"Hey? What's wrong?"
Xiruan watched him jump around and tilted her little head in confusion.
"Don't you like the candy? Why are you screaming louder than the pigs at the village entrance?"
Taiyi's Dao Heart completely crumbled at that moment.
Candy?
You called the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir personally refined by Saint Taiqing candy?! And... you just casually fed me one?!
Boundless terror swept over him like a tide.
He finally understood.
This little baby wasn't an ordinary child. She was a devil! A peerless fiend Master Tongtian had somehow refined, specifically to torment the Chan Sect!
"Bad guy, hurry up and tell me!"
Seeing that he still wasn't answering, Xiruan began to interrogate him in her babyish voice. "Where does your rotten Second Uncle live? I'm gonna go collect rent!"
C-collect rent?
Taiyi's mind was a complete muddle. He couldn't even understand what those three words meant anymore.
If he didn't tell her today, he might really die here, played to death by this Little Devil King.
To hell with a Saint's dignity! To hell with the honor of his sect! He had to live! He had to survive!
"Mount Kunlun..." He forced the words out through clenched teeth. "Jade... Void... Palace..."
"Oh, Jade Void Palace on Mount Kunlun."
Xiruan nodded earnestly, showing that she'd memorized it.
Seeing how much pain Taiyi was in, she kindly lifted her Milk Bottle and gave him a gentle tap on the back of the head.
"Thump!"
A dull sound rang out.
Taiyi's eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground unconscious.
"Good thing you knew what was good for you."
Xiruan put away her Milk Bottle, satisfied.
She'd finally found out. Now she could go collect Daddy's debt!
She waved her little hand toward the gate and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Daddy! I'm going to collect your debt!"
"I'll bring you something tasty when I come back!"
Then she hopped into the air and flew toward Mount Kunlun.
The countless Divine Senses of Saints secretly observing the place fell into a deathly silence.
After a long while, inside Bajing Palace, Saint Taiqing's voice trembled slightly.
"She... she really went to the Jade Void Palace?!"
Inside Zixiao Palace, a shrill cry tore through the air.
"Daughter—! Don't go!"
Master Tongtian sprang up from his cushion and charged toward the open gate without a second thought.
He had to stop her! He had to!
He knew Yuanshi better than anyone, after being his junior brother for hundreds of millions of years!
Yuanshi cared deeply about face, valued rules above all else, and was ruthless!
His daughter was walking straight into a tiger's den. She was as good as dead!
The Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir was still surging through his body, and it actually loosened the restrictions Hongjun had personally placed by a fraction.
"Boom!"
Master Tongtian put all his strength into charging at the gate of Zixiao Palace.
He made it through.
Then a gentle force sent him flying back, and he landed heavily on the ground.
Tongtian looked up sharply. An old man in a gray Daoist robe stood outside the gate, though he hadn't been there a moment earlier.
The glimmer of hope in his heart was instantly doused.
"Master!"
Ignoring his pain, he set aside every shred of a Saint's dignity for the first time in his life and pleaded:
"Please, let me out! That's my daughter! She... she's going to Mount Kunlun!"
Hongjun looked at him placidly.
"Go back."
Tongtian shuddered, and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
"She'll die! Master! Yuanshi will kill her! She doesn't know anything! She's just a child!"
Hongjun slowly turned away from Tongtian and gazed toward the direction in which Xiruan had disappeared.
"This is her karma, and yours as well."
Primeval World, Kunlun Mountain Range.
A little red figure was huffing and puffing as she flew along.
As Xiruan flew, she counted on her little fingers, muttering to herself.
"That nasty loan shark got chased off."
"That village bully called Haotian got chased off too."
"That rotten bookkeeper got chased off too."
"Now it's that rotten Second Uncle's turn!"
Her little face was full of righteous determination.
Daddy had said that the eldest and second uncles were his brothers. But what kind of brother teamed up with outsiders to bully his own younger brother?
