Heavenly Lord Cangzhu said solemnly:
"We surviving Heavenly Officials and Star Lords have discussed this together as well."
"But after more than ten thousand years of fighting the Demon Mother, we discovered that the being controlling this half-immortal brand seemed to stand above even the Demon Mother."
As though worried Xu Taiping would not understand, he immediately put it another way:
"Simply put, even someone as powerful as the Demon Mother cannot bestow something as heaven-defying as this half-immortal brand."
"True." Xu Taiping frowned and nodded. "If the Demon Mother possessed such a means, Shangqing's Heavenly Dao Edict would have been replaced long ago."
Heavenly Lord Cangzhu sighed again:
"But after hundreds of thousands of years of searching, we also discovered that if we wanted to find clues to the being behind all this..."
"Killing the Demon Mother, driving out the Nine Abysses, and completely reclaiming the inheritances on the Heaven-Demon Battlefield was the only way."
Xu Taiping, who had already guessed some of this, let out a long breath, then said with an exceedingly grave expression:
"Knowing someone is manipulating you, yet being powerless to do anything about it-it truly is a terrible feeling."
As he spoke, Xu Taiping looked up at the Immortal Boat before turning back to Heavenly Lord Cangzhu:
"So the Heaven-Hunting Great Sage told me not to go anywhere before you arrived because he wanted you to use the Abyssal Pavilion to conceal my aura, so that being wouldn't sense me?"
Heavenly Lord Cangzhu nodded somewhat helplessly, then said with a bitter smile:
"My Abyssal Pavilion has been traveling along the edge of the Land of Chaos in Outer Heaven to evade its perception as well."
As he spoke, his expression suddenly grew solemn again:
"Taiping Sword Champion, the most urgent matter now is to