The instant Xu Ying slipped into the canopy, he saw the sky behind him annihilating in vast swathes. Destructive fluctuations surged overwhelmingly, sweeping toward him!
The canopy harbored an internal world—a lifesaving measure used by the Last Lord of Ziwei during his lifetime. Leaping into the canopy allowed one to traverse the world within and arrive directly in another realm, bypassing pursuers.
Xu Ying, seizing the very moment he broke free of the bodhimanda, had leaped into the canopy to flee far away.
Logically, in such a fleeting instant, he should not have been exposed at all. Yet Emperor Changsheng's cultivation was truly terrifying. Even while standing within the bodhimanda of the Ginseng Fruit Tree, he could still keenly capture that faint ripple concealed inside Xu Ying's Great Luo bodhimanda.
Xu Ying had hidden that supreme treasure, the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler, inside the Ruyi Great Luo Heaven to isolate it from all perception, yet across two separate bodhimandas, it still failed to elude Emperor Changsheng.
"A Great Luo Golden Immortal is just too formidable!"
The next moment, Xu Ying flew out of the world inside the canopy, tumbling into a bronze immortal palace.
He started slightly. "The worlds accessed by the two canopies aren't the same! A cunning hare has three burrows—the Last Lord truly had three burrows!"
Yet soon, two of the Last Lord of Ziwei's three burrows were destroyed.
Without a second thought, Xu Ying abandoned the canopy and activated the Third Heavenly Pass. As the heavenly pass swung open, he plunged through the portal, which snapped shut behind him before the heavenly pass vanished!
*Boom!*
The canopy warped, exploded, and blew to pieces. Immediately afterward, under boundless, tyrannical might, that ancient bronze immortal palace detonated as well. Every trace of Immortal Daos within the palace was erased, its bronze liquifying into a torrent of molten metal!
Having fled the bronze immortal palace, Xu Ying emerged into the sky above the Ancestral Court.
He immediately broke into a sprint, fleeing toward the Ziwei Ancestral Court. Across the sky of the Ancestral Court, a continuous series of sonic booms detonated, leaving behind rings of white vapor that curled away into the distance, though not a silhouette could be seen.
As Xu Ying dashed along, Lan Suying was also calculating whether his journey would be safe.
She dared not divine Emperor Changsheng's movements and could only calculate Xu Ying's fortune. If Xu Ying was safe, then Emperor Changsheng had failed to capture him; thus, she could obtain the outcome she desired without deducing Emperor Changsheng.
"He will make it safely."
Lan Suying breathed a sigh of relief and rose to her feet. Seeing this, the Divine Mother hastily asked, "Lan Suying, you're leaving?"
Lan Suying smiled. "I have achieved most of my objectives on this trip. Naturally, I must leave."
The Divine Mother's eyes flickered. "Your Past and Future Bodies method is exquisite beyond measure. Though I am a master of divination, even I fall short. Might we exchange insights?"
Lan Suying replied with a smile, "Of course. We diviners can calculate the affairs of the world, with little beyond our reach. Yet different schools of divination lack mutual exchange and remain set in their ways. If we could converse regularly, we would surely make further progress. Unfortunately, I am but a caged bird who was granted a fleeting moment of leisure. I must return now."
She quickly wrote something down and handed it over. "Pass this to Celestial Venerable Xu."
The Divine Mother stowed the slip of paper, slightly startled, and murmured, "Even a diviner as powerful as you ended up a caged bird? To think our plights are so alike..."
A sympathetic bond between kindred spirits could not help but arise within her.
Lan Suying dared not linger. She immediately flew out of the Yingzhou cave abyss and tore through the void.
Now, fissures spanned the skies above the Ancestral Court, placing the Immortal Realm right before one's eyes. One could enter and exit the Immortal Realm through these cracks.
Just as Lan Suying was about to return to the Immortal Court through a fissure, her body suddenly stiffened. She saw a tall, elderly man walking toward her.
Relaxing her posture, she bowed deeply. "This daughter pays respects to Your Imperial Majesty."
The old man was none other than the Immortal Emperor Supreme. Closing the distance to her in just a few paces, he remarked leisurely, "Emperor Changsheng is being unruly. Suying, come with me to see him."
Earlier, Lan Suying had schemed against a whole host of Heavenly Monarchs—including the Imperial Monarch and the Heavenly Venerable—holding sway over the world, and had even bested the Eastern King. Yet before this old man, she dared not entertain the slightest rebellious thought, meekly answering in the affirmative.
