Chapter 618: Claim the debt

"What should I do to form the connection with the World Seed?" Gumiho asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Channel your Soulforce into it," Maximilian explained. "You will find out yourself what to do next."

She carefully looked at the flower in her hand before asking, "What happens if I accidentally damage it?"

"Then the whole world will go boom," Maximilian whispered in a low, serious tone.

Now Gumiho felt even more terrified to use it, her fingers trembling.

"Haha, I’m just joking," Maximilian chuckled. "Don’t worry, you are too weak to damage the World Seed."

His unpleasant words only caused her to stare at him with a frown. How could he even joke about the world getting destroyed?

After a brief pause, she asked one last question.

"How long will it take me to cultivate the World Seed?"

Maximilian rubbed his chin in thought.

"To successfully become one with the world, it should take you around a thousand years."

"A thousand!" Gumiho gasped, her pink eyes widening. "No! The humans and beasts will completely destroy each other by then."

"You don’t need to become an immortal to stop the war," Maximilian revealed the obvious. "Just evolving into your Six-Tail form will be enough to deal with any cultivator on the Western Continent. You will reach that stage in around ten years."

With the current state of the war, even ten years seemed too long for Gumiho.

"Cultivate without worry," Maximilian said, placing his hand on her head. "I will do something to make sure the situation won’t escalate between humans and beasts."

Gumiho looked up at him with expectant eyes. If it was her master, he might really be able to do something.

She nodded and moved to the deeper area of the Primordial Nexus, where the zenith of the straight and inverted peaks were pointing at each other.

She sat cross-legged at the centre and began her long cultivation.

"She might be able to form her fifth tail in a year or two," Maximilian spoke to himself, daring not to peek at the centre of the Primordial Nexus again. His eyes were already numb from the previous attempt.

"Now then..." Maximilian’s lips rose into a faint smirk. "It’s time to collect some debts."

He moved at an explosive speed, breaking the sound barrier behind him.

---

"Aghhhh!!!!" Bai Chengsheng screamed, his face covered in sweat. His body was releasing ripples of energy outward, twisting the very space of the hall where he sat cross-legged at the centre.

From his shoulder, an arm of bones formed, followed by the nerves and muscles, each step twisting his face in agony.

As the skin finally formed over his arm, he released gasps of relief.

"That cursed beast," he muttered, his old emerald eyes filled with fury. "Where the hell did he receive such defensive artifacts? If not for the Myriad Life Pills given by ’them’, I would have permanently lost my arm."

His body descended to the ground, his feet touching the floor as he continued, "And that damn Arthur. He blasted himself with the Divine Artifact. I took so many losses this time. At least, I crippled Vyomendra."

He changed his robe with a wave of his hand since the previous one was torn from the effects of the pill.

"General Mo," he called, sounding calm now.

A few seconds later, Mo Feng entered his room and knelt before him.

"Yes, War Marshal Bai," he said in a respectful tone.

"What’s the current status of the army?"

"Not good," Mo Feng explained with a sigh. "The army’s morale is low. Rogue cultivators are demanding to leave the army, and even the Commanders are furious..." He took a nervous gulp as he revealed, "Because of Commander Arthur’s death—"

"Impudence!" Bai Chengsheng shouted, releasing a wave of Soulforce that cracked the walls of the palace. "That demon is even haunting me after death. Oh right, his younger brother was the vice-commander of the fifth battalion, right?"

Mo Feng flinched, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple. "Yes," he answered nervously.

Bai Chengsheng’s lips rose into a smirk. "Bring him to me. He must know the whereabouts of the immortal cave where Arthur found the Divine Artifact. There still might be some hidden treasure there."

"W-War Marshal Bai..." Mo Feng murmured, taking a gulp in fear. "If one more cultivator is killed unjustly, it might cause discord in the army."

"Who would dare raise their voice in my presence!?" Bai Chengsheng demanded, releasing a crushing pressure that immediately slammed Mo Feng’s forehead to the floor. "Arthur was a traitor who colluded with the beasts, so he was killed on the spot. His younger brother, Wukong, naturally should be brought to justice."

His emerald eyes demanded an answer from Mo Feng, the pressure increasing with each passing second.

"I-I understand..." Mo Feng muttered, barely able to breathe.

