Chapter 949: Undercurrents Surge, Everything Is Ready

Yue Kingdom, Hunyuan Sect.

“Five Nascent Souls: four suppressed, True Lord Luo Yu fled, and the Lord of Luofu Mountain is suspected to have lost.”

True Lord Hunyuan stared at the message in his hand, feelings mixed.

After the Liang–Yue war, Jiang, Yue, and Liang became allies.

Having such a powerful ally should be a good thing.

But would a flood dragon run with minnows?

Though the Hunyuan Sect ruled Yue with two Nascent Souls sitting in town, their power was far from weak.

Yet before a top giant like Yangming True Lord, two Nascent Souls were hardly worth mentioning.

Like a flood dragon among fish and shrimp, a tiger among sheep, a phoenix among sparrows.

Especially with his lifespan running out.

Once he passed, True Lord Yuanqi wouldn’t be able to support Hunyuan Sect.

He could only barely keep them within Nascent Soul ranks.

Even if he trained a third Nascent Soul before the end.

They still wouldn’t be much before Jiang Kingdom, the Immortal City of Damengze, and Yangming True Lord.

After long silent contemplation in his cave residence, he opened his eyes and sent a voice transmission to the rebuilding True Lord Yuanqi: “Yuanqi, come with me to Jiang Kingdom, the Immortal City of Damengze, to visit Yangming True Lord!”

He had made up his mind.

Rather than wait until after his passing to instruct Yuanqi that, if the Hunyuan Sect couldn’t carry on, they could choose to attach to the Immortal City.

It was better to choose attachment now while they were still allies.

Given Yangming True Lord’s friendly posture, if they took the initiative, he likely wouldn’t refuse and would offer good terms.

And he still had some fight left in him.

He could spend his final years working for them and leave some legacy favor for Hunyuan Sect.

“Senior Brother.”

Before long, a man in his thirties with a broad brow and a gray-white robe arrived, bowing to True Lord Hunyuan.

He was Hunyuan Sect’s newly advanced Nascent Soul, True Lord Yuanqi.

But after True Lord Nine Spirits ambushed him earlier, his body and Qi were destroyed. He was rebuilding and only at ninth-level Core Formation.

“Senior Brother, why did you summon me to the Immortal City of Damengze?”

Yuanqi asked. He knew his senior wouldn’t disturb his cultivation unless it mattered.

True Lord Hunyuan didn’t waste words and handed him the Jade Slip.

When he finished reading, Yuanqi’s eyes widened in disbelief.

After the Liang–Yue war he’d heard of Yangming True Lord.

But this battle record was too outrageous.

“I plan to have the Hunyuan Sect attach to the Immortal City of Damengze, so I’ll take you to pay respects to Yangming True Lord.”

True Lord Hunyuan spoke to Yuanqi without asking his opinion.

Though the latter had also reached Nascent Soul and was equal in rank.

For now the sect still followed True Lord Hunyuan’s word.

“Attach…”

True Lord Yuanqi’s heart sank.

Attachment wasn’t submission, but it was still becoming a vassal who took orders.

He had finally broken through and become Hunyuan’s Supreme Elder. Naturally he disliked the idea.

But the calm, unquestionable look on his senior’s face told him he had no room to refuse.

Besides, his senior chose this out of pessimism for Hunyuan’s future, tied to Yuanqi’s ruined body and Qi.

“I’ll follow your arrangements,” Yuanqi said with a bow.

He couldn’t help growing curious about Yangming True Lord of Jiang Kingdom.

He had heard of Yangming True Lord and of Yangming’s earlier years.

But he had never met him.

Yuan Kingdom, Tianmu Sect.

True Lord Star Pupils received the news from Jiang and was stunned.

Back then, the ancestor True Lord Heavenly Eye had told her about the indirect grudge between the Lord of Luofu Mountain and Yangming True Lord.

She knew those two Northern Region titans might clash.

She hadn’t expected the fight to come so soon.

Nor that the outcome would be so unexpected.

“The Lord of Luofu Mountain likely couldn’t do anything to Yangming True Lord, so he chose to withdraw…”

Before she formed her Nascent Soul, she’d already heard of the Lord of Luofu Mountain’s renown.

She didn’t believe Yangming True Lord could drive him off.

She assumed the two had reached some sort of deal.

But seeing True Lord Qingcang, True Lord Yin Lei and the others captured, she felt it wasn’t so simple.

This Yangming True Lord was stronger than she’d imagined.

After a brief thought, she passed the news to the ancestor True Lord Heavenly Eye.

“It seems this Yangming True Lord is even more unfathomable than I’d thought…”

True Lord Heavenly Eye was surprised.

But centuries of cultivation had hardened him to storms like this; he had anticipated as much.

“Star Pupils, come with me to the Barebody Sect.”

He decided on the spot to seize True Lord Yunmei and send him to the Immortal City of Damengze to resolve their grudge and seal an alliance.

Tianmu Sect had no feud with the Immortal City.

Their involvement in the Liang–Yue war was ordinary conflict among cultivation nations, not enmity.

True Lord Qianren had been captured and later redeemed through proper channels at a price.

