Chapter 235: Ruling the World (4)

Along the way, Jiuyou remained entirely at ease, taking the time to feel the mysterious, powerful energy within his body. Having just broken through to this realm, he had yet to fully grasp all its divine abilities and needed time to familiarize himself with them.

Fortunately, after consuming the Heavenly Divine Treasure, his Primordial Spirit was already completely stabilized, steadying his cultivation along with it. This was a far cry from his time in the Nascent Soul Realm, when even a minor breakthrough had required him to enter secluded meditation for long periods just to regulate his breath.

In stark contrast to Jiuyou's calm, Saint Teacher Mo and his group were trembling with apprehension. Saint Teacher Ma, Saint Teacher Bao, and the other Grandmasters had guessed the contents of Saint Teacher Mo's secret transmission to Jiuyou the moment the man suddenly relented.

But Saint Teacher Mo had made that decision behind their backs. If word of this reached the Northern Plains, what would the other Holy Masters think? That token was a legacy passed down from ancient times, won back with the lives of innumerable ancestors. It was a Sacred Relic that had saved countless generations of Northern Plains people from peril. How could their own Holy Master so easily hand it over as a bargaining chip?

Saint Teacher Mo knew exactly what he was doing. He had gambled his reputation and his means of retreat. He knew what he had done, and he knew this decision would likely not be understood by everyone, but he did not look back.

The rest of the group fell silent as well. Everyone was calculating the costs in their minds, but no matter how they tallied it up, they could not find an answer that would satisfy everyone.

"Kid, I knew you could do it," Xuan Zhenzi's somewhat weak voice came through. "Crossing this threshold is a fish leaping over the dragon gate. With your talent, you might well walk ahead of me in the future. How are you feeling now?"

During this time, the Five Elements Heaven and Earth Ring had supplied most of its energy to Jiuyou. Xuan Zhenzi also had to stay on constant alert to maintain the array and ensure the Heaven and Earth Ring delivered a steady stream of spiritual qi. Keeping this up for over two hundred years had indeed taken a significant toll on him.

Jiuyou knew what Xuan Zhenzi truly wanted to ask. He responded directly through his Divine Sense: "Rest easy, Ancestor. I will avenge the Daoyang Sect's feud for them. As for the physical body you desire—tell me, how does the preserved body of a Deity Transformation Cultivator sound?"

"Hahaha, good lad, then I will await your good news." Xuan Zhenzi's laughter gradually faded, his voice growing fainter. "Alright, I am going to rest for a bit. You will have to walk the rest of the way yourself."

After he finished speaking, his voice did not sound again.

The moment Xuan Zhenzi fell asleep, a cold glint flashed in Jiuyou's eyes. He had to kill Sacred Venerable Yuan Huang. He quickly reined in that edge, and his flight speed surged wildly once more. Radiant divine light erupted from his body; with a flash of flowing light, he crossed over a thousand li. The earth below and the sky above flew past, his figure incredibly conspicuous in the night sky.

On this day in the Northern Plains, countless cultivators and even mortals clearly saw a brilliance like the sun streak across the night sky.

Some cried out in shock, some stopped in their tracks, and some fell to their knees to kowtow. That five-colored divine light swept overhead and vanished into the horizon in the blink of an eye. No one knew what it was; they could only gasp in continuous awe at the manifestation of a divine miracle and a heavenly anomaly.

When the group returned to the Northern Plains Tribal Alliance Headquarters, only one or two shichen had passed in total. When Saint Teacher Mo, Saint Teacher Ma, and the rest landed, their eyes were still filled with disbelief. Only after checking their surroundings again and again did they dare to confirm that they had actually crossed several million li in such a short time to return to the Headquarters.

Their entry into the Headquarters was also extremely smooth. Jiuyou brought the group straight into the interior; the overlapping arrays on the perimeter were virtually non-existent before him, failing to form even a shred of resistance. The guards barely had time to look up before that streak of light passed through the final barrier and landed inside the Headquarters.

Those arrays had been painstakingly laid down by generations of Northern Plains Holy Masters. Even a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator would have to expend some effort to force their way in. Yet before Jiuyou, they did not cause even a single breath of pause.

Cultivators within a radius of several thousand li had naturally seen that five-colored divine light as well. Instantly, countless streaks of spiritual light lit up, converging from all directions toward the same spot. The spiritual lights crisscrossed in dense clusters—roughly several thousand streaks at a glance—all flying toward the direction of that wondrous five-colored light in overwhelming numbers.

Leading them were six figures—the remaining six Holy Masters of the Northern Plains. Two of them were unfamiliar faces, evidently successors who had broken through over the past two hundred years. Jiuyou merely swept a casual glance over them and paid them no further mind.

These people had arrived on high alert, wanting to see exactly who had so recklessly invaded the Headquarters. However, when they clearly saw the colleagues standing beside Jiuyou—Saint Teacher Mo, Saint Teacher Ma, and Saint Teacher Bao were all present and acting with respectful submission—their vigilance could not help but dissolve into bewilderment.

They only knew that Saint Teacher Mo and his group had gone to investigate the anomaly at the Ancient Battlefield, but they had not expected them to return so quickly, let alone with a stranger by their side.

However, the more they looked at the unfamiliar man, the more familiar he seemed. Someone in the crowd first muttered in a low voice, "He looks like him... He really looks too much like him. Isn't this the Sword Dao Grandmaster who aided our Northern Plains two hundred years ago?"

Another person chimed in, "His stone statue is still standing in the Hall of Heroic Spirits. Could it be he didn't die?"

Someone else muttered, "If this person isn't that senior, could he be the Sword Dao Grandmaster's descendant?"

Discussions rose and fell in waves, and the way the crowd looked at Jiuyou gradually changed, taking on a hesitant sense of reverence.

Saint Teacher Mo hastily explained to the crowd that this person was none other than that very Sword Dao Grandmaster himself.

As it turned out, after the battle at Beiliang Mountain, those who escaped had detailed the course of that great battle. The tale of Jiuyou fighting three opponents at once—single-handedly beating back several enemy Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators—had long been passed by word of mouth throughout the alliance. When he vanished without a trace afterward, everyone assumed he had died at the hands of a Deity Transformation Cultivator. In gratitude for his favor, the alliance erected a stone statue of him in the Hall of Heroic Spirits, offering him tributes every year.

Jiuyou listened with a placid expression, entirely unperturbed. He did not care about such things.

But when Saint Teacher Mo added the second half of his sentence, the crowd finally realized that the Sword Dao Grandmaster standing before them was now a genuine Deity Transformation Divine Lord.

Instantly, the expressions of everyone present froze.

Those whispering voices were silenced all at once, as if pressed down by an invisible hand, and the entire area plunged into a nearly frozen quiet. No one was sure if they had heard that sentence clearly, and no one was willing to be the first to break that silence. Every single gaze fell on the same spot, locked entirely on that one figure.