The Great Yu cultivators erupted in cheers, celebrating the victory brought by Guan Shanhai’s backing, while the Great Qian cultivators seethed with humiliation, and Incarceration Peak was about to boil over with chaos.

Just then, Lu Yang appeared silently. Both sides immediately fell silent.

Then Yun Zhi followed behind him. The prisoners were so frightened that they lowered their heads, afraid to meet Lu Yang’s gaze, fearful of attracting the attention of this harbinger of calamity.

Thanks to Lu Yang, they enjoyed an extremely high-grade medicinal diet every day, followed by bloodletting.

“Why is it so quiet?”

Just moments ago, Lu Yang could hear these prisoners causing a ruckus even from outside. Once he entered, silence fell, as if what he had heard earlier was his hallucination.

Never mind. It’s a small matter.

Lu Yang opened the door of the cell confining the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord and raised the jet-black ancient ring. With a flash of black light, it sucked the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord inside.

Lu Yang and Yun Zhi entered the ring one after another, leaving the prisoners exchanging bewildered glances.

Hasn’t the Dao-Seeking Sect always conducted interrogations without going into a ring?

Guan Shanhai quietly stared at the jet-black ancient ring, instinctively sensing its extraordinary origin. He was not skilled in artifact refinement, but Wu Yao was. The Qingfeng Sword was Wu Yao’s creation.

Is this ancient ring an immortal artifact?

Who forged it? Could it be the legendary Heaven Mandate Immortal?

Inside the ancient ring’s small world, Lu Yang was about to say something, like “confess and receive leniency, resist and face severity,” “if you won’t talk, we have ways to make you,” and “take a look at who this is.”

However, before he could work up the emotions, the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord knelt and said earnestly, “Go ahead and ask. I’ll confess everything.”

“You will honestly confess... Ah?” Lu Yang had just been about to recite his lines when the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord’s first words derailed his plan.

Are all of you Great Qian cultivators this honest?

Yun Zhi also showed a rare trace of puzzlement. She had interrogated numerous people, but this was the first time she had encountered someone so cooperative.

“It seems I’m no longer needed?”

Only then did the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord notice a golden dragon circling the sky, each scale the size of a mountain. The colossal dragon transformed into a handsome man radiating imperial might.

The moment he saw the man, the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord trembled uncontrollably. This was a fear that stemmed from the deepest depths of his Incipient Dao Fruit. Not even his fear of the Midheaven Emperor-Lord’s wrath was this intense.

“H-Heaven Mandate Immortal...” He stammered out the handsome man’s name.

Only his superior, the Heaven Mandate Immortal who wielded the Tribulation Mandate Dao Fruit, could possess such an oppressive presence.

The purpose of his creation was to seek out the Heaven Mandate Immortal, but he had never expected to encounter him under these circumstances.

“Senior Heaven Mandate, we still need to trouble you to disable his Incipient Dao Fruit and compel him to speak the truth.” Lu Yang didn’t trust the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord, so using the method of Dao Fruit suppression was the most reliable.

But when they tested it with the Dao Fruit, they found that the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord indeed harbored no ill intent. He truly wanted to confess.

Unfortunately, like the Timekeeper Divine Lord, the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord was also bound by an incense restriction, preventing him from revealing the immortal palace’s location, whether directly or indirectly.

His accumulated natural treasures, spirit stones, and magical treasures were also stored in the immortal palace. Lu Yang found it quite regrettable that they couldn’t get their hands on it.

“Do you have anything else you would like to say?” Considering the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord’s good attitude in acknowledging his mistakes, Lu Yang figured that as long as his requests were reasonable, he could satisfy them.

The Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord slapped his thigh in indignation. The more he thought about what just happened, the more it infuriated him. “The Great Yu bullies the Great Qian as if we have no one! If the Emperor-Lord and Lord Fate Arbiter had been here, we definitely wouldn’t have suffered such humiliation!”

