Within the Tai Void Celestial Palace, which had been relocated to the ‘Eastern Sacred Realm,’ the Hall of Tai Void still shone brilliantly, its radiance illuminating every corner of the space.
On a vast, floating continent, inside the Hall of Heavenly Waters.
“Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.”
“A sacred land, no less, unable to protect even the wife of Brother Dongbo, let alone the casualties among its own warriors. What a disgrace, a true disgrace.” The Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall sat alone in the courtyard, clad in deep blue robes, drinking wine with a pained and resentful expression on his face.
Outside the courtyard gate, maidservants watched from a distance, not daring to approach.
Ever since the great upheaval in the Tai Void Celestial Palace, the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall had become deeply despondent, and even his disciples dared not try to console him.
“Struggle? What more can we struggle for?” the Lord murmured. While his disciples still harbored fighting spirit, the more he knew, the more despair he felt. He had long since lost all confidence. “Against the Sacred Lord, even if all the Cosmic Deities on our side join forces, we can only hold a defensive position. We pose no threat to him whatsoever. With the Sacred Lord within and the Annihilation Demons without… and the Chaos Void expanding endlessly, it will eventually lead to the Great Destruction. Hah, perhaps it’s for the best. Brother Dongbo, Brother Qianyi, you all have gone ahead. Soon, we will follow.”
The Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall was filled with sorrow and guilt.
As for the former ‘Dongbo Xueying,’ the Lord had watched him grow step by step. When Dongbo Xueying was stationed in the Chaos City, it was the Heavenly Waters City he had been assigned to.
Such a prodigious talent…
Brilliant and dazzling!
Dongbo Xueying’s cultivation time was already short, yet he spent trillions of years relentlessly hunting down Annihilation Demons, even discovering several golden-armored nests of the demons. His achievements left even the Cosmic Deities in awe! In the end, even when captured alive by the Sacred Lord, he chose death rather than revealing the so-called “Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art.”
Such a meritorious figure, such a genius, perished too soon. And in the end, the Tai Void Celestial Palace couldn’t even protect his wife.
“Sacred Lord, Sacred Lord,” the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall muttered under his breath.
The undisputed strongest in the Chaos Void, yet capable of such shameless acts without regard for face.
“The gap in power is too vast. Our side poses no threat to him at all.” The Lord slumped over the table, drunk not from wine but from his own sorrow.
Gradually.
He felt his consciousness slipping away.
“No—”
The Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall instantly realized something was wrong, but before he could react, his consciousness was completely overwhelmed. He slumped forward onto the table, falling into a deep slumber.
The maidservants outside the courtyard didn’t even realize their master had fallen victim to an unseen force.
—
The Eastern Sacred Realm also had many remote and desolate regions. A vast area had been allocated to the Tai Void Celestial Palace, where eight Chaos Cities were established, including the ‘Heavenly Waters City.’
Within the City Lord’s residence of Heavenly Waters City.
In an underground meditation chamber, the avatar of the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall, who had been in deep slumber, suddenly rose and left the residence. With a single step, it ‘teleported’ into a tavern.
Inside a private room of the tavern.
The avatar of the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall pushed open the door to find a white-robed youth wearing a silver mask seated within.
“Brother Heavenly Waters,” Dongbo Xueying greeted the avatar with a wave of his hand.
Whoosh!
The Five-Phase Sealing Art! The private room was completely isolated from the outside world, to the point where even the room itself could no longer be detected from the outside.
The avatar’s eyes were calm, but in truth, it was entirely under Dongbo Xueying’s control—even the ‘teleportation’ had been orchestrated by Dongbo Xueying manipulating space to bring it here.
“His true self must have fallen as well. Ancestor Tianyu and the others might have already noticed,” Dongbo Xueying thought to himself. “But it doesn’t matter. They won’t be able to find this place or disturb me. As for afterward? Letting Ancestor Tianyu know won’t be an issue either!”
There were few Cosmic Deities he trusted, and Ancestor Tianyu was one of them.
“Hum.”
Dongbo Xueying looked at the avatar and spoke, “I apologize for the offense this time. I hope you can forgive me.”
The avatar sat down in silence.
“Do you hate the Sacred Lord?” Dongbo Xueying asked.
The Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall was, after all, an Eighth-Level Chaos expert of the Rule Path, with extraordinary soul and willpower. Dongbo Xueying had no secret treasures—his ability to control the Lord so effortlessly stemmed purely from his mastery of the Illusory Realm, which had reached the Cosmic Deity level. However, he couldn’t access the Lord’s memories directly; he could only guide him to reveal secrets.
Moreover, once he ceased the technique and left, the Lord would regain consciousness and realize he had been ensnared.
“Hate? I wish he would die sooner,” the Lord snarled, his face twisting as if witnessing something infuriating, his teeth clenched.
