Chapter 397: Alliance

Any Dao Lord!

From those words alone, Yaoguang could feel the Penglai Dao Lord's confidence in her own strength. Then again, she likely had the ability to back her words.

Though she had attained her Dao far faster than any other Dao Lord, her two most glorious feats had shaken the entire North Sea.

She had beaten the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion into sealing its gates, and sent the Jade Scale Demon Paragon fleeing with his tail between his legs. How many in this world could claim as much?

"Dao Lord, you think highly of me. Do you believe I can achieve Dao Integration?" Yaoguang asked with a smile.

"You reached the Void-Shattering Realm within a century, and have reached the mastery stage of more than one Dao Technique. You still have thousands of years ahead of you, during which practicing even a dozen Dao Techniques to perfection would be no idle dream with your ability. In fact... it may not even take you a thousand years before the number of Dao Techniques you reach perfection with outnumbers the fingers of one hand, and you will naturally attempt Dao Integration," the Penglai Dao Lord said. "My own integration took barely a thousand years. But reaching the Void-Shattering Realm took me two hundred."

Yaoguang had done in one hundred years what had taken her two hundred, and he stood as deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, ruling the southern domain, in circumstances far better than hers had been. Naturally, she judged him qualified to attempt Dao Integration within the next thousand years.

Of course, being qualified was one thing; success would depend on Yaoguang himself.

"You flatter me, and also really trust me. But... sheltering the Penglai Immortal Sect's survival and development..." Yaoguang shook his head. "I am a deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, and with my current strength, I intend to contend for the sect master's position as well. Compared to the Penglai Immortal Sect, isolated across the sea, facing the demon race head-on, without a single expert of real standing, the Heavenly Dao Sect's prospects are incomparably better."

"Prospects..." the Penglai Dao Lord said mildly. "If prospects were really all I cared about, I could have simply conquered the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion back then and demanded its throne. The whole Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion would have welcomed me with open arms."

She glanced at Yaoguang. "And if I wished to rule the Heavenly Dao Sect, the Central Heaven Dao Lord would not refuse me either."

That took Yaoguang by surprise.

"To a Dao Lord, nothing matters but the Dao Contest that comes once every ten thousand years! Everything else—sect inheritance, disciples, and even the division of profits—is secondary, a mere convenience, someone to handle the trivialities. Take the Central Heaven Dao Lord: If another Dao Lord of the Great Dao of truth demanded the entire Heavenly Dao Sect, at the price of sitting out this Dao Contest, the Central Heaven Dao Lord would agree without any hesitation," the Penglai Dao Lord said. "Conversely, if a Dao Lord offered to aid him during the Dao Contest, holding off one rival Dao Lord at the crucial moment, he would pay any price for it."

"And the Golden Book Venerable would allow that?" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"He would take the Great Dao Golden Book with him," the Penglai Dao Lord said. "Besides, the Great Dao Golden Book is only an artifact spirit in the end. Its strength may be above the Void-Shattering Realm, but it is no match for a true Dao Lord."

Yaoguang's impression of this Dao Lord shifted somewhat. She had founded her sect on the Deep-Blue Sea to win new territory for the human race.

"When the Gate of the Immortal Realm opens, the whole North Sea Star will descend into chaos. With the Dao contest at hand, every Dao Lord will have their hands full. So before I ascend, I will drive into the demon race's heartland and slay the Jade Scale Demon Paragon. You don't need to worry that sheltering the Penglai Immortal Sect will bring reprisal from anything at the demon paragon level," the Penglai Dao Lord explained, then gave a light laugh. "Leaving the Penglai Immortal Sect standing on the Deep-Blue Sea, giving humanity's future cultivators one more path to choose from, is the legacy I want to leave behind on the North Sea Star."

Yaoguang felt real respect for that. But the thought of the character of those deputy sect masters of hers made him want to keep as far from them as possible.

Besides, from the Penglai Dao Lord's perspective, even if he successfully became a Dao Lord, his shallow foundation meant he could never compete with the old guard of the void for a spot through the Gate of the Immortal Realm.

He himself knew better: there was a ninety percent chance that he wouldn't pass up this opening. He had no intention of waiting another ten thousand years.

And if he intended to enter the Gate of the Immortal Realm, then however much he might wish to protect the Penglai Immortal Sect, he would lack the means.

"My apologies. Even without the Jade Scale Demon Paragon, the Deep-Blue Sea still has many demon emperors and demon sovereigns. I may not be able to protect the Penglai Immortal Sect. And besides..." Yaoguang gave the Penglai Dao Lord a level look. "I doubt the acting sect master and deputy sect masters of the Penglai Immortal Sect would accept my protection."

The Penglai Dao Lord understood his meaning. Those disciples of hers... After brief consideration, she reached her decision. "If those disciples of mine don't measure up, expel them from the sect. Simple as that."

Weighing her words against what she had said before, Yaoguang gradually grasped her true meaning. What she wanted wasn't for him to protect her disciples.

It was to ensure that the trace she left on the Deep-Blue Sea would not be wiped away by the demon race, and that the powers who had placed their faith in her would not be met with calamity the moment she ascended.

