Chapter 175: Tofu Heavenly Venerable

The high officials of the Immortal Sect were utterly bewildered; they had only just finished chanting the grand words of antiquity in unison when a group of people suddenly leaped from the crowd, throwing burlap sacks clean over their heads.

We can accept being bagged and tied with ropes, they thought, but why on earth is the Central Sect so incredibly well-practised at this?

Are you not supposed to be a righteous and orthodox sect?

The words the Immortal Sect leadership had chanted belonged to an ancient tongue paired with the divine treasure, the Pillow of Yellow Millet, a language profound and far beyond the comprehension of ordinary men, uncracked to this day; the Immortal Sect surmised it was an ancient spell to drive the divine treasure, though others claimed it was the archaic speech meant to awaken it.

Whichever it was, it remained certain that the Pillow of Yellow Millet, when accompanied by those ancient words, was an absolute and lethal weapon against peers of the same rank.

The Hierarch of the Immortal Sect deduced that the Immortal Immortal was a master of the laws of the dream realm, and the saying "a great dream spans thousands of autumns, what year is it tonight?" was precisely the phrase poetic cultivators of antiquity used to describe the Immortal Immortal.

Through historical research, the Hierarch had also discovered that the Qilin Immortal once expressed a wish to let the Immortal Immortal sleep forever.

"This proves that although it is difficult to distinguish the strong from the weak among the Five Ancient Immortals, the Qilin Immortal must have feared the Immortal Immortal and did not wish for the Immortal Immortal to awaken!" so declared the Hierarch of the Immortal Sect.

Vice-Hierarch Liu shook his head to cut off his train of thought, realizing the Central Sect had long been prepared, and they were but rats in a trap, already caught in the snare.

Who was the traitor?!

Vice-Hierarch Liu suddenly realized that Lu Yang, who had been by his side, had vanished at some unknown point; he abruptly looked up and saw Lu Yang speaking upon the spectator stands.

Lu Yang seemed to notice Vice-Hierarch Liu's gaze, locked eyes with him, offered a calm and breezy smile, and continued speaking: "After this exchange, everyone must surely..."

"It is you!" Vice-Hierarch Liu's eyes nearly tore open with fury, never expecting Lu Yang to be the traitor.

Could the Central Sect have turned Lu Yang?

No, the fact that he could stand on that podium meant he belonged to the Central Sect from the very beginning! Perhaps he was even a high-ranking official?!

"Heh, little thief Lu Yang, do you truly believe victory is within your grasp!"

With the desperate madness of a man burning his bridges, Vice-Hierarch Liu retrieved the divine treasure, the Pillow of Yellow Millet, from his storage ring.

"Allow me to teach you the true meaning of a divine treasure; even if I stand alone, I can still drive this artifact!"

Vice-Hierarch Liu sprayed a mouthful of essence blood onto the Pillow of Yellow Millet, which instantly emitted an eerie green light that rippled outward like waves into the surroundings.

Wherever the green ripples reached, making no distinction between friend and foe, all fell into a deep slumber.

Be they disciples of the Central Sect, disciples of the Five Elements Sect, or even the captured leaders of the Immortal Sect, they all swayed and collapsed to the ground the moment the green ripple swept over them, their snores gradually rising.

Hulu, hulu—

The Martial Arts Square was the central hub of the Central Sect, a place that should have been bustling and vibrant, yet it was now shrouded in dead silence, save for the bizarrely echoing snores.

Even the sect leaders on the stands could not withstand the might of the Pillow of Yellow Millet and were dragged into the dreamscape.

Vice-Hierarch Liu’s aura grew faint, yet he cared not, laughing maniacally without pause.

"Hahaha! What of the Central Sect, and what of the Five Elements Sect? This is what you get for daring to look down upon our Immortal Sect!"

Filled with murderous intent, Vice-Hierarch Liu intended to seize this opportunity to slaughter every last disciple of the Central Sect.

"I must be quick; if the Tribulation Transcenders of the Central Sect notice the commotion here, they will inevitably rush over. Even if I hold a divine treasure and sacrifice my essence blood, I can hardly match the might of a Tribulation Transcender," Vice-Hierarch Liu muttered to himself.

