Inside Reversed Heaven Abode, Tianyi sat in a lotus position, levitating above the ground. His hand was cradling the space in front of him, of which five objects floated between. The objects were five belts, each with a clear crystal attached to the buckle.
Strands of fifth-step immortal qi of red, black, yellow, green, and white flowed out from his fingertips. Each color streamed into one of the five crystals, increasing the purity of the jewels. As the crystals changed, so did the belts themselves.
When Tianyi finished, the five belts radiated an aura of fire, water, earth, wood, and metals. Upon closer inspection, one could see an intricately engraved design on the belt itself, formations that Tianyi had installed into the artifact. "Finally, this took me much longer than it should have."
Tianyi placed it on the ground, next to other artifacts or talismans he had refined during the decades he spent on the Earth Continent. Among the artifacts he refined, there was a perfect sphere, but the bottom was white, and the top was red. Between the two halves, there was a button to activate the artifact. Tianyi called this one the Dimension Trapping Ball.
Another was a spherical turtle shell with a black top and tan underside with wings attached. He called it the Black Shell Talisman. There were more than ten similarly-shaped talismans sans the wings but colored white instead of black, known as White Shell Talismans.
There was a cartoon mushroom with a pale stem and a black cap with yellow spots. All in all, it looked hazardous to eat. Anyone who ate it would grow a hundred times in pure strength, size, and qi—anyone below the Seamless Immortal Realm, that is. Tianyi called it the Ultimate Mushroom Pill.
And finally, it was the five belts. Collectively, they were known as the Five Element Morphers. Looking at all the artifacts and talismans he refined, Tianyi couldn't help but snicker in amusement.
"What're you laughing at?"
Tianyi turned his head to see Daoyi walking in. "I'm not laughing."
Daoyi turned to look at the assortment of treasures on the ground. Upon recognizing their inspirations, she raised an eyebrow that clearly said, "I don't believe you."
"These? They're arms that I prepared for our fellow sect members in the upcoming battle," Tianyi said.
After the Eight Pillar Sect agreed to Tianyi's demand, Ba Shifang, as Monarch Nine Heavens, helped them establish teleportation portals all over the Earth Continent. A few were discovered and destroyed, but most remained unnoticed.
With their part done, Tianyi, Daoyi, Ba Shifang, and the rest of the Buzhou Immortal Sect waited for the Eight Pillar Sect to take action. If he had known that the Eight Pillar Sect would be so patient and would wait for so many decades, Tianyi wouldn't have used the allegations to delay time.
Okay, maybe he would. He was petty like that, and who told Tai Wuling to put Daoyi in danger?
"And the fact that their usage in our fellow sect members' hands would be an inside joke, funny only to a few of us, was not part of your calculations?" Daoyi asked.
"Hey, these are bonafide top-tier treasures. If the user or recipient makes me laugh, that is entirely coincidental," Tianyi said with a shrug. "Hey, don't you judge me. I know you found it funny when Xi Ri and Xia Yushan used the Formation Cards."
"I never said I didn't," Daoyi said. "Still, this is your first mission as an immortal elder. You don't want to expose too much or allow too many of them to die just because of humor."
All humor left Tianyi's expression, and it was replaced by a serious gaze. "I know. I destroyed the White Wind Sect, mortals and all. This battle will likely be worse."
Daoyi sighed and walked toward Tianyi, who had planted his feet on the ground once more. She intertwined her fingers with his. "I won't tell you that they deserve to die, but this is simply the state of the world. We are enemies, and to prevent your enemy from killing us, we must kill them and eliminate all possible chances of them posing a danger to us."
"Don't worry, I'm not so great to the point that I would have nightmares over the people I kill. I think I've already blazed past that point by now," Tianyi said.
"I think you're the type to thrive in the apocalypse," Daoyi said.
Tianyi twisted his brows. "I don't know how to take that."
"It's a compliment," Daoyi said, smiling, but Tianyi doubted that.
"Alright, we should go before we're late. That's why you entered, isn't it?" Tianyi asked.
