Lu Yun patted Xue Chujiu’s shoulder in reassurance, who nodded back with a wry smile. The phenomenon of ascension slowly dissipated, and Ashu returned to Lu Yun’s side.

“The Chaos Lotus, top connate spirit root of the world, is very likely in the hands of the Ling Clan.” The holy lord looked at Lu Yun. “Aren’t you going to take it for yourself?”

“There’s a lot of bad blood between me and the Ling Clan, but this isn’t the time to make a move against them. Let’s return to Dusk Province first.” Lu Yun sighed. Of course he wanted the spirit root, and the Skyturtle Pearl was also very likely to be in their possession as well. But he really had too much on his plate right now.

The manifestation of the Chaos Lotus took the world of immortals by storm. No one had fathomed it possible for a manifestation to span across all of a major. News about the void-ascended immortal spread not long after—the genius in question was Ling Rumeng, a brilliant young woman rather than some ancient heavyweight who’d sealed themselves away tens of thousands of years ago. Kept under close guard ever since the death of Ling Ruyu, very few in the world of immortals even knew about her.

The lotus manifestation when she ascended to immortality was a magnet for unwanted attention. The Ling Clan was already struggling with the aftermath when they discovered, to their further dismay, that someone had leaked her personal information.

Over the next couple of days, waves of mysterious elites launched suicide attacks against Ling Rumeng. Although the Ling elites managed to thwart them, the response still took a toll on the clan.

Fortunately for them, general attention was quickly redirected. Three days later, three more phenomena of ascension emerged and lasted for an entire day.

Shock and awe buzzed throughout the world of immortals. An era of a hundred flowers blooming together and a hundred schools of thought contending against each other had arrived!

Increasing numbers of void realm cultivators made their successful leaps to immortality, bringing about many dazzling manifestations.

“So the phenomena lasted for a day. So what?” sniffed a powerful arcane dao immortal. “Newly ascended, even a divine dragon is nothing but a child. There’s no telling if they’ll be able to fill out their wings!”

Killing intent colored his tone. Regular immortals, and even some aether dao immortals, were wary of the void-ascended immortals, while powerful arcane dao immortals dismissed them.

Not even void-ascended immortals would be a threat to arcane dao immortals in the short term. In order to safeguard their own interests, the arcane dao immortals were more likely to go on the offensive against the newly ascended immortals.

They’d done so in Destiny City before.

Growing attention gathered on Dusk Province. The upcoming auction in Dusk would be the saving grace for immortals of the old order if they didn’t want to be eliminated by the times.

……

Seven days remained until the auction held by the Panorama Pavilion. Great crowds had returned to Dusk, which was almost deserted after its recent great disasters. The Qing, Chen, Lu, and slowly trickling in Xue Clan had made the province their home.

Dusk Province spanned only forty thousand kilometers, but each of the three hundred and sixty-five cities in the province contained pockets of space that could house billions of people. Any of the clans needed only one city to build a stable future.

Constantly bickering and raising a fuss because of the soul seeds, the Chen and Lu Clans finally behaved after the arrival of the Qing Clan. Only now did some realize that Dusk Province was on the rise as the future sacred land for immortal dao. Perhaps it’d finally cemented its position as where the future lay.

There were three hundred and sixty-five main cities in Dusk protecting the province, along with a terrifying formation in the shadows. However, most of the cities were sealed away at the moment. Only four were opened to welcome the Qing, Chen, Lu, and Xue Clans.

A week before the auction, construction projects sprouted all over Dusk.

The ancient tomb at the center of the province had been razed to the ground, and an enormous city built upon its ruins. It would be the three hundred and sixty-sixth city in Dusk. Strangely enough, its construction was ponderously slow, and only a crude shape could be seen after diligent efforts.

In addition, smaller cities had begun dotting the landscape.

Cultivators and immortals alike swarmed into Dusk Province as the auction approached, while dao immortals didn’t dare do so anymore.

Due to the restriction against immortals in the province, anyone over the golden immortal realm had to seal their cultivation to the august immortal realm before setting foot on Dusken soil. However, to do so now was to flirt with suicide as the number of returned void cultivators grew by the day. Those cultivators could easily crush an august immortal like they would an ant.

The inheritance tower remained at the center of Dusk City, but visiting cultivators and immortals didn’t dare enter it to cultivate. The image of Lu Yun activating the tower to crush everything that moved was burned into their minds.

……

“What a surprise, the Zhu and Yue Clans sent cultivators with great potential.” Lu Yun shook his head when he read over the jade slips the Panorama Pavilion had sent to him, reports that detailed what had happened in Dusk during his absence. The manifestation of the Chaos Lotus had marked a rise in assassination attempts against genius cultivators all over the world.

A bloodbath was brewing.

For many cultivators, Dusk Province was the perfect sanctuary. However, it wasn’t easy to take up residence in the province with Lu Yun as its lord. The Zhu and Yue Clan had sent their geniuses to Dusk City through the Zhu Yan and Yue Longsha connection.

At the same time, the Panorama Pavilion shifted a portion of its resources to training servants for Lu Yun. Previously almost vacant, the governor’s manor finally bustled with a full workforce.

Lu Yun’s Envoys of Samsara and a few trusted Infernum had been his only subordinates to date. Due to the lack of manpower, the Panorama Pavilion had given Dusk Province a makeover in his three months of absence. His manor was now staffed with the necessary footmen, maids, and guards as befitting his position.

Smiles and frowns alternated through Lu Yun’s face as he perused the jade slips.

“What?” His expression suddenly darkened. “Someone injured Lin Yu and Lin Xuan? No wonder I haven’t seen them since my return...”

He’d been occupied with screening the servants the merchant guild had recruited and assigning them their posts. With his return, governance over Dusken affairs had been returned to Lu Yun. The Panorama Pavilion was quite unwilling to intervene, lest Lu Yun misunderstand their intentions.

That meant he hadn’t had any free time until today.

Although he wanted to delegate all of his responsibilities to someone else, he had to take care of Dusk Province as its lord until his Envoys of Samsara emerged from their research.

“Since when did I have an older brother… Lu Feng?” Lu Yun’s brows knitted together. That brother of his had been the one to critically injure and almost kill the Lin brothers!

“Milord, there’s an emergency!” A servant of the manor rushed to Lu Yun with a report.

“Speak,” Lu Yun said coolly.

“It’s Sir Lu Feng,” the servant blurted out. “He’s gone to Sword Lake to make Master Yuchi Hanxing his concubine. Master Yuchi Hanxing rejected his demand and summoned the Dusk Phalanx and Black Tortoise to deter him!”