Luxuan's words silenced the chaotic battlefield in an instant.
The thirty-six Celestial Court Taiyi cultivators stopped fighting without thinking.
In the distance, the Immortal Lord who had been ready to crush the Three Cloud Sisters with his Great Luo cultivation had already plunged into the depths of the Eastern Sea. He still had not resurfaced.
The two remaining Daluo Golden Immortals looked grim.
Before coming, they had known that the Celestial Court's previous envoys had suffered a crushing defeat.
But Purple Palace Isle had concluded that Luxuan had most likely relied on the Penglai Primordial Formation to wield such power.
That was why the three Daluo Golden Immortals had never truly entered Penglai's territory this time.
And the result?
Luxuan had left the island.
No formation.
No time spent gathering strength.
One casual slap, and another Daluo Golden Immortal was gone.
How were they supposed to fight him?
One of the Daluo Golden Immortals gritted his teeth.
"Luxuan, the Celestial Court was founded by the one the Dao Ancestor appointed chief of all male immortals. Do you truly intend to make an enemy of His Majesty again and again?"
Luxuan was getting tired of hearing it.
When they could not win, they invoked Dongwang Gong.
When Dongwang Gong was not enough, they brought up Hongjun.
The whole routine was starting to sound like the Great Wilderness version of "I know someone at the top."
"I have already said this."
"Penglai has nothing to do with the Celestial Court."
"If you cannot understand that, I do not mind finding another way to make it stick."
The two remaining Daluo Golden Immortals exchanged a glance.
In the next instant, they attacked together.
One brought out the Purple-Gold Immortal Pagoda.
The other drove a black divine spear forward.
The two Innate Spirit Treasures erupted with power at once. Fueled by Great Luo Dharma Power, they bore down on Luxuan from either side.
"Master, look out!"
Yunxiao cried out without thinking.
Luxuan did not even turn his head.
He raised his right hand.
Bent a finger.
And flicked it.
Clang!
The black divine spear reached him first. It changed direction on the spot and flew back even faster than it had come.
The Daluo Golden Immortal holding it had no time to react before his own treasure struck him and sent blood spraying from his mouth.
On the other side, the Purple-Gold Immortal Pagoda had just descended.
Luxuan answered with a backhanded palm strike.
Boom!
The pagoda let out a groan under the strain and hurtled tens of thousands of miles away, taking its owner with it.
From their first attack to both Daluo Golden Immortals lying defeated,
not even three breaths had passed.
Bixiao beamed at the sight.
A moment ago, she and her sisters had traded blows with a group of Taiyi cultivators, and she had felt quite pleased with the results of their years of training.
But then she looked at their master.
Sure enough, there was no comparison.
Comparing them would only wound her pride.
Luxuan did not pursue them.
He merely had the Celestial Court's people take the three Daluo Golden Immortals and leave.
He could not be bothered to say the same thing a third time.
This time, however, the Celestial Court clearly had no intention of letting the matter rest.
Purple Palace Isle did its best to suppress news of its Daluo Golden Immortals' repeated defeats, but no wall in the Great Wilderness could keep a secret forever.
The Eastern Sea was home to countless wandering immortals.
Their second clash had caused an enormous commotion, too.
Within a few hundred years, word of Penglai had spread far and wide.
Some said Luxuan, the Lord of Penglai, was a Mighty Figure left over from the dawn of creation.
Others said Luxuan was a divine being born of Penglai itself, able to command the entire Immortal Island from birth.
Some even swore they had seen Dongwang Gong go to Penglai and get beaten until he cried.
That last claim was rather far-fetched.
But once rumors began to spread, they rarely went where anyone wanted them to.
What Dongwang Gong could not bear was not hearing people talk about how strong Luxuan was.
It was that more and more people had begun asking one question.
Could the Celestial Court actually control Penglai?
His authority as chief of all male immortals came from Hongjun's appointment and the recognition of countless immortals.
If a Lord of Penglai at the Great Luo realm could drive back the Celestial Court's forces twice in a row without drawing a real response, the Mighty Figures who had been considering joining Purple Palace Isle would naturally have second thoughts.
So the third force arrived sooner than either of the first two.
And its scale was on an entirely different level.
That day,
the Three Cloud Sisters were at Enlightenment Cliff, reviewing what they had learned from the last battle.
Suddenly, an unbroken roll of war drums sounded beyond Penglai's borders.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
With every beat, billions of miles of sea trembled.
Yunxiao opened her eyes at once.
The immortal sword in Qiongxiao's hand slid half an inch from its sheath on its own.
Bixiao sprang straight up from her cushion.
"Don't tell me it's the Celestial Court again?"
Luxuan's voice came from the distance.
"Congratulations."
"You guessed right."
When the three sisters reached the edge of Penglai, they finally understood why even their master had sounded faintly amused.
The distant sky was completely covered with densely packed immortal soldiers.
One hundred thousand immortal soldiers stood upon the clouds.
Every ten thousand formed a vast battle formation.
Eight Daluo Golden Immortals guarded its eight pivotal positions.
Behind them, dozens of Primordial Unity Golden Immortals commanded the various divisions.
Immortal banners billowed.
War drums shook the heavens.
The surging immortal might cast a pall over nearly half the Eastern Sea.
Across the Eastern Sea, countless wandering immortals had already retreated far away.
Even some powerful Mighty Figures turned their Divine Sense toward the scene.
The first two clashes could still be called friction between the Celestial Court and Penglai.
