Chapter 218: The Wang Family Severs the Great Dao
The Twentieth Heaven of the Immortal Realm.
Sensing the aura of an ascension, Lu Xuanyuan abruptly raised his head, his expression somewhat surprised.
"Someone in the Immortal Realm has ascended again, and so soon?"
For one had to understand that barely a hundred years ago someone had ascended to the Dao Realm, and now another was ascending again so soon. The Immortal Realm truly was extraordinary — to be able to ascend even with the Great Dao severed, the ascender could, at the very least, achieve the Peak Dao Practitioner Realm.
Still, Lu Xuanyuan didn't pay the matter much mind. After all, the Wang Family had stationed mighty beings on the outside to keep watch; if anyone ascended out, they'd likely be exterminated by the Wang Family the moment they appeared — not even his Lu Family could save them.
Withdrawing his thoughts, Lu Xuanyuan looked out over the vast Immortal Realm, his expression grave.
Damn it — just where was that fellow?
Once he found him, he'd punish him severely!
The aura of Lu Xunxian carrying Gu Daoshi in ascension was naturally sensed by the host of mighty beings in the Immortal Realm as well, and one after another they looked up in utter shock, then burst into laughter.
"Hahaha — I knew the path wasn't cut off after all! I knew the Immortal Emperor Realm wasn't the peak!"
"I wonder which senior it is who's ascended to the Dao Realm?"
"Probably Senior Gu Daoshi — after all, in the Immortal Realm, apart from Senior Gu Daoshi, I truly can't think of anyone else who could ascend to the Dao Realm."
"That's not necessarily so. Don't forget about that one — after all, he's a being who can discourse on the Dao with Senior Gu Daoshi himself."
"True enough. Well, never mind — better to just cultivate hard. Who knows, maybe one day we too can cultivate to the point of ascending to the Dao Realm."
...
And at this moment, within the Vermilion Bird Race's territory, Zhu Qingyan raised her eyes to look as well, while the Vermilion Bird Immortal Emperors beside her all looked toward her, full of self-reproach within.
"Clan Chief, it's we who've held you back."
"No, it's not your fault. As Clan Chief, how could I cast you aside for a reason like that?"
Zhu Qingyan turned, a look of release on her face.
Then she waved a hand and spoke earnestly.
"Cultivate hard. Produce another Peak Immortal Emperor soon, and then I'll step down."
"Yes, Clan Chief!"
Meanwhile, Lu Xunxian's whole body was wrapped in Dao Power, and then he was expelled from the Immortal Realm and on toward the Dao Realm.
An orb of light flew out from the Immortal Realm, and as the radiance faded, Lu Xunxian's form was revealed within.
"So this... is the Dao Realm?"
Sensing the somewhat thin Dao Power around him, Lu Xunxian murmured.
He looked around.
It was a pitch-black gloom; only the world barrier of the Immortal Realm before him gave off a dazzling radiance, blazing brilliantly.
And apart from the Immortal Realm, countless worlds far smaller than it drifted all around. Lu Xunxian sent out his divine sense to scour them, and found that the strongest beings born within those small worlds were merely on par with the Immortals of the Immortal Realm.
It seemed that because of the fracturing of the laws, one could only cultivate to the Immortal level there.
Withdrawing his thoughts, Lu Xunxian looked out over the vast Dao Realm, stretching boundless and endless.
Even with the divine sense of his Dao Venerable Realm extended, he couldn't perceive the edge of the Dao Realm at all.
"As expected — even a Dao Venerable is no rare or remarkable existence within the Dao Realm."
Lu Xunxian mused to himself.
But before long, Lu Xunxian sensed something, and his brows knit slightly.
An exceedingly fierce sword qi came striking from behind him, landing squarely at Lu Xunxian's back.
In an instant, it engulfed Lu Xunxian.
A middle-aged man appeared behind him, gazing toward where Lu Xunxian had been, seemingly worried that Lu Xunxian hadn't been thoroughly killed.