So, given Yangming True Lord’s absolute strength and Jiang, Yue, and Liang’s proximity to Yuan Kingdom, he chose to befriend them and form an alliance.

And their show of sincerity would be True Lord Yunmei.

First, True Lord Youyue and True Lord Incinerating Wither had already submitted to Yangming True Lord.

Under those circumstances, sheltering True Lord Yunmei in Yuan would look like standing against Yangming True Lord.

Second, True Lord Yunmei had crossed Yangming True Lord back when Yangming was still in Core Formation.

He had hunted him with True Lord Mingsha and True Lord Tiancang.

Now Mingsha and Tiancang had both been slain by Yangming, showing he remembered that debt.

“Barebody Sect?”

True Lord Star Pupils froze, not sure why the ancestor suddenly headed there.

Seeing his calm face as he moved, she realized what he intended.

She hesitated. “Ancestor, if we do this, won’t it harm Tianmu Sect’s reputation and trust once it spreads?”

“In the cultivation world, strength does the talking. Besides, I’m only inviting Daoist Yunmei to make a trip to Jiang.”

True Lord Heavenly Eye knew this junior had grown under his protection and still lacked a sense of how low the world’s bottom line could go, her morals a bit high.

He then left Tianmu Sect quietly with True Lord Star Pupils, heading for the Barebody Sect’s spirit-vein grounds.

The grounds resembled Yangming Mountain today: a crude array, only quasi–fourth-rank.

With his divine abilities, True Lord Heavenly Eye could break it outright or slip in unseen.

He had Star Pupils show herself to call on True Lord Yunmei, while he hid his presence with secret arts.

“Please, True Lord.”

The Barebody Sect’s senior respectfully ushered True Lord Star Pupils through the mountain gate, saying he would go announce it.

True Lord Heavenly Eye slipped into the sect’s new mountain gate without a sound.

“Reporting to True Lord, our True Lord is in seclusion and cannot receive guests. If there’s a matter, I can pass it along.”

A quarter-hour later, the Barebody elder spoke respectfully to True Lord Star Pupils.

She frowned.

It was normal for a Nascent Soul to be in seclusion.

But True Lord Yunmei had just gained new spirit-vein grounds and hadn’t even rebuilt the mountain gate—why go into deep seclusion now?

Meanwhile, outside True Lord Yunmei’s cave residence.

Pale silver light flowed in True Lord Heavenly Eye’s pupils as he gazed at the formations ahead.

The pale silver vertical mark at his brow, like a closed eyelid, slowly opened.

Golden light flowed as mysterious runes wove forth, exuding a presence that pierced illusion and laid bare Essence.

“Daoist Yunmei?”

Glowing with sacred majesty like a god, True Lord Heavenly Eye called toward the cave’s depths.

When there was no response, the runes in his brow-eye flared like the first ray of creation, spearing through the formation and shining upon True Lord Yunmei within.

A soft hiss sounded.

In that light, the cross-legged True Lord Yunmei burst into a curl of crimson smoke.

Only a red ribbon remained.

“Cautious indeed…”

Unruffled, True Lord Heavenly Eye could see Yunmei’s true body wasn’t here.

He had used a secret treasure to forge a fake body to serve as a danger alarm.

A moment of thought told him Yunmei’s mind.

The Holy Maiden had already submitted to Yangming True Lord.

Which meant True Lord Nine Spirits had likely fallen into Yangming’s hands or struck some arrangement.

In that case, staying in Yuan would be awkward, passive, and dangerous for True Lord Yunmei.

“Star Pupils, Yunmei anticipated this and isn’t here, may even have left Yuan Kingdom. Send people to keep the Barebody Sect under watch.”

With that, True Lord Heavenly Eye vanished.

He had no intention of actually arresting True Lord Yunmei.

A Nascent Soul on the run was hard to track and seize, and the cost was high.

Corner a rabbit and it bites.

He didn’t fear Yunmei.

But he didn’t want to enrage him either.

Meanwhile.

An oasis within the Endless Desert on Yuan Kingdom’s border.

“Tianmu Sect, Tianzhu Sect, and the Qisha Sect still kept their guard up against me after all.”

A burly, sharply featured man with hard masculine air murmured, sensing something.

He gazed toward Yuan Kingdom and the Barebody Sect for a moment. His towering figure softened into graceful curves.

Rugged features smoothed into delicate beauty, skin like white jade, exquisite and striking.

In a few breaths, the man full of masculine vigor became a breathtaking, alluring woman.

True Lord Yunmei no longer hesitated. He chose to abandon the Barebody Sect and leave Yuan, Jiang, and Liang far behind.

When he heard that True Lord Youyue had submitted to Yangming True Lord, he’d grown wary and sensed danger.

Now that the fake body at the Barebody Sect had been exposed, it showed Yuan no longer trusted him.

With that, there was no reason to waver.

A sect’s heritage matters, but life matters more.

So long as he lived, the Barebody Sect could be rebuilt.

“Even Luofuzi can’t do anything to him…”

In Black Desert Immortal City, Mo Luo listened to the news from Jiang with a grim face.

