135: Your Majesty, our national treasury has been emptied of gifts received as part of weddings and other celebrations.

Xuantian Immortal Dynasty, Imperial Capital, Nine Heavens Divine City.

In the deepest part of the imperial palace, inside the State Treasury cast from "Indestructible Immortal Gold," which is claimed to be unshakable even by the full-force strike of an Immortal Venerable.

"Buzz..."

Space, without any warning, rippled slightly.

The Old Ancestor of the imperial family responsible for guarding this place, Gao Yangshuo, abruptly opened his eyes.

In his cloudy eyes, two golden divine beams capable of tearing through the Void Realm instantly shot out!

"Who goes there!"

With a low shout containing the supreme pressure of an Immortal King at Perfection, he instantly swept through the entire treasury!

The air solidified, and the Laws wailed.

As one of the oldest pillars of the Xuantian Immortal Dynasty, Gao Yangshuo had not felt such a strange fluctuation for over a hundred thousand years.

It wasn't a forced entry.

It didn't trigger any of the Restrictions he had personally laid down, which were connected to the Immortal Dynasty's destiny.

The feeling was like... someone had conjured an item out of thin air inside your most heavily guarded safe.

His Divine Thought surged toward the center of the treasury like a tide.

There lay the lifeblood of the entire Immortal Dynasty—the core of the [Nine Dragons Heaven-Suppressing Formation].

In the center of the Formation, a dim drop of golden blood floated, looking as if it might extinguish at any moment.

That was the last drop of Lifeblood Emperor Blood left by the founding Immortal Emperor of the Xuantian Immortal Dynasty, the Progenitor of the Gao Clan, before his fall.

It was also the Foundation that suppressed the national destiny and Legacy of the entire Immortal Dynasty for a million years.

But now.

Beside that dim Emperor blood, at some unknown time, something else had appeared.

It was a wisp of... similarly golden Qi.

It just floated there quietly, emitting a terrifying Emperor's might that made even Gao Yangshuo, an Immortal King at Perfection, feel his Divine Soul tremble and feel an urge to prostrate himself in worship!

"This... this is..."

Gao Yangshuo's figure instantly appeared before the Formation.

He stared fixedly at that wisp of golden Qi, his entire being struck as if by lightning, completely frozen on the spot.

Both were immortal emperor origin source!

But the difference between the two was like a firefly compared to the bright moon!

The Emperor blood left by their Gao Clan Progenitor had a vast aura, but it carried a hint of twilight and decay—a symbol of power fading before a great expert's fall.

Yet this wisp of golden Qi before him was filled with endless vitality and vigor!

It was mellow, full, and flawless!

It was as if it hadn't been stripped from some Immortal Emperor, but was instead... the most primitive and pure manifestation of the Dao Origin!

Gao Yangshuo's breathing instantly became incredibly rapid!

He had lived for nearly a million years and had never seen, nor even imagined, that such a perfect Emperor Origin existed in the world!

If an Immortal King were to refine this thing, it would almost certainly create a new Immortal Venerable at Perfection or even a Breakthrough to Immortal Emperor!

Who was it?

Just who possessed such heaven-defying methods to silently deliver such a divine object here?

And what was their purpose?

A show of force?

Or... just as his mind was reeling, he saw beneath that wisp of golden Qi a line of small golden characters, also condensed from the Laws of the Dao.

The handwriting was elegant and free-spirited, carrying a sense of laziness and nonchalance, as if it didn't hold the myriad worlds in its eyes.

[Heard there's a gathering in the Eastern Region, so I've come to contribute a gift, adding a little something for good luck.]

[——Myriad Dao Divine Sect, Chu Xuanjin.]

"Pfft..."

Looking at that line of text, Gao Yangshuo felt a sweetness in his throat and nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

Con... contribute a gift?

You call this contributing a gift?

Does your family contribute gifts by dropping them onto other people's national lifeblood?

And that tone!

Heard there's a gathering in the Eastern Region?

That's the Purple Cloud Sacred Land causing trouble; what does it have to do with you? What does it have to do with my Xuantian Immortal Dynasty?

What do you mean by sending the luck-token directly to my home?

Gao Yangshuo felt like his brain was completely failing him.

He had lived so long and seen the arrogant, the proud, and the lawless.

But someone this... abstract, he truly was seeing for the first time.

Myriad Dao Divine Sect? Chu Xuanjin?

He pondered the name repeatedly and was certain that it had never appeared in his memory.

"Someone, come!"

Gao Yangshuo did not dare to delay in the slightest and gave a thunderous shout.

"Quickly send word to His Majesty!"

"Highest Rank, 'Heaven' grade secret order!"

"Say that... the treasury has been... gifted a contribution!"

...Half an hour later.

Nine Heavens Divine City, Lingxiao Treasure Hall.

The atmosphere was suppressed to the extreme.

