77: Five Great Sages Attack, the Crimson Lotus Palace Master's High-Stakes Gamble

The hibiscus curtains were warm.

The spring night was short.

Xu Jinhuan helplessly settled the delicate, boneless woman beside him.

"Senior Sister Qingyao, did you do that on purpose, or was it an accident?"

He was at a loss for words.

How could one experience something like being poisoned by love poison twice?

It looked like an intentional accident no matter how he saw it!

Fang Qingyao was unable to speak now, only blushing uncontrollably.

Her mind was a blank slate, and the wild memories of the intimate spring night kept flooding her brain.

The Master was truly too terrifying, yet too gentle...

After settling the intentionally accidental Fang Qingyao, Xu Jinhuan walked out of the room feeling refreshed and began his cultivation.

Outside the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace, the cloudless sky suddenly churned and changed drastically. Thunder and lightning tore through the firmament, and gales mixed with astral winds howled past. Even space trembled and twisted under this terrifying pressure, as if it were about to shatter at any moment.

Five sacred figures stepped out from the Void Realm. With every step they took, ripples of Law appeared beneath their feet. The vast and mighty pressure of the Great Sages spread across the sky and earth, pressing down on the land below until it shook repeatedly, as if a dragon were turning over deep underground.

They had originally intended to head to the Taiyi Holy Land to demand justice for their own Prodigies who had fallen at the hands of Xu Jinhuan, but halfway there, they discovered that Xu Jinhuan was still at the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace.

Thus, they changed their plans on a whim and came to the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace to intercept Xu Jinhuan.

To them, the Taiyi Holy Land could be dealt with later, but this boy with terrifying talent had to die!

The two Great Sages from the Blood God Palace had already explained the terror of Xu Jinhuan's talent to them; this was their shared thought.

With the arrival of the five Great Sages, the surrounding million-mile Red Lotus Sea surged with tsunamis reaching tens of thousands of feet high. The million-mile sea area churned like boiling water, as if the apocalypse had arrived.

As the five descended, the protective Formation of the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace hummed and activated instantly. A light red barrier wrapped around the floating divine island like an eggshell, but under the pressure of the five Great Sages, the barrier began to twist and cave in, emitting a groan of being overwhelmed.

The Palace Mistress of Red Lotus took to the air immediately. The moment she saw those five figures, her expression changed drastically.

It was actually five Great Sages!

In this Early Stage of the Golden Age, before the Prodigies had fully grown, the Great Sages were the Peak combat power of the world, capable of burning the sky and boiling the seas, or destroying stars with a wave of their hands.

Five Great Sages coming together—this lineup was enough to crush any Dao Lineage!

Looking closely, the Palace Mistress of Red Lotus recognized their origins.

Among the five Great Sages, two were from the Blood God Palace, and the other three were experts from Renyu Manor, the Zhou Family, and the Golden Lion Clan.

Among them, the leader was an old man in a black and gold robe with a lion-like head and a wide mouth, wrapped in a layer of golden spiritual light; he was Great Sage of Desire Villa, Zhou Yuan.

Beside him followed a middle-aged man in a brocade robe with a sinister look in his eyes; he was Great Sage of the Zhou Family, Zhou Li.

Further to the right was a burly man clad in golden armor with a lion's mane; he was Great Sage of the Golden Lion Clan, Jin Hou.

Finally, there were two figures wrapped in blood mist, exuding a bloody and violent aura; they were the two Great Sages of the Blood God Palace, Xue Tu and Xue Sha.

The Golden Lion Jin Hou opened his bloodthirsty maw and emitted a terrifying sound wave like a thunderclap, shaking the halls and pavilions of the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace until they hummed.

"Little ladies of the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace! Hand over that brat Xu Jinhuan! We shall leave your Heavenly Palace a glimmer of survival!"

"Otherwise, this Seat shall break through this Red Lotus Formation today and take all your Disciples back to our clan. Those who look good will be used for breeding, and those who do not will be cooked and eaten!"

