Chapter Sixty-Nine: Green Sandalwood Receives the Master's Command

Fan Zhujiao fled straight back to the Sacred Realm with her clan, not daring to settle the extra inn charges.

The ancestor of the Candle Dragon Clan, however, was delighted. “At last, I can spar with that old fellow again.” He cared nothing for the so-called title of “the one not to be provoked.” Ever since the Teng Snake Clan had been demoted to the Divine Realm, he’d had no one to fight. The old patriarch of the Azure Dragon Clan did nothing but seclude himself in meditation, day after day. What use was such endless seclusion, anyway? This world was not only about bloodline supremacy; cultivation was also limited by bloodline. In the Sacred Realm, no one could surpass the Saint Sovereign stage—how much higher could one possibly go? Surely, at his age, he didn’t still dream of barging into the Taiyi Palace, breaking through the Eight Trigrams Array, and entering the Holy Land?

Fan Wuwei, upon leaving his own home, made straight for the Teng Snake Clan’s abode. With his cultivation, it was easy to locate the newly ascended Teng Snake Clan. A tremendous spiritual pressure swept over them; most members of the Teng Snake Clan were still unaccustomed to the Sacred Realm. For the sake of his clan, Jun Jue stood up, flying into the sky to withstand Fan Wuwei’s pressure head-on.

“Fan Wuwei, withdraw your spiritual might!” he demanded.

“Where’s Jun Yang?” Fan Wuwei squinted, searching around, but did not lessen his pressure.

“The clan leader is traveling and is not in the abode,” Jun Jue replied, struggling to hold his ground. Restricted by the Divine Realm, his cultivation was nowhere near Fan Wuwei’s, and he couldn’t help but stumble back a few steps.

“Traveling? That old fox is really at ease—manages to wander about and turn your Teng Snake Clan into a sacred clan in the process? Where, exactly, is he traveling?” Fan Wuwei had no interest in bullying juniors. He only wanted to force Jun Yang to show himself. Having gone this far without Jun Yang appearing, he guessed the man truly was absent from the clan’s abode, and so gradually eased off his spiritual pressure.

“Did he say when he’d return?”

After coughing twice, Jun Jue answered, “He did not.”

“How boring.” Fan Wuwei had arrived in high spirits but left disappointed.

Meanwhile, in the Celestial Treasure Pavilion, Jun Yang not only had his bloodline restored, but his cultivation was also rapidly rising. Previously, due to the Divine Realm’s restrictions, his powers had been suppressed to the quasi-saint level. Fifty thousand years ago, the reason he’d swept through all rivals was precisely because no one else could reach his level of cultivation. Now, though, every clan leader in the Sacred Realm seemed stuck at the same bottleneck—Saint Sovereign, unable to advance.

Lü Tan, having drunk far too much, was dead asleep in his room and missed the entire commotion. Pavilion Master Liu Shuzhi was quite impressed by the composure of the three guests; while nearly all patrons had rushed outside in panic to investigate the disturbance, these three never budged until the event was over. Liu Shuzhi soon surmised that Jun Yang must be the Teng Snake Clan’s leader. The Teng Snake spirit’s ascension, so rare it hadn’t occurred in a million years, must have happened because Jun Yang fed the Golden Crow Seed to it. Only Jun Yang fit the profile of the Teng Snake Clan’s ancient patriarch; You Xiyue and Lü Tan were far too young.

What Liu Shuzhi hadn’t expected was that the Golden Crow Seed could so greatly elevate a bloodline, pulling a clan cast down to the Divine Realm all the way back up to the Sacred Realm.

“Aren’t you going to check on your clan?” asked You Xiyue, chin in hand, gazing at the still-excited Jun Yang.

“No need.” Jun Yang trusted his third brother implicitly. “Jun Jue can handle things. If I went back now, it would only bring them trouble.”

He was right in this. The Candle Dragon Clan’s old patriarch had just come looking for him. Had he truly been in residence, they might have already started fighting, and would the Teng Snake abode have survived? Soon, visitors from across the Sacred Realm would be flocking to call on the Teng Snake Clan, and Jun Yang had no desire to deal with such scenes.

