Chapter 414: Gifts
"Void-Piercing?"
"You really broke through to the Void-Piercing Realm? From a battle immortal to a true Void-Piercing cultivator, a road that brutal, and you actually walked it to the end?"
"Unbelievable! Li Hanqiu, this is really unbelievable!"
Both of the Cangwu lineage's leaders, Xie Xiong and Greene, had come, along with Jue Kong and the other Void-Piercing battle immortals on good terms with Wan Liugui. Now they were all gathered around Li Hanqiu, looking at him with eyes filled with envy and disbelief.
Even setting aside the fact that a battle immortal's combat strength fell short of a true Void-Piercing cultivator's, their very existence was as transient as a candle in the wind. Even without fighting, stabilizing the Primordial Void within took them enormous effort, and any high-intensity battle burned their lives as fuel.
That was why, after converting to the battle immortal path, surviving two or three centuries counted as being long-lived; most battle immortals fell within a century or two.
A true Void-Piercing cultivator was different. Through the grotto-heaven's warping of time and its effect on life, a Void-Piercing cultivator commonly lived over ten thousand years.
That was equivalent to dozens of times a battle immortal's lifespan, with all the freedom in the world to enjoy. How could the Cangwu lineage's battle immortals not feel envious and yearn for the same?
𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
"I had fortune on my side, as well as Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang's generous help, and I needed both to be able to take this step. In talent and potential, I fall far short of all of you," Li Hanqiu answered with a smile.
"Reaching the Void-Piercing Realm is itself the proof of talent. Never mind that our Great Cangwu World had no complete Void-Piercing inheritance in those days; even if it had, across the whole long history of Cangwu, ten thousand years might not produce a single Void-Piercing cultivator! What you have achieved already surpasses ten millennia of Cangwu's history!" Elder Jue Kong said.
"You flatter me. I believe that with your gifts, you may yet outlast the battle immortal's fate and reach the true Void-Piercing Realm," Li Hanqiu went on.
But those words left the Cangwu contingent wearing very complicated expressions, Xie Xiong and Greene most of all.
Three hundred years ago, in the Cangwu world, the two of them had been undisputed mighty figures, each nearly capable of single-handedly suppressing the hegemons of the Great Cangwu World's Immortal Dao.
In their eyes, almost everyone in the Cangwu lineage was a junior, especially Li Hanqiu!
When the all-out war with the Lunar Fiend Empire broke out, he had been a mere Golden Core cultivator. How vast was the gap between a mere Golden Core and them? Most of the time, a cultivator like Li Hanqiu would not even have qualified to become their disciple.
And now they were still languishing as battle immortals, while Li Hanqiu had beaten them to the true Void-Piercing Realm. They couldn't help but feel bitter.
Worse, they understood perfectly well that Li Hanqiu's breakthrough was largely due to Yaoguang's wholehearted backing rather than to Li Hanqiu's own talent.
In other words, even with talent equal to Li Hanqiu's, or even greater talent, they might never be able to go from being a battle immortal to a true Void-Piercing cultivator at all. The helplessness cut deeper still.
Sometimes, the choice truly mattered more than the effort. And to their lasting sorrow, at the most critical juncture, the Cangwu lineage had chosen wrong.
Just then, among the leaders of the top sects chatting and laughing up front, the Taiyuan Perfected Lord suddenly spoke, "Sect Master Shi Lin's gift reminds me of something. A castoff disciple of my sect once seriously offended Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang. As it happens, I've brought him along to hand over to Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang to deal with as he sees fit."
"Oh?" Something occurred to Yaoguang as he listened.
Sure enough, Zhao Yang, the Taiyuan Perfected Lord's disciple, soon escorted a man forward. The prisoner's internal Primordial Void had been sealed and restrictions laid over his body; forget moving or struggling, he could not even speak.
The moment he was brought up, the faces of Xie Xiong, Greene, Jue Kong, and the other Cangwu battle immortals immediately changed.
"Heavenly Venerable Jiang!"
"It's him?"
"Heavenly Venerable Jiang! Why is Young Sect Master Zhao Yang marching him up here? What happened?"
Suppressed gasps escaped several of the visiting battle immortals, and many eyes turned to Jin Rui, who handled the Cangwu lineage's intelligence.
The battle immortal hastily explained in a low voice, "After Heavenly Venerable Jiang broke with our lineage, we cut off his funding. With no cultivation resources, he had no choice but to garrison a border battlefield to earn cultivation supplies. His luck ran out, and when that very front suffered a demon king incursion, Heavenly Venerable Jiang fled without fighting. He was severely punished and expelled from the sect..."
Xie Xiong, Greene, and Jue Kong understood at once. Heavenly Venerable Jiang bore some of the blame for his own ruin, but the heart of it was that he had offended Yaoguang.
By all means, his title as the Supreme Jade Emperor's direct disciple should have kept him from utter destitution even after his failed advancement, and he should never have needed to be deployed to the border in order to earn a wage to cultivate.
But as Yaoguang's cultivation and influence swelled by the day, even the Supreme Jade Emperor no longer dared shield him.
