Shen Gongbao was rather bewildered.
He could not quite understand what Zhao Gongming meant by the look he was giving him.
"Zhao Gongming, what's wrong with me?"
"You're looking at me very strangely. Has something happened?"
"If you have something to say, just say it. Could you stop looking at me like that?"
Honestly, Shen Gongbao was starting to panic.
Could Zhao Gongming have seen through my plans and intentions already?
Uneasy, Shen Gongbao tried to coax the truth out of Zhao Gongming.
Zhao Gongming was an honest man who had no intention of hiding anything, so he naturally told him everything he knew.
"Wen Zhong was right. Our Sect Leader is indeed preparing to give a lecture on the Dao. That much is true."
"But what you don't know is that the Wu Family's Sect Leader explicitly announced something earlier: until the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods ends, Golden Ao Island allows entry, but no exit."
"Since you've now entered Golden Ao Island, you should settle down and stay here until the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods is over."
"As for leaving, don't even think about it."
Ah!
Hearing this, Shen Gongbao was utterly stunned.
He had clearly never imagined that things would turn out this way.
Entry allowed, but no exit? What kind of joke is this?!
If that's the case, what about the task Master Yuanshi gave me?
If I really wait until the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods ends, the daylilies will have gone cold by then. What damn use would any of it be?!
Shen Gongbao was instantly dumbstruck. Unable to think of a solution, he went completely limp and collapsed to the ground.
He really had fallen headfirst into this one!
If he had been captured and brought to Golden Ao Island for some other reason, he could still have asked the Chan Sect for help.
But the crux of the problem was that he had eagerly come here of his own accord. Who could he blame?
Even if he took his complaint all the way to old Master Hongjun, he would not have right on his side!
Besides, he was only a minor figure in the Chan Sect.
Did he really expect the Primordial Heavenly Venerable to pick a fight with Tongtian over him?
Ha. That was wishful thinking, wasn't it?
Shen Gongbao regretted it so bitterly that even his guts had turned green.
He had never imagined that his desire to hear a sage lecture on the Dao would end up derailing his role in the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods.
Now, he no longer had any desire to hoodwink Zhao Gongming.
After all, he was already on Golden Ao Island and clearly could not leave before the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods ended. Even if he could fool everyone, what good would it do?
Besides, this was Master Tongtian's territory.
If he actually dared to do anything, Master Tongtian would probably scatter his ashes with a single slap on the spot.
Shen Gongbao was dumbfounded, but Tongtian could not help laughing.
He had finally dealt with the biggest shit-stirrer in the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.
As for whether Yuanshi would settle the score afterward?
Tongtian was not worried about that.
Shen Gongbao might have counted as somebody while he scurried about stirring up trouble during the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods.
But to sages like them, he amounted to nothing at all.
Besides, Yuanshi had never thought much of Shen Gongbao. Otherwise, he would not have sent him to hoodwink the disciples of the Interception Sect.
Being assigned that sort of dirty work proved he was a disposable pawn.
Shen Gongbao probably did not even know that Tongtian had set his sights on him the instant he descended the mountain from the Jade Void Palace.
After all, Tongtian had transmigrated here and knew all the major events of the tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods by heart.
Others might have dismissed Shen Gongbao, but Tongtian had marked him as a target long ago.
Now that he had completely neutralized Shen Gongbao, Tongtian naturally began turning his attention to others.
Although Tongtian appeared to be engaged in Secluded Cultivation in his cave abode, he was actually keeping watch over all of Yin Shang.
After all, this was the great tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods. How could he possibly take it lightly?
And so, he had now set his sights on another important figure in the Investiture of the Gods.
Nezha!
Although Tongtian was no longer a Heavenly Dao Sage, his power of primordial chaos was no weaker than that of one.
If he wished, a single thought could encompass the entire Primordial World.
A mere Yin Shang was nothing to Tongtian.
Whenever Tongtian believed something would be important to the future, he would generally devote a strand of divine sense to keeping a close watch on it.
Originally, he had planned to move against Jiang Ziya first.
After all, in his previous life, Jiang Ziya had been the man destined to carry out the Investiture of the Gods, even if his performance throughout the Investiture Calamity made it seem as though his presence or absence hardly mattered.
But Tongtian would not be so superficial.
Jiang Ziya was exceptionally adept at biding his time, and his methods were indeed clever enough.
Tongtian even suspected that, in his previous life, Jiang Ziya had played Shen Gongbao like a fiddle.
After all, without Shen Gongbao, where would Jiang Ziya have found so many people to fill the ranks of the gods?
Yet even knowing how formidable Jiang Ziya was, Tongtian still could not be bothered to pay special attention to him.
The reason was simple.
Jiang Ziya had capable methods and a hundred schemes at his fingertips. He was indeed a formidable figure.
But his strengths lay entirely in strategy, leveraging circumstances, and all manner of plotting.
In terms of actual strength, he had not even attained immortality. At most, he was an ordinary cultivator.
Put plainly, Jiang Ziya was a strategist.
Placed in a later era, he would, at the very most, be someone like Zhuge Liang or Guo Fengxiao.
Such men were certainly important and formidable, but the key was that they could only leverage the strength available to them.
Without generals and soldiers under their command, they could only grope helplessly in the dark.
That was precisely the approach Tongtian was taking now.
The targets he was watching were mainly Yang Jian, Nezha, Lei Zhenzi, and the other future great generals of the Chan Sect.
Put plainly, he was going to snatch them first!
It was not yet the right time to act against the others, but in Nezha's case, his mother, Yin Shiniang, was already pregnant with him.
Although there were still roughly three years until his birth.
For sages like Tongtian, that was no more than the blink of an eye.
However, Taiyi Zhenren of the Chan Sect had already set his sights on Nezha, so this matter would require careful planning.
After giving it some thought, Tongtian sent a message summoning Wuyun Xian.
"This disciple pays his respects to the great sect master," Wuyun Xian said respectfully.
Tongtian spoke calmly. "Mm. Wuyun Xian, I have counted upon my fingers and divined that Li Jing's third son in Chentang Pass has a destined connection with our Interception Sect."
"Uh, what instructions does the Sect Leader have?" Wuyun Xian was somewhat confused.
Seeing that his disciple could not even catch such a simple hint, Tongtian felt rather helpless.
In the end, he decided to speak plainly.
"You still do not have a single disciple."
"Find a way to take Li Jing's third son in Chentang Pass as your disciple."
"However, Taiyi Zhenren of the Chan Sect has probably set his sights on this child as well. I don't care what method you use, but you must bring this child into our Interception Sect."
"Are you confident you can defeat Taiyi Zhenren and take this child as your disciple?"
Wuyun Xian froze.
He had clearly never expected the great sect master to summon him out of concern over his lack of disciples.
Although he very much wanted to say that he did not wish to take a disciple.
After seeing Tongtian's stern gaze, Wuyun Xian obediently agreed.
It was only one disciple. He might as well take him.
Besides, he was the foremost of Tongtian's Seven Attendant Immortals. A mere Taiyi Zhenren was hardly worth his notice.
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