Chapter 67: Awakening the Mad Sovereign

Central Domain, Purple Polar Immortal Sect.

Within the Saintess Palace, Saintess Zi Lingxi was deep in cultivation.

She sat cross-legged upon a cold jade meditation mat, her form wreathed in the faint purple spiritual light of an Imperial Soul. The spiritual energy flowing through her fingertips was slowly nourishing the soul seal between her eyebrows.

"Su Muqing's comprehension of the Imperial Dao has reached thirty percent. In another half year, I will be able to use the secondary soul to devour her divine soul! By then, the spirit veins and alchemists of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion will all belong to me, and the Eastern Domain will be firmly in the grasp of my Purple Polar Immortal Sect!"

Zi Lingxi's eyes held a look of triumphant pride, and the spiritual energy at her fingertips circulated with increasing urgency, clearly filled with anticipation for her future schemes.

Suddenly, the pale purple soul seal between her eyebrows dimmed abruptly.

The divine soul connection originally linked to her secondary soul completely vanished, as if severed by a sharp blade.

"Puff—"

A mouthful of fresh blood gushed forth, staining the desktop crimson.

The gentle warmth in the depths of Zi Lingxi's eyes was instantly replaced by a biting frost, and the spiritual energy around her surged out of control.

"My secondary soul... its connection has actually been forcibly severed by someone!"

She could clearly perceive that she had completely lost contact with the wisps of the secondary soul residing within Su Muqing. This was by no means something an ordinary cultivator could accomplish!

"Could it be a soul-devouring type of alien flame? And a high-grade flame capable of suppressing an Imperial Soul!" Her fingernails dug deeply into her palms, a ruthless glint flashing in her eyes.

"That barren wasteland of the Eastern Domain—when did such a figure emerge? Daring to sever my Zi Lingxi's secondary soul, I will surely scatter your divine soul and destroy your consciousness, extracting your soul to forge a 'Soul Lamp' so that you may never be liberated for all eternity!"

The place where her secondary soul was severed was in the Eastern Domain, at a place called the Profound Heaven Sect.

"It is the Profound Heaven Sect! It must be the work of people from the Profound Heaven Sect!" Zi Lingxi gritted her teeth, the cold glare in her eyes almost solidifying into substance.

Before her words had even faded, she had already snatched up the Purple Polar Immortal Sword from the desk, her figure transforming into a streak of light as she rushed out of the Saintess Palace.

The guards stationed outside the palace only felt a gust of fragrant wind sweep past, and when they looked up again, the Saintess had already vanished into the distant horizon.

That direction led precisely to the Eastern Domain.

Eastern Domain, Immortal Alliance General Headquarters.

Alliance Leader Xuan Cang sat upon the primary seat.

Below him, over a dozen elders stood with lowered heads, not daring to draw a single heavy breath. The air within the great hall seemed to have frozen into ice.

"Three Deity Transformation elders! Just like that, they died?! Xuan Lie, Xuan Yan, Xuan Jian! Which of them was not a backbone force nurtured by our Immortal Alliance for hundreds of years? Yet they were slain by a few Integration stage disciples of the Profound Heaven Sect?!"

Xuan Cang's voice exploded like a thunderclap.

"Deity Transformation elders! They are the face of the Immortal Alliance! To be killed just like that by Integration stage cultivators—if word of this spreads, will the Immortal Alliance still have any footing left in the Eastern Domain?"

The elder responsible for reporting added with a trembling voice, "Alliance Leader, not only that... Su Muqing of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion has already taken all the spirit veins and the Alchemist Hall to pledge allegiance to the Profound Heaven Sect, and even offered a millennium-old Enlightenment Tea as a deposit! At present, all the storefronts of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion now bear the affiliated insignia of the Profound Heaven Sect!"

"Rebellion! Utter rebellion!"

Xuan Cang slammed his palm onto the desk, rising abruptly. The majestic pressure of the Great Ascension stage swept across the entire hall like a tsunami, frightening several elders with lower cultivation bases into collapsing to their knees on the spot.

"The Profound Heaven Sect is merely a newly risen sect, yet they dare to slaughter our Immortal Alliance elders and poach our affiliated forces! This is pressing the face of the Eastern Domain's Immortal Alliance down into the dust and grinding it!"

Xuan Cang's chest heaved violently, clearly driven to the extreme limit of rage. "The Treasure Gathering Pavilion is the purse of the Immortal Alliance! Without it, the pills and spirit stones for our disciples will be cut off! The Profound Heaven Sect is attempting to sever the very foundation of our Immortal Alliance!"

"Alliance Leader, the Profound Heaven Sect goes too far! That Xiao Yi even proclaimed that 'anyone in the Eastern Domain who dares to touch a disciple of the Profound Heaven Sect shall have their entire clan burned to ashes.' This is a blatant provocation against the authority of the Immortal Alliance!" said an elder in green robes through clenched teeth, his eyes filled with hatred.

Alliance Leader Xuan Cang clenched his fingers tightly, his voice laced with irrepressible fury.

"The Profound Heaven Sect disciple Xiao Yi was able to burn and kill Deity Transformation elders with his Integration stage cultivation, and Ye Chentian is even more unfathomable!"

