“What exactly is Violetgrave?” Lu Yun asked with a frown.

Hearing the name of the sword sent a chill down Silverblaze’s spine, her eyes shining with fear. As a Silvermoon Wolfking, one of the greatest immortal beasts in the world, she’d inherited her ancestors’ memories. To her knowledge, Violetgrave was a vicious weapon that no one should approach.

“I don’t know.” Qi Hai shook his head. “There seems to be a large mausoleum within the sword, where eras and civilizations are buried.” After a pause, he continued, “It’s been around since the era of the human dao. Even then, its owners always suffered a terrible end.”

The era of human dao.

That was what Qi Hai called the time he hailed from. As for the time after that, including the present, the Primordial Era, and the time before, Qi Hai called it the era of immortal dao.

“Back then, the woman Violetgrave helped me become the greatest pill master in the world of immortals… However, that also caused my death.” By now, Qi Hai had recovered his memories of the Primordial Era with Su Xiaoxiao’s help. After conveying his story, he fell silent once more.

Lu Yun’s heart sank. Violetgrave had refined a corpse puppet that would grant him the power of a celestial emperor three times, after which the puppet would be freed. Now it seemed that the moment the puppet was freed was the moment it would strike back at Lu Yun.

“Don’t trust her,” Qi Hai warned again.

Lu Yun nodded without a word as the color drained from Qing Han’s face. The two hadn’t kept their conversation a secret from her.

“I brought this to you,” she said in a low voice. “I should’ve been its owner.”

Lu Yun smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s just a sword.”

Meanwhile, Violetgrave and the sword of dao engaged in battle over Destiny City. Violet and jade sword light each occupied half of the firmament, triggering powerful phenomena and casting the entire city in the two colors.

Streaks of violet and jade repeatedly collided against each other in midair while countless shocked immortals bore witness from below.

“It’s the sword from the immortal tomb!” The Thunder Lord shot to his feet. He was incredulous at the sight of the jadeite sword in the sky. “Has someone taken ownership of it?”

“No.” A violet-robed counselor shook his head. “It followed the two people in the tomb to Destiny City. Qing Yu and Silverblaze.” He glanced toward Jadeite Manor with a frown. “Although, what can that violet sword be?”

The conflict was evidently a battle between two greats, and the power radiated by the two swords was climbing to heights of absurd intensity.

“Qing Yu can’t be the master of that jade sword, he’s just a cultivator. Can the sword have its own spirit? Can the violet sword’s master be trying to tame it?” The man scrunched up his face; he desired the jade sword for himself, but didn’t dare act on that desire. The swords’ duel in midair required intervention on the level of at least the old wolfking.

……

“Thank you for your protection, senior.” Lu Yun bowed to the sudden arrival.

Xi Yingchen blinked, then shook his head. “For ten billion crystals, I can hold off outside pressure for you. Offending the divine race like this would cost far more than that.”

Divine corpses were strewn about all over Jadeite Manor—most of them high-ranking dao immortals. If Xi Yingchen was the one who had intervened, he would only have thrown them out.

Although the divines were currently hiding themselves from the world, they’d never changed their modus operandi. Whoever made an enemy of them would gain one unto the bitter end.

“With that senior here, you really didn’t need to pay the ten billion anyway,” he remarked after a brief pause.

“That senior?” Lu Yun tilted his head toward Qing Han.

“There’s probably someone else here. When we were in the Sovereign World, someone protected me from the Sword of Dao’s influence,” Qing Han messaged him about what had happened before.

“Come out, whoever you are!” Lu Yun bellowed in a low voice, wanting nothing left to the unknown.

“Ah… ah, yes!” a somewhat obsequious voice came from a nearby corner. The old man who emerged looked rather different, but he couldn’t fool Lu Yun’s eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Lu Yun frowned.

“Your humble servant was worried about you and the matriarch, sir. I, er, decided to come on my own.” Ge Long’s smile was simperingly pitiful, but his words were quite gratifying. The word ‘matriarch’ was particularly satisfying.

Qing Han reddened immediately and glared at Lu Yun, but stayed quiet.

“Matriarch… she was female all this time, huh?” muttered Yuan Tong.

Xi Yingchen was dumbfounded. The old man looked like an average core realm cultivator, yet he’d slaughtered a large number of divine dao immortals, seemingly without much ceremony. If he hadn’t witnessed it for himself, he would’ve never made the connection. The man’s wrinkles and skulking appearance hid incredible expertise—he was at least as strong as the old wolfking.

That he called himself a ‘humble servant’ before Qing Yu and Sidekick doubled his surprise. What kind of background did these two youths have?

The ten billion crystals felt a bit hot in his pocket. The more he watched the still-dueling swords in the air, the more he sensed a deep impenetrability in the juvenile couple.

Lu Yun breathed a sigh of relief when the disciple finally left.

“Take these back to Dusk Province, Bing Ling.” He handed off the heritage treasures he’d received in the Sovereign World to the rimesnake king.

“Understood.” The Infernum summarily departed.

Lu Yun turned to Qing Han. “Oh, yeah... How’d you get inside that tomb, anyway?”

……

Destiny City sank into bloody chaos for three days. Some factions were entirely wiped out, dao immortals and all. Among the thirty thousand returning geniuses, more than half were lost, including a few of the ten lords.

No one could’ve expected such a disastrous aftermath. Not even the Destiny city lord’s intervention could stem the bloodshed; after making an example out of two arcane dao experts when he killed them, he was ganged up on by several more.

“If we were in Dusk Province, these dao immortals wouldn’t possibly be so reckless!”

Countless cultivators shared the same disgruntled thought. What should’ve been a showcase and exchange between cultivators had turned into an extermination of geniuses by older-generation immortals.

“If Lu Yun had hosted the Sovereign Meet, those old dogs would have the fear of death drummed into them, restriction or no!”

“His war treasure can annihilate those old farts in a single shot!” Many instinctively began missing their province lord.

“Hahaha! Lu Yun is also the lord of the Star Demon Sect,” a few sect members snickered from the side, shutting the previous commenters up.

……

Jadeite Manor was assaulted as well. The previously resplendent manor was left in a shambles, the majority of its protective formations having fallen in the turmoil.

Xi Yingchen set foot on the battlefield to carry out his duties, but was heavily injured and taken out of the fight midway. Only the Destiny city lord’s interference had saved his life.

“Wolfking—” The city lord was cut off by the hundreds-meter long wolf.

“Anyone who stands in my way today shall die.” The old wolfking was entirely emotionless, and its greenish eyes shone a gleaming silver. Today, its savage aura showed that it was infinitely more serious than its last visit a month ago.

The lord pressed his lips together. The wolfking had retreated last time out of respect for him, but such insubstantial things no longer mattered when its descendant was on the line. The wolfking was no match for the city lord, but there was a monster ancestor behind him.

“Ancestor, the gentleman invites you for a discussion inside the manor,” a crisp, sonorous voice came from within the walls.

“Silverblaze!” The old wolfking relaxed minutely. Silverblaze wasn’t enslaved; she still sounded like herself!

“If the manor’s owner is inviting you in, far be it from us to refuse. Come, Yingchen.” The city lord dragged his disciple off, thankful to wash his hands of the affair.

The wolfking was a little bewildered by the development, then dismissed its image projection and walked inside.