Sun Luyuan fell silent for a moment before whispering, "That Great Qi Sacred Dynasty... I plan to make contact in person."
"Hm?" Sun Luyao was taken aback.
He knew his older brother intended to contact Great Qi, but previously he had planned to send deathsworn subordinates first to scout out the truth.
"Why the sudden change of mind?"
"Times have changed," Sun Luyuan said with a grim expression. "Who knows how long that old bastard Fu will remain in seclusion? I must seize this rare period of freedom to make proper arrangements for the future—both for the two of us and for the Sun Clan."
Sun Luyuan's eyes turned cold and sinister. "Originally, I was still hesitating. But that rainbow light departing from the realm completely extinguished my hopes. In the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, we will never be anything more than tools to be used. If catastrophe ever strikes the Xuanhuang Realm, those Mirror Keepers and Dharma Transmitters will flee, and they definitely won't take us with them.
"The situation with Great Qi is different. As the saying goes, no merit surpasses backing the dragon before it ascends. If we throw our lot in with them before they rise to prominence, then once they succeed, we will be Great Qi's Dharma Transmitters.
"Of course, it ultimately depends on just how strong this Great Qi Sacred Dynasty is."
Sun Luyao nodded slightly.
"Still, that Daqi pocket world is exceptionally mysterious. Even the Heavenly Profound Mirror holds scarcely any clues. Brother, how do you plan to find them?"
Sun Luyuan gave an enigmatic smile. "I asked a friend to help deduce it. Though he couldn't pinpoint the exact location, he did find the entrance to the pocket world. We'll know once I inspect it on site."
"Brother, could there be danger?" A sudden wave of unease surged through Sun Luyao's heart.
Sun Luyuan was brimming with confidence. "Rest easy. With my strength, even if Great Qi is a dragon's pool or tiger's den, I can still retreat unscathed."
After comforting his younger brother with a few words, Sun Luyuan continued, "Right, there's another piece of good news. Ninglu made a breakthrough. She has reached late Soul Formation, just one step away from Dao Integration.
"When she broke through, her qi dynamics were turbulent, which allowed me to notice another pulse of life hidden within her.
"She was already carrying Lu'er's seed from before, but she had her own schemes and kept it sealed with a secret technique," Sun Luyuan said with a faint, knowing smirk.
Seeing the odd look in his brother's eyes, Sun Luyuan's expression turned stern. "I already tested it. It is unquestionably the bloodline of our Sun Clan. Regardless of Ninglu's true identity, as long as she bears an offspring for our clan, none of that matters.
"I intend to have Ninglu temporarily keep the vitality of the fetus in her womb sealed. She can give birth after achieving Dao Integration," Sun Luyuan suddenly remarked.
"Lu'er's innate talent was extraordinary to begin with, and Ninglu's aptitude is quite decent. The descendant of the two of them is undoubtedly the one worth anticipating the most among the Sun Clan's juniors.
"When a cultivator absorbs an anima of Heaven and Earth, the laws of heaven and earth descend upon their body. If the fetus in the mother's womb can resonate with them simultaneously..."
Sun Luyuan's tone grew somewhat excited. "I fear that once this little infant is born, its talent will not pale before any prodigy in the Alliance. Only then will our Sun Clan truly have a successor.
"Most importantly, right now we have the strength to scheme for an anima of Heaven and Earth on her behalf."
Whenever the future of the Sun Clan came up, Sun Luyuan always seemed to have endless things to say.
His younger brother, Sun Luyao, for once calmed his mind and listened with a smile.
"What a touching scene of brotherly affection." Only after Sun Luyuan left did the eerie cackle of that mysterious shadowy senior startle him back to reality.
Sun Luyao snapped out of it, realizing how many things he had already done against his elder brother under duress.
"That little infant of your Sun Clan... is quite intriguing."
The words of Li Fan's divine sense instantly made Sun Luyao's heart leap into his throat.
"Relax. I'm not so desperate as to covet a child's body," Li Fan scoffed.
"I have here a technique, the Creation Furnace Technique, which continuously taps into the body's physical potential. Most importantly, it has no barrier to cultivation; it can be practiced even within the mother's womb. I also have the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method, which can steadily strengthen one's divine soul through the mutually generating and overcoming powers of the five elements..."
With just a few sentences, Li Fan's divine sense left Sun Luyao's heart reeling in shock.
"Although cultivating the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method requires the aid of supreme Five Elements treasures, given your Sun Clan's current foundation, it shouldn't be difficult for you.
"To temper both soul and flesh constantly starting from the innate embryonic stage, and furthermore to perceive the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao at close range through the mother's body... Tsk, tsk... Even I find myself looking forward to seeing what kind of monster this little infant will be once born." Li Fan's divine sense let out a dark chuckle.
"Senior... what are your conditions?" Sun Luyao was clearly tempted.
Yet he understood deeply that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, so he asked in a low voice.
"Conditions?" To his surprise, Li Fan's divine sense sneered. "Does your Sun Clan even have the right to negotiate conditions with me?
"Your entire clan has only three Dao Integration cultivators. This old man could wipe you out with a snap of my fingers."
Sun Luyao fell silent.
"It is merely a whim, an experiment," Li Fan's divine sense said in an eerie tone.
Li Fan was not lying.
In truth, he understood the situation of the fetus in Wu Ninglu's belly far better than the two Sun brothers.
Earlier, in order to observe the rainbow light of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals leaving the realm, his soul avatar had borrowed Wu Ninglu's body to slip out and forge several puppets.
During the time he possessed her, Li Fan had discovered that the fetus actually sensed something.
It had instinctively sent out waves of intent trying to "expel" him.
This thoroughly piqued Li Fan's interest.
He had a premonition that if this child could be born smoothly, its future achievements would be anything but ordinary.
Under normal circumstances, with the fetus suppressed and sealed by its birth mother for so long, surviving smoothly would not be easy at all.
Even if it managed to be born, it would be destined for congenital deficiencies.
Much less embarking on cultivation.
Yet with Li Fan intervening in this lifetime, the child would meet an entirely new destiny.
While Li Fan's soul avatar was busy playing the role of a prenatal tutor, Sun Luyuan had already found the entrance to the Daqi pocket world.
The array-breaking disc in his hand flashed continuously as he attempted to deduce and locate the flaws in the formations here.
This was an array-breaking treasure he had specially borrowed from Ji Hongdao. Though using it was certainly not as effective as having the man present in person, breaking ordinary protective formations with it should not have posed a problem.
Unexpectedly, the array-breaking disc seemed to have malfunctioned; it only flashed, yielding no results no matter how long he waited.
"This shouldn't be..."
Sun Luyuan was somewhat bewildered.
Holding the disc, he shifted to another angle.
"If you wished to come, you needed only to say the word. How could our Great Qi Sacred Dynasty turn guests away at the door?"
Just as Sun Luyuan was still probing, a voice abruptly rang out beside his ear.
Sun Luyuan's heart jolted. Stowing the array-breaking disc, he looked vigilantly in the direction of the voice.
There stood a rather handsome youth with his arms crossed, gazing at him with an ambiguous smile.
"Young friend, may I ask...?"
Although the youth only had the aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator, the sinister edge he inadvertently exuded made Sun Luyuan wary of underestimating him.
Chapter 1222