Chapter 160. Striking at the Heart, Two Choices, One Battle to Decide It All

The shores were scorched black. In the waters, blood mingled with the powerful waves elicited by the wuthering winds. The dozens of ships in the distance were riddled with cracks, threatening to crumble at any moment.

Most of the disciples from the Three Immortal Islands lay strewn across the ground, deader than dead.

Only the Grand Elder of Penglai remained standing, but blood seeped from the wounds all over him. Had it not been for the fact that he was at the Golden Body Realm, he would have collapsed long ago.

His expression reflected shock and terror as he gazed at the man before him. He trembled like an aspen tree, especially after hearing Lu Yuan's reply. He couldn't help but stagger backward in retreat.

What if they put everything on pause and talked things out? Well, hadn't he said earlier that only those with the bigger fist deserved to be heard?

"We can talk things out. As for the terms... we can talk about those again!" The Grand Elder of Penglai was truly afraid now.

He couldn't fathom how such a powerful expert existed on the mainland, but he knew that he had to yield. Lu Yuan was just too bizarre. He appeared to be merely at the Unfettered Realm, so how come he was so strong?

Even if he had shattered multiple genetic shackles, his level of strength was still too inconceivable and shocking.

Regardless, the Grand Elder of Penglai knew what he had to do—surrender.

"Talk?" Lu Yuan shook his head and spoke softly. "There's nothing to talk about."

Lu Yuan had no intention of wasting any more words. His golden vital qi erupted once more, and his organs trembled violently, emitting a thunderous roar as his overwhelming aura rolled off him once again.

Crackle!

A massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky.

BOOM!

The lightning shook everything upon impact.

Grievously wounded, the Grand Elder of Penglai couldn't resist and was obliterated on the spot.

The strongest among this wave of islanders, the Grand Elder of Penglai, was dead. From start to finish, everything took no more than a few minutes. The tides were turned in an instant.

Lu Yuan remained where he stood, his expression calm. With his current level of strength, he could kill just about anything. Otherwise, how could he justify assimilating so many divine artifacts?

"Elder Ji, Elder Yun... I'm leaving the disciples of the three sects to you," said Lu Yuan before turning around without looking back.

The surviving disciples had all suffered varying degrees of injury. Even if they weren't dead, they had lost all strength to resist. The two elders could surely handle them like taking candy from a baby.

"King Lu..." Elder Ji approached, looking somewhat crestfallen. He had believed they could resolve this matter on their own, yet in the end, King Lu still needed to step in and clean up their mess.

For him, this counted as a failure. Of course, Elder Yun felt the same.

"I understand what you two are thinking, and it's not unreasonable at all." Lu Yuan regarded them with a slight smile. "In this New Era, the Awakened will only grow stronger, and modern weaponry will inevitably become obsolete. I believe we must cultivate one or two true powerhouses to hold the fort."

He didn't say much more, merely offering the top echelons a proper direction to consider. The specifics depended on them.

In truth, in his previous life, the officials had only come to this realization after their war with the Three Immortal Islands, and even then, they had already paid a massive price. The Three Immortal Islands harbored true Awakened with deeper foundations, and modern weapons were useless against them.

This was precisely why Lu Yuan had chosen to intervene. Of course, his intervention also served as a reminder.

However, the officials couldn't be entirely blamed for their prejudice. In the early stages of the Global Awakening, modern weapons were indeed useful and could deal with many threats.

Nukes remained a terrifying deterrent and the source of the officials' confidence.

However, they were destined to become obsolete.

"We understand." The two elders nodded. Now, they knew what needed to be done going forward.

"Good." Lu Yuan smiled. "In that case, I'm going first. I have something to do."

"Something to do?" Elder Ji was taken aback. "Aren't we done here? What else is there? These disciples no longer pose a threat. Shouldn't we rest and regroup?"

Elder Yun and the others were equally puzzled, unsure of what he meant.

Lu Yuan turned toward the three islands in the distance. As always, the three islands were shrouded in what looked like purple clouds.

"I'm going to strike at their heart," he said.

With that, the golden eagle that had been circling overhead descended.

Lu Yuan hopped onto it, and the golden eagle flew toward the Three Immortal Islands.

Lu Yuan believed it would be too troublesome to deal with them later. It was better to handle them now that he was already here. In addition, it was always better to strike first.

"King Lu... is going to attack the Three Immortal Islands?" Elder Yun was stunned. He had no idea what to say.

"There must be a good reason for it. We just have to handle things behind the scenes," Elder Ji replied. He understood that Lu Yuan wanted to uproot the root of the issue, just like what he had done on Mount Olympus. Overthinking it now was pointless; it was better to simply wait here for good news.

The others had no objections, and just like that, they began clearing the battlefield.

***

Above the Bohai Sea, Lu Yuan stood on the golden eagle's back, gazing at the Three Immortal Islands in the distance. Radiant clouds filled the sky around them, making them look like they truly were the legendary abode of immortals—a place everyone yearned to visit.

The golden eagle flew forward at great speeds, and Lu Yuan soon noticed something strange—the distance between himself and the islands remained unchanged.

They appeared exactly as they were from the shore.

"Jiang Ningxian said the three islands exist inside a folded space, which is very difficult to infiltrate. It seems she was telling the truth."