The two of them, adoptive father and daughter, rode an auspicious cloud toward the Yanzhu-Yuankang World. Returning to Wuzhuang Temple, Lan Suying felt uneasy.
At that moment, the Immortal Emperor Supreme asked, seemingly offhand, "Suying, during your descent to the mortal realm this time, you saw Ying'er, didn't you?"
Lan Suying's heart tightened. "I did see him, but I dared not reveal my identity to him."
The Immortal Emperor Supreme sighed with emotion. "You mother and son have not seen each other for forty-eight thousand years. Right now dangers lurk at every turn; the Immortal Realm appears tranquil on the surface, but dark undercurrents rage within. You were right not to acknowledge him. The tree craves calm, yet the wind will not cease. There are always those eyeing our Imperial family like tigers watching prey. Xu Ying is your son, and he is also my grandson."
Lan Suying replied, "Seeing that he is well and safe was enough to satisfy me."
The Immortal Emperor Supreme said, "Ying'er suffered for over forty thousand years. Though your father knew, I never stepped in to rescue him. You don't blame your father, do you?"
Lan Suying shook her head. "Ying'er was young and foolish. Instead of being grateful for his grandfather's elevation and guidance, he rebelled against the Immortal Court—an unpardonable sin deserving of ten thousand deaths. Hearing of the crimes he committed filled this daughter with dread and heartache over that rebellious son. Fortunately, Father is magnanimous, so he did not die for it. We mother and son can only be grateful for Father's boundless benevolence; how could we harbor any resentment?"
The Immortal Emperor Supreme said, "You are sensible as always. Though you are my adopted daughter, I treat you as my own flesh and blood, conferring upon you the title of Virtuous Princess. Ying'er is thus my virtuous grandson. Even a ferocious tiger will not eat its cubs, much less a grandson. My only hope is that you mother and son will understand my well-intentioned painstaking care."
Lan Suying assented.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme led her up the Thirty-Three Heavens to the Jade Capital City and remarked with considerable gratification, "Ying'er's cultivation in this lifetime is far more promising than before. To think he managed to cultivate ten cave heavens—an achievement unprecedented since antiquity! As his grandfather, I am overjoyed as well. If he can forge all ten cave heavens into one, his achievements will know no bounds."
He hesitated on the verge of speaking, but did not continue.
Lan Suying felt a wave of unease and wanted to deduce his true objective, but dared not.
She knew that the moment she attempted to divine anything concerning the Immortal Emperor Supreme, he would instantly perceive all her thoughts!
Her descent to the lower realm this time had three main purposes: first, to see Xu Ying; second, to seize ginseng Dao fruits; and third, to tell Xu Ying the secrets of the Taiyi Cave Abyss!
Now, she suddenly felt that this matter reeked of something bizarre.
The reason she had learned the secret of the Taiyi Cave Abyss was that after Xu Jing arrived at the Immortal Court, the Immortal Emperor Supreme's house arrest on her had relaxed considerably, allowing her to move freely about the palace.
She had entered the Immortal Emperor clan's Scripture Storage Hall, perused the ancient texts, and discovered a volume annotated by the Immortal Emperor Supreme himself, which recorded the relationship between the ten cave heavens and the Taiyi Cave Abyss.
And the Taiyi Cave Abyss was the cave abyss of Emperor Haotian from an ancient era—colossally vast, primeval, enigmatic, and harboring inexhaustible power.
The book stated that the Taiyi Cave Abyss had vanished with the death of Emperor Haotian, its whereabouts unknown, and was no longer under the control of the Immortal Court.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme had annotated the text: *Obtaining it enables one to attain the Supreme realm.*
Reading those words had set Lan Suying's heart pounding furiously, because she had heard from Xu Jing that Xu Ying was cultivating ten cave heavens.
Moreover, before Kunlun fell, ten cave heavens had existed there as well. Back then, Xu Ying had often played beneath Kunlun's ten cave heavens, uniquely blessed by nature!
Out of deep motherly love, she had intended to reveal this secret to Xu Ying upon meeting him.
Yet because of that, Xu Ying had mistaken her for an incarnation of the Immortal Emperor Supreme, testing and guarding against her at every turn.
The slip of paper Lan Suying left before departing contained the profound mysteries of the Taiyi Cave Abyss and the summoning method recorded in the book.
She had left that slip for Xu Ying's benefit, yet right now, cold sweat suddenly poured down her back.
*What if... what if that book I saw was intentionally left for me to see by the Supreme?*
The Supreme's divine calculations were unfathomably deep. During all her years in the Immortal Court, she had never been able to gauge his true depths. Even now, when her calculative power had surpassed the Eastern King, facing the Supreme still made her feel his boundless mystery.