And now that Yaoguang's standing rivaled, and even outweighed, that of the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, so much so that their own sect master had to court his goodwill, Heavenly Venerable Jiang had naturally been discarded, served to Yaoguang to deal with as he pleased.
The Cangwu battle immortals' expressions turned unbearably complicated. On one side stood the sealed, terror-stricken Heavenly Venerable Jiang; on the other stood Yaoguang, standing on the highest platform, trading easy laughter with the Three-Qing Temple's master, the Taiyi Immortal Sect's master, the Penglai Immortal Sect's master, and the rest. The violent contrast only made them realize how deeply they regretted their old decision.
Even nearer at hand, the contrast between Li Hanqiu, who had backed Yaoguang without reserve and risen from the Golden Core Realm to the Void-Piercing Realm in under a century, and Xie Xiong, Greene, and the others, who had staked their hopes on Heavenly Venerable Jiang and remained battle immortals to this day, was sharper still.
The Cangwu battle immortals exchanged rueful glances, each sighing inwardly.
No one paid the Cangwu lineage's feelings any mind, except for Wan Liugui; at a feast like this, they were small players. As for Yaoguang himself, when the Taiyi Immortal Sect delivered Heavenly Venerable Jiang, his expression did shift, more of a reaction than Hou Feng had drawn.
"Heavenly Venerable Jiang." Yaoguang recalled their first meeting back in the Great Cangwu World, and the pressure this Azure Golden Core cultivator had radiated over him then.
In those days, had they really fought, his only chance of survival would have been to flee desperately, relying on the Void Disk.
Although he might have escaped, Li Hanqiu, the Nine Cauldrons Sect, and everyone tied to the Su family would have ended up in a grave, wiped out before this prodigy's wrath.
And now the man who had once pressed down on him so heavily had been trussed up and delivered to his feet by the Taiyi Immortal Sect's own master, without Yaoguang lifting a finger. Heavenly Venerable Jiang's life or death rested on a single thought.
The pressure and despair Heavenly Venerable Jiang faced in this moment could hardly be less than what Yaoguang had faced when he had been cornered in the Great Cangwu World all those years ago.
"When you destroyed the Yaoguang World on a whim, indulging your tyranny to the fullest, could you ever have imagined this day?" Yaoguang said to him.
Utterly restrained, the prodigy in whom the Cangwu lineage had once vested all its hopes could not force out a single word. He could only stare at Yaoguang with terror and pleading eyes.
Yaoguang read it plainly. "So your tyranny and cruelty were only ever for those weaker than you."
He waved a hand and said to Xu Nianhua beside him, "Take him down. Hand him to Lin Xia, Leng Jun, Su Yaoxue, and the others to deal with."
Letting those born on the Yaoguang World pass judgment on the culprit behind its destruction was only fitting.
"Yes." Xu Nianhua acknowledged the order, leading Heavenly Venerable Jiang away.
"Sect Master Taiyuan is very thoughtful. I like this gift very much." Yaoguang offered a fist-and-palm salute toward the sect master with a smile. "I will return to the Southern Capital soon. When I do, Sect Master Taiyuan is welcome as my guest."
"The Southern Capital?" The Taiyuan Perfected Lord was somewhat surprised; he had assumed Yaoguang would ascend smoothly to the Heavenly Dao Sect's throne.
Then he realized. Below the Dao Lord, the Heavenly Dao Sect's stabilizing pillars were Chief Supreme Elder Zhen Xuanyuan and, most important of them all, Perfected Lord Jinghong.
For Yaoguang to sit securely as sect master, Perfected Lord Jinghong's approval was essential. Not that he doubted Yaoguang's strength or talent; taking control of the Heavenly Dao Sect was only a matter of time for Yaoguang.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect's master nodded, smiling. "Then when the time comes, I'll go to the Southern Capital and talk your ear off."
Yaoguang nodded. He went on conversing with the Three-Qing Temple's master, the Penglai Immortal Sect's master, the Golden Crow Sect's master, and the rest, extending invitations and even suggesting certain joint ventures.
The Heavenly Dao Sect intended to mass-produce Jiuzhou warships and later push into the spirit-treasure flying sword market, and forging such items required materials.
Many that were rare and expensive within the Heavenly Dao Sect's lands were far cheaper when bought from other factions; with trade flowing both ways, the prices of the Jiuzhou warships and flying swords could be driven down.
The ceremony continued for several days, ending with hosts and guests alike well satisfied.
When the great feast concluded, and Yaoguang had seen off the assembled sect masters one by one, he lingered another month on the Nine Cauldrons Peak.
The month was mostly spent on coordinating with the families and artifact-refinement masters willing to pledge themselves and follow him to the Southern Capital.
He also carried out a series of repairs on the Nine Cauldrons Peak's arrays, raising them to the strength of a level 13 array, and while he was at it, made a detailed study of the Twelve-Fiend-God Heaven-Sealing Array, ensuring he had the means to stop that array from ever activating in time.
With all of it settled, Yaoguang left, preparing to move against the Yin Lunar Sect.
The fleet of thirty-one warships that had carried him here had grown tenfold for the return. Three-hundred-plus warships, laden with materials, refiners, and cultivators, sailed straight for the Southern Capital.