Immortal-Exterminating Divine Venerable

”This is bad! This arrow...”

The arrow shot back.

Long Xingkong’s face fell.

He sensed the terrifying killing power contained within the arrow. Instinctively, he wanted to dodge.

But he couldn’t.

He couldn’t dodge, so he had to strike it down.

SHHNK!

But, before he could even react, before he could even move a hand, the arrow pierced his throat.

’No, isn’t he just at the Second or Third Layer of the Innate Realm? How is this possible?’

Even in death, Long Xingkong could never have imagined it.

That this young man before him, whose aura seemed weak—weaker than his own, even—could possess such terrifying strength.

He was filled with regret.

But it was too late.

In truth, he was simply unlucky.

Ever since Yang Xiao discovered that cultivating slowly, step-by-step, to the Orange Flame Peak was somewhat beneficial to his Spiritual Power,

he had abstained from taking any Spirit Medicine.

As a result, the aura within his body had remained weak.

He appeared to be only at the Peak of Innate Realm Second Stage.

But in reality, even at the Peak of Innate Realm Second Stage, when combined with his body’s Origin Flame, Yang Xiao’s destructive power already surpassed that of a Martial Grandmaster at the Second Layer Peak.

How could the likes of Long Xingkong possibly compare?

He was merely at the Peak of Innate Realm Seventh Layer.

In the secular kingdoms, he was considered among the absolute strongest.

But compared to Yang Xiao, he was far too lacking.

And yet he chose to provoke him.

He deserved to die.

But his death set off a massive uproar.

”General Long is dead!”

”Quick, go report this! We’ve got a major incident on our hands!”

”Keep an eye on them! Don’t let them escape! They killed General Long, and a debt of blood must be paid in blood!”

The Silver Armored General, the same one who had tried to dissuade Long Xingkong earlier, suddenly spoke.

As soon as his voice fell, all the soldiers on the city wall raised their weapons and aimed them at Yang Xiao and his companions.

A third of them were armed with bows and arrows.

All of them were aimed directly at Yang Xiao.

This made Yang Xiao’s brow furrow slightly.

”What’s going on? Hasn’t the Sovereign of the Celestial Cloud Kingdom arrived yet?”

Yang Xiao was displeased.

Cheng Boxuan was also confused. ”This isn’t right. Logically, he should have appeared immediately after I sent him that voice transmission. And the attitude of that... that dead General Long was also very strange...”

”Unless...”

Cheng Boxuan’s eyes suddenly lit up with realization.

”Unless what?”

”Unless they’ve already pledged allegiance to a rival of the Purple Sun Sect.”

Cheng Boxuan’s gaze turned icy.

The Celestial Cloud Sixteen Kingdoms and Nine Sects.

The Purple Sun Sect was the weakest, but for geographical reasons, it had the relatively powerful Celestial Cloud Kingdom as its vassal state.

It was precisely for this reason that the Purple Sun Sect could maintain its position as one of the Nine Sects.

However, this was not set in stone.

In fact, the Celestial Cloud Kingdom’s power had grown in recent years, and it had long harbored ambitions of breaking away from the Purple Sun Sect.

The royal family of the Celestial Cloud Kingdom had been particularly displeased ten years ago, when Yang Xiao’s father joined the Purple Sun Sect.

The Purple Sun Sect, however, had never paid it any mind.

But in the past few years, faint rumors had begun to circulate.

For instance, the son of a certain Prince from the Celestial Cloud Kingdom had joined the Medicine King Valley.

And another rumor claimed that a powerful Martial Grandmaster had left the Medicine King Valley, intending to establish a new sect in the area, emulating Ye Ziyang, the founding ancestor of the Purple Sun Sect from millennia ago.

To establish a powerful sect.

Clearly, if this were true, then the moment this sect emerged, it would become a rival to the Purple Sun Sect.

Perhaps even a mortal enemy.

The threat it posed to the Purple Sun Sect would be far greater than that from any other sect.

