Inside Biyou Palace.
A strange glint flashed through Master Tongtian's eyes when he heard Zhao Xuan's words.
Then Zhao Xuan continued:
"Master, I didn't come today to persuade you to admit defeat."
"I came to tell you that staying away from the gambling table doesn't mean you've lost."
"They want to use the lives of my Interception Sect disciples as stakes."
"Then the best thing for our Interception Sect to do is not to gamble."
"If they want to hold the Investiture of the Gods, let them do it themselves."
"If they want a Heavenly Court, let them gather the people themselves."
"If they want to manage the greater picture, let them manage it themselves."
"If they want to follow the Heavenly Mandate, let them accept it themselves."
"Our Interception Sect owes them nothing."
At this, Zhao Xuan bowed deeply.
"So this disciple dares to ask Master to give him a chance."
"If my next three predictions all come true, please allow me to hold the highest decision-making authority within the Interception Sect during the Investiture Great Calamity."
"I won't interfere in the sect's day-to-day affairs."
"I won't interfere in the cultivation of my fellow disciples."
"But anything involving the Investiture of the Gods, my leaving the mountain, or whether the Interception Sect enters the calamity must be decided by my word alone."
"Otherwise, I would rather cripple my own cultivation and leave the Interception Sect than watch helplessly as the sect's Ten Thousand Immortals march toward a dead end."
Boom!
As those words fell, Biyou Palace sank into utter silence.
The highest decision-making authority.
This was no longer a suggestion.
He was asking for power.
In any other sect, such a demand would practically amount to insubordination.
But this was the Interception Sect.
And the one who had spoken was Zhao Xuan.
So no one rebuked him.
Master Tongtian looked at Zhao Xuan in silence.
After a long while, he suddenly smiled.
"You want to manage the Interception Sect on your master's behalf?"
Zhao Xuan kept his head bowed.
"This disciple wouldn't dare."
"This disciple only wants the Interception Sect to survive."
Tongtian fell silent.
Everyone in Biyou Palace kept their heads lowered.
Before today, Zhao Xuan might have been dismissed as an alarmist for saying such things.
But things were different now.
The Investiture of the Gods List really was about to appear.
His prediction from three hundred years ago had really come true.
Then what about the other futures Zhao Xuan had seen?
Would the Interception Sect truly escape destruction?
Master Tongtian slowly spoke:
"This matter is too important."
"I won't hand the fate of the entire Interception Sect over to you just because of a few words."
Zhao Xuan wasn't surprised.
"This disciple understands."
Tongtian continued:
"However, since you've already made one correct prediction, I'll give you a chance."
"Starting today, the Interception Sect will stop accepting disciples."
"All nonessential disciples outside the sect are to be recalled to Golden Turtle Island."
"Interception Sect disciples must not enter the Heavenly Court without permission, interfere in the fortunes of Human Race dynasties without permission, or fight Chan Sect disciples without permission."
"As for whether we shut the island completely and whether the Investiture of the Gods will be decided by your word alone, that depends on your next three predictions."
"If all three come true, I'll grant your request."
Zhao Xuan bowed deeply.
"This disciple will obey."
The disciples were shaken to their core.
They knew that from this moment onward, the Interception Sect had changed.
At least when it came to the Investiture of the Gods, the sect would no longer rush down the mountain in a blaze of passion just because others spoke of righteousness, the greater good, or brotherhood.
Master Tongtian waved his hand.
"You may all leave."
Everyone bowed and departed.
Outside Biyou Palace.
Zhao Xuan stood before the palace, gazing at the vast East Sea in the distance.
The sea wind billowed through his dark robe, making it crack like a banner.
There wasn't a trace of ease on Zhao Xuan's face.
Because he knew this was only the beginning.
The Heavenly Court would demand people.
The Chan Sect would avoid the calamity.
The Western Sect would come east.
The Investiture of the Gods List would hang between heaven and earth.
The entire Primordial World would gradually turn its gaze toward the Interception Sect.
Like a crowd already gathered around a gambling table, waiting for the Interception Sect to push its disciples, fortune, and doctrine onto it as stakes.
Too bad.
This life would be different.
Zhao Xuan raised his eyes toward the Nine Heavens, a trace of coldness at the corner of his mouth.
"The Investiture of the Gods?"
"Fine."
"If you want to play, then play by yourselves."
"Starting today, our Interception Sect will take a step back."
