Chapter 828: Lu Changsheng: The Heavenly Secrets Must Be in Chaos

Lu Changsheng’s pale exhausted face hardened in an instant.

If the omens had stayed steady, fortune and misfortune taking turns, he could have accepted that.

But auspicious signs out of nowhere—great auspices even—were hard to believe.

Now that he’d broken through to Nascent Soul, if a great auspice came true it wouldn’t be some common chance. It had to be a top-tier Nascent Soul opportunity.

Possibly something at the level of mid or even late Nascent Soul.

He’d rarely encountered fortunes like that before.

And all he had to do now was stay in Fuhai Sect and wait for it? Ridiculous. Outrageous.

Did they really take the Lu Ancestor for some naive fool?

Did they think his hundred years of cultivation were all spent on women?

“Fuhai Sect, maybe even the whole Zhenhai Seven Sects, might have their fate-lines veiled and scrambled.”

He thought it over in silence.

“As one of the top powers of the Starry Sea, the Zhenhai Seven Sects very likely possess a treasure that interferes with and muddles the heavenly secrets.”

“Back then True Lord Pinghai and the others even hired a fourth-rank diviner to calculate my situation. With that setup, using a heaven-secret treasure to conceal and disturb my divination signs isn’t impossible.”

Divination had helped him a lot over the years.

But he knew fate was fickle. You can’t put blind faith in hexagrams.

Trust divination blindly and you’ll pay for it. Never mind the capricious Dao of Heaven—no one can fully grasp the currents of fate.

The cultivation world alone is full of ways to cloud the heavenly secret and mislead the hexagrams.

His divination had reached fourth rank.

But the system’s techniques leaned toward fundamentals and breadth.

There was still a gap from top-tier divination lineages.

Besides, divination depends not just on talent and heaven-sense. External tools matter a lot too.

His divination tool had been forged in a rush years ago. It barely reached top-grade Dao-Comprehending Artifact level.

For a fourth-rank diviner like him, it was already falling short.

In that case, other fourth-rank diviners with superior lineages and tools being able to disturb the Zhenhai Seven Sects’ fate-lines and muddle his readings was perfectly normal.

Just like when True Lord Pinghai and company attacked, using the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale as bait to blind the heavenly secret.

He could break through the opposing diviner’s heaven-seeing power while masking his own divination and throwing off their calculations.

“Even so, this method really underestimates me. If you’re going to skew the omens, at least make them alternate—blessing and bane intertwined.”

Lu Changsheng felt the Zhenhai Patriarch’s heaven-secret tricks were downright dismissive of him.

Then he reconsidered. Fourth-rank diviners weren’t common.

The other side probably didn’t guess he was fourth-rank or that he’d dig this deep.

Besides, heaven’s will is hard to measure.

Even if the Zhenhai Seven Sects had a fourth-rank diviner and a treasure that muddled the heavenly secrets, they couldn’t fully fake it and fool a fourth-rank diviner standing inside the web—him.

“Even if they’ve got a fourth-rank diviner, they can’t be that profound. Getting things this far is already shocking.”

“If I weren’t fourth-rank myself I might have been duped.”

He murmured to himself. Until the Zhenhai Patriarch was dealt with, he’d better not linger in Fuhai Sect.

Otherwise the Patriarch could scheme in the dark and he might not even sense it.

He could end up blindsided by danger.

“In that case I’ll head straight to the Five Poisons Sect and use their ley lines to push my cultivation and body refinement.”

“And I need to forge a Nascent Soul secret treasure. It’ll take rare materials. They can help me collect them, and while I’m at it I can wipe out the Yin Ghost Sect and harvest a haul.”

After a moment’s thought he decided to leave Fuhai Sect and break through at the Five Poisons Sect.

He’d long planned to visit Nangong Mili, Ah Youduo, Yiren, and the daughter he hadn’t met yet, Lu Jiangtang.

He also urgently needed a Nascent Soul secret treasure.

Relying on the Immortal City of Damengze to collect everything was nearly impossible.