She grew increasingly suspicious that the Supreme had deliberately allowed her to see that book, and deliberately allowed her to descend to the lower realm, all so that Xu Ying would learn the mysteries and summoning technique of the Taiyi Cave Abyss!
*Ying'er, whatever you do, do not cultivate or summon the Taiyi Cave Abyss!*
Having failed in his strike and lost track of Xu Ying, Emperor Changsheng let out a displeased snort.
He was currently occupied with claiming the Ginseng Fruit Tree and had no time to pursue Xu Ying. He valued the Ginseng Fruit Tree even more than the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler. The ruler was merely a Supreme magic treasure, but the Ginseng Fruit Tree was the spirit root of heaven and earth for the Earth Immortal Realm—the locus of its destiny!
Whoever controlled this tree would control the Earth Immortal Realm, and whoever held it would be the Supreme!
However, when he attempted to force his way beneath the tree and refine this divine tree, he encountered fierce resistance.
This divine tree was like a Supreme standing between heaven and earth; branches danced through the air, and Dao fruits burst with light that detonated in clusters, repeatedly forcing him to pull back.
Emperor Changsheng tried several times, yet remained unable to push through to the tree's trunk, repeatedly driven back and unable to refine it.
Caught momentarily off guard, he was even whipped by a branch, leaving a stinging, searing pain.
*If I still had the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler, I could suppress this tree's might and perhaps have a chance of refining it.*
With that thought, Emperor Changsheng suddenly soared upward into close proximity with the tree and reached out to grasp a ginseng Dao fruit. Other branches lashed out en masse, bursting with Dao light, but Emperor Changsheng flicked his fingers repeatedly to repel the branches and plucked the fruit.
Reaching out for more, he plucked three fruits in succession. But the Dao tree rumbled violently as more and more branches and root tendrils whipped through the air, preparing to fight him to the death.
Emperor Changsheng dared not tarry. Holding the three Dao fruits, he retreated swiftly and burst out of the bodhimanda. *I'll reclaim the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler first, then return to take this tree!* he thought.
The Imperial Monarch, the Heavenly Venerable, and the others had been encircling the area from afar, not daring to draw close while he tried to claim the tree. Now seeing Emperor Changsheng withdraw in the face of difficulty, they surged forward, taking to the air one by one to try to pluck the Dao fruits.
Only seventeen Dao fruits remained on the Ginseng Fruit Tree—not many. There were as many as sixteen Heavenly Monarchs whose true bodies had arrived, of whom only eight received stipends from the court: the Imperial Monarch, the Primordial Monarch, the Heavenly Venerable, the Eastern King, and the other four Heavenly Venerables.
Everyone unleashed their various methods, only to be struck down by the Ginseng Fruit Tree. Even the Imperial Monarch and the Heavenly Venerable, when facing this tree fiercely defending its fruits, could do no more than barely retreat unscathed.
"Why must these Dao fruits be so difficult to obtain?" the Wealth Heavenly Venerable ground his teeth.
The Ning Heavenly Venerable stimulated his Taisui flesh and blood to shield his body, preparing to try once more.
The Imperial Monarch's gaze flickered, suddenly landing on the corpse of the Daoist boy Qingfeng. At that moment, the eyes of the Heavenly Venerable and the Eastern King fell upon Qingfeng's corpse as well.
They recalled how Qingfeng had knocked down the ginseng Dao fruits. Clearly, harvesting the fruits required a specialized immortal artifact.
Yet that immortal artifact required a unique technique and mental mantra. Even if they located it, they would likely still be unable to harvest the ginseng Dao fruits.
Could it be that after expending so much effort, losing incarnation after clone after Dao body, and seeing so many Immortal Kings and Immortal Monarchs perish, they had made this journey in vain, merely to sightsee the Ginseng Fruit Tree?
"Fellow Daoist Changsheng, you are truly too stingy."
Just then, a deep, resonant voice carried from afar. Following the sound, the Imperial Monarch, Heavenly Venerable, and the others looked over to see a tall, elderly man holding hands with Emperor Changsheng as they walked side by side, their long sleeves fluttering, radiating peerless immortal grace.
As the old man stepped into the bodhimanda of the Ginseng Fruit Tree, a chill of awe struck the hearts of the Imperial Monarch, the Heavenly Venerable, the Eastern King, the Primordial Monarch, and the others. Bowing in unison, they declared in one voice, "Your humble subjects welcome the Supreme!"
