The patriarch from Polarity Quarter was none other than... Bai Lin’s grandfather!

His name was Bai Zhentian, and he had a cultivation base that could shake heaven and earth, as well as a very bad temper. Flames currently danced in his eyes as he stared at the Nascent Soul elder from the Polarity River Court, who was trembling physically as he prostrated in front of him.

“So, you’re telling me that the rumors are all true? And the patriarch of your Polarity River Court was the most useless of all and got killed?”

Shivering in fear, the elder replied, “It was all because of Patriarch Starry River! He--”

Before he could continue with his explanation, Bai Zhentian interrupted him with a furious shout, “Screw off!”

The rainbow outside trembled, and the elder tumbled backward, blood spraying out of his mouth as he was flung out of Bai Zhentian’s residence.

It was roughly at that time that Chen Hetian’s divine sense reached out, projecting his sinister voice into Bai Zhentian’s ears.

“Brother Bai, how do you want to handle this situation?!”

“How do I want to handle it?” Bai Zhentian replied coldly. “We’ll make that bastard pay with his life!”

At the moment, Bai Zhentian didn’t care at all about what his grandson Bai Lin thought about the situation. When it came to matters pertaining to the clan as a whole, it didn’t matter that Bai Zhentian liked Bai Lin. He couldn’t just ignore a threat because of Bai Lin’s feelings.

The truth was that when Bai Zhentian had given tacit approval for the Polarity River Court to attack the River-Defying Sect, Bai Lin had come to protest, and the two of them had a huge argument about the matter.

The same thing had happened with Chen Hetian. Zhao Tianjiao and his Daoist partner Chen Yueshan had come to beg him to change his mind, but in the end, he had ignored them.

Now that something dramatic had occurred, there was no way that Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian would let the matter drop!

“Count me in!” came an ancient voice, transmitted through divine sense to Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian.

It was none other than the patriarch from Starry Quarter. He was the grandfather of Li Yuansheng and the ultimate backer of the Celestial Sky Society. His name was Li Xiandao!

Bai Xiaochun’s actions against the three sects had affected his interests, and although the Starry River Court had incurred the least losses of all, it was not something that Li Xiandao could simply overlook.

After all... he had given tacit approval for the three sects to act. Furthermore, the alliance had been designed to suppress the child-deva from Sky Quarter. Therefore, how could Li Xiandao simply allow Bai Xiaochun to ruin everything?

“Very well,” Chen Hetian said, his eyes flickering with cold light. “Since you agree, Brother Li, then there’s no time to lose. After all, we’ve had Fellow Daoist Li Yuantian suppressed for years now. We don’t want him to get any thoughts now.”

Among the five devas of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, there were two with the surname Li. However, they didn’t come from the same clan! [1]

In response to Bai Zhentian’s words, Li Xiandao nodded. Then, the three of them communicated a bit more, whereupon powerful deva fluctuations erupted from the rainbows of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect.

Li Xiandao, Bai Zhentian and Chen Hetian all became bright beams of light which shot off into the distance. Following them were the patriarchs of the Dao and Starry River Court. In total, there were five devas, three in the front, two in the back, streaking through the sky!

Their destination was the River-Defying Sect, and their intention... was to punish Bai Xiaochun!

The fact that five devas had burst out into the open caused quite a commotion in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect. Countless disciples were shaken, and many cries of alarm rang out.

“What’s going on!?”

“That was Patriarch Chen, Patriarch Bai and Patriarch Li... Then there were two other devas who I’m pretty sure are from Middle Reaches sects....”

Even as the disciples began to discuss the matter, Zhao Tianjiao shot up into the air, looking anxiously off into the distance after his Master. He too had heard that Bai Xiaochun was back, and that the River-Defying Sect had made a spectacular comeback.

He had already been feeling guilty about everything, so when he saw his Master and the other devas heading toward the River-Defying Sect, his heart began to pound with nervousness, and his eyes turned crimson.

“I don’t care what happens, Bai Xiaochun is my brother. He didn’t do anything wrong! Don’t tell me it’s against the rules to defend oneself! Don’t tell me it’s wrong to save your sect!” Shouting in anger, Zhao Tianjiao shot toward the River-Defying Sect. Although he knew he couldn’t do anything to stop his Master, he was determined to stand by Bai Xiaochun’s side!

His Daoist partner Chen Yueshan flew by his side, as resolute and determined as him!

Even as Zhao Tianjiao and Chen Yueshan took off, someone else in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect was reacting with complete madness to the situation. It was none other than Bai Lin!

When Bai Lin sensed that his grandfather was heading to the River-Defying Sect on a killing mission, Bai Lin’s anger exploded.

