Chapter 682: The Addressing Issue

The Void Sovereign was consumed by a mixture of shock and fury. That scoundrel Jiang Ping'an truly possessed no shame whatsoever; having already ascended to immortality, how could he have the audacity to propose a duel?

A duel? Go duel your own grandmother!

Yun Zhi had not been seated upon the imperial throne for long before she witnessed the shattering of the Void Realm, out of which the Void Sovereign was cast, beaten beyond recognition by Jiang Ping'an's relentless fists and kicks.

At this precise moment, all mystical arts of severed limb regeneration and rebirth from a single drop of blood proved entirely futile; the Void Sovereign's wounds multiplied at a speed visible to the naked eye, utterly incapable of healing.

With a dull thud, the Void Sovereign was flung onto the ground. Jiang Ping'an let out a long breath and wiped away a bead of nonexistent sweat from his brow, as though he had just emerged from a grueling, hard-fought battle.

"Void, this time I played no tricks. We fought one-on-one, relying entirely on true ability. Surely, you must accept your defeat wholeheartedly this time?"

Ever since ascending to immortality, Jiang Ping'an had found no opportunity to flaunt his achievement before an acquaintance; he had waited a hundred thousand years for this chance, never imagining it would finally be realized today.

It was immensely gratifying.

Had the Void Sovereign not been in such excruciating pain that he could scarcely stand, he would have desperately lunged forward to tear through Jiang Ping'an's throat with his bare teeth.

"This is quite a splendid chair. Who did you commission to forge it?" Jiang Ping'an remarked, his gaze lingering upon the imperial throne where Yun Zhi sat. Had he not recently begun advocating for a lifestyle of simplicity, he would have desired to craft such a majestic imperial seat for himself.

"A specialty of the Demon Realm, a gift from my junior brother."

"I recall your junior brother is named Lu Yang?" Jiang Ping'an rarely paid heed to the affairs of the mortal world, having only heard his name mentioned during casual conversations with Yun Zhi.

"Indeed. I hold him in very high regard; he has already brought me quite a few surprises. For instance, his efforts contributed to the capture of Void today. In the future struggles of this grand era, he will certainly command a place of his own."

Jiang Ping'an smiled faintly. "I have truly never heard you speak so highly of anyone before, fellow Daoist."

Upon learning that Lu Yang had assisted in capturing Void, Jiang Ping'an conceived a sudden fondness for this young cultivator whom he had never met.

"There is, in fact, one other person whose future is destined to be equally extraordinary."

"Who?"

"A junior brother sent over by the Meng family."

Jiang Ping'an clicked his tongue in wonder, his tone tinged with envy. "How is it that our Jiang family cannot produce such exceptional talent?"

Setting aside himself, the ancient ancestor, the most gifted individual in the current Jiang family was the First Prince, Jiang Qun. Though he had achieved the Integration Stage before the age of a thousand, he was still vastly far from earning Yun Zhi's appraisal of being "extraordinary."

As the Void Sovereign listened to their conversation, he suddenly recalled the descendant of the Meng family he had encountered back in Spring River City.

Could it be him?

What absurd luck did that scoundrel Meng Junzi possess to have such an outstanding descendant, despite his own deplorable character?

At the time, he had only noted that Meng Jingzhou was a scion of the Meng family, paying no heed to anything deeper. Hearing Yun Zhi's evaluation now, one could easily deduce that this Meng family descendant was bound to be a cultivation prodigy—at the very least, a half-immortal equal to himself.

"How do you intend to dispose of Void?"

"His heart is corrupt. To release him would be no different from returning a tiger to the mountains, inviting endless future calamities. I intend to strip him of his physical vessel and suppress his soul within the Prisoner Peak."

Unlike the Immortal Immortal, who had no prior offenses and possessed a heart genuinely contrite, the Void Sovereign had merely submitted temporarily to sheer power and could not be permitted to roam free.

Jiang Ping'an nodded, harboring no objections to Yun Zhi's method of handling the matter. Were he in her position, he would have arrived at the exact same conclusion.

The Void Sovereign was entirely bent on opposing his rule; letting him loose into the outside world would easily incite further turmoil, destabilizing the fortune of the empire and granting rival factions a golden opportunity to strike.

"There is one more matter upon which I require your perspective, Daoist Jiang."

"Let us hear it?" Jiang Ping'an expressed a touch of surprise. He noticed that as Yun Zhi spoke these words, her brow furrowed in an almost imperceptible manner—a rare occurrence that had never transpired before.