The Teng Snake spirit’s ascension caused quite a stir throughout the Sacred Realm. The few who had planned to rob the Azure Dragon Clan stood stunned; so the Golden Crow Seed had really been bought by someone else, and only it could have enabled the Teng Snake Clan’s sudden return to the Sacred Realm. What point was there in fighting now? The Golden Crow Seed had been absorbed, the ascension completed. Exchanging glances, they quietly withdrew to their own clans.

Fan Lihua and several Azure Dragon members stood frozen in place for a long while.

“Did the little goddess buy the Golden Crow Seed for the Teng Snake Clan?” she wondered.

Qing Yide and Qing Mo, naturally, could not answer. They knew nothing, except that the young master who bid on the seed was exceptionally strong. That Golden Crow Seed had elevated the Teng Snake Clan from the Divine Realm to the Sacred Realm; perhaps if their own clan spirit consumed it, they too could reach the Holy Land?

The Azure Dragon Clan’s old patriarch had always longed for the Holy Land, endlessly secluding himself in study and cultivation. That was why Qing Yide’s father, Qing Yunlang, had sent them to the Celestial Realm to bid for the Golden Crow Seed and try their luck. The Candle Dragon Clan, by contrast, simply wanted to compete with the Azure Dragons; Fan Wuwei had no interest in the Holy Land and, if anything, wished to stay as far away from it as possible—he considered its denizens to be utter monsters.

The other clans who’d tried to rob the Azure Dragons also hoped for a glimpse of the Holy Land. But only Jun Yang knew the truth: thinking a single Golden Crow Seed could grant entry to the Holy Land was pure fantasy.

Until he met You Xiyue, he too had believed the gap between the Sacred Realm and the Holy Land was not so great—a belief much like that held by the other clans now. It wasn’t until You Xiyue, still a child and without using any bloodline power, had easily bested him that he fully understood the difference.

Lü Tan slept until the middle of the night, finally awakened by the demonic power orb leaping from his storage pouch. He quickly crushed the orb, releasing a demonic aura that formed a message in the air: “Northern Realm of the Demon World, Taigu City, great demon missing.”

“Someone can go missing in Taigu City?” Lü Tan scratched his head, hurriedly straightened his clothes, and went to take his leave from You Xiyue and Jun Yang.

The Demon World was divided into southern and northern regions. Taigu City was the largest city in the north, home to many powerful demons. Though demons often fought over territory, they rarely devoured each other outright; that was more the demons’ way—true demons had principles. Thus, a great demon’s unexplained disappearance in Taigu City was highly suspicious.

Lü Tan knocked on You Xiyue’s door. “Senior, I’ve come to say goodbye. I have some private matters to attend to and won’t trouble you further.”

As he turned to leave, Jun Yang grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into the room. “You’re not going anywhere until Xueyu arrives.”

“Xueyu?” Lü Tan was helpless. That cat was always kept close by its master; there was nothing he could do. Still, his master had promised that once the Ten Thousand Demon Fire Evil Spirit was caught, Xueyu would be freed. Why the cat hadn’t shown up yet, he couldn’t fathom.

“It should be here soon, right?”

“Then wait until it arrives before you leave,” Jun Yang insisted.

“But I really have urgent business…”

“What is it?”

Lü Tan struggled for a moment before replying, “A great demon has gone missing in Taigu City in the Demon World. My master sent me to investigate.”

“How can a cultivator like you enter the Demon World?” Jun Yang was incredulous.

Lü Tan sighed, pointing to the jade pendant at his waist. “My master gave me this—it’s an array that suppresses my demonic aura. I’m actually, like my master, a half-demon. If I remove it, my demonic aura will be released.”

“You’re a half-demon too?” You Xiyue was a little surprised. Half-demons were exceedingly rare; few mothers could survive the gestation of two mutually repellent forces warring inside them.