Longzang

Chapter 872 Testing the Quality
Zhang Sheng possessed a total of 512 immortal swords, each with a fixed number and grade; they were not cultivated haphazardly. The absence of any one of them would leave a deficiency in his path, even if it was only a slight imperfection.

Having shattered his Dao Heart, Zhang Sheng had to rebuild it and embark on an even stronger and more difficult path to immortality. Wei Yuan knew all too well how difficult that was. He understood that if Zhang Sheng's Dao Heart were to falter again this time, he might never recover, his path to immortality would be severed, and he would be unable to even pass through the Dharma Body stage.

The fact that the path to heaven was cut short twice in a row can be interpreted as the will of heaven, no matter how you look at it. However, since the ancestral witch made the moves and the celestial witch played the game, it's not an exaggeration to say it was the will of heaven.

So when Wei Yuan saw Zhang Sheng's Dao sword, he knew that he had no choice at all.

This sword is actually the path of two people.

Wei Yuan walked a short distance before realizing something was wrong. The three suns in the sky overlapped, generating an irresistible penetrating force, as if shining into his internal organs, heating his blood and organs as well. Moreover, the heating wasn't from the outside in, but simultaneously from both inside and out.

In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan's internal organs and blood were heated to a temperature high enough to boil water. Wei Yuan's blood was now a nearly transparent pale pink, and this level of heat was not yet enough to cause fatal damage. However, the temperature continued to rise, far exceeding the temperature of the surrounding environment.

Wei Yuan knew that the three suns were problematic and could no longer be exposed to sunlight, so he quickly walked to a weathered stone platform and found a small patch of shade under the overlapping sunlight, temporarily avoiding the sun.

However, there are three suns in the Great Wilderness Realm, each at a different angle, making it extremely difficult to find a patch of shade. As the suns moved, Wei Yuan found that the shadow he was hiding in was getting smaller and smaller, and soon this hiding place would become unusable.

Wei Yuan peered into the sky at the sun, suddenly puzzled. Given the sun's angle, it shouldn't have such a perfect, unobstructed view. But then he glanced at the massive celestial body and realized it too was reflecting sunlight, and then he understood.

Wei Yuan looked again at the scattered weathered rock formations in the desert and felt that he was quite lucky to have found a small patch of shade as soon as he came up.

Now that he had confirmed that this was the Great Wilderness Realm, Wei Yuan suddenly felt less inclined to work hard.

So he molded clay into stone, and in the blink of an eye, he created a statue of Tianyu. Then, after recalling the past, he infused the statue with a wisp of Tianyu's aura, and bowed three times, saying, "Tianyu, if you hear my call, please appear before me quickly!"

After a while, the shadow was only half its original size, but the statue did not react at all.

It seemed there was a problem with the sacrificial ceremony. Wei Yuan recalled the sacrificial methods used in the mortal world, bowed three times again, and said, "Lord Tianyu, please appear before me. I thank your whole family."

Still no response.

Wei Yuan tried several times, even thanking the parents of the Great Wilderness Realm, but to no avail. Wei Yuan had no choice but to give up. It seemed that either the Heavenly Language was too far away, or this method simply didn't work in the Great Wilderness Realm.

Wei Yuan sighed and activated his divine sense. Fortunately, his powerful divine sense, honed through years of missions, remained intact, allowing him to easily distinguish 1,024 missions. Such intelligence and wisdom would likely rank him among the top in the entire Great Wilderness Realm.

Wei Yuan picked up his spear and left the shadows, heading deeper into the Great Wilderness Realm, ready to show the local sorcerers what true wisdom was.

……

High above the celestial realm, Yan Shi sat in the courtyard, sulking alone. Although it was the best possible outcome, and the two swords of the patriarch had survived, he still couldn't swallow his anger at failing to kill even a few minor immortals.

Yan Shi never imagined that someone who had cultivated immortality for hundreds of years would one day be so angry that his hands would tremble. His Dao heart was truly not clear.

But at that time, the situation was already the best possible outcome. Even the arrival of the Bao family's patriarch, who hadn't appeared for hundreds of years, was an attempt to mediate a compromise between the two sides. In fact, Yan Shi also knew that the temptation to break the deadlock was simply too great.