This was the first time Lu Yuan had encountered such a phenomenon, but he remained undisturbed. Before, he had no idea how to infiltrate the islands, as they existed in a folded space beyond the bounds of human understanding.

However, things were different now.

Lu Yuan produced the jade slip Jiang Ningxian had given him. He then crushed it, following her instructions without hesitation.

The jade slip crumbled to powder, and the particles emitted streams of radiant light that converged on one point. In the distance, the Three Immortal Islands seemed to tremble slightly before becoming clearer than ever on the sea surface.

Buzz!

The radiant light from the jade powder coalesced into a shining passage directly connected to the islands. Lu Yuan knew that he'd reach the Three Immortal Islands by walking through the passage.

A smile crossed his face.

I owe her a favor now.

Without her aid, he wouldn't be able to enter the folded space where the Three Immortal Islands were located. The golden eagle beneath him sensed something and flew into the passage. As a beast king, it naturally understood many things.

As they continued on their journey in the passage, Lu Yuan noticed a peculiar aura emanating from the Three Immortal Islands, and it was unlike anything he had ever sensed in the outside world.

He couldn't quite describe it, but he felt as if everything within the island was being suppressed.

"The Separation of Heaven and Earth is gradually fading, and the resources of the Three Immortal Islands have been depleted. I guess the environment has changed drastically compared to back then," Lu Yuan murmured to himself, realizing what was going on.

If an analogy were to be made, it would be like one's living environment had changed drastically compared to the first time they settled down on the island.

Ordinary people wouldn't notice the changes, but nearly everyone on the Three Immortal Islands was an Awakened, and they could keenly feel the harsh truth—the truth that the Three Immortal Islands could no longer accommodate the Awakened.

Everyone on the island would eventually become ordinary humans, stripped of their extraordinary powers.

Just as Jiang Ningxian had said, the islanders had to periodically emerge to plunder resources outside. Otherwise, they would exhaust everything they had.

When Lu Yuan finally exited the passage, the scene before him confirmed his theory. Three islands came into his view, but they were nothing like what he had seen from outside.

Instead of being greeted by lush vegetation and a perpetual purple mist, everything was steeped in decay. Giant trees and other plants stood bare and lifeless. The island did not look like the legendary abode of immortals at all.

This was the truth concealed by the folded space, which only appeared after the Global Awakening. The resources throughout the Three Immortal Islands had been depleted.

The golden eagle let out a cry and pressed forward.

"Who dares trespass on our islands?" A voice rang out, echoing throughout the surroundings. At the same time, dozens of figures flew out of the three islands, led by three elderly men whose auras were the most formidable of all.

Their ability to fly told Lu Yuan that they were Golden Body Realm experts.

The three islands had a fairly formidable lineup consisting of over a dozen Golden Body Realm experts. Each of them could reign supreme over their own territory outside.

The three elderly men at the helm were certainly the rulers of Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou—the so-called Sect Masters. They had detected Lu Yuan the instant he opened a passage, and they revealed themselves immediately to respond.

"A mainlander." The Sect Master of Penglai frowned, glaring at Lu Yuan with cold eyes. "You've crossed the line."

"Speak. How did you get in?" Fangzhang's Sect Master coldly demanded.

"Enough words; take him down first," Yingzhou's Sect Master chimed in.

Like those they had sent outside, their arrogance was insufferable. Since Lu Yuan had arrived here on a golden eagle, they knew he wasn't a Golden Body Realm expert, so what was there to worry about?

The three found it somewhat strange that the disciples they had dispatched had yet to send any word back, but their top priority was dealing with the intruder before them.

Lu Yuan stared calmly at the three. He had no intention of wasting any words as well, as he cut to the chase, saying, "I'm here to represent the mainland. I offer you two choices. You can either submit and serve the mainland, or be annihilated."

He hadn't come here just to kill them all. He had another goal as well. Despite their treacherous natures, these people were powerful. Many crises were ahead, and they could serve as useful fighters during those times.

As for the question of loyalty, he remained unconcerned. The Golden-Winged Great Peng had a Blood Bond with him, and while it was a pact between human and beast, Lu Yuan's talent enhanced by the Bodhi Tree meant he could easily create something similar to restrain the experts of the Three Immortal Islands.

In truth, he disliked doing things this way, but there was no choice—extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures. Of course, before any of that, it seemed a battle remained inevitable.

"Impudent!"

"Audacious!"

"You must have come here to die!"

The three Sect Masters erupted in fury upon hearing him. They hadn't expected this mainlander to demand their submission without so much as a proper exchange. Where was his confidence coming from?

Of course, none of that mattered now. In their eyes, Lu Yuan had committed a crime, and this kind of crime deserved the heaviest punishment.

Without another word, the three Sect Masters led the other Golden Body Realm experts to attack Lu Yuan. Could a mere Unfettered Realm expert like Lu Yuan really turn the tide against them?

Lu Yuan stood on the golden eagle's back with a smile glimmering in his eyes.

Rumble!

A terrifying aura erupted from him, and a blazing sun rose slowly behind him as if it were in the midst of sunrise. At the same time, his golden vital qi billowed out, making him appear as if he were a deity that had descended from the heavens.

The upcoming battle would decide the outcome of this incident—one battle to decide it all!