This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder

Chapter 295: A Familiar Face

It was a familiar scene.

Three enormous immortal ships began to appear from three different directions.

One ship seemed to be the color of white one moment but suddenly became black the next moment. Not only that, but the boat’s existence seemed to drift between a state of falsehood and truth, illusionary one moment but real the next.

The second boat had twelve engravings on its hall: a rat, an ox, a tiger, a rabbit, a dragon, a snake, a horse, a goat, a monkey, a rooster, a dog, and a boar. Each engraving shone and exuded a different kind of worldly law.

The third could only be described in one word; grand. The boat was made of the finest spiritual wood with a jade dragon carved at the front, and rather than the boat flying through the air, it seemed that the world was moving instead of it.

Upon arrival on Heaven Shroud Island, the strongest immortal present disembarked first. Daoyi followed close behind him. Then it was the other immortals followed by the nascent soul and core formation disciples.

Across from Tianyi, he could see that only two-thirds of the entourage from the Earth Continent were from the Eight Pillar Sect. The last third consisted of disciples from the Anti-Earth Alliance. Unlike his own timeline, the Anti-Earth Alliance did not have an immortal emperor, so the Eight Pillar Sect’s situation was better.

Tianyi thought he saw a glimmer of the tail end of a red robe, but he decisively ignored it.

Instead, he observed the Earth Continent’s two immortal monarchs: Monarch Dong of the Eight Pillar Sect and Monarch Evernight of the Eternal Night Sect.

He did not have the ability to discern the twos’ cultivation during the Three Heavens Connection Meeting of his timeline, but this time was different. Monarch Evernight’s immortal qi held traces of lightning and fire, showing that he had merged two elemental qis into his Daotree. On the other hand, Monarch Dong seemed to have merged four qis into his Daotree: fire, water, earth, and wood.

Tianyi turned his attention to the Cultivator Alliance’s entourage. Compared to the Heaven Continent, where everyone wore the same uniform, or the Earth Continent, where there was some semblance of a uniform, divided as it was, the Mortal Continent entourage all had different styles.

They were led by a single immortal monarch. The immortal monarch seemed to be at the fourth step like Monarch Dong. He had a barrel-like build and wore brown robes. He was Monarch Oxsplit.

The four immortal monarchs observed each other for a moment. Tianyi took the first step and walked towards the center of Heaven Shroud Island. The three others weren’t willing to show any weakness, so they also walked forward and met Tianyi.

Although Tianyi only appeared in the Silent Lightning Timeline for less than ten years, none of the other Immortal Monarchs would underestimate him. Despite Tianyi’s battle occurring in the middle of the Endless Seas, the Eight Pillar Sect, Anti-Earth Alliance, and Cultivator Alliance somehow managed to gain the intelligence on the clash.

“I have long heard of Monarch Nine Heaven’s famed name. The rumors don’t do you justice, as expected of the number one expert under the Extremity Immortal Realm,” Monarch Evernight said, enjoying the grimace that flashed across Monarch Dong’s face. As the weakest seamless immortal present, his face was all smiles.

The corner of Tianyi’s lips twitched. ‘Long heard of? You mean just recently?’

Still, Tianyi did not pierce Monarch Evernight’s lie. “You overpraise. Compared to me, Monarch Evernight’s fame has spread far and wide.”

“I never expected the Buzhou Immortal Sect to fall so low that they needed an outsider to lead their disciple,” Monarch Dong said, causing the atmosphere to turn silent.

Luckily, Monarch Oxsplit took control of the conversation. Only, it turned the atmosphere for the worse. “If I were you, I would worry about myself before others.”

“You!”

Compared to the relationship between the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the Eight Pillar Sect and Cultivator Alliance had a more significant rivalry in the Silent Lightning Timeline. The Eight Pillar Sect had two immortal emperors, and the Cultivator Alliance only had one, but the Cultivator Alliance had far more members and twice as many immortal monarchs. They may not be as united, but at a certain point, quantity transformed into quality.

Tianyi waved his hand. “Let’s stop it here. We’re here for the juniors to compete, not ourselves. What do you say to begin the competition?”

