Volume 14, Chapter 927 – Crisis

“I’m giving you this spatial ring. Inside are many treasures I’ve collected. It should greatly enhance your combat strength.”

Lu Wei tossed a spatial ring to Yin Wan.

Yin Wan took it and scanned its contents. A moment later, his face lit up with unrestrained joy. “Thank you, Senior, thank you!”

“With so many magical treasures and weapons, if you still can’t get rid of those wicked cults, then it simply means you deserve to die. When that happens, don’t blame me.”

Lu Wei warned coldly.

“I understand, Senior. I definitely won’t let you down.”

Yin Wan hurriedly promised.

“All right, this is a Universal Communication Tube. Even if spatial barriers are involved, you can still maintain contact with me at all times.”

Lu Wei then threw another tube to Yin Wan.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Yin Wan accepted it, then hesitated for a moment before asking, “Senior, I’m not sure if I should ask this…”

“Out with it,” Lu Wei urged impatiently.

“If you knew about the Great Purge, why didn’t you tell the Grand Elder?”

Yin Wan asked boldly, his voice tinged with a hint of resentment. If he’d known earlier, he wouldn’t have held back certain evil spirits in secret and wouldn’t be in this mess now.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to… it’s that I couldn’t. The Heavenly Court has clear laws: any informed party is strictly forbidden from revealing the Great Purge to the lower realms. The penalty is death, without exception.”

Lu Wei shook his head helplessly, his face tinged with self-mockery. “You’re not going to call me a coward, are you? Honestly, even if I had told you, it wouldn’t have changed anything. The Heavenly Emperor has already made his decision: fifteen years from now, whether you’ve cleaned up those evil spirits or not, the Immortal Realm will still face the Purge.”

“Why? We’ve obeyed the Heavenly Court in everything for years. Why would the Heavenly Emperor still want to wipe us out?”

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Yin Wan couldn’t accept it.

“Because the Heavenly Dao has fallen into slumber. To awaken, it must absorb vast amounts of Five Elements Spiritual Qi. That is the true reason behind the Heavenly Court’s Great Purge. And since cultivators carry spiritual energy, we’re naturally the primary targets of cleansing.”

Lu Wei explained. It was exactly what Cheng Hongling had suspected.

“I see. No wonder that General Qin said we cultivators are born of original sin.”

Yin Wan gave a bitter laugh.

“Don’t curse the heavens. The path of cultivation was never easy. Throughout history, how many immortals have truly ascended to the Celestial Realm? What lies before you now is possibly the simplest path to immortality. The question is, can you seize it?”

Lu Wei spoke with earnest sincerity.

“Yes. I understand.”

Yin Wan’s expression relaxed somewhat.

“I’m entrusting the lives of all the descendants of the Lu family to you. Don’t disappoint me. If you do… I’ll show you what despair really is.”

Lu Wei gave one final warning, then disappeared into the space rift.

In the days that followed, Qi Huang absorbed the assimilation power and gained even more clues. She was overjoyed. But before taking further action, she had one major task to handle.

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Just as she was preparing to act, her lover came knocking.

“I don’t think we’re safe in the Cultivation Realm anymore. After this incident, the Heavenly Realm has locked onto our approximate location. If they decide to move, we won’t even be able to escape.”

Cheng Hongling’s delicate face was full of worry.

“You’re right. That’s exactly what concerns me. So I’ve decided to relocate all my vegetable gardens to a lower realm where Cangmang Planet is. As long as the Celestial Star Chart doesn’t detect it, we’ll be free to develop however we like.”

Qi Huang revealed her plan. This was the major task she had in mind.

Soon after, Qi Huang began roaming across the universe, migrating all her hundreds of ‘colonized planets’ in the Immortal Realm to the lower realm where Cangmang Planet resided. This was her way of evading the Heavenly Court’s surveillance.

During this time, Qi Huang revisited the space rift and discovered that the Immortal Realm had been completely purged. There was no trace of any cultivators or immortal, even the Five Elements Spiritual Qi had been entirely drained. It wouldn’t be long before the realm degraded into a lower world.

Naturally, Qi Huang wasn’t about to let such a great “vegetable garden” go to waste. She expanded the space rift further. Otherwise, once the Immortal Realm became a lower world, there’d be no way to break through it from this side.

