Chapter 491: A Distinguished Gathering (1/2)
The endless expanse of the North Sea’s rippling waters was largely calm, broken only by the flight of a few waterfowl.
After barely managing to reattach its broken claw, the Golden Lion King darted as a horrified, golden streak of light back toward Levitating Island.
Upon repairing its origin dao fruit, Scarlet Ape had expressly warned it not to leave the island without permission. For good reason, it seemed, as the lion king had encountered disastrous trouble as soon as it’d disobeyed.
The foreclaw seemed a light injury, but the stroke had damaged its lifeforce. As a result, it was now a thousand times slower than its uninjured self. A distance that could once have been traversed several times in a single breath now took considerably longer to cross.
Splash!
The marine waters exploded in a spray of salinity. Sunlight glinted off countless blades flashing through the sky with pernicious intent toward the golden lion.
“Who is it!” the lion king roared angrily. Its fiery golden fur bristled with blazing radiance in an attempt to parry the oncoming attacks, but the sword lights were simply too terrifyingly sharp. They cut through his defensive flames like hot knives through butter.
Despair bubbled up in the lion’s eyes.
“Peak origin dao?!” it howled hoarsely with desperation.
“No. I am missing a single perfect origin dao fruit for that.” A shadowy figure swooped down from above. “That final fruit will come from you,” he chuckled softly, longsword still unsheathed.
……
“Stop!” Upon Levitating Island, Scarlet Ape was both shocked and furious. It summoned its iron staff with a quick wave, then soared into the sky on a rescue mission.
Thwap!
A bleached hand slapped it back down from the air.
“If you dare leave, I will destroy everything on Levitating Island,” it communicated through thought waves.
The master of Ingress Island!
It was the eponym of the realm after the dao immortal realm, and the lord of Ingress Island was one of the few remaining ingress immortals in the world.
“When you returned to the world, you devastated Ingress Island and slew an innumerable amount of my disciples. Today, my disciple will take that Golden Lion King’s perfected origin dao fruit for his own. Such is cause and effect,” intoned the island lord.
The man wielding the sword over the waves was the leader of one of the North Sea’s three great factions: the head of the Dark North Sword Sect!
Tongues of flame almost blazed from Scarlet Ape’s eyes in the depths of his rage. The ants it’d crushed were worthless, compared to a real origin dao immortal!
“Fine!” it spat out suddenly. “Dragon veins! Give me the four dragon veins from Ingress Island and the Dark North Sword Sect. Otherwise… this seat will destroy both of your factions if it’s the last thing I do!”
Originally, it’d planned on sneaking in and personally stealing the veins. Now that it was prevented from saving the lion king, the least it could do was seek compensation. Besides, it’d told the Golden Lion King more than once not to leave Levitating Island or act directly in the world of immortals. This was the consequence of its own foolhardiness.
“Acceptable,” the Ingress lord replied after a long while. “What use have you for dragon veins?”
“I made a deal with the kid of Dusk Province. He’s the one who wants them.” Scarlet Ape wasn’t interested in keeping Lu Yun’s secrets. On the contrary, it wanted the entire world to know that dragon veins could heal shattered earth veins and restore the natural order.
……
Although the lion’s origin dao fruit had been repaired by Scarlet Ape, it was powerless against the head of the Dark North Sword Sect.
Three sword strokes later, the sect master walked away victorious, a sparkling origin dao fruit now his. Hefting the lion king’s corpse in his other hand, he returned to his sect in a single step.
As if on cue, the bleached hand outside Levitating Island slowly retracted into the void. Four snarling dragon veins brandishing their claws flew from the Dark North Sword Sect and Ingress Island onto Levitating Island shortly thereafter.
Retiring to the floating peak at the center of the island, Scarlet Ape looked very grim indeed.
……
No one paid any attention to the Golden Lion King’s death. The rampaging sword auras over the North Sea had caused no commotion elsewhere. Aside from Scarlet Ape himself, no one on Levitating Island had even noticed the Ingress Island lord’s intervention.
Dusk Province was being rebuilt for the umpteenth time.
However, the most recent devastation had also been the most complete; this time, obliterating public sentiment as well. Her few survivors had departed alongside the other cultivators, no longer considering Dusk their home. Plenty of Lu and Chen immortals and cultivators were among their ranks, hiding their names and lineages to wander the rest of the world.