"Old Ancestor, I need a favor." Lu Yang quietly sent a voice transmission to Daoist Lord Hanhai.
Everyone's attention was fixed on Ao Ling and Daoist Sanshan. Nobody noticed him, a Nascent Soul old monster.
Daoist Lord Hanhai had learned about the Heavenly Court from Yun Zhi.
"I said I'd protect you once. That means you can do whatever you like—I'll cover you."
Lu Yang asked Daoist Lord Hanhai to open a portal and secretly send him away. At his destination, he used the Tree-Planting Art to create a clone, then had the clone put on a mask, preparing to make an entrance as Young Sect Master Lu.
The mask had been given to Lu Yang by a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator of the Dijiang Tribe, back when they'd wanted him to impersonate Young Sect Master Lu. Unless someone was a half-immortal who had cultivated the prototype of the Dao Fruit of Insight, nobody could see through the identity beneath the mask.
A faint, ethereal voice rang throughout the Dragon Palace.
"Heh. A mere half-immortal thinks he has the right to provoke the Four Imperial Sovereigns of the Heavenly Court? Do you really think the Heavenly Court can be bullied?"
With Daoist Lord Hanhai's help, Lu Yang's voice passed through space several times before ringing out in the Dragon Palace.
It was a half-immortal's technique. The voice had also been altered, so nobody could detect its source.
"The Heavenly Court!"
"It's someone from the Heavenly Court!"
The humans and seafolk were shocked and began to stir. They hadn't expected the Heavenly Court to send someone the moment Ao Ling awoke. What an astonishing reaction speed! They could only assume the Heavenly Court had left some kind of contingency on Ao Ling, one that alerted them as soon as she woke.