Elder Red Fist and Ye Chen walked to the mountain entrance of the Dao Opening Sect.
“Stopped!” said two Saint Realm cultivators who guarded the entrance.
“Who are you, people? Please, Identify yourself.”
“We are from the Martial Origin Sect, and we came for an official visit,” replied Elder Red Fist with an amiable smile.
“Martial Origin Sect?” muttered the two guards before looking at each other since they’d never heard of this sect. Nevertheless, they did not immediately force this person away.
“Did you send an Early Notice Arrival?”
Ye Chen frowned after hearing this and wanted to say something, but he quickly controlled himself. Meanwhile, Elder Red Fist realized he had made a social blunder.
In the Martial Supreme World, martial artists are more easygoing and not restricted by things like etiquette. So, it is normal for one sect to suddenly visit the others to chat or have a sparing session.
So, early notice arrival is usually for rare and grandiose occasions.
Unfortunately, the Myriad Emperor World’s culture is heavily influenced by Taoist culture, so formal etiquette is prevalent worldwide.
After realizing his blunder, Elder Red Fist hesitated on his following action. Should he return to the inn and send a notice? Or should he just find a way to have a visit now?
He did not immediately make a decision. Instead, he contacted the Dao Ancestor sent to secretly protect them on this trip.
‘Wait,’ was the message he received, and Red Fist understood their existence was already detected. And he was correct.
Before the guards became suspicious and asked other questions, someone flew from the direction of the sect with orders to bring these people to see the sect master.
Someone brought Red Fist and Ye Chen to Tianwei Peak to see Wang Tian. The moment the Elder laid eyes on him, his first thought was this person could kill him in a few slashes, despite being one realm and a half above him.
‘What a peerless Swordsman,’ was his second thought.
“Red Fist has seen fellow Daoist.”
“There is no need for restraint; please sit down,” said Wang Tian to the cushions in front of them before offering tea.
“I’m assuming you are here for your sect’s three Emperor Artifacts?”
“Yes, and we would also like to know what happened to our young sect master.”
“He had a confrontation with my son and unfortunately died in the process,” Wang Tian replied calmly.
‘*Sigh* It’s the worst outcome I feared,’ Red Fist thought. He deeply investigated the Dao Opening Sect, so he knew of their Heaven Chosen. He hoped that someone else, someone of lower status, had killed Zhen Chao; that way, their sect would have more leeway for negotiations.
He hoped it was not someone vital so they could have a chance to pressure the Dao Opening Sect and take some advantage during the negotiation. Honestly, he knew this outcome was unlikely since not anyone could kill Zhen Chao, but that did not stop him from hoping.
“To be honest, It’s hard for us to believe that someone in the younger generation could kill our young sect master.”
“I can assure you it was a vendetta between the younger generations,” replied Wang Tian, ignoring the latter’s implications.
“Hmph, my senior brother was a pinnacle Heaven Chosen, suppressing almost all his peers. How could someone from the same generation kill him?” retorted Ye Chen.
“Your pinnacle is not the same as ours,” replied Wang Tian.
Elder Red Fist placed his hand on Ye Chen’s shoulder to prevent him from speaking before saying with a smile: “Forgive the younger generation; it is our fault for not raising him properly. However, he has a point. If you do not mind, could we see the young man who defeated our young sect master?”
“He’s currently in retr….”
Wang Tian frowned before taking out a talisman. “He seems to want to see you.”
A few seconds later, a phantom manifested in the room, releasing an oppressive aura that enveloped both Red Fist and Ye Chen. For a brief moment, they felt their soul, energy, and the worlds inside their bodies suppressed by that aura.
“Sorry about that, I just had a small breakthrough, so it is difficult to control my strength,” said Wang Wei.
Meanwhile, Elder Red Fist had an ugly expression on his face. If he felt he could withstand a few swords from the swordsman, he knew he could not survive one attack from this young man.
Not to mention he could tell this was nothing but a projection that had such strength.
Nevertheless, Red Fist was still an old fox who had lived for a long time, so he quickly controlled his emotion before contacting Ye Chen with his Divine Sense to soothe the latter’s fear and prevent the possibility of having Heart Demon from this encounter.
