Unfortunately, it was too late. The Huntian Ling had already wrapped him up tightly and sealed his mouth.
Su Fu made a solemn promise as she tucked him back into Hermes’s Web. “Nothing will happen.”
“Don’t be afraid.”
Shen Gongbao: “!!!”
His vision went dark, and he fell into a deep sleep again.
After finishing the job, Su Fu returned to Xiqi with satisfaction.
On the battlefield, the lingering baleful aura of the Nine-Bend Yellow River Array was gradually dissipating. After breaking the array, the two Sages didn’t stay long and each returned to their respective residences.
“It’s still more comfortable here…”
She stretched, her mood pleasant.
The operation was practically perfect. Not only did they successfully intercept the Hunyuan Jindou, but they also looted the Yuxu Palace treasury and even obtained top-tier treasures like the Three-Light Divine Water.
‘I really have to rely on Mother!’
‘Yuanshi Tianzun should still be gloating about taking down the three sisters right now, right?’ Su Fu thought. She hoped his mood wouldn’t be too bad when he got home.
Well… probably.
—
The Nine-Dragon Agarwood Chariot flew across the sky, accompanied by ten thousand rays of radiance and auspicious clouds.
Yuanshi Tianzun sat upright in the chariot. Although his expression was indifferent, he was quite satisfied in his heart.
‘The three sisters have been removed, the Hunyuan Jindou has been recovered, and the Sect of Interception’s strength has been greatly reduced. This is a great victory.’
He closed his eyes slightly, calculating the subsequent situation in his mind.
‘My action against the three sisters this time might be seen as the strong bullying the weak, but what can Junior Brother Tongtian do?’
He wasn’t worried about Grandmaster Tongtian’s revenge.
The reason was simple. First, he hadn’t acted alone; he had brought Laozi along.
Laozi was the first disciple under Hongjun and the head of the Sanqing. His status was transcendent.
The matter of the Investiture of the Gods was originally the result of the three of them deliberating together.
Now that he and Laozi had joined forces and formed a united front, no matter how angry Tongtian was, he couldn’t possibly fight two Sages at once.
Second, the deaths of the three sisters were a massive blow to the Sect of Interception.
The three—Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao—were exceptionally powerful. Especially Yunxiao, whose cultivation had reached the level of a quasi-Sage. The Hunyuan Jindou was also a supreme treasure capable of shaving away a person’s cultivation.
Now that the three had fallen, the high-end combat power of the Sect of Interception had been directly crippled, and the scales of the Investiture of the Gods war had already tilted.
Because of this, he had specifically waited for Laozi to arrive to break the array.
If he had dealt with the three alone, it would inevitably lead to criticism.
But with Laozi present, it became a “punishment from the Heavenly Dao” rather than his personal action.
‘Even if Junior Brother Tongtian is angry, he can only swallow his pride.’
At this thought, Yuanshi Tianzun was in high spirits. The Nine-Dragon Agarwood Chariot cut through the sky, heading straight for Kunlun Mountain.
However, when he returned to Yuxu Palace, the faint expression on his face changed instantly.
“Wait…”
Something was wrong!
His brow furrowed, and his divine sense swept through the entire Yuxu Palace in an instant. Then, his face changed drastically.
‘The Yuxu Treasure Pavilion!’
Yuanshi Tianzun stepped out and descended directly in front of the pavilion.
What he saw was the guardian Celestial Official lying on the ground, his life or death unknown, surrounded by a mess.
He rushed into the pavilion. With a sweep of his divine consciousness, his face turned livid.
It was empty!
All empty!
Immortal Pills, heavenly materials and earthly treasures, Divine Artifacts, and ancient texts… all gone!
Only empty shelves and tables remained; not even a scrap was left behind.
The treasures he had accumulated for hundreds of millions of years were all gone!
Yuanshi Tianzun was furious. The majesty of a Sage erupted with a roar:
“Who?! Who stole from my palace?!”
Shameless! Despicable!
How dare someone loot Yuxu Palace while he was away?!