This time, one hundred thousand immortal soldiers had descended upon its borders.
That was something else entirely.
The Celestial Court clearly intended to restore its standing in earnest.
"Luxuan!"
A Daluo Golden Immortal at the center of the formation spoke with a voice like thunder.
"You have repeatedly injured the Celestial Court's Daluo Golden Immortals and insulted His Majesty's authority."
"Today, one hundred thousand immortal soldiers stand before you. If you remain obstinate..."
Luxuan had already stepped slowly out from behind the Three Cloud Sisters.
"Wait."
The Daluo Golden Immortal frowned.
"What else do you have to say?"
Luxuan glanced up at the soldiers filling the sky.
"I only wanted to ask."
"Do you have to talk this much nonsense every time you fight?"
"..."
The momentum of the hundred-thousand-strong army seemed to falter for an instant.
Behind him, Bixiao could not hold back a snort of laughter.
The Daluo Golden Immortal's face darkened.
"Form the array!"
Rumble!
The eight Daluo Golden Immortals unleashed their Dharma Power together.
The auras of the hundred thousand immortal soldiers merged in an instant.
A vast Celestial Court battle formation slowly took shape, covering nearly a million miles of sea.
Surging immortal light formed a towering manifestation that wielded a giant sword.
Its terrifying pressure far surpassed that of an ordinary cultivator at Great Luo Perfection.
The Divine Sense of the watching Mighty Figures trembled slightly.
One hundred thousand immortal soldiers.
Eight Daluo Golden Immortals.
Even in the Great Wilderness of today, such a force was terrifying.
"Master."
Yunxiao looked grave.
"What do you need us to do?"
Luxuan flexed his wrist.
"Nothing."
"The last group was for you to practice on."
"There are too many in this group. Fighting them one by one would waste time."
Bixiao blinked.
"Then what do we do?"
Luxuan looked up at the sky.
"Simple."
"Send them all down together."
As the words left his mouth, he stepped beyond Penglai's borders.
At that same moment, the Celestial Court's grand formation fully activated.
"Crush him!"
The hundred thousand immortal soldiers roared as one.
The giant sword in the towering manifestation's hands came down from the heavens, trailing boundless immortal light.
Before its edge touched the sea, the crushing pressure split the Eastern Sea open, carving a chasm hundreds of thousands of miles long.
Luxuan stood beneath the sword, his figure so small it was almost invisible.
In the next instant,
he raised his right hand.
No spirit treasure.
No manifestation.
Not even a dazzling display of divine power.
Just one simple palm strike toward the sky.
Boom—!
The instant his palm strike met the giant sword, heaven and earth seemed to stop.
Then, before countless stunned eyes, the immortal sword forged from the combined strength of one hundred thousand soldiers and eight Daluo Golden Immortals began to shatter, inch by inch, from its tip.
A crack appeared.
Ten cracks.
Thousands upon thousands!
Boom!
The giant sword exploded completely.
All one hundred thousand immortal soldiers shuddered at once.
The eight Great Luo guarding the formation's focal points turned pale in unison.
"Hold the formation!"
"Don't let him break it!"
The Celestial Court's forces poured their power into the formation.
But Luxuan had already raised his hand again.
"Down you go."
The second palm strike.
Rumble!
The sky across a million li suddenly sank.
An invisible giant palm woven from power and the Great Dao covered the entire Celestial Court battle formation.
The hundred thousand immortal soldiers felt as though an ancient divine mountain had suddenly landed on their backs.
The clouds shattered.
The formation's patterns broke apart.
One immortal soldier fell.
A thousand.
Ten thousand.
At last, all one hundred thousand!
From afar, immortals filled the sky, dropping into the Eastern Sea like dumplings into boiling water.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Countless towering columns of water erupted across the sea.
The eight Great Luo still tried to hold out.
Luxuan's gaze swept over them.
His third palm strike had yet to fall.
Yet the protective immortal light around them had already begun to tremble violently.
"Run!"
No one knew who shouted first.
But it was too late.
Luxuan pressed his palm down.
All eight Great Luo fell from the sky at once.
In the blink of an eye, the hundred thousand immortal soldiers who had surged forth with sky-blotting force were all driven into the Eastern Sea.
In the distance.
The Divine Senses that had been watching in secret fell utterly silent.
One Great Luo.
He had driven off the Celestial Court twice.
They could have said he had relied on Penglai Island's terrain.
But Luxuan was outside the island now.
He had shattered the hundred-thousand-strong immortal army's formation head-on with one palm strike.
With his second, he had driven all one hundred thousand soldiers into the sea.
With his third, he had crushed eight Great Luo.
How could anyone explain that away?
At the edge of Penglai Island.
Bixiao leaned over her cloud to look below.
Celestial Court cultivators floundered miserably all across the sea.
"Master."
"Looks like they really did all go down for a bath this time."
Luxuan chuckled.
"The Eastern Sea is vast."
"There's plenty of room for them to wash."
Purple Palace Isle.
Deep within the immortal palace.
A huge water mirror hovered before Dongwang Gong.
In it was the final scene of the Celestial Court's hundred-thousand-strong army being crushed by three palm strikes.
Crack.
The jade cup in Dongwang Gong's hand turned to powder.
He was silent for a moment.
Then he slowly rose from his imperial throne.
"Prepare my carriage."
The expressions of several Celestial Court Great Luo in the hall changed at once.
Dongwang Gong raised his eyes toward Penglai Island.
"I'll go myself."
Before you continue