A Matter of Address

Void Supreme was both shocked and infuriated. *That bastard Jiang Ping'an is truly shameless. You've already become an immortal, yet you still have the nerve to propose a one-on-one duel?* *Duel your grandmother!* Yun Zhi had not sat on the imperial throne for very long when she saw the Void Realm shatter. Void Supreme had been pummeled and kicked by Jiang Ping'an into an unrecognizable mess. Abilities such as regrowing severed limbs or regenerating from a single drop of blood all completely failed at this moment. Void Supreme's injuries mounted at a speed visible to the naked eye, unable to heal. *Thud.* Void Supreme was tossed onto the ground. Jiang Ping'an let out a long breath and wiped non-existent sweat from his brow, as though he had just survived a grueling battle. "Void, I didn't pull any tricks this time. We had a fair one-on-one duel, relying entirely on true ability. You should finally be thoroughly convinced of your defeat, right?" Ever since becoming an immortal, Jiang Ping'an had never had the chance to show off before an old acquaintance. He had waited one hundred thousand years for this opportunity, never imagining it would be realized today. Exhilarating. Had Void Supreme not been in so much pain that he couldn't even stand, he would have lunged forward and bitten Jiang Ping'an's neck in two. "That chair is quite nice. Who did you have forge it?" Jiang Ping'an noticed the imperial throne Yun Zhi was sitting on. If he hadn't been promoting a modest lifestyle recently, he would have wanted to craft such an imposing imperial throne for himself as well. "A specialty from the Demon Domain, a gift from my Little Junior Brother." "If I recall correctly, your Little Junior Brother is named Lu Yang?" Jiang Ping'an rarely paid attention to outside affairs; he had only heard Yun Zhi mention him in passing during conversation. "Yes. I hold high hopes for him. He has already brought me quite a few pleasant surprises. For instance, capturing Void this time was partly thanks to his contribution. In the future struggle of the Golden Age, there will certainly be a place for him." Jiang Ping'an smiled. "I've never heard Fellow Daoist hold anyone in such high regard." Hearing that Lu Yang had helped capture Void Supreme, Jiang Ping'an took an immediate liking to this young cultivator he had yet to meet. "There is actually one other person who is likewise destined for greatness in the future." "Who?" "A junior brother sent over by the Meng family." Jiang Ping'an clicked his tongue in wonder, listening with envy. "How come our Jiang family can never produce talents like that?" Aside from him, the founding ancestor, the most gifted member of the Jiang family at present was First Prince Jiang Qun, who had reached the Body Integration stage in under a thousand years. Even so, he was still far from earning an evaluation of 'extraordinary' from Yun Zhi. Hearing the two converse, Void Supreme suddenly recalled the descendant of the Meng family he had seen in Chunjiang City. *It's him?* *What kind of luck does Meng Junzi have? His character is atrocious, yet he produced such an outstanding descendant.* Back then, he had only noticed that Meng Jingzhou was a descendant of the Meng family and hadn't paid closer attention. Hearing Yun Zhi's praise, it was obvious that this Meng family scion was a cultivation prodigy—at the very least destined to become a half-immortal like himself. "How do you plan to handle Void?" "His intentions are corrupt. Releasing him would be nothing less than letting a tiger back into the mountains, inviting endless trouble. I intend to strip away his physical body and suppress his soul on Prison Peak." Unlike a half-immortal like the Immortal Celestial, who had no prior criminal record and showed remorse, Void Supreme was merely submitting temporarily to sheer force; he could not be allowed to roam free. Jiang Ping'an nodded. He had no objections to Yun Zhi's handling; in her place, he would have made the same decision. Void Supreme was bent on opposing his rule. Letting him loose into the outside world could easily stir up trouble, destabilizing the national destiny and giving other factions an opening to exploit. "There is one more matter on which I would like to hear Fellow Daoist Jiang's thoughts." "Do tell." Jiang Ping'an was somewhat surprised. He noticed that as Yun Zhi said this, her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly—something that had never happened before. "I have a good friend named Yun Mengmeng. Recently, she learned that she was not born from two biological parents. Instead, an immortal with the power to nurture life created an immortal artifact, and Yun