She was taking responsibility for every cultivator, every living soul on the Deep-Blue Sea who trusted her. Based on that alone, this Dao Lord deserved to be called a good person.

It fit, too. The Penglai Dao Lord hadn't cultivated for that long. She had survived brush after brush with death, yet the fact that she had never erased the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion said it plainly; she was not like the teeming masses of the North Sea Star. And it was precisely that difference that had let her disciples turn out the way they had.

At that thought, Yaoguang made up his mind. "Since you believe I have a real hope of integration, what if I, too, want to contend when the Gate of the Immortal Realm opens this time?"

The Penglai Dao Lord was visibly caught off guard. But when her perception told her Yaoguang did not appear to be joking...

"Are you serious?" She glanced at the Southern Capital bustling with construction all around them. "Set aside how deadly this Dao Contest would be for you. Even if you really overpowered every rival and seized a place through the Gate of the Immortal Realm, everything in the Southern Capital... and the Nine Cauldrons Sect that followed you here... Would you abandon it all?"

Yaoguang quickly saw through the question. The reason this Dao Lord wanted him as the Penglai Immortal Sect's protector was not just his ability and talent; it was the loyalty he had shown, never once forsaking the people of the Nine Cauldrons Sect who had come with him from Cangwu.

"If I told you I am fully confident that the Southern Capital will be safe even after my departure, would you consider a different form of trade?"

"Leaving, yet keeping the Southern Capital safe..."

The Penglai Dao Lord looked around once more, and her gaze finally settled on the Limitless Sword. As she studied it closely, she began to sense that this Dao Artifact was not as simple as she had assumed.

"Artifact refinement? You want to forge a semi-immortal artifact like the Great Dao Golden Book to guard the Southern Capital?" The Penglai Dao Lord shook her head. "Relying on a powerful Dao Artifact to anchor a sect is no blessing. It invites covetous eyes all too easily..."

She turned to Yaoguang, curiosity plain on her face. "I cannot quite read you. Where exactly does this confidence of yours come from?"

"Since you have had people look into me, perhaps you've heard that back in Cangwu I carried a title: Unrivaled in Arrays and Artifacts. I'm not just formidable at artifact refinement; I also have a profound understanding of array arts. Fifteen years ago, when the Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators invaded, two Void-Shattering and five Void-Refining fiends perished inside the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array. There is no better proof." Yaoguang lifted his gaze to the streams of light flickering now and then around the Southern Capital. "Even a semi-immortal artifact as mighty as the Great Dao Golden Book might not withstand a Dao Lord's greed. But what if such an artifact were paired with a level 15 quasi-immortal array, or even a true immortal array?"

"Unrivaled in Arrays and Artifacts..."

The Penglai Dao Lord's gaze drifted involuntarily to the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, and only now did she register that this array had reached the tier of the very finest grand arrays.

Admittedly, all top-tier grand arrays were the same to her. But if this array could climb one more level and reach the quasi-immortal tier, with an artifact spirit of the same caliber as the Great Dao Golden Book presiding over it, it would be capable of holding off a Dao Lord. And if the array could reach the true immortal level...

The look the Penglai Dao Lord gave Yaoguang shifted from curiosity and surprise to something like genuine regard, and she began speaking to him as an equal. "You can set up an immortal array?"

"Not yet. But if I become a Dao Lord..." Yaoguang's face showed the same confidence she had worn at the start. "Setting up an immortal array should be feasible."

An immortal array!

Array casters were rarer and more precious than refiners. Artifact paragons who could forge Dao Artifacts while at the Void-Piercing, Void-Refining, or Void-Shattering Realms were few, but they existed.

An array caster who could set up top-tier arrays at that stage was rarer than an artifact paragon. In the present world, ninety-nine percent of all Dao Artifacts and top arrays were forged and laid by Dao Lords through brute force.

If Yaoguang really possessed such attainments in both arrays and artifacts...

"Keep talking like that, and I'll be tempted to carry you off to the Penglai Immortal Sect to set up arrays and forge artifacts just for me," the Penglai Dao Lord said.

"You must be joking. If I never achieve integration, I'll spend my life unable to forge an immortal artifact or set up an immortal array, producing nothing but Dao Artifacts and top-tier arrays, which are of little value to a Dao Lord. And if I do integrate... Dao Lord, you're entering the Gate of the Immortal Realm in a thousand years. You would not want an enemy like me," Yaoguang said. "Besides, I trust your character."

"Now that I like to hear," The Penglai Dao Lord told Yaoguang, delight showing between her brows. "And you're telling me all this because..."

"To change the terms of the trade," Yaoguang said. "Dao Lord, give me your full support until my Dao Integration. Once my integration succeeds, I will forge a semi-immortal artifact in no way inferior to the Great Dao Golden Book for the Penglai Immortal Sect as well, and set up an immortal array. Afterward, if I attempt to enter the Gate of the Immortal Realm, we stand as allies. If I do not pass through the gate, I will protect the Penglai Immortal Sect. What do you say?"