“Bai Xiaochun is one of

my

major generals, grandfather! Maybe I couldn’t do anything to stop you from trying to exterminate the River-Defying Sect when he was missing. But now that he’s back, I can’t believe you’re going to do this.... Well... you’re forcing my hand!” Bai Lin had a short temper to begin with, so once it sparked, he flew into the air... and headed toward the Hall of Steel Veins!

Bai Xiaochun wasn’t just a subordinate of Bai Lin. He was also... a member of the Hall of Steel Veins! The major generals of the five legions were

all

part of the Hall of Steel Veins!

In the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, there were four devas attached to the four major branches of the river. But they weren’t the only devas. There was another! He was... Patriarch Steel Veins, a person who took orders only from the sect’s demigod patriarch!

It was impossible to say how Bai Lin went about making his report. However, moments later, fluctuations began to roll out that far surpassed those which had come from Chen Hetian and the other devas. The source: the Hall of Steel Veins!

At the same time, a middle-aged man appeared, clad in blood-colored armor that made him look like he had climbed mountains of corpses and swam through seas of blood to reach his current state.

“Summon the five legions!” he said coolly.

As his words echoed out through the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, countless figures suddenly appeared, speeding through the air in his direction. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.... Within the space of a few breaths of time, nearly 100,000 people appeared. They were none other than... the cultivators of the five legions!

Many of them personally knew Bai Xiaochun, and many had fought alongside him in battle. In fact, many of them had been part of the 10,000-man corps he led as a major general.

At the same time, Bai Lin also appeared, clad in a suit of armor, flanked by his fellow generals, all of them looking very grim.

Patriarch Steel Veins looked around, and then spoke in a voice that echoed like thunder into the ears of the tens of thousands of cultivators. “If someone wants to attack the River-Defying Sect, we can’t do anything about that. But when someone makes a move against a major general of the Hall of Steel Veins... is that something we can stand for?”

“Never!!” came the response, a swell of voices that shook the entire Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect. With that, the patriarch waved his hand.

“Very well. Let’s go take a look... and see who dares to trifle with one of our major generals!”

Terrifying battle cries filled the sky as the massive army from the Hall of Steel Veins followed their patriarch into action.

The Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect was completely and utterly shaken by what they were seeing. Countless disciples looked up with shocked expressions....

“Something big is about to happen!!”

“River-Defying Sect? Bai Xiaochun? Wait, I remember. Bai Xiaochun used to be a major general at the Great Wall!!”

“This... this is a battle amongst devas!”

As everyone devolved into chaos, the child-deva sat in a private chamber on Sky Quarter Rainbow, his eyes flickering with hesitation.

The truth was that he was actually the main reason all of this was happening, and at the moment, was weighing the pros and cons of taking action. In the end, he shook his head.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Forget it. If I interfered and won, then it wouldn’t matter. But if I lost....” With that, he closed his eyes and went back to meditating, ignoring all of the clamor outside.

The truth was that he had long since abandoned the River-Defying Sect in his heart. As far as he was concerned, the fact that Bai Xiaochun had returned didn’t mean anything. And from what he could tell, although the Hall of Steel Veins might protect Bai Xiaochun, they wouldn’t protect his sect.

Even if Bai Xiaochun could get out of the situation alive... the River-Defying Sect would not be able to escape.

Four of the five devas in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect had taken action, causing the sky to fill with ripples.

Devas could move with incredible quickness, especially Chen Hetian and his companions. It didn’t take long before... they were in sight of the River-Defying Sect’s headquarters!

Chen Hetian and the other devas exchanged glances, and then began to transmit a conversation among themselves.

“It’s no surprise that the Hall of Steel Veins took action. But they can only do so much. Even if they save Bai Xiaochun, they can’t get too involved with other sect affairs!!”

“Patriarch Steel Veins is just going through the motions. If he had come alone, he could have caught up with us already. The fact that he’s bringing the five legions with him shows that he’s actually giving us time to take care of things before he gets here.”

“Since he’s making a show of it, we should probably give him some face. Fine, let’s cripple Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base, but leave him alive. That should be fine!”

1. As you can see, the child-deva from Sky Quarter is also surnamed Li, but is from a different clan than Li Xiandao. Because of that, I think that, way back when, I erroneously came to the conclusion that Li Yuansheng was from that child-deva’s clan. I’m not sure if it was in a footnote, or in the narrative itself. I went back to search for that reference but couldn’t find it, so if anyone knows what I’m talking about, please respond to the comment I’m going to leave in the comment section. UPDATE: Someone did respond, and as it turns out, it wasn’t my mistake. I’ve since gone back to fix the mistake.