Xiwangmu, or Queen Mother of the West, was an archaic divinity that rose up during the First Antiquity Era. Originally, the Queen Mother of the West was a divinity of death and disease before suddenly becoming a goddess of longevity and life. It was only then that she took up a position as the Queen Mother of the West in the Immortal Court. Her counterpart and husband was known as King Duke of the East. However, with the destruction of the Immortal Court, she mysteriously disappeared, and it is unknown whether she still lives or not.
The Queen Mother of the West lived in Jade Mountain, of which Jade Peak was constructed from its fragments. Since then, the successors of Jade Peak could all be considered of the Queen Mother's lineage. His mother, Mengfei, cultivated the Queen Mother's Nether Origin Scripture. Daoyi's East Flowing Nether River Scripture could be said to be descended from the Nether Origin Scripture.
Mengfei was the current Jade Peak Lord, a title she kept even after becoming the third grand elder of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. It would seem that she would continue to be the Jade Peak Lord since there was no one else that cultivated the Queen Mother's lineage until Daoyi came. Going by lineage, if Daoyi managed to ascend to Immortality, there was a high chance she would become the next Jade Peak Lord. Tianyi wasn't even considered since he wasn't of the Queen Mother's lineage. It wasn't surprising as the Queen Mother's lineage consisted only of females.
Now, upon hearing that the Queen Mother's divine artifact rested here, how could Tianyi not excited? He immediately motioned for Elder Meng and Daoyi not to enter any further. He didn't want to repeat the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus incident and bring unnecessary trouble to his mother. Only she needed to know about the Artifact.
"This is good." Tianyi couldn't help grinning as he, Daoyi, and Elder Meng flew back to Paradise Sand City as soon as possible after he established a concealment formation at the entrance.
"Then I shall congratulate Senior Brother for acquiring a divine artifact." Daoyi teased as she saw Tianyi's excitement.
"What use do I have for a divine artifact? I can't even fully control an immortal artifact yet." Tianyi said, "You should congratulate mother instead. She will be able to utilize it the most out of everyone. No one in the sect will have any objections."
Daoyi blinked in surprise. She had thought Tianyi was excited because he could acquire a divine artifact. It wasn't a wrong conclusion. After all, who could resist the allure of a divine artifact? Not even Tianyi should be able to. But it turned out he was excited for Mengfei instead.
After thinking about it, Daoyi nodded in agreement. Both she and Tianyi were in the mortals, so there was no need to even consider a divine artifact. And Tianyi was not of the Queen Mother's lineage, so the divine artifact was best suited for Mengfei, who was of the Queen Mother's direct lineage. Her case was an abnormality. First, she was cultivating a technique that was extremely compatible with the divine shard. Second, her mother's clan had been affected by the divine shard's powers, so it made her even more compatible.
Thinking about it, Daoyi wondered whether the divine artifact hidden in the Earthsea Land was damaged or not. If it was damaged, it could even be like her clan's. She didn't know what circumstances led to the Spectral Rising Jewel's shattering, but a divine artifact should not be so fragile. But with the Buzhou Immortal Sect's wealth, restoring the minimum power of the divine artifact should not be an impossible task.
Tianyi immediately noticed something wrong when he entered Paradise Sand City. Since he had arrived, the tension had always been on the rise due to his manipulations in the dark. But if the tension before was fifty, then the tension currently was eight to ninety.
There were far fewer people roaming the streets. And those that did were all at least in the late Foundation Establishment Realm. It didn't take a genius to figure out something had happened while he was out. That's why Tianyi and the group quickly made their way back to the mansion.
However, on the way, Tianyi suddenly stopped and looked in a certain direction. His eyes became extremely dazzling as if they were the only thing left in the world. Daoyi felt her head empty for a second before she recomposed herself.
"Senior Brother, what happened?" She asked as they resumed their journey back.
"Nothing much. I just discovered some people following us. Despite being in the Core Formation Realm, they were able to almost avoid my senses, so I made them fall into a trance." Tianyi replied. "Isn't that right, Elder Meng."
Elder Meng nodded. She didn't attack them or inform Tianyi of them because they hadn't posed a direct danger to Tianyi. Her sole duty was to guard Tianyi's safety. Anything aside from that was out of her scope of duty.
"Someone able to almost avoid your senses?" Daoyi said in surprise. It wasn't that she didn't think that such a thing was possible. Many cultivators should be skilled enough to do so, just not the ones in this remote region. So Daoyi was surprised.
