This was business between cultivators—a sentence that resonated with many cultivators present.

It was those old farts who’d shamelessly killed the genius cultivators with no regard for propriety. If not for the Life Glyphs, more than half of the geniuses would’ve died at their hands. In some ways, the cultivators hated the dao immortals much more than the two shitstirrers.

Qing Yu and Sidekick had only prevented them from harvesting gains, while the immortals wanted them dead. In fact, organizing another Sovereign Meet in Dusk Province had been the immortals’ idea.

They’d wanted to test Lu Yun and Qing Han through the cultivators to see if the two youths were indeed the two infamous troublemakers, and they hadn’t taken no for an answer.

Resentment building up in young hearts had finally reached a tipping point.

As the cultivators jeered and booed, the faces of the dao immortals outside Dusk Province darkened ominously. However, they still didn’t dare enter the province. If their cultivation was suppressed to the august immortal realm, those cultivators would tear them to pieces in no time.

Having silenced the immortals outside, the cultivators within Dusk City turned their attention to Mo Yi.

She fidgeted uneasily when she sensed the heated gazes, then disappeared from the sky like the pop of a bubble.

Qing Han threw the Fangyang youth a gaze and declared, “Continue.”

The young man brooded; he knew by now that he wasn’t Qing Han’s match.

“If you don’t, I’ll make my move.”

Hum!

Scintillating starlight followed when Qing Han lifted her hand to consolidate into a silver star. The entire area was awash in silver, a sight that drained the color from the Fangyang youth’s face and sent him stumbling backward.

……

“That’s the power of starstones!” exclaimed a dao immortal outside Dusk Province. “He’s able to make starstones’ power his own! How is that possible?!”

It was common knowledge that starstones couldn’t be refined. Their power could only be borrowed, not acquired. However, Qing Han had tapped into the infinite power of starstones, making it clear that he’d refined a stone, or even more than one.

“Because Qing Han is Qing Yu!” growled the Donglin dao immortal. “He has to be Qing Yu, even if he isn’t her!”

He turned to a peerless immortal next to him—one who looked quite unassuming. However, if anyone from the Mo Clan were present, they would’ve recognized the peerless immortal as an elite of the main branch that’d been secretly raised as the bulwark of the clan’s forces.

This immortal was actually a spy planted by House Donglin. When the house declined, all the setup they’d made beforehand had emerged to pull House Donglin back from the edge of the cliff.

Many dao immortals cast their gaze in the direction of the inheritance tower at the heart of Dusk City.

Home to the complete heritage of an ancient lord, even noble clans like the Fangyangs coveted it. Perhaps therein lay the secrets to ascending to the origin dao realm, or healing the injuries the origin dao immortals had suffered during their journey.

Although the cultivators were defiant and unwilling to work with them, that wouldn’t stop the dao immortals from moving on Dusk Province. In fact, many of them wanted to kill the genius cultivators while they were at it!

If the geniuses were allowed to come into their power, the dao immortals’ dominance over the world of immortals would be compromised.

Void realm cultivators were already able to destroy golden and arcane immortals, and rival peerless immortals. Upon ascending to immortality, they might be able to defeat dao immortals at the level of true immortals!

That was a future the dao immortals were unwilling to allow to come to pass.

“Don’t show yourself yet. Wait until Lu Yun comes.” The Donglin dao immortal put a hand on the Mo peerless immortal’s shoulder and shook his head lightly. “Qing Han isn’t the threat here, Lu Yun is. We don’t want him to sense danger and escape before the trap is sprung!”

The Mo immortal nodded and remained where he was.

……

Faced with Qing Han’s cosmic power, the Fangyang youth completely lost his courage to fight. Perfect immortal dao combat arts were his greatest weapons, yet he’d failed to even ruffle his opponent’s clothes.

“I… admit defeat...” he said dejectedly. “My name’s Fangyang—”

“I’m not interested. Next… or you may all attack at once.” Qing Han reeled in her cosmic power and looked over the cultivators around her with clear eyes.

They took a collective step backward. If even flawless combat arts couldn’t hurt Qing Han, it’d be impossible for them to defeat her.

Swoosh! Thud!

A dark navy sword fell from the sky and buried itself into the ground nine meters before Qing Han. A tall, strapping young man walked down from midair.

“I shall be your opponent, Qing Yu.”

Qing Yu, not Qing Han.

“Lu. Shen. Hou.” Qing Han bit out.

“Lu Shenhou? Isn’t he dead?!” Shock and astonishment rippled through the crowd.

The day that the Dao Flower was restored, Lu Yun and Qing Han had made it clear that Lu Shenhou and Dongfang Hao had died for the cause.

However, the dead man was alive and well, and had shoved his sword into the ground before Qing Han! It was an obvious gesture of the greatest hostility.

“Perhaps Lu Shenhou never died—Lu Yun and Qing Han just wanted to claim all of the credit and glory for themselves. Or perhaps they tried to get him killed, but failed?” Some didn’t hesitate to smear Qing Han and Lu Yun’s reputation.

……

Qing Han scowled. She knew full well what Lu Shenhou was doing. She knew who the man was, but hadn’t expected him to show up in public so boldly.

This means Lu Shenhou isn't Sword Divine himself. As Mo Yi said, he’s doing this on purpose!

Lu Yun had told Qing Han about what’d happened in the ancient tomb so that she would be prepared.

“Qing Yu is the dao sovereign appointed by the Dao Flower and she’s learned the combat arts of the founders of immortal dao. That’s why perfect immortal dao combat arts won’t work on her.” Lu Shenhou didn’t explain who he was or how he’d survived, but instead talked about Qing Han with an impassive expression. “In fact, flawed combat arts are the only ones that can hurt her.”

That injected some life into the despairing Fangyang youth.

“Qing Yu only defeated the champions because she activated the immortal dao treasure under the Sovereign Arena with the founders’ seals,” Lu Shenhou continued, seemingly to himself.

“So it is indeed Qing Yu!” The dao immortals outside Dusk Province noted the new development with avarice glinting in their eyes, but didn’t make their moves just yet. They were still waiting for Lu Yun to show up.

……

“Then you can try and see if you can hurt me with the combat arts of your divine race,” Qing Han said noncommittally.