This was because if they were facing any other sect, they could still turn to the Medicine King Valley for help.

But if this new sect was truly founded by an expert from the Medicine King Valley, then the best they could hope for was the Valley’s neutrality.

More likely, the Valley would favor the new sect.

After all, this new sect would have much closer ties to the Medicine King Valley.

Now, seeing the Celestial Cloud Kingdom’s strange behavior, he feared these rumors were true.

”Junior Sect Leader Yang, what do we do now?”

Cheng Boxuan was worried.

’If this is truly the case, I fear we’ll be trapped in the capital of the Celestial Cloud Kingdom.’

’It might even trigger a direct conflict between the two sects.’

’Especially if something were to happen to Yang Xiao.’

’Anyone who comes from the Medicine King Valley with plans to establish their own sect is no weakling. It’s highly probable that, like our own founding ancestor, they are at the Martial Grandmaster Sixth Layer. The appearance of such an expert would be an absolute disaster for the Purple Sun Sect.’

In the Medicine King Valley, once a cultivator reaches the Martial Grandmaster Seventh Layer, they are eligible to become a member of the Elder Council.

The status of any one of these members is no lower than that of the Sect Leaders—or even the Supreme Elders—of the Lower Six Sects. After all, they are members of the Elder Council of one of the Upper Three Sects.

By way of comparison, any member of the Purple Sun Sect’s Elder Council is unquestionably more powerful and holds a higher status than the Sovereign of the Celestial Cloud Kingdom.

Therefore, it was unlikely that an expert at the Martial Grandmaster Seventh Layer would leave the Medicine King Valley to establish their own faction. Below that level, however, anything was possible.

A Martial Grandmaster at the Sixth Layer, for example.

Or even one at the Martial Grandmaster Peak Sixth Level.

’Even Yang Xiao would likely have a difficult time dealing with such an expert without using his Qilin True Body.’

’And using the Qilin True Body would mean playing one of his greatest trump cards.’

Yang Xiao’s expression also grew solemn.

”We’ll wait and see. If worse comes to worst, we’ll have to fight.”

Yang Xiao said calmly.

His words did much to calm Cheng Boxuan’s nerves.

It wasn’t so much Yang Xiao’s own strength that reassured him, but the Purple Gold Cloud Peng Beast beneath him. With his limited insight, Cheng Boxuan couldn’t tell that the beast had already advanced a tier.

Even so, a Tier Four Low Grade Barbaric Beast could fight an expert at the Martial Grandmaster Fifth or Fourth Layer.

Combined with Yang Xiao’s terrifying Physical Strength,

as long as the sect-founding expert himself didn’t personally intervene, they had nothing to fear.

”Yes, Junior Sect Leader.”

At that moment, Cheng Boxuan became keenly aware of the gap between himself and Yang Xiao. He no longer dared to address him by his name, or even as Young Master Yang.

Instead, he addressed him directly as Junior Sect Leader.

After all, he was only at the Ninth Layer of Innate Realm, not much stronger than Long Xingkong, whom Yang Xiao had just killed with a flick of his wrist.

Yang Xiao could kill him just as easily.

He had even beaten Ye Lingtian, a true Martial Grandmaster, to death.

And secured the position of Junior Sect Leader.

In both strength and status, Yang Xiao had far surpassed him.

Previously, their friendship had blinded him to this reality.

But this incident had made him see it clearly.

As a result, his attitude had naturally become far more respectful.

This, however, was not what Yang Xiao wanted.

Cheng Boxuan had helped him a great deal, after all.

Yang Xiao didn’t want their relationship to become so formal and distant.

But just as he was about to speak, waves of powerful and terrifying auras surged in the distance, rapidly approaching.

Yang Xiao’s Heart Spirit immediately focused in that direction.

A slight smile touched the corner of his lips. ”It seems the Celestial Cloud Kingdom really does have some backbone. A pity for them that they ran into me.”