Wearing a Nine Dragons Emperor Robe, with a majestic countenance and an unfathomable aura, the Xuantian Immortal Emperor, Gao Tianyuan, sat upon the dragon throne.

His Realm was impressively at the Immortal Venerable Early Stage!

But at this moment, his face, which usually remained unchanged for ten thousand years, was filled with solemnity.

Below him, besides Gao Yangshuo, stood three other imperial Old Ancestors, all with white hair and beards and auras as deep as the abyss.

They were all existences at the Immortal King Late Stage or even Perfection.

They were the true Foundation of the Xuantian Immortal Dynasty.

At this moment, these four Old Ancestors, along with the "Immortal Emperor" (Emperor of the Dynasty) Gao Tianyuan, were all staring fixedly at the center of the hall, where a wisp of golden Qi was slowly rotating, held up by a Formation.

"Speak up, everyone."

Gao Tianyuan's voice was low and raspy.

"What is this?"

"It's a provocation!"

An Imperial Uncle wearing crimson battle armor with the most fiery temper, Gao Yangzhan, was the first to speak.

His voice was like thunder, making the entire hall hum and vibrate.

"Your Majesty! This scoundrel's actions are arrogant to the extreme! Silently infiltrating our dynasty's treasury and leaving this object and message—how is it any different from slapping our faces in person?"

"This is a humiliating disgrace!"

"This subject requests to go to war!"

"I ask Your Majesty to bestow the [Xuantian Mirror] so I can uproot that so-called 'Myriad Dao Divine Sect'! I will capture that Chu Xuanjin and bring him to the capital for public execution!"

"Stupid!"

Gao Yangshuo snorted coldly, unceremoniously interrupting him.

"Request to go to war? With what will you fight?"

"Do you know how this object appeared in the treasury?"

"The Restrictions didn't move, the national destiny gave no warning, and even my Divine Thought didn't detect a single thing!"

"With such methods, forget about you—even if His Majesty went himself, do you think it could be done?"

Hearing this, Gao Yangzhan's expression froze; he opened his mouth but couldn't find any words.

Indeed.

This method was too eerie.

So eerie it made one's heart turn cold.

"Imperial Uncle Yangshuo is right."

Another Old Ancestor with an elegant temperament, holding a scroll of an ancient book, Gao Yangwen, spoke slowly.

"Rather than a provocation, I feel this is more like a... display."

"Or perhaps, a kind of well-intentioned reminder."

"Well-intentioned?" Gao Yangzhan's eyes widened.

"Throwing something onto our lifeblood is called well-intentioned?"

"Otherwise?" Gao Yangwen countered.

"If he had ill intent, what he sent wouldn't be this wisp of Emperor Origin, but a destructive Divine Ability capable of heavily damaging our national destiny."

"Judging by his ability to silently deliver this object, we wouldn't be able to stop him."

As soon as these words were spoken, the hall fell into silence once again.

Cold sweat broke out on everyone's backs.

Indeed.

Since the opponent could send "life," they could naturally send "death."

"Your Majesty."

Gao Yangshuo bowed toward Gao Tianyuan, his expression extremely solemn.

"This old servant compared this object with the Emperor blood left by our Progenitor."

"And the result?" Gao Tianyuan asked in a heavy voice.

Gao Yangshuo took a deep breath and slowly uttered four words.

"A world of difference."

"The Progenitor's Emperor blood is a 'dead' object, the afterglow of power before an Immortal Emperor fell."

"But this object is a 'living' thing! It is full of vitality, mellow and perfect, as if... as if it belongs to a living supreme Immortal Emperor at his Peak."

Hiss—!

The sound of cold air being sucked in echoed throughout the hall.

A living Immortal Emperor?

How was that possible!

Since the ancient war between immortals and demons, Immortal Emperors had long since become legends!

"Furthermore..." Gao Yangshuo paused, his voice becoming even more bitter.

"The 'Dao' contained within this object is more than one level higher than the Progenitor's Emperor blood."

"If the Progenitor's Dao is compared to a river."

"Then the Dao within this object is a boundless sea of stars!"

At this, even Gao Tianyuan could no longer sit still.

He abruptly stood up from the dragon throne, his eyes filled with extreme shock!

As an Immortal Venerable, he knew better than anyone what Gao Yangshuo's words implied!

It meant that the master who sent this object, their Realm and understanding of the Great Dao, had already far exceeded their imagination!

"Myriad Dao Divine Sect... Chu Xuanjin..."

Gao Tianyuan muttered to himself, his eyes flashing with sharp light.

"Investigate!"

"Deploy the 'Heavenly Secret Guard,' use all the Immortal Dynasty's hidden agents, at any cost!"

"Investigate this Sect and this person down to the last detail!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

...One hour later.

Countless pieces of intelligence gathered in the Lingxiao Treasure Hall like snowflakes.

Gao Tianyuan looked at the contents of the Jade Slip, his expression becoming increasingly strange.

