Chapter 367: Whose Life Do You Want to Leave Here?

"Who is that?" Yan Tianzhi muttered, his eyes narrowing as he finally noticed the woman who had materialized beside Lu Yang.

He had been so engrossed in the clash high in the heavens that he hadn't paid the slightest attention to Lu Yang's situation, and now, in the blink of an eye, a stranger had simply appeared out of thin air.

Lan Ting and Bai Ming shared a similar confusion, completely unaware that Lu Yang had just invoked his Form-and-Will Fist to summon his Eldest Senior Sister.

"The Acting Sect Master?" Lan Ting recognized her immediately; she had accompanied her master to an assembly at the Seeking Path Sect once, where this very woman had tried to tie a red matchmaker's string around her and Lu Yang, insisting they wed.

Afterward, her master had gravely informed her that Yun Zhi was the Acting Sect Master of the Seeking Path Sect, possessed of a cultivation so profound it defied all measure.

Bai Ming, on the other hand, had encountered Yun Zhi during an exchange assembly between the Five Elements Sect and the Seeking Path Sect, where his own master had warned him that the Eldest Senior Sister of the Seeking Path Sect was the undisputed paragon of her generation in the immortal sects, a person never to be crossed.

Yan Tianzhi knew nothing of her, though he had heard rumors that the Seeking Path Sect had appointed a new leader, he remained ignorant of their identity.

Meng Jingzhou, however, flashed a confident smile, suddenly feeling that the unexpected arrival of a Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivator was nothing to be feared; in fact, he felt so emboldened he felt he could ascend to the heavens to battle himself.

"Allow me to introduce our Eldest Senior Sister, the Acting Sect Master of the Seeking Path Sect, Yun Zhi," Meng Jingzhou announced with utmost gravity.

"With her present, this place is absolutely safe!"

Lan Ting and her companions struggled to comprehend his certainty.

Even by the most daring of assumptions, the Acting Sect Master's cultivation would at best match that of the Daoist Inquiring Silence or Zuo Bu, placing her in the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

Yet a clash between the Eldest Senior Sister and the Tribulation Transcendence masters above would unleash an aftershock capable of overturning mountains and draining seas, reducing the world to ashes—how could anyone speak of safety?

Yun Zhi, entirely indifferent to the thoughts of the crowd, merely gazed up at the battle unfolding in the high vault of heaven, her face a mask of absolute calm, giving no hint of the thoughts turning within her mind.

Lan Ting suddenly noticed that Xia Qun, who had been chattering incessantly only moments before, had fallen entirely silent, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Lord Xia, are you quite all right?"

Gulping down a heavy breath with visible effort, Xia Qun forced a smile to his lips: "I... I am perfectly fine. See how overjoyed I am? The Governor is saved."

Yun Zhi turned her gaze upon him: "Do you recognize me?"

Confronted by her inquiry, Xia Qun dared not withhold the truth: "When the Ancestor himself emerged from the ancestral lands to welcome you, Senior, I chanced to be standing by his side."

Xia Qun's terror was entirely justified; his family's Ancestor was a figure of legendary renown, with few peers throughout the long march of history, and never in living memory had anyone heard of the Ancestor leaving the ancestral grounds.

Who could have foreseen that on the very day he had intended to pay his respects, he would witness the Ancestor step out of seclusion to personally receive this hauntingly beautiful, almost ethereal senior from the Seeking Path Sect.

The sheer weight of this woman's status was beyond comprehension.

Yun Zhi gave a slight nod: "We are of a similar age; there is no need for such titles. You may simply address me as Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi."

Xia Qun nodded in deferential agreement, though he would never dare utter such words aloud.

Should the Ancestor ever discover such insolence, Xia Qun doubted he would leave the Imperial City alive.

Lu Yang was momentarily stunned by the exchange; to possess a cultivation at the early Body Integration stage while being of a similar age to his Eldest Senior Sister meant that this Lord Xia's natural talent was comparable to that of Senior Brother Dai Bufan.

Meng Jingzhou, observing Xia Qun's visceral reaction and recalling the man's extraordinary talent, felt a sudden inkling of understanding.

"What has occurred to you?" Lu Yang inquired through a telepathic transmission.

"Do you happen to know the surname of the Imperial Family?"

"If memory serves, it is Jiang, is it not?"

"Indeed, it is Jiang. But whenever the Imperial Family travels abroad and wishes to conceal their true identity, they invariably adopt the surname Xia."

"Are you implying that Lord Xia is a member of the Imperial Lineage?"

"It is highly probable."

Up in the heavens, the crimson-robed figure let out a chilling laugh as he rescued the two ancient cultivators, offering them medicinal pills to restore their ebbing strength.

