““………What just happened!!?””

This question was repeated in the minds of almost everyone present on the scene.

Shen grabbed Xue’er’s hands as to reassure her.

[I’m just going to punish that guy a bit.]

Xue’er tilted her head at the word punish from Shen’s sound transmission. Her confusion was answered quickly.

Before the crowd had a chance to look for the source of the light beam, one stranger thing occurred that would leave a topic of discussion for a long time to come.

The old evil path True Immortal suddenly coughed up a substantial amount of blood. There was shock and confusion on his face.

He had a cultivation base of the peak of the early True Immortal stage. This was not to be trifled with even in the large sects of the correct path.

However, just then, something unknown had invaded his dantian and the sea of consciousness. The nameless unknown substance had started to eat away at his cultivation base and Divine Sense.

His cultivation base was already showing signs of reverting back to Sky Immortal stage after a mere few breaths.

“Retreat!”

With all his strength, the old man flew back to the ships.

The other True Immortals on the scene had also noticed his predicament. They were puzzled on the cause but they knew it was a good opportunity.

“Kill!!”

Murderous aura filled the heavens as the correct path True Immortals gave chase, shortly joined by the five Sky Immortals that were taking refuge in the city’s defence barrier.

The lone True Immortal from the Devil Path Alliance had thought this to be a good time to sneak off. They weren’t exactly friends with the correct path cultivators after all.

As soon as the Four True Immortals started chasing the weakening old man, the ships of the Devil Path Alliance had started taking off towards the south.

Many cultivators stared at the chaotic scene with disbelief. What had just occurred was too difficult for them to comprehend.

Shen had decided that he did not want to see what happens after anymore, as he felt that he had intervened enough. He only punished that old man since he readily sacrificed the souls of many cultivators without remorse.

“Xue’er, let’s go. There isn’t much to see here anymore.”

“Ok, Big Brother Shen. I knew you’d do something if things got out of hand.” Xue’er knew that Shen was the one who killed the tiger and did something to that old man from the evil path. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was but she was in no hurry to find out.

“Brother Sun, we’ll be going now. The city gates should be open soon and we have to be somewhere soon.”

Shen smiled and bid goodbye towards Sun De who was still in a daze.

“Eh? Ah. Ok, sure.” Sun De couldn’t reply properly as he didn’t really register what Shen said and absentmindedly stared at the scene in the sky.

“Xue’er, let’s go.”

Shen held Xue’er around the waist as usual and stepped across space itself. The crowd around them were fully focusing their attention to the ongoing battle in the sky, therefore, no one had noticed that two fully grown adults had just vanished from the spot.

***

Long Tian was sitting in front of his small house, drinking wine.

“…Ah…I miss my Xue’er…that damned Shen. He just had to show up so conveniently… “

“Brother Long, did you call me?” “Father!”

“Wah!”

Even the unmatched Immortal King of the vast forest almost jumped on the spot by Shen and Xue’er’s sudden appearance.

“Brother Shen, Xue’er! You came back!”

Long Tian swiftly came in front of Xue’er and attempted to hug her. Xue’er dodged nimbly which caused Long Tian to almost tear up.

“My Xue’er…….”

“Father, it’s embarrassing…”

The trio sat around the table and chatted about the recent experiences. Xue’er was talking very happily to Long Tian.

Shen smiled looking at the father and daughter.

“Oh? So, the evil path cultivators are quite daring. They never troubled us magical beasts though.” Long Tian lamented after hearing Xue’er’s description of the event at Blue Cloud City.

“Why is that Brother Long?”

“Well, they don’t have an Immortal King you see. Oh, did I tell you that I am the only Immortal King on the planet right now?”

“Is that so? Do the other factions know of Brother Long?”

“Of course, they do. Although it was long before Xue’er was born, I did visit the leaders of each faction to express my meaning. They don’t dare go too far in the forest.”

“Well, I can’t just bully them as I like though. They have a number of peak True Immortals. If they all get together, it could make my life difficult.”

Long Tian chuckled as he said but he truly did not seem as if he would be bothered if that were to happen.

Shen was rather surprised to find out that there were no other Immortal Kings on the planet. At least not known to the public.

“Brother Long, do you have any more Immortal wine? I’ve ran out during the trip. I’ve had to endure drinking spirit wine. It sure was hard…”

Long Tian stared blankly for a minute after hearing Shen’s shameless question.

‘Spirit wine is hard to drink? Even Sky Immortals would pay dearly for my Immortal wine!’

Of course, Long Tian did not dare say it out loud. He wordlessly handed a few bottles of his Immortal wine to Shen.

Xue’er laughed at the stiff faced father of hers from the side.

“Father, let us rest, it has been a long day.”

“Alright, your old hut is still there, Brother Shen. Make yourself at home.”

“Many thanks, Brother Long.”

Shen got up to head to his little hut.

What happened next had shocked Long Tian so much that he forgot to breathe for quite some time.

Xue’er had gotten up and almost followed Shen into the hut. It has been a habit even since they started sharing the room and sleeping on the same bed since a few months ago.

“Xu-Xue’er??!”

Long Tian’s shocked and bewildered voice woke up Xue’er and she hurriedly ran into her own hut with a red face.

Shen looked at the figure of the flustered girl with a puzzled expression. Long Tian muttered some unintelligent words like a broken machine in a daze as Shen went into his hut.

***

In a building in the centre of Blue Cloud City, four people sat around a table. They were precisely the four True Immortals from the correct path whom had hurriedly caught up to deal with the attack from the evil path cultivators.

“I wonder which senior killed the tiger. It has to be an Immortal King!”

“Perhaps it was the Gold Dragon Immortal King. We don’t know of any others.

“The evil path sure has got their hands on a troublesome technique though. If they mass produce those peak True Immortals, we’re in trouble even if the Devil Path Alliance band together with us.”

“Haha! That should not be a problem. Didn’t you see the backlash from using the technique? That old fogy was losing his cultivation base! We didn’t get to see how much he’d lose but it can’t be a cheap price for using such a technique!”

“I sure hope you are right…Ha…It looks like the upcoming times will be rather eventful.”

“Yes, we should let our respective sects know so we can prepare for any scenario.”