The sound wave, carrying unimaginable energy, caused shocking deformation to the defensive Formation of the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace. The entire floating divine island of the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace was shaking and swaying, which was terrifying to the extreme.

The once-peaceful Heavenly Palace instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

The Fairies, who were originally high and mighty, lost their composure, panicked, and turned pale. Some clutched their Magical Artifacts and trembled, while others hid behind palace pillars and cried.

Some female Disciples collapsed to the ground, with foul-smelling liquid even flowing on the floor, clearly having been scared out of their wits. They advocated for surrender and handing over Xu Jinhuan: "Five Great Sages! We actually provoked five Great Sages, including the vicious people from the Blood God Palace; we simply cannot win! Let's hand over Young Master Xu; at least we can save the Heavenly Palace!"

There were also Disciples who would rather die than submit, their minds clouded by Xu Jinhuan's appearance.

"Young Master Xu is so handsome and kind, and he even gave us the Azure Lotus Dao Severing Art! How can you betray our benefactor?"

News of the Azure Lotus Dao Severing Art had already spread throughout the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace. Xu Jinhuan's reputation in the Heavenly Palace soared and was unrivaled for a time, capturing the hearts of countless female cultivators and even correcting the orientations of many.

But this also made many female cultivators who had lost their other half of the mining tunnels resent him.

Therefore, there were quite a few Disciples within the Red Lotus Heavenly Palace who hoped that something would happen to Xu Jinhuan.

The two factions of Disciples argued incessantly, and even several Elders looked hesitant.

On one side was the life and death of the Heavenly Palace, and on the other was Xu Jinhuan's kindness; no one could make a decision.

In the end, the three defeated opponents, Jiang Luoyi, Qiu Yuebai, and Li Qingxia, stood up.

The Three Women's expressions were incomparably firm. Jiang Luoyi raised her hand to suppress the noise, her voice clear and steady: "Junior Sisters, Young Master Xu is an honored guest of the Heavenly Palace and, more importantly, the benefactor who brought back the Complete Manual of the 'Azure Lotus Dao Severing Art' for us. Although our Red Lotus Heavenly Palace consists entirely of women, we have never been people who betray our trust!"

Of course, the high-level officials of the Heavenly Palace did not mention that the detailed annotations at the back were also Xu Jinhuan's masterpiece.

These texts were truly too shocking.

The Palace Mistress of Red Lotus was afraid that it would bring disaster to this Prodigy.

Unexpectedly, Xu Jinhuan himself possessed an extraordinary ability to cause trouble and had already provoked several Immortal Dao Lineages.

Qiu Yuebai also spoke up, comforting the trembling young Disciples beside her: "Don't be afraid, Senior Palace Mistress will surely have a way; we must not lose our composure."

The Three Women made the final decision, and the originally panicked Disciples gradually regained their composure.

As for the Palace Mistress of Red Lotus, she had never thought about handing anyone over from the very beginning.

Such Prodigies generally carry great Luck and will not be easily erased, at least not by a group of Great Sages.

If she wanted to befriend Xu Jinhuan, now was the best opportunity!

Furthermore, behind Xu Jinhuan was the even more mysterious and powerful Taiyi Holy Land.

Once the Taiyi Holy Land learned that something had happened to Xu Jinhuan, they would certainly not sit idly by and would soon send experts to support him.

The Palace Mistress of Red Lotus was confident in holding out for a period of time.

She stood at the highest point of the Palace Master's Hall, looking at the five Great Sages in the void, her eyes cold and her Battle Intent boiling.

With a flick of her fingertip, a beam of spiritual light shot toward the Forbidden Ground in the back mountain, her voice carrying unquestionable majesty: "Pass on my order: summon Grand Elder Qingluan out of seclusion! Wield the quasi-emperor weapon of the Martial Trial Hall and defend against the enemy with me!"

