The Qingfu dao immortals fled the North Sea with their tails between their legs, never daring to set foot in the vicinity ever again. This battle in which a Golden Immortal of Grand Unity, Silverblaze, effortlessly took down an Arcane Immortal of the Nine Heavens shook the world of immortals.

Following the battle, the silvermoon wolves of Levitating Island began their withdrawal. They didn't dare defy their king and the two scarlet apes of the island hadn’t expressed anything either.

Everything remained still and silent on Levitating Island, but Silverblaze’s ringing question had shaken every monster spirit in the world. If the two ancestors could sacrifice their young geniuses for an ideal monster spirit race today, then they could sacrifice the rest of the monster spirits at any time.

Though Levitating Island no longer called itself the monster spirit sacred land, it’d always been the sacred land in the hearts of all monster spirits. However, collective faith wavered in light of recent events. Meanwhile, the monster spirit disciples in the Dao Academy mourned being set adrift in the world.

……

In the third month of the twenty-first year in the Xuanhuang Calendar, the Dao Academy officially established the school for monster spirit dao. An unfamiliar name appeared with the formation of the school—Miao.

Shock and disbelief swept through the world with the founding of this new school. There had been demonic and shamanic dao in the academy prior to this, in which disciples walked the path of demons and practiced shamanic arts. However, there’d never been a school for monster spirits before!

The category was too broad and encompassed too many disciplines. The various races within the monster spirit classification were also the most complex within the multiverse. They'd never been unified, even during the age of human dao. Apart from the monster spirit ancestor of the great wilderness that had long been forgotten, even the monster celestial master of the primordial immortal court had never brought the race together.

But now, the Dao Academy dared to style itself as an authority figure for the race and set a nameless monster spirit as its ultimate sovereign! This was a challenge issued to all monster spirits in the world of immortals. The two ancestors of Levitating Island flew into a rage, as did Qingfu Nation of Mist Land regard this development with fury. After the death of their prince, the nation had quietly bided their time in their new territory.

Another tidal wave of change and struggle through the world soundlessly reared its head. Everyone understood that this was the academy's revenge against the Dao Academy. Taking away their legitimacy was worse for the two scarlet apes than even destroying the island.

……

Lu Yun didn't pay attention to what was happening in the world; he really didn't have the effort to spare. On this day, he visited the World Gates.

Life thrived and prospered in the world of immortals, but none of that newfound glory or the immortal dao’s magnificence found its way here. The world formed by the World Gates was still drenched in blood and suffused with the air of death. Countless divine corpses littered the ground, and the body of the origin divine lay quietly outside the World Gates.

It’d stolen the opportunity that belonged to the Exalted divine spirits and almost destroyed the immortal dao. Though it had later latched onto the Dao Tree to feed off the immortal dao, its descendants had dedicated their lives to making up for its transgressions.

As the last emperor of the divine race, the origin divine had thoroughly faded away into the void now. However, Lu Yun believed that the origin divine was still alive and hiding somewhere. It must still be plotting other things in the dark.

……

A newly repaired immortal dao didn’t affect the nine celestial emperors, Yueshen, Ruyi, or Diexi. Lu Yun took a deep look at the last one in the lineup. Her body was Changxi’s body and her true spirit was the weapon spirit of Changxi’s ultimate treasure—the shortsword Diexi.

The shortsword had been born on the Taiyin Star outside the great wilderness and was thus imbued with its strength. The star’s power could also be found within Diexi’s body as well. If she truly grew into her own, she would reach a higher peak than the previous Changxi.

The celestial emperors weakly opened their eyes and looked at Lu Yun with enormous satisfaction.

“Well done, Lu Yun… We didn’t pin our hopes on the wrong person.” Zhang Fengyang flushed with emotion when he looked at the youth.

On Lu Yun’s last visit, he’d made some preparations, given them karmic fruits, and left Violetgrave behind to stand guard. However, the celestial emperors were but empyrean realm and the dao fruits within their bodies… were all from the old Dao Tree.

In other words, these nine would die at the end of a hundred years, no matter what happened then.

Lu Yun took a tendril of soul force from each of them and carefully stored them within the Tome of Life and Death. “The world of immortals has me. Please be at ease, Your Majesties.”

“I leave the people of Witherdew Major in your hands, headmaster.” The former celestial emperor of Witherdew Major inclined his head at Lu Yun, who nodded back.

The remaining clans and cultivators of Witherdew Major had almost all moved to the capital city of Dusk Province. Lu Yun had nearly occupied the entire major; though there were still pockets of resistance, that handful of immortals wouldn’t change anything.

On the day when the immortal dao spanned the world, however, akasha ghosts had suddenly appeared and taken over the major with incredible speed. Lu Yun’s Infernum suffered heavy casualties in the process, to which he gave up the idea of conquering the major.

