Chapter 471: Summoning of Portals

Tiberius, Celestial Warden of the Eternal Pursuit pavilion, couldn't believe his ears.

"You met him?"

"Well..." Darren Duskfang, one of his most loyal Sage Advisors, trailed off as he scratched his head. "I met a version of him, I suppose? He spoke with me through the form of a three-meter-tall lich wreathed in shadows."

Tiberius raised a brow. "How could you tell that this lich wasn't the Patriarch?"

Darren laughed. "It was far too weak to be anything more than a mouthpiece."

"How weak are we talking?"

"Around the 5th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, if I had to guess—a little weaker than you," Darren said as he gracefully took a seat. He had only just gotten back from his mission to check on the progress of the beast tide.

"5th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm is weak, huh," Tiberius chuckled as he felt a minor hit to his pride. After all, he was at the 6th stage and was considered a walking god by most. "I suppose when we are talking about the Patriarch of a Divine level sect, it's only natural he would have servants at such a cultivation stage."

"Oh yeah, before I forget," Darren said, running a hand through his soaked hair. "I reminded them about your deal for the evacuation."

"What did they say?"

Darren leaned back and bit into an apple he had summoned from god knows where. "The city is almost ready," he said while chewing, "oh, and they were interested in helping with the evacuation of the other cities."

"For free?" Tiberius narrowed his eyes.

Darren nodded. "Seemed like it. All he mentioned was an interest in overseeing the city in the Qi-deprived lands."

"How strange," Tiberius mused.

"Is it really?"

"Yes, you haven't negotiated with them before," Tiberius said, deeply sighing. "They are ruthless. I refuse to believe they would agree to such a massive undertaking for nothing in return."

Darren shrugged and finished off his apple with a hearty bite. With his mouth half full, he said, "You could always ask Stella Crestfallen for clarification if you want. The Ashfallen Patriarch said he would send her over here soon."

"Perfect, though I wish they would send someone else for a change," Tiberius muttered as he turned to look out the rain-coated window that overlooked the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion and Nightshade City. Dozens of airships were landing and leaving like clockwork from the city's airship station. Mortals who could afford a ticket had already gotten out of the city, but there were still millions left behind.

"How close did you say the beast tide was?"

"Depends on their speed of advancement, as it seems to randomly speed up or slow down as they encounter patches of decaying land," Darren said.

"Decaying land?"

"Yeah, I tested the area and found it to be desolation Qi." He brought out a map and made some marks on it with an ink-dipped quill. "Mhm, I think the beast tide will arrive at our walls in a week or so."

"Not long at all, then," Tiberius clicked his tongue. What was the Ashfallen Sect doing? Why were they cutting it so close? Sure, the first few waves of the beast tide could be resisted by the city's defenses and cultivators, but there would still be deaths from lack of food caused by the farms being overrun. Not to mention, it got difficult to move airships around with the threat of flying monsters, no matter how weak.

"I think the Ashfallen Sect's Patriarch is making efforts to slow the beast tide down, such as the decaying land I was talking about, as I found the lich on the border of that area."

Tiberius clenched his fist and continued looking out the window. "While I appreciate his efforts, how much can he really do here? The evacuation should be the priority, not trying to fight ba—" He froze as an ashen light pulsed

through the sky.

What in the nine realms?! His eyes widened in total shock.

In an instant, the terrible storm overhead was devoured by the light. It shimmered in the sky for a moment. Tiberius felt like he was looking at the ocean's surface but from the seabed. The way it shimmered and moved was mesmerizing.

Darren came silently to his side, and they both stared up at the sky for a while.

"Um..." Darren said, gulping. "Should we be worried about that?"

"Darren," Tiberius said quietly. "When a god decides to bring down the sky upon us, why worry? The fate of our souls is in another's hands. The best we can do is watch intently and try to discern any insights into the great dao."

"Those are wise words befitting the Celestial Warden," Darren said, nodding approvingly. He then clasped his hands behind his back and filled his eyes with Qi. It wasn't often a cultivator got to witness a god's immense power over reality, and simply by looking at it, they were bound to gain a sliver of insight... assuming they lived, of course.

"It's changing," Tiberius mused. The ashen light was condensing, and the sky began to crumble. Ashen snowfall descended upon them, and the moment the snowfall hit the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion, the grand illusion array that surrounded the peak started to flicker.

Tiberius raised a brow. He didn't even know that was possible.

An alarm went off in the room, and someone came rushing in.

"Celestial Warden! We are under attack."

