Chapter Twenty: The Supreme Imperial Advisor

A few months later, gazing at the now-vanished teleportation array, Tiger-faced Immortal hesitated briefly, then dispersed the puppet who had come to collect the debt and strode inside. Outside the teleportation array, the puppet’s lingering voice still echoed—“Who dares provoke the Multi-Space Chamber of Commerce? Even if you ascend to the Immortal Realm, you’ll have to light the oil lamp; even in death, your soul will pay the price, even if…”
“You cannot escape!”
After months of pursuit, Tiger-faced Immortal was utterly exhausted. The remnants of his immortal artifacts, once vast arrays, had been recalled and shrunk, now hanging above his head like a radiant halo. As he stepped out at the other end of the teleportation array, his footing barely steady, a torrent of worldly filth and mortal breath surged toward him.
Tiger-faced Immortal frowned. From above his head, in the western sky, a faint, intoxicating crimson glow was visible—that was the gathered power of faith in this place.
This was the Lokko Planet, under the rule of the Seven Qi Dynasty!
Following the deaths of the Seven Qi King and the twelve great generals, chaos engulfed the entire dynasty. The four grand ministers had yet to recover from their wounds, and in the grand hall, the three princes of the Seven Qi King assembled.
Second Prince, Prince Ji; Fifth Prince, Prince Zhou; and Ninth Prince, Prince Ou—each had their own factions. The Second Prince was backed by the military, the Fifth Prince by the court and the vassals, and the Ninth Prince was supported by the Seven Qi King’s Queen, Lady Gu, representing the orthodox line.
The three powers were evenly matched, but the throne could belong to only one!
Amidst the internal strife, worse news arrived: the otherworldly beast responsible for the king’s murder had descended upon Lokko Planet, at the sole cultivator’s realm south of the imperial city.
“Whoever can slay this beast shall rightfully claim the throne!”
The hall resounded with unanimous agreement. Suddenly, atop a massive jade beam, a weak but penetrating voice rang out: “But what if none of you can satisfy this beast’s hunger? Wouldn’t that mean the Seven Qi Dynasty is doomed to destruction?”
Though the voice was feeble, it thundered in their ears. Before the three princes could react in anger, they were held back by the king’s chief attendant, who had served through three generations of Seven Qi Kings. This venerable elder knelt with utmost reverence before the beam, upon which a green dragon was carved, and cried out, “Grand Preceptor, save us!”
“Hahaha, only the first generation king had a Grand Preceptor! Back then, our dynasty marched north and south…” Fifth Prince Ou began, but his voice trailed off as he noticed the other two princes looking at him as though he were a fool.
The dragon carved on the jade beam suddenly came to life, soaring around the palace before reluctantly returning and transforming into an elderly man in green robes. Two horns adorned his head, one of them broken and oozing pus and blood.
His attire was immaculate, and his eyes sharp as he gazed southward at the faint aura of calamity, sighing, “A great catastrophe is upon us, a great catastrophe indeed. How laughable that you are all still entangled in this illusory throne. If the ascended kings of the previous three generations in the Immortal Realm knew, they would cough blood in anger!”
“Grand Preceptor, have you awakened to take charge of the situation?” the attendant asked in a quivering voice, barely able to hide his excitement. If the Grand Preceptor could take the helm, the Seven Qi Dynasty might yet be restored to glory!
But the old man in green shook his head and replied, “I was awakened by your noise!”