Almost at the same time, the figure of the Eighteenth Ancestor slowly appeared beside Xu Jinhuan, looking at Xu Jinhuan with a smile: "Kid, the commotion you've stirred up here is truly not small."

His smile was somewhat bitter; he also had not expected this group of Great Sages to be so shameless, with five old Seniors coming together to make things difficult for a junior who had not yet entered the God Realm.

"Indeed, being hunted by five Great Sages while in the Immortal Platform Realm, I can be considered the number one person in the Three Thousand Dao Provinces, right..." Xu Jinhuan was also extremely speechless.

The old fogies of this world were truly shameless; Great Sages hunting down someone in the Immortal Platform Realm, and five of them at that.

Such a thing was as absurd as using five nuclear bombs to hit a mosquito in his previous life.

How could they bring themselves to do it!

"However, I believe that Eighteenth Grandfather can protect me, right?" Xu Jinhuan looked at the Eighteenth Ancestor and asked.

"Hahaha, that goes without saying; I am, after all, the Eighteenth Ancestor of the Taixuan Holy Land!" The Eighteenth Ancestor laughed heartily, filled with grand ambition, his confidence soaring to the heavens.

Afterward, he turned his head to look at the five auras in the high sky, a cold sneer curling at the corner of his mouth: "Great Sages? Just a bunch of clowns, and you dare to come here to act wild?"

"Today, this Seat shall let you witness what a true Great Sage expert is!"

In an instant, the figures of the Palace Mistress of Red Lotus, Grand Elder Qingluan, and the Eighteenth Ancestor appeared above the Nine Heavens, erupting with equally terrifying Great Sage pressure, blocking and suppressing the terrifying lion's roar sound wave entirely.

"It seems you will not hand him over." The cold words were emitted from the bloodthirsty maw of Jin Hou.

There was no point in further discussion; without any extra words, both sides quickly commenced battle.

The spiritual light around the Eighteenth Ancestor surged, and he directly engaged the three Great Sages: Zhou Yuan, Xue Sha, and Jin Hou.

Wherever his fist wind passed, the void shattered into black holes. Facing three opponents alone, he did not fall into a disadvantage. Every punch carried the power to open the heavens and split the earth, and for a time, he actually forced the three of them to retreat repeatedly.

The Palace Mistress of Red Lotus and Grand Elder Qingluan respectively faced Xue Tu and Zhou Li, relying on the quasi-emperor weapons they carried to firmly occupy the upper hand.

But just at this moment, the right eyelids of the Palace Mistress of Red Lotus and Qingluan jumped violently at the same time, and a sense of unease welled up in their hearts.

"Mere quasi-emperor weapons; do you really think only you have them?" Xue Tu snorted coldly, chanting words, and Zhou Li beside him also made the same gesture.

It was as if they were communicating with some kind of existence.

The next moment, a vast and mighty emperor's might erupted from the bodies of Xue Tu and Zhou Li, suppressing the world, supreme and exalted.

That was the aura of quasi-emperor weapons!

In an instant, their power surged, reaching a level on par with the Palace Mistress and Qingluan, and even faintly surpassing them.

In each of their hands appeared a piece of a blood-colored emperor weapon; Xue Tu's was a blood blade, and Zhou Li's was a blood shield. Both were quasi-emperor weapons, erupting with power not inferior to the two quasi-emperor weapon halls!

"They also have quasi-emperor weapons!" Seeing this scene, the Palace Mistress of Red Lotus exclaimed in shock, her eyes becoming increasingly grave.

Although the quasi-emperor weapon of the Hall of Inheritance was strong, the opponent's blood-colored quasi-emperor weapons were also existences with fierce reputations, and their power was not a whit weaker than her own.

The battle resumed, and the power of both sides collided, like two stars crashing into each other.

The void was directly torn open, creating large black holes. The Chaos Power from outside the current world leaked out crazily, heavy as Mount Tai, pressing countless voids into the ocean below, which the seawater could not fill.

In the stalemate, Grand Elder Qingluan was able to barely hold her own by relying on her profound foundation.