Better to leverage the Five Poisons Sect and the Yin Ghost Sect.

And it was time to settle scores with the Yin Ghost Sect and True Lord Mingsha.

Otherwise, once word spread that the Yangming True Lord had reappeared in the Jiang Kingdom, that old dog Mingsha might vanish and cause more trouble.

“I can also trade with the Heavenly Sword Sect. During the pioneer war, True Lord Xuanjian used a secret treasure to restrain True Lord Tiansha’s Nascent Soul spirit body.”

“I can trade to borrow that treasure or swap for something similar.”

Besides the Five Poisons Sect and the Yin Ghost Sect, he thought of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

As the hegemon of the Jiang Kingdom with millennia of heritage, their foundation was deep.

He remembered that when True Lord Tiansha’s Nascent Soul left his body, a silver web filled with razor edges appeared in the void and bound his Nascent Soul spirit body.

He hadn’t studied it closely at the time.

But he knew it was a treasure that could keep a Nascent Soul spirit from escaping.

With his mind made up, he summoned the maids Haiqin and Cangjue and told them he needed to go into seclusion.

Unless it was something truly urgent, they weren’t to disturb him.

All affairs of Fuhai Sect were to proceed as usual. They could handle them at their discretion.

Then he sat cross-legged in his cave residence and quietly recovered his body.

Half a month later, full of vigor, he set a restriction over the cave and placed a Jade Talisman in the formation.

If anyone touched the restriction or formation, he would sense it at once.

Next he cast the divine ability Yin-Yang Glass Wall, took the Golden-Winged Roc and Nine-Leaf Sword Grass, and slipped out of Fuhai Sect without a sound.

Along the way he could sense the Zhenhai Patriarch was no longer there.

There wasn’t a second Nascent Soul cultivator’s aura anywhere in Fuhai Sect.

“Even if the Zhenhai Patriarch wants to move against me, it won’t be this fast.”

“He’ll lay out everything and wait for me to relax my guard.”

He was certain the Zhenhai Patriarch wouldn’t swallow this loss.

The man would find a way to take revenge and snatch his fortunes and treasures.

Even with the Seven Sects’ deep foundation and connections, he couldn’t set it up overnight.

He’d also probe and test for weaknesses.

He stopped dwelling on it. A few thousand miles from Fuhai Sect, he tore open the void and sped toward the Immortal City of Damengze.

Meanwhile, after settling the matter of Fuhai Sect and Zhenhai and Tunhai True Lords’ possessions, the Zhenhai Patriarch headed straight for Starrymoon Hall.

He planned to ask the Star King and Yue Zun to divine the Yangming True Lord’s details.

He also wanted to see how these heirs of the Sun-Moon Star Palace would treat the Yangming True Lord, heir to the Eastern Emperor.

Reaching the Xingyun Archipelago where Starrymoon Hall stood, the Zhenhai Patriarch was cautious and didn’t show his true face.

He released a hint of Nascent Soul aura, then stated his identity.

The hall’s attendants were usually aloof and dismissed most seekers.

But faced with a Nascent Soul True Lord like the Zhenhai Patriarch, they were all deference, not daring to slack.

They ushered him into Starrymoon Hall’s VIP chamber, then went to notify the Star King and Yue Zun.

Ordinarily, the Star King and Yue Zun rarely received guests.

Only when they were uncertain or when a Nascent Soul True Lord arrived did they agree to a notice.

After a long wait, a boy of twelve or thirteen with a wickedly handsome face in a purple star-cloud robe, and a tall graceful noblewoman with a gauzy veil over her eyes and alabaster skin, appeared in the hall.

The woman sat in the main seat, then looked at the Zhenhai Patriarch in a raincoat and bamboo hat. Her voice was calm and cool. “No one comes here without reason. Why have you honored Starrymoon Hall today?”

“I came to ask Starrymoon Hall for an explanation.”

He regarded the boy and the woman, lids half-lowered, and spoke in a low voice.

He did have a request to make.

But start off too humble and you lose ground.