I can understand the logic, but I just can't swallow this insult.

Just as he was brooding over, there was a knock on the courtyard gate. Yan Shi was startled, then became serious, walked over and opened the gate, where he saw a bald woman with blue eyes standing outside, holding an ordinary-looking spear in her hands.

Yan Shi had an exceptional eye; he could tell at a glance that the spear was a magical artifact painstakingly crafted by Wei Yuan, and that it was a spirit he himself had conjured.

The woman with blue eyes said, "The Silver Moon Khan asked me to repay a favor. With your help, he can deliver this spear to Wei Yuan."

Yan Shi's pupils narrowed, and he slowly said, "So the Great Khan's understanding of cause and effect is also so profound."

The woman with blue eyes said, "I am still slightly inferior to you, so I need you to deliver this spear."

Both being immortals, Yan Shi understood the moment he received the spear: the silver moon had imbued it with a powerful divine ability, "Protecting the Master," through the force of cause and effect. He added "Void Breaking" to send the spear into the void, and it would automatically return to Wei Yuan's side.

Fearing for Wei Yuan's safety, Yan Shi didn't hesitate. He reached out and touched the spear, adding another gleam to it. Then, Yan Shi tossed the spear, and it vanished into thin air.

"Wait a minute..." the woman with blue eyes called out a little late.

"What's the matter?"

The woman with blue eyes looked somewhat strange: "Immortal Lord, are you good at throwing?"

Yan Shi proudly declared, "Naturally accurate!"

The woman with blue eyes said, "If it's too precise, won't it pierce Wei Yuan?"

Yan Shi paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "This..."

At that moment, a thought suddenly struck him, and he felt that his shot had hit something and achieved a considerable result.

"What's wrong?" the woman with blue eyes asked.

"It's nothing." Yan Shi naturally wouldn't say that he had just wiped out Wei Yuan's 30,000 men with a single shot.

……

In the center of a vast and profound hall, twelve chairs were arranged in a circle. In front of each seat was a brazier, but only seven braziers were burning; the other five were extinguished, leaving the seats behind them shrouded in darkness.

Kaguya sat in one of the chairs, her brazier burning with a dark silver light that barely illuminated herself. "...I tried to kill Wei Yuan, but I unexpectedly discovered that he possessed a massive amount of luck. If I were to attack him, I would suffer a terrifying karmic backlash."

Before Kaguya could finish speaking, an exceptionally burly Celestial Witch, at least a dozen times larger than Kaguya, interrupted her, sneering, "Are you afraid to act because you fear the backlash? I see your loyalty to the Ancestral Witches is quite limited. You Nether Witches have made a series of mistakes lately, and your loyalty is also questionable. Why not give up one of the Celestial Witch positions? I think the Nether Witches are no longer worthy of occupying four seats!"

Kaguya was furious and roared, "Since when have the Desolate Witches become so arrogant? In my opinion, giving you three seats is already too many. If strength alone is enough to become a Celestial Witch, then we might as well tie a few war beasts to your seats!"

The enormous witch roared in fury, "Who are you calling a war behemoth?"

Another sorcerer interjected, "Blazing Demon, say less and let Kaguya finish."

The celestial sorcerer known as the Flame Demon turned and shouted, "Long Zhe, you're as weak as an insect. What right do you have to tell me to shut up? Even if you were tied to Kaguya, you still couldn't beat me!"

Long Zhe snorted and said nothing more.

At this moment, another sorcerer, whose figure was hidden in the mist and whose face was ablaze with white-gold flames, said: "Silence."

He seemed to be very prestigious, and the Balrog, though unwilling, kept his mouth shut.

Kaguya continued, "...I can only penetrate one Dao Foundation. Although that Dao Foundation is incredibly powerful, it is still just a Dao Foundation. As for its massive amount of luck, the chance of failing to kill it by force is over 95%..."

The Flame Demon couldn't help but say, "The Heavenly Witch can't even kill a Dharma Avatar? What a joke! Can't you just send a Dharma Avatar over?"

