Gu Xichen and his party drifted leisurely through the starry sky atop clouds of light, their expressions relaxed as if on an outing.

Yet, their hearts were heavy. The scene they had stumbled upon days ago had revealed the true face of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths with brutal clarity.

After the Grand Gathering of Immortals concluded, the group finalized arrangements with the Yuanluo Palace regarding the dispatch of personnel to take over various star domains. They then bid farewell to the immortals of the Yuanluo Palace and returned to the Spiral Star Domain. Not long after leaving the Myriad Immortals Star Domain, they encountered several mid-level Golden Immortals savagely slaughtering a group of lower-level cultivators.

They recognized this contingent of lower-level cultivators, led by a low-ranking Celestial Immortal, as agents fostered in the mortal realm by a demonic faction known as the Crimson Gold Cliff from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Because these cultivators held little power, the territories they controlled were small, resulting in the Crimson Gold Cliff's demonic cultivators occupying the most remote and smallest patch of territory in the vast starscape of the mortal world.

When the Ten Thousand Spirits Hall divided territories, these cultivators were even taken in as registered disciples by the Master of the Crimson Gold Cliff. But now, it was the enforcement immortals of the Crimson Gold Cliff wantonly insulting and massacring them, tormenting them with every imaginable means.

It wasn't just the Crimson Gold Cliff; over two hundred other lower-realm cultivation factions, marginalized due to occupying minuscule territories, had been annihilated by the immortals of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Tens of thousands of lower-realm cultivators who had attended the Grand Gathering were wiped out—ten million years of arduous cultivation turned into nothing more than reflections in water and the moon.

These immortals of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were nothing short of outright blood-sucking, marrow-devouring fiends!

Recalling the gruesome scenes witnessed over the past few days, a murderous aura slowly began to rise within the group.

They traveled slowly and steadily onward for over a month. In a deserted stretch of the cosmos, a violent spatial tremor suddenly erupted from behind them, and a blinding flash of fire tore through the void. The Great Sage Linggan burst forth from the flames, pointing his natal magic artifact, the Seven Treasures Mystic Wheel, and closely pursued by two Great Overarching Golden Immortals of the initial rank, his equals in cultivation.

Three Great Overarching Golden Immortals charged toward them with murderous intent. Within a few breaths, tens of thousands more immortals surged out from the spatial rift torn open by the firelight. The sight of tens of thousands of Golden Immortals, led by roughly four hundred Grand Unity Golden Immortals, simultaneously unleashing their flying swords and magic artifacts to attack was something Gu Xichen and his companions had never witnessed before.

Still tens of thousands of miles distant, the divine sense of the Great Sage Linggan washed over them like a tide. The void filled with the mad ravings of the Great Sage Linggan. He roared, nearly hysterical, threatening to crush Gu Xichen and the others into dust, to imprison their primordial spirits on his Mystic Wheel to be scorched by heavenly fire day and night, to torture them through countless eons until they could never reincarnate.

With a few cold chuckles, Gu Xichen said dismissively, "They've finally arrived!"

The Monkey raised his staff, ready to meet the charge, but Yang Jian grabbed him. Pointing to the eight silver-furred Great Apes shivering beside the Monkey, Yang Jian muttered quietly, "Have you forgotten what we discussed on the way here? We need to run for our lives now."

"Run for our lives!" The Monkey and the three brothers of Kong Sang shared expressions of utter bewilderment. For them, this was an exceedingly foreign concept!

With a sulky glance at the three charging Great Overarching Golden Immortals, the Monkey enlarged his staff to several tens of zhang long, making the eight Great Apes grip it tightly. He then let out an enraged roar, flipped over with a somersault cloud, and shot away in a flash of golden light, far into the distance.

"Huh? Why is this monkey in such a hurry?" Gu Xichen watched the windmill-like Monkey tumbling away through the air with a look of wry resignation. "Did he forget what we said when we set out? This fellow—er, he is so reckless, not at all astute. Is he truly a monkey?"

Calmly glancing at the Great Sage Linggan, who had closed within ten thousand miles, Gu Xichen tossed out the Flying Dragon Boat and blew a breath of vital energy onto it. The boat rapidly inflated to a thousand zhang long. The group laughed heartily as they leaped aboard. The dragon wings on either side flapped fiercely, and the Flying Dragon Boat instantly transformed into a white streak, shooting forward past the range of two star domains, whistling past the rapidly fleeing Monkey.

The Monkey watched the Flying Dragon Boat sweep past, choking on a breath he nearly couldn't expel. Yang Jian grabbed his shoulder with a stern face, hauling him and the eight Great Apes aboard the Dragon Boat, shaking his head repeatedly at the Monkey. Blushing deeply, the Monkey dropped his staff and squatted in a corner of the cabin, holding his head. The eight Great Apes, who had been tossed dizzyingly by the somersault cloud and were now vomiting continuously, thanked Yang Jian breathlessly before collapsing onto the deck, eyes rolling back in unconsciousness.

