The black-robed old man was gaunt as a stick, with an ancient, unadorned face and silver-gray hair. From his jade-like pupils streamed inch-long rays of gloomy, oily green light as he stared intently at the gentle, warmly glowing flame in his palm.
The flame twisted and flickered beneath the nearby yin winds. At its core, a tiny figure seemed to sit cross-legged, yet no matter how the black-robed old man scrutinized it with his Jade Eye Samsara Pupils, he could not make out its features. As it swayed, it spoke in an utterly ordinary voice: "Fellow Daoist Pindu, with your Half-step Golden Immortal peak cultivation, having proved the External Dao Manifestation, forcing Shi Xuan to go all out once should be easy."
A stiff smile appeared on Dao Lord Pindu's gloomy face. "Fellow Daoist Wanfang, according to what you said earlier, although Shi Xuan has only just become a Half-step Golden Immortal, his grasp of the true meaning of the Life and Death Great Dao is already nearly complete, giving him roughly a million years of Dao practice. Moreover, behind him stand two Innate Golden Immortals, the Great Luo Dao Ancestor and the Life and Death Dao Ancestor. What virtue or ability does this humble Taoist possess to dare contend against two Dao Ancestors?"
Among more than eight hundred Half-step Golden Immortals, only sixty-five had proved the External Dao Manifestation. Dao Lord Pindu had possessed a physique unsuited to cultivation, yet he had tempered himself step by step to reach his current realm, earning the title Ghost Emperor of All Heavens. How could he possibly be a reckless man?
The flame called Wanfang chuckled. "I am not asking Fellow Daoist Pindu to kill Shi Xuan, merely to force him to go all out once. If there is nothing unusual, the