"A killing scheme laid out specifically for the Interception Sect?"
Tongtian gave his sleeve a gentle flick.
Half a wisp of Immortal Slaying Sword intent escaped. The floor tiles of the Ruined Temple split soundlessly, the cracks racing toward the Incense Burner before the purple patterns descending from the Divine Statue's brow stopped them three feet away.
Outside the Temple, the chill wind abruptly ceased.
Across the Mass Burial Grounds, every ghost prostrated itself in the mud, not daring to let even a trace of resentment rise.
Tongtian raised his eyes.
A sea of swords surged within them.
"Fellow Daoist, those words strike at the very foundation of my Interception Sect."
His voice was terrifyingly cold.
"The Investiture of the Gods List was agreed upon by the Three Teachings. The names upon it should be determined by cultivation, conduct, blessings, and destiny. Even if my Interception Sect disciples enter the tribulation, they should fight for their lives with everything laid bare."
"How can others be allowed to script their deaths beforehand?"
The Divine Statue did not yield.
The primordial purple patterns at its brow glimmered, forcibly withstanding that wisp of a Saint's killing intent.
Gu Changqing's voice slowly emerged from the clay Divine Statue.
"Does the Three Teachings signing the Investiture of the Gods List together mean they will bear the price together?"
Tongtian's gaze abruptly darkened.
Before the Divine Statue, incense ash rose into the air.
Threads of purple radiance interwove through the ash, soon revealing a scene of ten thousand immortals coming to pay homage on Golden Turtle Island.
Immortal light surged like a tide.
Fortune stretched like a sea.
Yet deep within that vast fortune lay dark scars, one after another.
Gu Changqing spoke calmly.
"Taishang established the way of nonaction, yet he has never missed an opportunity to gather the Mystic Gate under his control. He can see the Interception Sect at the height of its prosperity; he can also afford to wait and see who will redefine the Mystic Gate's order after the great tribulation."
"The killing tribulation of the Twelve Golden Immortals under Yuanshi has yet to be dispelled, and the places on the Investiture of the Gods List will not fill themselves."
"If they are to emerge unscathed, someone must bear that tribulation in their stead."
Within the incense ash, threads of karma wrapped around the fortune of the ten thousand immortals.
There was not a single threat in that image.
Yet it pierced the eyes more sharply than any threat.
Gu Changqing continued, "In their eyes, the fortune of the ten thousand immortals behind you is the foundation most easily dragged into the tribulation, most easily used to fill the register."
Boom!
Four sword phantoms manifested behind Tongtian at once.
The Immortal Slaying Sword.
The Immortal-Killing Sword.
The Immortal-Trapping Sword.
The Immortal-Severing Sword.
As the four swords appeared, every inch of the Ruined Temple's walls trembled.
The sparks within the Incense Burner were nearly extinguished beneath their sword intent.
Yet the purple patterns at the Divine Statue's brow remained steadily suspended, never retreating an inch.
Tongtian stepped forward.
"Without evidence, fellow Daoist, those words are a provocation against my Interception Sect's lineage."
"Evidence?"
Gu Changqing's calm voice emerged from the Divine Statue.
"Then let us first examine the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation you rely on most."
Sword radiance flared in Tongtian's eyes.
"The Immortal Slaying Formation Diagram is in my hands. Once the four swords take their places, nothing short of four Saints arriving together can break it."
"Even if Taishang and Yuanshi enter the formation together, they can forget about easily seizing its gates."
This was the source of his confidence.
It was also the sharpest edge with which the Interception Sect stood in the Primordial World.
Within the Divine Statue, Gu Changqing betrayed not the slightest emotion.
"Have you ever carefully examined why the karmic ties between Randeng and the Western Religion remain unbroken?"
"Have you ever considered why Yuanshi has always allowed the Saints of the Western Religion to reach into the east?"
Tongtian's expression briefly stilled.
The image within the incense ash changed again.
Golden light from the Western Religion appeared at the edges of the east's karma, flickering in and out of sight, never truly departing.
Gu Changqing said, "The west is barren, and fortune is what they lack most. Once the great tribulation rises in the east, they will inevitably enter the game."
"When the Myriad Immortals Formation rises, the east's fortune will be the bait."
"Yuanshi need only yield a single thread of karma, and the Two Sages of the West will step into the game of their own accord."
"The four Saints will be assembled on the spot."
Deathly silence filled the Temple.
Tongtian did not refute him.
He closed his eyes for a moment, his Saint's awareness tracing those words backward.
The traces of Zhunti entering the east.
The western karma descending from Jieyin.
The faint golden Dao resonance clinging to Randeng.
One by one, threads he had once overlooked now surfaced.
The sea of swords in Tongtian's eyes sank deeper.
At last, he saw that beyond the Immortal Slaying Formation Diagram, the karma of two western Saint seats had long hung poised, yet to descend.
It was merely waiting for the great tribulation to open its doors.
Gu Changqing gave him no chance to catch his breath.
"If this tribulation follows its original course, Randeng will use the killing tribulation to leave Jade Void and enter the Western Religion's lineage, gaining an exalted position instead."
Within the incense ash, a Nether Lamp appeared.
Its flame turned westward, severing its karmic ties to Jade Void.
"Long-Eared Dingguang Immortal enjoys your trust, yet golden light from an outside path already coils around the edges of his life flame."
The image changed again.
A figure stood before the shadow of a banner, the karma behind him wavering uncertainly.
"If the Six Souls Banner fails to reach your hands, the final blade after the Myriad Immortals Formation will be broken by one of your own before it can strike."
The sword intent within Tongtian's sleeves shook violently.