Bai Chengsheng retracted the pressure. Mo Feng instantly moved out of the room.

A few minutes later....

"W-War Marshal Bai, bad news," Mo Feng exclaimed the moment he entered the hall again. "Wukong is nowhere inside the camp. He has run away."

Bai Chengsheng clenched his fists in fury, his knuckles turning white. He vanished from the hall and reappeared in the sky above the abode of the Commander of the Fifth Battalion, where Arthur and Wukong used to stay.

The commanders training in the open hall at the centre of the camp gave him sharp, frustrated looks, but none of them dared to say anything.

Only Lin Feng, the commander of the Third Battalion, seemed glad after seeing the War Marshal.

Bai Chengsheng scanned the place with his spiritual sense. The abode was completely empty. He spread his senses to a radius of five kilometres, scanning the area for any trace of Wukong. There was none at all.

"Darn it!" he shouted, anger clear on his aged face.

"War Marshal Bai, are you looking for the Vice Commander of the Fifth Battalion?" Lin Feng’s respectful voice came from the training hall below.

"Have you seen him?" Bai Chengsheng asked, looking back at him over his shoulder.

"Yes," Lin Feng nodded. "Since he is the younger brother of the traitor, I ordered some of my men to keep an eye on him."

His venomous words caused an immediate reaction from the other commanders. The man who should have been treated as the war hero was killed and declared a traitor.

"Good, very good," Bai Chengsheng chuckled, moving his fingers through his white beard. "Bring me to him."

With a wave of his hand, he covered Lin Feng’s body in his Soulforce and lifted him off the ground.

Once he reached beside him in the air, the duo bolted away, turning into tails of light.

They moved past the mountains where the Southern Legion military camp was built, following the markings left by Lin Feng’s men.

The mountains turned into terrain and then into plain grassland as they kept moving.

After an hour, they reached the edge of a cliff overlooking an endless ravine with no visible bottom.

Numerous spear-like rocky pillars jutted out of the earth, their foundations unseen.

One pillar at the centre stood out the most. It was wide enough to house an entire country upon its flat summit.

The gigantic pillars were covered in rings of clouds, and there was no sign of greenery among them.

The land was grey and filled with cracks.

"Valley of the Heavenly Pillars," Bai Chengsheng muttered, his eyes narrowing at the eerie sight before him. "It was rumoured to be a battlefield where an immortal fought. The pillars here were the lances the immortal released upon its opponent, digging them into the core of the planet. Many infamous cultivators tried to explore the deeper parts of these lands, but none of them returned. The fog below became too thick that it stuck anything that fell into it before they could reach the surface. And the gravitational pull disabled any cultivator from flying. Now, any person with a little bit of intelligence avoids this place."

He looked at Lin Feng with sharp eyes and demanded, "Are you sure Wukong went this way?"

Lin Feng flinched in fear just from Bai Chengsheng’s threatening glare.

"H-he must have," Lin Feng insisted in fear. "Oh, War Marshal Bai, you said this is the place where an immortal fought, and Wukong came here."

His words raised Bai Chengsheng’s eyes in slight excitement.

"Could this be the place where Arthur found the immortal cave?" Bai Chengsheng murmured, moving his fingers through his beard.

With newly found hope, he immediately went airborne again, Lin Feng being dragged along with him.

The tracks led them to the surface of the central, massive pillar.

Bai Chengsheng’s eyes narrowed at the distance when he found something in the distance.

Upon reaching closer, they realised that it was the corpses of humans.

"Th-they are the men that I sent to trail Wukong," Lin Feng exclaimed, identifying them.

Bai Chengsheng analysed their corpses. All of them were killed by a single shot to the throat. There was no sign of struggle or battle at all.

They were Late-Stage Awakened Sages and were instantly killed without even realising what had hit them.

"Oi, old man," a familiar voice came from the front, gathering the duo’s attention.

Lin Feng almost lost the strength in his legs, while even Bai Chengsheng seemed visibly shocked.

The person supposed to be dead, Arthur, was sitting in front of them on a wooden chair in a relaxed posture. Wukong stood beside him with a wide smirk and his arms folded.

"The Grim Reaper has come to claim your pathetic life," Maximilian declared, taking a sip from the tea in his hand.