Bound

*Whoosh!* Streamers of light converged. A humanoid figure formed entirely of light, with features obscured, appeared before Yaoguang. Immortal King Alpha and Immortal King Nizhuan, who had originally wanted to make a timely escape, stepped forward together and bowed. "Great Supreme Intellect." The condensed figure of light was none other than the external avatar manifested by the Lord of Yuanxi. "A tragedy occurred here just now. Nine immortal spirits on our Hunyuan Realm's side have fallen, and as many as ten immortal spirits suffered the destruction of their immortal bodies. Therefore, would the three of you be so kind as to explain to me what exactly took place?" The divine sense fluctuations of the Lord of Yuanxi flowed over the three of them. Neither hurried nor slow, it held a soul-daunting power. Immortal King Alpha, Immortal King Nizhuan, and Yaoguang exchanged a glance, reaching a tacit consensus almost instantaneously. "It was the Ancient Immortal Alliance!" Immortal King Nizhuan said in a deep voice. "We were ambushed by the Ancient Immortal Alliance!" "Is that so? Yet from the information I have gathered, it was clearly more than that." The Lord of Yuanxi clenched an ethereal hand, and the powers of numerous Grand Daos—Space, Time, the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, Chaos, and more—were all summoned and manifested by Him. The information recorded within them was precisely extracted and analyzed by Him. Among this information were scenes of several Immortal Kings from Creation Group and Tianyuan Group locked in fierce battle. "If I remember correctly, the very first clause of the agreement signed between the Nine Great Groups and myself is that any immortal spirit entering the Ancient Immortal Realm is strictly forbidden from engaging in fratricidal slaughter. Now, I await your explanation," said the Lord of Yuanxi. Looking at the recorded imagery that the Lord of Yuanxi had extracted and searched out from the convoluted traces of the Grand Daos through sheer, immense computational power, the eyes of both Immortal King Alpha and Immortal King Nizhuan shrank. A hint of fear even arose in their gazes. Yaoguang, however, remained composed. He knew that the recent battle between Immortal Kings had shattered the void into chaos more than once. His nearly full-powered Great Void Art had cracked the void open, drawing in the aura of chaotic nothingness from the outside to erode within, muddying all the Dao traces across this stretch of void. Formidable as the Lord of Yuanxi was to extract images of the clash between Creation Group and Tianyuan Group even from such a chaotic environment, this... ought to be the limit of what He could achieve. With that in mind, Yaoguang spoke up. "It was Fate." After giving the two Immortal Kings a look telling them to stay calm, Yaoguang explained, "The reason a conflict broke out between our two groups was due to interference from the power of fate. If the Great Supreme Intellect searches carefully, you will be able to determine that strong remnants of the power of fate still linger in this void." The Lord of Yuanxi shifted His gaze onto Yaoguang. His posture was one of quietly waiting for an explanation. Without the slightest panic, Yaoguang continued, "If the Lord of Yuanxi investigates Tianyuan Group, you will undoubtedly discover that Immortal King Tianyu of Tianyuan Group had long been plotting against me. Immortal King Alpha can provide evidence of this. This time, our Creation Group obtained leads on the Ancient Immortal Alliance and mobilized en masse, intending to encircle and annihilate them with all our might. As it turned out, Immortal King Tianyu was bewitched by the power of fate, turning on us with deadly force at the critical juncture." Saying this, he put on a look of sorrowful regret. "Our Creation Group had no choice but to retaliate with everything we had, which ultimately led to the outbreak of this major battle. Furthermore, at the peak of the fighting, Immortal King Tianming of the Ancient Immortal Alliance suddenly charged out with his men, which caused catastrophic losses to our Creation Group." At the side, Immortal King Nizhuan chimed in, "Indeed, this time our Creation Group has suffered unprecedented losses. Aside from the Chairman and a handful of us..." Before Nizhuan could finish, Yaoguang also took out the Human Sovereign Banner with an expression of regret. At this moment, this top-tier immortal artifact was already shattered and damaged. "After all, I have only recently become an Immortal King. How could I withstand Immortal King Tianming, the leader of the Ancient Immortal Alliance, joining forces with other Immortal Kings? Though I gave everything, many of my immortal artifacts were ruined, including the Human Sovereign Banner." With an expression of deep grief, Yaoguang said, "It was the greed of Tianyuan Group's Immortal King Tianyu that brought such unprecedented, tragic sacrifices upon our Creation Group. They must pay the price for their actions..." Seeing the broken Human Sovereign Banner in Yaoguang's hand, Immortal King Nizhuan and Immortal King Alpha's pupils shrank violently. *Shattered?!* *The Human Sovereign Banner that held the three directors, including Chairman Xuanqing and Immortal King Huitian... was shattered?!* *Chairman Xuanqing, who was reduced to a remnant soul, also perished along with the destruction of the Human Sovereign Banner?!* *This outcome...* *Who was he trying to fool?!* *Yuxiao!* *It was definitely Yuxiao intentionally borrowing someone else's blade to kill!