Immortal of the Nine Realms

Three full months had passed since the battle at Fire Spirit Valley. In those three months, the power structure of Mingwang Star had been completely reshuffled. All factions and cultivators that had defected to the Fallen Alliance had been purged by the ghost army.

Beyond Mingwang Star, the Qingming border passes were taken over by cultivators loyal to the Wandao Immortal Sect. All entry and exit points had been completely sealed. No one was allowed in or out.

Even in the Underworld, a contingent of ghost soldiers stood guard. Even transmitting information through the Underworld was currently impossible.

Mingwang Star, Underworld.

Venerable Yunfu confined over a hundred wandering souls, including Abbot Wufa, Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable, and Saintess Yuanyang. He had drawn a boundary as a prison and kept them under strict watch.

One of the local Mingwang Star cultivators, who had been a fourth-transformation Immortal in life but was now merely an ordinary wandering soul, dared to speak before Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable. “Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable, we trusted the Fallen Alliance and chose to stand on your side. Yet not only did we gain nothing, we’ve now lost our lives. If we are to be utterly annihilated as well, wouldn’t that be too tragic? You cannot treat us like this. If that person comes again to question us, we hope you will tell the truth.”

Their current situation was the same; they were all prisoners, no different from one another. In fact, Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable’s situation was even worse than theirs.

“Exactly. The three of you shouldn’t just think about yourselves. If we hadn’t sided with the Fallen Alliance back then, would things have gone so smoothly? There are countless people like us in the Taicang Realm. It’s precisely because of people like us that the Wandao Immortal Sect couldn’t react in time and kept retreating step by step.”

Someone else chimed in. “If the situation were even slightly better today, we wouldn’t say such things. But that person has already stated clearly that if we still refuse to confess, at best we’ll be thrown into the Forgotten River to sink forever. At worst, we’ll be annihilated, losing even the chance for reincarnation.”

Some wandering souls remained silent, their thoughts heavy.

Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable remained expressionless, as if he hadn’t heard a word.

Saintess Yuanyang frowned and kept glancing outside. Suddenly, she looked at Venerable Yunfu and said, “Venerable Yunfu, I want to see that person.”

Yunfu smiled faintly. “Saintess Yuanyang, are you planning to cooperate? However, your status is different from Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable’s. That person may not necessarily be willing to see you.”

Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable glanced at her, a chilling gleam flashing in his eyes. “Saintess Yuanyang, the God Dao Sect has already chosen to cooperate with us. Are you planning to represent them and terminate the alliance between our two sides? That’s not a decision you can make. Since we’re dead, then die quietly. Don’t struggle anymore. Many will inevitably die on the path to our goal.”

“You can go die by yourself. I want to live to the end and see what that moment looks like,” Saintess Yuanyang Saintess countered calmly.

After speaking, she looked at Yunfu, her expression serious. “I am the Saintess of the Demonic Beast Race. That person should want to know how far our cooperation with them has progressed. He should also want to know their next key moves. Since Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable refuses to speak, I can.”

A subtle smile appeared on Yunfu’s face. “Then wait here. I’ll go invite my lord.”

The Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable suddenly spoke. “Venerable Yunfu, you are a dignified eighth-transformation Immortal, why do you address him as your lord? Even if he is a core disciple of the Enlightenment God Palace, even if he has a ninth-transformation protector by his side, it shouldn’t be enough for an eighth-transformation immortal like you to bow and submit!”

Yunfu’s steps paused for a moment before he glanced at him. A meaningful smile appeared on his face, but he didn’t say anything. Soon, he disappeared into the vast white mist.

The local cultivators of Mingwang Star were visibly encouraged by Saintess Yuanyang stepping forward. As long as she could give that person a satisfactory answer, they might have a chance at reincarnation instead of being utterly annihilated.

The Great Virtue Heavenly Venerable frowned slightly, countless questions surging in his mind. “What kind of reason could make an eighth-transformation immortal submit to a junior of the cultivation world? Who exactly is he, to even have a ninth-transformation expert protecting him... And who is that ninth-transformation expert?

However, he couldn’t answer any of these questions. The frustration gnawed at him.

***

Kudu Monastery, Lecture Hall.

All the monks there had already been executed.

As a typical example of a faction that had defected to the Fallen Alliance, Kudu Monastery was among the first to be purged. Many of the subsequent purges followed the precedent.

Fang Chen sat on the meditation cushion that Abbot Wufa used to occupy. On either side sat core disciples from Fangcun Realm and Shenwang Realm.

“Senior Brother Wang, the various battlefronts are exactly as we predicted, they’re in a very bad state.”

“The local forces of Taicang Realm have been suppressed too severely by the Demonic Beast Race cultivators.”

“The key issue is that they don’t burn, kill, or plunder indiscriminately. This leads some factions, like Kudu Monastery, to choose not to resist, or even to side with them.”

“The allied forces led by the Wandao Immortal Sect are losing ground in every aspect. There isn’t a single front where we hold the advantage.”

“Our involvement from Fangcun Realm and Shenwang Realm has only slowed the rate of collapse.”

“Yes. If we truly want to push them back, both realms will likely need to mobilize a large number of additional forces, including ordinary cultivators under them.”

Everyone shared the intelligence they had seen and heard, piece by piece, with Fang Chen.

All of them reached the same conclusion. This battle was destined to be lost. The only question was when.

Fang Chen understood their thoughts well. Just by looking at Mingwang Star alone, one could see the bigger picture.

The allied cultivators of the Wandao Immortal Sect, along with reinforcements from Fangcun Realm and Shenwang Realm, were not just facing the Fallen Alliance, the Demon Heaven Bureau, and the Demonic Beast Race. The greater problem came from the ordinary cultivators of the Taicang Realm.

Those seemingly insignificant cultivators from remote regions had, for the most part, already submitted to the Fallen Alliance. What they were facing was practically the entire Taicang Realm.

If the ordinary cultivators under Fangcun Realm and Shenwang Realm were not mobilized as well, the disparity in manpower would be impossible to overcome.

But there was one thing they didn’t know.

“The Feiyu Constellation, Zhang Shaoming, reincarnations of the Heavenly Dao... these are likely what Senior Sister and the others consider the key to determining victory. As long as the various battlefronts can hold for now, and the people she has sent manage to gather these reincarnations of the Heavenly Dao and deliver them to the Feiyu Constellation, only then can the outcome of this war truly be judged. Before that, any conclusions drawn are essentially meaningless due to insufficient key information.”

With that thought, Fang Chen glanced at the group and asked, “How are your injuries recovering?”

“Almost fully recovered.”

“We must thank you, Senior Brother Wang. Without you this time, we wouldn’t just have died, we would have died in humiliation.”

At that moment, a female core disciple from Myriad Star Palace suddenly spoke. “Um... I’ve met Senior Brother Wang once before... and he didn’t look like this...”

Everyone was stunned, then tacitly shifted the topic. Someone even shot her a glare.

Did she really need to point that out? Everyone present had already guessed that the person before them was not Wang Ye.

The female cultivator realized her slip and smiled awkwardly, falling silent.

“If your injuries have mostly recovered, then I’ll leave Mingwang Star in your hands,” Fang Chen said.

The group was startled.

He was leaving?