As he said that, Tianyi felt slightly giddy. He had already reached this point.

The other three immortal monarchs agreed, and they separated into their own camps. With a simple activation, ninety-nine pillars shot out from the ground. The rules were the same, the disciples had to duel atop the arenas, and only the winner would stay.

Tianyi didn’t recognize any of the core formation disciples, and he discovered that his task was somewhat troublesome. Not because it required much effort, but because it was too boring.

He wanted nothing more than focus on comprehending the laws again, but he was afraid that he would lose focus and embarrass himself. So, he turned towards Daoyi and asked. “What do you think?”

“It’s kinda exciting. I didn’t get the chance to come here last time because I was too weak,” Daoyi said. “What about you, what rank did you get?”

“I got ninth place.”

“So low?” Daoyi said in shock.

“Did you forget I was constantly puking blood? If I had exerted too much effort, I would have puked a ton of blood. Though, I almost did puke a ton of blood, but not because of exertion,” Tianyi muttered near the end, his voice too low for Daoyi to make out his words.

“That’s right, I almost forgot. That seemed like a lifetime ago,” Daoyi said as she gained a nostalgic look in her eyes. “You also had the problem of exploding for no reason. You destroyed two mansions because of that.”

“Ugh,” Tianyi groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Tianyi passed the time by speaking with Daoyi and, occasionally, the other immortal elders that were brought along. After nearly a week, the core formation disciple competition had ended. He recognized none of the top spots.

The nascent soul disciples competition began in less than a day. Again, he didn’t see any familiar faces.

“I didn’t expect Wei Daying to still be stuck in the Nascent Soul Realm. Lin Mu, I’m not so surprised,” Daoyi said.

‘Who?’ Tianyi thought. He stared at the people mentioned and Daoyi. ‘Yep, I still can’t recognize them.’

“You forgot about them, didn’t you?” Daoyi accused.

Tianyi wisely stayed silent.

He saw a red figure jump onto the first arena. Tianyi rubbed his eyes and looked again. Yep, he was definitely hallucinating. Something must be wrong with him because first place was a name he swore he had never seen before but was extremely familiar with and gave him chills.

Yeah, he should get a good rest after this. The battle with Emperor Begonia must have tuckered him out more than he had thought.

The Three Heavens Connection Meeting took a little bit over a month. Next was the important part. Everyone embarked onto their ships again, with the Buzhou Immortal Sect’s ship in the lead. They traveled to the edge of the Huang Realm, where the spatial rifts were a regular occurrence.

“We’ll leave it to Monarch Nine Heavens.”

As the force to claim the orthodox lineage of the Immortal Court, the Buzhou Immortal Court naturally had the responsibility to open the path to the ruin of the Immortal Court.

Tianyi couldn’t discount the chance that this was another probe from Sect Master Xia since he did not give Tianyi the directions to open the Immortal Court ruin. If Tianyi knew how to access the Immortal Court ruin, this meant he was a core member of the Buzhou Immortal Sect.

He flew out of the immortal boat and stabilized the spatial rifts first, causing a rare moment of peace at the Huang Realm’s boundary. Then, he formed several hand seals, and an illusionary gate appeared in front of him.

Moments later, the illusionary gate shifted from false to reality. And with a final seal, Tianyi locked the entrance to the Immortal Court ruin to the physical plane.

Tianyi turned around and said, “Everything is ready. All the mortal disciples are to disembark and enter the Immortal Court ruin in an orderly manner. You have one year. If you do not leave in one year, you will be forever trapped inside.”

After Tianyi spoke, the disciple disembarked the immortal boat and entered the gate one by one. The first to enter was the nascent soul disciples, and the second to enter were the core formation disciples.

Unlike the one in Tianyi’s memories, no Unity Realm elders were present. Instead, the immortals of the various sect would enter after the disciples left.

‘I wonder if someone will destroy the ruin like I did. Probably not.’ Tianyi thought.

After speaking with Daoyi for a bit, Tianyi sat in a lotus position mid-air. He closed his eyes and began to comprehend the worldly laws.