In the village, people would point fingers at you for that!
So she had to get an explanation! She'd haul back all the good stuff from their house and give it to Daddy as compensation for emotional distress!
Mount Kunlun, Jade Void Palace.
"Useless!"
Yuanshi Tianzun snorted, a hint of anger in his voice as he coldly watched the red figure drawing closer.
"Pass down my orders." His voice was ice-cold. "Activate the Jade Void Mountain-Guarding Grand Array. All disciples, take your positions."
Let's see just how powerful Tongtian's hidden trump card is!
He decided to test the little thing with the array first. If she knew better and left, that would be the end of it. But if she dared force her way in...
Then he wouldn't show her any mercy, even as her uncle!
After all, he had already let her off once in the Heavenly Court!
Heavenly Court.
Taishang Laojun gazed at his completely empty alchemy room, then at the Immortal Herb Garden, which had been looted clean. He was still in a daze.
When he sensed that Xiruan really had gone to Mount Kunlun, he chuckled softly.
"Heh..."
Good. Excellent. At last, it was your turn, Yuanshi.
Taishang Laojun flicked his Whisk, and a Water Mirror appeared before him, clearly showing the scene at Mount Kunlun.
He even grabbed a plate of immortal fruit so he could snack while watching.
Mount Sumeru in the West.
Jieyin and Zunti stared at the Eight-Treasure Merit Pool, which had lost more than half its water, their hearts aching.
That was the wealth their Western Religious Sect had painstakingly accumulated over countless eons by swindling and cheating... ahem, by delivering all living beings!
And now that little monster had gulped down half of it in one go!
"Senior Brother, that fiend... she's gone to Mount Kunlun!" Zunti Daoren said through gritted teeth, his voice betraying a hint of barely suppressed excitement.
"Buddha's Name, Buddha's Name." Jieyin Daoren joined his palms and recited a Buddha's Name. "This is Fellow Daoist Yuanshi's tribulation. It has nothing to do with the West."
Though they said that, Jieyin and Zunti simultaneously summoned two Water Mirrors. One was aimed at Mount Kunlun, the other at Zixiao Palace.
They were scared!
They were truly scared that after beating up Yuanshi, the little monster might remember the two of them and come back for another round.
But at the same time, they were looking forward to it immensely.
Fight! Fight! Fight as fiercely as you can!
The Three Pure Ones of the Eastern Daoist sect should break apart for good, beating each other senseless. Only then would the Western Religious Sect have a real chance to rise to greatness!
Wa Huang Palace.
Saint Nuwa lounged on her throne, gazing at Mount Kunlun in the Water Mirror before her.
"That little one certainly knows how to stir things up."
As she watched, she picked up a sparkling spirit fruit and popped it into her mouth.
Serves you right! You schemed against my Human Race back then!
Now it's your turn to suffer in silence!
Zixiao Palace.
Master Tongtian sat on the ground in despair, staring at the figure beyond the gate, as impossible to cross as a heavenly chasm.
Hongjun stood there without saying a word.
All Tongtian could do was watch his daughter's tiny figure in the Water Mirror draw closer and closer to Mount Kunlun.
It was over. Everything was over.
His eyes bloodshot, he stared at Hongjun, an unprecedented hatred welling up inside him.
Why? Master, why was this happening?!
Since you had joined with the Heavenly Dao and claimed to be impartial, why were you so biased toward the Chan Sect?
Why were you so determined to wipe out the Interception Sect?!
And now, were you going to watch your only bloodline go to her death too?!
Tongtian's heart bled.
Hongjun remained unmoved, though a complicated, inscrutable glimmer seemed to pass through the depths of his eyes.
This variable...
This variable that belonged neither to the Heavenly Dao nor to Chaos, and was not even part of Pangu's Legacy...
Where had she come from?
Hongjun's gaze pierced the endless void and settled on the tiny figure.
Xiruan had reached the Chan Sect.
Before you continue