The Battle of the Imperial City Concludes

"Damn that Meng Junzi! If I had known, I should have killed you directly back then!" Deep in an old forest countless thousands—tens of thousands—of li away from the Imperial City, Guan Shanhai wore a sinister expression. In the battle of the Imperial City, he had suffered a crushing defeat: his subordinates had all been lost in the Imperial City and Yu Province, and the power of national destiny he desired above all else had been abandoned by his own hands. In his life, he had fought countless battles, yet who could have guessed he would be outmaneuvered by two juniors! At this thought, Guan Shanhai could no longer suppress his fury. He stomped down viciously, shattering the mountain beneath his feet and sending dust flying into the air. "Meng Junzi, Jiang Ping'an, just you wait! If I don't avenge this, I swear I'm not human!" Although his subordinates were all gone, with the Rubbing Dao fruit, subordinates were the last thing he lacked. General Yu, the second Imperial Preceptor, and the others could all be rubbed out again to serve him. He could stage a comeback in the blink of an eye. *Now I need to find a place to heal my wounds.* The power of the self-detonation had been far too immense. Compounded by his inability to treat it immediately and the burning of his immortal blood to flee all the way here, injury piled upon injury. Even circulating both the rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit and the rudimentary Rejuvenation Dao fruit simultaneously could not bring about a swift recovery. "Senior Guan, why not come heal your wounds at my Dao Seeking Sect?" A cool, aloof voice rang out from behind Guan Shanhai, jolting him into a cold sweat. "Who is it?!" Guan Shanhai was startled. In his momentary lapse in vigilance, someone had gotten this close without him noticing! He spun around sharply, only to see a cool, aloof woman in a white dress standing behind him, watching him quietly with neither joy nor sorrow. "Yun Zhi of the Dao Seeking Sect!" Guan Shanhai remembered that Yun Zhi had once defeated the four sect leaders at the Five Great Immortal Sects Conference, and he had deduced that she had either reached the peak of Tribulation Transcendence or the realm of a half-immortal. Whichever it was, it would have had no effect on his schemes in the Imperial City, so he hadn't paid her much mind. "What? Just a mere half-immortal, and you think you can defeat a heavily wounded me to make a name for yourself? You juniors of later generations truly are arrogant!" Yun Zhi did not reply. She simply took a step forward. Reflected in Guan Shanhai's panicked and despairing pupils was a delicate palm. The palm drew closer and closer, impossible to evade. ... "Is it finally over?" About the time it took to drink a cup of tea after Guan Shanhai fled, the cultivators of the Imperial City began to ask themselves uncertainly, swallowing hard. "Was that the level of battle that took place over the East Sea back then?" "An immortal battle truly is terrifying." "Yeah. That move from the Great Yu Imperial Preceptor just now... what was that move again?" "How did Meng Junzi and the Great Yu Imperial Preceptor fight earlier? Can anyone remember?" Although Meng Junzi's Loan Dao fruit lacked the immortal trait of causing oblivion, the Rubbing Dao fruit possessed it. Consequently, the entire course of the immortal battle was affected, and no one could remember the specific combat techniques. Even the contents of the shadow-recording spheres specially set up to capture the battle had turned completely blank, impossible to restore. In a corner of the Imperial City, the battle among the five half-immortals also drew to a close. General Yu went without saying; Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi were familiar with the fighting style of the rudimentary Yin-Yang Dao fruit, so it was easy for them to counter him. The hardest to deal with was the second Imperial Preceptor's rudimentary Karma Dao fruit. Fortunately, the three women eventually devised a method. No longer actively attacking the second Imperial Preceptor, Jin Caiwei turned the six sides of the surrounding space into flat planes, sealing off that patch of space. Anyone who attempted to break through those six planes would suffer attacks from all three women. Next, using the planes as blades, they continuously sliced through that patch of space until there was nowhere left for the second Imperial Preceptor to hide, thereby deciding the outcome. This