"It seems to use the principles of space, honestly speaking, if the technique were based on something else, I probably wouldn't have felt them. Too bad the techniques released ripples in space that I felt." Tianyi said.
When Tianyi and the group returned, Su Bojing immediately came up to greet them. "Young Master, something big happened!"
Hearing the urgency in Su Bojing's voice, Tianyi quickly said. "What happened?"
"It's Lei Jingye, he appeared!"
Tianyi frowned. Lei Jingye's appearance he had long waited for but was he the reason for the sudden tension? According to Tianyi's judgment, Lei Jingye should at most be a core formation master, but he couldn't discount the off chance that he had the power to kill a weak nascent soul grandmaster."
"Not just that. But when Lei Jingye appeared, he was at the peak Nascent Soul Realm!" Su Bojing said, his voice full of surprise.
"Calm down and explain it clearly," Tianyi commanded, impatience started to color his voice. He felt that something was off the moment Su Bojing said that Lei Jingye was in the peak Nascent Soul Realm. Tianyi's considered himself quite fast in cultivation even in the whole history of the Huang Realm, but Lei Jingye, who was only a few years older than him, was able to match and even exceed him.
The first time Tianyi saw Lei Jingye, Tianyi was in the Foundation Establishment Realm while Lei Jingye was in the Qi Gathering Realm. The second time, Tianyi was in the Core Formation Realm, and Lei Jingye was in the Foundation Establishment Realm. And now, the third time they meet, Lei Jingye suddenly exceeded Tianyi's cultivation realm. It honestly wasn't a good feeling.
Tianyi estimated that Lei Jingye should be at the early Nascent Soul Realm at most. His lips started to twitch as his brain generated random plotlines on how he would fall. He couldn't really be cannon fodder, could he?
"The Lei Clan's nascent soul grandmaster suddenly started to fight against the other great clans' nascent soul grandmasters. The fight started off extremely unbalanced, with the Lei Clan's nascent soul grandmaster at a disadvantage. But suddenly, Lei Jingye appeared and immediately killed one of them. But that wasn't all. Lei Jingye then easily dispatched another nascent soul grandmaster. If the Meng Clan's nascent soul grandmaster had been any slower, then he would have fallen too. Right now, he is hiding behind the Meng Clan's guardian formation and recuperating." Su Bojing said. When he had witnessed the battle, he had been shocked. "Furthermore, he looked exactly like that Longwei. When I saw Lei Jingye's portrait, I thought it was only a coincidence that he looked like Longwei and they would look slightly different in reality, but they were exactly the same down their eyelashes! Not only that, but he used the saber strike as Longwei too!"
Tianyi frowned. "You sure it wasn't a sword?"
"I'm positive." Su Bojing confirmed. "Do you think that Longwei is Lei Jingye? But that would make him a peak nascent soul grandmaster under forty-years-old!"
Su Bojing had originally thought nothing of Lei Jingye, seeing him as someone too stupid to consider the consequences. But after seeing Lei Jingye again, he was shocked that Lei Jingye was several times stronger than him.
Contemplating the events, Tianyi started to think deeper into his thoughts. Lei Jingye using the same strike as Longwei surprised him, but Tianyi thought it was Lei Jingye relying more on the Dragon Emperor's inheritance. If Lei Jingye's sudden cultivation was due to using a shortcut using the Dragon Emperor's method, Tianyi wouldn't be surprised. After all, in his first life, he did something similar. "He's not Longwei. They share an appearance and similar arts due to a secret. You shouldn't concern yourself with it."
"Secret?" Daoyi asked.
Tianyi shook his head. "I'm not sure if I can't tell you. Ask mother later. Right now, it's more important for us to inform mother of the divine artifact. I didn't expect the situation would reverse to this degree so suddenly. If I were Lei Jingye, I wouldn't bother with the injured Meng Clan's nascent soul grandmaster but retrieve the divine artifact in the desert first. Even if he doesn't know that it is a divine artifact and thinks it is an immortal artifact, that would still happen. We have to arrive first, especially since they might find it suspicious that the Core Formation Realm elders they sent out isn't returning."
Daoyi nodded, feeling that Tianyi's words made sense. Instead, it was Su Bojing that spoke out. He thought he was mishearing when Tianyi spoke about divine artifacts. Even the Buzhou Immortal Sect didn't have one! At least publically, to Su Bojing's knowledge. But he found it absolutely weird that Tianyi was in such a rush, afraid that a mere nascent soul grandmaster would steal it from Grand Elder Xi. "There's no need to be so urgent. Right, Young Master? That Longwei or whatever Lei Jingye can't even compare to Grand Elder Xi's pinkie."
