Chapter 1080: Internal Strife in Prisoner Peak

Lu Yang and his companion saw the Grandmaster of Returned Origin and the Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean lying side by side in the massive crater, looking for all the world like a pair of fresh corpses. With a cry of alarm, they rushed over to tend to their venerable elders.

"Grandmasters, are the two of you unhurt?"

The two founders stared blankly into the void, their ears deaf to the world.

On this day, the three founding fathers of the Questioning Sect were gathered.

On this same day, two of the three passed from the world.

Weeping all the while, Lu Yang and his companion hoisted the two patriarchs out of the abyss and laid them upon its edge, then set about employing a new technique they had mastered at the Mountain-Moving Sea-Filling Sect to restore the landscape to its original state.

Though the two patriarchs had departed this mortal coil, life had to endure, and the labor still demanded its completion.

"Second Chief, let me assist you." Seeing the Second Chief hard at work, the Third Chief could hardly justify standing idly by.

The Daoist of Primeval Dawn reflected for a moment; every gain required its price, and he could not look upon such a battle for naught. Though the entire engagement had spanned fewer than a few breaths, it was a battle nonetheless, and so he joined the earth-filling endeavor as his payment for witnessing the spectacle.

The unworthy descendants of later generations carried sand and soil back and forth past the two patriarchs, leaving them exposed to the wilderness with none to offer solace, a poignant display of the world's cold indifference.

"Grandmaster, the next time there is a thrashing to be received, pray leave me out of it."

"Ah."

The two grandmasters lay upon the ground for a short while longer before they finally regained their wits, rising to shake off the dust and brace their spirits.

"By the way, Grandmaster, the form you possess is the nascent stage of the Fruit of Unified Dao, is it not?"

Previously, the Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean had been swayed by the hot-blooded passion of the Grandmaster of Returned Origin, becoming so lightheaded as to harbor unrealistic fantasies of vanquishing Yun Zhi.

Now, having played the corpse upon the ground for a time, his fervor had cooled, and he had returned to his senses.

"Indeed, what of it?"

"Can it cause spirit stones to fuse together?"

"Certainly, ten low-grade spirit stones form a mid-grade one, and ten mid-grade stones form a high-grade one."

"Then can ten supreme-grade spirit stones be fused further still?"

The Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean produced ten supreme-grade spirit stones.

Supreme-grade spirit stones represented the absolute pinnacle of their kind, containing spiritual energy of such exquisite purity that even high-stage cultivators dared not use them for routine cultivation.

The Grandmaster of Returned Origin cast a soft green glow from both hands, enveloping the ten supreme-grade stones.

The ten stones began to react with one another, drawing closer, touching, and melding into one.

As the light faded, a spirit stone the likes of which the world had never seen appeared in the hand of the Grandmaster of Returned Origin.

This stone was as crystal clear as water, making it nearly invisible if submerged, its quality vastly surpassing that of supreme-grade stones, while the spiritual energy within was terrifyingly dense.

"It truly works." The Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean joyfully accepted the stone, placing it reverently inside a wooden box lined with Ancestral Dragon Grass to complement this incomparable treasure.

The gift for Xiao Ya was now secured.

Throughout the journey, the Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean had pondered the words of the Daoist Master of Chasing the Moon; Xiao Ya hailed from the Dragon Clan and surely lacked no spirit stones, meaning his rash desire to offer ordinary ones was indeed uninspired.

But this stone was different—it was a tier above supreme-grade, and no matter how wealthy Xiao Ya might be, she could not possibly possess such a token.

"Grandmaster, does this stone have a name?"

"As for a name, let it be called the Limit Spirit Stone, for this is the absolute boundary of a spirit stone's nature; I feel that if it were fused any further, it would shatter from the strain."

"Then Limit Spirit Stone it is." Having finally obtained a worthy offering, the Daoist Master of the Vast Ocean directly tore open a spatial portal to transport himself to the Eastern Sea.

Ao Ya was still nursing her anger, and he needed to appease her without delay.

"That junior is far too formidable, quite beyond defeating." The Grandmaster of Returned Origin recalled the clash just past; it had been a pure, unmitigated crushing, and even when he had challenged Jiang Ping'an in the old days, he had never lost so miserably.

"I must find someone to practice against. If Chasing the Moon is still among the living, those other fellows ought to be alive as well."

The Grandmaster of Returned Origin resolved to seek out old comrades to reminisce, for when one suffers defeat, one must look elsewhere to mend one's battered confidence.

"All finished." Lu Yang packed the final clod of earth, restoring the topography to its original state so completely that none could tell a great battle had unfolded here.