From Zhenhai and Tunhai’s reports he knew True Lord Pinghai had once paid a heavy price to invite the Star King and Yue Zun to divine.

Now that True Lord Pinghai had fallen, Starrymoon Hall owed the Zhenhai Seven Sects an explanation. “An explanation?”

The boy’s lips curled. “You Zhenhai Seven Sects have some nerve, coming to demand explanations from us.”

As he spoke, starlight flowed over his purple robe like the cosmos unfolding, and the pressure of a mid-Nascent Soul surged out.

“Zhenhai Patriarch, is this about True Lord Pinghai?”

Behind the veil, Yue Zun’s moon-pale face remained serene, her tone emotionless.

As top diviners, they had guessed his purpose the moment they heard he’d come.

They’d foreseen this.

When True Lord Pinghai came to ask about Lu Changsheng, they had seen a faint breath of doom in his features.

Yet they didn’t warn him.

They even told him that if he kept searching based on current clues, he’d surely gain something.

Seeing the Zhenhai Patriarch here now, they figured True Lord Pinghai was most likely in mortal peril.

“Yes. Five years ago, Pinghai came to your hall and paid dearly for you both to divine.”

“Now his life and death are unknown. Don’t you owe me an explanation?”

As the longest-lived Nascent Soul cultivator in the Starry Sea, he knew exactly how strong these two were.

But he showed no fear. His presence didn’t falter.

“When we divine for others, we only speak to the hexagrams. We do not shoulder the aftermath. Once you walk out of this hall, right or wrong has nothing to do with us.”

Hands clasped behind him, the Star King spoke coldly, aloof and imposing despite his youthful face.

He looked young, but no one dared belittle him.

“Hmph.”

The Zhenhai Patriarch snorted at the pressure rolling off the Star King, then said, “If you hadn’t used Pinghai to probe the Eastern Emperor’s Heir, how would he have ended up missing or dead?”

“Don’t pretend I don’t know. Starrymoon Hall hails from the Eastern Sea’s Sun-Moon Star Palace and has deep ties to the Eastern Emperor’s Heir.”

His gaze was like an abyss as he laid bare the connection between Starrymoon Hall and the Sun-Moon Star Palace. Few in the Starry Sea knew this secret.

The Star King and Yue Zun weren’t surprised he knew their origin.

If he knew their secrets, they knew a few of his.

For instance, like Starrymoon Hall, the Zhenhai Seven Sects also came from the Eastern Sea.

Back when catastrophe struck the Eastern Sea, an elder led disciples to the Starry Sea and founded the Seven Sects.

And the Zhenhai Patriarch before them might not even be human, but demon race.

Still, when the words “Eastern Emperor’s Heir” fell, the Star King and Yue Zun traded a look.

From Pinghai’s visit they had guessed the Sun Profound Light might come from the Sun-Moon Star Palace, a supreme treasure of the Eastern Emperor line.

But the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror was a Celestial Treasure.

With the Heavenly Yuan Lotus, Lu Family Record, and Xuantian Spirit Vine blocking the heavenly secret,

even together they couldn’t calculate anything about the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror or Lu Changsheng’s origins.

Now the Zhenhai Patriarch directly asserted the man was the Eastern Emperor’s Heir.

“What do you mean by ‘Eastern Emperor’s Heir’?”

A ripple stirred behind Yue Zun’s veil as she asked.

According to their founder’s words, the Eastern Emperor and his heir would return to the Eastern Sea one day.

But the heir mattered too much.

The Zhenhai Patriarch was a living fossil of the Starry Sea and knew many things about the Eastern Sea. He wouldn’t say it lightly.

“Heh, why pretend you don’t know?”

He glanced at Yue Zun and chuckled. “Starrymoon Hall came from the Sun-Moon Star Palace. That palace had star and moon branches and also the Eastern Emperor line.”

“The great sun leads, the stars and moon assist. Do you really not understand what the Eastern Emperor’s Heir means?”

He spoke slowly, laying out the Sun-Moon Star Palace’s structure.

“Impressive, Zhenhai Patriarch. You know Starrymoon Hall well.”