Tribulation Transcenders were always hidden in the deepest recesses of the sects, either guarding secrets, seeking the immortal path, or isolating themselves from the mortal world, rarely ever making a move.

To his knowledge, among the Five Great Immortal Sects, only the Abbot of the Hanging Temple was a Tribulation Transcender, while the other four sect masters were all in the Integration Stage.

The Abbot of the Hanging Temple belonged to the previous generation; in this current generation, no one had yet become a Tribulation Transcender.

With the Tribulation Transcenders absent, he, wielding a divine treasure, was the absolute strongest!

"What? Planning to commit murder right before my eyes?"

A mocking voice laced with a hint of cold indifference drifted over, interrupting Vice-Hierarch Liu’s grand illusions.

The voice was familiar; Vice-Hierarch Liu snapped his head up, only to discover to his utter shock that Lu Yang had not fallen asleep at all!

"How is this possible!"

Very quickly, Vice-Hierarch Liu's shock turned into sheer terror.

Lu Yang not falling into a slumber could only mean he was a great expert of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage!

Everything made sense now—why Lu Yang had appeared before him merely as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet could sit among the high officials of the Central Sect.

It must be that Lu Yang's cultivation far exceeded his own!

"Who on earth are you!" Vice-Hierarch Liu demanded sharply; to become a Tribulation Transcender meant one had to be a renowned master, yet he could not match Lu Yang to any known figure.

Lu Yang stood with his hands behind his back upon the stands, his white robes billowing like a banished sword immortal.

With a sharp flick of his hem, he leaped straight down.

"I am the Tofu Heavenly Venerate!"

It was already late at night, and beneath the moonlight, a figure stood out starkly against the darkness, as though he were the darling of heaven and earth, gathering ten thousand gazes upon himself.

Lu Yang released his aura, bathed in the moonlight, as a pressure far surpassing the Integration Stage erupted from his body, forcing Vice-Hierarch Liu to fight the urge to bow in worship.

"The affinity arises, the sword falls."

A sword gleam pierced through the dark clouds; the azure immortal sword was like divine retribution, carrying the wrath of the gods and the cold indifference of an immortal as it descended from the heavens to punish all evildoers.

Faced with this sword strike that could be called peerless in the world, Vice-Hierarch Liu lacked even the strength to resist; his body felt frozen, utterly unable to move.

The only thing he could do was lift his head, eyes wide with horror, watching the azure immortal sword fall.

The immortal sword pierced right through Vice-Hierarch Liu's skull.

"Swords are ominous things; I have no wish to kill."

The Tofu Heavenly Venerate spoke coldly, turning to walk away, leaving behind a silhouette that would be remembered for eternity.

In reality, the crowd stood in a circle, watching Vice-Hierarch Liu lie on the ground asleep, his body twitching from time to time, deeply curious as to what kind of dream Lu Yang had woven for him.

In truth, Lu Yang had stood by Vice-Hierarch Liu’s side from beginning to end; the one speaking on the stands was the Grand Elder.

From the moment Vice-Hierarch Liu noticed Lu Yang was no longer beside him, he had already entered the dream.

The Pillow of Yellow Millet belonged to the Immortal Fairy; once Yun Zhi learned how to use it, she bypassed the storage ring to drive the pillow directly, casting Vice-Hierarch Liu into a deep sleep before letting Lu Yang weave the dreamscape.

As for the other high officials, including Vice-Hierarch Gao, they had truly been bagged and captured.

"It’s clearly my pillow, why won't you let me use it!" The Immortal Fairy wanted to play too, but Lu Yang held her back.

"I'm testing it out for you; over thirty thousand years have passed, who knows if it has gone bad." Lu Yang took the right to weave the first dream as a matter of course.

"By the way, when you used the Pillow of Yellow Millet in the past, did you also need people to sing?" Lu Yang recalled the grand and imposing manner in which the leaders of the Immortal Sect chanted the ancient words, looking very much like a sacrifice to some great entity.

"What exactly were those people singing?"

The Immortal Fairy reminisced for a moment and said, "It was a lullaby I used to play with a doll when I slept. The lyrics were: 'Sleep, sleep, my dear little baby'..."

The leaders of the Immortal Sect had sung with far too much grand momentum, completely clashing with the mood of the lullaby; it took her quite a while to realize what the group was actually singing.

Lu Yang: "..."