Chapter 514: All Pretenses Are Off

As both were Noble Families founded by Saints, they knew each other inside and out, so the Helian Family could easily surmise the Tantai Family’s intentions.

However, with the Demon Calamity imminent, the Helian Family had to devise a countermeasure. Immortal Ascension Island was no place to linger; they would have to evacuate sooner or later.

They had already sent an Elder to persuade the Gongsun Family, revealing some of the truth behind the theft of the Three Saints Heart Refining Pill from all those years ago.

But so far, there had been no response. The Helian Family couldn’t just have Helian Wen come forward to tell his side of the story, and the Gongsun Family remained noncommittal.

“Our only option now is to join forces with the Gongsun Family. The accumulated resources of the Tantai Family’s Little World would be enough for both our families to relocate and evacuate,” a Helian Family Elder said, his expression frigid.

This was the course of action the Helian Family’s leadership had agreed upon.

The Tantai Family and the Helian Family had a long-standing feud, and this was the perfect opportunity to settle old and new scores alike.

If they allowed the Tantai Family to ally with the Prime Minister’s Mansion, the Tantai Family would surely grow stronger with their help and eventually swallow up both the Helian and Gongsun Families.

Just as the Helian Family’s leadership was deliberating on how to handle the situation, a piece of news suddenly surfaced, spreading rapidly through the cities and causing a huge uproar.

An investigation by the Four Great Royal Families finally uncovered a few clues.

On that day, Jiang Lan’s two followers had been led away by several young disciples who claimed to be from the Helian Family. The reason they gave was that they had discovered a disturbance at the Demon Abyss, and many cultivators had witnessed the scene firsthand.

As soon as the news broke, it caused a tremendous stir. Was the Helian Family truly so brazen? Not only were they clashing with the Tantai Family, but now they were deliberately opposing the Prime Minister’s Mansion?

The Four Great Royal Families went even further, harshly reprimanding the Helian Family and demanding they hand over the people.

The Helian Family’s actions were seen as a provocation not only against the Prime Minister’s Mansion but also against the authority of Great Xia itself.

Even as a Noble Family founded by a Saint, the Helian Family could not act with such blatant disregard for all others; they would surely face the consequences.

Seizing the opportunity, the Tantai Family fanned the flames, chiming in to warn the Helian Family not to involve outsiders. They declared that Jiang Lan was an honored guest of the Tantai World, and to offend him was to offend the Tantai Family.

Whether the news was true or false, no one knew, but all fingers were now pointing at the Helian Family.

Upon learning of this, the Helian Family’s leadership was furious, cursing and insisting that Jiang Lan had orchestrated the entire affair himself.

Even if the Helian Family wanted to move against him, they wouldn’t resort to such a despicable tactic as kidnapping his two followers. What would be the point?

However, the Helian Family had recently dispatched numerous young disciples to fight the Tantai Family, sparking major battles and causing unrest in many regions.

Many people already sensed that something was amiss; it seemed the Helian Family truly intended to go to war with the Tantai Family.

And since Jiang Lan was known to be close to the Tantai Family, it seemed perfectly plausible that the Helian Family, not daring to attack him directly, would kidnap his followers instead.

The situation on Immortal Ascension Island spiraled further into chaos. The Helian Family’s pent-up anger was finally ignited, and they decided they would endure it no longer.

Previously, only the younger generation had been involved, and the conflict hadn’t escalated. But now, experts from the older generation began to enter the fray, clashing head-on with the Tantai Family in major cities and mining districts, no longer holding back as terrifying battles erupted.

One cultivator witnessed an astonishing fluctuation of Runes in a nearby mountain range, surging like a vast ocean. An endless light then shot into the sky, as if a star had fallen and exploded. Terrifying energy swept across a radius of hundreds of miles, annihilating everything in its path.

The two combatants were clan elders from the Helian and Tantai Families, both at the Seventh Realm of cultivation.

Both men were profoundly powerful and had been famous for years, capable of wielding power that could burn mountains and boil seas with a mere gesture. The grandson of one of these elders had been gravely injured in a joint attack by several young disciples from the Helian Family. He had nearly died, and though his life was saved, a full recovery would take three to five years. In effect, his future as a cultivator had been destroyed.

This had enraged the Tantai Family clan elder, who personally went to demand justice. However, the Helian Family showed no intention of offering an explanation and even sent one of their own Elders to intercept him.

As more figures from the older generation entered the conflict, the other factions that had been observing from the sidelines sensed the danger and began to evacuate Immortal Ascension Island.

There was a reason the Noble Families founded by Saints could endure for millennia, witnessing the world change around them. When cultivators fought, mortals suffered. But when these great Noble Families went to war, lesser Dao Lineages and factions caught in the crossfire could be annihilated in an instant.

At this point, even the Gongsun Family’s attempts to mediate were useless. Both the Helian Family and the Tantai Family were now fighting with genuine, unrestrained fury.

The Tantai Family adamantly insisted that the Helian Family was harboring Helian Wen, had betrayed the teachings of their ancestors, and was collaborating with the Demon Race. They even claimed the Helians intended to destroy the seal on the Demon Abyss to open a path for the demons to descend upon the world.

The two great families had now completely cast aside all pretenses. The entire Helian Family, from the highest elder to the lowest disciple, was naturally enraged by the Tantai Family’s slander and their twisting of the truth.

The Elder Pavilion had been established jointly by the three Guardian Noble Families, but as the Helian and Tantai Families’ conflict erupted into open hostility, it too began to fracture.

…

Within days, the situation on Immortal Ascension Island had spiraled completely out of control.

Both the Helian Family and the Tantai Family were now consumed by true rage. Their clan members in the various cities were recalled, and within their respective Little Worlds, they prepared for war. One after another, Ancient War Chariots took to the sky, rumbling as they ascended with a brilliant radiance, presenting the unmistakable image of two powers preparing for a battle to the death.