Only dead idols were worshipped; the world didn’t need living heroes.

Everyone understood that logic. Indeed, the first impulse for most upon seeing Qing Han, Wu Tulong, Zi Chen, and Mo Qitian was to kill them. It was fine to repair the cultivation path, but those who did so… had to die!

Anyone who contributed at all was entirely unnecessary for the rest of the world. However, no one had previously dared consider the taboo of attacking Qing Han and the others, nor had they fathomed killing Lu Yun, the guardian who’d exhausted himself to protect the Dao Flower and the cultivation path.

The appearance of the Jiangchen clan stoked a surge of hostility through the crowd that swelled to new heights. Everyone wanted to slay Lu Yun in the chaos.

……

The bone fortress ship smashed through the Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends and gravely injured the nine bloodcorpses. They faded into faint shadows and returned to Yueshen’s grasp. Yuying, Feinie, Xuanxi, Aoxue, and Huangqing fought the immortals with fervent recklessness.

Lu Yun was still insensate from his wounds. Though he was rapidly recovering under Xuanxi’s talismans, he wasn’t awake just yet. Because he was unconscious, the Gates of the Abyss couldn’t open to release the Infernum within.

The envoys were alone in their struggle.

“Wait. There’s something strange about these axes!” Aoxue had picked up Lu Yun’s axe, but when she tried to lunge forward with a simple chop, she realized that doing so would cost all of her peak august immortal energy.

She retracted her movement before the attack was fully formed. “It’s not as the young master thought. Void realm alone isn’t enough to use this dao weapon,” she transmitted into her four colleagues’ minds, preventing them from using the treasures they held.

Aoxue was an unparalleled fighter, capable of perfect control over all of her methods and arts. She could even retract a chop with the dao weapon after setting it in motion! That wouldn’t be the case for the others.

If they tried to make use of the dao weapons, their energies would be instantly discharged. After all, when Lu Yun had used the axe, it’d cost all the pills they’d held.

“These dao weapons clearly have something to do with those hairy monsters. If anyone else tried to use them forcibly, their cultivation foundations would be broken!” The draconic envoy’s reminder sobered up her fellow envoys and they hastily stowed their black axes.

Feinie took out the Formation Orb and began wrapping the group in layer upon layer of defensive formations.

Rumble...

The enormous bone ship didn’t stop after it’d crashed through the Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends, but merely rippled with scarlet energy as it continued charging in their direction. Many immortals who weren’t quick enough to get out of the way were crushed as collateral damage.

For the first time, the five envoys felt a hint of despair dawn in their hearts. Dense light from the Formation Orb was being deformed by the bone ship as it proceeded forward bit by bit!

“That bone fortress ship has the power to counter formations!” Feinie yelped. “Unless I erase my brand of ownership from the Formation Orb and unleash its full power, I can’t possibly hope to stop it!”

Crack!

As she said this, the final defensive formation crumpled. Golden light flared from her body.

“Piss off!” Feinie yelled angrily. She unsealed her cultivation and unleashed every bit of power she had left in a single, resolute punch. The bone ship quavered violently, then came to a halt!

However, the commensurate damage to Feinie was equally great. Although she’d stopped the ship cold as a golden immortal, she herself drifted away as dust in return.

Rumble...

Without skipping a beat, the bone ship then creaked back into motion toward its intended target.

“Heh heh heh… how dare a mere golden immortal block my bone ship?” Li Wushang sneered with scorn. His fortress ship of bone was like a city in the sky with terrifying strength. Even peerless immortals would be hard-pressed to do more than delay his vessel, much less a golden immortal!

“Ram them! Ram them all to death!” he roared ferociously, directing his rage against Lu Yun and his remaining four maids.

Boom!

Another fierce tremor rocked the hurtling ship, much greater in magnitude this time. The impact sent Li Wushang’s ship skittering across the sky. An absurdly luxurious fortress ship materialized from the void, interposing itself between the bone ship and its would-be target. Though the ship was many times smaller than its adversary, it glowed with a similar aura of power and splendor.

A girl stood at the ship’s bow, her slightly fragile form wrapped in a white robe. Her unsheathed blade and long, black tresses danced in the wind. It was Lu Qingshuang.

Before Lu Yun had returned to Dusk Province, he’d handed his ship over for Lu Qingshuang to helm. In the midst of the bone ship’s rampage, she arrived in the nick of time.

Alas, the collision broke a multitude of the formations shielding the ship, leaving only the ninth-rank treasures holding on for dear life. Despite its small victory, the fortress ship was no match for its skeletal peer.

“That’s the Ling Clan’s flagship… excellent!” Li Wushang cackled with joy. “It will provide the fuel for my bone ship to grow stronger with!”

The Cauldron of Invincible Constitution over his head flared with radiance as the entire ship began trembling. A moment later, the bone ship’s bow split apart like a ravenous maw, biting toward Lu Yun’s fortress ship.

“That fortress ship is a living thing?” The other immortals were spooked by the prospect. The ship had to be at least fifty kilometers long! Like a terrifying monster, it’d opened its jaws in an attempt to snap up its prey. Such a thing was beyond their comprehension. The Jiangchen Clan… was more than qualified to stir up trouble.

Hum.

Suddenly, a pillar of white light pierced the bone ship out of the blue.

Boom!!

The ship quaked and creaked like a beast in pain before the entire vessel was sent flying. A weapon of war!

Someone had used one of those treasures to blast the bone fortress ship out of way. But shockingly, the ship was entirely unharmed from the impact!

“How dare you lay a hand upon me, Nephrite court!” Li Wushang roared in anger. A corner of the skin on his face had torn away, revealing rotten flesh beneath… he was almost like a zombie.

The general in the seaside citadel’s garrison was stunned—he hadn’t fired his weapon. His compatriot on Outré Province’s borders was similarly flabbergasted; he wasn’t responsible for the attack, either.

Boom!!

A second pillar blasted into the bone ship, not far behind the first.