Three Days Later

Three days later.

Outside Mount Sumeru, the land remained utterly silent. The cold wind swept across the gravel, and it seemed the place really had been cut off from the world.

The spies sent by East King Duke had watched from hiding for a long while. Seeing not a single soul around, they finally returned, satisfied, and reported that the Western Lands had become a dead zone.

But beneath the surface, the underground world of the Primordial World was already in turmoil.

The Dragon-Han Calamity had ended only recently, and the Primordial World was still thick with Innate Sha Qi.

For cultivators, this baleful energy was like a parasite clinging to their bones. The higher their cultivation, the more they absorbed, and the greater the risk of qi deviation.

Even Grand Luo Golden Immortals had to spend years in seclusion, devoting vast amounts of time to honing their state of mind and purging the baleful energy. One careless mistake could cost them their lives and destroy their cultivation.

It was like a chronic, incurable disease hanging over everyone's head.

And the Western Lands' newly launched [Merit Water] had an advertising slogan that hit the pain point squarely. It was practically a lifeline!

Purify baleful energy? Eliminate inner demons?

If this stuff really worked, then forget offending East King Duke, who had nothing but an empty title—even if it meant offending the Heavenly King himself, they'd still buy it! Their lives belonged to them, after all!

At last.

A small-time cultivator in a tattered black robe, wrapped up from head to toe with only a pair of shifty eyes showing (in truth, he was disguised as a powerful Golden Immortal), sneaked along the earth's ley lines until he reached the foot of Mount Sumeru.

"Um... is there really water like that?"

He kept his voice low, afraid someone might hear him. His eyes darted around. "I've got some ten-thousand-year-old cold iron and a few Ice-Soul Herbs I dug up in the depths of the North Sea. Can I trade them for a bottle?"

Daoist Liuguang, who was on guard, didn't even lift his eyelids. Following Taiyuan's instructions, he simply tossed over a small jade bottle.

"Try before you buy. No tricks, no exceptions. If it doesn't work, then it's just your time to die."

The cultivator's hands trembled as he uncorked the bottle. He had only to breathe in its crisp, pure scent for some of the black miasma that had haunted him for years and tormented him beyond endurance to vanish in an instant. His agitated Dao Heart also calmed.

"Miracle medicine! It's a miracle!"

The cultivator was so excited he nearly fell to his knees. This worked better than a hundred years of seclusion!

Without another word, he emptied all his worldly possessions from his storage pouch, spilling them across the ground.

"I'll trade! All of it! Do you have any more? I've got friends who want some too!"

Once the first brave soul had taken the plunge, word spread like wildfire, despite his best efforts to be discreet.

In less than half a day.

The once-deserted foot of Mount Sumeru suddenly filled with countless cultivators who had "just happened" to be passing by.

Some disguised themselves as mortal woodcutters, others used illusions to hide their faces by turning into beasts, and still others actually dug tunnels underground to get there.

In short, they all had one thing in mind: buy!

East King Duke's Prohibition Order? At that moment, it was nothing but a piece of wastepaper.

"Give me ten bottles! I've got North Sea Mystic Ice! I risked my life stealing it right under Kunpeng's nose!"

"I want a hundred bottles! Here's some Southern Bright Flame Essence! Fresh out of the furnace!"

"Don't push! I was here first! You can have this three-legged golden toad hatchling—just give me a barrel of water! I need to take it back to keep my patriarch alive!"

The scene soon descended into chaos. Some people even fought each other to get their hands on the goods.

Daoist Liuguang and Jieyin and Zhunti were rushed off their feet, trying to keep order while raking in the money.

And right in the middle of the frenzied buying crowd.

An old man in an extremely luxurious purple robe—clearly rich and powerful—was struggling to push his way inside. The hideous ghost mask on his face looked completely out of place.

As he shoved his way forward, he cursed in a voice tinged with authority. "Stop pushing! I am... ahem, I have an urgent need! Make way! Make way!"

At long last, he squeezed up to the stall.

The old man furtively glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then pulled a storage pouch embroidered with golden cloud patterns from his robes. Lowering his voice, he spoke to Zhunti, who was collecting payment.

"Hey, give me two barrels of that special edition. This is top-quality Pure Yang Jade, excellent quality and absolutely valuable."

Zhunti took the storage pouch and swept it with his spiritual sense. His eyes narrowed, and the sly smile at the corner of his mouth grew wider.

Top-quality Pure Yang Jade?

