Chapter 3135 - The Storm’s Onset, the Otherworlders

Enough time to burn a stick of incense later, Lian Yue and Granny Snake floated away.

Su Yi waved goodbye. After all, Lian Yue was headed for the Source of the River of Destiny, and there was no telling when he’d see her next.

Before long, Su Yi reconvened with Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan, and the two of them left for the Unfettered Continent.

“Was that really Lian Yue, that girl from the Court of the Southern Heavens?” Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan couldn’t help but ask.

Su Yi nodded. “She has an extraordinary background. She isn’t really a member of the Court of the Southern Heavens, but rather a member of an ancient clan of the Far Shore of Destiny.”

He then explained how Lian Yue had silently watched over the hidden realm for the past several years. Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan was flabbergasted, but also moved.

This was positive karma. Every cause had an effect, and everything was predetermined.

Su Yi sank into thought.

During his private conversation with Lian Yue, he learned some of the secrets of the storm brewing on the Far Shore of Destiny.

This was his first time learning that the storm didn’t originate from the mysterious All-Wonder Dominion, nor was it the doing of any of the factions of the Far Shore.

Rather, it came from beyond this Chaos Epoch. The ones who’d brought it weren’t of this Chaos Epoch either. These outsiders were known as the Otherworlders, but no one knew their true origins.

The Otherworlder armies had invaded the All-Wonder Dominion in an attempt to displace the locals and take over. That was what had begun the storm.

Years prior, the Secluded Ones rallied their forces and fought their way into the All-Wonder Dominion, starting a fierce battle against the Otherworlders, but they’d been crushed and forced back at every turn!

The Far Shore of Destiny originally had three Dao Dominions: the All-Spirit, the All-Profound, and the All-Wonder.

The All-Spirit Dao Dominion had been destroyed in the ancient past. It was now a parched, lifeless place where the Grand Dao had collapsed.

The All-Profound Dominion was where countless ancient orthodoxies, including the progenitor-level orthodoxies, had set up their territories. That included Sword Sovereign City, the Sect of Endlessness, and the founding sects of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

The All-Wonder Dominion was the most mysterious, taboo, and unbelievable of the three Dao Dominions.

Never mind ordinary cultivators; not even Dao Ancestors of progenitor-level factions dared to visit the All-Wonder Dominion lightly!

Countless years had passed, but only a select few, like the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City and a handful of living fossils among the Secluded Ones, had ever visited the All-Wonder Dominion.

No one could have anticipated that the Otherworlder armies would appear, establish a base there, and stir up a storm of slaughter.

But now, the All-Wonder Dominion was on the verge of falling, and the flames and turmoil of war had reached even the All-Profound Dominion!

When they spoke of the All-Profound Dominion’s changes, Lian Yue warned him that when the Eternal Pact stood, it served as a sort of barrier, separating the All-Profound and All-Wonder Dominions.

It was this barrier that had staved off the Otherworlder armies for so long, preventing them from invading the All-Profound Dominion.

Unfortunately, after the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City entered the cycle of reincarnation, many of the progenitor-level factions started seeing the Eternal Pact as a cage, and they did their utmost to destroy it.

That was what led to the Otherworlders invading like a raging storm, charging into the All-Profound Dominion as if it were unoccupied territory!

When Su Yi heard all that, he felt deeply conflicted.

The gist of what Lian Yue was telling him was that the All-Wonder Dominion was on the verge of collapse. They wouldn’t be able to defend it much longer.

The All-Profound Dominion had descended into turmoil, too. The skies were bright with the beacons of war.

The situation was dire. If both the All-Wonder and All-Profound Dominions fell, the Otherworlders would create a storm that encompassed the Far Shore, then spread to the River of Destiny!

When the time came, the entire River of Destiny would be in danger!

It was in light of this situation that the oldest experts among the Secluded Ones gathered to discuss their response, then agreed to a plan they called “Sparks of Hope Initiative.”

“Sparks of Hope Initiative” meant arranging for their forces to leave the Far Shore and seek refuge in the Source of the River of Destiny!

The experts of the Far Shore who’d gone to the Source of the River of Destiny over the past few years were like “settlers” clearing the way for those to come.

Their goal was to uncover the secrets of the Source of the River of Destiny and create a safe refuge for those who came later.

Once they’d succeeded, the various orthodoxies of the Far Shore would move, one after another, and plant new roots in the Source of the River of Destiny.

This was the Sparks of Hope Initiative! A plan to protect their legacies of the Grand Dao and ensure they carried on into the future.

Even if the three Dao Dominions of the Far Shore fell, so long as their legacies remained, the sparks of hope would still burn. Their enemies wouldn’t be able to pull them up by the roots or sever their Grand Daos.

This knowledge weighed heavily on Su Yi’s heart.

The orthodoxies of the Far Shore had progenitor-level experts and founders to protect them, as well as the Secluded Ones. They were powerful indeed.

Even so, they couldn’t block the Otherworlders’ onslaught. They were gradually being pushed back. They’d even created the Sparks of Hope Initiative to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Who wouldn’t have been astonished?

If even the experts of the Far Shore couldn’t stop the invaders, who in the River of Destiny could stop the Otherworlders?

