Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

While the Old Dragon Monarch and Mu Changsheng were speaking with one another, each harboring their own ulterior motives, Lü Yang and Ang Xiao were elsewhere, discussing an important matter of their own.

"Daoist, let's be frank."

Ang Xiao got straight to the point. "Bringing that shrew into the fold is possible," he said flatly. "But considering the Old Dragon Monarch's position, we'll need one more person."

'As I expected, he's figured it out too.'

Lü Yang understood at once. It was clear Ang Xiao had reached the same conclusion as him, even judging the issue of the Old Dragon Monarch's allegiance with great accuracy.

'But that's to be expected. I already told him that True Monarch Gangxing secretly sought the Fruit of Celestial Fire. And the fact that the Old Dragon Monarch holds the legacy of the Fruit of Celestial Fire... that's probably something he couldn't hide from Ang Xiao. Starting from that point, it's not surprising he'd deduce the Old Dragon Monarch might be a problem.'

With this in mind, Lü Yang asked directly, "Do you have anyone in mind?"

Ang Xiao shook his head. "No one else. Even that shrew is just the best of a bad lot."

"We could lower our standards, you know,"

Lü Yang said in a low voice. "Someone like World Purger Fei Xue is a rarity, after all. In truth, as long as they can temporarily stall the Old Dragon Monarch, that should be more than enough."

"In that case..."

Hearing this, Ang Xiao replied gravely, "The True Monarch of Contained Light and Floating Heaven. He's a bit weaker, but he should be capable of stalling for time."

"Besides, that Old Loach is a clever one. He knows how to read a situation. Although he might side with the Sword Pavilion, if the tide is in our favor, he'll just go with the flow. He might not even end up on the same side as the Sword Pavilion in the end. In fact, if we give him enough benefits upfront, he'll definitely stay out of it entirely."

"Then it's settled," Lü Yang decided.

"Good." Ang Xiao chuckled as well. "In that case, I'll have to trouble you, Daoist, to go and invite them. After all, if I were to go, the talks would most likely fall apart."

'At least you're self-aware.'

Lü Yang nodded. "Then I'll be the one to go. However, it's not convenient for me to leave this place. I'll have to ask you, Senior, to lend me your Earth-Walking Avatar."

"...Very well."

Ang Xiao nodded in agreement.

........

「Immortal Pivot, North, Sea of Clouds.」

Clouds gathered and scattered, the sun set and rose. A biting wind howled, but few voices could be heard. The vast Holy Fire Cliff now seemed strangely deserted, suffused with an eerie, deathly silence.

A short while later, a beam of celestial light descended.

The next moment, a rift opened in the void, and a man in ornate robes strolled out. A candle flame flickered in his palm, and an intense, "revealing" Profound Mysterious power immediately emanated from it.

Holding Candle!

Under the influence of this Profound Mysterious power, countless Array Patterns immediately surfaced on what had appeared to be a deserted and silent Holy Fire Cliff. All secrets were instantly exposed under the candle's glow. The Grand Ward had nowhere to hide, and the minute flaws in its operation became clearly visible, unable to escape the robed man's eyes.

"What a fine Grand Ward."

The robed man murmured in admiration as he stepped directly into the Grand Ward as if it were unguarded, passing through its blockade with ease.

But in the next instant, a large hand slapped toward him.

The palm was fair and delicate, clearly belonging to a woman. But its skin, which seemed so fragile it might break at a touch, was now covered in a multitude of complex Dao Talismans.

The fundamental Profound Mysterious of the Fruit of Gully-Rill Water—World Purifying Light!

BOOM!

In that instant, a boom echoed through the void. Lü Yang met the large hand with a direct blow, and his vision was immediately engulfed by a sky full of white frost.

All he could see was a vast, indistinct haze of frost that annihilated the Spiritual Mechanism and silenced all creation. In a flash, it transformed into a storm of utter destruction that threatened to irresistibly assimilate Lü Yang's form. Like words erased by a rubber, he was about to vanish without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, a soft exclamation was heard. The void opened, and World Purger Fei Xue strolled out, slowly retracting her slender hand. A hint of surprise finally appeared in her eyes.

