Chapter 397: Covert Violence

As one of the foremost factions in the world of immortals, House Donglin was extremely quick to mobilize. They evacuated all of their immortals and cultivators before a stick of incense had finished burning. Even cultivators who’d reached critical points in closed door cultivation were interrupted and dragged out, leaving the place completely empty.

Not even origin dao immortals would be able to survive more than a hundred weapons of war. Abandoning their territory was the only choice left for the aristocratic house. 

Lu Yun didn’t care how House Donglin would retaliate in the future after this. The two of them could never coexist in peace anyway.

……

“Nice city the Donglins have, alright. It’d be a shame if it were destroyed.” Lu Yun and Qing Han descended upon Donglin territory with the Ingress Path after it’d been emptied. 

They looked upon a city of five hundred kilometers in diameter that contained dense layers of spatial formations, which in turn created a great many subspaces. The city was only a hair below Xiankan.

“There’s no time, Donglin immortals will soon come to their senses. Get moving, Feinie. Don’t leave them anything!” Lu Yun immediately summoned his envoy.

Qing Han gave him an exasperated look. So Lu Yun had never actually planned to attack House Donglin; he’d given them the ultimatum simply to drive them off. With the people gone, he could do anything he wanted with the place.

Forty-five minutes were much too short, so the Donglins hadn’t been able to take many of their possessions with them. Therefore, Lu Yun decided to steal this impressive city like he had the North Sea palace!

More than a hundred imitation weapons of war remained fixed on the Donglin territory and its surrounding area, intimidating the Donglin immortals from turning back. In truth, only eighteen of them were the real deal. The others, well, were works in progress. Useful for swaggering around, but useless in offensive capability.

Refining the imitations was extremely demanding in terms of materials. What Lu Yun had gained after raiding the North Sea court was enough for only eighteen of them. In addition, the cannons needed to be maintained after each use. Thus, he hadn’t had the chance to refine more of them; unfinished molds were all he had.

Nevertheless, Lu Yun had proven to the world how powerful the imitations were. Even if they were fake, no one would dare run the risk.

……

Feinie was brutally efficient. She blanketed the city with light from the Formation Orb as soon as she appeared, setting up formations at great speed.

Rumble!

After roughly half the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the earth beneath them began trembling. Donglin City shrank dramatically into a miniature metropolis.

“Collect!” Feinie commanded, and the city entered the Gates of the Abyss.

“The Donglin idiots are coming back. Let’s go!” Lu Yun grabbed Qing Han, and the two of them returned to Dusk Province on the Ingress Path.

……

The earth was trembling.

“We’ve been fooled!” Donglin E came to a sudden stop and turned to look in the city’s direction, his fellow house members following suit. There was only an enormous crater in the ground now, the great city gone.

“Where’s our land?” a peak arcane dao immortal asked in shock. “Where’s Donglin City?”

“It’s Lu Yun. He scared us away so that he could steal our city!” Donglin E growled. “Go back!”

He rushed back to Donglin City on the back of a sword.

“House Donglin will not suffer you to live under the same skies as us, Lu Yun!!” shrieked an arcane dao immortal.

Earlier, they’d been too terrified of the weapons of war to think properly. After all, those cannons could kill even origin dao immortals! Considering the weapons’ impressive range—hundreds of thousands of kilometers—the Donglin immortals had abandoned their territory without looking back in a rush to get away.

Now, they finally realized that there was something amiss about how everything had happened. They shot back to their territory, eager for vengeance.

“Lu Yun!!” When they returned, Skybearer still remained open in the air. Donglin E’s gaze shifted from where the city should’ve been to the gates hovering in the air, his eyes blazing with fire.

“Return our land at once, or this seat will kill you even if it costs me my life!” Donglin E demanded in a cold voice, glaring at Lu Yun through Skybearer.

“The incense stick has burned up,” Lu Yun said in lieu of an answer and smiled.

“Huh?” Donglin E paused.

Hum!

Skybearer suddenly grew from a few meters to three hundred meters tall. Eighteen cannons emerged, each taking a shot at… the Donglin immortals who’d just followed Donglin E back to their former territory!

Boom!!

