Ten days.
To the waves stretching hundreds of millions of miles across the Gouwu Sea, it was merely an instant of churning spray;
but to the cultivators of the Heavenly Illumination, Three Corpse, and Cold Mountain Archipelagos, those ten days stretched on like an eternity in hell.
Red Sun Hall, Illuminating Deity Sect, Heavenly Illumination Archipelago.
Spiritual energy swirled within the hall, yet it could not dispel the oppressive atmosphere.
Sect Master Zhaoshenzi sat upright in the chief seat, clad in a scarlet-gold robe of flowing flames. His face was square and imposing, and an "Illuminating Deity Gold Mark" between his brows flickered, reflecting his deeply unsettled state of mind.
He was no longer the pseudo-Nascent Soul sect master of over a century ago. Drawing on the sect's accumulated resources and a century of ups and downs at Heavenly Abyss Pass, he had painstakingly become a Dharma Nascent Soul True Lord over twenty years earlier!
He had intended to develop quietly for his last few centuries. Xuanji was only at the Dharma Nascent Soul realm too, and Qing Chen was riding the wind and waves in Great Jin, so he should have had no interest in the Gouwu Sea's territory. Who could have imagined he would actually return!
"Sect Master!" Deputy Sect Master Daoist Zhaolie hurried into the hall. This man, who had once commanded the winds and clouds of the Heavenly Illumination Archipelago over a century ago, now had deeper wrinkles on his face, his cultivation stalled at peak Golden Core.
His voice was dry and anxious. "What are we to do now?"
Zhaoshenzi's fingers suddenly tightened on the armrest, and his heart turned ice-cold.
Unwillingness! Humiliation!
But he knew even better what would happen if he resisted.
Qing Chen had carved out a fearsome reputation through slaughter in