be considered fully resurrected—merely a wisp of true soul returned to its flesh—I am still no ordinary being. Even if that person traces it here, they will find no clue of what I have done."
Xu Ying said, "Did Dao Brother not mention earlier that my summoning of the Taiyi Cave Abyss might just have been a coincidence?"
The Last Lord of Ziwei replied, "In my experience, many things appear to be coincidences on the surface, only to be revealed later as the result of someone pulling the strings and orchestrating every step from behind the scenes."
He smiled faintly. "If no one is scheming against you, the flames will naturally remain still. If they move, it means someone is plotting against you."
Everyone watched the flames of the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp intently. All nine flames remained motionless.
A long time passed, yet none of the nine flames wavered in the slightest.
Xu Ying breathed a long sigh of relief and smiled. "It seems it truly was an accident—"
Before his words could finish, the nine flames flared up as if doused with oil. Whoosh! In an instant, the flames leaped several yards into the air, shifting from golden yellow to pale green!
The Last Lord of Ziwei sneered. "Someone truly is scheming in the dark! Flaunting their tricks before Us—courting death!"
The nine flames of the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp suddenly focused into a single beam of light. The beam refracted sharply, and the illumination vanished!
In the next breath, the glow of the nine glazed lamps dimmed, their flames settling back down to normal.
***
Immortal Realm, Immortal Court.
Everything was tranquil and as peaceful as ever. Although the Three Realms Tide grew increasingly violent and the unification of the Three Realms drew near, the songs and dances went on uninterrupted. The Immortal Realm remained a scene of merrymaking and prosperity, completely unchanged from any ordinary day.
Suddenly, a flash of light swept through the Imperial Palace. It was as fine as a strand of hair, passing through in an instant without anyone noticing.
A palace maid walking forward suddenly saw the neck of the maid ahead tilt slightly. The head slowly slid off the shoulders.
Her eyes widened in terror as she saw the decorative rockery to her left slowly sliding and toppling to one side.
The crowns of the immortal trees in the garden were slowly slanting, while the surrounding palace walls and immortal halls were sliding sideways in complete silence!
Feeling a warm wetness at her own neck, she reached up to wipe it, only to push her own head right off her shoulders!
Across the Imperial Palace, halls such as Lanxiang, Yingchong, and Linquan appeared as though their tops had been sheared away. Anything extending above neck level—whether living beings or inanimate objects—was severed clean through by that hair-thin beam of light!
The Imperial Palace fell into sheer chaos, filled with endless shrieks of terror. Numerous female imperial relatives took to the air in fright, scanning their surroundings in panic.
After a moment, a deep, authoritative voice resonated through the air: "A trivial matter. There is no need for panic. We shall handle it personally!"
It was called a trivial matter, but how could an attack on the Imperial Palace be considered trivial?
Not to mention, so many palace residents had perished. Though most were maids and eunuchs, many imperial princes and concubines were among the dead.
That ray of light had been terrifyingly potent, severing physical bodies, Primordial Spirits, and souls alike. Wherever it passed, not a blade of grass survived. Only those who happened to be lying in bed or sitting on the floor at the time had managed to escape the catastrophe.
Yet opinions varied wildly regarding the origin of the disaster, sparking endless speculation.
Within the Imperial Palace, however, dead silence reigned. No one dared discuss the matter, and everything returned to normal, as if the incident had never occurred.
***
Ziwei Ancestral Court.
Xu Ying watched the calm flames, his expression shifting erratically.
The Last Lord of Ziwei raised his hand, and the Taicang Dongzhen Glazed Lamp floated behind his head, hovering half a head higher than him. Its light formed nine halos, lending him a profoundly sacred and solemn aura.
"Nothing in this world is free. For instance, We taught you Emperor Haotian's Taiyi Enlightenment so that you could open the Taiyi Cave Abyss and gain the strength to retrieve my corpse from the imperial tomb."
The Last Lord of Ziwei glanced at Xu Ying. Seeing him looking lost, he continued, "For instance, because you helped retrieve my corpse, I had to grant you a third of the funerary treasures from my tomb. For instance, because you obtained the Heavenly Dao of the Dao Revelation Ground, Tushita Palace had to follow to mend the heavens. Every single grain and ounce is accounted for. So, Minister Xu, you must also pay a price for obtaining the Taiyi Cave Abyss."
He paused, then added, "That price is your life."
Xu Ying's face went pale. A formidable master of divine divination, an entity of consummate intellect and patience exceeding all others, lurking in the shadows, waiting to harvest him at any moment!
In that person's eyes, he was nothing more than a fresh, lush leek waiting to be cut!
He had previously deceived himself, telling himself that such an entity could not exist. But now, he had no choice but to believe it!
Steadying his mind, Xu Ying gradually regained his composure and chuckled. "Harvest me like a leek? First, he has to let the leek grow before he can harvest it. But who knows? As I keep growing, I might not be a leek anymore."
"Do not be so confident,"
the Last Lord of Ziwei said indifferently. "You have been targeted by that person, and their cultivation and strength are higher than mine as I am now, not lower."
Xu Ying walked up beside him and remarked casually, "Emperor Ai, you are already dead; you will make no further progress. Surpassing you is only a matter of time for me."
The Last Lord of Ziwei's finger force hissed through the air, carving several more tally marks onto the tombstone.
