Everyone quietly left the Immortal Transformation Pond and found a hidden corner to conceal themselves.

However, their eyes were firmly fixed on the direction of the Immortal Transformation Pond, silently waiting for the right moment to come.

Today, it was Heavenly Master Zhang who was in charge of guarding the Immortal Transformation Pond, and he was currently conversing with Celestial Master Ge.

"Who could have imagined that this war would end with our defeat," sighed Heavenly Master Zhang.

He could no longer recall the last time the Heavenly Court had faced such a defeat, and this failure might very well damage the very foundations of the court.

This incident blatantly exposed the weakening of the Heavenly Court in front of all living beings of the Three Realms, providing those harboring ill intentions with an opportunity to topple the court.

It’s fair to say that when the curtain fell on this war, the Heavenly Court could only choose to strategically retreat and deal with internal crises, becoming somewhat helpless against the Buddhist Sect and the Demon Clan.

The era of being the foremost power in the Three Realms was about to end.

"Water overflows when full, the moon wanes after it’s full; perhaps this is fate. We may be called immortals, but we still cannot grasp destiny," lamented Celestial Master Ge.

He wasn’t just sighing over the impending decline of the Heavenly Court’s fortunes; rather, he felt the futility of even immortals like themselves, who were still bound by fate.

Divine Skills cannot contend with destiny—this was Celestial Master Ge’s deepest insight.

"Who knows what His Majesty will do next. With the Heavenly Court’s undercurrents surging, it’s uncertain how many are coveting our position in the shadows. Could it really be that we are destined to wane after being full?"

Heavenly Master Zhang and Celestial Master Ge were different. Zhang was deeply tied to the well-being of the Heavenly Court—its glory was his glory, its loss his loss. Precisely because of this, he was even more worried about the current predicament of the Heavenly Court.

On the other hand, Celestial Master Ge was more detached and could see the situation more clearly. He smiled and consoled, "As the saying goes, a hundred-legged worm is stiff in death but not lifeless. The Heavenly Court has ruled the Three Realms for many years and has profound resources. Even in decline, it can endure for a long time, enough for His Majesty to devise a strategy. You should have faith in him."

Upon hearing this, Heavenly Master Zhang also nodded his head. He naturally had faith in the Supreme of the Three Realms, or else he wouldn’t have so deeply bound the Zhang Family with the Heavenly Court.

Looking across the heroes of the Three Realms, in both talent and methods, the Jade Emperor stood out as a peerless figure. His past successes proved this point. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Now that a crisis was upon them once more, in the depths of his heart, Heavenly Master Zhang still believed that the Jade Emperor would be able to see them through this dark time.

"That’s right, His Majesty is a remarkable person; how could he be brought down by these mere setbacks? We should just concentrate on performing our own duties well," he said.

The two men laughed and said their farewells as Heavenly Master Zhang slowly entered the Immortal Transformation Pond to begin the day’s duties.

However, today he detected an unusual presence within the pond.

As the four of them had been guarding the Immortal Transformation Pond all along, they were extremely sensitive to changes in its aura. Although he was unsure of the cause, Heavenly Master Zhang keenly sensed something was amiss.

Especially during these troubled times, he naturally could not afford the slightest negligence. He quickly stood up to inspect the situation in the Immortal Transformation Pond.

When he reached the edge of the pond, he saw an inconspicuous rock at the bottom that wasn’t there before.

It was this rock that gave rise to a deep sense of unease in him, and without a moment’s hesitation, Heavenly Master Zhang prepared to act.

However, at this moment, runes on the mysterious stone flashed and vanished, and then the whole Immortal Transformation Pond began to shake.

The shaking was so severe that even Master Zhang found himself struggling to remain steady.

Master Zhang’s face was solemn as his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the gleaming stone.

As the stone’s light shimmered, casting its radiance around the pond, the runes that had been engraved around the Immortal Transformation Pond inexplicably began to fade away.

This scene greatly surprised Master Zhang; after all, the pond could be considered one of the Heavenly Court’s highest achievements—its surrounding runes had been the laborious creation of several Rune Masters.

Moreover, they were interlocked in such a complex fashion that forcibly deciphering them was harder than ascending to heaven; even the Rune Masters who crafted them boasted that within the Three Realms, unless the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord took action himself, no one else could break their runes.

Yet, what was happening today was a harsh slap in the face of these Rune Masters; the light from the mysterious stone caused their diligently arranged runes to melt away like snow.

As the runes around the pond were on the brink of being completely dissolved, Master Zhang suddenly remembered something and cried out, "No good!"

He promptly retreated backward.

He had only taken a few steps back when the Immortal Transformation Pond burst into intense light, followed by an earth-shattering boom that immediately resonated throughout the Three Realms.

When the Immortal Transformation Pond was forged, though the Rune Masters were confident that no one could break their runes, the Jade Emperor still ordered for a self-destruction mechanism to be installed on the pond; once the runes were breached, the pond would instantly detonate, the powerful force sufficient to ensure that whoever broke the runes would be utterly obliterated.

However, no one had anticipated that the very first breach of the pond would be caused by a miraculous stone, thus sparing any conspirators from the blast.

Even though Master Zhang realized the direness of the situation, he was still a step too late and suffered injuries from the blast’s shockwave, coughing up blood.

As the Immortal Transformation Pond was destroyed, a bright light shone from the center of the explosion—that was the core of the pond, a treasure personally forged by the Elderly Lord long ago.

It was an irregular polyhedron covered with enigmatic runes, with a mysterious and unfathomable aura swirling around it.

Peering through the polyhedron, it seemed as though countless souls resided within it.

This was the core where the souls of all the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals were housed; the rest of the pond’s structure was merely to amplify the core’s function.

"Act now!" the voice of someone behind the scenes commanded sharply.

Several figures leaped out instantly, rushing forward to seize the core in their hands—these were the ones who had sneaked in earlier.

They had been plotting for the Immortal Transformation Pond for years, and the mysterious stone was specifically created by them to dismantle the pond; they hadn’t expected it to work so effectively.

They owed this success to a secret letter they received; if it hadn’t detailed the breakdown of the runes within the pond, they would never have managed to craft such a miraculous stone.

Before it, the runes drawn by the multitude of Rune Masters were like children facing a giant, with no chance to fight back.

Thanks to this stone, they had avoided perishing in an earlier explosion, and it was only at this moment that they realized the Immortal Transformation Pond had such a vicious contingency in place.

But now, with the core in their hands, they didn’t have the luxury of relishing their narrow escape; the moment they took hold of the core marked the beginning of their frantic flight.