“Who’s watching us? A Great Warlock?” Xiao Yu asked.

“It’s too vague for me to give an accurate answer, but I’m afraid it’s not a Great Warlock. It’s much scarier than that.” Ji Liuli hesitated for a second before closing her eyes, sensing. Finally, she added, “It could be the world itself.”

“The world?” Both Xiao Yu and Sun Yu were caught off guard by her answer.

As the newcomer, Sun Yu could not help but stare at the group with a bit of confusion: This is escalating a little too quickly, isn’t it?

Wei Yuan and Zhang Sheng were much calmer. This was not the first time the world had singled them out for murder.

It was then Sun Yu made a belated realization. “This means... that a huge army will be at our borders very soon.”

He then turned to Bao Yun and Xiao Yu and asked, “The two of you arrived here even earlier than I did, so how is it there are only the two of you? Where are your guards? And where are the clan’s reinforcements?”

Wei Yuan had asked himself the same question a long time ago. However, he was sharp enough to keep it to himself. Just the same, neither Zhang Sheng nor Ji Liuli had brought up the subject.

Xiao Yu looked like he wanted to say something, but it all morphed into a sigh.

Bao Yun answered calmly, “There’s nothing to hide. The clan had already informed us that they wouldn’t be dispatching any more reinforcements. We can only rely on ourselves. If the situation is critical, the clan may intervene once. But in exchange, we are to return to the clan immediately, and we are forbidden from setting foot in the western regions for a full decade.”

Her answer was not outside of Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli’s predictions.

Sun Yu was wide-eyed with surprise. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect such an answer. Racking his brains for something to say and finding himself lacking, he ultimately said, “How could this be?”

Zhang Sheng replied indifferently, “All aristocratic families under the heavens are really one big family. There is nothing to be surprised about.”

“How did the two of you manage to come over then?” Sun Yu was still puzzled.

Xiao Yu let out a heavy grunt and refused to answer.

Bao Yun picked up his slack and answered, “We are Wei Yuan’s classmates and friends. It’s our choice whether we want to help him or not. Our clans do not have a say in it, nor do they want to.”

Sun Yu sighed. “So, there are good people among aristocratic families after all. I was short-sighted.”

It was an incredibly rude remark. Xiao Yu could not help but glare at Sun Yu.

Sun Yu belatedly realized that he had accidentally offended the swordsman. He had spoken without thinking because he rarely socialized with the scions of aristocratic families. Thus, he offered Xiao Yu an apologetic smile.

The swordsman grunted and looked away, implying that he wasn’t going to stoop to his level.

It wasn’t all bad news. At the very least, the aristocratic families weren’t clearly siding with the Xu Clan. They were staying out of the conflict and keeping their clansmen from taking part in it.

Bao Yun continued, “Before I came, Great Grandfather told me that the situation in the north is critical. The Liao barbarians are launching a massive invasion, and some commanderies have already fallen entirely. That is why the Palace is severely short-handed at the moment. If the Truemen head west, they would have to engage the Xu Clan in a protracted struggle. But if they head north, they’ll face no obstacles. Therefore, we shouldn’t count on the Palace’s reinforcements too much.”

Despite what she said, Wei Yuan had no complaints. The Palace had already taken a massive gamble by delivering the merit hall’s subsidiary hall into his hands. In fact, Trueman Ning Xi had died for it. With the merit hall in hand, they could now afford to sustain their war efforts through war. Thus, the crux of the matter was whether they could emerge victorious.

As night fell, everyone went their separate ways.

Despite patrolling the entire realm one time, Wei Yuan still felt uneasy. In the end, he decided to pay Ji Liuli a visit.

Ji Liuli had set up residence at a canyon behind the central peak. It was very far away from everyone else’s place. That said, she rarely used the place, not even during the night. She was usually out wandering around at night. That was why he often had trouble locating her.

Ji Liuli’s residence consisted of two stone houses and a small courtyard. She had created it without much thought, so there was barely anything inside at all. After standing at the gate for a bit, his Big Senior Sister appeared behind his back like a ghost and smiled. “Why are you looking for me so late? Want me to refine your foundation again?”

Wei Yuan instantly reddened and coughed non-stop.

“Scared much? I’m just playing with you.” Ji Liuli pushed him into the courtyard and closed the gate behind her. She would continue to push his back until they were inside a room. The lights automatically turned on, and Wei Yuan saw a tiny red woman reading a piece of jade paper on a table.

Gong Yufeng? She’s still here?

Ji Liuli produced a wine bottle and a pair of wine cups out of seemingly nowhere and handed him a cup of wine. She asked, “You’ve drunk before, right? Give my wine a try.”

Wei Yuan accepted the offer. The aroma of the wine alone was enough to lift his spirits. He downed it in one gulp. As soon as the wine entered his stomach, he suddenly felt a terrible heat spreading throughout his entire body. Every pore seemed to be spewing fire.

His stomach grumbled for a few moments, and he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a burp. It was a burp of literal fire!

