Chapter 708: An Unexpected Gift

Back when Wang Shan had trapped Wang Sheng on a planet, Ling Sheng destroyed many Golden Immortals. Still, Wang Sheng didn't develop contempt for the Golden Immortal Realm. On the contrary, fighting the dying Golden Immortal made him even more wary of the Daoist masters who had attained true immortality.

He had annihilated the Celestial Wind Sect today. Right before the elderly couple, he had killed its sect master and destroyed its grand defensive array. However, even after exhausting himself, he still could not break through the couple's defenses.

Even just fighting them for a time had severely drained his immortal power. Had the battle dragged on, defeat would have been inevitable. Meanwhile, the moment Lin Yun joined the battle, she easily killed the couple before they could even react.

Afterward, she destroyed what little remained of the Celestial Wind Sect's mountain gate with three palm strikes and sent the army of celestial soldiers flying with a casual sweep. Spreading her fingers, she then created a barrier around the ruins, allowing entry but preventing escape.

With effortless ease, the Golden Immortal brought the entire battlefield under control. Under the pressure she emitted, even Long Liekong's draconic roar, Hu Chang's tiger roar, and Huai Jing's golden-body-supported shouts all seemed faint and powerless.

Becoming an immortal and attaining true immortality were both elevations of life itself, but the difference between them was no trivial matter.

Wang Sheng cut down enemies all over the battlefield, staining Spiritless with blood. The Myriad-Slaying Sword Intent within him stirred restlessly, but it never found the chance to be unleashed.

Half a day later, Tianfeng fell from chaos into dead silence.

Two enormous rifts stretching ten thousand

li

scarred the land. Their intersection marked the ruins of the mountain gate.

Lin Yun hovered quietly in the sky. With their cultivation sealed, the enemy elites who had surrendered could only wait in silence amid the wreckage for whatever fate awaited them.

The Celestial Wind Sect's forces had been annihilated. When Wang Sheng's group swiftly eliminated the Heavenly Immortals, the majority chose to stand down. Only a few immortals—the most fanatical loyalists—insisted on fighting back and dying with the sect.

Wang Sheng showed them no mercy.

Those who surrendered were spared if they were not important. He required only that they swear oaths and leave the vicinity of the ancient battlefield. However, whether they surrendered or not, he destroyed the Primordial Spirits of the sect master, elders, and core elites of the Celestial Wind Sect.

In a battle between sects, bloodshed was inevitable. Wang Sheng did not allow it to disturb his Dao Heart.

After the battle, he instructed Hu Chang and Long Liekong to clean up the battlefield and retrieve all usable resources.

The two eagerly carried out his order. The thought of skimming some profit made Hu Chang grin like a child—a massive child who was tens of thousands of years old and made entirely of muscle.

Lishang had gone off to handle something else. After some time, she returned from a distance with two people bound with a celestial rope. She had found Li Tianyao and Lingqiao, who had been severely injured, hiding in an underground treasury beneath the sect.

She brought them before Wang Sheng, who stood on a cloud overlooking the ruins.

Wang Sheng frowned slightly. "You could have killed them on the spot. Why bring them here?"

Lishang replied calmly, "For your revenge, of course. Don't you want to kill them yourself? In your words, a sense of ceremony is quite important."

Wang Sheng chuckled softly.

"The Celestial Wind Sect has been destroyed. My revenge is complete," he said as immortal light gathered in his palm, slowly forming Flying Cloud. "These two are no more than leftover nails of the sect. They are not important."

Looking deathly pale, Li Tianyao cried out in panic, "Immortal Master, please spare my life! I let my pride blind me enough to offend you before, but you have already destroyed the Celestial Wind Sect. I swear I will never seek revenge! Please spare my worthless life. I—"

Sword radiance flashed, blasting Li Tianyao backward and severing his Primordial Spirit. A white flame engulfed and instantly reduced him to nothing.

Flying Cloud now rested at Lingqiao's throat. She gazed at Wang Sheng with hatred burning in her eyes, yet under that hatred was a trace of helplessness and confusion.

Wang Sheng calmly advised, "If your true spirit manages to reincarnate, choose your Daoist partner more carefully."

He thrust Flying Cloud without hesitation, piercing Lingqiao's Primordial Spirit and destroying her soul completely.

That was why he spoke of true-spirit reincarnation instead of regular reincarnation.

Now that Li Tianyao and Lingqiao were dead, Wang Sheng felt a bit of weight lifted from his heart. The memories from the blood mine faded and lost their sting.

As Lishang had said, revenge required its own sense of ceremony.

A draconic roar echoed as Long Liekong and Hu Chang rushed up from below, having finished cleaning the battlefield.

Wang Sheng gestured, and Huai Jing, who had been performing rites for the dead among the ruins, leaped toward him as well. The group gathered beside Lin Yun and departed through the air together.

Below them, only a handful of True Immortals remained among the survivors of the Celestial Wind Sect.

At that moment, a scream tore through the silence. Panic spread at once. Roughly half the cultivators rushed into the ruins, searching for any remaining valuables and looting the corpses' storage artifacts.

Most of them were unaffiliated practitioners. Since they had survived, they immediately tried to salvage what they could to ensure their future cultivation would not be cut off.

No one knew who struck first, but chaos quickly engulfed the ruins, adding yet more bodies to the pile.