"Rise."
The Immortal Emperor Supreme chuckled softly. Walking side by side with Emperor Changsheng beneath the Ginseng Fruit Tree, he looked up to survey it and smiled. "Fellow Daoist Changsheng, you plucked three Dao fruits only for yourself; why not share a few with them? That is hardly the conduct of an elder."
Releasing Emperor Changsheng's hand, he walked straight forward and reached up to pluck a Dao fruit.
The Ginseng Fruit Tree seemed utterly infuriated. Root tendrils and branches lashed out in a frenzy, sweeping toward him!
Yet when these attacks reached the vicinity of the Immortal Emperor Supreme, they appeared to strike an invisible barrier. Every single branch, unable to approach his physical body, was pinned in midair—unable to advance, unable to retreat.
Witnessing this, Emperor Changsheng praised sincerely, "Senior Brother's abilities have grown ever more unfathomable."
The Immortal Emperor Supreme smiled. "Yuan Daohai, step forward."
The Heavenly Venerable hastily bowed and stepped forward. The Immortal Emperor Supreme placed the Dao fruit into his hand and said with a smile, "You have toiled diligently and achieved great merit, safeguarding the peace of the Immortal Realm. This Dao fruit is Our gift to you. After consuming it, continue to serve the Immortal Court with unwavering loyalty."
The Heavenly Venerable bowed deeply. "Your subject shall spare neither head nor brain to serve Your Majesty, shunning no sacrifice!"
Reaching out through the Ginseng Fruit Tree's myriad branches, the Immortal Emperor Supreme plucked another ginseng Dao fruit and said, "Zhou Wu, step forward."
The Imperial Monarch hurried forward. The Immortal Emperor Supreme placed the Dao fruit in his hands and said, "Minister Zhou has rendered meritorious service to the state and altars, though your seniority is still somewhat lacking, which is why We appointed you to oversee the world's Imperial Monarchs. This, too, is a heavy charge. After consuming this Dao fruit, We still have uses for you."
The Imperial Monarch bowed in gratitude. "Your subject will devote his utmost till his dying breath to repay Your Majesty's heavenly grace!"
Raising his hand once more, the Immortal Emperor Supreme plucked yet another Dao fruit. Calling over the Primordial Monarch, he smiled. "Minister Ling oversees the world's female immortals and maintains mutual amity and respect with the other Primordial Monarchs. Half the credit for peace under heaven belongs to Minister Ling."
The Primordial Monarch accepted the Dao fruit, bowing to offer thanks for the imperial benevolence.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme plucked fruit after fruit, bestowing them upon the Wealth Heavenly Venerable, Ning Heavenly Venerable, Sixue Heavenly Venerable, and Qingshan Heavenly Venerable. The four Heavenly Venerables wept tears of gratitude, bowing repeatedly to thank him for his imperial grace.
And yet, amid all these Dao fruits bestowed by the Immortal Emperor Supreme, the Eastern King was the sole exception.
The Eastern King pressed his lips together, looking toward Lan Suying without a word. *Father is just like his incarnation,* he thought to himself. *His elbows always bend outward, favoring outsiders over his own.*
Emperor Changsheng walked over and presented him with a Dao fruit. "Your Highness, I have an extra one here."
Taking the Dao fruit, the Eastern King felt a turmoil of mixed emotions.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme cast a glance at him and barked, "Why haven't you thanked your uncle yet?"
The Eastern King bowed in gratitude. "Thank you, Uncle Changsheng!"
As for the several Heavenly Monarchs among the independent cultivators, who had lost the factional struggles of the past and been reduced to wild immortals, the Immortal Emperor Supreme gave them no fruits at all.
"You are not Our subjects, so regarding these Dao fruits, you should act according to your own abilities," the Immortal Emperor Supreme remarked with a smile. "If you can pluck a Dao fruit, please feel free."
Those Heavenly Monarchs exchanged looks and withdrew one after another.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme smiled at Emperor Changsheng. "Fellow Daoist, this Ginseng Fruit Tree is unowned; it belongs to the virtuous. You arrived first, Fellow Daoist—please, go ahead and claim the tree."
Though Emperor Changsheng had the white hair of a youth, he was in fact countless tens of thousands of years old. How could he fail to understand the implicit message behind the words?
"Senior Brother, this junior brother is shallow in learning and deficient in virtue. The only one capable of claiming this tree is Your Majesty," Emperor Changsheng said with a bow.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme chuckled. "Since that is the case, I shall reluctantly undertake the task."
Chapter 526