Mengmeng's mother gave birth to her through this artifact. How should she address this immortal?" Jiang Ping'an sucked in a breath through his teeth. In all his one hundred thousand years of life, he had never heard of such a thing. "I do not know either." Jiang Ping'an pondered for a long time, unable to figure out what the appropriate form of address should be. Having accomplished her purpose in visiting the Imperial Palace, Yun Zhi lingered no longer. Carrying Void Supreme in hand, she returned to the Dao Seeking Sect's Prison Peak. She still had to interrogate the two half-immortals. Especially Nightmare Supreme—a half-immortal from the late Great Qian era, he was bound to know many undisclosed secrets. To say nothing of more distant matters, the situation regarding the Twin River alone was something Yun Zhi had previously known nothing about. Jiang Ping'an waved goodbye. "Take care on your way! When I get the chance, I'll visit them in prison!" ... When the prisoners saw Yun Zhi return to Prison Peak, the atmosphere turned tense once more. Yun Zhi said nothing. She pressed her hands against the foreheads of Nightmare Supreme and Void Supreme respectively and gave a gentle pull. Both felt their bodies lighten as their souls separated from their flesh. The child grandmaster smilingly dragged away the two empty corpses; these were prime materials for forging magical treasures. Yun Zhi looked coldly at the two souls. "Now, you have two choices: either honestly disclose all the intelligence you possess, or don't even think about keeping your souls, which can conveniently be used to forge magical treasures. Using the souls of half-immortals as forging materials could also be considered a contribution to the artifact crafting community." Both of them had read countless people in their lifetimes, and they could tell at a single glance that Yun Zhi was not making idle threats. "We'll confess everything." Yun Zhi nodded, satisfied with their attitude. She locked them in separate small cells isolated from the outside world for individual interrogation. The first one she interrogated was Nightmare Supreme. "From where did you learn about the Twin River?" "I saw it in an ancient text. Not only did it record the Twin River, but it also recorded the Child-and-Mother River. However, I only discovered the location of the Twin River and had no idea where the Child-and-Mother River was." "Where did you obtain that ancient text?" "After I led my army to breach the Great Qian imperial palace, I found it in the Great Qian imperial palace's Imperial Study." Historical records noted that Nightmare Supreme had breached the Great Qian imperial palace and proclaimed himself emperor. The world then vied for supremacy under the banner of crushing the rebel traitor, until he was ultimately defeated by Emperor Yu, a rising star of the era. Great Qian was the dynasty closest to ancient times; the ancient texts in its Imperial Study were likely more numerous than all the ancient texts in the present world combined. "Where is that ancient text now?" "I... after memorizing it, I burned it all," Nightmare Supreme stammered, deeply nervous. "Hmm?" As expected, Yun Zhi was not particularly pleased with this answer. Nightmare Supreme hastened to explain, "It's the truth! My subordinates can all attest to it! Back then, I thought that even if I failed in my bid for world supremacy, all the knowledge would remain in my mind, and my opponents would have to spare my life for the sake of that intelligence." In reality, Emperor Yu and the Imperial Preceptor had indeed taken this very consideration into account; when battling Nightmare Supreme, they hadn't dealt a fatal blow, giving him a chance to flee. "What was the cultivation level of the founding Emperor Yu and the first Imperial Preceptor?" "When battling me, both were definitely half-immortals, but whether they became immortals later on, I have no idea." "What do you mean?" "After surviving that great battle, I did not go straight into slumber. Instead, I hid in the shadows the entire time, watching how Wu Yao proclaimed himself emperor step by step." Wu Yao was the founding Emperor Yu. "Wu Yao presided over the founding ceremony. At the ceremony, the winds and clouds shifted, and all kinds of anomalies suddenly arose across heaven and earth. Thunder rumbled continuously, and the heavens and earth were illuminated by lightning tribulations. Although the court historians recorded that this was a symbol of Wu Yao's martial prowess and wisdom, and that founding the Great Yu Dynasty conformed to the will of Heaven, I suspect that it was actually the Immortal Ascension Tribulation recorded in ancient texts!"