Chapter 111: The Latecomer Surpasses the Forerunner

Wuyun cracked a few jokes. Two seconds later, the panicked Jia Youke felt a wave of intense danger descend. Multicolored rays of light, resembling electrical sparks but possessing a sentient quality, flickered around them, enveloping the trio.

A glowing cage materialized, dropping down through a gash that tore open in the belly of the Great-Mouthed Wild Peng. The creature itself descended as well, flapping its wings before shifting its form into that of a middle-aged man with a sharp, long beak and hawkish eyes. His expression was one of profound sorrow. Before he could offer any defense, a voice boomed: "To defy the rules of the Hundred Flowers Valley is to invite death!"

With a single thrust of a fork, the transformed Wild Peng was skewered. The fork then expanded to a thousand meters in length, and a fierce Seven-Fold True Fire ignited. After a few hundred seconds of the scent of roasting meat, a charred, acrid odor filled the air.

Wuyun stomped his feet and cursed at the waste. As the wind carried away the smell of ash, the Wild Peng’s soul could be seen struggling upon the fork, wailing and begging for mercy.

"Those who break the rules must pay the price. In consideration of the plea from Master Dragon-Driver, you shall be roasted for seven days and seven nights before being expelled."

The one who had thrown the fork was a middle-aged immortal clad in battle armor, mounted upon a Questioning Heaven Beast. This beast, unruly from birth and possessing the cultivation of a Profound Immortal, roamed the heavens and feasted upon Kunpeng. Each one of these beasts was a heaven-defying existence.

Behind the man stood a graceful woman, Daoyuan. Her expression was natural, and she smiled without a word.

"You, Jia Youke, come with me. You, leave!"

The middle-aged immortal’s words were like an imperial command. The previous cage transformed into two swirling, transparent cyclones. One trapped Wuyun, leaving him foolishly waiting on the spot, while the other swirled around Jia Youke, lifting him up to follow the immortal.

"Wait!" Wuyun waved his hand, pointing at Daoyuan, and asked, "Who is this uncle?"

Daoyuan grew angry. With a flick of her finger, she shattered the cyclone. She then reached out, and Wuyun shrunk down, landing in her palm. Feigning annoyance, she closed her delicate fingers one by one, using overwhelming pressure to intimidate him.

After clenching her hand for a moment, Daoyuan looked puzzled and muttered, "There has never been a person like you, yet you suddenly became Jia Youke’s servant, registered just moments ago."

As Daoyuan squeezed her hand tightly and Jia Youke begged incessantly, a shout came from within her palm: "How can you submit to the woman you fancy!"

The woman he fancied?

Daoyuan glanced at Jia Youke as if he were a mere ant.

The middle-aged man looked displeased. "Little Yuan, is this the lucky inheritor you spoke of? His strength is so pathetic!"

"Senior Brother Luoda, one cannot judge by appearances. Look, my Grade Five Red Silk is already of top quality. With a little nourishment from a soul, it will likely improve further!"

Hearing Daoyuan’s words, Jia Youke stuttered, pointing at the middle-aged man. "Senior Brother Luoda, the second core disciple of the Inner Sect—you are my idol!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a shout continued from within Daoyuan’s palm: "An idol? He will soon be your rival. Don't be afraid; she accepted your token of affection. It is set in stone—after all, we are the latecomers who surpassed the rest!"

Luoda looked suspicious and glanced at Daoyuan, who immediately acted coy. "Senior Brother, it was decreed by the Valley Master and my father that once you break through to the Immortal King realm, we shall become cultivation partners!"

Luoda remained skeptical, questioning why Daoyuan had not yet taken action against the intruder. Any provocateur had to pay a price. Ordinarily, Daoyuan would have crushed Wuyun’s body, leaving only his soul. Yet, she had delayed!

After three attempts to squeeze him, she felt as if she had touched a needle's tip on the final try and reflexively pulled her hand back. Wuyun tumbled onto the ground, rolling for a long time until he was nudged up by the short horns of the Gan Tuo horse, sitting firmly on its back.

Wuyun felt a sense of relief as he watched the scenery shift. The earth moved and space compressed; the entire area had been relocated into a valley.

Upon arrival, he heard a cacophony like sparrows fighting. Countless birds and immortal beasts appeared, shifting into human forms to inspect Wuyun and Jia Youke. A few bold birds even landed on the tail of the Gan Tuo horse, pecking at the lingering bloodstains.

Once Daoyuan cleared away the onlookers, a shadow descended from the sky—the phantom of True Immortal Daoshan. He glanced at Jia Youke and asked Daoyuan, "Are you certain he obtained the inheritance of the Piaoyi Immortal Sect?"

Daoyuan nodded, holding up the Red Silk immortal artifact as proof.

The phantom performed a calculation, and suddenly, it shattered and vanished.

This left Daoyuan in shock; she had never seen her father’s divination vanish like that.

As soon as the phantom disappeared, Luoda turned his gaze to Wuyun. "We should have a talk about what you said and did earlier. You know, as the First Senior Brother of the Hundred Flowers Valley, I always keep my word."

"Now that an Immortal King is watching, it's safe. Are you going to drop the act and go pillage the treasures of the Piaoyi Immortal Sect?" Wuyun laughed, pointing at Jia Youke. "The treasures are there, it just depends on whether you have the guts to take them!"

"Kneel!"

The Questioning Heaven Beast beneath Luoda roared. While Jia Youke collapsed, Wuyun and the black horse remained completely unaffected. In fact, the little black horse spat bubbles at the beast, annoyed by its loud barking.

