The Great Elder of Penglai spoke with arrogant disdain.
He showed not the slightest courtesy.
The reason was simple: he hailed from Penglai and had advanced further down the evolutionary path, having attained the Golden Body Realm.
And what of these people on the mainland? He swept his gaze across them; at best, they were merely in the Shackle Realm.
On the path of evolution, every step of difference created a vast chasm.
Furthermore, across the Three Islands, there were multiple figures who were no weaker than him, and some who were even stronger.
Even if the mainland had developed terrifyingly lethal weaponry over the past thousand years, what of it?
With his methods and strength, he held no fear whatsoever. If he wished, he could effortlessly crush them into dust.
Thus, the Great Elder of Penglai did not care in the least about the truth of the matter.
He possessed absolute strength and could look down upon those of the mainland!
Even more importantly, throughout the preceding millennium, the Three Islands had always been revered as lands of the immortals.
Why should he show any courtesy to mainlanders whose evolutionary path had been severed?
However, upon hearing his words, Elder Ji and Elder Yun could not help but frown.
Demanding that they plead guilty the moment he opened his mouth? How arrogant and overbearing! It truly went to show that when the upper beam is crooked, the lower ones will tilt.
No wonder Zhao Yuan and his companions had been so domineering earlier.
Of course, the two elders were unlike juniors such as Ice Fairy; they did not hesitate or fret over the consequences.
Elder Ji stepped forward and said in a measured voice, "Plead guilty? What crime would you have us admit to?
"The moment your people landed, you provoked us of your own accord and followed up with extortionate demands. You are indeed strong, but when confronted by unreasonable people, we will never yield easily."
His words were laced with gunpowder. After all, hostilities were already underway, and the other side had clearly come looking for trouble.
Under such circumstances, he certainly had no reason to remain polite. If they wanted a war, then war it would be.
"Good, good, very good."
"A mere Shackle Realm cultivator. Who gave you such courage?"
The Great Elder of Penglai narrowed his eyes as the aura within him began to surge. "Now, I will grant you only two choices: first, confess your guilt; second, agree to our terms. Everything else can be discussed later, but you must give us an accounting for the deaths of our disciples from the Three Islands."
He was far more forceful than Zhao Yuan and the other two. Refusing any room for negotiation, he laid down an ultimatum.
As soon as he finished speaking, figures from the other two islands stepped forward as well.
Among them were many who had shattered twelve genetic shackles.
They were just one step away from entering the Golden Body Realm.
After all, not everyone could push to the absolute limits of the Shackle Realm like Lu Yuan; for ordinary people, twelve shackles represented their ceiling.
Yet, faced with the relentless advance of the Three Immortal Islands, no one chose to back down. Elder Yun stepped forth, his voice resolute. "There is nothing more to say. If you want to fight, make your move! Even if we die here, our younger generation will carry on.
"So what if you come from the Three Immortal Islands? No matter how powerful you are, without our consent, you will never lay a finger on anything on this mainland!"
He was utterly furious. Not only was the other side overbearing, but they were also brazenly attempting to plunder resources.
Elder Yun no longer cared who these people were or how strong they might be.
In short, if a fight was what they wanted, then a fight they would get.
"Great Elder, do you see? This is how mainlanders are today—barbaric and unreasonable!"
"Please take action, Great Elder! Unless blood is drawn, they will never submit!"
Zhao Yuan, who was feeling slightly better nearby, immediately began clamoring.
Since matters had escalated to this point, blood had to be shed.
"I'll put you down first!" Even the normally even-tempered Elder Ji was enraged and took a step forward.
His Shackle Realm aura erupted in full force; he had truly endured Zhao Yuan beyond his limit.
"Insolence!"
The Great Elder of Penglai bellowed.
A terrifying might exploded from within him.
In an instant, his Golden Body Dharma Idol manifested once more.
Standing tens of meters tall with its feet planted on the earth, it radiated a horrifying, oppressive majesty.
"You dare strike in my presence?" The Great Elder of Penglai had no desire to waste further breath and let out a thundering roar.
Instantly, the surrounding heavens and earth reverberated with deafening booms. Weaker individuals like Ice Fairy turned pale and trembled uncontrollably beneath the crushing pressure.
As for the soldiers holding conventional firearms, the force of that roar caused them to faint instantly, while various artillery pieces and rifles ruptured on the spot. Only a handful of people, such as Elder Ji and Elder Yun, could withstand it, but even they were forced to retreat.
The Golden Body Realm was truly terrifying.
It had already surpassed the bounds of modern technology.
At least for now, very few beings could stand as its equal.
Everyone from the mainland was completely suppressed, rendered utterly incapable of resisting.
"You will obey my words."
The Great Elder of Penglai looked upon them, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "It seems someone must die today after all."
"Obey? You were the ones who refused to listen to reason in the first place!" Ice Fairy was pinned under the pressure, but fury flared within her, and she spoke out bluntly.
"Indeed. If you want to strike, then strike!" Elder Ji and Elder Yun said in unison. The seven-member council had not all arrived, and if they fell here, the authorities still had follow-up measures prepared. Even a Golden Body Realm cultivator would be made to pay a price.
"Listen to reason?"
The Great Elder of Penglai sneered, clenching his right fist. "In this era, the fist is the only reason that matters."
With that, he felt there was no longer any need for idle chatter.
He took a step forward.
The Golden Body Dharma Idol moved in tandem, unleashing staggering might.
On the path of evolution, every step forward widened the gap astronomically.
This was especially true upon reaching the fourth stage, where one truly began unlocking the latent potential of the physical body.
Opposite him, Elder Ji, Elder Yun, and the others were thoroughly pinned down.
They desperately wanted to strike, but they simply couldn't move.