"My Lord," the two ancient cultivators muttered, their arrogance vanishing instantly before the crimson figure, replaced by a profound and cautious deference.

"You two have done well. It was not in vain that I concealed you within this secret realm, granting me the opportunity to behold the fabled Fortune of the State and the illusory phantom of the Supreme Sword."

With a cultivation as vast as that of the crimson figure, a mere phantom was enough for him to discern countless truths.

The Fortune of the State and the Supreme Sword would inevitably pose a monumental obstacle to the resurgence of their Great Yu Dynasty.

Had the crimson figure himself not intervened, the Governor would have merely deployed the Fortune of the State to evacuate the lower cultivators, rather than wielding it as a weapon of war.

The Governor's heart sank; the Fortune of the State was tied to the very foundations of the realm, and if these ancient cultivators learned how to manipulate it, they would devise a countermeasure, rendering the once-invincible power restricted and severely diminished.

As for the Supreme Sword, he himself remained ignorant of its true nature, but for a Tribulation Transcendence master to regard it with such gravity, it was bound to be of catastrophic significance.

"You cannot be permitted to live!"

Having reached this desperate impasse, Sect Master Mi and his peers were no longer of any use; the Governor's sole remaining reliance was the grand seal clutched in his hand.

Once more, he invoked the Fortune of the State, and the vast, ethereal energy coalesced into the phantom of the Supreme Sword, its sword-qi erupting in a brilliant, blinding luminescence that outshone the sun itself, as though tearing open the very fabric of creation.

The crimson figure offered only a cold, disdainful smirk, deeming the Governor's efforts entirely futile; he possessed the ability to temporarily phase his body into nothingness, ensuring no attack could touch him. Though his raw combat prowess was not the grandest among those of his realm, he remained entirely invulnerable.

As the phantom of the Supreme Sword cleaved downward, a jagged wound tore across the crimson figure's chest, the flesh parting to reveal the stark whiteness of bone beneath.

"What?!" The crimson figure gasped in shock. His ability to phase into nothingness was an extension of the natural laws, a technique that had never failed him; yet through his own carelessness, he had been grievously wounded by the mere phantom of the Supreme Sword, his vital energy severely depleted.

"No wonder the State Preceptor warned me repeatedly to beware the phantom of the Supreme Sword... so that is its secret. The Supreme Sword possesses the power to temporarily nullify the natural laws!"

A sharp, crisp crack echoed through the air.

The crimson figure discovered that the jade amulet suspended behind his neck had shattered into pieces; it was a supreme treasure capable of substituting a life, which meant the stroke from the Supreme Sword's phantom had already slain him once.

The crimson figure's fury turned into a maniacal laugh: "The time has not yet come to openly defy the Great Xia, and I had intended to spare your miserable life. Yet since you seek your own doom and dare defile my vessel, you shall perish alongside every cultivator below!"

As the crimson figure's words fell, all trace of amusement vanished from his demeanor, replaced by an unspeakable, suffocating stillness in the air, rendering even the act of breathing an agony.

Flamboyant, unnatural blossoms erupted beneath his feet, carpeting the entirety of the heavens within a single breath; he clenched his fist with immense force, causing the flowers to wither instantly as a single speck of light flew from the blighted buds, condensing into a long whip within his grasp.

Crack—

He snapped the whip, and the very fabric of space fractured along its path.

The Governor's countenance shifted drastically; this was a supreme treasure capable of sundering space itself. Even if he could withstand the blow, the cultivators gathered below would surely be obliterated by the impact.

The two ancient cultivators, standing closest to the crimson figure, trembled in absolute terror; they knew all too well how monstrous the Lord became when provoked to wrath. During the era of the Great Yu, it would require the slaughter of entire cities to appease his anger, earning him the terrifying moniker of the "Crimson Scourge."

"Every single one of your lives ends here today!"

The crimson figure roared, his whip crackling with the force of thunder as the entire space shuddered, on the verge of total collapse.

The cultivators below could not help but fall into utter despair, their hearts consumed by terror and dread, for this destructive power far exceeded the boundaries of their imagination.

The crimson figure laughed maniacally, swinging the whip down with all his might.

"Hmm?"

He raised his hand to deliver the blow, only to find his arm completely frozen in mid-air, refusing to descend.

"No... it is not just my arm!"

To his profound horror, he realized his entire body had been rendered completely immobile.

"Spatial Stagnation!"

He was a master of the whip, and his weapon was a supreme artifact designed to tear through space; how could anyone possibly bind him using spatial laws?

When had they even approached?

A graceful figure appeared before him, cold as winter frost. She spoke softly, her beautiful, indifferent eyes entirely devoid of emotion.

"Whose life did you say ends here?"