But he wasn't too worried. He was a Late Dao Practitioner, after all — wouldn't killing a Dao Practitioner who'd only just ascended from the Immortal Realm at the Early Dao Practitioner Realm be the simplest thing in the world?
Yet as the dust and smoke of the blast cleared, revealing Lu Xunxian utterly unharmed, a look of shock came over his face.
"How can you be completely unharmed?"
"I'm fine — but you're about to be in trouble very soon."
Lu Xunxian's expression was less than pleasant; anyone who'd just been standing there and was suddenly attacked out of nowhere would be in a foul mood.
The middle-aged man's face turned utterly grim, but then, recalling his own identity, he regained a measure of confidence.
He was a member of the Wang Family — how could the man before him possibly be his match?
With his confidence restored, he looked toward Lu Xunxian and was about to make his threats, but to his surprise Lu Xunxian gave him no chance whatsoever. In an instant Lu Xunxian appeared before him and seized his head in one hand.
"What?!"
He was instantly thrown off balance — to subdue him single-handedly was absolutely not something a Dao Practitioner could do!
But before he could beg for mercy, Lu Xunxian began the Soul Search, and no matter how desperately he struggled, he couldn't break free.
Soon, Lu Xunxian completed the Soul Search.
And once it was done, his expression turned utterly grim.
From the man's memories, he'd learned why the fellow had attacked him at the slightest provocation.
Within the Dao Realm there were ten great forces, and the most powerful of them was the Wang Family.
And within the Dao Realm, worlds were divided into four grades: Low-Grade Worlds, Mid-Grade Worlds, High-Grade Worlds, and the Dao Realm itself.
Of these, there were roughly three trillion Low-Grade Worlds, three million Mid-Grade Worlds, and only five High-Grade Worlds.
They were the Immortal Realm, the Demon Realm, the Ghost Realm, the Human Realm, and the Monster Realm.
As the strongest family in the Dao Realm, the Wang Family had stood at the summit for many years, but three hundred sixty-five billion years ago, there had been a peerless prodigy who'd ascended out of the Immortal Realm.
In a mere three hundred million and seven thousand years, this person had surged forward unstoppably from Dao Practitioner all the way to the Peak Dao Venerable Realm.
And for certain reasons, this person had provoked the Wang Family, and so had been besieged and slain by three Peak Dao Venerables of the Wang Family.
In that battle, the Wang Family had nearly been annihilated.
But in the end they'd dealt with the man.
And to make an example of him — and at the same time to defend the Wang Family's honor — the Wang Family's mighty beings had taken action and severed the Great Dao of the Immortal Realm.
This was also why, for all this long time, no one in the Immortal Realm had broken through to Dao Practitioner and ascended to the Dao Realm.
"So that's how it is? This Wang Family — it seems sooner or later there'll be a reckoning."
Lu Xunxian's expression was grave as he murmured to himself.
On top of that, he'd now searched the soul of a Late Dao Practitioner of the Wang Family; given the Wang Family's disposition, his death would be certain.
It was just that, for now, he didn't yet have the strength to handle a Peak Dao Venerable.
So Lu Xunxian simply took action and altered the memories of the man before him.
From the man's memories, he'd also learned that the Wang Family rotated out its Late Dao Practitioner guard over the Immortal Realm once every hundred thousand years.
For although severing the Great Dao had all but cut off the possibility of ascension, an exceedingly slim sliver of possibility still remained.
That was why the Wang Family had stationed a Late Dao Practitioner to keep watch outside the Immortal Realm.
Having finished altering the man's memories, Lu Xunxian's form blurred and vanished outright.
After a good while, Wang Gufeng finally opened his eyes and looked around in puzzlement.
"Strange — how did I end up here?"
"Never mind. Better to keep watch over the Immortal Realm."
Wang Gufeng had no idea that, just moments ago, someone had already come out of the Immortal Realm, and had even altered his memories.