Chapter 1318: Defeat

“Alright, so we head to the Immortal Pagoda!” Qing Yu laughed gaily.

Compared to the aloof and remote Hopeless Major, the Immortal Pagoda was the home that Lu Yun had forged in the Hongmeng. She’d wanted to move there a long time ago.

The Dao King’s machinations were her perfect chance to extricate herself.

The Yin Yang and Profound Kings looked at each other. The Immortal Pagoda? Then the page boy really was the Immortal King. Then… it was apparent who the Immortal Illusion King was—the Intrance King?

“Immortal King!” Profound took a deep breath and called out Lu Yun’s name. “If we shy away from battle, doesn’t that fail to live up to our power and prestige?”

“Do you want prestige or do you want to live?” Lu Yun swept a gaze over the Profound King.

“We kings of Hopeless Major would rather die than bend the knee!” Profound shouted righteously.

Lu Yun raised an eyebrow at Qing Yu, who looked back with resignation.

“You do know that the Dao King doesn’t want to just destroy Hopeless Major, but all Ten Valleys of Evil,” she sighed. “If we return now to meet them in battle or go to Kun Paradise, we’ll step right into his trap.

“His schemes have been exposed and word of them has spread throughout the valleys. What he needs to do now is quickly get things over and done with, or his painstaking efforts will all be wasted.”

The same explanation from Qing Yu was much more persuasive to the Yin Yang and Profound Kings.

“Do you know why I brought you with me and not the Soulmask King?” she asked the Profound King.

He didn’t respond because subconsciously, he felt that his eminent ruler didn’t trust him. That was why she didn’t want him to remain in Hopeless Major.

“Because Soulmask has a better grasp of the big picture than you. If you were the one holding down the fort in Hopeless Major today, our home and the other valleys would be fated for destruction.” Qing Yu said no more after this elaboration.

Her meaning was clear. Profound was suitable to be a henchman and not a ruler. If Hopeless Major fell into his hands, doom would soon follow.

The previous ruler had nurtured a successor like the Kaleidoscopic King in case something happened to him, but the successor had gone missing in the end. Plainly, the Dao King was behind this as well.

The Profound King fell into a sullen silence.

If Hopeless Major was surrounded and Qing Yu gave the order to retreat, he would never obey it. He would swear to live and die with the faction, and the rest of the faction disciples would stay by his side given his popularity.

“Come, let us return to Multitude Region.” Lu Yun smiled. “The Dao King’s scheme will be defused if there is no battle to be found. It’s not like he can force the other valleys into attacking each other.”

The Ten Valleys of Evil had been allied with each other for countless eons. It was only due to the Supplemental Dao Alliance’s monopoly and the drastic plans of the former Hopeless Major ruler that’d forced the other nine to join hands and whittle away at Hopeless Major.

None of them were fools since they were able to tower over the rest of the Hongmeng and withstand the Immortal Region for so long. If Hopeless Major didn’t answer the call for battle, the Dao King’s plans would end in complete failure.

……

In a patch of unknown space that connected nine valleys apart from Origin World, the Dao King and Shenyu stood in the air, looking quietly down at the scene below.

“This disciple has ruined master’s great plan. Please punish me, master.” After a long silence, Shenyu knelt in front of the Dao King.

“It’s fine.” The Dao King waved his hand and raised his disciple upright. “It was my oversight this time, I didn’t think they’d come in person. The Immortal Illusion King is very strong and even I might not be her match if I took to the field. It’s no surprise that you lost to her.”

Shenyu blinked, at a loss for words.

“I lost this round too, much less you,” murmured the Dao King as he looked at the Endless Reaches in front of him.

He was so immensely frustrated! It felt like he’d punched with all his might into a ball of cotton—no, not just punched, but self detonated and hit nothing at all.

There was nothing in Hopeless Major!

Not a single feather was left behind, to say nothing of formations, restrictions, treasures, cultivators, or anything of value.

Hopeless Major of the Ten Valleys of Evil had fled, en masse!

It was a cowardly and shameful act in the eyes of others, but precisely the kind of action that drove him crazy. However, he remained coolly composed without a hint of how flustered he was.

“Shenyu, go to Multitude City and set up a Haotian Tower next to the Immortal Pagoda. Sell supplemental treasures within it,” he suddenly said to his disciple.

“What?” Shenyu paused. “But… if we do that… then the monopoly over supplemental dao that we’ve spent so long setting up… won’t it…”

“It was broken the moment the Alchemist King lost.” The Dao King nodded. “Go on, don’t lose this round.”

“Understood.” Shenyu quickly asked, “Is the Immortal Illusion King really the Intrance King?”

His master inclined his head.

“So she has two titles?” Shenyu was flabbergasted.

“I once entered the world of immortals in search of someone so I could build a good relationship with her, but I failed. To think it was that little fox who stole the march on me,” the Dao King murmured. “The cause is in the present and the result in the past. Ai, I lost to God after all. I misjudged his judgment and daring.”

When God entered the great wilderness, the Dao King immediately took on the identity of Haotian and followed him. When God traveled through space and time to the future world of immortals, he also gave chase and became Great Emperor Haotian.

He’d failed despite it all because he’d never imagined that he would find no trace of that person in those two points of time. God had traveled there only to set up things for that person.

The one who built a relationship with that person was an ordinary fox. In all of the Dao King’s conjectures, he’d never fathomed that God would give his opportunity to someone else.

……

“Don’t go directly back to Multitude City!” Qing Yu suddenly said when they set foot outside of the Qi Sea. “We should enter through the southern gate. Some things will happen there.”

“Oh?” Lu Yun blinked. “Good things?”

Her command of formula dao was superior to his and she’d deployed it constantly along their way back, dodging a lot of dangers and gaining fortuitous opportunities.

“You could say that,” Qing Yu gave it some thought. “Someone is plotting against you and has been waiting for you for a while. Once you take them, the Immortal Pagoda will commence on its true path.”

“I understand.” A smile floated onto Lu Yun’s face.

……

Three hundred million miles outside the southern gate of Multitude City.

Three hundred million miles was an insurmountable distance to ordinary beings, but it was nothing for a Hongmeng King.

“They’re coming!” Hidden in the void, the Wild Formation King opened his eyes.

Next to him, the Alchemist leered. “He can’t help it in the end. Things are getting worse in Starspace Region and Dusksnow Morningstar is besieged on all sides. Of course the Immortal King will set out to rescue him.”

Lu Yun and the little fox were swiftly departing Multitude City together.