The two waiting women very quickly received a reply.

"Great Sage, this way please."

Wu Yu was a star in the sky palaces now. Even if the two girls felt that this was quite strange, they nevertheless led him in.

Both were very curious about him, and kept sneaking looks at him.

Wu Yu followed them into Yaochi Palace.

The interior was beautifully decorated with flowers and running water, and put one's heart at ease.

They entered the inner sanctums of the palace.

The girl bid her leave and backed away.

The Heavenly Queen Mother was seated within, drinking a sweet-smelling tea. She favored Wu Yu with a small smile. "Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, please have a seat."

"This junior does not dare."

Wu Yu was here to confess his wrongdoing, and immediately cried out: "This junior has caused great trouble, and begs the Heavenly Queen Mother for her forgiveness!"

"Oh?"

The Heavenly Queen Mother seemed interested, and smiled slightly. "Speak frankly, Great Sage."

"I......"

Although it was difficult to say, but Wu Yu soldiered on. "I have let you down, Heavenly Queen Mother. There was an incident while I was cultivating in the Peach Garden. I was unable to control myself, and ate 27 immortality peaches."

He thought that the Heavenly Queen Mother would fly into a terrible rage at this, and almost could not bear to look.

But instead, the Heavenly Queen Mother seemed completely unconcerned. She waved it off. "Understandable. Not completely your fault."

Wu Yu was nonplussed.

He had thought it a huge crime, but now it seemed like she was willing to forgive him.

And why did it seem like she was not at all surprised? Expecting it, even?

Wu Yu was absolutely baffled by this response.

He himself had sworn he would not eat the peaches, no matter what. If not for the emergency regarding his Devouring Apotheosis Realm breaking down, and the Heaven Devouring Titanic Beast taking over, he would not have even eaten one.

Or perhaps the Heavenly Queen Mother had already predicted that he would lose control?

Wu Yu found that unsettling to consider as well.

A cold voice rang out from the entrance: "Lost control during cultivation? A likely excuse! Does losing control mean you can eat the peaches? I want to see what your excuse will be the next time when you eat them!"

Nangong Wei, fresh from the Yaochi Lake.

Wu Yu turned around and saw her in her usual flaming red dress again. She stood primly at the entrance, scathing disapproval turned full force in his direction.

"No matter."

Heavenly Queen Mother continued to smile. She said to Wu Yu: "Great Sage, you may go. Just remember not to do it again."

"Er, yes. I will. Remember to not."

Wu Yu hurriedly gabbled a reply.

Since the Heavenly Queen Mother had allowed him to leave, he was not going to stick around.

Besides, he was only here to apologize. Since all seemed forgiven, he had survived this crisis.

"I wonder if there will be any consequences later......"

Wu Yu was still a little suspicious as he left.

It felt fishy that the Heavenly Queen Mother had let him go just like that.

After all, he had heard from every single person before this that stealing the peaches was a heavy-duty crime.

He was completely thrown off by this.

"I can scarcely believe my own reason, an incident in cultivation...... How could the Queen Mother buy it? Or perhaps she feels that 27 peaches is nothing?"

Wu Yu mumbled to himself.

He had not seen her facial expression change at all throughout their conversation. She either truly did not care, or was way better at hiding things than he could imagine.

Of course, he was also happy that Nangong Wei had not said anything about his peeping incident. Otherwise there would have been even more trouble......

After he left.

Within Yaochi Palace, Nangong Wei was not at all happy.

She said petulantly to Heavenly Queen Mother: "Master, that person did not keep his word, and even went back on his agreement with Taiyi Zhenren. If not for the Jade Emperor buying him off with the Milky Way Pill, he wouldn't even be able to keep hold of that epochal immortal treasure!"

"Why let such a person guard the Peach Garden?"

Nangong Wei could not understand it.

However, the Heavenly Queen Mother continued to smile. She said: "He is a little wild, and needs those rough edges smoothed out. Dancing Flame, you must work hard as well. Catch up to him as soon as possible."

Nangong Wei could only nod mutely.

If the Queen Mother was not going to pursue the issue, then she had no reason to either.