Yet Xu Ying was not wrong. He was indeed not in a truly resurrected state. He possessed only a wisp of refined soul, and although it inhabited his flesh, he had not genuinely returned to life.
His death had been absolute: he possessed a soul but lacked a Primordial Spirit. Little remained of his former might, and being surpassed was indeed only a matter of time.
Xu Ying looked toward the other five imperial tombs and smiled. "Dao Brother, I can help you open the other five tombs. We can stick to the same thirty-seventy split: thirty for me, seventy for you!"
The Last Lord of Ziwei sneered. "With my current strength, unsealing the imperial tombs is effortless. Why would I share anything with you? Minister Xu, you may take your leave! Ziyan, see our guest out!"
Xu Ying pressed on, "Ten percent! I only ask for ten percent, how about that?"
The Last Lord of Ziwei waved his hand, signaling Nan Ziyan to escort him away.
Nan Ziyan quickly said, "Young Master Xu, this way please!"
He summoned his immortal skiff, but Xu Ying laughed heartily. "Ziyan, aren't you being a bit petty? I have an imperial carriage here, the ride of an Immortal Emperor!"
He excitedly summoned the imperial carriage. It was truly an extraordinary treasure; the moment it was deployed, it shone with resplendent colors, surrounded by swirling rosy clouds. Rays of light coalesced into multicolored mists, embedding Dao patterns that formed defensive arrays.
The multicolored clouds bore the imperial carriage aloft. As it flew, radiant light streamed like a rainbow tearing through the sky, as though the carriage were gliding atop the rainbow itself.
The jeweled canopy of the carriage resembled a patch of azure sky, clear and limpid, distinct from the world outside. If attacked, one could escape into the azure sky within the canopy at any moment.
Hanging from the four sides of the carriage were gem-encrusted tassels, each stone meticulously crafted to automatically trigger defensive wards when an external foe attacked.
However, such a carriage required four exotic beasts to pull it to display its true majesty. Unfortunately, although exotic beasts had existed in the imperial tomb, they had long since been slaughtered to be buried alongside Emperor Ai.
Seeing how extraordinary the carriage was, Nan Ziyan felt eager to try it, promptly boarding it alongside Xu Ying.
This carriage had once belonged to an Immortal Emperor; sitting upon it was truly magnificent and imposing.
Nan Ziyan remarked, "We don't have any mounts."
"That's simple."
With a casual flick of his hand, Xu Ying channeled a divine power that transformed into four remarkably majestic divine dragons. Pulling the imperial carriage, they tore through the void and surged away!
The boisterous whoops and shouts of the two echoed from the distance. The Last Lord of Ziwei's face darkened. He waved his hand, and several maidens hurriedly presented brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.
The Last Lord dipped the brush and drew over a dozen tally marks behind the names of Nan Ziyan and Xu Ying, finally venting the gloom in his chest. He chuckled, "Those two brats, acting like little children. To use divine power to conjure dragons to pull a carriage—isn't that redundant? With that kind of power, they could just fly by riding their own spells."
The imperial carriage carried Xu Ying and Nan Ziyan through the great purple waterfall, emerging into the Ziwei Remnant Realm. Just as Nan Ziyan was about to turn back, he suddenly noticed thunderclouds gathering densely in the sky. Above Hunyuan Palace, someone was actually undergoing tribulation!
The tribulation clouds were boundless and colossal in scale, and the heavenly tribulation possessed terrifying might. Bolts of thunder lit up heaven and earth one after another, crashing down with mysterious Dao rhythms!
"Little Celestial Venerable is undergoing tribulation!" Nan Ziyan exclaimed in surprise.
Xu Ying stood at the front of the carriage, looking toward the scene of Little Celestial Venerable's tribulation. The scholar in white was bathed in heavenly lightning. Even though this lightning tribulation was countless times stronger than an ordinary one, he looked as relaxed as if bathed in a gentle spring breeze, seizing the opportunity of the heavenly tribulation to temper his physical body and Primordial Spirit.
Nan Ziyan glanced at Xu Ying and said, "Young Master Xu, you are Little Celestial Venerable's master, and you were the one who proposed the Heaven Mending Plan back then. I heard from Little Celestial Venerable that you also helped him restore those treasure fragments and incomplete cultivation arts. By all rights, you should be the leader of the Ancestral Court. Now, even if Little Celestial Venerable transcends his tribulation and becomes an immortal, his cultivation and strength will still be inferior to yours. Why don't you serve as the leader of the Ancestral Court?"
Xu Ying gazed at Little Celestial Venerable. Unconsciously, the image of that young boy following him through thick and thin surfaced in his mind. A smile appeared on his face as he said, "Although I was the one who proposed the Heaven Mending Plan, over these past forty thousand years, it was Little Celestial Venerable who persevered. Everyone else gave up; only he kept holding on. Had it not been for his persistence over forty thousand years, how could today have come to pass? Today, he is the leader of the Ancestral Court, its spirit and its symbol—something no one can take away!"
The Heavenly Dao of the Ziwei Ancestral Court had revived, completing the final link. Across the lands of the Ancestral Court today, patches of tribulation clouds formed as expert after expert underwent tribulation, breaking through the final barrier separating Qi Refiners from immortals.
They were restoring the ancient tradition: immortals dwelling among mortals.
Long, long ago, the Earth Immortal Realm had originated from this very place, which was why it was known as the Ancestral Court.
The Ancestral Court was the Ancestral Court of the Earth Immortal Realm.
Chapter 499