The three princes hung their heads in shame, but the old man in green then said, “Bring forth those noisy cultivators captured from the teleportation array!”
“Cultivators?”
The assembled officials were stunned. A junior officer mustered his courage to report, “Four cultivators and a demon eagle were captured for using the emergency teleportation array. They are outside, awaiting your judgment!”
Once the Grand Preceptor nodded, Wu Yun and the others—bound by soul-binding ropes—were escorted in, stumbling.
These ropes could suppress all cultivation, even the soul, rendering the captives utterly powerless.
As the four people and one beast barely managed to stand in the hall, an official from the Ministry of Justice stepped forward to shout them to their knees. But before he could, Wu Yun pointed at the unremarkable old man in green and exclaimed,
“Oh? So you, the little dragon from the Fifth Immortal Realm, are hiding here, using the power of faith in this court to heal your wounds?”
The three princes were about to shout in anger when the Grand Preceptor’s eyes flashed, and a wave of pressure swept forth, pinning every official and prince aside, including the king’s chief attendant, whose cultivation was at the peak of the Spirit-Shattering Stage.
The Grand Preceptor was overwhelmingly powerful—more than enough to subdue the entire court!
For a dynasty that relied on combined cultivation arts, where the strength of many multiplied exponentially, the court was the seat of all the Seven Qi Dynasty’s elite forces.
Hundreds of generals and officials were all suppressed into a corner, as if the hall had been cleared, leaving only the central figures.
“Who are you? How do you know my identity!” the Grand Preceptor thundered. Lightning crackled above, and before he could cast a spell to capture Wu Yun and the others into a treasure, Wu Yun sighed.
“You’re finished. That cat from the south loves nothing more than eating dragons!”
No sooner had Wu Yun spoken than the Tiger-faced Immortal’s visage appeared in the sky, his expression sour. “Wounded loach or not, it’ll have to do.”
The Grand Preceptor’s face froze. He blurted out a curse, “Heaven and earth! A Demon Emperor—stronger than even my worst enemies!”
He pointed first at Wu Yun, then at Tiger-faced Immortal, his look of panic and helplessness so pitiable that even the demon eagle, who rarely spoke, could not bear it and said, “We’re not with him.”
For the first time, the demon eagle opened its beak. A lazy silver worm lay on its crimson tongue. Ever since cultivating Wu Yun’s secret art, the once Seven Strange Beasts—now called Little Worm—had rapidly recovered its strength, with the bearing of one breaking free of the cocoon and being reborn in fire.

Little Worm could not bear to frighten the Green Dragon, but the latter was already terrified. Since arriving in this realm, founding the dynasty, and healing with faith, he had never faced such terror. Even the South Sky and the Rainbow Tree Demon had yielded to his aura.
But since the four grand ministers and the diviner had predicted the tribulation of the Sage Overlord on Luoshui Planet, misfortune had followed without cease.
“I am wounded. See—evil spirits keep emerging from the pus in my broken horn!” The Grand Preceptor displayed his injury, where countless tiny demons gnawed at the fresh flesh, immune to all remedies.
“Don’t. I only came here to use the power of faith, and to settle matters between you and the cat. Better that, than be a loach to be stewed or swallowed alive!”
Wu Yun had barely finished when the Grand Preceptor demanded, “Who are you really, to know my background so well?”
“Your wounds are worse than before, though you no longer feel pain. Using faith to heal is right, but you lack the method to expel the evil!”
Wu Yun laid out several demands, to which the Grand Preceptor nodded. “If you heal me, even if I cannot defeat the Tiger Cat Demon Emperor, I can at least guarantee your safety.”
“No. I’m here to borrow the power of faith, nothing more. The rest is between you and that cat demon.” Wu Yun spoke with calm assurance, but the Green Dragon was left bewildered—when had he formed such a karmic tie with the cat demon?
“He’s hungry. He’ll eat you, little loach, to restore his strength,” Long Yun explained. The Tiger-faced Immortal chuckled, reaching out a paw toward the endless faith above the imperial city.
As the power of faith touched his paw, it burst into flames—the karmic fire of the mortal world, fiercely punitive. The Tiger-faced Immortal shook his paw several times to extinguish it, spitting out a few bubbles as the illusion shattered completely.
“One thing overcomes another. This power of faith truly is the path of the gods!” The Tiger-faced Immortal understood the mystery and was about to break through by force when Wu Yun hummed, “I came here for two reasons: to stop you from reaching Luoshui Planet, and to use this power of faith to truly weaken you. Both are now accomplished.”
No sooner had he finished than limitless faith gathered around Tiger-faced Immortal, enfolding him relentlessly.
The power of faith was unending—the prayers of the Seven Qi Dynasty’s people, beseeching the punishment of their king’s murderer!