Still, she was not happy at being told to catch up to Wu Yu.

She had not spoken about their fight at Yaochi Lake, because she had realized that she was no longer Wu Yu's match.

A painful thing to swallow, since she had beaten Wu Yu before they had become immortal emperors.

Even afterwards, it had been a close win in his favor. Back then Wu Yu had only been a tad stronger.

And now it seemed insurmountable!

Nangong Wei of course knew that Wu Yu had become very strong indeed, if he could even defeat Sky Heart Dragon Emperor and Primeval Mighty Miracle God.

She knew that she was still a ways away from matching up against those seniors herself.

Seeing Wu Yu leave, Nangong Wei felt that Wu Yu must be hiding some great secret.

It might well have something to do with the Ruyi Jingu Bang that he held.

And it seemed like both the Jade Emperor and Heavenly Queen Mother knew about it?

Otherwise, why would they treat him like this?

That the Jade Emperor had accepted him as disciple and even paid out a treasure like the Milky Way Pill on his behalf spoke of how much he valued him.

.....

After leaving Yaochi Palace, Wu Yu very quickly returned to Peach Garden.

Cultivating here was wonderfully quick. If not for the fact that ordinary immortals were prohibited, he would want to bring Luo Pin and the others here.

They were currently still in Mettle Sky cultivating.

After all, no one would dare to bother them there, and it was still one of the higher sky palaces and a relatively good place to cultivate.

Wu Yu began to work on the other moves among the 72 Transformations now.

He realized that his fighting style was too straightforward, and there were just some things that charging straight ahead every time could not accomplish.

For example, Wu Yu currently had no Mystique which allowed him to chase.

He knew that he had to get one. Luckily, he found one in the 72 Transformations called Spirit Hunter Art.

Cultivating the Spirit Hunter Art meant turning one of his hairs into a Spirit Hunter Mark.

The Spirit Hunter Mark could follow in the apotheosis realm of others, and he would be able to easily follow them no matter where they went.

Spirit Hunter Art was not easy to cultivate.

Back in the day, Wu Yu had also spent a long time cultivating other transformations such as Fixed Body Art, Violent Art, and Spirit Chaser Art.

Of course, Spirit Hunter Mark would not be so easily mastered either.

Luckily, he was now in Peach Garden.

The dense immortal essence qi lubricated the entire process considerably.

As long as one could grasp the principles and theories involved, the rest came more or less naturally!

Wu Yu was definitely pleased with this advantage.

Besides Spirit Hunter Art, there was another called Spirit Absorption Art.

Spirit Absorption Art worked a lot more simply, and was not that hard to cultivate either. However, like Spirit Hunter Art, it could only be cultivated at the immortal emperor realm.

Once Spirit Absorption Art was completed, it could plunge into the foe's apotheosis realm and absorb all of the mortals' souls. It would cut off the apotheosis realm's power at the source!

This was like cutting off a part of the opponent's power. After all, apotheosis immortal energy came from the sum total of mortals' powers.

Once the connection was severed, the opponent would be weakened.

"Spirit Hunter Art, you can run but you can't hide!"

"Spirit Absorption Art, weakening them one mortal soul at a time!"

Wu Yu threw himself fully into cultivating these two Mystiques, tapping on the reserves of immortal essence qi in Peach Garden.

However, he was thinking that if he could cultivate in a place like Yaochi Lake, and absorb the liquid immortal essence, he would be cultivating even quicker.

Alas, it was not available to him.

By the time Wu Yu had finished cultivating both Mystiques, there was only three years left to the Feast of Peaches.

During this time, the whole of the sky palace had been preparing for the Feast of Peaches. It was a grand affair for many.

Many of the invited immortal emperors were already preparing and making their way to Kunlun Sky.

As for Wu Yu, he guarded Peach Garden conscientiously.

At the same time, he was carefully monitoring the state of his own apotheosis realm. Now that his cycle was completed, he was a fourth tier immortal emperor.

In terms of fighting power, he could fight a sixth tier immortal emperor!

[TN: Heavenly Queen Mother's reaction to Wu Yu: https://imgur.com/a/RA9375W ]