Wei Yuan felt as if a wool was covering his consciousness at the same time his emotions started flying out of control. He felt like there was no one and nothing in the world that could stop him. He felt like he could send even an Immortal Lord flying with his spear!

Then, the Immortal Lord’s face turned into his Big Senior Sister’s, and Wei Yuan immediately broke out in cold sweat and snapped out of the strange haze. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

It was only that Wei Yuan realized that he had gotten drunk. He had thought it was a myth. No wonder he had dared to entertain the crazy idea of challenging an Immortal Lord with a spear.

“Want another one?” Ji Liuli asked.

Wei Yuan hurriedly rejected her offer. This wine obviously wasn’t meant for a Dao Foundation stage cultivator. His Dao energy reserves were several times greater than that of an ordinary late-stage spirit nurturing stage cultivator, and he had still gotten drunk in one drink. He would be crazy to give it another ago.

“So, why have you come looking for me?” Ji Liuli asked.

Wei Yuan replied, “I’ve thought about our situation carefully. Right now, what we fear most isn’t the Shamans’ army or a long-range blood curse. It’s two or more Great Warlocks attacking us at the same time. And the more I thought about it, the more I’m certain it will happen. However, the higher a Shaman stands on a totem pole, the more they fear death. I believe we can make use of this.”

Wei Yuan summoned a dead branch and said, “This is a true immortal object. I’ve already used it to kill two Avatars. I’m wondering if we can do something to draw out its aura and leak it when next the Shamans attack. We may be able to trick the Great Warlocks into thinking that we still possess an Immortal Lord level trump card. It may be enough to dissuade some Great Warlocks from attacking us.”

Ji Liuli’s eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea! If two Great Warlocks show up at the same time, we simply need to convince them that anyone who shows their ugly mugs first is going to die! Most likely, none of them are going to show their faces. They’ll only hide in the shadows and launch sneak attacks!”

“They might not even launch sneak attacks. I believe they’ll simply send fodders to probe our defenses and wear us out. One thing for certain, we’ll be able to buy some time.” Having fought the Shamans for so long, Wei Yuan was now intimately familiar with their style.

Ji Liuli took the branch from him and spat a mouthful of wine on the table. She then drew an array using her fingertip and set down a few spirit objects. A simple fengshui array was complete just like that.

She placed the dead branch at the center of the array and said, “You’ve used it to slay two Avatars in the past, so that’s two sets of karma. I’ll extract some of these karma, nurture them, and amplify them using the fengshui array. Any Avatar who is sensitive in the ways of fengshui would notice it, and a Great Warlock will definitely notice it. There’s no worry that they’ll miss it somehow.”

Moments later, Ji Liuli was done extracting the karma. When she returned it to Wei Yuan, she said, “By the way, I can sense life growing inside the dead branch. I can’t believe the Immortal Lord is willing to part with it.”

Wei Yuan was taken aback. Life is growing inside the branch? I didn’t notice anything.

“What’s the difference?” Wei Yuan asked.

“Without life, it is nothing more than an immortal material. It can potentially be forged into an immortal treasure, but it would be a mystic treasure at best. But with life, it has a chance to resurrect. It could be a miniscule chance, but if it succeeds, it will turn into a Bay Laurel Immortal Tree; a treasure that even an Immortal Lord covets. Do you think it makes sense to give you something so valuable?”

Wei Yuan found himself agreeing with his Big Senior Sister. Did Immortal Lord Tinghai make a mistake?

“Wait. Don’t leave just yet.” Ji Liuli stopped Wei Yuan in his tracks before grabbing the tiny Gong Yufeng. She then asked, “Did Little Wei Yuan do anything strange today?”

Gong Yufeng replied, “He smacked Feifei in the butt. She wasn’t wearing a skirt at the time.”

“Big Senior Sister!” Wei Yuan turned as red as an apple, embarrassed and angry.

Ji Liuli laughed boisterously before sending him away without listening to his protests.

Far, far to the west, there was a gigantic altar that reached into the clouds. A hundred zhang long figure surrounded by green qi was curled on top of the altar. Below, blood qi was constantly leaking out from the ground and climbing up the altar level by level. In the end, it all entered the mountain-like figure.

High above the clouds, thick green lightning bolts suddenly appeared out of nowhere and struck the altar with devastating force! The figure let out an agonized roar that shattered the clouds for hundreds of li around. The blood qi and the green qi surrounding the figure visibly dissipated under the relentless barrage of lightning. Its mountain-like form was shrinking rapidly as well.

The barrage of lightning lasted a full fifteen minutes before it gradually disappeared. Most of the green qi was gone, and the blood qi was nowhere to be seen. The one hundred zhang tall figure was now less than seventy zhang tall.

Below the altar, hundreds of thousands of Shamans were kneeling on the ground. It was an impressive number, but they were practically nothing compared to the gigantic altar that spanned a hundred li in radius.

It was at this moment a tyrannical voice entered every Shaman’s consciousness. “A flaw has appeared in the eastern corner of the world! Find it, fill it, and kill everyone and everything who created it in the first place!”