“No!!” Donglin E wailed.

……

These days, there was a second major laughingstock in the world of immortals: House Donglin. Their territory had been stolen, just like how Lu Yun had done the North Sea court; but this time, it was to an even greater extent.

The North Sea monster spirits had lost their palace, but the monster clans that formed the court had their own territories. The palace was more symbol than home base.

House Donglin, on the other hand, had lost everything.

More importantly, Lu Yun had stolen the North Sea palace while the North Sea emperor was away, but the two heavyweights in charge of House Donglin had been scared off and gave the young man a chance to take the city.

This was the greatest blow to their reputation.

The shots Lu Yun took at the last moment sent a stillness through the world. He’d really attacked House Donglin and slaughtered many of their immortals! If anyone made a move against Dusk Province, he really would retaliate!

As Lu Yun had said, he didn’t yet know the backgrounds of the five origin dao immortals, so he couldn’t go after them. As for the North Sea monster spirits, he didn’t want to provoke that monkey yet, and well… he had just stolen their palace.

…… 

The closer it was to the Sovereign Meet, the less activity there was in Dusk Province. Even though there were holy grounds for training and cultivation here, to cultivators, the province was fraught with fatal danger. No one wanted to draw close.

Meanwhile, cultivators streamed into Life Province.

Three days before the Sovereign Meet was about to commence, the heavyweights of the nine majors, ten lands, and four immortal seas announced that they would be jointly hosting the True Sovereign Meet together. Moreover, Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen suddenly appeared and declared that they were going to Life Province to fight the geniuses of the world.

It seemed that Dusk Province had been forgotten by everyone.

……

“This is too much!” Qing Han seethed when he received the news.

“Too much?” Lu Yun blinked. “We took Donglin City. They can do whatever they want.”

Qing Han threw a surprised look at him. “Um… aren’t you mad?”

“If Wu Tulong and the others hadn’t started it by saying they would ascend to immortality in Dusk Province, I wouldn’t have let a mess like the Sovereign Meet be held here in the first place.” Lu Yun smiled. “This is good, we’ll let them fight to their hearts’ content elsewhere. Meanwhile, we’ll just quietly get rich here.”

Earlier, he’d plotted to use the combat art of the Great Formation Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons as an incentive to draw attention from the so-called True Sovereign Meet. Now, however, Lu Yun had taken Donglin City, rendering his previous plan moot. 

He had another plan, one that would shake the great factions of the world of immortals and the heavenly courts, disrupting the status quo forever.

An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.

They asked for this.

……

The three days soon passed, and the day quickly arrived which countless ambitious cultivators had picked for the Sovereign Meet three years ago.

However, Dusk Province remained quiet as if nothing was taking place. There were no immortals, nor were there cultivators. The Chen cultivators and some of the Lu cultivators who’d settled down in Dusk Province seethed with humiliation. They’d been abandoned by the entire world, and some even considered leaving.

“It’s better to be a wandering cultivator than a Dusk cultivator.” Somehow, this saying quietly spread in the province, and cultivators and immortals alike began taking their leave. 

Some members of the Chen Clan and the senior members of the Lu Clan gradually lost confidence in the province as well. They didn’t fear being the world’s enemy, but they did fear being abandoned by the world. This kind of covert violence could destroy Dusk Province’s momentum and isolate them without waging a war.

The future sacred land of immortal dao?

People were the foundation of everything. Even someone who claimed to be the immortal emperor would attract no attention without any people under his command.

Dusk-bound transportation formations across the world of immortals were shut down. One could leave Dusk Province, but not enter it. In the neighboring provinces, all major paths leading to Dusk were closed off as well to stop people from entering in other ways.

Scarlet Ape followed suit and cut off the paths from the North Sea to Dusk.

Qing Han had been anxious when the news came, but calmed down after noting Lu Yun’s lack of reaction.

……

“Let’s go.” Ten days before the commencement of the True Sovereign Meet, Lu Yun sought Qing Han out.

“Where to?” Qing Han asked in confusion.

“To their Sovereign Meet, of course.” Lu Yun smiled. “I want to find out what’s going on with Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen. They should be dead, shouldn’t they?”

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