Chapter 402: Secret Realm

In the starry sky, a star a million kilometers across burned slowly, its radiance lighting the galaxy. Abruptly, a spatial distortion appeared not far from the star.

Before anyone could even tell where the spatial distortion had come from, something stirred deep within the star's core, like a whirlpool forming in previously calm water. Fireless flames and radiance began spiraling and collapsing inward toward the star's interior. Then, in the next moment, it all erupted into a gorgeous, blazing ring of light, as the star released every last bit of its brilliance in one final burst.

At the center of that resplendent ring hung, unmistakably, a Primordial Void! Or rather, a grotto-heaven, something far more stable than the Primordial Void state.

The grotto-heaven breathed in and out, and even the radiance a star had just released with all its might was swiftly torn apart and swallowed by its power. Soon, that brilliant stretch of sky went dark.

Then three figures appeared in the starry sky where stray energy still lingered.

Had any true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect been present, they would have recognized the three at once. They were the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, Zong Wenxian, together with two supreme elders, Bu Zhou and Dong Xi.

"This isn't their spatial node," Zong Wenxian said.

"But we're getting close." Light flickered in Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's eyes. "The Light Divine Race wants to keep a treasure land like this all to themselves? They haven't asked whether our Heavenly Dao Sect agrees."

"The Light Divine Race already has eight divine sovereigns spread across this starfield. Only six are intercepting us, but they've operated here for a long time, and we're still outnumbered, so of course we've struggled to find the hidden spatial coordinates and the secret realm that can be found through the coordinates." Perfected Lord Dong Xi pondered aloud. "I believe we need more reinforcements."

Then he added, "If it becomes necessary, we should inform the other immortal sects."

"The Light Divine Race's ancestor god has gone deep into the starry sky and never returned, same as our Heavenly Dao Sect's Central Heaven Dao Lord. With no Dao Lord to threaten us, a single Light Divine Race is something we can defeat." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou was full of confidence. "Once we find that secret realm and confirm it really yields such astonishing wealth, I will personally go to the depths of the stellar core and ask my senior brother to act. Then, with overwhelming momentum, we'll crush every divine sovereign of the Light Divine Race."

"Judging by the three cargo ships we've intercepted, that secret realm is certainly real. The divine race couldn't have hauled in so much otherwise," Zong Wenxian said, a trace of heat in his eyes. "The place where a Dao Lord passed in meditation..."

He wasn't alone; Perfected Lord Bu Zhou and Perfected Lord Dong Xi felt the same.

The starry sky and battlefield beyond the domain had always been contested ground between the human race and the alien races: the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects, the Nine Demon Race lineages, the Six Great Fiendish Dao Sects, and the Ten Divine Races.

Factions that couldn't claim a share of the core interests on the North Sea Star sent disciples and battle immortals out to the surrounding worlds and stars to scrape together resources for their own use, while the stronger powers simply robbed ready-made spoils on the North Sea Star's periphery.

The process was perilous, and the returns rarely matched the cost, but with the North Sea Star's interests carved up clean, risking their own lives was the only way to earn more.

Not long ago, Zong Wenxian had received intelligence that a fully laden fleet of the divine race was planning to return to the North Sea Star, and he had brought people to intercept it.

Intercepting that fleet netted resources that amounted to a tidy windfall, even for the sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.

The information that followed hinted at more: the Light Divine Race had discovered, out beyond the starry sky, a secret realm formed where a Dao Lord had passed in meditation. Because of the vast distance, they were shuttling through spatial nodes, hauling all the materials steeped in Dao resonance that they had found on the realm's periphery back to the North Sea Star.

Being caught by the Heavenly Dao Sect had been pure happenstance.

To keep the news from spreading, the divine race had not hesitated to send six great divine sovereigns to hunt Zong Wenxian down.

Zong Wenxian, realizing what such a secret realm was worth, had just as quickly sent word back to the sect, after which Perfected Lord Bu Zhou arrived with reinforcements: four supreme elders in all, with Yuan Xing, Dong Xi, and Liao Chen among them.

In the years since, the Light Divine Race's divine sovereigns had kept blockading the Heavenly Dao Sect, while the Heavenly Dao Sect's people evaded the blockade and searched for the spatial node that would carry them to the region of the starry sky that held the Dao Lord's secret realm. The two sides had traded blows across this stretch of stars for decades.

"A Dao Lord passing in meditation is not the same as dying and falling. The Great Dao power in his body disperses, and the entire secret realm becomes steeped in Dao resonance, turning it into precious material; even with only a light refinement, the material can be used directly to forge Dao Artifacts. Beyond that, a Dao Lord's place of passing is bound to hold treasures of every kind: pills, Dao Techniques, cultivation methods, Dao Artifacts... even high-grade Dao Artifacts. If we're lucky, we might find a top-tier Dao Artifact!" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's eyes were full of greed. "One way or another, we must find the Light Divine Race's spatial node and dig out the exact location of that Dao Lord's secret realm!"

Perfected Lord Dong Xi nodded. He held to neutrality within the Heavenly Dao Sect's Supreme Elder Council, but when it came to fighting for the sect's interests, his position naturally aligned with Zong Wenxian's.

"We keep searching," the perfected lord said.

But just then Zong Wenxian frowned, as if some message had reached him.

"What is it?" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou asked.

"I'm afraid we need to go back," Zong Wenxian said in a low voice.

