After guarding the gates for a hundred years, I drove the Heavenly Saint to madness.

The tranquility of Jiepai Pass has finally been shattered.

On the morning of the twenty-first day, there was no thunderous war drumming, nor any earth-shattering shouts of battle.

The eastern horizon, where the rising sun was just beginning to appear, was suddenly obscured by a vast expanse of purple mist.

The purple aura stretched for 30,000 miles, dyeing half the sky a noble purple.

In the clouds, the faint cries of cranes and the distant sounds of jade chimes and golden bells drifted by, stirring the soul and inspiring an irresistible urge to prostrate oneself in worship.

Xu Gai stood on the city wall, feeling his knees go weak; it was a sense of awe that came from the depths of his soul.

This momentum is more than ten times stronger than the previous one, which was caused by the fear of Sun Quan.

"They're here."

Xiao Wuji put down his teacup, slowly stood up, and his gaze pierced through the purple aura, locking onto a figure that was walking through the air.

The Taoist priest wore a purple-gold crown, a purple robe with a Bagua symbol, a silk sash around his waist, and held an ancient bronze bell in his hand.

With each step he took, a golden lotus would bloom in the void beneath his feet, supporting his body. Every step he took was a lotus bloom, a natural and harmonious expression of Taoism.

Unlike Ju Liusun's suffocatingly brutal killing intent, this Taoist exuded a grand aura of compassion and mercy, as if he were a sage who came to save all living beings, rather than a warrior who used this to kill.

Guang Chengzi was the leader of the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect.

He arrived only after receiving an urgent message from Jiang Ziya. Normally, such a contest for a mortal pass wouldn't be his place as the chief immortal, but fearing that Liu Sun would suffer a crushing defeat and that Chi Jingzi and others were in seclusion refining treasures, he had no choice but to make the trip himself.

Guang Chengzi stopped a thousand feet above Jiepai Pass.

He lowered his head, his gaze sweeping over the flagpole on the city wall where the disciples of the Chan Sect were hanging.

Seeing Jinzha, Muzha, and Huang Tianhua swaying in the wind like dried meat, and especially when he sensed the lingering aura of Ju Liusun there, a barely perceptible glint of cold light flashed in his seemingly calm eyes, but it vanished in an instant.

He looked at Xiao Wuji on the city wall and sighed softly.

"Nephew Xiao."

Guang Chengzi's voice was warm and mellow, and with the blessing of magic, it resonated clearly inside and outside Jiepai Pass, making people feel as if they were bathed in a spring breeze.

Why are you doing this to yourself?

He shook his head slightly, his face full of pity and disappointment.

"Your three masters, Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao, relied on the Nine Turns Yellow River Formation to defy the heavens and obstruct the righteous army of Xiqi. In the end, they were suppressed under Qilin Cliff."

"Shouldn't this cautionary tale awaken you from your stubborn ignorance?"

Xiao Wuji stood on the city wall, his hands gripping the crenellations, watching his senior master perform with a blank expression.

Seeing that Xiao Wuji remained silent, Guang Chengzi assumed he was wavering and continued:

"Now, Xiqi is following the will of Heaven, punishing the guilty and mourning the people; this is the inevitable trend. How long can you, a mere individual relying on a few formations, stubbornly resist?"

"Considering that our two religions share the same origin, and that your cultivation has not been easy, as long as you surrender the city now and repent before that flagpole, I can guarantee that your true spirit will not perish."

"In the future, when the list of gods is established, we will be able to secure a decent divine position for you, which will also fulfill the past friendship between our two religions."

These words were truly impeccable and utterly benevolent. Coupled with the sky full of purple mist and auspicious golden lotuses, their destructive power was even greater than that of the Heaven-Turning Seal.

Inside Jiepai Pass, many ordinary soldiers guarding the city wavered.

They didn't understand any debate about the Great Dao; they only saw the kind-faced, benevolent deity before them, whose words were earnest.

"This old sage... is truly compassionate."

"Yes, isn't the commander being too stubborn? Wouldn't it be better to ascend to heaven and be deified than to die here?"

