Return, Reactions from All Sides

Two days later, when Wu Yan left Canaan Academy, there were a few extra letters in his storage ring.

He was going home anyway, so he might as well deliver letters for these clansmen. It would not take much effort.

A Dou Emperor's flying speed was naturally extremely fast, far beyond what transport-type flying magical beasts could match.

A journey that took more than half a month on a flying magical beast required only a few days for a Dou Emperor.

Yet Wu Yan took more than ten days, because he had to pass through quite a few magical beast settlements along the way.

Cultivating at the Dou Emperor realm was far more time-consuming than before, and Wu Yan had long been prepared for that.

Precisely because of this, Wu Yan wanted to stockpile more cultivation resources while he was at it.

Because he had entered Canaan Academy too early, he had not encountered Zi Yan, that "Treasure-Seeking Mouse."

But it did not matter. He was strong enough to simply bulldoze his way through.

Powerful magical beasts constantly emitted their auras, as conspicuous as lighthouses in the night.

Logically speaking, once magical beasts reached the sixth tier, they were almost impossible to kill. After all, this was the relatively impoverished Northwestern Continent, where even slightly stronger experts had gone to seek opportunities in more prosperous regions.

Unfortunately, there was now Wu Yan, an absurdly overpowered freak of raw stats.

Even though he was merely a one-star Dou Emperor who had only recently broken through, magical beasts of the same rank could only be instantly killed when they encountered him.

Of course, that might also be because the magical beasts of the Northwestern Continent generally had mediocre bloodlines. If Wu Yan encountered magical beasts of the same rank with powerful bloodlines, he might not have been able to kill them so effortlessly.

But unfortunately, there were no ifs.

The magical beast settlements that others considered incomparably dangerous were, in Wu Yan's eyes, his wild granary!

And rather interestingly, some powerful magical beasts also guarded heavenly treasures.

That meant that after defeating a magical beast, Wu Yan could not only harvest a Magic Core, but also obtain a heavenly treasure.

Only when Wu Yan felt he had gathered enough did he leave the Magical Beast Mountains.

On his way back, Wu Yan did not conceal his aura.

He wanted to declare to the entire Jia Ma Empire, with the bearing of an absolute powerhouse:

The Mittel Clan had gained a new "Ice Emperor"!

"What? An Ice Emperor?!"

The Cloud Sect, a colossal force that had been passed down for a thousand years, knew everything there was to know about this region.

The moment he saw the information sent back by the Cloud Sect's informants, this Great Elder of the Cloud Sect was undoubtedly stunned.

Could it be that the Ice Emperor who had once fought the former sect leader, and who had vanished without a trace for years, had reappeared?

Forcing down the shock in his heart, Yun Leng carefully read through the letter again, his expression becoming exceedingly complicated.

The good news was that the former Ice Emperor was still missing and had not returned.

The bad news was that this new Ice Emperor was younger—and he belonged to the Mittel Clan!

Yun Leng knew very well what an exceedingly young Dou Emperor meant.

It meant that the Jia Ma Empire's original bipolar standoff was about to return to the tripartite balance of more than a decade ago.

Yun Leng did not continue dwelling on it. He immediately set off to deliver the letter to Sect Leader Yun Yun.

"Great Elder, are you certain this information is correct?"

"Sect Leader, this news came simultaneously from multiple informants. It cannot be false."

Yun Yun frowned. This news was simply too startling for the Jia Ma Empire.

A Dou Emperor possessed decisive influence over the situation of the entire empire.

Ever since that Ice Emperor had vanished, only three Dou Emperors remained in the Jia Ma Empire.

Jia Xing Tian of the imperial family, Fa Ma of the Alchemist Association, and her teacher, who was in seclusion attempting to break through to the Dou Zong realm.

Although Fa Ma was the president of the Alchemist Association, he did not have much authority over alchemists throughout the empire and could be regarded as neutral.

With her own strength as a nine-star Dou King, along with the Cloud Sect's many elders, the Cloud Sect held a considerable advantage in terms of high-level combat power.

But if another Dou Emperor emerged, all those advantages would vanish.

"Then I will have to trouble you to make a trip, Great Elder. Sound out this new Ice Emperor's attitude. It would be best if we can win him over. If not... do your utmost to persuade him to remain neutral."

"Rest assured, Sect Leader. This old man knows what to do."

"Mm. When the time comes, Great Elder, please be more patient. After all..."

Yun Yun did not finish her words, but Yun Leng understood what she meant.

The Cloud Sect was currently in the awkward stage of transition between old and new, without a single Dou Emperor capable of traveling outside.

Although the sect was safe with her teacher guarding it, as long as Yun Yun had not broken through to the Dou Emperor realm, the Cloud Sect's deterrent power toward outsiders would remain somewhat lacking.

After all, the deterrence of an elderly Dou Emperor in seclusion, attempting a breakthrough, was completely different from that of a vigorous Dou Emperor who could act at any time.

After Yun Leng left, Yun Yun let out a sigh from the sect leader's throne.

The position of sect leader looked glamorous, but only she knew how much pressure it truly carried.

Yun Yun, who had once believed herself exceptionally talented, now felt as though she was not much of a genius after all. She was already over thirty, yet she had not broken through that barrier and remained at the Dou King realm.

Compared with that young Ice Emperor, she was truly somewhat... incapable.

Though the sect still had Gu He, a guest elder who was a fifth-tier alchemist, he was not a sixth-tier alchemist in the end.

The emergence of this new Ice Emperor had put the Cloud Sect, whose future had once seemed so bright, in an extremely awkward position.

Of course, that was only how the Cloud Sect's upper echelon saw things. In reality, they had an elderly Dou Emperor making one final push, a new sect leader in Yun Yun who was practically guaranteed to become a Dou Emperor in the future, and the empire's highest-ranked fifth-tier alchemist, who still had hopes of reaching the sixth tier.

A Cloud Sect like this appeared to everyone else to be in an exceptionally healthy state.

Especially with that imperial family, which lacked promising successors, right next to them for comparison—it only made the Cloud Sect seem even healthier!

"A younger Ice Emperor?"

Within the imperial palace, Jia Xing Tian's eyelids twitched when he received this news.

After reading every letter related to the matter, Jia Xing Tian rested his arm against the desk and supported his forehead.

"A new Ice Emperor, very young..."

Jia Xing Tian murmured softly, repeating the key words from the letters as a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over him.

Yun Shan, who belonged to the same generation as himself, had found Yun Yun to take charge of the Cloud Sect. Not yet thirty, she was already a nine-star Dou King. If nothing unexpected happened, Yun Yun would advance to Dou Emperor within ten years.

Hai Bodong, decades younger than him, possessed talent and strength no less than his own. Had he not suddenly vanished after battling the Medusa Queen in the Tager Desert, the Mittel Clan would likely have become a grave threat to the imperial family by now.

Yet just when the Mittel Clan's threat had become manageable, their family had produced another new Ice Emperor!