Daoyi followed Tianyi’s example and comprehended the laws. She exuded a deathly aura that shocked observers. She could feel that she was a hair’s breadth away from completely comprehending the Law of Death, but it felt as if she couldn’t pierce the bubble. It was a stifling feeling that could not be placed into words.

The other immortal monarchs and true immortals also followed Tianyi’s example. Or rather, it was their standard M.O. when they had time to spare.

One year flew by very quickly, and then fate to the Immortal Court opened. Compared to the number of people who entered, only about seventy percent exited. The Buzhou Immortal Sect and Cultivator Alliance each lost about five percent of their disciples, but the Earth Continent lost about twenty percent of their disciples, causing Monarch Dong’s and Monarch Evernight’s expressions to turn dark.

They glanced at Tianyi but didn’t say anything in the end.

“Alright, it’s time for us immortals to enter the ruin. All disciples return to the immortal boat. Everyone else aside from the immortal station at the immortal boat, enter.” Tianyi said.

Unlike when the disciples entered, the weakest immortals entered first, followed by the immortal monarchs. Monarch Oxsplit entered first, followed by Monarch Evernight. Before Monarch Dong entered, he stopped and took a deep look at Tianyi.

‘I’m bearing someone else’s pot.’ Tianyi thought. It was true that Buzhou Immortal Sect had methods to control the ruins, but the person who did it absolutely wasn’t him. Well, guilt by association?

“Let’s go,” Tianyi said to Daoyi. She didn’t enter with the others, and no one was blind enough to comment on it, lest they earn Tianyi’s ire.

Tianyi and Daoyi walked through the gates, side by side. Unlike the first time, Tianyi could clearly sense the two of them being teleported into another location, separate from the rest.

“Is this supposed to happen?” Daoyi asked. She couldn’t sense anyone else despite over fifty immortals entering before them.

Tianyi nodded. “They should be transported to a different region. We’re probably the only two here.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“It happened to me last time,” Tianyi said. “Come on, let’s go. Someone should want to meet us.”

Tianyi flew into the air, followed by Daoyi. The restriction preventing flight no longer applied to him since his strength had outgrown it.

He paused mid-air and looked towards the east. Daoyi also stopped and asked, “What’s wrong.”

“Nothing, just an old friend. Let’s visit him,” Tianyi said.

Daoyi was confused but still followed Tianyi. The two landed outside the Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda. After entering, she realized what Tianyi meant by an old friend.

“Why are you here?!” Lei Jingye shouted.

Tianyi smirked. ‘This time, you sent yourself to me. You can’t blame anyone else.’

His hand slowly reached for his mask. He paused for a moment for dramatic effect before taking it off.

“Xi.Long.Yi!” Lei Jingye shouted in anger.

Tianyi sighed. “Xi Longyi that, Xi Longyi this. Don’t you have anything else to contribute? Well, considering that you are going to die, I’ll let it slide.”

“I would say it’s been nice knowing you, but that would be a lie,” Tianyi said. He pointed his finger at Lei Jingye. “Goodbye.”

But before Tianyi could kill Lei Jingye, a hand pierced his back and popped out of his chest. The hand grasped a tomoe-shaped jewel.

“Daoyi?” Lei Jingye said in surprise as he turned around.

Because of Daoyi’s speed, the silk mask covering the lower half of her face fluttered, allowing Lei Jingye to see her face. This was the last scene he saw before he died. Even in death, he did not know why his precious dao companion would kill him.

“Well, way to take my thunder,” Tianyi griped.

“You would have taken too long,” Daoyi said. “Plus, I wanted this.”

Tianyi shrugged. He waved his arm, and Lei Jingye’s corpse disappeared. Lei Jingye had the Longevity Oracle Mirror, so it wasn’t a total loss. Tianyi thought about taking the Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda but thought better of it. It would be even worse than when he took the spiritual mountain that supported the Immortal Court ruin.

‘Maybe I should see if Dandan is here,’ Tianyi thought as a sinister smile appeared on his face.

Tianyi and Daoyi walked out of the Pagoda but paused upon seeing the person waiting outside. He wore a jade-green robe and wore a dao crown on his head. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties and had two streaks of gray hair on his otherwise jet-black hair.

“Concealed Emperor?”