Bai Zhaoju’s sword intent was sharp and straightforward. It drilled straight at its target with no regard for his own safety. Even when faced with an enemy whose level of strength he couldn’t comprehend, he showed no signs of backing down.

He became one with terrifying sword intent and transformed into a tremendously sharp sword to swing at the giant hand of frost.

“Insect,” snorted a derisive voice. The hand extended two fingers to flick Bai Zhaoju away.

Bam!

A violent ball of fire exploded from the sea of flames as the sword that was Bai Zhaoju cut into one of the fingers.

Hum.

Pure golden light flared from Bai Zhaoju’s figure, which collected into an unstoppable beam that shot through the void, connecting heaven and earth.

He seemed to be a fine sword unsheathed and stabbed repeatedly into the heart of the sea of flames, agitating it while endless sword energy boiled over and killed all of the dead spirits in the vicinity.

Among the great celestial army stationed by the sea of flames, many experts shot to their feet and turned to the sea with shock.

“The sword energy has gone heavenward to meet the great dao. To wield dao through the sword… this is a divine king’s great dao!”

“Who is it?” a chaos realm expert among the army called out in disbelief. “They’re forging their sword intent in the sea of flames and using it to ascend to the divine king realm!”

“In response to Celestial King Bai, it’s the Jin representative who’s come to retrieve His Majesty’s feather.” The burly man in golden armor who Lu Yun had encountered earlier walked up to Celestial King Bai—Bai Ze.

“Rushou sent him?” Bai Ze asked, his brows furrowed.

“Yes,” responded the soldier. “The boy’s name is Bai Zhaoju.”

“Bai Zhaoju, Bai Zhaoju...” Bai Ze nodded and sat back down. “Since he’s become a divine king and formed his sword intent, the dead spirits in the sea cannot hurt him. We’ll leave him be.”

“But!” hurried out the armored soldier. “Rushou may be a connate god, but he’s no good. The young man will surely be used up once he returns!”

“Only those with great perseverance and wisdom may acquire their own sword dao. Rushou is two-faced and plays a game of multiple sides. He wouldn’t even be an initiate in the great dao were he not a connate demon god. How would he possibly be able to scheme against a divine king who walks the path of sword dao? There is no need to intervene.” Bai Ze waved a dismissive hand.

The armored soldier bowed and turned away, but Bai Ze called out to him before he could leave. “How have your dreams been lately, Gongyou?”

“In response to the celestial king, Gongyou hasn’t been dreaming recently.” It seemed that he had more to say, but no other words came out of his parted lips.

“You may go.” Bai Ze waved him away.

……

Within the sea of flames, Bai Zhaoju had formed his own sword intent, pushing his cultivation by leaps and bounds and instantly ascending from the celestial divine realm to the divine king realm.

Unleashing his full might, his connate-grade flying sword shattered the giant frosty hand with incredible strength. He himself quickly shot backward, departing from the hand’s range of attack.

“Congratulations, White Emperor! Felicitations on your ascension to the divine king realm!” Laughing heartily, Lu Yun came up to Bai Zhaoju.

“It’s all thanks to your guidance with sword dao that I was able to ascend to the divine king realm so quickly.” Bai Zhaoju tilted his head back with swashbuckling flair. “I have to say, Lie Shan, your Vast Dragon Seaturner is quite an amazing technique. Its possibilities are endless, and it can be used as the first move for three thousand sword daos!”

He’d put away his defensive treasure as he no longer feared the connate li fire after acquiring his own sword dao and ascending to divine king realm. He was free from the restraint of the five elements now.

Of course, that was also because the connate yang fire was here to suppress the yin spirits and realm monsters. It wouldn’t attack living souls from the great wilderness.

Lu Yun didn’t deem that praise worthy of a response.

“Oh, about the giant hand just now,” Bai Zhaoju was reminded of his attacker. “Was that a realm monster? It’s not as terrifying as I expected.”

“That’s because we’re in the sea of flames that Celestial Emperor Taiyi has transformed into.” Lu Yun sighed. “He sacrificed himself to become a sun in order to seal away the realm monsters. Realm monsters are of the ice element, possessing great ice energy. This sea of yang fire is their natural bane.”

He’d previously thought that the ice-attributed realm monster Xuanyuan Xiaoyue turned into was a special case, but it turned out that all realm monsters were of the same element. Otherwise, Taiyi wouldn’t have turned into a sun here.

“Ah, no wonder the yang fire here isn’t as dangerous as the yang fire in the other areas.” Realization dawned on Bai Zhaoju. Navigating through this ocean wasn’t as difficult as he’d imagined it to be. The yang fire here was thirty percent weaker than that of the other places—most likely due to what they sealed away.

While the yang fire kept the realm monsters in check, they in turn weakened the fire.

“Now that you’ve retrieved the true feather, you should get out of here, White Emperor,” Lu Yun said. “I’m going to the other side to see for myself what exactly realm monsters are.”

“I’ll go with you!” High on the rush of newly becoming a divine king, Bai Zhaoju was eager to join Lu Yun in exploring the other side of realm monster territory.

“Also known as the spot where Celestial Emperor Taiyi sacrificed himself to seal off,” Lu Yun said coolly, glancing at Bai Zhaoju.

A shudder ran down his spine, his enthusiasm instantly doused.

“I’m just going to take a look,” repeated Lu Yun. “With my current strength, I can only allow myself a single glance. If I stay for even a blink longer, it may very well get me killed.”

Bai Zhaoju smiled wryly. “Then you be careful, I’ll stay here and cultivate.”

“You should get out of here.” Lu Yun shook his head. “The yang fire around us has been burning and exhausting itself all this time. It won’t be long before the power in Taiyi’s body is depleted and the crack unsealed again. I have to find a way to gather the sea of flames and stopper this place for good.”

He believed he’d had the same idea the last time he was here, but had somehow failed that attempt.

The ten years he’d spent in the great wilderness had enabled him to take a good look at the connate great dao. Last time he’d been alone and attempted to use combat arts from the immortal dao, but without an immortal dao present in the world. Naturally, the task had been much harder than it should have been.

Now that he’d gained a good understanding of the connate great dao, he would be able to use it to seal the fissure.

“Tell the connate gods here to be prepared for any sudden changes,” he added after some deliberation.

He was certain that last time, he must’ve snuck into the sea of flames with no one being the wiser… He wouldn’t have shown himself this time, either, if he hadn’t seen Bai Zhaoju with the general in golden armor.

There were other factors to take into consideration this time. Sealing the sea of flames would surely result in a great chain reaction, alerting even the realm monsters lurking within the sea. He needed the celestial army in the area to be ready.