The two exited his cultivation chambers and made their way into the main hall of Reversed Heaven Abode. There, Ba Shifang was already present, sitting atop the main seat. Over fifty true immortals were present, five of which Tianyi recognized.
How could he not? They were among the first users of the Xiyi Talisman chat features and one of the first guinea pigs, ahem, first players of Cultivation Online. Perhaps due to taking advantage of Tianyi's creation, they all entered the Immortal Realm recently.
Typically, each true immortal's birth would be accompanied by a sect-wide celebration, but such trivialities were abandoned during times of war. They were Immortal Southfist, Fairy Firefly, Immortal Shadowbark, and Ru Ye, also known as Immortal Jadewill.
The fifth was Jinshu. He had a natural inclination to the Law of Fire thanks to the Golden Crow bloodline, but he also possessed talent in the Law of Metal. Due to the abundant resources, he was the first among the five to reach the Pathfinding Immortal Realm.
Suddenly a thought occurred to Tianyi. He waved them over.
"Is there any task you need us to accomplish?" Jadewill asked.
Jinshu also waited. He was extremely respectful to Tianyi, who everyone said was his master, Monarch Nine Heaven's secret child. Even if he was ordered to do something unsavory, he resolved to endure it. However, he would not break his bottom line.
Tianyi waved his hand at Jadewill's words. "No need for such formal terms. You can address me as senior brother like you guys used to. Honestly, I'm still not used to being addressed like this by you guys."
'You're not used to it, but you enjoy it very much,' Daoyi thought, but she didn't expose his true feelings.
Jadewill and the others quickly showed elated expressions. Even Jinshi secretly sighed in relief. "Then, I wonder why Senior Brother has come looking for us."
"It's nothing much," Tianyi said. He waved his hands, and the five belts he had just finished refining appeared. The Fire Element Morpher appeared in front of Jinshu, the Water Element Morpher appeared in front of Jadewill, the Earth Element Morpher appeared in front of Southfist, the Wood Element Morpher appeared in front of Shadowbark, and the Metal Element Morpher appeared in front of Fairy Firefly. "I just finished refining these, but they are useless to me, so I'm going to give them to you guys."
Jinshu, Jadewill, and the others gulped as they felt the aura emanating from the immortal artifacts. Aside from Jinshu, none of them had an immortal artifact, and Jinshu only had one.
"No, these are too precious, we can't take these without reason," Jadewill said. Despite his obvious yearning, his morality and pride still won out.
Tianyi patted Jadewill's shoulders. "Your life is precious enough. With them, your chances of survival will increase. Besides, instead of them gathering dust, isn't it better to give it to you, who will use it in the war?"
Seeing the righteous Tianyi, Jadewill and the others felt themselves moved to near tears. He saluted Tianyi and severely said, "Senior Brother, this grace, I, Jadewill, will definitely repay in the future!"
Not just him, but Southfist, Shadowbark, and Firefly all nodded or said something similar.
Tianyi then gazed at Jinshu, who was still conflicted. "Just keep it. The artifact you have on you isn't suited for offense."
Jinshu's eyes widened as he stared at Tianyi. He never told anyone that he received an immortal artifact from Monarch Nine Heavens, so how did Tianyi know? This only cemented the rumored relationship between the two in Jinshu's mind.
Ignorant of Jinshu's thoughts, Tianyi and Daoyi spoke a few more words with them before walking to Ba Shifang. Once he arrived, Ba Shifang nodded and led everyone out of Reversed Heaven abode. From there, they traveled to a sealed location inside the Eight Pillar Sect.
It was the core of the new teleportation formations. The Eight Pillar Sect specially built it atop a spiritual vein to facilitate energy usage. It was one of the stipulations presented by the Buzhou Immortal Sect since they didn't want to exhaust their immortals and allow them to be taken advantage of by the Eight Pillar Sect, no matter how much the latter assured them they wouldn't.
Once there, Tianyi felt a sharp gaze. If that gaze had been translated into swords, he would have been impaled over a thousand times. Tianyi raised an eyebrow. 'Was Tai Wuling supposed to come out now? Well, it matters not.'
