“Dammit, who discovered this fragment of the Heavenly City? I even used several methods to conceal its presence… as such, how did they manage to discover it?” Elder Lushan Street said, somewhat depressed.

He was sure that no one in this ancestral land of the Limitless Demon Sect had the ability to see through his methods! Even if an Eighth Stage Profound Sage casually passed by the ancestral land, they wouldn’t be able to discover this place unless they carefully inspected the surroundings.

As such, what kind of heaven-defying luck did this intruder have to discover the location of this fragment of the Heavenly City and get inside it?

Demon Venerable Lushan Street clenched his teeth, and said, “It doesn’t matter how they got inside… this fragment of the Heavenly City is my meditating place, and my hope of advancing to the Eighth Stage Profound Sage Realm lies with it. I won’t allow anyone to interrupt my meditation!”

Earlier, he’d activated the ‘slaughtering sword formation’ in the mountain valley to chop to pieces the puppet that had intruded the place, subsequently throwing it outside the valley. He did so because he wanted to give the person controlling that puppet a taste of the pain of having their body cut into pieces.

The crime of interrupting his meditation… was even worse than the crime of killing his entire family! Whoever dared to interrupt his meditation… had to die!

Demon Venerable Lushan Street took a deep breath and adjusted his state of mind in order to reach his peak condition.

At the same time, he activated all the killing and supplementary formations inside the mountain valley.

This mountain valley was like his family backyard, and his strength was several times higher while fighting in this place. Even if the opposite party was a Seventh Stage Venerable, he could fight three of them at the same time.

Come!

I’ll tear you to shreds in this very same mountain valley!

❄️❄️❄️

On the edge of the dried up Jade Lake.

Song Shuhang stared at the silver-armored female guard.

After a long time, the silver-armored female guard replied, for the first time, to Song Shuhang’s question. “The Heavenly City hasn’t fallen.”

“Hmm?” Song Shuhang curiously looked at her.

“And the Heavenly Emperor hasn’t fallen, either,” the silver-armored female guard said once again, her tone one of seriousness. “One day, the emperor will return, and the fragmented Heavenly City would become one again. At that time, the emperor will become even stronger than before, surpassing everything and everyone!”

After she had said this much, the previous image of the silver-armored female guard that seemed to value the saying “silence is gold” quickly changed. The image of a chatterbox was more suitable to describe the current her.

“Are you implying that the Heavenly Emperor is still alive?” Song Shuhang asked out of curiosity. The boss of the Heavenly City was still alive even after the city had been blown into these many pieces?

“The emperor is obviously living, and has been alive all along,” the silver-armored female guard said solemnly. While speaking, she joined both hands and took out a dazzling ball of light.

Strange runes were flashing one after another inside this ball of light. The whole ball was emitting a strong aura of life, and the core of the various runes was a small and exquisite pearl.

“As you can see, the Imperial Pearl has a great amount of life force within. This Imperial Pearl represents the Heavenly Emperor itself. If the emperor lives, the pearl lives; if the emperor dies, the pearl dies. Since the aura of life emitted from it is so strong, not only does it mean that the emperor still lives, but also that he is living really well! Besides, not much time is left before the emperor returns!” The female guard showed Song Shuhang the ‘Imperial Pearl’.

After hearing her words, Song Shuhang started to doubt her identity… why would a guard of the Jade Lake have such an item with her?

Was it possible that the master of the Jade Lake had left this item in her care?

The huge amount of life force inside the ‘Imperial Pearl’ wasn’t fake. If Song Shuhang compared his own life force to the one emanating from the Imperial Pearl, the difference was as great as that between a small firefly and the blazing sun.

If the emperor lived, the pearl lived; if the emperor died, the pearl died… if the words of the female guard were reliable, not only was the Heavenly Emperor still living, but was also living very well…

“Is it possible that the Heavenly Emperor will really come back and rebuild the Heavenly City?” Song Shuhang muttered to himself.

In addition… after returning, the Heavenly Emperor would become even stronger than before and surpass everything and everyone?

The Heavenly Emperor was one of the strongest ‘Immortals’. According to the timeline, the Heavenly Emperor either belonged to the same era as the Scholarly Sage… or was one of the Immortals that emerged shortly after the era of the Scholarly Sage.

Once the construction of the ‘Heavenly City’ had been completed, the Heavenly Emperor should have reached the same level of strength as the ultra-amazing Sage of the scholarly faction. Therefore, if the Heavenly Emperor became even stronger than before… wouldn’t they become the new Wielder of the Will?

“That’s a given. After the emperor returns, the Heavenly City will be rebuilt. Great Master of the Divine Beast Department… this is also the reason I let you off even if you dared to barge into the Jade Lake forbidden area just now. If you stay alive, you can still make yourself useful and serve the emperor after the latter returns and starts to rebuild the Heavenly City!” the silver-armored female guard said solemnly.

Song Shuhang forced a smile. He wasn’t even a disciple of the Divine Beast Department, and he had no interest in serving the Heavenly Emperor.

The silver-armored female guard seemed to have seen through Song Shuhang’s intentions. Therefore, she coldly snorted and joined both her hands, preparing to put away the precious ‘Imperial Pearl’.

But right at this time, something unexpected happened… a large amount of the life force that was emanating from the Imperial Pearl suddenly disappeared.

The life force was dissipating at a very fast pace!

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the life force in the Imperial Pearl had disappeared.

The silver-armored female guard was shocked, and the guards behind her were likewise shocked.

The silver-armored female guard could only absent-mindedly watch the ‘Imperial Pearl’ in her hands as the life force inside was quickly dissipating.

