The Descending Immortal Embassy resembled a beautiful pillar that could be found in any palace. However, the sheer size of it dwarfed many mortal palaces by severalfold. If a mortal were to see it, they would think it was a pillar of a titan's abode or the pillar that separated the sky and earth, preventing the two from intersecting.
As an immortal artifact, the Descending Immortal Embassy could only be controlled by an immortal, not because of its rank but its unique abilities. The sole purpose of the immortal artifact was to be used as a base of operations for whenever it shipped its passengers to another realm.
That's right, the Descending Immortal Embassy had the feature of shuttling cultivators to various realms. Only immortal monarchs were able to safely traverse the Vast Void that the various realms of the Three Thousand Realms System. Ordinary true immortals could travel as well, but it would not be as safe and much more time-consuming.
Using the Descending Immortal Embassy, true immortals could traverse different realms even faster than immortal monarchs could. And this was an artifact that only the Buzhou Immortal Realm could produce. With their control of the Huang Realm's dimensional walls, the other two hegemonic sects could only dream on if they wanted to construct their own Descending Immortal Embassy.
At this moment, Tianyi, Daoyi, and Xi Ri stepped towards the Descending Immortal Embassy. Although it appeared like a pillar, the inside was an artificial estate with clear skies, meadows, and rivers. Tianyi felt as if he was stepping into Immortal Ironword's inheritance grotto once more. Tianyi's group was not considered too early nor too late, just right. Already, numerous participants were arriving at the Descending Heavenly Pillar. Right now, all of them were on the first level of the artifact.
Upon seeing Tianyi, Xia Yushan walked over and greeted the trio. "Junior Brother Xi, Junior Sister Jiang, Junior Brother Ri."
The three greeted Xia Yushan and began making small talk with Xia Yushan's group. The conversation naturally drifted towards the Demon Slaying Expedition.
"Which elders are in charge of the expedition?" Tianyi asked. The ones present were all disciples, so the immortal elders should be in the core area of the Descending Heavenly Pillar.
"Would you even recognize them?" Xia Yushan asked with a chuckle, but before Tianyi could refute, he answered the question. "It's not a group of elders, but a single elder."
"Oh?" Tianyi said with great curiosity. It must be known that despite the disparity of strength between immortals and mortals, true immortals were still just one person. To oversee the disciples of various sects, a single true immortal was not enough. As for whether the immortals of the vassal sects would participate? This particular Demon Slaying Expedition actually had a prefix, the Mortal Demon Slaying Expedition.
Given that the time flow of the Demon Cage Realm was ten times faster, a thousand years was more than enough for the resources to grow plump enough to be plucked. However, for those in the immortal realm, it would take far longer. In the Huang Realm, the Mortal Demon Slaying Expedition was held every hundred years, as for the Immortal Demon Slaying Expedition? Every ten thousand years.
Ten thousand years might sound like a long time, but it was actually quite short for the near-infinite lifespan of an immortal. The Immortal Demon Slaying Expedition had already been held once, and there were some voices voting to extend the recuperation period of the Demon Cage Realm. The voices surprisingly didn't originate from the Buzhou Immortal Sect but the vassal sects instead.
The thought of having the vassal sect's immortal elder supervise their own disciples? That was not possible. The vassal sects allowed the Buzhou Immortal Sect to supervise and guarantee the lives of their disciples as both a sign of trust and submission. As for guaranteeing the lives of the disciples, they naturally weren't informed. If they knew they weren't in any true danger, could they grow and be tempered?
Perhaps, but the efficiency would drastically drop.
What else could they do? The Buzhou Immortal Sect was far too powerful. If it were like the Earth Continent, they would at least have an option of inserting their people like how the Eternal Night Sect did to the Eight Pillars Sect during the most recent Three Heavens Connection Gathering. At the very least, their situation was not as bad as the Mortal Continent, where the Saintly Scholar School dominated everything. They at least had their autonomy.
"So who is it?" Tianyi asked, his curiosity brimming.
"Elder Jadeflame of Jade Peak." Xia Yushan said with a meaningful smile.
"Him?" Tianyi said with surprise.
Elder Jadeflame was an idle immortal monarch of Jade Peak. Before he retired to wholeheartedly focus on the dao, he used to be a head elder. But now, his influence was actually worse than Mengfei. Why would such a person oversee the Demon Slaying Expedition?
Thinking it through, Tianyi couldn't help but link it to his mother asking Elder Jadeflame to watch over him. He quickly shook his head.
Impossible. Why would an immortal monarch lower his position just to protect a mortal like me? It's more likely that Elder Jadeflame had some business with the Demon Cage Realm, and mother probably asked him to look out for me as a side gig.
Sigh, I feel as if I'm becoming a bit too narcissistic. Why would an immortal monarch specifically come out of seclusion to protect me?
Tianyi and co continued to speak with Xia Yushan and co about idle matters from the daily matters of the sect and what to expect from the Demon Slaying Expedition.
"I didn't participate in the previous Demon Slaying Expedition, but from what I heard, there are also humans living there. Heed my advice-" Before Xia Yushan could finish, a commotion broke out at the entrance of the Descending Immortal Embassy.
Dressed in virtuous yellow and jade green kasayas, the monks of the Buddhist Sect arrived fashionably late. With their shiny hairless heads reflecting the light, they were like a lamp on a dark road.