was an inspiration Jiang Lianyi had gained from how her husband and the other immortals had sealed off the entire cultivation world to search for the Immortal Fairy's killer, and it proved exceedingly effective. And thus, this world-shaking battle finally concluded. "Old Mu, are you sure you want to establish our business in the Imperial City? This place doesn't feel very safe." Cult Master Chi stood frozen in place. The higher one's cultivation, the better one understood just how terrifying the battle had been. It was a fight representing the pinnacle of the cultivation path, where every gesture carried the power to destroy heaven and earth, capable of wiping out the Imperial City with a single strike. Who could have imagined that a perfectly fine site inspection would devolve into a struggle for the imperial throne, then a battle of half-immortals, and ultimately a battle of immortals? "Look on the bright side. The Imperial City has two immortals, Meng Junzi and Jiang Ping'an. Could there be any place safer than this?" "Putting it that way, I suppose you're right." ... "You are Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi's Little Junior Brother?" Meng Junzi, one of the protagonists of the immortal battle, appeared before Lu Yang and studied him with great interest. "Senior Meng." Lu Yang hadn't expected Meng Junzi to come looking for him the moment the immortal battle ended, leaving him feeling somewhat flattered. "Such a solid foundation of cultivation. Even I was no better than this back when I was in the Nascent Soul stage. Truly a young genius." "Senior Meng, your injuries..." Lu Yang looked with concern at Meng Junzi, who didn't have a single patch of intact skin left on his entire body, Lu Yang's eyelid twitching. This was no light wound. An immortal's self-detonation was unimaginably powerful, surpassing any immortal art Guan Shanhai had used. For Meng Junzi to still be standing here after taking it head-on was already extraordinary. Meng Junzi laughed heartily. "Hahaha! What can a mere immortal's self-detonation do to me?" Hearing this, the Immortal Fairy grew anxious and indignant. She sprang up from the imperial throne, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to go out to spar with Meng Junzi. "Looking down on an immortal's self-detonation? Watch this immortal blow one up for you!" "Fairy, no need, no need! Senior Meng Junzi was only joking!" Frightened, Lu Yang hurriedly held back the Immortal Fairy and coaxed her back onto the throne. Unaware that he had just dodged a calamity, Meng Junzi was still talking tough. "These are all minor injuries. A few days of rest and I'll be fine. If you don't believe me, have Guan Shanhai try detonating himself again." *...Senior, please say less.* After their battle ended, the three women—Ao Ling and her companions—also came over to find Lu Yang. Seeing Meng Junzi here as well, they were momentarily surprised, but they still flew down and said, "Senior Brother Lu Yang, fortunately, we did not fail our mission. We have captured both of them." Dangling in their hands were General Yu and the second Imperial Preceptor. Only then did they cup their fists toward Meng Junzi. "Greetings, Senior Meng Junzi." Meng Junzi waved a hand. "Though I am an immortal, the three of you are figures from the ancient era after all. Sorting out seniority between seniors and juniors would be far too messy. Why don't we simply address each other as fellow Daoists?" Meng Junzi had heard from Yun Zhi before that Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi were on their side. He just didn't know why she hadn't mentioned Jin Caiwei. Had there been some reservation? "Fellow Daoist Jin, thank you for lending me your rudimentary Dao fruit earlier. To be able to form such an exquisite rudimentary Dao fruit, Fellow Daoist Jin truly possesses peerless talent." "A rudimentary Dao fruit cannot be borrowed for free; that goes against my principles. I see that Fellow Daoist Jin belongs to the Qiongqi Clan. How about I waive all debts between the Meng Family and the Qiongqi Clan?" Jin Caiwei's eyes lit up upon hearing this. When she had lent out her rudimentary Dao fruit, she had assumed it was for nothing, never expecting such an unexpected pleasant surprise. Coming to the Imperial City this time, joining the Ancient Heavenly Court, witnessing an immortal battle, capturing two half-immortals alive, and finally solving the debt that had plagued the Qiongqi Clan for so many years—what an enormous harvest!