Since returning from Three Immortals Island, Xuan Chuan had not widely proclaimed that he had gained the Three Xiao Sisters' support.
He knew well that reform required careful, step-by-step planning, subtle as rain nourishing all things. Revealing all his cards too early would only be detrimental.
He still lived in that somewhat crude cave-dwelling. During the day, he either handled the karmic registrations submitted by disciples—though most were perfunctory—
or patrolled Golden Turtle Island. At night, he focused on recovering from his injuries and cultivating. The Purple Lightning Hammer rested beside him, faint lightning flickering across it, serving as both a deterrent and a warning.
Yet though the tree wished to be still, the wind would not cease.
That night, with the moon hidden and stars sparse, came the hour when one's vigilance was lowest during cultivation.
An exceedingly obscure presence, nearly blending into the shadows, silently approached Xuan Chuan's Cave-Dwelling like a ghost.
The intruder had concealed his aura exceptionally well. Had Xuan Chuan not possessed an unusual soul and a supreme treasure protecting him, he would have found it nearly impossible to detect.
It was none other than Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang!
During the day, he had seen Xuan Chuan return from outside, his aura seeming even more solid than before. The unease and jealousy in Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang's heart had only grown stronger.
What shocked him even more was his vague sense that Xuan Chuan possessed some strange treasure capable of disrupting heavenly secrets and even concealing itself from a Saint's perception!
Otherwise, how could Xuan Chuan have escaped a Saint's strike, precisely deduced heavenly secrets, and persuaded Zhao Gongming and the Three Xiao Sisters?
"This brat must possess a supreme treasure! Perhaps... it is the very thing supporting his rise!" A flash of greed and viciousness passed through Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang's eyes.
"If I can steal it and offer it to... that being, it will be a tremendous merit! Then why would I need to endure hardship in this increasingly declining Jiejiao?"
He made up his mind to commit the theft while Xuan Chuan's grave injuries had yet to heal and his mind was immersed in cultivation.
He considered his concealment techniques superb, and he was a Taiyi Golden Immortal. Dealing with a severely injured Golden Immortal should have been effortless.
Inside the cave-dwelling, Xuan Chuan sat cross-legged, his five centers facing heaven as he drew in and exhaled the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The Creation Jade Disc Fragment slowly rotated within his sea of consciousness, shedding streams of clear radiance that nourished his soul and flesh.
At the same time, it perfectly concealed his aura. To outsiders, he appeared to be merely meditating as usual.
Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang silently passed through the warning restrictions around the cave-dwelling—Xuan Chuan had deliberately not activated them fully—and slipped inside like a slick venomous snake.
His gaze immediately locked onto Xuan Chuan, especially the sea of consciousness behind Xuan Chuan's brow, where he sensed a faint yet profound fluctuation that made even his soul tremble!
"That is it!" Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang rejoiced inwardly, certain that the strange treasure lay there.
Holding his breath, he extended his right hand. A bizarre gray light curled around his fingertips, capable of numbing the primordial spirit
and stealing spiritual opportunities, as he slowly reached toward Xuan Chuan's brow, intending to seize the "treasure" directly from his sea of consciousness!
However, he had underestimated the level of the Creation Jade Disc Fragment, and even more so the danger-sensing ability of The One That Escaped!
Just as his fingertips, imbued with a theft technique, were about to touch Xuan Chuan's brow—
Buzzz!!!
Within Xuan Chuan's sea of consciousness, the Creation Jade Disc Fragment, which had been quietly floating all this time, suddenly shuddered as though it had suffered desecration and provocation!
An invisible, intangible rebounding force, vast and lofty as though originating from the source of the Great Dao, abruptly erupted!
This force did not directly attack the flesh. Instead, it struck straight at the source of the soul, carrying an unusual Dao rhythm that obscured, confused, and twisted!
"Ugh—!"
Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang suffered what felt like a crushing blow and let out an involuntary muffled groan! He felt as if an invisible giant hammer had smashed fiercely into his soul.
His vision went black as countless chaotic, inverted, utterly illogical images and fragments of information flooded madly into his consciousness, splitting his head with pain!
Even more terrifyingly, he felt his connection to the outside world and heaven and earth become blurred in an instant.
It was as though his Dao Fruit might be temporarily "erased" from the Heavenly Dao's sequence by that force!
"Pfft!" Blood surged into his throat. He nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, but forcibly swallowed it down, though his internal organs had already been injured.
Terror overwhelmed him! What kind of treasure was this? It possessed such horrifying autonomous protection and backlash, and could even interfere with the Heavenly Dao's perception?!
He knew the attempt had failed. If he lingered any longer, Xuan Chuan would surely notice him.
Not daring to hesitate in the slightest, he endured the tearing agony in his soul and the erosion of that chaotic Dao rhythm.
His body turned into an almost invisible streak of light, fleeing the cave-dwelling in panic several times faster than he had entered and vanishing into the boundless night.
The moment Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang fled, Xuan Chuan slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze was perfectly clear. Where was there even the slightest sign that he had been immersed in cultivation?
He had actually noticed Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang the moment he passed through the outer restrictions. He had remained still only to see what the other man intended.
"So you finally couldn't hold back..." A cold curve touched Xuan Chuan's lips.
He stroked the Creation Jade Disc Fragment, which still hummed faintly in displeasure, as killing intent gradually rose in his heart.
In the original course of events, this Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang had been one of the chief culprits who betrayed Jiejiao at the critical moment and stole the Six Souls Banner! Cunning and two-faced by nature, he had long since planted the seeds of betrayal.
And today, he had dared to sneak into Xuan Chuan's cave-dwelling and attempt theft? It seemed the Western Religion had either pressured him or promised him something that left him unable to sit still.
"I had intended to deal with you internal traitors slowly after clearing out the external troubles... but since you have stepped forward on your own, you cannot blame me."
Xuan Chuan spread his divine sense like a net, carefully sensing the exceedingly faint remnants within the cave-dwelling.
They carried a trembling, chaotic fluctuation of mana, along with a nearly imperceptible trace of Long-Eared Immortal Dingguang's origin aura.
The first traitor to clearly surface...
He would use you to kindle the second fire of his rectification of Jiejiao's affairs!
Before you continue