Tianyi frowned and glared at Su Bojing. "What do you understand!? I can sense a large amount of karmic luck on that Lei Jingye. If we're not careful, he might actually accomplish it!" That was a lie, but Tianyi didn't doubt that Lei Jingye had a large amount of luck, he was someone who regressed in time, after all.
Tianyi paused as he felt his agitated state. What was wrong with him? He had never been this uneasy. Did Lei Jingye's cultivation really provoke him that much? "Sorry, for some reason, I'm very agitated right now."
"It's fine Young Master. You're right. If something happened, that it wouldn't be something the excuse of not expecting it would fix. This is a divine artifact, after all." After seeing Tianyi's agitation, Su Bojing half believed that there really was a divine artifact, or at least something equal. It wasn't that he didn't trust Tianyi's words, just that a divine artifact was just too rare, something only divinities could refine. There were no divinities in the current era, so the only divine artifacts were from the divinities of the past.
Tianyi quickly made it to his mother's room, and after Tianyi's explanation, Mengfei quickly stood up. Although her Dao wasn't the same as the Queen Mother of the West's, just ruminating on the divine artifact would be a huge aid to her and her cultivation.
The group of five quickly left the city under Mengfei's powers. But before they left, Tianyi deployed some combat puppets against Lei Jingye just in case. But the combat puppets were something Tianyi made on a whim. There was only one with the power of a nascent soul grandmaster, and the rest were Core Formation Realm puppets that he had forged base on the previous one. But in terms of material, Tianyi absolutely guaranteed their sturdiness.
"Jing'er, what's the rush?" Lei De asked his son. His son had only returned recently, but he already overturned the disadvantage situation for the Lei Clan. "Shouldn't we deal with that Meng Nang first?"
"Father, one moment the immortal artifact isn't mine is one more moment that it could be taken. What kind of a thing is that Meng Nang, just a two-colored nascent soul grandmaster, trash." Lei Jingye said, his face extremely cold, not giving any face for Lei De at all.
Lei Jingye wore a yellow robe with a saber at his side, and there was a murderous aura between his brows. His body was filled with a bloody aura that could only be accumulated after killing an unaccountable number of lifeforms.
Lei De stood there awkwardly. In the past, Lei Jingye had never spoken to him like this, and the strong pressure coming from Lei Jingye oppressed him. Although he felt aggrieved, what could he do? He was weaker than Lei Jingye. And he discovered that Lei Jingye had changed a lot. Just what happened to cause Lei Jingye to become this cold? Lei De felt heartache for his son.
"Alright, alright. Just let me contact Elder Cai first, okay?" Lei De said, giving in. The Lei Clan's nascent soul grandmaster had suffered some injuries during the fight and was in seclusion to heal himself. So Lei Jingye was currently the strongest person present. That wouldn't change even if the Lei Clan's nascent soul grandmaster was present.
Lei De's face suddenly changed. "I can't contact Elder Cai. Something must have happened to them."
Lei Jingye sneered and started to leave.
"Jing'er! Where are you going?" Lei De asked and followed Lei Jingye.
"Where else? To retrieve the immortal artifact before someone does." Lei Jingye said as he soared through the air once he exited the building.
Lei De sighed. After summoning half of the remaining Core Formation Realm elders, Lei De followed Lei Jingye, who was far ahead. It wasn't that Lei De didn't want the immortal artifact, but he had to consider for the Lei Clan. They had just killed two of the three great clans' nascent soul grandmasters. They had to wary of any last-ditch counterattacks. Even a cornered rabbit would retaliate, much less a human. If Lei Jingye left, the Core Formation Realm elders wouldn't be enough to stop the great clans' counterattack. And the ancestor still had to recuperate.
Up ahead, Lei Jingye's eyes were practically spitting fire. Immediately after he exited Paradise Sand City, he had been besieged by a Nascent Soul Realm combat puppet and numerous Core Formation Realm combat puppets. Recalling how the Lei Clan's situation deteriorated and the sudden appearance of the puppets that shouldn't exist in such a remote place, Lei Jingye was sure that someone was dealing with the Lei Clan.
What made him warier was that the materials used to construct the Core Formation Realm puppets were completely wasteful. They could have been used to construct a Unity Realm puppet. The person who constructed it should have a considerable background, and this made Lei Jingye even more anxious. He needed to replenish his stock of immortal artifacts.