Tianyi rubbed his chin. Did the Buddhists purposely arrive so late? Before now, none of the disciples of the various sects, including the Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples, had seen or interacted with the Buddhists due to them secluding themselves in the monastery provided by the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
"Tsk, aren't the monks afraid of offending us coming this late?" Wei Daying grumbled in his breath.
He wasn't the only one who thought that way. Not only did the Buddhists arrive near the absolute deadline, but they constantly exuded a holier-than-thou attitude, causing great displeasure among the people present. They walked inside and stood at an empty spot with no intent to interact with others.
Finally, a disciple of the Nihility Sect couldn't stand the silence of the Buddhists anymore. In contrast to the Buddhists who were practically glowing, the disciple who stood out was surrounded by shadows, like an anthropomorphization of darkness. In fact, Tianyi was sure that there was karmic virtue gathered around them, just that he could no longer sense karmic virtue or sin, so he wasn't entirely sure. Besides, wasn't karmic virtue a must-have for all Buddhist cultivators in novels?
"Amitabha, benefactor, why are you doing this?" A nameless monk stepped out from the group and bowed, showing a deferential and non-confrontational attitude.
"Bullshit, as newcomers, how is this showing respect to seniors?" The Nihility Sect disciples crudely retorted. "After offending us, you think you can just say a few pretty words?"
At those words, many of the disciples watching this frowned. They didn't mind probing the Buddhist Sect, but they didn't want to go too overboard either. The other sect disciples looked towards the Nihility Sect disciples and saw them watching the show calmy.
Seeing this, the onlookers shrugged. If the Nihility Sect wanted to play the bad guys, they were happy to play the good guys.
This wasn't the first time such an event happen. Among all of the Buzhou Immortal Sect's vassal sects, the Nihility Sect had the worst reputation and had the worst relationship with other sects. Their main headquarters was hidden from others and was secretive to the point that their disciples needed to be retrieved by elders if they wanted to return to the sect headquarters.
The Nihility Sect operated like an underground power that accepted sabotages and assassinations. They even killed the immortals of other sects, but they didn't go too far and didn't cross the bottom line of the other first-rate sects. In fact, many rising powers were nipped at the bud by them. Some even speculated that the Nihility Sect was the Buzhou Immortal Sect's secret pawn to keep the vassal sects under control.
Naturally, this meant that the Nihility Sect didn't dare to assassinate or sabotage the Buzhuo Immortal Sect. Otherwise, they would be wiped out. However, whether this was true, no one knew.
All in all, no one was too surprised at the Nihility Sect disciple's attitude.
"Benefactor, what do you suggest then? I am willing to seek everyone's forgiveness." The monk asked.
The Nihility Sect narrowed his eyes when the monk said everyone and not you. He didn't pursue the matter and laid out his condition instead. "I heard you Buddhists are skilled in martial methods. If you can withstand my attack for ten minutes, then I'll call it off."
The Buddhist monk didn't hesitate and nodded. "Please hit me to your liking, benefactor."
Despite getting his way, the Nihility Sect disciple felt a little lost and stifled. Where was the reluctance? Where was the aggrieved expression? Don't agree so easily!
Feeling his temper rise, the Nihility Sect disciple released a savage smile. Without any warning, he unleashed a punch toward the Buddhist monk. His expression filled with ferocious glee, the punch landed on the Buddhist monk's chest. Despite how overbearing he seemed, even he knew that he couldn't be too overboard and aim for vital spots like head.
However, contrary to the Nihility Sect disciple's expectation, his fist landed on the soft-looking skin of the monk and stopped with a loud sound like that of metal clashing against metal. Not only that, there weren't any ripples from his punch as if his punch had no effect at all! Disbelief briefly flashed across his face, but he quickly masked it and launched a barrage of punches. Not only did each impact from his punch land, but the sound accompanying them also began to grow louder and louder with each punch.
Finally, the Nihility Sect disciple couldn't bear it any longer. Each punch that landed made him feel like he was a mortal punching a steel plate, so he launched the first attack towards the Buddhist disciple's head.
Crunch!
The Nihility Sect disciple's savage smile that had disappeared finally reappeared. However, when he moved back his fist, he saw that the monk's head was unmarred and shiny as ever. Then where did the sounds of bones cracking come from?
Having a bad feeling, the Nihility Sect disciple looked down at his hand to see his fingers abnormally bent as if a spherical object had assaulted them. Then came the pain.
"Motherf***er!"
Holding his hand while gasping for pain, the Nihility Sect disciple looked at the Buddhist disciple in disbelief. He had used his full force when attacking, yet the reality was telling him that he was the one injured? What the hell!?
The Buddhist disciple bowed once more. "Benefactor, my apologies. This one is average in all but one aspect, but my head is especially hard, equivalent to your Unity Realm artifact in terms of toughness. If you feel that you suffered, please strike me more."
The Nihility Sect disciple just stood there with his mouth gaping in speechlessness for a moment. But when he regained his ability to speak...
"Your mother! No, your grandmother! No, your great grandmother! No, you great, great, great ancestor mother!"
Just as a dark and murky qi began to coalescence around the Nihility Sect disciple, a heavy pressure descended upon the scene and caused everyone to suck in a cold breath and start to sweat. Everyone looked towards the central pillar to see an immortal walking towards them. Although he appeared physically present, his figure seemed to lose its presence as if it was a mirage with each step he took. "Are you done playing around?"
Like scolding a bunch of children, Elder Jadeflame scanned all the disciples present. When his eyes locked onto Tianyi, it stopped for the briefest of moments, so brief that no one could detect it.