"Go back?" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou was taken aback. "Now? The moment we leave this starry sky, the Light Divine Race's divine sovereigns will hide themselves deeper, maybe even relocate or destroy the spatial node. If that happens, finding the starry sky of the Dao Lord's secret realm again will be exponentially harder."

"I don't want to go back either. But if we don't... the sect might be taken over by an outsider." Zong Wenxian drew the message from the communication jade talisman in his hand and passed it to the two supreme elders via psychic thought.

Within moments, both men's faces changed.

"The Void-Shattering Realm already?"

"That Yaoguang... How is he advancing this fast?!"

"His advancement isn't the point. The point is that the instant he reached the Void-Shattering Realm, he arranged a grand advancement ceremony. He didn't do so in the Southern Capital, but he decided to go back to the sect. You two supremes understand what that means better than I do. So..." Zong Wenxian sighed. "I have no choice but to go back."

"But... only by staying here, looking for the spatial node and watching the surroundings, can we keep the Light Divine Race from daring to destroy it, lest we catch the disturbance of its collapse and derive the secret realm's starry sky from the wreckage. If we go back now, doesn't everything we've done go to waste?" Perfected Lord Dong Xi was frowning too.

"It can't be helped. Yaoguang is plainly the Penglai Dao Lord's creation. Without that Dao Lord's support, how could he have reached the Void-Shattering Realm in such a short time? Now he's holding his advancement ceremony at the sect, building up considerable prestige and renown. Once he's done that, odds are he'll bring up the southern domain's development these past years and petition the Golden Book Venerable to succeed as sect master. So I have to go back!" Zong Wenxian said helplessly.

"Damn him!" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou burst out cursing on the spot. "He's good for nothing but ruin! We supreme elders fight the Light Divine Race to the death out beyond the domain, and he spends his days at the sect stirring infighting and division, and now he dares scheme for the sect master's seat?! After all the Heavenly Dao Sect poured into raising him, the ungrateful wretch!"

Perfected Lord Dong Xi glanced at Perfected Lord Bu Zhou. So this is where the man stands on anything related to Zong Wenxian. Stirring infighting and division, isn't that Zong Wenxian's own specialty? As for the Heavenly Dao Sect's raising Yaoguang? Heh. Does the Heavenly Dao Sect have the nerve to claim credit for that?

But this truly was the critical period for locating the Dao Lord's secret realm, so he didn't say anything aloud

"I'll make the trip back," Zong Wenxian said, then added, "I'll go alone. We need more hands anyway. I'll inform Supreme Elder Zhen Xuanyuan of this matter and bring two more supreme elders back with me. Surely he can tell what takes priority."

"No need for you to go." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou waved a hand. "If you leave, the Light Divine Race is certain to sense something. I'll go!"

A trace of cold light entered his eyes. "The secret realm is as good as confirmed. When the time comes to overpower the Light Divine Race, we'll need my senior brother sooner or later. I go back this once to do two things: teach a lesson to those in the sect who ignore the greater picture and can't tell good from bad, and then head into the depths of the stellar core to invite my senior brother here. With his power, if we can capture a divine sovereign alive, we can force the secret realm's exact location out of him."

"Bu Zhou, if you go..." Something flickered in Zong Wenxian's eyes.

But Perfected Lord Bu Zhou waved him off. "Leave it to me. We fight and bleed out here on the front line while Yaoguang whips up a storm behind our backs. This time I'll make him understand that the Heavenly Dao Sect is our Heavenly Dao Sect, not a place where a man who reached the Void-Shattering Realm by clinging to a wom—to an outsider's support gets to run wild!"

Seeing that, Zong Wenxian didn't press the matter. He only said, "With you handling it, Bu Zhou, I can rest easy. I'll write a letter to Supreme Elder Zhen Xuanyuan detailing the opportunity before us. Surely he'll understand what matters most."

Perfected Lord Bu Zhou nodded.

The two conferred and quickly decided their new course of action. Perfected Lord Dong Xi listened in silence from the side and said nothing, keeping to his neutral stance.

***

Yaoguang knew nothing of what had happened in the starry sky beyond the domain.

The massive fleet under his command was publicly making its way from the southern domain straight into the central domain under the sect's direct administration.

Unlike during the journey to take up his post in the southern domain years ago, this time many Void-Piercing families living along the route, and even factions backed by Void-Refining peak masters, came out to welcome the fleet midway, laying out pills, spirit wines, and delicacies of every kind.

Yaoguang didn't refuse them. He had returned to the Heavenly Dao Sect precisely to contest the sect master's seat with Zong Wenxian; this was no time for a low profile, and the proper pomp could not be skimped on.

These Void-Piercing and Void-Refining families welcoming and entertaining him were, in essence, betting on him in his contest with Zong Wenxian.

A Void-Shattering cultivator barely a hundred years into his cultivation, who in mere decades had built the southern domain up to an annual income of three hundred million: who could compare with such extraordinary capabilities?

Without any accidents, as time went on and more refiners flowed into the southern domain, its warship and artifact-refining industries would even expand further.

The warship industry alone might come to hold ninety percent of the North Sea Star's market. What colossal returns would that bring the southern domain, and the Heavenly Dao Sect?

Anyone could see that Yaoguang's rise was unstoppable, and the fact that he'd replace Zong Wenxian already seemed certain. Currying favor early was unquestionably the right choice.

And so, in this lively atmosphere all along the way, the fleet of thirty-odd warships at last arrived at the Heavenly Dao Sect.

After decades away, Yaoguang once more set foot on the ground he had chosen as the Nine Cauldrons Sect's place to stand.