As the saying went, "Experts watched the craft, while laymen watched the spectacle." Although your prestige had risen rapidly during the demon-sealing incident, even among those involved, only a scant few could truly see the extent of your strength. Naturally, Emperor Donghua and Witch Emperor Houtu would not "bolster the enemy's might while diminishing their own prestige," so they would not casually speak of such matters to others.
This caused most people to believe that, while you might be strong, you were merely perhaps on par with Yuanshi Tianzun. As for who was stronger between the two of you, opinions still varied. And the strongest few below the Emperor Realm were ultimately still below the Emperor Realm; their reputations could not compare with Emperor Donghua's.
Including Ji Yuan, in order not to offend Emperor Donghua behind Lü Chunyi, and to seize the chance to curry favor with Emperor Donghua, even those who had initially wished to befriend you had now changed their attitudes.
You had always acted with reason and evidence. Though many clues pointed to Lü Chunyi stirring trouble behind the scenes, you would not kill him based on speculation alone. Back at the Myriad Spirits Gathering Immortals Banquet, when he had tried to use his influence to pressure you into exchanging the Six-Ring Dao Grade spatial crystal, you had already secretly placed a mark on him...
With your current cultivation and strength, using the Twin Dragon Pendant as a medium and Ye Xintong's bloodline incident as the basis, you quickly deduced whether Lü Chunyi had been involved. The further you deduced, the darker your expression became. In the information you saw, even Wei Qian had not done as much as Lü Chunyi. After suffering a setback at your hands once, he had redirected his resentment toward you onto