Even the guards around Xu Gai loosened their grip on their weapons, their eyes revealing blind obedience to the immortal.

Meanwhile, at the Xiqi camp, thirty miles away.

The million-strong Zhou army had already knelt on the ground, bowing and worshipping Guang Chengzi high in the sky, pleading for divine intervention.

Only Yang Jian, Lei Zhenzi, and a few other third-generation disciples of the Chan Sect stood before the central command tent, their expressions somewhat strange.

Although they were disciples of the Chan Sect, they knew the dangers of the Nine Turns Yellow River Formation and were aware of the fact that their ancestor, Yuanshi Tianzun, met his end by bullying the weak.

Now, hearing Guang Chengzi recount this dark history in such a refreshing and righteous way, even they, with their thick skin, felt their cheeks burning.

Lei Zhenzi couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Isn't my senior uncle's statement... a little too absolving himself of responsibility?"

Nezha, who was still recovering from his injuries, also curled his lip. Although he didn't say anything, he couldn't hide the disdain in his eyes.

"shut up!"

Jiang Ziya whirled around, glared fiercely at his disciples, and shouted in a low voice, "Master Uncle is winning people over with virtue; this is the teaching of a sage!"

"What do you juniors know? Don't you dare disrupt the morale of the army!"

The disciples then awkwardly shut their mouths, but the embarrassment in their eyes lingered.

However, while they remained silent, others did speak up, such as Xiao Wuji himself.

"Oh……"

A cold laugh abruptly interrupted Guang Chengzi's eloquent speech.

Xiao Wuji shrugged slightly, then his laughter grew louder and louder, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

As the laughter subsided, Xiao Wuji abruptly looked up, his calm gaze instantly transforming into a sharp, sword-like edge.

He pointed at the high and mighty Guang Chengzi, his voice booming like thunder:

"shut up!"

"Guang Chengzi, stop trying to claim kinship here. You dare call me 'nephew'? It's disgusting!"

Guang Chengzi's expression of pity froze slightly.

Xiao Wuji didn't give him a chance to interrupt, stepping into the void to meet his gaze:

"You keep saying my master is acting against the will of Heaven? That's utterly ridiculous!"

"Back then, before the Nine Turns Yellow River Formation, my three masters clearly captured your Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect. Did they harm any of you?"

"I merely severed your three flowers on the top of your heads, suppressed your five breaths in your chests, and spared your dog lives!"

"Is this what you call going against the will of Heaven?"

Xiao Wuji's eyes blazed with murderous intent, and his voice was piercingly scathing: "On the contrary, it's you! You beat up the young, and now the old ones have come!"

"Your so-called master, Yuanshi Tianzun, as a Primordial Saint and a respected elder, actually disregarded his dignity and personally intervened to ruthlessly kill three of his junior disciples! He bullied the weak and oppressed the strong!"

"Is this what you call conforming to the will of Heaven? Is this what you call the bond between our two religions?"

These words were like heavy hammer blows, striking Guang Chengzi's heart and shattering the "righteous" persona that the Chan Sect had painstakingly cultivated.

The air inside and outside Jiepai Pass seemed to freeze.

Guang Chengzi's gentle smile finally crumbled, and his expression gradually darkened.

These things are true, but in the primordial world, who would dare to publicly tear off the fig leaf covering up a sage?

"Insolence!" Guang Chengzi shouted in a deep voice.

"How dare you, an ant, presume to comment on the actions of a sage?"

Xiao Wuji refused to back down, looking at Guang Chengzi with utter contempt: "If I'm an ant, then what are you?"

"If you've done what a prostitute does, don't expect to maintain a virtuous image!"

"You want this Jiepai Pass? You want to save your useless nephews?"

"Fine, then show me your skills! Don't stand on your pedestal and put on this disgusting, self-pitying act. It makes me want to vomit!"

boom!

As the last word fell, Xiao Wuji unleashed the full power of a Taiyi Golden Immortal.

Five-colored divine light shot up into the sky behind him, directly dispersing half of the false purple aura that filled the sky!

Torn off the mask of civility.

At this moment, there was no room for maneuver for either side.