This time, Kaguya didn't hold back and directly retaliated: "Then you send a Dharma Image in, right here in Qingming, right now! How about it, do you dare? Can't you do something so simple?"

Flames suddenly erupted from the Balrog's body, and he coldly said, "What if I succeed?"

"Qingming currently lacks a Realm Lord and cannot trigger the Peerless Dao Domain, rendering it defenseless. So feel free to try; if you succeed, we, Youwu, will offer you a position!"

"Alright!!" Just as the Flame Demon was about to get up, he was suddenly enveloped by a cloud of white-gold mist, and immediately lost all his strength, sitting back down in his seat.

The faceless shaman said, "Qingming's condition is very strange. Our old friends from the Liao tribe have likely already laid a trap, just waiting for you to rush in. Flame Demon, if you rush in like this, you will have to sleep for at least five hundred years when you return. In that case, this seat will have to be given to another shaman."

The Flame Demon was startled, and suddenly felt a wave of fear.

The shaman then said to Kaguya, "You knew about this, yet you still incited the Flame Demon, which is very wrong. I generally don't interfere in the battles between celestial shamans, but there's one condition: don't appear before me. If there's a next time, I'll take away one of the Dark Shaman's seats."

Kaguya was also somewhat afraid and said, "Didn't you Holy Witches already have an empty position?"

"One more wouldn't be out of the question."

Kaguya, looking obedient, secretly glanced at the Flame Demon and then suddenly made a face.

Flames erupted from the top of the Balrog's head once more!
In his eyes, Kaguya was ugly to begin with, and when she winked, she became even uglier than a demon. This humiliation was far greater than being pointed at and insulted. He wanted to rush over and beat Kaguya up on the spot, but he held back because of the Holy Witch.

Kaguya continued, "To ensure the success of the mission, I used all my trump cards, using his teacher's path as bait to banish him."

"You used Banish on the bait too?"

"Yes, Lord Minglei."

After a moment's thought, Ming Lei, who was born a holy sorcerer, asked again, "Did you use any special methods when you banished him? What were the chances that he and the bait were in the same world?"

"There are no special techniques involved, so the chances of being in the same world are extremely slim."

"……Yeah?"

Kaguya felt an invisible gaze fall upon her, extremely cold, causing her hair to dance wildly without wind, as if she were under a massive thunderbolt! In that instant, she smelled the scent of impending death.

But in the end, Ming Lei withdrew his gaze and said, "You handled it well. As long as he and the bait are not in the same world, the hope of returning is not high. Wei Yuan is a man who will not turn back until he finds his teacher's path."

However, even a slim chance is still possible, so each of you must check your respective domains. Whoever neglects to allow him to escape will have to step down. I remind you, Wei Yuan possesses immense fortune and will be quite troublesome; do not underestimate him because of his low cultivation level.”

All the celestial shamans nodded. One of them, who had never spoken before, asked, "How much fortune does Wei Yuan possess?"

All the celestial witches' gazes fell upon Kaguya; this was a crucial question. Without hesitation, Kaguya immediately replied, "At least one million."

The celestial shamans were all somewhat moved, but remained silent. However, they could sense that several incredibly powerful divine thoughts had already reached outside the hall, and the shamans were beginning to deploy their men to investigate.

Finally, Ming Lei asked, "Is there anything else that needs to be explained?"

Kaguya remembered something and said, "Something is very strange. After Wei Yuan was exiled, a strange bird suddenly appeared and laid an egg on that Dao Foundation."

All the celestial witches were taken aback. How could something lay an egg on the Dao Foundation? But Kaguya immediately raised her hand and pointed, and the full moon appeared above the hall, with an egg on its surface.

The group of celestial witches looked at each other in bewilderment. The egg gave them a very strange feeling. It was clearly there, but they couldn't touch it at all. No matter how they scanned it with their divine sense, there was nothing there.

Ming Lei suddenly let out a heavy snort, clearly angered.

All the celestial witches looked at him. Within the mist surrounding Ming Lei, streaks of white-gold lightning faintly appeared. After a moment, he said, "I have deciphered a message. It says... test your quality first."

(End of this chapter)