"Relax, there's nothing we can do," Tiberius solemnly replied. "Power down the array for now and wait until the snowfall lets up before turning the array back on. In the meantime, send an emergency request to all Lotus Informants and Hunters to secure the peak from a potential attack or infiltration while the array is down."

"Got it," the cultivator bowed and was about to leave when the entire building shook.

Tiberius glanced over his shoulder to look out the window while multiple other alarms went off in his office. "Holy shit," he muttered as a beam of black Qi passed overhead. Even when straining his spiritual senses, he couldn't tell where the beam's source was nor what it was shooting at.

Darren seemed to trace it through the sky before scrambling over to the desk and checking the map with shaking hands. His eyes widened as he held the map up for Tiberius to see. "The beam, it's coming from the Ashfallen Sect's direction," he pointed at a spot on the map and traced it north, "and it's aimed here."

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"At the beast tide?" Tiberius was at a loss for words. He glanced back out the window and saw the massive desolation beam in the distance, drawing a line across the horizon as it went. Soon enough, it was outside the range of his Qi-empowered sight.

Trembling, he leaned on the table to help himself into the neatest chair.

All he could think about was, what if that beam had been aimed at him? It had come without warning, from far outside his perception range, and there was no way the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion's defensive arrays would withstand that beam for even a second.

He sat there for a long while, silently watching the ashen snowfall over his city. At some point, the alarms had stopped, and an attendant had placed a steaming cup of green tea beside him. If not for the aroma tickling his nose, he wouldn't have noticed its presence.

"Humbling, isn't it?" Darren sighed as he sipped from his own teacup. They were sitting beside one another like two old friends on a porch, watching the world go by.

"Mhm," Tiberius hummed in agreement. "Every time I reach a new stage, the gap to the next one feels almost insurmountable. I tell myself, this is it. You have reached the peak," he snorted and shook his head. "I'm a fool deluded from greatness by my own mediocrity."

"Respectfully, Celestial Warden, if you are mediocre, then I'm nothing but a dog's breath."

Tiberius glanced at Darren for a long time and looked him up and down before looking away.

"Hey?! What was that look for?" Darren grumbled and clicked his tongue. "Honestly, the nerve of old people to belittle their juniors." He went for another sip of tea when the door to the room burst open, and a very worried-looking cultivator stepped inside.

"Pardon the intrusion, but someone is here to see the Celestial Warden."

Tiberius raised a brow. He didn't have any meetings planned for the day. Perhaps it was concerning the monumental attack he had just witnessed?

"Who is it?" Tiberius asked.

"A VIP by the name of Stella Crestfallen, alongside two children."

"Pfft!" Darren spat out his tea in shock. "What?!"

Tiberius ignored the blubbering fool beside him and rose from his seat. Casting one last glance out at the ashen snowfall, he strode over to his grand desk and nodded to the cultivator. "You can show her inside."

The cultivator bowed and left.

"Get out of here, Darren," Tiberius waved the man out.

"But..."

"No buts," he shook his head. "I've trained myself to handle Stella's demeanor during meetings—your presence will only cause us issues."

"Fine," Darren nodded and swiftly left, closing the door behind him.

Tiberius sat in the silent room for a moment and gathered his thoughts. As a cultivator who had lived centuries and liked to think he was somewhat near the peak of the power of this world besides the true monsters, few people could get his heart pounding and make him restless like this.

Stella Crestfallen was one such person. Her way of handling negotiations was far too lax and random to get a read on her thoughts or plans, and the death of the Lunarshade family made it clear the lengths that the Ashfallen Sect would go to support her.

"I hope this time isn't too bad—" he mused as the door to his office was abruptly kicked open.

"Celestial Warden! I'm here for my money!" Stella said as she strode into the office like she owned the place. "Six and a half million Yinxi Coins! Pay up!"

"Big Sister, can you really talk to the Celestial Warden like that?" a silver-haired child walking behind Stella whispered.

Tiberius rose from his seat and calmly addressed the thug with a prepared response, "It's already sent—but it's pending. Once the people have been safely transferred to the new city, the money will be deposited into your account."

The silver-haired kid blinked in surprise.

"Oh, great. Job well done then," Stella said, smiling at him. Turning on her heel, she looked like she was about to leave already.

"Ahem," Tiberius coughed into his hand. "When was the Ashfallen Sect planning on sending airships for the evacuation?"

She paused. "What airships?"

Tiberius felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Your sect will need to provide airships for the evacuation, as our airships are at maximum capacity, and we can only move a hundred thousand people a day."

"Sounds tough, but I don't care," Stella waved him off. "We will be using portals, not airships. They are way faster and safer."

