The Huan Emperor looked sheepish but remained silent.
Lady Nandou glanced at the hidden immortals and gods whose auras were growing restless, then said gently, with considerable concern:
"With your cultivation, strength, and the Great Huan Dynasty's power, you have nothing to fear unless it is something we seek! However precious it is, could it be more precious than the Eastern Sovereign Bell, foremost among the eternal supreme treasures?"
After a pause, Lady Nandou warned him again, "Given your recent experiences, a huge increase in magical power is perfectly normal. Countless methods could accomplish that. But having no bottlenecks in your realm is not normal. You have neither innate spiritual wisdom nor a Dao physique, so you should not be advancing this quickly! The loose immortal realm as defined by this world is entirely different from the postnatal realm, the innate realm, and so on. You can pull up seedlings to hasten their growth, certainly, but there are severe limits and tremendous harm. The most obvious symptom is unstable magical power. You clearly show none of those drawbacks, nor any sign of unstable power. Instead, your realm is firm and your power profound, as though water has naturally flowed into its channel! With our cultivation realms, discernment, and abilities, very little can escape us. Do not try to fob us off with 'ancestral human blood essence,' the Imperial Dao, or some ordinary method. You would be better off saying nothing, rather than posting a sign declaring there is no silver buried here!"
That was precisely the situation before them. Given the Huan Emperor's status, standing, influence, and wealth, his cultivation realm had originally seemed plausible, and the immortals and gods filling the sky had paid it little attention. But after the Purgatory Ancestor's death and Old Immortal Nanhua's blunt revelation,