“I will definitely tear you into ten thousand pieces!”
Yuanshi Tianzun laughed in his extreme anger and immediately began a divination.
He wanted to find out who was so bold as to touch his things!
Soon, as the heavenly secrets flowed, a familiar figure appeared. Wait!
“Shen Gongbao?!”
“You traitorous disciple!!!”
Yuanshi Tianzun was beyond furious, his voice like thunder. “You dare to collude with outsiders to loot Yuxu Palace?!”
How bold!
Not to mention betraying the sect, but now he dared to bring people to rob his home?!
He was incensed and roared, “I should have expelled you from the sect long ago and severed your immortal destiny! To think I still held expectations for you!”
He continued his divination, wanting to know Shen Gongbao’s current hiding place, but found the location to be a mass of white mist; he could see nothing.
Yuanshi Tianzun realized instantly, “A Sage has intervened?!”
Only a Sage could mask the heavenly secrets.
Almost simultaneously, the figure of Grandmaster Tongtian appeared in his mind.
Suddenly, everything clicked.
“Fine, fine, fine! Tongtian! This is your revenge for me killing the three sisters?”
So he deliberately instructed Shen Gongbao to come and rob his Yuxu Palace!
Once he understood the reason, Yuanshi Tianzun’s voice involuntarily dropped a bit.
In this matter, he was indeed in the wrong.
Though the three sisters were strong, they were after all juniors. As a Sage, he had personally acted to suppress them and even brought Laozi along. It was clearly a case of the strong bullying the weak, violating the agreement for the Investiture of the Gods signed by the three sects.
He had originally thought that although Grandmaster Tongtian had a fiery temper, he would consider the overall situation and swallow this loss.
He didn’t expect Tongtian to retaliate against him in this way.
The more Yuanshi Tianzun thought about it, the angrier he got. He gritted his teeth and cursed:
“Pah! Truly shameless!”
“What kind of petty behavior is this, doing such sneaky things!”
“Absolutely despicable!”
He was about to turn and go to the Purple Heaven Palace to complain to Grandmaster Hongjun, but his footsteps faltered, and he stopped abruptly.
“This…”
The key point was that in this matter, Grandmaster Tongtian actually had the moral high ground.
He had been the one to bully the weak first, and Tongtian had retaliated second. If he brought this to his Master, wouldn’t he be exposing his own shortcomings?
If Tongtian remained silent about this loss, then the matter would just pass.
But if he truly let his Master know that he had personally teamed up with Laozi to suppress the Three Xiao Sisters and even killed them, bringing it all into the open, then a lecture would be the least of his worries—he might even be punished!
Yuanshi Tianzun’s expression shifted between anger and hesitation before he finally swung his sleeve in a fit of rage.
In other words, he had to swallow this loss whether he liked it or not.
He was fuming, yet there was nothing he could do.
“Tongtian! You really are a calculating one!”
Tongtian had seized upon the fact that Yuanshi wouldn’t dare make this public.
“A truly petty act!”
He cursed under his breath. No, he couldn’t just let this go. Even if he couldn’t go to his Master for mediation, he had to at least give Tongtian a piece of his mind to vent his frustration!
***
Meanwhile, at Biyou Palace.
When Grandmaster Tongtian received news of the Three Xiao Sisters’ deaths, he shook with rage, his face turning livid.
“Yuanshi! You are truly shameless!!”
He roared, slamming his palm down and shattering the stone table beside him.
“Yuanshi, Laozi, you are unworthy of being Sages!”
“To actually deal a fatal blow to your juniors? Yuanshi! Laozi! Do you have no shame?!”
He was truly livid, so much so that he stopped referring to them as his senior brothers.
This was like two adults teaming up to bully three small children. If it were just a fight, that would be one thing, but to kill them all? It was utterly despicable!
Beside him, his eldest disciple, Daoist Duobao, was filled with grief and indignation, his eyes turning red. “Master!”
“Even when Junior Sister Yunxiao and the others captured the Twelve Golden Immortals, they only cut away their cultivation levels; they never took any lives!”