“How is this possible, how is this possible…” the female guard muttered to herself.

The Imperial Pearl represented the Heavenly Emperor. Now that a large part of the life force inside the Imperial Pearl had disappeared, it meant that a large part of the life force of the Heavenly Emperor had likewise withered.

Such a strong aura of life was emanating from the pearl just a moment ago… as such, why did things suddenly take this turn?

Was it possible that someone had found the Heavenly Emperor and had managed to severely injure them—or even kill them—within this short period of time?

“Impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible!” the silver-armored female guard roared in a frenzy.

Just as she was crazily shouting, all the remaining life force in the ‘Imperial Pearl’ disappeared.

The Imperial Pearl had now turned into a very ordinary pearl, dim and gloomy.

In the next moment…

“Crack, crack, crack~”

The Imperial Pearl broke.

It thoroughly broke, turning into fine powder.

If the emperor lived, the pearl lived; if the emperor died, the pearl died. Now, the Imperial Pearl had turned into powder… did it mean that the Heavenly Emperor had died?

“AAAAAAH!!!” the silver-armored female guard shrieked as if she had gone crazy. Her cry was full of sorrow, desperation, and agony.

She wasn’t the only one… all the female guards behind her also started screaming. They held their heads in their hands and knelt in the dried up Jade Lake. Some had even started to roll in desperation at the bottom of the lake.

This Imperial Pearl had given all the female guards of the Jade Lake the strength to persevere up until now, to the point that it had turned into their only belief.

They firmly believed that the owner of the Imperial Pearl, the Heavenly Emperor, would one day return and collect all the scattered fragments of the Heavenly City, building a new and even more powerful Heavenly City!

But little did they expect that all the life force within the Imperial Pearl would suddenly dissipate, with the pearl breaking and the Heavenly Emperor dying just like that…

This turn of events had been too sudden.

“How is this possible… why did it happen…” the silver-armored female guard said in agony. She curled up into a ball and was, at this time, in a state of complete despair.

“…” Song Shuhang.

That was bad!

Under normal circumstances, even if the Imperial Pearl broke, it would have nothing to do with him.

But now, that silver-armored female guard was carefully putting the ‘Imperial Pearl’ away after showing it to him when the pearl suddenly broke and turned into fine powder.

As such, after recovering from her current frenzied state, wasn’t this silver-armored female guard going to take out all her hate, as well as other negative emotions, on him who was but an innocent bystander?

Should he consider escaping?

If he wanted to escape, he could simply activate Venerable White’s disposable flying sword. At that time, none of these female guards would be able to catch up to him.

But, on the other hand, what had happened to the Heavenly Emperor? Did the emperor die just like that? Were they made of mud to die like that?

Given the strength of the Heavenly Emperor, even if they were surrounded and attacked by several other powerhouses of the same level, they should still be able to fight for a few years before dying, right? It should be impossible for the emperor to die within just a few seconds!

Just as he was deep in thought, the silver-armored female guard stopped screaming.

She raised her head and slowly stood up, gazing at Song Shuhang. She was wearing a type of helmet that covered her whole face, but that pair of glistening red eyes was visible even through the helmet. Her whole body was shivering at this moment.

It was the calm before the storm!

All the things that blue-haired female senior said turned out to be correct… there is really a frightening black glow shining between my eyebrows as of late. I should really hide at home and not step out, just like a good otaku. If I get bored after staying at home all day, I can spin a cocoon!

I’ve decided. After I safely return home with Senior White this time, I’ll spin a cocoon and refuse to get out of home—at the very least, not until the black glow between my eyebrows disappears.

“Calm… calm down! There is no point in taking out your anger on an innocent bystander like me!” Song Shuhang took out the disposable flying sword and then continued persuading her. “Although the Imperial Pearl in your hands broke… it doesn’t mean that something happened to the Heavenly Emperor! If the emperor lives, the pearl lives; if the emperor dies, the pearl dies… but it doesn’t mean that the emperor would necessarily die if the pearl dies! Calm down and think about it for a moment, wasn’t the way the life force within the Imperial Pearl disappeared a little too strange? The speed at which it disappeared was simply too fast! This defies both the principles of science and cultivation! How can someone as powerful as the Heavenly Emperor die within just a few seconds? Therefore, it’s possible that the Imperial Pearl had simply reached its expiration date and broke as a consequence. It’s very likely that this whole matter doesn’t have anything to do with the Heavenly Emperor!”

Song Shuhang discovered that the explanation he had come up with after operating his brain at full speed during this critical moment was rather reasonable.

Therefore, he continued to persuade her. “All the things in the universe have an expiration date. After tens of millions of years, even godly weapons of the Ninth Stage Tribulation Transcender-rank would fall into ruin if not properly taken care of. This Imperial Pearl doesn’t even seem to be a powerful magical treasure. Therefore, isn’t it pretty normal that it broke?”

Perhaps Song Shuhang’s words had really managed to convince her, but the silver-armored female guard calmed down, and her body stopped shivering.

“What you say… make sense. Thank you,” the female guard said in a soft voice.

It really made sense! The emperor was so powerful, and even when the Heavenly City was blown to smithereens, the emperor still managed to survive. As such, how could they die within such a short period of time now? It simply went against the principles of cultivation!

Moreover, the fact that the pearl had died didn’t necessarily mean that the emperor had died as well. Perhaps the Imperial Pearl had really reached its expiration date and broke for that reason…

“You’re welcome.” Song Shuhang secretly heaved a sigh of relief.