"Three Questions of the Cang Mang!"

The Questioning Heaven Beast flicked its tail, and three magnificent, shimmering water-gate portals appeared behind it, as if opening underwater. The beast flicked its tail—thick and furry like an elephant's—to the left, and Jia Youke dazed, stumbled into one gate. It flicked to the right, and the short-horned black horse reluctantly entered another.

When it was Wuyun's turn, the tail flicked repeatedly, even sweeping the ground, but Wuyun just grinned foolishly, praising, "First time seeing such a soul-bewildering beast. A Questioning Heaven Beast, right? Lion head, big nose, cat ears—so cute. But looking at you, I suppose you don't distinguish between male and female, do you?"

This question stunned the beast. It marveled, "Good eye. Many immortals assume I am male, but in reality, even if there were female beasts, it is merely a matter of individual choice. Are you a Beast-Taming Immortal?"

Wuyun shook his head. Just as he was about to brag, another gust of wind swept in, ignoring his defensive arts and pulling him into the final gate. Luoda had used a spatial shifting technique to move the ground and the space around them into the water-gate.

As soon as they entered, the gate closed behind them. Before them lay a world flickering with dim light. Wuyun looked closely and felt a sense of familiarity—it was the same spatial rift into which Jia Youke had sent the green earring with Daoyuan the other day.

A voice resonated through the space: "You have finally come, bringing the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths with you. The Black Turtle is dead, isn't he? His phantom here has vanished, which means his soul has dissipated."

A massive turtle skeleton appeared before Wuyun like a projection. Wuyun instinctively said, "Yes, he betrayed the Piaoyi Immortal Sect, chose to remain in the lower realm, and died refusing to return, exhausting the lives of many elites. Look..."

A mass of consciousness drifted from the top of Wuyun's head, though it was blurry and indistinct. The voice, however, recognized it and asked again, "You brought back the Array Core!"

"I brought back the Array Core!" Wuyun pulled out a palm-sized shard—the remnant of the core.

"It is already too late. I am the only one left in the sect whose obsession remains, bound to exist until the final day!"

The voice faded, and a mighty figure appeared, holding an immortal sword, slowly descending before Wuyun. The space began to tremble. Outside, Luoda was alarmed and channeled streams of immortal power into the Questioning Heaven Beast. The beast closed its eyes, glowing intensely, and the little black horse and Jia Youke were spat out from the void.

They were attempting to merge the three scenes to fully trigger Wuyun’s past.

The mighty Immortal Emperor appeared and said coldly, "My junior brother was a prodigy. He focused his spirit at three, possessed an immortal body at five, became a Great Immortal at ten, a Profound Immortal at twenty, an Immortal King at four hundred, and reached the Emperor realm at three thousand. He created the Piaoyi Immortal Sect, named after himself. Later, fearing he might die young, he forged a seventh-tier Imperial artifact to guard it."

"Who would have thought that at a critical moment, he would take it with him on an excursion? With both man and artifact gone, the great sect began its decline. Later, facing a crisis, the sect migrated, likely disappearing into the stars, never to return!"

"I am his elder brother, Piaofeng, known as the Great Wind Immortal Emperor. My true form also reincarnated into a small world and can no longer ascend! Wuwu!"

The crying was earth-shattering, causing the entire valley in reality to tremble and even moving the immortal beasts to weep inexplicably. Even Jia Youke wailed, Daoyuan’s eyes filled with tears, Luoda looked pained, and the little black horse kicked its hind legs wildly.

"Quick, speed it up!" Luoda steadied his mind and transmitted to the Questioning Heaven Beast, which was also weeping in its soul.

The pace accelerated like a fast-forwarding film. Wuyun stood before a mass of energy sealed by a great array, head held high, looking resolute. "For me to help you revive the Piaoyi Immortal Sect? Impossible!"

Immediately, heaven and earth shook, and tribulation clouds appeared in the sky. The scene was about to shatter, but just as it reached the breaking point, the Questioning Heaven Beast accelerated again. Reality restored itself, and Wuyun was left hanging in the air, fiddling with a handful of ash-like material, sifting it back and forth while humming, "You believe me? You didn't even believe me when I said I killed the little flower turtle, but you believe I can save your junior brother? Your junior brother is probably serving as delicious feed in some treacherous space!"

The next second, the ash-like material emitted a faint voice: "I believe you anyway!"

"What the hell!" Wuyun grew annoyed, scattering the material. It drifted across the space, forming stars that merged and vanished.

Then, a bear's face appeared in one of the ears hanging in the air, whispering to itself, "Senior, did you trick him into committing suicide?"

Wuyun rolled his eyes, disgruntled. "Is that trickery? That’s called seeking truth from facts! I take money and solve problems! Wait here, I need to heal with Rongya; you lot are not allowed into this mass of energy for now!"

As he dove into the terrifying energy, the entire scene shattered. In the valley, Wuyun crashed down from the sky, landing flat on his face.

As Wuyun rubbed his backside and stood up to ask what had happened, the Questioning Heaven Beast began vomiting blood. The violent energy had been cataclysmic—enough to destroy even an Immortal Emperor. As a mid-to-late stage Great Demon, he had only lasted a second trying to discern the cause before his soul was shattered and he was left critically injured.

Luoda was stunned. With the beast incapacitated and unable to answer, he and Daoyuan were left with only blurry memories and lingering voices from the vision.

"Who exactly are you?" Luoda waved his hands, forming a circular ring that locked around Wuyun’s neck. With a spin, the ring multiplied into thousands, encasing him within.