He observed the true immortal while Ba Shifang took care of business with Monarch Pathway. There was a more subdued aura around Tai Wuling, as if he was unconsciously concealing him. Still, Tianyi could detect that he was at the peak of the Pathfinding Immortal Realm.
'Judging by story standards, the punishment should have increased his strength instead of weakening. So, maybe he already mastered a law and is just waiting for the opportune time to ascend to the next realm.' Tianyi thought.
Although it sounds insane to judge reality by story plots, Tianyi found that his conjectures were proven with frightening accuracy. Had he truly been in some novel or story, he would have died ten times over by now.
Tianyi didn't walk over, and Tai Wuling soon stopped glaring. He didn't have any intention of bringing up Tai Wuling's addition, much to Monarch Pathway's relief.
Monarch Pathway stepped up to brief the immortals present.
The current Earth Continent was nearly perfectly divided in two. Although it appeared like a stalemate, it was the Eight Pillar Sect that continuously lost territory to the Anti-Earth Alliance. So, the advantage was actually held by the Anti-Earth Alliance. At least on the surface.
In truth, the Eight Pillar Sect deliberately retreated and allowed the Anti-Earth Alliance to take the territories. They hide numerous teleportation formations in them, waiting for the chance to strike at their enemies' exposed backsides at the last moment.
And now was the perfect time. Most of the Anti-Earth Alliance's forces were gathering near the northwest, leaving their headquarters lightly defended.
Of course, they couldn't invest all their manpower into this one attack, but if they succeeded, the chance of the Eight Pillar Sect's victory would dramatically increase, if not all but assured. For this one operation, they had invested over three thousand true immortals and thirty monarchs.
Tianyi had to whistle when he saw the thirty-plus monarchs. Even inside the Buzhou Immortal Sect, he never saw so many monarchs gathered at one location. Granted, he didn't believe the Buzhou Immortal Sect had less. In addition, he could feel the aura of death radiating from over half of them.
They were clearly immortal monarchs that had neared the end of their lifespan, only staving it off in stasis for the greater good of the sect.
Tianyi watched as the monarchs and true immortals were divided into numerous squads. They would be sent off to the Goldlight Sect, Yangsource Sect, Six Finger Sect, and Allbeast Sect, nearly half of the first-rate forces that composed the Anti-Earth Alliance.
As part of the collaboration, Tianyi joined one of the squads, while Ba Shifang stayed behind to control the teleportation formations. He didn't know if it was someone's bad taste or not, but he was placed in the same squad as Tai Wuling and Yang Linyin.
The two groups ignored each other.
Following Tianyi into the Allbeast Sect would be Jinshu, Jadewill, Southfist, Shadowbark, and Firefly. Xia Yushan also joined, but he only stared at Tianyi and Daoyi from afar with no intention of interacting with the two.
Tianyi sighed. It reminded him of growing up back when he was on Earth. The world seemed so beautiful when you were young, but as you grew older, you realized that it had been an illusion all along. Still, he did not dwell on the changes and teleported to the Allbeast Sect with the other immortals from the Eight Pillar Sect.
Once there, the immortals from the Eight Pillar Sect didn't bother to hide their actions. With so many true immortals present, they couldn't conceal it even if they wanted to. They immediately formed seven emperor-level war formations and started assaulting the headquarters of the Allbeast Sect.
Tianyi and the others from the Buzhou Immortal Sect didn't form a war formation and allowed the Eight Pillar Sect to do the heavy work for now. It was only after the first barrier protecting the Allbeast Sect was destroyed that the Allbeast Sect's war formations appeared and fought back.
His eyes narrowed as he spotted a familiar yet surprising figure, Yan Nie, the Divine Flame Lord. Yan Nie wasn't officially part of the Anti-Earth Alliance but a mercenary hired from the Cultivator Alliance by the Anti-Earth Alliance. In a short few decades, he had already reached the Second-Step Seamless Immortal Realm.
Yan Nie spotted him too, but his gaze immediately left and clashed with another's, Tai Wuling. It was as if the battlefield had disappeared, and only the two of them were left in the world.
To be continued on... Fated Clash!