After Beast God Mountain fell, he had rushed back to the Blood Sea Sect and reported on Yangming True Lord.

The Blood Sea Sect Master decided Yangming was a Nascent Soul grand cultivator of the Daylight Golden Crow Sect in disguise.

They wanted to lure the Blood Sea Sect’s Nascent Soul out to ambush him.

So the Sect Master sent Mo Luo north to keep watch on Yangming True Lord.

With Liang and Wu both in Yangming True Lord’s hands.

And Yuan no longer trusting him, Mo Luo came to Black Desert Immortal City in the Endless Desert.

There he could use the city’s information channels to track Jiang Kingdom and Yangming True Lord.

He also planned to quietly control the city, planting enslaved cultivators into Liang, Jiang, and Yue as sleepers.

“If this Yangming True Lord is really as the Sect Master suspects, then it makes sense Luofuzi lost.”

“But no matter how much Old Monster Zhao loves fishing, he can’t possibly stay in a backwater like this for so long, can he?”

Mo Luo figured if another three to five years passed and Yangming True Lord was still active in plain sight, he could rule out him being Old Monster Zhao.

After all, no matter how idle a Nascent Soul grand cultivator is, he wouldn’t waste that much time.

He then sent people to check on Luofu Mountain.

He wanted to know whether Luofuzi had lost to Yangming True Lord.

If he had, was he injured?

Compared to the attention and shock from Jin, Yue, and Yuan, the forces tied to True Lord Qingcang, True Lord Jinfeng, Lady Yulan, and True Lord Luo Yu were terrified.

Especially Zicang Mountain, where True Lord Zicang had once sat, and the Jinfeng Yulan Pavilion founded by True Lord Jinfeng and Lady Yulan.

Zicang Mountain had two Nascent Souls in total.

In the past, after True Lord Zicang fell, True Lord Qingcang still held the fort and kept them within Nascent Soul ranks.

Now that True Lord Qingcang had also been suppressed by Yangming True Lord, Zicang Mountain had no Nascent Soul in town. The situation was dangerous.

The same went for the Jinfeng Yulan Pavilion.

It had been created by True Lord Jinfeng and Lady Yulan.

Now both had been suppressed by Yangming True Lord, leaving it headless. Destruction was only a matter of time.

Forces with grudges against them sent people immediately to verify the news.

Some even launched attacks at once to seize Zicang Mountain and the Pavilion’s territories and resources.

Zicang Mountain, however, quickly chose someone to go to Jiang Kingdom to visit Yangming True Lord and try to ransom their ancestor.

The Jinfeng Yulan Pavilion, being a loose alliance of rogues founded by True Lord Jinfeng and Lady Yulan, scattered at once. Many fled and cut ties.

Some even took advantage of the chaos to pack up assets and run.

Jiang Kingdom, Yangming Mountain.

Lu Changsheng had no idea about the chain reaction his actions had set off.

These days he had been dual cultivating with Hong Lian, pushing the effect of his Peach Blossom Dao Rhyme for her to the limit.

Peach Blossom Dao Rhyme enhances Fortune.

Under that tide of Fortune, and the hidden blessings of Jiang Kingdom and Yangming Mountain, Hong Lian even sensed a thread of the opportunity for Condensing the Nascent Soul.

She was already almost certain to form her Nascent Soul.

But this Heaven-sent chance would still help.

Ten days later, Ah Youduo arrived at Yangming Mountain.

She wasn’t here to congratulate him on the Immortal City’s victory. She came because Lu Changsheng had sent for her.

Lu asked her here for one thing: to plant restrictions on True Lord Qingcang, True Lord Yin Lei, and the other five.

Ah Youduo had rushed the whole way and spent a lot of energy.

Lu immediately led her to a side hall of his and Hong Lian’s cave residence to sit and restore her magical energy.

Thankfully the Spirit-Eye Tree was here.

Otherwise, one more Ah Youduo would strain Yangming Mountain’s ambient spiritual energy.

Before long, the Turtle Immortal Patriarch returned from the Starry Sea to Jiang, bringing a team of array masters and artificers from the Zhenhai Seven Sects.

He introduced their backgrounds to Lu Changsheng.

Hearing there was a fourth-rank array master and a fourth-rank artificer among them, Lu smiled. “A’Gui, you’ve worked hard.”

“This is only what your old servant should do.” The Turtle Immortal Patriarch took no credit and asked for Lu’s requirements for the mountain’s grand array and construction.

Lu laid out what he needed.

He then handed over his array blueprints and asked for their opinions and suggestions.

His formations were at the lower fourth rank.

Though he had mastered many arrays via Tianyuan True Lord’s True Explanation of the Star Array Dao.

The Zhenhai Seven Sects had a solid formation legacy and could offer useful advice.

The Turtle Immortal Patriarch didn’t comment immediately.

He took the fourth-rank array master to survey Yangming Mountain’s spirit veins and peaks, then would advise accordingly.

“Hong Lian, you can break through to Nascent Soul now. I’ve got everything handled.”

At the same time, Lu told Hong Lian she could attempt her breakthrough anytime.

He would see to everything else.