"If we do not awaken the Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable, within three months, the Immortal Alliance will become the laughingstock of the Eastern Domain! And we are even more likely to be annihilated by the Profound Heaven Sect! Only by awakening the Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable can we contend against them!"

"What? Awaken the Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable?" Upon hearing this decision, the assembled elders were struck as if by a thunderbolt, instantly erupting into an uproar.

Great Elder Xuan Feng staggered back half a step, his voice trembling.

"Alliance Leader! The Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable has been slumbering for three thousand years, and his soul was damaged back when he sealed the Demon Lord. If he is influenced by residual demonic thoughts upon awakening, I fear he will throw our Immortal Alliance into chaos first!"

"Furthermore, the Spirit-Summoning Talisman required to awaken the 'Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable' demands the sacrifice of the Immortal Alliance's镇派至宝 (sect-镇派至宝 - wait, need to translate: supreme foundational treasure) 'Myriad Realms Spirit Pearl'."

"If this pearl is destroyed, the Immortal Alliance's millennium-old Spirit-Gathering Array will completely fail! The spiritual Qi concentration within the Immortal Alliance will plummet by seventy percent, and the cultivation speed of our disciples will slow down by at least half!"

"In addition to that, we must sacrifice ten core disciples! Those are geniuses we selected from a hundred thousand cultivators, all possessing supreme-grade spiritual roots."

"In another hundred years, they would have been able to attempt the Deity Transformation breakthrough! Sacrificing them will cause the younger generation of the Immortal Alliance to suffer a generational fault line of at least fifty years!"

"With the Myriad Realms Spirit Pearl gone, the Spirit-Gathering Array ruined, the disciples cultivating slowly, and without core disciples, even if the Immortal Alliance defeats the Profound Heaven Sect, we will be reduced to a second-rate faction! The price is simply too high, we cannot do this!" Xuan Feng grew more and more agitated as he spoke, his voice carrying a sob.

Another elder added anxiously, "Not only that, but we must also drain our inventory of thirty thousand supreme-grade spirit stones and a hundred stalks of millennium-old spiritual herbs! Without these, the thirty affiliated sects under the jurisdiction of the Immortal Alliance will likely lose faith and scatter!"

However, Xuan Cang merely swept a cold gaze across the crowd and spoke sternly.

"A scattered populace is still better than the annihilation of the sect! People's hearts can be gathered again once they scatter, but once the sect is gone, everything is lost! As long as we can destroy the Profound Heaven Sect, the Immortal Alliance will always have a day of recovery! If we do not awaken the Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable, you tell me what other methods we have?!"

The assembled elders were left entirely speechless.

Indeed, the deterrence of the Profound Heaven Sect had already been carved into their very bones.

Xiao Yi's destiny-defying fire could incinerate Deity Transformation masters, and Ye Chentian could effortlessly wipe out major sects with a wave of his hand.

Among the existing combat strength of the Immortal Alliance, truly no one could rival them.

Xuan Feng opened his mouth, wanting to say, "We could seek help from other Great Ascension cultivators," but let his hands drop in defeated dejection.

"There are only a few Great Ascension cultivators in the Eastern Domain, and they have no enmity with the Profound Heaven Sect—who would help us? Unless the Immortal Alliance is willing to pay an even greater price, but do we still have anything left to put on the table?"

A dead silence spread through the hall, as everyone realized the current predicament of the Immortal Alliance.

"My mind is made up. Go swiftly and prepare these three things!" Alliance Leader Xuan Cang slammed his hand onto the sacrificial disc, his determination set.

"First, go immediately to the treasury and retrieve the Myriad Realms Spirit Pearl."

"Second, pass on my command: let the ten core disciples proceed at once to the forbidden ground, the 'Soul-Sacrificial Altar'. Anyone who disobeys shall have their spiritual roots crippled on the spot!"

"Third, order the outer sect stewards to tally the inventory and deliver thirty thousand supreme-grade spirit stones and a hundred stalks of millennium-old spiritual herbs to the forbidden ground within half an hour. Missing even a single herb or a single stone will be treated as treason against the alliance!"

"If anyone delays today, they shall be the eternal sinners of the Immortal Alliance!"

"When the Earth-Splitting Mad Venerable awakens, I want to see if Ye Chentian and Xiao Yi can still afford to laugh!"

A ruthless glint flashed in Xuan Cang's eyes.

The elders no longer dared to hesitate. They bowed to accept the command and hurried out of the great hall in rapid strides.

"My disciple! That child was born with a metal spiritual root and broke through to the Integration stage at only sixteen years of age. In a few decades, he would have been the pillar of support for the Immortal Alliance!"

"Yet now, he has to die just to awaken the Mad Venerable... As his master, I cannot even protect him. My heart truly feels heavy!" At this moment, Xuan Feng's eyes were filled with deep regret.

Alliance Leader Xuan Cang remained alone in the hall, gazing at the empty expanse, and muttered to himself.

"I do not wish to sacrifice core disciples, nor do I wish to destroy the Myriad Realms Spirit Pearl! But the Profound Heaven Sect leaves me no choice!"

"If the Immortal Alliance is gone, of what use is it to keep these things?"