“This must be Young Master Wang Wei; your reputation is not in vain,” said Elder Red Fist. Wang Wei looked at him before saying: “I don’t want to waste time, so I will be direct. You can exchange your sect’s Emperor Artifacts for other artifacts or resources of the same value.”
“What? What about all the other things my senior brother had?”
Wang Wei looked at Ye Chen, and with a glance, he instantly read his Fate Line and learned everything about him. He knew everything that occurred to him from birth to now–except for some special cultivation techniques blocked by Emperor Grade Seals.
He knew of this Ye Chen from Zhen Chaos’ memories. He was the “secret” bastard child of the Martial Origin Sect’s sect master. His talent was excellent but not the best.
However, with his father’s resources, he could barely defeat all his opponents in the sect to become the heir–until Zhen Chao appeared with the Martial Ancestor’s token.
Then, all the people who were not happy with Ye Chen as the next sect master quickly supported Zhen Chao–even the Sect Madam, who could not have children and did not want a bastard to become the next heir of the sect.
What’s more, Zhen Chao was cunning and even convinced Ye Chen to support him and treated him as a well-loved junior brother.
‘Interesting,’ thought Wang Wei after getting to the conversation he had with Elder Red Fist yesterday.
“Those are my spoil of war,” replied Wang Wei.
Red Fist had to stop Ye Chen again as he analyzed the situation; he realized this method was the best way for each party.
The artifacts connected to the sect’s Qi Luck cannot be lost. So, no matter what, even if they have to exchange it with foreign Emperor Artifacts, they must bring them back.
Furthermore, it appeared that the Dao Opening Sect had no intention of spitting out what they had already swallowed.
‘Unless the sect wants to start a Transplanar War for the Artifacts, this is the best outcome. But…’
“Young master, is it possible to bring our young master’s body back to the sect? We would like to bury him and honor all his achievements for the sake.”
“There is no need to play some meaningless scheme. You and I both know the value of a Fateless, so the answer is no,” replied Wang Wei, making Red Fist sigh.
“Very Well. We would like to report to the sect before making a decision.”
“As you wish,” added Wang Tian. “Please send a notice the next time you arrive.”
Red Fist smiled without shame and bowed to everyone before leaving with Ye Chen.
“Why are you here? I thought you were in retreat?”
“I was, but I suddenly felt something important would happen if I came here, so I came.”
“Did it?”
“Yes,” replied Wang Wei before explaining the conversation Ye Chen and elder Red Fist had.
“Based on records, the Heaven Devour Emperor immediately visited the Swallowed Land after proving the Dao. Then, he left for the Endless Void before visiting a second time. After that, he started his mad conquest, so this information does track.”
Back then, the Emperor Enlightening Academy was in charge of dealing with the Heaven Devouring Emperor, not the Dao Opening Sect. The sect took a backseat to not suffer too much in this calamity and weakened the Academy.
Their plan worked as the only Immortal Sovereign the Academy managed to cultivate after an entire Era was killed.
It was a great strategy despite being so obvious. If the Academy cultivated their Ninth Emperor, and with an Immortal Sovereign backing them, they could destroy the Dao Opening Sect with some difficulty.
As for the reasons the Academy had to stop the Heaven Devouring Emperor? It’s because they had the Spirit of Epoch and had an obligation to do so, otherwise, it would be stripped from them and force them to suffer a backlash.
Additionally, the Heaven Devour Emperor was once their student, and he even competed for the position of Headmaster, so he had significant Karmic ties with them.
Since the sect was in a semi-closed-off state, they did not have as much information about this calamity as others–despite offering some help during the process to prevent other sects from using this excuse to besiege them.
“We should probably watch out to prevent these other planes from doing the same thing again,” said Wang Wei.
“I was thinking the same thing,” replied Wang Tian before contacting his Shadow and asking it to look out for any sects or factions that have connections with foreign planes.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei’s projection went to see Wu Hong and asked her about the Swallowing Zone.