This top-grade spiritual material, rich in pure yang energy and glowing with a warm, sunlike luster, was produced in only one place in the entire Primordial World—Purple Mansion Continent.

The old man had concealed his aura with a secret technique, but Zhunti recognized the scent of his Pure Yang cultivation method at once. It was impossible to wash away, and only came from years of bathing in a Pure Yang Formation.

Zhunti's eyes darted about, and he was delighted. Well, well. A face had come straight to him—why not slap it?

"Oh!"

Zhunti suddenly raised his voice, shouting so loudly that everyone in the crowd could hear him. The old man jumped, and the storage pouch nearly slipped from his hand.

"Isn't this Daoist Pure Yang Zi, the famous enforcement elder of Purple Mansion Continent?"

The shout landed like a spell that froze everyone in place.

The noisy crowd fell silent in an instant. You could have heard a pin drop.

Everyone looked at the old man in the ghost mask, whether they had come to buy medicine or just watch the show.

The old man stiffened, as if struck by lightning. His eyes behind the mask were filled with terror.

"You... you've mistaken me for someone else! I'm just a wandering cultivator from the mountains..."

He tried to deny it in a panic and turned to run, forgetting even the priceless Pure Yang Jade.

"How could I be mistaken? I'd recognize that aura even if it were reduced to ashes!"

Zhunti wasn't about to miss such a perfect chance to humiliate him. He flashed forward, blocked the old man's way, and grabbed his sleeve with the warmth of someone greeting a long-lost relative.

"Daoist, where else could you find Pure Yang Jade of such fine quality besides the core mines of Purple Mansion Continent?"

"What? Didn't East King Duke issue the strictest Prohibition Order, saying that anyone who dared buy our goods would be put to death?"

"You're an enforcement elder of Purple Mansion Continent, renowned for your uncompromising impartiality. How come you're leading the way here today? Could it be... East King Duke has inner demons too, but was too embarrassed to come himself, so he sent you to shop for him?"

The rapid-fire questions were a vicious attack, each word striking home.

The scattered cultivators stared blankly for a moment. Then, when the meaning sank in, they burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! The enforcement elder is breaking the law himself!"

"That's hilarious! So East King Duke's Prohibition Order was only meant to keep people like us, with no backing, in line!"

"Looks like even the people of Purple Mansion Continent don't believe that nonsense. What have we got to be afraid of?"

Pure Yang Zi was consumed by humiliation. His old face must have been red enough to drip blood beneath the mask. He felt as if he'd been stripped naked and put on display in front of the crowd.

"Brat! You've gone too far!"

He roared and wrenched free of Zhunti's grasp. Abandoning even the pouch of top-quality Pure Yang Jade, he covered his face and fled as a streak of Pure Yang Escape Light, beating a hasty retreat at such speed that he seemed to be burning his lifeblood.

He didn't even dare leave a threat behind, afraid one more word would expose all his secrets.

His escape confirmed his identity beyond doubt. It also ground the face of East King Duke, the so-called Head of Male Immortals, into the mud—and stomped on it a few times for good measure.

"Tch. What a coward."

Zhunti weighed the heavy storage pouch in his hand, happily tossed it into the storeroom, and spat in the direction the old man had fled.

"An entire pouch of treasures, given away for free. The people of Purple Mansion Continent are so generous. Come again next time!"

Inside the Bamboo Hut.

Taiyuan watched it all through the window, laughing so hard he nearly toppled off the Carefree Chair.

He'd expected something like this, but he hadn't realized it would work so well.

Pure Yang Zi probably wouldn't have an easy time when he got back, either.

"Dagu... no, Liuguang."

Taiyuan waved a hand and stopped laughing. He gazed through the window toward the distant sea in the Eastern Lands, a chill flickering in his eyes.

"Go write East King Duke another letter."

"Ask him if he still wants that elder, Pure Yang Zi."

"If he thinks Pure Yang Zi is too embarrassing to keep, or plans to clean house, he can send him to me. I've just expanded our latrine and need someone with status and standing to clean the toilets. Pure yang energy is perfect for killing germs and getting rid of the smell in the Western Lands' outhouses."

"Tell him he'll be paid daily, and meals are included."

Daoist Liuguang shivered as he listened, holding back his laughter. Then he excitedly ground the ink and picked up his brush.

If this letter went out...

East King Duke would probably be so furious he'd spit up three pints of blood and go into qi deviation, wouldn't he?

This wasn't a letter.

It was a death warrant!