The Dragon Boat's escape speed was terrifyingly fast; with the combined effort of Gu Xichen and his companions, it flew nearly twice as fast as the Great Sage Linggan and his pursuers. The specialty of the Great Sage Linggan and his two fellow Great Overarching Golden Immortals clearly did not lie in flight; they didn't even possess a dedicated flying artifact, relying entirely on tearing through the void to chase Gu Xichen and his party.

Unfortunately, the void in the lower realm was vastly different from the environment of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths familiar to the Great Sage Linggan. The space here was far too fragile for Great Overarching Golden Immortals. They used only a small amount of immortal power cautiously to dart forward, accidentally teleporting thousands of star domains away. Looking back, they saw Gu Xichen and his group had changed direction again, forcing them to re-orient themselves before continuing the chase.

It took the Great Sage Linggan quite some effort to find the correct degree of force, finally allowing him to control his movements precisely enough to continually close the distance to the Flying Dragon Boat. After a series of instantaneous shifts, the Great Sage Linggan joyfully discovered that he and his two close friends were now less than a thousand miles behind the Flying Dragon Boat.

A mere thousand miles separated them. The Great Sage Linggan roared with laughter, causing his natal Mystic Wheel to vibrate as he prepared to strike.

Gu Xichen, however, sauntered out of the cabin. With perfect composure, he cupped his hands towards the Great Sage Linggan. "Sirs, why are you pursuing us?"

The Great Sage Linggan reacted as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. He burst into loud laughter. "Why pursue you? Nonsense! To kill you, of course!"

Shaking his head, Gu Xichen frowned. "Hmm. To kill us? You mean, you intend to kill us?"

The Great Sage Linggan glared at Gu Xichen through gritted teeth and sneered, "Naturally!"

Pointing to the two Great Overarching Golden Immortals beside him, the Great Sage Linggan commanded sternly, "These are my close friends, the Great Sage Huang Jiao and the Great Sage Qing Qiao! Their disciples were the Venerable Hou and the Viper Immortal, whom you humiliated in the Ten Thousand Spirits Hall! Today, we are here to take lives and vent our anger!"

Nodding, Gu Xichen said calmly, "Ah, you are here to kill. Then there's nothing more to say."

After a pause, Gu Xichen smiled at the Great Sage Linggan. "Before you kill us, may I ask one question?"

The Great Sage Linggan exerted force, and the three closed another few hundred miles, nearly within striking distance of Gu Xichen. The Great Sage Linggan laughed happily. "Ask whatever dying words you have quickly. No, it doesn't matter if you don't speak; you can say them later when I'm incinerating your primordial spirit."

As if he hadn't heard the murderous words of the Great Sage Linggan, Gu Xichen asked solemnly, "If I were to kill the three of you, what would be the outcome?"

The Great Sage Linggan stared at Gu Xichen in astonishment, as if listening to the world's greatest joke. The Great Sage Huang Jiao beside him roared with laughter. "If you could kill the three of us, then your status in the Yuanluo Palace would truly be unshakeable, and you would have the qualifications to dominate one side of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths!"

The Great Sage Qing Qiao let out an unpleasant, strange laugh. "But on what grounds can you kill us? Reinforcements from the Yuanluo Palace? We won't hide it from you; when we set out, our demonic Daoist friends moved to tie up the forces of the Yuanluo Palace. Even the Heavenly Venerable Yuanluo cannot spare the effort to save you now. You are doomed today!"

With a soft chuckle, Gu Xichen watched the Great Sage Linggan and the others draw closer, then nodded. "In other words, no one will intervene in our affairs? Very good, very good. I was just hoping no one would know how we carry out the killing!"

Clapping his hands and smiling, Gu Xichen looked at the three Great Sages Linggan with ill intent. "What if I told you that before heading to the Myriad Immortals Star, I had already prepared to proactively provoke a Great Overarching Golden Immortal and set a trap for him? You simply delivered yourselves to my doorstep. What do you think of that?"

The expression of the Great Sage Linggan changed. The Great Sages Huang Jiao and Qing Qiao exclaimed in unison, "What did you say?"

Gu Xichen's face turned cold. The surging Chaotic Veil robe billowed out from within him, and he roared, "What did I say? I said I deliberately provoked you to find someone to make an example of! Hahahaha! With the divine beings of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths descending, I don't wish to act subserviently in front of others. Naturally, I must kill a few people to ensure no one dares treat me like a lackey!" He pointed fiercely at the three Great Sages Linggan and roared, "The three of you are certainly going to die!"

