Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)

“Lord Fate Arbiter, we’ve been looking forward to your arrival for so long! You’re finally here!”

A question mark popped out of the Fate Arbiter’s head.

Can’t you look forward to something good for me?

With the Fate Arbiter’s backing, the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord felt that he had a pillar of support and finally found the courage to refute Guan Shanhai. He lifted his head abruptly and looked at Guan Shanhai with disdain. “We’d simply gone into hiding in the immortal palace to reduce the influence of faith power. Otherwise, there would have been no place for Great Yu. You merely made a few ripples, and now you think you’re unbeatable. Do you think you’re all that impressive just because you’re an immortal?”

The Timekeeper Divine Lord even stepped aside and solemnly introduced the stunned Fate Arbiter. “Look, our Great Qian also has an immortal! This is Lord Fate Arbiter, the one who conferred the title of divine lord upon us and mass-produced Incipient Dao Fruits!”

Now that the long-awaited Fate Arbiter had arrived on Incarceration Peak, the Great Qian’s cultivators’ morale soared. They straightened their backs and glared back at the Great Yu cultivators.

For the first time in a long while, the Fate Arbiter fell into deep thought. On the way here, he had imagined all sorts of possible reactions from his old subordinates, but this had never crossed his mind.

It’s as if they’re possessed.

The Fate Arbiter shook his head. Conferring the title of divine lord and producing Incipient Dao Fruits? They’re all in the past now; we are already imprisoned. What’s the point of debating such things here?

Guan Shanhai scoffed. “It’s just mass-producing Incipient Dao Fruits; you think that’s worth bragging about? My Imprint Dao Fruit can also create Incipient Dao Fruits, and it doesn’t even require faith power. You make it sound like it’s really some great achievement.”

“What did you say?!” The Fate Arbiter slapped his thigh and pointed at Guan Shanhai angrily. I can dismiss the matter of conferring the title of divine lord as history, but no one else has the right to.

“What, did I say something wrong?” As a fellow immortal, Guan Shanhai didn’t fear the Fate Arbiter. “If faith power was truly so effective, would you have hidden in the immortal palace the whole time and simply watched as Great Qian fell into ruin?

“With faith as the foundation of your nation, it appears that Great Qian was nothing special.”

The Fate Arbiter retorted mockingly, “And what about your Great Yu? You established the Imperial Preceptor system, but only your first two Imperial Preceptors were a bit useful; the rest schemed against the emperor. Did your dynasty fall any slower than Great Qian?

“Ultimately, our Great Qian had wise rulers and a pantheon of deities receiving incense offerings, each fulfilling their roles. Our nation was prosperous and powerful; the Demon Region, East Sea, and all under heaven paid tribute to us. How is Great Yu qualified to compare itself to Great Qian?”

Guan Shanhai rose slowly, his gaze becoming deep, as if he had returned to the founding days of the Great Yu Dynasty. “Utterly risible! Our Great Yu Dynasty ended the chaos of the Central Continent and intimidated the demons into never daring to invade us. Every opponent we faced was awed into submission and willingly surrendered to Great Yu. After generations of growth, Great Yu reached its zenith, and even Great Xia refers to my era as the Great Yu Golden Age!”

“What use are the evaluations of future generations? In the cultivation world, strength reigns supreme.”

The Fate Arbiter drew a square on the ground to represent the Central Continent, then bisected it with a vertical line—one side Great Qian and the other Great Yu.

“My Spirit Awakening Dao Fruit can transfigure all things in this world, and the Midheaven Emperor-Lord’s Devouring Dao Fruit can even swallow others’ Dao Fruits. If the Emperor-Lord and I had joined forces to attack from this direction, could Great Yu have stopped us?”

Guan Shanhai was not one to back down. His cell was too far from the Fate Arbiter for him to draw on his map, so he sketched an identical map in front of himself.

“How hard could it be to stop you? Wu Yao’s Replacement Incipient Dao Fruit could have directly swapped the Emperor-Lord into the cosmos, leaving him without even the northwest wind to devour. Could you have held off both Wu Yao and me on your own?