Tiberius felt like he hadn't heard her right. "Portals?" he asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah, have you never seen one before?" Stella looked at him like he was the one saying weird stuff. "I mean, how did you think I got here? Walked? Flew? No, I was home a minute ago."

"How is that possible..." Tiberius felt his brain shutting down. Portals required massive arrays that devoured endless amounts of spirit stones to power. He wouldn't think much of it if the Ashfallen Sect had a network of portal arrays, as they definitely had the spirit stones to finance it, but they shouldn't be able to portal here, of all places.

"Simple, really, we can make portals wherever we—agh," Stella was interrupted by the green-haired girl at her side reaching up to cover her mouth.

"Master," the little girl said, "I know you want to brag about your father's capabilities, but sometimes it's best to keep things to yourself."

Tiberius expected the ever-arrogant Stella to rebuke her disciple for interrupting her, but she did quite the opposite.

"What a great point, my little minion, ahem, I mean Disciple," Stella said as she ruffled the girl's hair. "I should be more mysterious."

Jasmine pouted. "Is that why you brought me here?"

"No... well, kind of. One day, you will overtake these meetings in my stead, so it's good for you to get practice. Oh, and you too," Stella said, patting the silver-haired kid on the shoulder. "Tiberius, this is Ryker Silverspire."

"What? Me too?" Ryker seemed surprised as he was pushed forward by Stella.

Stella grinned. "Of course! What if I get invited to two meetings at once, and Jasmine is busy attending one of them? What do you expect me to do? Go myself?"

Jasmine and Ryker rolled their eyes. Meanwhile, Tiberius was silently cheering them on. It would be way easier to get the results he wanted in deals with inexperienced children than with this demon. Though Jasmine seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, and Ryker seemed incredibly young, yet was at the Star Core Realm?

Tiberius gathered himself and greeted Ryker with a smile. "Any subordinate of Stella is a friend. I hope we will work together in the future, Ryker."

He held out his hand, and Ryker hesitantly shook it.

"Now, back on topic, as I know you are busy," Tiberius said, knowing full well that this meeting was on a time limit, namely Stella's attention span. "When are these portals going to be created so I can get the mortals ready?"

Stella shrugged. "Whenever is fine."

Tiberius glanced outside at the airships dotting the sky. They were already at maximum capacity, and the beast tide was rapidly closing in. Not knowing if the Ashfallen Sect was serious or not, he decided there was no reason to wait—especially with Stella standing right before him.

"Could you do it today?"

It would be close, but he could tell the mortals to pack up their things and run to the portals. There was no telling if or when the storm might return, so now was the best time to do it.

"Sure," Stella said, glancing over her shoulder at her shadow. "Hey, Anubis."

Her shadow shifted as if alive before solidifying into what could only be described as a black abyss. From within the darkness, a being with a soul pressure almost equal to his own stepped out and loomed behind her. The shadow lich had to curve its body to fit inside the room due to its towering height, and it stared at him with eyes of flickering flame.

"Mistress, you called?" the lich said in a voice that could only be described as rubbing stones together.

Is this the lich that Darren spoke of, or another one? Tiberius shuddered at the thought of there being a whole group of these Nascent Soul Realm liches in service to the Ashfallen Sect.

"Can you inform my father to open the portals?"

The lich bowed. "As you wish."

A moment later, an alarm went off once again. Tiberius didn't need the cultivator who ran into his room to know the reason. He glanced out the window and saw a massive portal tear the sky apart. From within it, a floating island topped with a single red-leafed tree cruised through and hovered over Nightshade City.

"Does that belong to your father?" he asked Stella.

She nodded. "Yeah, it's our version of an airship."

Tiberius moved toward the window and observed with his spiritual sense. The tree atop the island appeared to be in the Star Core Realm and possessed spatial affinity. The tree abruptly exploded with power as divine fire spiraled up its trunk like a coiling snake and engulfed its canopy in flames.

Suddenly, to Tiberius's horror, a Qi-filled rainbow of cultivators burning bright from their own soul flames with weapons drawn launched from the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion toward the floating island.

That was when the Celestial Warden realized his mistake. He had told everyone to be on standby and be ready to prepare for an attack and protect the pavilion while the formations were down.

But if they were to try and fight the Ashfallen Sect—only death awaited them.

He quickly turned to the cultivator waiting by the door. "Tell everyone to stand down! That airship belongs to the Ashfallen Sect!"

The cultivator's eyes widened, and they swiftly brought out a communication jade.

But it was already too late.