“Two Sages… they could have simply captured them without killing them. How could they possibly…”
Before he could finish, Daoist Duobao broke into tears, his voice sobbing.
Grandmaster Tongtian was even more heartbroken. “This is simply too much bullying!”
Spirit Mother Gui Ling choked back sobs, her eyes rimmed with red.
“Master! Junior Sister Yunxiao and the others… are they just gone?!”
“They all possessed the cultivation of Quasi-Sages!”
“Given time, they might have even stepped into the realm of Sages!”
“But now… the elite of our Sect of Interception have been wiped out!”
A fierce light flickered in Grandmaster Tongtian’s eyes as murderous intent rose in his heart.
Zhaogongming was dead. Yunxiao was dead. Bixiao and Qiongxiao were also dead.
The high-end combat power of his Sect of Interception had been nearly slaughtered to the last!
“You treat my Sect of Interception with such contempt!”
Just as Grandmaster Tongtian’s anger reached its peak, Yuanshi Tianzun’s divine sense suddenly transmitted over.
“Tongtian! Do you have no shame?!”
Grandmaster Tongtian was stunned. ‘???’
‘You bullied the young as an elder, and you’re asking if *I* have shame?’
Before he could even argue, Yuanshi Tianzun’s tirade crashed down on him like a storm.
“You instigated Shen Gongbao to rob my Yuxu Palace! It is utterly despicable and shameless!”
“As a dignified Sage, you actually performed such a lowly deed?!”
Grandmaster Tongtian was baffled. ‘???’
“What Shen Gongbao? What robbery of your treasury?!”
“Still playing dumb!” Yuanshi Tianzun roared. “My treasure pavilion in Yuxu Palace was ransacked, and even the Hunyuan Jindou is missing!”
Grandmaster Tongtian exploded as well. “What does your Yuxu Palace losing things have to do with me?”
“Your own disciple stole something, and you can still blame it on me???”
He trembled with rage. Yuanshi Tianzun had just killed three of his most prized disciples, and now he was framing him for conspiring with Shen Gongbao to steal treasures from Yuxu Palace.
This was simply pushing him too far!
Steal?!
“Yuanshi! You’ve gone too far!”
“The one who has gone too far is you! You dare to do it but won’t admit it? Shen Gongbao has already defected from the mountain and now relies on you! Stop playing the fool!”
“If you didn’t instigate it, who else could it be?!”
“Nonsense! You failed to discipline your own disciple, and yet you blame me?”
“Furthermore, when I, Tongtian, act, why would I ever hide? If I truly wanted to retaliate, I would have struck Kunlun Mountain with my sword directly. Why would I need to steal?!”
“Oh, so now you’re trying to clear your name? The Hunyuan Jindou was just taken from me, and the next moment, my treasury was emptied. How can there be such a coincidence in this world?!”
“So you do feel guilty? You kill my disciples and take my treasures, and at your age, you still have the nerve to call others shameless!”
“Not as shameless as you!”
“Bullshit! You think you’re in the right after stealing something?”
“That’s what your own disciple did! Stop spitting blood at me here. If you can’t guard your own house, then you deserve it!”
“Tongtian! Stop acting innocent! Your Sect of Interception has always been cunning. This is clearly your revenge!”
“My revenge? I don’t even know what your treasury looks like! On the other hand, you clearly promised not to lay a hand on disciples, yet you turned around and teamed up with Laozi to kill my Three Xiao Sisters. You are despicable and shameless!”
“That was destiny! They were full of wickedness and brought about their own destruction!”
“Destiny? Heh, you’re quite good at making excuses for yourself! Two old fogeys teaming up against three juniors—you could have captured them without killing them, yet you insisted on taking their lives. How cold-blooded can you be?!”
“Quiet! Your Sect of Interception has gathered a whole bunch of demons and monsters; they were bound to be a disaster sooner or later! I was merely acting on behalf of Heaven!”
“Acting on behalf of Heaven? Do you think you’re worthy? You’re just jealous that my sect has so many disciples and great strength!”