"I have a companion named Yun Mengmeng. Recently, she discovered that she was not brought into the world through ordinary parental procreation. Instead, an immortal possessing the power to conceive life fashioned an immortal artifact, through which Yun Mengmeng's mother gave birth to her. How, then, should she address this immortal?"

Jiang Ping'an drew a sharp breath. In all his hundred thousand years of existence, he had never heard of such a bizarre predicament.

"I, too, am at a loss." Jiang Ping'an pondered for a long while, yet could not discern the proper form of address.

Having fulfilled her purpose in visiting the imperial palace, Yun Zhi tarried no longer. Gripping the Void Sovereign, she departed for the Prisoner Peak of the Ask the Dao Sect, where she still needed to interrogate these two half-immortals.

Particularly the Nightmare Sovereign, a half-immortal from the twilight of the Great Qi Dynasty, who bound to possess countless well-kept secrets. To look no further than recent events, the true nature of the Twin River was something Yun Zhi had previously been oblivious to.

Jiang Ping'an waved his hand in farewell. "Safe travels, I shall not see you out! If the opportunity arises, I shall surely pay a visit to the prison!"

As the various captives witnessed Yun Zhi's return to the Prisoner Peak, the atmosphere grew suffocatingly tense once more.

Yun Zhi uttered not a single word. Placing her hands squarely upon the foreheads of the Nightmare Sovereign and the Void Sovereign, she gave a gentle tug. The two immediately felt a sudden weightlessness as their souls were severed from their physical forms.

The childlike patriarch dragged away the two hollow corpses with a beaming smile; these were, after all, magnificent materials for refining magical treasures.

Yun Zhi looked down at the two with a chilling gaze. "You now stand before two choices. Either you disclose every fragment of information you possess to me in full truth, or your souls shall not be spared either, serving instead to forge magical artifacts. Utilizing the soul of a half-immortal as material for a treasure can be considered your final contribution to the world of artifact refinement."

Having read countless individuals throughout their long lives, the two discerned at a single glance that Yun Zhi was by no means uttering an empty threat.

"We shall confess everything."

Yun Zhi nodded, satisfied with their compliance, and promptly confined them into separate, isolated chambers to conduct individual interrogations.

She chose to question the Nightmare Sovereign first.

"From what source did you acquire the intelligence regarding the Twin River?"

"I discovered it within an ancient tome. It recorded not only the Twin River but also the Mother-and-Child River. However, I only managed to ascertain the location of the Twin River; the whereabouts of the Mother-and-Child River remain unknown to me."

"Where did you obtain this ancient tome?"

"After I led my forces to breach the imperial palace of the Great Qi Dynasty, I recovered it from the imperial study within the palace grounds."

Historical records detailed that the Nightmare Sovereign had overthrown the Great Qi palace and proclaimed himself emperor, prompting the factions of the realm to contest for dominion under the pretext of punishing a traitorous rebel. Ultimately, he was vanquished by the rising figure, Emperor Yu.

The Great Qi was the dynasty closest to the ancient era; the texts housed within its imperial study likely outnumbered all the ancient volumes existing in the contemporary world combined.

"Where is that ancient tome now?"

"It... it was burned by my own hand after I committed its contents to memory." The Nightmare Sovereign grew exceedingly anxious.

"Oh?" Unsurprisingly, Yun Zhi was less than pleased with this response.

The Nightmare Sovereign hastily explained, "It is the absolute truth, my subordinates can all bear witness! My reasoning at the time was that even if I failed in my conquest for the realm, the knowledge would remain secured within my mind. For the sake of this intelligence, my adversaries would be forced to spare my life."

In truth, it was precisely due to this consideration that Emperor Yu and the Grand Preceptor had refrained from delivering a fatal blow during their final clash with the Nightmare Sovereign, thereby granting him the chance to flee.

"What was the cultivation realm of the first Emperor Yu and the first Grand Preceptor?"

"When they clashed with me, both were undeniably half-immortals. However, as to whether they subsequently ascended to true immortality, I cannot say for certain."

"What do you imply by that?"

"After surviving that great war, I did not immediately enter my slumber. Instead, I remained concealed within the shadows, watching how Wu Yao climbed to the throne step by step."

Wu Yao was the first Emperor Yu.

"Wu Yao presided over the grand founding ceremony of the empire. During the ritual, the clouds and winds shifted drastically, and all manner of heavenly aberrations suddenly manifested. The rumbling of thunder was continuous, and the entire heavens and earth were illuminated by tribulations of lightning. Though the court historians recorded it as a symbol that Wu Yao was wise and martial, and that the establishment of the Grand Yu Dynasty conformed to the will of heaven and earth, I suspect that it was the Tribulation of Ascension recorded in the ancient tomes!"