Wang Sheng and his companions continued sweeping through the three celestial bodies of the Celestial Wind Sect's solar system. They stripped the Celestial Wind Sect's Daoist Canon Repository completely clean before withdrawing to the ancient battlefield, still feeling unsatisfied.

The whole process left them wanting more.

For a long time, this sect had weighed on Wang Sheng and Lishang's hearts like an impenetrable barrier. However, once Wang Sheng broke through to the Heavenly Immortal Realm, recruited the dragon and the tiger as subordinates, and secured Lin Yun's assistance, the group overturned the entire sect in one strike.

Compared to other celestial gates, the development of the Celestial Wind Sect had always been somewhat abnormal. They controlled three planets, had a large army of True Immortals and celestial soldiers, and had amassed tremendous wealth through the ancient battlefield.

Yet they had no Golden Immortal to anchor the sect.

Across most of the endless space, a celestial gate without a Golden Immortal could barely hold a planet together. It would never dare expand further, either.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

This situation stemmed mainly from the origin of the ancient battlefield and the history of the thirteen qi planets surrounding it.

The area's history spanned only a little over one hundred thousand years since most of the thirteen qi planets had been relocated from elsewhere. After a great war, the three nearest suns captured and integrated them into their solar systems.

Places like the ancient battlefield attracted numerous unaffiliated practitioners, but they rarely drew Golden Immortals. Over time, this created a place crowded with small celestial gates around the battlefield.

The Celestial Wind Sect reached its peak before Wang Sheng left the Realm of Exiled Immortals. Even then, its sect master and the two senior elders with the highest cultivation were still quite far from reaching the Golden Immortal Realm.

Sensing a grave crisis approaching, they paid a heavy price to put Li Tianyao within the North-Sea Sword Sect and secure a powerful backer.

Because of that same source of anxiety, once the North-Sea Sword Sect abandoned them, they immediately sought another protector: the East-Sea Sword Sect.

However, they made a simple yet fatal miscalculation.

Wang Sheng didn't fear the East-Sea Sword Sect in the slightest. He swiftly destroyed the Celestial Wind Sect and eliminated every expert the East-Sea Sword Sect had stationed in its mountain gate.

He had already considered how to respond to retaliation as well. If necessary, everyone could lie low for several more years and then use the jade disk to recruit two or three more former Heavenly Court immortals.

Inside the Shadowless Shuttle, after entering the ancient battlefield, Lishang and Huai Jing frowned. They raised the same issue with Wang Sheng.

"Should we strike first?" Huai Jing asked. "Now that I have already broken the precept against killing, I see no reason to hesitate. We could gather several more experts and launch a surprise attack on the East-Sea Sword Sect!"

Lishang added, "Since mortal enmity has already formed, there is no reason to spare them."

Wang Sheng considered their suggestion briefly, then nodded. "We'll investigate how powerful that sect truly is first. If we have to, we'll have the Xinghai Sect withdraw into the Realm of Exiled Immortals to avoid the brunt. We have to prepare thoroughly first before we act."

Lin Yun said, "My lord, I could summon several close friends whose loyalty to the Heavenly Court is beyond question. There would not even be any need to explain the reason. Together, we could easily destroy the East-Sea Sword Sect."

"

Amitabha.

That's not a bad idea."

"That works. Let us return and consult the sect master's divination before deciding," Wang Sheng replied.

Lin Yun's arrival had already lifted much of the burden from his shoulders. If she gathered several former Heavenly Court members without revealing anything about Earth, they could avoid many complications.

However, plans could never keep pace with change.

When Wang Sheng's group returned to the Xinghai Sect's hidden base, the entire sect had already prepared for campaigns in all directions. Their next task was to purge the remaining forces of the Celestial Wind Sect that were still on the ancient battlefield.

Yao Xingzi greeted the victorious group with a troubled expression. Upon seeing Wang Sheng, he whispered, "Our location has been discovered again."

"What happened, Sect Master?"

"Half an hour ago, a cloaked young girl delivered this letter." Yao Xingzi took out a jade pendant and handed it to Wang Sheng. "She claimed to bring good news, but said only you could open it. She had likely ascended past the Heavenly Immortal Realm."

Puzzled, Wang Sheng accepted the pendant.

Long Liekong warned uneasily, "Master, be cautious. It could be some kind of curse."

Wang Sheng nodded, took out the small wooden sword, and carefully infused a thread of immortal power into the pendant.

Several lines of small cyan characters appeared in midair.

To Fei Yu, my worthy nephew,

From within the Star Gate, I learned that the rebellious disciple whom our sect once expelled intends to trouble you. I am deeply angered and ashamed.

By the time you read this, the immortals that we have dispatched will have likely arrived at the East-Sea Sword Sect's mountain gate to swiftly eliminate them in hopes that you will not hold this matter against us.

Hostess Su informed me that you cultivate in the Dao of the Sword. This pleases me greatly. Should you have leisure, you are welcome to visit the North-River Sword Sect. We will receive you with full courtesy. I hope we can exchange insights on the Dao of the Sword at that time.

Yuan Feihong, Sect Master of the North-River Sword Sect.

Wang Sheng couldn't help but be confused.

The North River Sword Sect? Hostess Su? How did they become involved in this?

Did a lover betray our forefather? No, that makes no sense. Hostess Su works in the service industry, after all.

Wang Sheng found himself momentarily unable to process the situation. Yao Xingzi, Lishang, and the others who had read the message all looked just as confused.