A Will Eternal

Ten demigods who served under Celestial Aged Spirit here in the capital city arrived in beams of bright light.

Seven were men and three were women, and they were a variety of ages. One was a beautiful woman. They all had somber expressions as they looked at Bai Xiaochun. Ignoring Marquis Zi Lin and the other kneeling cultivators, they clasped hands and bowed deeply to Bai Xiaochun.

“Greetings, King Heavenspan!”

Many gasps could be heard in the stunned crowd. What was happening right in front of their own eyes seemed completely unbelievable.

As for Bai Xiaochun, he sighed in his heart. He was no longer the puny cultivator he had been back when he first stepped into the cultivation world. He was a celestial, and although he couldn’t actually read people’s thoughts, it was easy for him to guess what they were thinking.

Although these ten demigods were acting with respect, from the way they addressed him, it was easy to judge their attitude. They were welcoming him to the city out of formality, but didn’t really want him there.

Moments later, a large number of devas approached, as well as tens of thousands of ordinary guards. As they formed ranks outside the main gate, the sound of tolling bells filled the city. Then, cultivators clustered around him to escort him inside.

Marquis Zi Lin never rose to his feet the entire time. Although people like him weren’t necessarily required to follow the orders of someone like Bai Xiaochun, in his presence, they had to act with utmost respect.

Considering that Bai Xiaochun had personally punished him, no one would possibly show him any goodwill right now. After all, no one wanted to share in his punishment.

And thus, it was with a show of great pomp, and yet with little passion, that Bai Xiaochun was received into the city. Everyone was shaken as he was led to a location in the city center, where an extremely luxurious mansion sat.

It covered an area of at least 30,000 meters, and rose high into the sky. Its grounds contained ornamental rocks, deep pools of water, and small streams with bridges over them. Verandas existed everywhere. Intense pressure filled the entire mansion, as well as strong spiritual energy. There were also spell formations which would extract the earthstring energy from the second immortal domain. All-in-all, this place was a wonder.

There were more than a thousand menservants and maidservants lined up outside the entrance, who were tasked with caring for Bai Xiaochun’s daily needs. Of course, all of the men were very handsome, and the women were beautiful. Any one of them could be described as extraordinary.

Bai Xiaochun couldn’t find a single thing wrong with any of it. There were only two mansions like this within the capital city. One of them was his, and the other… had even more abundant spiritual energy. It was the home of the person who oversaw all of the second immortal domain, Celestial Aged Spirit!

The two mansions weren’t very far apart; in fact, they were within eyesight of each other.

All of the important cultivators from the city were very polite. After escorting Bai Xiaochun to his mansion, they bid him farewell. The entire time, Celestial Aged Spirit didn’t show up. Toward the end, he simply sent a greeting via divine sense.

That made it more than obvious to Bai Xiaochun that the man wasn’t very pleased with his presence. After all, the second immortal domain had once been home to only one celestial, but now, two were present. That meant that it would be difficult to avoid power struggles and conflicts.

Because of how many years Celestial Aged Spirit had been in charge of the second immortal domain, it was safe to assume that all of the devas and demigods worked for him. In some ways, this wasn’t the second immortal domain of the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, it was… Celestial Aged Spirit’s personal fiefdom!

Furthermore, it didn’t matter that Bai Xiaochun had a similar rank and title to Celestial Aged Spirit, he was a foreigner. Therefore, if he caused disasters here like he had in Saint-Emperor City, whether it was intentional or not, Celestial Aged Spirit would definitely not stand for it.

“Ah, whatever. I wanted to keep a low profile, right? I was living under someone else’s roof before, and now I don’t really have much authority. Although I’m not really in charge of anything… I doubt anybody will cause any problems for me.” Sighing, he thought about it, and decided that he was duty-bound to not cause any conflicts here in the second immortal domain. He would keep to himself and work on his cultivation.

“Sooner or later, I’ll get my chance to kill you a second time, Daoist Heavenspan!” That was the second reason he was so interested in furthering his cultivation, the first being to give the Heavenspan cultivators a choice about their future.

Having made his decision, he settled down quietly in his mansion. Although the mansion was large, there were a thousand servants there to tend to it, so it didn’t seem depressingly empty. Before long, half a month had gone by.

During that time, virtually no one came to visit him, and Celestial Aged Spirit didn’t send any messages. It was almost as if no one was even paying attention to his existence.

Normally, the ten demigods would tend to day-to-day matters in the second immortal domain, and then compile reports for Celestial Aged Spirit, which he would use to provide further direction.

Bai Xiaochun didn’t pay any attention to that. He remained in a private chamber, practicing cultivation with the command medallion from the damaged fan.

The cultivators in the capital city had originally assumed they were in for a big commotion. But eventually, they realized that didn’t seem likely. Obviously, this newly-arrived King Heavenspan was deferring to Celestial Aged Spirit.

That attitude earned Bai Xiaochun a bit of benefit. All he had to do was ask for something, and virtually anyone in the capital city would do everything possible to comply with his request.

For the cultivators in the second immortal domain, life seemed exactly the same as before Bai Xiaochun had arrived. He remained happily in seclusion, using the command medallion to advance his cultivation. He also had access to large numbers of immortal pills and spirit plants that helped his cultivation base.

In addition, he spent time researching flame conjuring techniques again. He hoped to find something in the Eternal Immortal Domains that could be used as a substitute for souls, and as it turned out, that wasn’t very difficult.

The Eternal Immortal Domains had a complete cycle of reincarnation that made it difficult to get access to souls. However, there were other things which could be used instead. For example, there were combustible soulstones. Although they were somewhat rare, they could be altered to create multi-colored flame.

Actually, Bai Xiaochun wasn’t the only one to have come to this conclusion. There were other Wildlander necromancers in the Eternal Immortal Domains who had figured out the same trick. Even spirit enhancers like Big Fatty Zhang had come to use similar techniques.

One upside to this method was that it made performing spirit enhancements easier. However, there was also a downside. After a sevenfold or eightfold spirit enhancement, it was virtually impossible to find the necessary multi-colored flame.

Even back in the days of the Wildlands, it was possible to see how spirit enhancement and necromancy were connected, and now that fact was even more obvious.

“What a pity. There just aren’t enough souls.” Bai Xiaochun shook his head as he looked down at Bai Hao’s spark-shaped scar on the back of his hand. Bai Hao was still sleeping, and Bai Xiaochun was slowly coming to the conclusion that it was only by means of flame conjuring that he could wake him.

It wasn’t possible to create high-level multi-colored flame, but he did create plenty of eightfold-enhanced magical items and medicinal pills. He even refined the Greatsword of the North.

He didn’t have much free time. Before long, three months had gone by. One day when he was practicing cultivation with the command medallion, he suddenly heard the sound of bells ringing in the capital city!

There was an urgency to how they rang, and they instantly caused a commotion in the city.

Somewhat taken aback, Bai Xiaochun opened his eyes and left his private chamber. Almost immediately, one of his servants ran over, looking very alarmed. Clasping hands and bowing, he said, “Exalted one, only an hour ago, Celestial Ghostmother from the Vile-Emperor Dynasty led an army to attack the last northernmost prefecture we control!

“It looks like henceforth… not a single one of the five northern prefectures will belong to the Saint-Emperor Dynasty!

“True war is about to begin!” From the way his voice trembled, it was clear how much despair he felt.