So this is what inexorable power feels like... It was heaven, it was earth, it was the supreme heavenly dao incarnate. Everything beneath the dao immortal realm was so insignificant it didn’t even register!

Lu Yun’s mental faculties were frozen like a fly trapped in amber, but the state lasted only an eyeblink.

Bam!

An explosion of great power scattered Donglin Zhi’s compulsion. A young man roughly twenty-four years of age emerged from the void with an emerald-color bamboo stick, expression weary and clothes worn, but clean. He walked on empty air, looking ahead with empty, unfocused eyes, like those of a blind man.

“Wayfarer?” Donglin Zhi paused. “After a millennia-long disappearance, Art Saint Wayfarer, communer of colors, reappears as a dao immortal and… blind?”

A thousand years were to a dao immortal as a snap of the fingers were to an ordinary person.

“Communer of colors? Art Saint?” Wayfarer’s face remained impassive. “Stay your hand, I do this to save you.”

“Save me?” Donglin Zhi chortled. “Who are you to save me? Why do I need saving? This seat has eighteen thousand years of cultivation and plucked nine dao fruit. I am at peak aether dao realm. Who do you think you are to save me?” he sneered. “Do you think that old man from the Lu Clan would dare make a move against me?”

“This isn’t Mauve Peace Paradise, so of course Lu Daoling won’t intervene.” Wayfarer nodded slightly and turned to face Lu Yun with an empty gaze. “It’s best not to use that thing without good reason.”

Lu Yun paused, knowing that Wayfarer was talking about the dread zombie. Even though Donglin Zhi had trapped the young governor’s consciousness, the dao immortal hadn’t been able to sever his connection with the puppet. In fact, its power would’ve automatically descended upon Lu Yun after another eyeblink.

This was his contingency plan.

“There are many things I don’t remember,” Wayfarer said quietly. “But I remember the sword and the woman who walks out of the sword. What she offers should be treated with caution.”

Lu Yun nodded without a word.

“Die!” Donglin Zhi had had enough of their blathering. He unleashed his power with bellicose fury and snarled with death-dealing intent. The portentous Word he voiced seemed able to wilt all life and destroy everything in the world.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Wayfarer tapped the air thrice with his bamboo stick, scattering the Word. Donglin Zhi blanched and stumbled back.

“Impossible!” Wide-eyed with disbelief, he couldn’t comprehend what he’d just seen. The Art of Words was a grand combat art infinitely close to the heavenly dao! Anyone with a cultivation inferior to his would be compelled to do as he spoke.

Yet Wayfarer, seemingly a mere initial aether dao immortal, had countered his Word without any difficulty.

“Run along now,” Wayfarer brushed off faintly.

The air stretched taut with tension, then... the Donglin dao immortal did as he was told, not simply retreating, but running and skipping away from the scene!

The Art of Words!

Wayfarer knew this supreme technique as well! Seeing the downfall of his companion, Feng Wuming meekly took his leave. Donglin Zhi hadn’t taken Wayfarer seriously, but the Feng patriarch knew very well that the man had induced even the Qing ancestor to retreat with a few words just days ago.

“Thank you again, senior.” Lu Yun cupped his hands at Wayfarer.

Wayfarer shook his head. “I’m not helping you, but Donglin Zhi.”

He turned to leave, but Lu Yun hurriedly stopped him. “Wait, senior!”

Sensing Lu Yun’s question, Wayfarer responded, “Wanfeng has reached a critical juncture in her cultivation. She will ascend to immortality soon.”

“Then, please tell her to not ascend for the moment!” Lu Yun said earnestly.

“Not ascend?” Wayfarer’s impassive face twitched, attempting a surprised expression, but failing in the end. He nodded in acknowledgement.

Don’t ascend to immortality! Other immortals in the area also heard Lu Yun.

“Judging from their conversation, Wanfeng must be someone who’s intimate with Lu Yun. Wayfarer saved him twice because of her!” Many immortals built upon what they believed to be the truth.

“Why would Lu Yun tell that Wanfeng not to ascend to immortality?”

That was the universally befuddling part. Reaching immortality was the life’s goal and greatest ambition of cultivation. Cultivators were merely children, adolescents. Only after they ascended to immortality were they considered adults.

“Maybe he’s talking in riddles on purpose.”

“The Dusk governor has always been a mysterious one. He even recreated the Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends, the formation that appeared five thousand years ago and killed thirty-six monster spirit kings. Maybe there’s a reason behind his suggestion.”

……

Lu Yun returned to Precious Arcane Paradise once everyone left. The power of the vicious stars had dissipated, and the danger that would doom the clan was resolved. He could relax.

“Where’s Qing Yu?” Lu Yun asked, blinking innocently at Qing Han.

“She’s gone back.” Qing Han shrugged and purposefully pivoted, “She seemed a little unhappy, what did you say to her?”

“Nothing!” Lu Yun hurried out. “Nothing at all!”

Qing Han smiled. “Really?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Inspired by a thought, Lu Yun flung out a great deal of formation disks and set up a hundred and eight formations to thoroughly seal off the area. “Qing Yu’s the one with the cosmic constitution in the Qing Clan, isn’t she?”

He asked because he wanted to know, but also to change the subject.

Qing Han paused, a trace of panic flashing through his eyes. That cemented Lu Yun’s suspicions. “No wonder no one in the Lu Clan knows about Qing Yu.”

Qing Han sighed and asked, “What do you plan to do about this, then?”

“I like her!” Lu Yun declared solemnly. “The second I saw her just now, I knew that she’d be my future dao partner, even though I only saw her for that brief while!”

He remembered clearly how his heart had pounded when he’d laid eyes on her, despite the interference and distraction of the vicious stars. Qing Yu felt very familiar to him, like they’d spent a great deal of time together. He also saw her trust for him in her eyes.

Lu Yun shook his head slightly as he spoke. For some reason, the figure of Qing Yu in his memories seemed to be gradually merging with Qing Han before him.

Must be a trick that my mind’s playing.

“What do you plan to do?” Qing Han lowered his head, not daring to meet Lu Yun’s gaze.

“If House Donglin dares make a move on her,” Lu Yun promised with great determination, “I’ll destroy them.”

Qing Han’s head jerked up. “Even if it starts a war between Nephrite and Aureate Major?”

As his grandpa had said, there was nothing Lu Yun wouldn’t do for Qing Yu.