Based on the illusions he was projecting, Dongbo Xueying concluded that the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall was no traitor.
“When the Sacred Lord ambushed the Tai Void Celestial Palace, what were the losses?” This was something Dongbo Xueying deeply cared about. Simultaneously, within the illusion, he guided the Lord’s mind, gradually reconstructing the scene of that battle.
“It was too sudden. The Sacred Lord captured a group of disciples from the Tai Void Celestial Palace alive—including four Hall Lords!” the Lord replied.
Dongbo Xueying’s expression darkened.
Four Hall Lords captured?
Excluding himself, the Tai Void Celestial Palace only had twelve Hall Lords in total!
“Are those four Hall Lords still alive?” Dongbo Xueying pressed.
“At the time, the Sacred Lord demanded that the Ancestor and the Sword Master hand over the so-called ‘Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art.’ Neither of them complied,” the Lord explained. “The Sacred Lord then began executing the captured disciples one by one. Among the four Hall Lords, ‘Hall Lord Qianyi’ and ‘Demon Ancestor’ were killed on the spot.”
Dongbo Xueying’s heart clenched.
Brother Qianyi? Demon Ancestor?
Of the original twelve Hall Lords, he had been familiar with all of them—from the Chaos Hall Lord to the Inquiry Hall Lord and the others—addressing them as brothers. His relationship with the Demon Ancestor had been particularly special, as they hailed from the same universe.
Dead?
Just like that?
“What else? What were the overall losses for the Tai Void Celestial Palace?” Dongbo Xueying asked.
“In that battle, aside from the many captured disciples who were killed, nearly thirty percent of the Tai Void Celestial Palace’s core disciples perished,” the Lord said through gritted teeth. “The Sacred Lord did it intentionally, deliberately targeting our disciples. Though the Ancestor and the Sword Master did their best to protect them, many still died. What infuriated us the most was that, for the sake of that damned Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art, he also captured Brother Dongbo’s wife, Yu Jingqiu.”
Dongbo Xueying’s face paled.
His greatest fear…
His worst nightmare had come true.
“What about Dongbo Yu and Dongbo Qingyao? And Dongbo Xueying’s other disciples?” Dongbo Xueying pressed urgently.
“After Brother Dongbo’s death, the Sword Master took Dongbo Qingyao as his disciple, and the Witch Ancestor took Dongbo Yu as hers. So his children were spared. His disciple, Xinghuo Xunyi, also survived the battle. Originally, the Radiant Sovereign wanted to take Yu Jingqiu as her disciple, but Yu Jingqiu refused. She remained in Brother Dongbo’s former abode, unwilling to leave. The Sacred Lord captured her first!”
“Unwilling to leave… unwilling to leave…”
Dongbo Xueying’s heart ached.
No one else knew.
But he did. He had promised her he would return. With the ‘Heart Realm Token,’ he would come back for her. So she had stayed there, waiting for him.
“Is Yu Jingqiu still alive?” Dongbo Xueying asked.
“Of the disciples the Sacred Lord captured alive, only she and two Hall Lords—Wanxiang and another—remain imprisoned,” the Lord said. “The Sacred Lord keeps them in the Ancient Sacred Realm, torturing them relentlessly to force the Tai Void Celestial Palace to surrender the ‘Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art.’ To this day, we have not yielded, and they continue to suffer. Thankfully, Brother Dongbo never taught the art to his wife—otherwise, she and Brother Wanxiang would have been killed long ago.”
Dongbo Xueying’s heart burned with pain and fury.
The Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art…
Was the Sacred Lord so desperate to obtain it? After targeting him, he had turned his sights on the entire Tai Void Celestial Palace!
“Jingqiu and the others are still suffering.” Dongbo Xueying understood. Ancestor Tianyu and the others would rather die than give the Sacred Lord what he wanted. Everyone feared one thing: if the Sacred Lord deduced a cloning technique from the Boundary-Breaking Teleportation Art, the situation would become even more dire.
—
After carefully questioning further details and reconstructing many scenes through the Illusory Realm, Dongbo Xueying finally had a clear understanding.
“Brother Heavenly Waters, I apologize for the offense.” Dongbo Xueying looked at the seated avatar, then slowly removed his silver mask, revealing his true face. “I am Dongbo Xueying. For now, keep my identity a secret. But you may inform Ancestor Tianyu—he will understand.”
With that, Dongbo Xueying dispelled the Five-Phase Sealing Art and vanished without a trace.
The avatar shuddered, then regained full consciousness.
“I… I was ensnared in an illusion?” The avatar’s face turned pale with shock.
But then, the memories of the illusion—and the final image of the white-robed youth removing his mask—left the Lord of the Heavenly Waters Hall stunned.
“Brother Dongbo? How… how could he still be alive?” The Lord was utterly bewildered.
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