All of the heavenly dragonfish in the pond were going violently crazy.

Although the heavenly pond had been sealed with ice by the Saint-Emperor, that only affected the surface of the water. Because of the magical technique used, the fish couldn’t break the seal. However... there were thousands of lotus leaves in the pond as well!

It wasn’t possible to seal the leaves. If the heavenly pond was the foundation of Saint-Emperor City, then the thousands of lotus leaves were the ground upon which the city was actually built. Countless buildings rose up from those leaves, and the flower in the middle of them all housed the imperial palace.

Because the lotus leaves weren’t sealed, when the heavenly dragonfishes’ withdrawal symptoms reached a certain point, they changed targets. Specifically, they began to ravenously attack the roots that sank down into the water.

It got so bad so quickly that some of the leaves began to tilt to the side.

Soon, holes were bitten in the edges of some of the lotus leaves as countless heavenly dragonfish attacked them....

From the look of things, Saint-Emperor City was about to be hit by a huge catastrophe....

Most shocking of all was that a significant amount of the heavenly dragonfish weren’t attacking the lotus leaves, but rather... the root of the lotus flower upon which the imperial palace was built!!

The crazed fish laid into it with such force that it began to visibly tilt to one side....

Massive waves of shock were battering all cultivators present. Soon, an enraged voice erupted from the imperial palace.

“Bai Xiaochun!!” All creation shook under the force of that voice. Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun sat in his blessed land, scowling on the verge of tears, and also extremely alarmed.

“This isn’t my fault! I just ate some fish.... And I’m not the one who sealed the heavenly pond....” That much was true. The events which had occurred after he ate his fish had been beyond his control. He was even trying as best he could to come up with a solution to the situation.

“I performed a great service for the dynasty! All I did was eat some fish! The Saint-Emperor was the one who sealed the pond....” Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of any way to fix things.

By this time, all of Saint-Emperor City was astir. The Saint-Emperor appeared up in midair, his cheek twitching as he surveyed the city. Although he had no evidence which could prove that Bai Xiaochun was responsible for what was happening, it seemed obvious that it must have something to do with his fishing activities.

He really felt like killing someone, but had to suppress that desire. And right now, he had to worry about the safety of the city, not spend time thinking about Bai Xiaochun. Therefore, he extended his right hand and shoved it down toward the heavenly pond.

The boundless power of his archaean cultivation base erupted out, covering everything in sight. As it did, the frigid qi began to rush toward him from all corners of the Eternal Lands.

The sky went dim and filled with rumbling sounds as, in the blink of an eye, the frigid qi gathered in the area around the Saint-Emperor. Then, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing the frigid qi to pour into the heavenly pond!

Cracking sounds rang out as the ice began to spread from the surface down into the depths of the pond!

All of the violent heavenly dragonfish were rapidly sealed in place as the entire pond transformed into ice!

And things weren’t over yet! Grim-faced, the Saint-Emperor performed another incantation gesture, then waved his right index finger, transforming his archaean cultivation base power into a holy energy. At that point, the Saint-Emperor started to glow so brightly that he looked like a sun!

Dazzling sunlight shone out in all directions, and yet, it didn’t contain any heat, only the most pure and holy of energies.

Holy purity filled all of Saint-Emperor City, entering the frozen heavenly pond and then reaching out to touch the thousands upon thousands of sealed heavenly dragonfish.

All hidden ailments and all violent tendencies within them, even scars from the fighting that had gone on between the dragonfish before Bai Xiaochun’s arrival, suddenly vanished.... In the shortest moment, the dragonfish were cleansed and purified.

Bai Xiaochun could sense what was happening, and he gasped in shock. As of this moment, he came to an even better understanding of how powerful archaeans were.

Everything happened very suddenly. The Saint-Emperor waved his hand, and the heavenly dragonfish calmed down. It only took a few breaths of time. After the dragonfish were purified, the ice melted, and soon, the fish began to swim about lazily just like they had in the past, without any trace of violence or madness in them....

Bai Xiaochun breathed a sigh of relief, as did all the other cultivators in Saint-Emperor City, the Saint-Emperor included. However, the magic he had just used did nothing to repair the damaged lotus leaves, or the lotus flower, which was still tilted at an angle. As such, anger still burned among the populace of the city.

The Saint-Emperor was so furious he had a hard time keeping himself under control and not smacking Bai Xiaochun to death.