Before the three Great Sages Linggan could react, a stream of five-colored light shot out from above Gu Xichen's head. The Haotian Pagoda shielded Gu Xichen as one of his corpses flew towards the heavens. The vague figure beneath the Haotian Pagoda sighed softly, and the Primordial Yin Profound Pearl he held suddenly flew from his hand, illuminating the void like a full moon. The fist-sized Primordial Yin Profound Pearl rapidly expanded, growing to a massive extent of ten thousand miles in the blink of an eye.

A surge of Primordial Yin Qi, like the tide of the Qiantang River, erupted. The Great Sage Linggan and the other two, who were closely pursuing Gu Xichen, could not stop their momentum and plunged headlong into the Primordial Yin Qi. They, along with the Flying Dragon Boat carrying Gu Xichen, were swallowed by the Primordial Yin Profound Pearl into the Yin space.

This was the Yin space into which the three Great Sages Linggan had willingly charged. Gu Xichen barely exerted any effort to pull them in.

In the boundless, grayish-white void, the corporeal bodies of the Corpse Emperor, True Man Baishui, and True Man Hancran, each standing a million miles tall, sat cross-legged in meditation.

Suddenly, a spark of light burst forth from the void. The Flying Dragon Boat, trailing thick white smoke, rushed in. Behind the Dragon Boat were the Great Sage Linggan and his companions, struggling desperately to halt their pursuit but unable to stop their momentum, being swept into the Primordial Yin Qi.

"This is bad!" After all, they were Great Overarching Golden Immortals. Upon entering the Yin space, they immediately sensed the celestial laws of this place, starkly different from the outside world. The rules of power they were familiar with had vanished entirely. What they could sense was an arctic cold, a boundless chill potent enough to freeze space and time completely.

What terrified them even more was their absolute inability to draw any spiritual energy from the outside. This biting cold constantly tried to invade their bodies, seeking to transform their immortal power into this unsettling chill.

"This is a top-tier Innate Supreme Treasure! Heavens, he's only a Grand Unity Golden Immortal!"

The Great Sage Qing Qiao roared in terror!

The Great Sage Huang Jiao and the Great Sage Linggan stared ahead as if they had seen a ghost, their eyes fixed on the three bodies, a million miles high, tens of thousands of miles in front of them.

Just then, the Corpse Emperor opened his eyes, appearing like two blood-red suns suddenly manifesting in the Yin space. A torrent of bloody light poured down, instantly engulfing the entire Yin space in the light emanating from the Corpse Emperor's eyes. Overwhelming black Corpse Qi swept in all directions. The Primordial Yin Qi continuously fed into the corpses, smoothly transforming into extremely Yin and evil Corpse Qi that spread outward.

The Corpse Emperor rubbed his palms with excitement as he looked at the three dumbfounded Great Sages. "Two old Daoist masters, the Three Talents Killing Formation we've been comprehending finally has sparring partners! Tsk tsk, these three are perfect for establishing dominance; we absolutely must kill them!"

True Man Baishui suddenly opened his eyes, and two beams of golden light shot toward the sky, nearly piercing the Yin space. With a cold snort, True Man Baishui pointed at the three Great Sages Linggan and mocked, "Making an example of a chicken? We ended up with three grown roosters! What small chicks!"

True Man Hancran also opened his eyes, and immediately, purple energy permeated the surroundings, diluting much of the blood-red light spewing from the Corpse Emperor's eyes. True Man Hancran smiled gently. "Ah, True Man Baishui, don't forget your own status! What's this 'making an example of a chicken'? What 'small chicks'? We are slaying demons to uphold the Dao!"

The Corpse Emperor, True Man Baishui, and True Man Hancran burst into loud laughter, and terrifying auras emanated from their physical bodies, pressing down upon the hearts of the three Great Sages Linggan like immense mountains.

The Great Sage Linggan cried out in despair, "Three honored seniors, this is all a misunderstanding!"

Gu Xichen stood far away and reprimanded, "Great Sage Linggan, have some backbone, act like a man! What misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? Hmm, hang on tight; let me see how many moves you can endure from my Master and my two Martial Uncles!"

Rong Hua squatted lazily at the bow of the Flying Dragon Boat, happily puffing on a cigar. "Ah, sending out the Master is old news. Now it's the Master and the Martial Uncles being sent out together! Tsk tsk, what power, what grandeur!"

With a muffled thump, Rong Hua was blasted away by an invisible force, flailing his limbs until he disappeared far out of sight—so far that even Gu Xichen's eyesight could not locate him.