"I want to see how you manage without Interception Sect disciples filling in the holes."
"Haotian's Heavenly Court, Yuanshi's Chan Sect, the Western Sect's compassion, and the Heavenly Mandate set by the Dao Ancestor."
"Let's see if you can still carry on with your little performance."
Golden Turtle Island.
In a side hall outside Biyou Palace.
Holy Mother Jinling, Holy Mother Guiling, and several disciples of the Interception Sect Outer Sect had gathered.
Even now, they were still turning Senior Disciple Brother Zhao Xuan's words over in their minds.
Duobao joining the Buddha's ranks, Jin Ling being put on the Investiture of the Gods List, Gui Ling's death, Zhao Gongming's crushing defeat, each of the Three Xiao Sisters perishing, Tongtian being confined in Zixiao Palace, and the Ten Thousand Immortals of the Interception Sect withering away—if all of this really happened, how were they supposed to face it?
It wasn't that they were afraid to die.
Most Interception Sect disciples valued loyalty over life. If they truly had to fight head-on, few would retreat even when facing the Twelve Golden Immortals of Chan Sect.
What they couldn't bear was that, if Zhao Xuan's words were true, they wouldn't die on the path to the Dao, in a fair fight, or while bearing the karmic consequences that were theirs to face.
They would be schemed to death.
They would be pushed, step by step, toward the Investiture of the Gods List by something called the "Heavenly Mandate."
And then the others would trample over their corpses and say:
"Interception Sect disciples failed to understand the Heavenly Mandate. They deserved to be put on the list."
Who could stand for that?
Holy Mother Guiling, for one, couldn't.
She stood at the side of the hall, growing angrier the more she thought about it, until at last she slammed her fist into a jade pillar.
Boom!
The pillar shuddered.
Several Interception Sect disciples keeping watch outside the hall paled with fright, yet didn't dare say a word.
Holy Mother Guiling gritted her teeth.
"What Investiture of the Gods? What Heavenly Mandate?"
"When you get right down to it, Haotian lacks people, the Chan Sect wants to avoid the calamity, the Western Sect wants to reap the benefits, and in the end they shove our Interception Sect forward to plug the hole!"
"They've certainly worked out a nice little scheme!"
Holy Mother Jinling glanced at her coolly.
"What good does smashing a pillar do?"
Holy Mother Guiling snapped:
"Then tell me what we should do!"
"Are we really supposed to shut ourselves away and do nothing, just as Senior Disciple Brother said?"
"It's not that I'm afraid people will call our Interception Sect cowardly. I just can't swallow this insult!"
"They scheme against us, and we're the ones who back down first? What kind of sense does that make?"
Holy Mother Jinling fell silent for a moment.
She couldn't swallow the insult either.
In fact, she found it even harder to bear than Holy Mother Guiling did.
She was Holy Mother Jinling, one of the four direct disciples of Master Tongtian.
In terms of killing power, strength, and pride, she had never thought herself inferior to those so-called True Immortals of Fortune and Virtue from the Chan Sect.
If it were up to her, she'd rather charge straight up Kunlun Mountain and ask the disciples under Yuanshi Tianzun who had given them the gall to use the lives of Interception Sect disciples to escape the calamity.
But the questions Zhao Xuan had asked still lingered in her mind.
Could she defeat Saint Yuanshi?
Could she stand against Saint Taiqing?
Could she withstand the great momentum of the Heavenly Dao, set by the Dao Ancestor?
No.
And it wasn't just her.
No one in the entire Interception Sect could do it except their master, Tongtian.
But even their master, Tongtian, hadn't lost in the future?
The Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation could only be broken by four saints.
But the problem was, four saints really had come in the future.
It was laughable.
You had a formation that could only be broken by four saints.
So the other side really gathered four saints to break it.
You spoke of reason, and the other side answered with the Heavenly Mandate.
You spoke of fellow disciples' loyalty, and the other side answered with the greater good.
You spoke of fairness, and the other side answered that the Dao Ancestor had decreed the Investiture of the Gods.
How could you fight against that?
At that thought, for the first time, Holy Mother Jinling began to understand why Zhao Xuan had said, "Don't sit at the table."
It wasn't fear.
The table had never been fair to begin with.
The others sat around it to divide up the spoils, while the Interception Sect had to stake its disciples' lives.
The right choice in a gamble like that was not to gamble at all.
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