"Eldest Senior Sister, are you heading to the Prison Peak to interrogate the Divine Lord of Thunder Control?" Lu Yang noticed Yun Zhi flying toward the peak.

"Yes." Had it not been for the interruption by the Grandmaster of Returned Origin, Yun Zhi would have conducted the interrogation immediately.

"I shall fetch an assistant to ensure the Divine Lord of Thunder Control confesses everything truthfully."

...

Within the Prison Peak, the Divine Lord of Thunder Control was listening to his old friend, the Divine Lord of the Celestial Hours, introduce the inmates of the mountain, his eyelids twitching with every title mentioned.

The Nightmare Sovereign, the Void Sovereign, the Daoist Master of Myriad Laws... these were half-immortals of immense renown in later eras, with reputations eclipsing even his own.

And yet, these very half-immortals were all confined within this modest Prison Peak.

He had originally assumed his capture by the Questioning Sect was merely a stroke of ill fortune, a coincidence born of a chance encounter with the Grandmaster of Returned Origin and Yun Mengmeng.

Looking around now, it was plain that coincidence had nothing to do with it; rather, the hidden foundations of the Questioning Sect were terrifyingly profound, its might staggeringly immense.

His gaze fell upon the cage at the very end of the Prison Peak, where a slender, middle-aged man with a goatee sat upon a chair with his legs casually crossed.

At the thought of this being's title, his scalp prickled with dread.

The Grand Imperial Preceptor of Great Yu, Guan Shanhai.

Even an immortal was held captive in this place!

According to the Lord of Celestial Hours, he had been captured by Lu Yang, who appeared to be in the Deity Transformation stage but was in truth an ancient immortal.

As for the Grand Imperial Preceptor of Great Yu, he had been apprehended by the woman named Yun Zhi.

A single sect commanding the presence of two immortals was a matter of unimaginable terror.

Yet their Great Gan Empire possessed absolutely no inkling of this intelligence!

"It seems to me that you cultivators of Great Gan are nothing special after all; the ancient texts praise you to the heavens, but seeing you now, you amount to very little."

The Daoist Master of Myriad Laws spoke with open disdain; in his youth, his elders had frequently lauded him as possessing the talent of a Great Gan Divine Lord, a comparison he thoroughly despised, believing himself superior to any of them.

Yet that had merely been his solitary conviction; he had never found a Divine Lord of Great Gan to fight and prove his superiority.

Now, inside this Prison Peak, he had finally encountered one.

"What did you say? Say that again!" The Divine Lord of Thunder Control flared up in rage, wondering if fame in later generations truly gave one the right to speak so arrogantly.

"Myriad Laws, you go too far," the Divine Lord of the Celestial Hours said coldly.

"Has he said anything false? I think he speaks the truth; you cultivators of Great Gan are absolute rubbish!" the Void Sovereign declared, for though he was the one who had brought an end to the Great Yu Dynasty, he was ultimately a cultivator of Great Yu and would naturally side with his homeland.

"Void, it seems you were not beaten into submission by me during the Battle of Chunjiang City!" The Nightmare Sovereign from the late Great Gan period spoke with a look of displeasure; he had watched Wu Yao establish the Great Yu Dynasty with his own eyes, and he loathed its cultivators in every respect.

"Ludicrous! I clearly held the upper hand back then; have you been driven mad by my blows? No wonder Great Gan fell, it was nothing but a pack of fools!"

"Your Great Yu is the true gathering of worthless trash!"

"Say that again if you dare!"

"I could say it ten times over—trash, every last one of you is trash!"

The half-immortals of the two great dynasties fell into a heated dispute, and seeing this, the Body Integration and Tribulation Transmutation cultivators joined the fray, launching into fierce verbal attacks and insulting the rival dynasties.

Five half-immortals, over a dozen Tribulation Transmutation experts, and nearly a hundred in the Body Integration stage created a commotion whose scale was second only to a war of national founding.

"Enough, all of you shut your mouths." Guan Shanhai, thoroughly irritated by the din, snapped his newspaper shut with a look of deep annoyance.

Guan Shanhai was the most powerful cultivator of the Imprisoned Peak, and none dared defy him; the moment he spoke, the crowd instantly fell as silent as cicadas in winter.

"The Great Qian Dynasty is nothing but a pack of worthless wretches who know only how to enjoy the incense of worship and offerings. What is there to argue with them about?"

As these words fell, a sudden wave of cheers erupted among the cultivators of the Great Yu, while the cultivators of the Great Qian silently lowered their heads, not daring to contradict Guan Shanhai.

Lord Silei likewise lowered his head in silence, his teeth clenched tight, feeling a profound sense of humiliation.

If only the Emperor and Lord Siming were here...