The akasha ghosts were too strong and he had no idea what they were planning in Witherdew Major. Since he didn’t have the strength to provoke them yet, he would leave them alone for now.

“You didn’t come here just to collect their soul force, did you?” Violetgrave the sword shook gently, permitting the exit of Violetgrave the spirit dressed in a purple silk dress.

She was so mysterious that even Pangu, Hongjun, and God were unable to detect her existence. Lu Yun had thought he’d find clues about Violetgrave in the great wilderness, but he’d only met an existence who possessed Nether Fire.

Perhaps that was the one who’d made the first transaction with Violetgrace.

“I’m here for the Ascension Pool.” Lu Yun frowned at the blood-drenched World Gates. “There’s one last step to take to perfect the immortal dao, and that’s the ascension protocol. If we connect our world to the others out there, other immortals in space will be able to ascend to our world.”

An ascension protocol had existed at the time of the immortal dao’s inception, allowing for denizens of the lower worlds to ascend to the world of immortals when they became immortals. Every world in the multiverse could do so, even Earth. But the ascension protocol had been destroyed in the great war a hundred thousand years ago and no further beings could travel to the world of immortals after it.

Lu Yun now wanted to rebuild it and reopen the passage of travel, truly perfecting the last details of the immortal dao.

“Ascension?” Violetgrave tilted her head at Lu Yun. “Have you given thought to what the other worlds look like right now?”

Lu Yun fell silent, he knew what the sword was getting at.

“The immortals outside of our own are the guardians of their homes. If they ascend to the world of immortals, who will remain to protect their world?”

Lu Yun remained silent.

“The moment the ascension protocol is reinstated is the moment of death for all beings in those ruined husks outside.” Curiosity flashed through Violetgrave’s eyes. Lu Yun was sure to have already considered all of this, and he wasn’t the sort to disregard the lives of others either.

Everyone’s eyes—the celestial emperors, Yueshen, Ruyi, and Diexi—landed on him. They, too, didn’t believe that Lu Yun would selfishly enhance the strength of their world with no thought given to anyone else.

“Is there anywhere else that’s more important than the world of immortals?” Lu Yun murmured as he looked at the bloody gates. “In the time of the great wilderness, the realm monsters wanted to enter our world through the great wilderness. The akasha ghosts now want to use our world to attack the ancestor planet and destroy the realm.”

“Hmm?” Eyebrows raised at this response. This was Lu Yun’s explanation, but it seemed to also hint at his plans.

“I don’t want to sit back any longer and wait for others to attack us. They’ll hover until your strength is exhausted and then send dead spirits to attack the world of immortals. After that, they’ll descend onto the ancestor planet to destroy this realm.

“Therefore, I’m taking the fight to them. The ascension protocol goes both ways!” A cold sneer played at Lu Yun’s lips. “Immortals of the lower worlds can move up to ours, and so can the armies of our world also utilize the protocol to visit the lower worlds!

“I’m shifting to the offensive and razing the nests of those dead spirits to fully grasp what they are. How do the akasha ghosts control them, and can we locate the source of the yin spirits to dispel them once and for all?”

Though all of the planets outside of the world of immortals were dilapidated husks, there were still immortals grimly fighting for their home and desperately driving off the dead spirits.

With the Tome of Life and Death on him, Lu Yun controlled life and death. He’d also forced the treasure into submission when visiting Fuxi’s tomb in the chaos, further consolidating his control over the book. Perhaps he could restrain those terrifying yin spirits now and have them enter hell with their rationality restored?

If not, the lower worlds were still a good place to temper academy disciples. The nine celestial emperors would be able to hold on for less than eighty more years. It was both a short time, and a very long one.

If the Dao Academy and immortals of the world really wanted to develop into the realm’s powerhouses, they would have to experience struggles of life and death. Apart from the tombs, there was no other place in the world of immortals that could offer such trials.

Tomb raiding was one thing, while battling death for one’s life was another.

Lu Yun had already decided that once the Ascension Pool was repaired and the protocol reinitiated, he would implement the next stage of his plan. He would send the armies of the world of immortals into the lower worlds to help them fight off the dead spirits, and in doing so train enormous improvement into the armies.

“You’re quite a bold one. Aren’t you afraid that the dead spirits or akasha ghosts will invade the world of immortals through the Ascension Portal?” Violetgrave patted Lu Yun’s shoulder with a smile.

She plainly approved of his plan. The current world of immortals might win if they passively guarded the realm, but they would also probably end up like the world in the Primordial Era—the immortal dao severed and death of all immortals.

Besides, there were many more secrets about that war a hundred thousand years ago. Lu Yun hadn’t been able to see the war clearly when he’d stood in the river of time. He didn’t think that the truth was simply everything he knew right now. There must be an even greater mastermind directing everything from the shadows.

He didn’t want to always be reacting to the enemy’s moves, it was time to proactively search and explore.