Unfortunately, appointing Bai Xiaochun as Duke Heavenspan not only gave hope to the Heavenspan cultivators within the Eternal Immortal Domains, but it had also raised a banner of recruitment within the Saint-Emperor Dynasty.

The Saint-Emperor was already getting reports that Heavenspan cultivators were flocking to offer their services to his dynasty. Because of that, he definitely could not kill Bai Xiaochun.

“One of these days, your usefulness will come to an end, and then we’ll settle accounts!” Gnashing his teeth, he took a moment to decide on what punishment to dole out because of what had happened. After a moment, he snorted coldly and issued a Dharmic decree.

“Duke Heavenspan’s salary shall hereby be reduced by a full rank for the next 10,000 years. Furthermore, he will henceforth be assigned to collect and dispose of the excrement of the heavenly dragonfish!

“The powers of his colored belt will be limited, and he will personally repair all of the lotus leaves in Saint-Emperor City!”

After he finished speaking, even the Saint-Emperor realized that this punishment wasn’t very severe. And then he thought about everything Liu Yong had said, and realized that he had indeed been forewarned about everything.

“Appoint Liu Yong as the parole captain!” With that, he swished his sleeve and returned, grim-faced, to the imperial palace.

The entire city was angry with Bai Xiaochun, who currently sat sullenly in his blessed land. As for Heavenly Marquis Liu, he couldn’t have been more excited at his promotion. Clearly, the Saint-Emperor now knew how troublesome Bai Xiaochun could be, and had assigned Heavenly Marquis Liu to watch over him.

“Fear not, Your Majesty. Your servant will watch Bai Xiaochun like a hawk! And I will also make sure to create an official record of every single crime he has committed!”

As everyone seethed with anger, Bai Xiaochun sighed and looked in the direction of the imperial palace.

“I nearly cracked the foundation of Saint-Emperor City, and this is how I get punished?” He blinked a few times, thinking about how obvious it was that the Saint-Emperor really wanted to kill him. Thankfully, he still had a measure of safety.

Over the course of the following days, the scowling Bai Xiaochun had no choice other than to clean the excrement of the heavenly dragonfish, and simultaneously ignore all the people pointing and staring at him.

Of course there was an upside. While he was working hard, he had a chance to hear a lot of the gossip about the Eternal Lands as a whole. For one thing, he was able to confirm that Gongsun Wan’er had not been lying to him about nature of cultivation levels. After the Celestial Realm was the Archaean Realm, and beyond that, the Sovereign Realm.

He also got a message from the Giant Ghost King, confirming yet again that the people of the Saint-Emperor Dynasty and Vile-Emperor Dynasty were unable to perform spirit enhancements, while the people of Heavenspan were. That was one of the reasons why both dynasties were eager to absorb the newcomers.

The Giant Ghost King also had some complaints. It turned out that Godsifter Prefecture was completely impoverished and sparsely populated. However, because of the public nature of how Bai Xiaochun had kidnapped Ghostmother, many Heavenspan cultivators had taken the initiative to go there.

Unfortunately, Godsifter Prefecture was located in the second immortal domain, and the celestial who ruled there stepped in to scatter many of the newly arrived Heavenspan cultivators into other random prefectures. The Giant Ghost King was worried that if things went on like this, they would eventually be assimilated into the Saint-Emperor Dynasty. Eventually, there would be no more so-called Heavenspan cultivators.

Bai Xiaochun was not very happy about the news. Perhaps it would be good for individual Heavenspan cultivators, most of whom simply wanted to settle down and live peacefully. However, Bai Xiaochun wanted to at least give them a choice in the matter.

Either assimilate into the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, or chose to remember their true home.... The Saint-Emperor Dynasty was not giving them an option, but Bai Xiaochun hoped to do just that.

And he would respect whatever they chose.

“The only way I can do that is to get stronger!” Having reached this point in his train of thought, his eyes began to glitter. Eating thousands of heavenly dragonfish had eventually reduced their effectiveness. However, the process had come with great benefits.

His Live Forever Codex was now only a hair away from the great circle!

Once he reached the great circle, he could make his attempt to leave the Demigod Realm and become a celestial by stepping into the Mahayana Realm!

“I need more spirit plants that can be used to concoct immortal pills!” Taking a deep breath, he looked around at Saint-Emperor City and tried to think of what he could use to increase his cultivation base....