A short distance away, the majority of the modern heavy weaponry had been disabled by that single roar.
Seeing this unfold, the juniors, including Ice Fairy and the Little Celestial Master Chunyang, looked on with shifting expressions.
It had come to this after all.
Did they regret it?
There was no regret. If they died, others would take their place.
In stark contrast to them stood Zhao Yuan, Zhang Yun, and their cohort in the distance, wearing mocking and venomous sneers. They knew that with the Great Elder taking action, the mainlanders had no room to resist.
*Skreech—!*
Yet before the Great Elder of Penglai could strike, a sharp cry pierced the air.
Without warning, a figure dropped from the heavens.
Carrying an overwhelming might, he plummeted straight into the very center between the two factions.
Simultaneously, golden blood energy surged outward like an erupting volcano.
In the very next instant, the Great Elder of Penglai sensed an unprecedented crisis.
His Golden Body Dharma Idol was destabilized by the sheer impact.
It was Lu Yuan.
He stood in place, surrounded by roaring currents of blood energy that thundered around him.
As for the golden eagle that had carried him, it did not depart, circling high in the sky above.
"King Lu!"
Elder Ji, Elder Yun, Ice Fairy, and nearly everyone else were thunderstruck by the sight.
Wasn't he in secluded cultivation? Hadn't orders been given to keep the matter hidden from him?
Had he discovered it in the end?
None of that mattered anymore.
"King Lu, be careful! That man is in the Golden Body Realm!" Elder Yun called out, immediately offering a warning.
In their minds, King Lu possessed formidable combat prowess that far outstripped any Awakened of the same realm.
However, the opponent was a powerhouse of the fourth stage—the Golden Body Realm—so he couldn't help but urge caution.
Of course, it was also possible that the pressure radiating from the opponent was so suffocating that it caused them to momentarily forget how Lu Yuan had previously suppressed the Spirit Monkey atop Jade Emperor Peak—a beast that had also been in the Golden Body Realm.
"Who are you? Do you know who I am?"
Seeing the newcomer, the Great Elder of Penglai was inwardly alarmed. He could sense a domineering aura radiating from the man; it seemed to be merely at the Shackle Realm, yet it was unimaginably vast and unfathomably deep.
"You are right about one thing: in this era, the fist is indeed the greatest reason.
"In that case, today, I shall reason with you."
Lu Yuan ignored the question and spoke calmly, while beams of radiant light burst from his eyes.
Just like his opponent moments before, a terrifying, consummate killing intent erupted from him, filling the surroundings.
*Not good!*
The hairs on the Great Elder of Penglai stood on end.
Beings who had evolved to his stage possessed an innate premonition of catastrophic peril.
And at this very moment, he actually smelled the scent of death.
*Rumble—!*
Before he could react, Lu Yuan struck. He made no superfluous movements, throwing only a single punch.
A boundless aura surged, whipping up a colossal tempest as golden blood energy flooded the sky, illuminating everything in sight.
*Squelch—!*
*Crack! Snap!*
In the next instant, the Great Elder of Penglai's Golden Body Dharma Idol disintegrated.
The elder was blasted backward through the air, every bone in his body shattered by the single blow as copious amounts of blood gushed from his mouth and nose.
It had taken only a single punch.
"Cough... Attack! This man is too vicious!" Nearby, the leaders from the other two islands were horrified and immediately barked orders to attack.
There were still numerous disciples aboard those ten-plus ships, with over a hundred of them in the Shackle Realm.
Following the command, figures leaped out from the vessels.
They wore a variety of garments denoting their different affiliations.
The combined aura of these people merged into a terrifying force. Having cultivated on the Three Islands for years, their combat experience and techniques far exceeded those of mainlanders, which had always been the root of their supreme confidence.
Yet Lu Yuan did not spare them a single glance.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
Behind him, a blazing sun rose with a deafening roar.
A searing heatwave swept out like a rising morning sun descending upon the mortal earth.
Inside his chest, his heart pounded like the war drums of the primordial era, echoing in the ears of all present.
Over a dozen sea vessels trembled violently, fractures spiderwebbing across their hulls.
The might was simply too terrifying.
Elder Ji and his companions felt nothing amiss, but the disciples charging from the Three Islands were struck full force. Their bodies cracked and split, and blood sprayed into the sea. In just a brief moment, over a hundred of them were jolted to death on the spot.
They were like moths plunging toward a flame—only this was not a campfire, but a living volcano.
As for Zhao Yuan, Zhang Yun, and the others, who had already been wounded, they couldn't endure it for even an instant.
Their bodies exploded into mists of blood, buried straight into the sea.
From the moment Lu Yuan descended to this point, not even a minute had passed.
The forces of the Three Immortal Islands were dead or broken. The only one left with any semblance of fighting capacity was the Great Elder of Penglai.
As expected of a Golden Body Realm cultivator, despite catastrophic injuries and every bone in his body being crushed, he somehow managed to pull himself to his feet.
"How is this possible? How can this be?"
He was utterly bewildered.
Elder Ji, Elder Yun, and the rest were equally stunned.
In their eyes, a Golden Body Realm powerhouse was an insurmountable foe, and the hordes of disciples from the Three Islands were an immense crisis.
Yet before King Lu, they lacked even the slightest capacity to resist.
They were thoroughly shaken. They knew Lu Yuan was strong, but they had never imagined he could reach such a terrifying height.
Gazing at the corpses of his fellow islanders floating around him and the sea stained red with blood, the Great Elder finally turned his eyes toward Lu Yuan. His very soul trembled with a mixture of terror and overwhelming fury. "Do... do you have any idea what you've done?"
"What I've done?"
Hearing the words, Lu Yuan couldn't help but chuckle softly. "I'm reasoning with you."
Chapter 117