Broken tiles on the Ruined Temple's roof silently turned to dust.
He wanted to slash the projection before him to pieces.
Yet his intuition as a Saint told him these images were no delusion.
The next instant.
At the end of a mountain path, a Daoist smiled and clasped his hands.
"Fellow Daoist, please stay."
As those words fell, the life flames of Interception Sect disciples began to veer off course, one after another.
Gu Changqing's voice was so calm it bordered on cruelty.
"With that single sentence, Shen Gongbao can exploit the Interception Sect's devotion to loyalty and drag batch after batch of disciples into the killing tribulation."
"In the end, they will become achievements credited to Jiang Ziya upon his Investiture of the Gods altar."
No anger remained on Tongtian's face.
He had pressed his fury into the deepest reaches of his Dao heart.
Before the Divine Statue, four life flames rose from the incense ash.
Daoist Duobao's figure appeared within the first life flame.
The next instant, Taishang's Dao resonance blocked the road ahead, and a strand of the Interception Sect's core fortune flowed outward with it.
"Duobao will be taken away by Taishang. Later, he will be drawn into the scheme for the Western Religion's great rise, becoming one of the crucial breaches through which the Interception Sect's fortune leaks away."
The second life flame lit up.
Golden Spirit Holy Mother stood clad in armor. Starlight shattered, and a force of the Investiture of the Gods locked down her true spirit.
"Golden Spirit Holy Mother will perish at Randeng's hands. Her true spirit will enter the register, and thereafter she will be bound by a divine position in the Heavenly Court."
The third life flame lit up.
Turtle Spirit Holy Mother fell into a hidden tribulation, the edges of her life flame being gnawed away bit by bit.
"Turtle Spirit Holy Mother will fall victim to Mosquito Daoist's ambush, and her essence will be devoured. Even the chance to enter the register and receive investiture
may not remain to her."
The fourth life flame lit up.
Wudang Holy Mother stood alone amid shattered mountains and rivers.
Behind her, ten thousand immortals no longer came to pay homage.
"Wudang Holy Mother can preserve a single spark, but even she can only flee far away from the reckoning after the tribulation."
The azure Dao resonance surrounding Tongtian slowly sank into his body.
He forcibly suppressed his sword intent, his Saint's awareness tracing backward along every karmic thread Gu Changqing had pointed out.
Golden Turtle Island's fortune.
The Three Teachings signing the register.
Jade Void's killing tribulation.
The Western Religion lurking covetously.
The Heavenly Court's shortage of gods.
When every karmic thread was traced to its end, the same veil of mist shrouding the heavenly secrets blocked them all.
Yet every outline revealed beyond that mist pointed toward the Interception Sect's defeat and destruction.
The Interception Sect entered the tribulation.
The Chan Sect escaped.
The Western Religion reaped the benefits.
The Heavenly Court filled its divine ranks.
The Purple Heaven Palace issued a decree to suppress the anomaly within the Mystic Gate.
And the Interception Sect's ten thousand immortals became the foundation of flesh and blood that filled this great tribulation.
The voice within the Divine Statue finally struck the deepest point.
"As for you."
Tongtian raised his eyes.
The image in the incense ash abruptly shifted.
The Myriad Immortals Formation shattered.
Four Saints attacked together.
Golden Turtle Island's fortune broke apart.
The true spirits of countless Interception Sect disciples entered the register.
He stood within the formation, the four swords displaced, the Six Souls Banner nowhere to be seen.
At last, a decree descended from the Purple Heaven Palace.
He was taken away from the Primordial World.
Golden Turtle Island receded from his Saint's awareness, little by little.
Afterward, he could scarcely set even half a step back into the Three Realms.
The sea of swords in Tongtian's eyes sank to unfathomable depths.
Behind him, the phantom formation diagram shook madly, yet never collapsed.
Gu Changqing said calmly, "From the moment the first piece was placed on this board, the name 'Interception Sect' had already been written into the roster of sacrifices to the tribulation."
The Temple fell utterly silent.
So silent it seemed heaven and earth had both held their breath.
After a long while.
Tongtian suddenly laughed.
"Heh..."
His laughter was very low.
Soon, it grew louder and louder.
Ten thousand graves across the Mass Burial Grounds trembled together. Sword light crisscrossed the firmament, and every ghost outside the Ruined Temple lay prostrate in the mud, not daring to raise its head.
His laughter shook the four sword phantoms until they flickered.
Fury churned within the swords.
Grief sank deep into those eyes of a Saint.
When his laughter finally ended.
An azure tear of the Dao fell from the corner of Tongtian's eye.
At a Saint's single tear, every chilling wind over the Mass Burial Grounds stopped at once.
The tear of the Dao fell before the Incense Burner.
Without a sound.
Yet the Primordial Purple Patterns between the Divine Statue's brows trembled faintly in response.
Inside the main temple at Guanjiangkou.
Deep within Gu Changqing's sea of consciousness, system warnings suddenly flashed.
[Detected intense fluctuations in a Saint's Dao Heart.] [Load on the Primordial Purple Patterns increased.] [Current karmic concealment continues to deepen.]
Gu Changqing did not move.
He knew that, from this moment onward, Tongtian had truly entered the game.
Inside the Ruined Temple.
Tongtian raised his hand and wiped away the tear of the Dao.
When he looked at the Divine Statue again, the scrutiny from before was gone from his eyes.
Only killing intent, compressed to its utmost limit, remained.
"Fellow Daoist, since you can see this game, you must know."
"If the Interception Sect is to change its fate, where should the first blade fall?"
The purple patterns between the Divine Statue's brows suddenly blazed to their utmost brilliance.