Upon learning this, Feng Jiu’an and Fang Yuan rushed back to the Immortal Realm’s Fengming Kingdom. After all, it was their homeland… they couldn’t just abandon their people.

Qi Huang didn’t say much. Since she planned to turn the Immortal Realm into her cultivation base, she naturally needed people to manage it.

After returning to Fengming Kingdom, due to the calamity’s fulfillment, Feng Jiu’an and Fang Yuan were not only exonerated but their reputation soared.

As one of the few remaining cultivators in the Immortal Realm, and a former empress, Feng Jiu’an was naturally reinstated to the throne by her people.

She understood that only she could breathe new life into Fengming Kingdom. So she didn’t refuse. In fact, that was her reason for returning.

Fang Yuan’s situation was similar. He had accurately predicted the great catastrophe, so his reputation surpassed even Feng Jiu’an’s. Unsurprisingly, he resumed his position as Fengming Kingdom’s advisor.

Meanwhile, Qi Huang and her lover embarked once more on their journey to grow stronger. While gathering assimilation power, they also worked on expanding their cultivation base. With the Immortal Realm destroyed, there was no one left to sabotage her plans.

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One day, the two of them were traversing the universe of a lower realm in search of resources. From time to time, they even shattered spatial barriers. This served two purposes: first, to delay the Heavenly Dao’s awakening; second, to locate other cultivation realms. More realms meant more resources.

“That’s strange. Aren’t there supposed to be many cultivation realms under the Five Element Heavenly Dao? If we’re breaking through these lower world barriers, we should’ve encountered some by now. Why haven’t we found any?”

Qi Huang grumbled.

“Who knows? Maybe we just haven’t made enough rifts yet.”

Cheng Hongling replied while swinging her sword. One by one, massive spatial tears formed under her strikes, as easily as slicing tofu.

“Looks like I was too conservative before.”

Qi Huang put away her sword. Hundreds of thousands of hair strands surged from her head, whirling around like a tornado, tearing open dense layers of spatial rifts.

“Haha! This is too fun!”

Qi Huang laughed like a child, giddy with delight. It felt as though she were carving wounds directly into the Heavenly Dao, truly satisfying.

But at that moment, a voice came from the Universal Communication Tube inside her spatial ring. She took it out and saw it was from Feng Jiu’an.

“Ten days from now, I’ll be holding my coronation ceremony in Fengqi City, the capital of Fengming Kingdom. I hope you both can come.”

Feng Jiu’an had sent an invitation.

“Of course. We’ll definitely come to offer our congratulations.”

Qi Huang agreed without hesitation. Since she planned to develop the Immortal Realm as a cultivation base, it was essential to maintain good relations with Feng Jiu’an who was now the realm’s most powerful figure. Not to mention, they were already old friends.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye. Qi Huang, Cheng Hongling, and An Xuan arrived at the capital of Fengming Kingdom. By then, millions had gathered outside Fengqi City to witness the spectacle. But due to the Great Purge, the crowd was composed entirely of ordinary people, powerless and untrained.

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Calling it an “Immortal Kingdom” was, by now, a misnomer.

“With the Five Elements Spiritual Qi completely drained, the spatial barriers will gradually weaken. Once they’re weakened enough, the Immortal Realm will become a lowest-tier world. No more cultivators will ever be born here.”

Cheng Hongling sighed.

“Yeah, and that’s exactly what the Heavenly Dao wants. If we don’t resist to the end, we’ll fall into the same fate sooner or later.”

Qi Huang clenched her fist to encourage herself.

“And another thing. Even though the Immortal Realm is destroyed and there’s no one to threaten us for now, we still can’t afford to be complacent. Once the Heavenly Dao awakens, it won’t be so easy to deal with. We must destroy it before that happens.”

Cheng Hongling suggested.

“Mm.”

Qi Huang nodded solemnly.

At that moment, Feng Jiu’an finally stepped onto the grand plaza with regal poise. She wore a dragon robe and crown, her delicate features adorned with only light makeup, exuding a dignified and commanding presence.

“Citizens of Fengming Kingdom, thank you for attending my coronation. These past days, you’ve suffered greatly. But from this day forward, I shall inherit the mandate of Heaven, take up the imperial throne once more, and vow to bring peace and prosperity to all—”

Feng Jiu’an began her coronation address.

“Hmph. A traitor against Heaven, what mandate do you claim to inherit?”

Suddenly, a piercing voice of mockery rang out across the capital.