Uncivilized, uncultured, and ignorant of what constituted normal relations. Such were the differences between monster spirits and mere beasts.

It was said that the monster spirit ancestor had attempted to educate the fur seals in the Primordial Era in order to make them part of the monster spirits, but she had no choice but to give up after they refused to change and continued to do as they would.

Although the fur seals were powerful beings that could transform into humans, monster spirits still didn’t consider them part of the same race. Ge Yanxia had called herself the immortal race when she entered. That, however, was plainly an insult to all immortals.

Explosions boomed and blasted outside; the lord-grade fortress ship was tangled in battle with Ge Yanxia. Immortal crystals were all that the great ship needed to generate unimaginable power. However, Ge Yanxia managed to block its ramming via a giant seal projection outside her naked, bulbous body, albeit at the price of her nearly collapsing.

She was a primordial dao immortal. Though her cultivation had only reached aether dao immortality, her true strength exceeded that of even contemporary peak arcane dao immortals. Moreover, she had a great treasure in her possession.

……

“Ge Yanxia is an aether dao immortal from the Primordial Era, one who has plucked at least eight dao fruits. Why is she able to tap into her full strength here?” Immortals in the venue brought up the same question again.

“Has... the Dusk restriction disappeared?” They thought of the city beneath their feet. Lu Yun had razed the ancient Dusk tomb, and that was where the restriction had resided.

“Cease your wild speculations,” Lu Yun spoke up. “The restriction hasn’t disappeared. The fur seal has something on her that isolates her from the restriction. It creates a standalone minor world around her, which is what allows her this freedom.”

Another explosion rang out as he spoke, sending a slight tremor through the city.

A sneer floated onto Lu Yun’s lips. The ninth prince of Primus Major had started the conflict on purpose; he wanted to destroy the newly built city with his fortress ship.

A single ram from the ship would’ve destroyed any other city, but this particular one had been built upon the North Sea Palace, which was sealing the underground fissure in place of the original Dusk tomb. What could be seen above ground was merely the tip of the iceberg.

That foundation alone made the city incredibly sturdy. Even the human king of the Primeval Era might not be able to destroy the city, let alone a mere lord-grade fortress ship.

The human demon had spearheaded the construction of the city. He was the guardian of the land of Emperors Fall, the sacred land of the primeval human race. As part of the senior council of the human race at the time, it was as easy as flipping his hand to retrofit the palace that primeval humans had built for the dragons.

The others were skeptical of Lu Yun’s explanation.

Still, even with Ge Yanxia’s demonstration of power exceeding the golden immortal realm, none of the immortals with self-imposed suppression dared attempt the same. They wanted to take some fur seals alive to peer at the truth.

The fur seals possessed an innate power of heaven and earth, like the primordial immortals. But with so many void realm cultivators present who’d ascended to immortality, they didn’t fear the uneducated fur seals.

……

“Alright, we’ll let them be,” said Lu Yun. “Recipients of the thousand formations of heaven and earth have been decided. The buyers may come in.”

With a wave of his hand, a white path slowly extended into the venue. It was the branch of the Path of Ingress that’d been in his possession all this time. Lu Yun hadn’t returned the branch when he’d brought the main treasure back to the Nephrite Court. In fact, he’d been studying it in an attempt to restore its combat art counterpart.

The thousand immortals perked up and hurried onto the path, entering a strange space.

Qing Yu had emerged from her closed door cultivation with the completion of formula dao, which enabled her to reverse-engineer even formations and talismans. With her deduction, the formations of heaven and earth had been perfected. She’d even theorized dao immortal-grade formations, and made redundant many extra steps that were previously necessary in the etching process.

An enormous formation lit up and enveloped the thousand immortals. Fine lines of formation runes materialized in the air, slowly sinking into their bodies. The immortals were all geniuses in their own rights, and a good number of them were actually formation masters as well.

Eyes wide open and consciousnesses fully deployed in observation, they found the formation in front of them too complex to comprehend. There were profound mysteries to it that they couldn’t even begin to understand, ones that reached beyond the immortal dao they knew.

Hum!

A burst of dazzling golden light overwhelmed them.

……

“Are you sure you want to make the announcement now?” Qing Yu asked worriedly by Lu Yun’s side. “Maybe we should wait until you ascend to immortality...”

“No, that won’t do.” Lu Yun shook his head with great determination. “The top factions of the world can just pretend ignorance then. With the attention the auction has gathered, now is the perfect time to make the announcement. The fur seal and the ninth prince are perfect to make examples of.”

The Primus prince was plainly up to no good. He would destroy the city, or if he failed, he would demand an explanation from Lu Yun regarding the ineffectiveness of the new fortress ships to undermine the Dusk lord’s reputation. That was why Lu Yun had to act now.

Boom!

A thundering impact rippled through the auction venue as a pillar of golden light shot into the sky, conjuring a giant dao character in the firmament. Lu Yun emerged in midair, hovering beneath the character.

“Oh? What’s he up to now?” Attention drawn, all eyes shifted from the battle in the city to Lu Yun.

“In the name of dao, I, Lu Yun, do hereby establish the sacred land of immortal dao.” His voice spread outward like rolling waves, making everyone in his proximity dizzy. A sacred land of immortal dao?

Lu Yun was going to establish a sacred land now?

It was common knowledge that the inheritance tower in Dusk Province housed the complete legacy of a primordial lord. Combined with the Sword Lake, the perfect training ground for sword dao cultivators, the province was indeed shaping up to be a sacred land of immortal dao.

However, no one had expected Lu Yun to make it official right at this very moment. Did he think his wings were filled out and that he was ready to take flight?

Before they could recover from the shock, an enormous flower slowly unfurled in the air. It was the Dao Flower, and it was blooming again!