"Eastern Region, Hundred Thousand Barren Mountains, a second-rate Sect called the Qingmu Sect was incorporated a year ago by a force calling itself the 'Myriad Dao Divine Sect'..."

"The Sect Master is named Chu Xuanjin, suspected to be an Ascender from the Lower Realm."

"This person's actions are... extremely lazy, staying behind closed doors all day, suspected to be... sleeping?"

"Yet his Sect's Disciples are each like dragons and tigers, acting in a high-profile and domineering manner."

"The Heavenly Saber Pavilion was subdued by them and became their 'exclusive agent' responsible for collecting rent."

"The Purple Cloud Sacred Land's Thunder Envoy, Thousand Jun of Thunder, went to investigate and was hung at the entrance, also... sleeping?"

"Recently, his Disciple Ye Chenfeng appeared in Heavenly Sword City, shattered the Sword Testing Stone with one strike, and crippled the Setting Sun Sword Sect's Young Lord in one move..."

"His Disciple Su Linger took control of the capital's Xuanji Tower and renamed it 'Myriad Dao Pavilion,' secretly stirring up the situation..."

"His Disciple Zhao No-Worry is at the border of the Myriad Dragon Nest, challenging various Dragon souls..."

"His Disciple Ye Wushang has gone deep into the Demon Abyss..."

Reading through each piece of intelligence.

Gao Tianyuan and the four Old Ancestors looked at each other, seeing a hint of absurdity in each other's eyes.

A Sect Master who seemingly sleeps every day.

A group of Prodigy Disciples causing trouble all over the world.

No matter how you looked at it, this style didn't seem right.

"An Ascender?" Gao Yangzhan's brows were tightly knit.

"Could a group of ants who crawled up from the Lower Realm have this kind of strength? And even produce immortal emperor origin source?"

"This intelligence must be incorrect!"

"No."

Gao Tianyuan slowly shook his head, his gaze falling once more on that line of text.

"Contribute a gift..."

He looked at this word, which was full of commoner flavor yet completely out of place with a divine object like immortal emperor origin source.

A bold, yet seemingly only logical guess slowly formed in his mind.

"Imperial Uncles."

Gao Tianyuan took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"Do you think there's a possibility."

"That this Sect Master Chu is not some Ascender at all."

"He is an ancient existence beyond our imagination."

"He is simply... playing in the Mortal World."

"His so-called Sect and so-called Disciples are just chess pieces he casually molded for this game?"

Playing in the Mortal World!

These words were like a bolt of lightning, clearing the fog in everyone's minds!

Yes!

Only this explanation could connect all the illogical points together!

An expert playing in the human world naturally wouldn't care about some immortal emperor origin source and would casually send it as "gift money."

An expert playing in the human world would naturally be too lazy to act himself, instead watching his "chess pieces" stir up the world's situation.

An expert playing in the human world—his methods and thoughts were naturally not something "commoners" like them could fathom!

"Hiss..."

Having understood this point, the four Old Ancestors once again sucked in a breath of cold air.

Their gaze toward that wisp of immortal emperor origin source completely changed.

It wasn't a provocation.

It truly was... a gift contribution.

It was a high-and-mighty chess player who, seeing two ants about to fight on the board, found it interesting and casually dropped a grain of rice.

And their Xuantian Immortal Dynasty didn't even count as an ant; it's just that... the grain of rice happened to land in their family's rice jar.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Gao Yangshuo bowed, completely convinced.

"Then... how should we respond?"

"Respond?"

Gao Tianyuan smiled.

The previous oppressive atmosphere vanished into thin air.

His face even showed a hint of excitement and anticipation.

"This isn't a crisis."

"This is a heaven-sent Opportunity!"

He walked to the hall's entrance, standing with his hands behind his back, gazing toward the distant east.

"An expert playing in the Mortal World has appeared within the territory of my Xuantian Immortal Dynasty; this is a great change unseen in my Immortal Dynasty for a million years!"

"Pass on my decree!"

His voice was full of imperial decisiveness and majesty!

"First! Enshrine this wisp of Emperor Origin well and list it as the number one national treasure!"

"Second! List the 'Myriad Dao Divine Sect' as our Immortal Dynasty's highest-Rank 'Heaven-grade Number One' ally! Their Sect and Disciples shall enjoy status and power equivalent to Imperial Princes within our territory! All citizens of the Immortal Dynasty shall treat them as if they were seeing me!"

"Third! Immediately prepare a lavish gift! Imperial Uncle Yangshuo will personally lead a team to participate in that so-called 'Dao Discussion Assembly'!"

"We aren't going there to discuss the Dao."

Gao Tianyuan turned around, his eyes shining with a light called "ambition."

"We are going to show support for that Sect Master Chu and his Disciples!"

"Doesn't the Purple Cloud Sacred Land want to go fishing?"

"Then I will help them smash their fishing rods and throw the fishermen into the water as well!"

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