It was because Lü Yang was completely unscathed.

Though he had clearly been swept through by that destructive frost storm, he stood there leisurely, as if it had nothing to do with him, completely unhindered.

The sight made World Purger Fei Xue raise an eyebrow.

"The Dao of Arcane Body? What audacity!"

At these words, Lü Yang's eyes narrowed. 'World Purger Fei Xue... she can actually name the Dao of Arcane Body? As expected, her background is anything but ordinary.'

The Dao of Arcane Body. This was not a name an ordinary person could utter. Only old antiques like Ang Xiao and the Old Dragon Monarch, whose careers began tens of thousands of years ago, had any knowledge of it. Yet World Purger Fei Xue had only held her title for five thousand years; she was an absolute junior. She shouldn't have been able to speak this name.

But she was right about one thing.

'I really am being a bit too audacious...'

In the eyes of the Saint Sect Ancestral Master, the Dao of Arcane Body was undoubtedly a thorn in his side. Under these circumstances, for Lü Yang to enter the Saint Sect so openly...

'But I'm using the Earth-Walking Avatar.'

'If something really goes wrong, Ang Xiao is the one who'll suffer the loss.'

At this thought, Lü Yang's apprehension vanished, and his calm returned. He smiled. "I wouldn't call it audacity. Just a bit of confidence, that's all."

"Confidence? Hmph..."

World Purger Fei Xue said no more, simply examining Lü Yang with a calm expression that seemed to say, 'I'd like to see what you have to say for yourself.'

At the same time, Lü Yang was also sizing up World Purger Fei Xue.

'As I thought, she's different from the other Perfected Lords...'

By now, he had seen quite a few Fruits and fought against a number of Perfected Lords, but World Purger Fei Xue was the most unique among them.

'In my Previous Life, I ranked her as the first among the five grades of Perfected Lords. But in truth, I knew the "what" but not the "why." I only knew her combat prowess was unmatched in the world and her Cultivation was so high it could rival a Great Perfected Lord's. Yet based on that alone, she still didn't seem qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as Ang Xiao and the others.'

Back then, when he looked at World Purger Fei Xue, he couldn't see what made her so special.

But looking at her again now, aided by the Profound Mysterious power of Holding Candle, Lü Yang could finally see World Purger Fei Xue's true depth and the secret to her combat prowess.

'Her Fruit Position Profound Mysterious... it's completely different!'

'It's clearly just the Fruit of Gully-Rill Water, which is in no way comparable to the Fruit of Celestial Fire. Yet the feeling I get from her Fruit Position Profound Mysterious is that it's even stronger than the Engraving Laws?'

'No, that's not right. It's not stronger.'

To be precise, it was the degree to which she had developed her Fruit Position Profound Mysterious.

If the difference in the Profound Mysterious between an ordinary Fruit and an Emperor Fruit was one of "breadth," then the development of a Fruit Position Profound Mysterious was a matter of "depth."

And in this domain, World Purger Fei Xue had almost reached the absolute limit.

If nothing else, the Fruit Position Profound Mysterious she displayed, the World Purifying Light, gave Lü Yang a feeling that it shared a certain similarity with Ang Xiao's Veil of the Trees!

At this thought, Lü Yang instantly recalled an experience from his Previous Life.

In his Previous Life, Ang Xiao's Liu Ying had once told him something that remained fresh in his memory:

"You haven't even built a proper foundation. You haven't sublimated your existing Fruit Position Profound Mysterious to the Supreme Domain. You are broad but not deep. The Void Certificate is nothing but empty talk for you."

—That was it!

Realization dawned on Lü Yang.

'Sublimating the Fruit Position Profound Mysterious to the Supreme Domain... just as I suspected, World Purger Fei Xue must have reached the level Ang Xiao spoke of!'