The Star King clapped lightly and smiled. “Then how do you conclude that person is the heir?”

“Our records say that when the Sun-Moon Star Palace fell, the Eastern Emperor line was slain by the demons. How could a heir appear in the Starry Sea?”

His eyes held a probing light.

From their tone, the Patriarch saw they weren’t exactly friendly toward the heir, nor clear on the details.

He laughed. “Slain to the last? Didn’t your star and moon branches survive?”

“Don’t you know our Zhenhai Sect’s history? We too survived that calamity.”

He sneered at the Star King. “So what’s strange about the Eastern Emperor line surviving?”

“That won’t do. If it’s just a scrap of inheritance, how could you call him the Eastern Emperor’s Heir?”

The Star King’s tone carried disdain.

“It’s not just a scrap. He holds your Eastern Emperor line’s treasure, the Eastern Emperor Mirror.”

The Patriarch’s gaze sharpened as he watched their faces.

As expected.

At the words “Eastern Emperor Mirror,” shock rippled across both faces.

The Eastern Emperor Mirror.

Not only the treasure of the Eastern Emperor line, but the supreme treasure of the entire Sun-Moon Star Palace. A sentient treasure that chooses its own master.

Ordinary cultivators aren’t qualified to wield it.

“Impossible. If you know the Eastern Emperor Mirror belongs to the Eastern Emperor line, you should also know it couldn’t have been lost.”

The Star King rejected it on the spot.

Their founder’s charge was to assist the heir and rebuild the palace.

But now as one of the Starry Sea’s top powers,

and he himself one of its peak Nascent Souls,

he had no desire to serve an unseen stranger just because of an old instruction.

So talk of an heir rubbed him the wrong way—unless the heir was a peerless talent, a great Nascent Soul True Lord. Otherwise asking his aid was a fantasy. “Since I came to your hall, I saw it with my own eyes.”

The Patriarch spoke as he took a jade stone from his robe and tossed it to them.

He’d come prepared.

With a divine art he had imprinted the Solar Divine Light that Lu Changsheng blasted at him onto the jade and simulated its pressure.

He couldn’t recreate the full scene or power, but he could show the gist.

“This…”

They watched the image and felt the scorching domineering force of the sun-light. Their hearts lurched.

They had never seen the Eastern Emperor Mirror.

Most of what they knew about the palace and the Eastern Sea came from the founder’s notes and the previous Star King and Yue Zun.

So they couldn’t be sure this was the Eastern Emperor Mirror.

But the Patriarch’s words and the image made it hard not to believe.

“A single beam of Solar Divine Light isn’t enough to prove it’s the Eastern Emperor Mirror, is it?”

The Star King kept his face unreadable. He knew Yue Zun was more inclined toward the Eastern Emperor line than he was.

If the Patriarch was right, Yue Zun might go to assist the heir.

That would put him in an awkward spot.

“That’s why I came—to have you confirm it. Divine his origins and see if he is the heir.”

“If he is, and Pinghai ended up missing because you pushed him to test the heir, you owe me an explanation.”

“If not, I’ll apologize.”

He watched the two, weighing their intent.

Would they speak up for the Eastern Emperor line out of old ties, or covet its legacy?

After all, Starrymoon Hall was founded by a group who fled the palace.

Thousands of years had passed. Star Kings and Yue Zuns had changed again and again. The past might be long forgotten.

And in the palace, the Eastern Emperor led and the stars and moon assisted. As heirs of star and moon, how could they be content beneath another?

They might be even more interested in the Eastern Emperor’s inheritance.

The Star King was about to say they’d already tried and failed, and suggest meeting the heir directly.

But Yue Zun nodded. “Fine.”

“Star King.”

She looked at him, voice calm and cool. She was ready to pay the price and push the divination to its limits.

He held her veiled gaze a moment, then said, “Fine.”

In Starrymoon Hall, the Star King and Yue Zun stood side by side as equals.

Yue Zun was better at divination. Even if he refused, she could proceed.

Refusing now would only expose his unwillingness to follow their founder’s charge.