According to Lian Yue, there was still a group of Secluded Ones holding the front lines of the battle in the All-Wonder Dominion. They were locked in fierce combat with the top Otherworlder experts. It was their staunch defense that had bought the orthodoxies of the All-Profound Dominion enough time to carry out the Sparks of Hope Initiative.

If even they were defeated... it would mean that the three Dao Dominions could no longer halt the Otherworlders’ advance.

When that happened, it would mean that the day the storm reached the River of Destiny was imminent!

Su Yi’s heart welled with wordless astonishment. Only now did he learn that a group of Secluded Ones was relentlessly staving off the storm at the front lines, fighting and killing to protect the world!

Who were they? It didn’t matter. Their valor was worthy of others’ admiration!

After explaining the situation with the Otherworlders and the true nature of the coming storm, Lian Yue urged Su Yi to prepare as quickly as he could. This was the real reason she’d wanted to converse with Su Yi.

The storm brewing on the Far Shore was far too terrifying. If not even the Secluded Ones could stop it, who on the River of Destiny would fare any better?

Lian Yue and Granny Snake had left for the Source of the River of Destiny, while Su Yi and Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan were headed for the Unfettered Continent.

The secrets Su Yi had just learned filled his heart with an unprecedented sense of urgency.

Both his first incarnation’s heart devil and Ruo Su had warned him that he needed to prove his Dao and become a Heavenly Sovereign before the storm hit the River of Destiny. Looking back on it now, they both must have known about the Otherworlders.

“Ol’ Brother, do you know anything about the storm raging on the Far Shore?” Su Yi asked suddenly.

Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan was caught off guard, but he nodded. “I know a little. They say the storm is utterly terrifying, and that when it reaches the River of Destiny, it’ll wreak unprecedented havoc.”

“Do you know anything else?” Su Yi pushed.

Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan pondered briefly, then shook his head. “There are a lot of competing explanations regarding the coming storm, but I’ve never been to the Far Shore, and I have no way of differentiating between truth and rumor. I just know that the prominent factions of the Far Shore cannot hold the storm at bay. I don’t know anything beyond that.”

Su Yi nodded.

Ku Xuan was a Heavenly Sovereign, but not even he knew the true nature of the storm. It stood to reason that the ordinary inhabitants of the River of Destiny didn’t either.

Perhaps the cultivators knew that a storm would spread from the Far Shore and hit the River of Destiny sooner or later, but it was obvious that few understood how terrifying the storm really was.

The most ridiculous part was that his enemies were actually looking forward to the storm, because its arrival would mean that experts of the Far Shore were no longer bound by the Secluded Ones’ agreement. They’d then be able to attack him freely.

“Why ask about that all of a sudden?” asked Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan.

Su Yi pondered briefly, but in the end, he held back and refrained from sharing these weighty secrets. All he said was, “Those who don’t plan for the long term inevitably face difficulties in the short term. When a storm blows by, no life remains, not even an inch of grass. When the storm finally hits the River of Destiny, no one will be able to remain a bystander. We... ought to prepare, too.”

Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan nodded in complete agreement.

But then, he shook his head. “Seems to me you’d be better off worrying about the danger you’re in right now!”

Even now, he lacked confidence in Su Yi’s plan. It was just too frenzied and too brazen. A moment’s incaution could lead to certain doom!

Su Yi just smiled in response. “I won’t lie to you, Ol’ Brother. It’s precisely because I’m thinking about the storm brewing on the Far Shore that I’m unwilling to delay any longer.”

His gaze filled with determination. Turbulent times were fast approaching. There was no time left to wait and endure!

A day later, in the Unfettered Continent.

Heaven and earth were covered in downy flurries of snow, shrouding the landscape in white.

The Eternal Heavens Domain was the part of the River of Destiny closest to Heaven’s Will. That was especially true of the Five Great Continents.

And the Unfettered Continent was one of the five.

However, unlike the other four Great Continents, there were no Heavenly Sovereign-level factions here.

This was for the simple reason that the Unfettered Continent was ruled by Divine Reverence Pavilion, a famous yet mysterious and transcendent faction. They had no Heavenly Sovereigns, but they were strong enough to contend with Heavenly Sovereign factions!

Divine Reverence Pavilion did most of the ranking and commentary in the Eternal Heavens Domain, and their publications were widely circulated.

These lists included the Unfettered, Divine Wandering, and Silent Rankings, among others.

In the Unfettered Continent, Divine Reverence Pavilion’s ancestral grounds famously “monopolized seven tenths of heaven’s favor.” They were the greatest faction in the continent!

Su Yi and Ku Xuan walked shoulder-to-shoulder through the snow along winding paths. The whitecapped hills were a feast for the eyes.

“Little Brother, if you want to re-establish the Heart-Tempering Sword House in the Unfettered Realm, I’m afraid you’ll need Divine Reverence Pavilion’s nod of approval first,” said Heavenly Sovereign Ku Xuan, suddenly solemn. “Their old-timers are all mad with arrogance, and each is more disagreeable than the one before. They don’t even give Heavenly Sovereigns face!”

Su Yi blinked. “Have you perhaps had difficulties with Divine Reverence Pavilion?”