“Swish, swish, swish!”
Su Fu finished collecting the treasures and ran. She didn’t care what these people thought. With the Taiji Diagram protecting her, no one could harm her anyway.
Originally, this should have been the moment when the Chan Sect achieved a great victory, and Daoist Jieyin opened his Universe Bag to massively collect disciples of the Sect of Interception.
Saying things like “these three thousand guests of the mortal world are destined for my Western lands,” he didn’t even bother pretending, directly snatching people. His conduct was utterly disgraceful.
But now, with Zhunti dead, how could Daoist Jieyin have the mind for that? He went mad, seeking revenge against Grandmaster Tongtian.
Since they weren’t collecting, Su Fu figured she might as well do it herself.
Wherever Su Fu passed, magical treasures completely vanished. In the blink of an eye, she had slipped across the entire battlefield.
Wherever she went, furious curses followed, yet no one could stop her.
“Shameless! Return my treasure!”
“Bandits of the Sect of Interception! Robbers!”
Su Fu turned a deaf ear, focusing solely on collecting treasures.
Until Kong Xuan sent a message: “Mother, Yuanshi is about to go mad!”
Without another word, she turned and fled.
Rule number one of scavenging in the Great Desolation: never be greedy, know when to quit while you’re ahead.
She ran extremely fast, vanishing from the battlefield in an instant.
The next second, the Immortal-Slaying Array was broken!
Of course, the array wasn’t broken by Yuanshi Tianzun, but by Laozi.
He was originally capable of splitting his one breath into the Sanqing. In truth, he alone could break this Immortal-Slaying Array.
Whether Zhunti was there or not was completely irrelevant.
With a deafening roar, the Immortal-Slaying Array collapsed. Sword energy scattered in all directions, and its radiance gradually dimmed.
Yuanshi Tianzun broke free. The first thing he saw was the ground littered with the corpses of his Chan Sect disciples. He instantly broke down.
His eyes bloodshot, his entire body trembling, “No… NO!!!”
“Tongtian! I swear I will never share the same sky with you!”
Grandmaster Tongtian didn’t indulge him at all, sneering coldly, “Why aren’t you saying ‘such is the Mandate of Heaven’ now?”
“Zhaogongming, Yunxiao, Bixiao, Qiong Xiao, Jinling, Huoling…”
“What did you say to me when my disciples died?”
He enunciated each word, his tone dripping with sarcasm, “Junior Brother, such is the Mandate of Heaven. You must accept your fate.”
“Now, I return these words to you in full.”
“Senior Brother, it is your Chan Sect for whom the Mandate of Heaven is thus!”
“You must accept your fate.”
Yuanshi Tianzun was instantly enraged to the point of qi deviation, losing all semblance of a Sage’s demeanor. He abruptly raised his hand and summoned the Pangu Banner!
“Tongtian, I want you dead!”
Seeing the Pangu Banner, Grandmaster Tongtian’s eyes narrowed.
The Pangu Banner evolved from the blade of Pangu’s Sky-Opening Axe. Among the three great Primordial Treasures—the Taiji Diagram, the Chaos Bell, and itself—it ranked first.
It symbolized the ultimate expression of the Dao of Force. A single swing of this banner was enough to tear apart chaos and reshape the Great Desolation.
To use this banner… it seemed Yuanshi Tianzun had completely lost his mind.
The Pangu Banner unfurled in the wind. A terrifying pressure instantly enveloped the entire battlefield. All the Sages present felt a pang of dread.
Laozi’s expression changed drastically as he hurriedly tried to stop him. “Yuanshi! Stop! If that banner falls, the entire Great Desolation will be restarted!”
By then, forget the Sages, even the Heavenly Dao itself would be damaged.
But Yuanshi Tianzun, filled with grief and indignation, cried, “So many of my disciples are dead! My lineage is severed! How can you expect me to endure this?!”
“Tongtian must die today! What of the Great Desolation? Let it restart if it must!”
Having cast aside all restraint, he raised the Pangu Banner high. The power of destruction gathered wildly.
At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened.
Above the Nine Heavens, violet qi came from the east, golden light shone for ten thousand zhang.
Boundless Dao rhythms permeated heaven and earth. An unparalleled pressure, transcending all things, descended.
Ancestral Master Hongjun had arrived.
“Yuanshi, stop.”
These four words, spoken, were like a Heavenly Dao decree. Words became law. The Pangu Banner in Yuanshi Tianzun’s hand was forcibly frozen mid-air, unable to swing even a fraction further.
A massive pillar of light descended from the sky. Within the light, an old man in Daoist robes slowly descended.
At the edge of the battlefield, Su Fu had long since changed back into her Su Qing, the physician, disguise. She watched the scene of Ancestral Master Hongjun’s arrival with shock.
Sure enough, as soon as someone wanted to flip the table and restart the Great Desolation, Ancestral Master Hongjun would immediately step in.
Whether it was Yuanshi or Tongtian, whoever threatened the foundation of the Great Desolation would be dealt with.
Right then, Grandmaster Tongtian reacted with extreme speed. Without a word, he threw down the Six Soul Banner, knelt heavily, and kowtowed, his forehead striking the ground. Then, with a mournful voice, he began to lament.
“Master!” Grandmaster Tongtian’s voice choked with sobs. Having been ganged up on by four people, he now looked utterly wretched. “Your disciple knows he is at fault. To avenge my disciples, I set up such a vicious array.”
“But your disciple swears, this act was solely to obtain justice for my disciples! It absolutely does not involve the change of human dynasties!”
