With two half-immortals coming to blows over the immortal peach, the battle between the Second Prince's faction and the Meng Family was rendered utterly trivial.
With his foot planted squarely on his masked acquaintance, Meng Potian gazed wide-eyed toward the sky above the Imperial City, where the iron-armored divine warrior battled the ancient Qiongqi. He suddenly recalled Old Ma's assessment of Lu Yang:
"Your Meng family has the wealth to buy half the Imperial City, but Lu Yang's luck has the power to destroy half of it."
No matter how solidly the Imperial City had been built, there was no way it could withstand the full-scale clash of two half-immortals.
Fortunately, neither half-immortal had reached the end of their rudimentary Dao fruit path; otherwise, the Imperial City would have been reduced to rubble even faster.
"Invert the Heavenly Order, True Shadow Exchange!" General Yu pointed at Jin Caiwei, and her shadow began to bulge outward, taking on her silhouette—matching her outline precisely, though lacking any fine detail.
General Yu could use his own shadow to escape mortal peril, but he could also seize control of another's shadow and turn it against them.
"What a nuisance!" Jin Caiwei scowled. She had heard her father mention that back when the Ninefold Immortal was still a half-immortal, he often used this technique to wear down an opponent's stamina. By the time the opponent defeated the shadow, their strength would be nearly spent, making it an extraordinarily vexing move to face.
For anyone else, that was.
"Get back down!" Jin Caiwei channeled her rudimentary Plane Dao fruit, flattening the bulging shadow back into a two-dimensional surface to temporarily suppress it. She could deal with her shadow at leisure once the fight was over.
Slapping her storage ring, Jin Caiwei unleashed countless bone shards. Ground to razor perfection, each was sharp enough to sever a hair at a puff of breath.
"Go!"
The reason she had chosen bone shards was that at this level of cultivation, most combatants could manipulate metal. Using special materials like bone prevented her weapons from being seized or turned against her.
Countless bone shards sliced through the air, carving ghastly rifts in the fabric of space. General Yu flourished his spear into a dazzling weave. Bone shards were plentiful, but he had survived even denser barrages of hair-splitting flying daggers in his time; this much was nothing to him.
Yet the moment his fire-tipped spear grazed a single shard, the spearhead was cleaved cleanly in half. Terrified of meeting the shards head-on again, General Yu scrambled to evade.
How could bone shards be this sharp?!
What General Yu did not realize was that these shards had already been compressed into flat planes, stripped of any concept of height.
For a weapon to be sharp, its blade had to be as thin as possible. And at the absolute pinnacle of thinness, it became a two-dimensional plane devoid of thickness.
Barring an immortal artifact, no matter how extraordinary a weapon's materials might be, it would be sliced apart the instant it touched those shards.
"Taking this long just to snatch a peach?"
With a soaring phoenix cry, a five-colored phoenix swept across the firmament, looking down imperiously upon the two battling half-immortals.
Among all birds, the phoenix reigned supreme, and among phoenixes, the five-colored phoenix was supreme of all. This five-colored phoenix was none other than Jiang Lianyi, one of the Heavenly Court's Four Imperials.
"It's Jiang Lianyi, the Great Emperor of Southern Nirvana!"
The entire Imperial City could see the clash of half-immortals, and Jiang Lianyi's arrival took place under the watchful gaze of the multitude. Anyone who paid the slightest attention to the Demon Domain could recognize her.
"Two of the Four Imperials have appeared! The world is being turned upside down!"
"Come to think of it, never before have two or more of the Heavenly Court's Four Imperials appeared together!"
Compared to the little-known Jin Caiwei, Jiang Lianyi's existence was far more famous.
Though General Yu was a legendary figure to ordinary cultivators, his fame paled when measured against Jiang Lianyi, whose name had echoed across the lands since ancient times.
Gasps of awe swept the crowd. Three half-immortals had gathered over the Imperial City simultaneously. Never in the history of Great Xia had a battle of this caliber erupted—least of all within the capital itself.
"Space, lock down." From the outset, Jiang Lianyi unleashed her rudimentary Law of the Jungle Dao fruit, sealing the space around General Yu.
Jiang Lianyi could shatter space, which meant she was stronger than space itself, allowing her to command a portion of spatial power.
In the ancient era, Jiang Lianyi had sparred with the Ninefold Immortal before his ascension, making her far more familiar than Jin Caiwei with how to counter the rudimentary Yin-Yang Dao fruit.
Against the rudimentary Yin-Yang Dao fruit, Five Elements spells were useless: strike with fire, and the user countered with water, completely negating the attack. A more effective approach was to rely on body cultivation or direct weapon strikes, but best of all were methods of space and time.
With General Yu locked in place, several bone shards ripped across his midsection, slicing him cleanly in two.
Jin Caiwei pouted. She had clearly held the upper hand, yet Jiang Lianyi had swooped in out of nowhere to steal her thunder. How detestable!
Taking advantage of the clash between the three half-immortals, Lu Yang ran himself ragged, finally crossing most of the Imperial City and catching sight of the Imperial Palace at last.
...
Deep within the Imperial Palace, Emperor Xia lay emaciated on his sickbed, his lips parched and cracked. Surrounding the bed were piles of spirit elixirs and wondrous heavenly treasures, whose mere aroma could have extended a normal person's life.
Yet for Emperor Xia, whose lifespan had run entirely dry, they were useless.
His gaze was cloudy. He seemed to sense the battle of the three half-immortals outside the palace walls, and he could feel Lu Yang sprinting toward him, bearing the life-saving immortal treasure.
He strained to turn his head, but in his utter frailty, he could not even manage that much; he could only move his eyes.
He knew Lu Yang desperately wanted to save him, but he also knew that he would not hold out that long.
"We... I... still have so many things left to do..."
He had not yet universalized education, had not brought down the cost of medical care, had not purged official corruption, had not eliminated demonic cultivators, had not eradicated the ancient cultivators...
And most important of all, he had not designated an heir.
...
Right then, Lu Yang's heart began to race. In fact, it was not just Lu Yang—the hearts of every citizen of Great Xia began racing inexplicably, as though some dreadful tragedy had occurred, tugging at the souls of all.
A beam of crimson light shot into the sky from the Imperial Palace. It drifted through the air like a ribbon, wavering like a lost wanderer searching for a path forward.
Lu Yang wore a bewildered look, unsure of what was happening.
Meng Potian and Meng Kuang watched the spectacle from afar. They felt the same sudden pang as Lu Yang, but unlike him, they understood what it meant.
Emperor Xia had passed away without naming a successor, and with Jiang Ping'an absent to calm the power of national destiny, it broke free from all control and restraint.
To regain control of that power, either Jiang Ping'an had to return, or one of the princes had to claim the throne.
Yet neither path was possible now.
Because an immortal had arrived.
"At last... at long last, the moment has arrived!"
A rich, resounding laugh tore through the heavens. That laugh alone dispersed the dark clouds above the Imperial City and brought the flowing Jinsha River to an absolute standstill.
With hands clasped behind his back, an aged, white-haired elder stepped through the void, coming to rest above the Imperial Palace. He paid no heed to the terrified and furious gazes below, his eyes fixed on the wandering national destiny with a faint smile, gazing at it in complete, rapturous trance.
Both Lu Yang and Jin Caiwei were all too familiar with this elder; they had met him together not long ago.
Qi Xiuya, Dean of the Imperial Academy.
Yet he possessed a far more illustrious name and identity:
Guan Shanhai, the first Imperial Preceptor of Great Yu.
Chapter 947