“And we still have our Great Yu generals. Each of them crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They could have led eighteen armies across six routes in a massive invasion of Great Qian. You pampered divine lords would be lucky not to be scared out of your wits by them!”

“Scared out of our wits? We have Thunder Arbiter and Timekeeper; their Incipient Dao Fruits can control the timing of heavenly tribulations. Your eighteen armies would have crumbled right away!”

“Our Great Yu’s number one general, General Yu, wields a Yin-Yang Incipient Dao Fruit forged through his own cultivation. Your half-immortals created by imitating the Four Ancient Immortals can’t be compared to him! With General Yu leading the armies, dividing yin and yang, what could you possibly do?!”

“Well said, Lord Imperial Preceptor. That’s how we should fight. Let’s see what Great Qian can do!” The Great Yu cultivators grew more excited, unable to resist pumping their fists in approval.

“What’s there to be smug about? By then, the Emperor-Lord would have returned. He would descend directly from the cosmos into Great Yu’s rear and slaughter without mercy, trapping your forces in a pincer attack with Lord Fate Arbiter!” the Great Qian cultivators rebuked. They had swallowed their pride for too long on Incarceration Peak. Now that they finally had a chance to hold their heads high, they wouldn’t let the Great Yu forces suppress them again.

“Then the Yu Emperor would have just teleported the Emperor-Lord away again!”

“How could the Emperor-Lord fall for the same trick twice? If he got teleported away again, he would just absorb Wu Yao as well!”

The two sides argued back and forth, animatedly setting up sand tables on the ground to study how to defeat each other and glorify their nations.

The Fate Arbiter and Guan Shanhai couldn’t stand each other. They rolled up their sleeves and pointed fingers at each other. Spittle flew everywhere, and their faces turned crimson. If not for the unsuitable setting, they would have stripped to the waist long ago and gone at it for real.

Yun Zhi watched quietly from the side. She had originally planned to interrogate the Fate Arbiter through the night, but given his current state, even her old method of whipping would likely yield nothing. She figured she would wait until both sides calmed down before resuming her interrogation and torture.

The childlike Grand-Shifu listened intently to the tactics and countermeasures discussed during the hypothetical battles. Whenever he encountered something unclear, he would make a note to mull over it later. This is invaluable experience that can’t be found anywhere else even if you beg for it.

Caught between the two warring nations, Mo Xiaochou and Duan Qingshui were grateful to be Buddhist Kingdom cultivators and had no part in such large-scale conflicts.

~~~

Buddhist Kingdom, Xitian Temple, Mahavira Hall...

After much deliberation, Dai Bufan decided to try his luck at Xitian Temple.

After all, Junior Brother Lu only possesses an immortal body in the Buddhist Kingdom and isn’t considered a true immortal. Moreover, the Buddhist Kingdom’s Buddhism was established by the World-Honored One. Surely it can keep Junior Brother Lu in check.

The Mahavira Hall was Xitian Temple’s greatest asset. Not just anyone was qualified to enter and pay homage.

For years, Dai Bufan had handled the Dao-Seeking Sect’s internal and external affairs on First Elder’s behalf, earning him widespread acclaim. He was regarded as the second-in-command of the sect in the outside world. Naturally, he was qualified to enter the Mahavira Hall.

He properly lit three sticks of incense and kowtowed before the Buddha.

“Buddha above, I have two junior brothers, one named Lu Yang and the other Meng Jingzhou. I suspect they are afflicted by some evil influence. Every time they go out, something major happens. Although they’ve always managed to turn disaster into fortune, I’m worried they may meet an untimely end.

“Please bless them, Buddha. Drive away the evil upon them and keep them safe!”

On the lotus platform, the Buddha opened his world-weary eyes and gazed helplessly at the earnestly kowtowing Dai Bufan.

Is this something I can even handle?

Forget lighting three sticks of incense; even if you burn down the entire Mahavira Hall, I wouldn’t have the ability to take care of this.