His voice trembled, tears rolling down.
“Today, my Sect of Interception swears an oath here. From now on, none of my followers will interfere in the affairs of human dynasties. We will let Jiang Ziya successfully overthrow the Shang Dynasty and complete the Investiture of the Gods!”
“If we violate this oath, may we be struck by Heavenly Dao’s lightning, our bodies perish, our Dao dissipate, and our true spirits be eternally silenced!”
As soon as his voice fell, the Immortals of the Sect of Interception behind him all knelt in unison, echoing his words.
“We will never interfere in human affairs! We will never hinder the Investiture!”
“Your disciples swear an oath, we will never disobey!”
Without waiting for anyone else to react, Grandmaster Tongtian, following the script Kong Xuan had prepared for him, continued.
“Although the Investiture of the Gods List was signed by our three sects in the past, Elder Brother’s Human Sect is sparsely populated, with only Disciple Xuandu under him.”
“If he really had to go on the list, wouldn’t that mean the entire Human Sect would be listed?”
“My heart cannot bear it. So, your disciple thought, why not let my Sect of Interception and Second Brother’s Chan Sect jointly bear this responsibility.”
“Now, the number of people from our two sects on the Investiture List is roughly equal, achieving a perfect balance.”
“Master, I have not broken my promise!”
Grandmaster Tongtian finished speaking in one breath. The entire world seemed to fall silent.
Yuanshi Tianzun’s right hand gripped the Pangu Banner so tightly it trembled. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t manage to utter a single word.
This… what kind of reasoning was this?
An equal split of the Investiture List?
How many of his Chan Sect disciples had died in this great battle? And now, with a single sentence about an equal split, he wanted to brush it all aside?
He stared fixedly at Grandmaster Tongtian, refuting, “Master! This is not right! The disciples my Chan Sect lost were all elites! Those creatures born from dampness and hatched from eggs in the Sect of Interception…”
Grandmaster Tongtian immediately interrupted, righteous and stern. “Senior Brother! That statement is mistaken! Being listed and invested as a god is to serve the Heavenly Court. How can there be distinctions of high and low, noble and base?”
“Could it be that Senior Brother believes the Heavenly Court is unworthy of using your Chan Sect disciples?”
Yuanshi Tianzun: “???”
What a hat to pin on him!
When did he ever say the Heavenly Court was unworthy?
He was so angry his vision darkened, almost spitting out another mouthful of blood.
He couldn’t understand how this straightforward junior brother of his had learned such cunning rhetoric.
Laozi stood to the side, his eyelid twitching, his heart shaken.
When had his junior brother… learned such glib talk?
This was no longer the single-minded Tongtian! This was clearly an old fox!
Ancestral Master Hongjun stood upon the clouds, his gaze sweeping over the corpses littering the ground before settling on Grandmaster Tongtian, who knelt prostrate.
He had originally prepared a bellyful of reprimands: Tongtian failing to maintain purity, setting up this evil array to slaughter fellow disciples, betraying the three-sect alliance, openly provoking conflict, disregarding the safety of the Great Desolation…
But now…
Tongtian knelt prostrate, forehead to the ground, robes torn, looking utterly miserable. He immediately recalled how those four had ganged up on Tongtian.
And what Tongtian said also explained the reason for the Immortal-Slaying Array—solely to avenge his disciples.
He also explained this was the final battle, that he would no longer provoke conflict from now on, and had even sworn a Heavenly Dao oath.
His attitude of admitting guilt was quite sincere. He even conveniently informed him that the Investiture List was also completed.
Tsk… What could he even say now?
All the words he wanted to say had been spoken by Tongtian first, and with a sincere attitude and sufficient reasons.
For a moment, Hongjun actually felt a sense of茫然—drawing his sword and looking around, uncertain.
He sighed inwardly.
But the deed was done. The Chan Sect suffering heavy casualties was an established fact. Yuanshi was so angry he had even brought out the Pangu Banner. As their master, he had to express something.
“Tongtian!” Hongjun said in a deep voice. “Since you are aware of today’s great disaster, you should know you should not have set up this evil array.”
“The Four Swords of Zhuxian are instruments of slaughter, unbreakable without four Sages. But you wielded them for killing, treating lives as mere grass. This is truly excessive.”
“And look at this Six Soul Banner of yours, specifically designed to curse Sages. What kind of Taboo object is this?”
“The killing karma you caused today, with more than half of the Chan Sect disciples fallen, and even Zhunti’s soul scattered under your sword—how can this karma be resolved?”
Grandmaster Tongtian bowed his head in admission of wrongdoing. “Your disciple knows his crime! For a moment, hatred blinded your disciple’s eyes, leading to such a grave mistake. I am willing to accept Master’s punishment!”
“Only…” his voice choked, “so many of your disciple’s followers were schemed onto the list by my senior brothers. Your disciple truly could not swallow this anger!”
“But your disciple promises, from now on, I will cause no more trouble and will completely obey Master’s arrangements!”
Hongjun: …
He admitted fault quite quickly!
Acknowledging the mistake, stating his grievances, and actively requesting punishment—his attitude was so proper one couldn’t find fault.
He sighed, then turned to look at Yuanshi.
“Yuanshi.”
Yuanshi Tianzun was glaring at Tongtian with gritted teeth. Hearing his master call him, he hurriedly composed his expression.
“You took out the Pangu Banner. What did you intend to do? Reshape the Great Desolation?!” Hongjun’s expression turned cold as he questioned.
“Disciple… disciple wouldn’t dare!” Yuanshi Tianzun’s face turned deathly pale.