The Hall of Sky-Rending Mists.
Immortal Lord Xuan'e gave a soft laugh, and the hall fell silent.
"Fellow Daoist Du'e, did you already have a plan?" the Purple Heaven Immortal Lord asked.
"I've long intended to eliminate Jiang Ning! He cannot be allowed to live. Leave him be, and he'll become a grave threat! None of us wants another Martial Saint to emerge and hold the world under his heel for a thousand years. His rise would seriously disrupt this great game," Immortal Lord Xuan'e said slowly.
Hearing that unmistakable declaration, Yu Jiuxiao, seated below, grew tense.
He thought back to his conversations with Jiang Ning over the past few days.
He had always believed the Upper Three Heavens stood apart from worldly affairs and sought no quarrel with anyone.
Even when the Martial Saint had once dominated the world, the Upper Three Heavens had not intervened of their own accord.
Only later, when the Martial Saint acted without restraint, breaking through several grotto-heavens in succession and even killing a sleeping Immortal inside one, had the Upper Three Heavens entered the fray.
Their intervention had finally made the Martial Saint rein himself in.
But things were different now.
Immortal Lord Xuan'e's stance was that Jiang Ning had to be eliminated.
"Why?" Yu Jiuxiao wondered.
"Could it be because of that matter... the Ten Domains' Return to One?!" Another thought rose in his mind.
As Yu Jiuxiao pondered, the Purple Heaven Immortal Lord spoke.
"Fellow Daoist, when you said you had something to do, was it concerning the Prince of Luoshui?"
"Indeed." Immortal Lord Xuan'e nodded slightly.
He then recounted how he had manifested within the Long River earlier and what he had plotted with the Immortals of the other grotto-heavens.
A moment later.
"That is how matters stand," Immortal Lord