* He had used the hands of Tianming and the people of the Ancient Immortal Alliance to wipe out Chairman Xuanqing and the other two directors. His purpose... On one hand, it was to replace Xuanqing and become Creation Group's new chairman. On the other hand, it was to reduce the number of people who would share in the credit when the Gate of Fate and Gate of Karma were breached later. After all, according to the original agreement, obtaining level-nineteen authority wouldn't be difficult for directors like them, but level-twenty authority... would prioritize Chairman Xuanqing. Yet now, Xuanqing had been indirectly killed by Yuxiao using Tianming's hands, making Yaoguang the undisputed greatest beneficiary. He would replace Chairman Xuanqing and become the figure with the highest hope of becoming the Hunyuan Realm's tenth Ruler with level-twenty authority! Immortal King Alpha opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but right at that moment, Yaoguang turned his gaze toward him. Aloud, with an expression of deep grief, Yaoguang said, "Creation Group now has only the three of us left. We must unite even more closely to maintain the current situation and ensure that Creation Group's interests are not harmed. Otherwise, I fear we will have no face to see the Lord of Creation." Via mental transmission, however, he said with a chuckle, "Fortunately, we have also rendered no small amount of merit this time. When rewards are distributed according to our deeds, our recompense will certainly not be lacking. If all goes smoothly, our authority could even be raised to level nineteen." *Rewards according to deeds?!* They had merely fought a battle with the Ancient Immortal Alliance and hadn't even managed to slay or capture a single Immortal King of the alliance—how could such merit possibly elevate their authority to level nineteen... Wait! *Level nineteen?!* Immortal King Alpha and Immortal King Nizhuan instantly realized what he meant. Xuanqing, Huitian, and the rest of the six were all dead, but the two of them were still within the scope of the agreement. Although they had to beware of this bastard Yuxiao playing dirty tricks, if the plan proceeded smoothly, elevating their authority to level nineteen would be set in stone. In fact, level-nineteen authority might not even be their limit—they could press on in one breath all the way to the peak of level nineteen. If breaching the Gate of Fate and the Gate of Karma truly signaled the complete conquest of the Ancient Immortal Realm, the merit would be so astronomical that once Yuxiao advanced to level twenty to become a Ruler, it would not be a mere pipe dream for them to follow suit and ascend to level twenty as well! After all, as early as when the all-out invasion of the Ancient Immortal Realm began, the Great Supreme Intellect, the Lord of Yuanxi, had already calculated that the scale of the Ancient Immortal Realm was no smaller than that of the Hunyuan Realm. By that projection, the Ancient Immortal Realm could theoretically give rise to ten Rulers, including peak Rulers like Himself. Even if the Lord of Yuanxi, who was fully driving this war, took the lion's share, cultivating three to five level-twenty Rulers from the remaining gains was by no means wishful thinking. *A level-twenty Ruler!* At this thought, Immortal King Alpha and Immortal King Nizhuan instantly swallowed back the words they had intended to say to expose Yuxiao's borrowed knife. Xuanqing and the others were already dead. What good would exposing Yuxiao do? Aside from venting their anger and upholding so-called justice, they would gain nothing at all. If things went wrong, even that agreement would be voided, and they could kiss level-nineteen authority goodbye. Under these circumstances, cooperating with Yaoguang and keeping the Lord of Yuanxi in the dark was the only correct choice. Having cultivated to the level of Immortal Kings, none of them were naive. Interests were the core of everything. All other so-called benevolence, righteousness, and morality were meaningless. Immediately, Immortal King Nizhuan solemnly declared, "Indeed. Creation Group now only has the three of us directors remaining. We absolutely cannot let internal strife tear Creation Group apart." Immortal King Alpha also hurried to say, "Great Supreme Intellect, please uphold justice for us and severely punish Tianyuan Group! Had it not been for them, our Creation Group would never have been ambushed by the Ancient Immortal Alliance and fallen to such a state." The Lord of Yuanxi remained noncommittal. "So, is this the entire truth you present? If there is any deceit, your authority levels will be downgraded to varying degrees. In severe cases, they will be directly stripped down to level thirteen." "Yes, everything we have said is true," Yaoguang said, cupping his hands. "We ask the Lord of Yuanxi to uphold justice for us." Nizhuan and Alpha also cupped their hands. "Please uphold justice, Lord of Yuanxi." "With ten immortal spirits paying such a heavy sacrifice, this matter cannot end so easily." Having spoken, the Lord of Yuanxi looked at Yaoguang. "Of course, if you obtained immense gains from this battle, then even if ten immortal spirits were sacrificed for it, it would still be worthwhile, and the sacrificed immortal spirits would receive corresponding compensation." Yaoguang understood the Lord of Yuanxi's meaning without even having to think. He wanted him to hand over the Gate of Many Marvels. Or even hand over the inheritances of the Time Dao Ancestor and the Void Dao Ancestor. However... "We are willing to confront Tianyuan Group directly," he responded with righteous conviction. Seeing this, the Lord of Yuanxi did not press further. His position, to a certain degree, was in mutual check and balance with the Nine Rulers. When dealing with the upper echelons of the Nine Great Groups, whatever He did still had to abide by propriety, law, and proper procedures. Thereupon, He said impassively, "Ten years from now, once the situation in the lower starry skies has somewhat settled, there will be a conference involving the Nine Great Groups. At that time, not only will every board member of the Nine Great Groups attend, but the Rulers behind the Nine Great Groups will also appear to hear the testimonies. I hope you will still stand by your position then." "We eagerly await the day Tianyuan Group gives us an explanation," Yaoguang said with resolute conviction. The Lord of Yuanxi gave a slight nod. The next moment, the radiance dispersed, and He vanished directly from the scene. Seeing the Lord of Yuanxi depart, Immortal King Alpha and Immortal King Nizhuan turned their uneasy gazes toward Yaoguang. "I know what I am doing," Yaoguang gave them a reassuring answer, before immediately following up: "Now then, collect all the shares in the area as quickly as possible, and then we will return to Creation Group." He paused. "With such a major incident taking place, we must elect a new chairman as soon as possible to stabilize Creation Group's situation, lest others take advantage of the vulnerability to harm the Ruler's interests."