The Emperor-Lord and Lord Fate Arbiter had established a dynasty from ruins. What an arduous task! What a great achievement! How could Wu Yao and Guan Shanhai compare to that?!

Our Great Qian forces are absolutely the strongest, no matter where we are. Does that mere Great Yu Imperial Preceptor really think he is all that impressive?

“Uh, I’ll do my best.” Lu Yang was put in a difficult position. This request is truly not something I can help with just because I want to.

~~~

In the forbidden grounds of the imperial palace, the two immortals of the Great Xia faced each other over a chessboard. Black and white pieces clashed in a deadly battle, every move heart-stopping. One misstep, and the entire game would be lost.

“That rascal Primordial crawled out of some corner?” Upon receiving this intelligence, Meng Junzi was so beside himself with excitement that he slapped the chessboard to pieces.

Jiang Ping’an looked at Meng Junzi with a resentful expression, wanting to grab the hoe by his feet and whack this shameless fellow with it.

I was about to win!

Then Jiang Ping’an also broke into a relieved smile. It’s truly great news that Primordial is alive.

Eighty thousand years ago, when the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign vanished, he was unable to find any trace of him, even after employing the power of the national fortune. He had thought something terrible had happened.

I knew he had thick skin and rough flesh. He couldn’t possibly die.

Before the two could finish reminiscing about their old friend, a sturdy figure forced his way into the forbidden grounds with a boisterous laugh.

“Meng Junzi, I knew you sneaky thing had become an immortal! Come, let’s spar!”

After defeating Teacher Tiankui to regain his confidence, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign had immediately dragged the listless Teacher Tiankui along to challenge Meng Junzi.

If it weren’t inconvenient for the Moonchaser True Person to tag along, he would have dragged her here, too.

~~~

“Thunder Arbiter was captured by the Dao-Seeking Sect?” The Midheaven Emperor-Lord was stunned by the news.

But upon recalling that his own incarnation had fallen at the sect, it made sense that the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord could not prevail against them either.

The Midheaven Emperor-Lord turned to the Fate Arbiter and asked, “Why are our people getting fewer and fewer?”

In just a few years, they hadn’t found a single one of the Four Ancient Immortals, yet they had lost several half-immortals. Even if they could produce Incipient Dao Fruits using incense faith, half-immortals were not so easily created.

“Could it be that the Battle of the Great Era has arrived?” The Fate Arbiter finally found an explanation after pondering for a long time.

“But the ancient Battle of the Great Era began with young prodigies. How could it be starting directly with half-immortals this time?”

“Perhaps the ancient Battle of the Era never ended?”

~~~

“Explosions, repeated explosions...” The figure seated on the throne of white bones focused on a detail in the intelligence that few had noticed—the explosions that had rendered both the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign and the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord unconscious.

“These explosions seemed less powerful than those at Xitian Temple. But to achieve repeated detonations, aside from immortal artifacts, only an Everlasting Incipient Dao Fruit could do that!

“The person who caused the explosions at the Mountain-Moving Sea-Filling Sect likely possesses an Everlasting Incipient Dao Fruit!

“No, not ‘likely’—it’s ‘certainly!’ She also acted at the Sword Tower, meeting Liu Ningxuan’s Silent Annihilation Sword Technique head-on. I’d thought she possessed an Incipient Dao Fruit from the Vajra Lineage.

“From the looks of it now, she possesses an Everlasting Incipient Dao Fruit!”

The figure’s tone grew increasingly excited.

Ever since the mysterious immortal had acted at Xitian Temple, all traces had disappeared. The figure had been searching for clues about that immortal, but to no avail. It was as if that mysterious immortal had vanished from the face of the earth.

Now, a clue to the Everlasting Dao Fruit had appeared again. How could he not be excited?

“She claimed to be Yun Zhi at the Sword Tower? No, Yun Zhi isn’t that weak. But she’s definitely connected to Yun Zhi. This is tricky...”