The three of the Corpse Emperor moved in unison, arranging themselves in the positions of the Three Talents, trapping the three Great Sages Linggan in the center. The Corpse Emperor drew the natal magic treasure of the Rakshasa Star Lord, the Rakshasa Heaven-Swallowing Halberd, and smiled at the three Great Sages Linggan, who were trembling with fear. "Endure one strike from us, and the three of us will let you leave!"

A glimmer of hope for survival surged back. The Great Sages Linggan, Huang Jiao, and Qing Qiao shouted simultaneously, "Then, let the battle commence!"

The Corpse Emperor, True Man Baishui, and True Man Hancran roared together. Their million-mile-high bodies rapidly shrank, diminishing to ten zhang in the blink of an eye. A three-colored mystical light enveloped the entire Yin space, and an immense, crushing force vibrated through the void, blowing Gu Xichen and his party far away.

The Great Sages Linggan, Huang Jiao, and Qing Qiao roared in unison. Without a moment's hesitation, they unleashed their natal magic artifacts and fiercely self-detonated them. All three spat blood, and their cultivation instantly dropped by nearly half. The massive impact caused their bodies to tremble violently, nearly destroying their physical forms, but relying on the power of their desperate self-detonation of their natal artifacts, they survived.

Innate magic artifacts, even when self-detonated, are not easily destroyed; the core essence of the artifact remained. However, the spirit within was utterly annihilated. The three dimmed natal artifacts floated before the three Great Sages Linggan, trembling and emitting near-death cries.

The three Great Sages Linggan, vomiting blood, leaned back-to-back on the clouds, weak and trembling. They stared at the three of the Corpse Emperor in terror. That combined strike just now possessed nearly the attack power of a second-grade Great Overarching Golden Immortal—it was truly terrifying.

If they hadn't risked everything to destroy their natal artifacts, sacrificing millions of years of arduous cultivation needed to restore the artifact spirits, the Great Sages Linggan would have been reduced to dust and scattered souls.

The Corpse Emperor frowned, stroking the long halberd in his hand. After a long moment, he slowly nodded. "Go then. Since the three of us did not kill you, we will not strike again... Hmm, old Daoist master, our Three Talents Killing Formation seems to require further careful study!"

True Man Baishui and True Man Hancran nodded slowly. The three stepped forward simultaneously and vanished without a trace.

The heavily wounded and vomiting Great Sages Linggan glanced at each other and, ecstatic, prepared to use their divine abilities to tear open the void and escape.

But before the three could even form the incantations, a long cry echoed from the distance.

"Celestial Venerable Tongtian of the Upper Pure Lingbao Daoist Sect be praised!"

Following this Daoist title, which had not been praised by anyone in the Three Realms for many, many years, ten hazy golden figures tore through the void from afar.

The Holy Mother of the Golden Light smiled charmingly at the ashen-faced Great Sage Linggan, shaking her head cheerfully. "Greetings, three Daoist friends! Those three spared you, but whether you can exit this Primordial Yin space depends on whether you'll take a walk through our great formation!"

"No, no, no!" The Great Sage Huang Jiao shrieked in panic. "You cannot do this! You are traitors; you broke your word..."

Yao Tianjun angrily snapped, "Enough nonsense! We never promised to let you go! Everyone, Ten Ultimate Formations, rise!"

Ten streams of immortal light shot into the sky. The Ten Ultimate Formations stirred up swirling red sand and black water, engulfing the roaring Great Sages Linggan and his two companions.

In the distance, Gu Xichen's eyes narrowed into slits with a wide smile. He muttered to himself, "This place is about right. Let's go outside and hold the line. I wonder if we can take care of those unlucky fellows out there!"

With a wave of his large sleeve, Gu Xichen and his party exited the Primordial Yin space and arrived in the boundless cosmos.

In the Chaos, the mighty Chaos Cauldron hung suspended in the void, releasing infinite streams of chaotic energy that concealed all fluctuations of magical power within ten thousand miles.

A million celestial soldiers and generals happily arrayed themselves in the Heaven's Net Great Formation, completely trapping the tens of thousands of immortals brought by the Great Sage Linggan, who were currently being fiercely attacked. Those immortals darted back and forth within the formation like headless flies, yet they could not escape.

Several days later, on the Myriad Immortals Star, several hundred gasps sounded simultaneously.

"Linggan, Huang Jiao, and Qing Qiao—they have perished?"

"That Evil Dragon Daoist possesses the power to slay a Great Overarching Golden Immortal?"

All sorts of rumors immediately spread like a gale among the immortals descending from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

The Heavenly Venerable Yuanluo immediately shook off the entanglement of the Great Overarching Golden Immortals who had been preventing him from aiding Gu Xichen, ordered his entourage, and rushed towards the Spiral Star Domain.