Those in the carriage were almost crying with laughter. What kind of expression would Jiangchen Wushang wear if he knew the truth?
“I actually feel kinda bad for the prince.” Qing Han’s mood took a sudden downturn. He sighed at the Deaf Prince’s tall and well-built frame. “He has the right to know the truth. Even if it’s hard to accept, he deserves to know that he’s different.”
“Since when did you become so sentimental?” Lu Yun asked in surprise.
Qing Han shrugged and didn’t respond.
“We’ll wait until we meet Senior Wayfarer.” Lu Yun shook his head. “It’ll only trouble him if we tell him now.”
Qing Han paused. “Senior Wayfarer?”
“He survived beneath the abyss despite lacking hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. Senior Wayfarer’s consciousness is powerful enough to sense his surroundings in place of his five senses, which he likely developed from practicing a powerful method of the mind. We’ll have the Deaf Prince cultivate under Senior Wayfarer’s guidance,” Lu Yun spoke with assurance.
Qing Han nodded. The Deaf Prince wasn’t a bad person. Although he was a member of the imperial family, he didn’t lord over others with the airs of a royal prince. Even after being scammed out of millions of crystals back on Levitating Island, he simply took it in stride and didn’t take any revenge.
……
“Screw this shit, go to hell!” Jiangchen Wushang raged at the Deaf Prince’s hectoring and snarled, “Do it!!”
Hum.
A faint beam of light pierced through the heavy clouds, sealing off the vicinity and restraining the power of the land.
“That’s the Qing Clan’s supreme-grade treasure, Spirit Light,” said the peerless immortal standing beside the Deaf Prince. “Does he really have something to do with the Nephrite Major’s Qing Clan?”
Jiangchen Wushang’s skeletal fortress ship opened its mouth and slammed into the Deaf Prince’s carriage.
“Hongxiu!” called out the Deaf Prince, furious that Jiangchen Wushang would attack him without forewarning. “Fetch me my crystal! I’ll smash him to bits!” This would be his first battle to death!
“Understood!” With a shudder, the peerless immortal took out a box from her storage treasure and carefully handed it to the Deaf Prince.
“Know your place, you lily-livered, crusty, corpulent cretin. Suffer death via immortal crystals!” The box was heavy, made clear by the way the Deaf Prince almost toppled to the ground when he took it. He then threw the box at the Jiangchen scion with all of the strength in his body.
“East Sea monster spirits really are insufferably arrogant!” Jiangchen Wushang couldn’t be more furious when he heard the prince’s declaration. Who did he think he was?! Smashing him to death with immortal crystals? What does he take me for, a penniless bastard?
However, his expression soon crumbled.
When the box opened in mid-trajectory, a great wave of immortal energy rushed out into the air, overwhelming the Great Formation of Corpse Refinement and the treasure Donglin Shaohui had unleashed. Then… an enormous mountain descended from heaven.
Thirty thousand meters tall and tens of thousands of meters in radius, it looked like an artfully sculpted crystal with wisps of white mist floating around it. Such dense immortal energy! The entire mountain was sculpted from a titanic piece of immortal crystal!
Immortal crystals were immortal qi that’d been crystalized by nature, and were heavier than normal mountainous rock. An average immortal crystal was a hexagonal crystal measuring four inches long and one inch wide, weighing roughly sixty kilograms.
Sixty kilograms wasn’t much for a cultivator or an immortal, but a mountain sculpted from a crystal of such ridiculous size weighed too much for even dao immortals to endure. More importantly, the crystal mountain contained not only immortal qi, but also endless power of the land, which enabled it to resonate with this local patch of heaven and earth!
Am I… going to be the first person in this world to literally die from wealth? Despair overtook Jiangchen Wushang’s face. As the crystal mountain bore down on him, the skeletal ship beneath his feet whined weakly and struggled. However, the crystal mountain fell with such a great momentum that it scattered the ship’s aura and locked it helplessly in place.
……
Immortals in the nearby vicinity stared at the descending crystal mountain in shock. Immortal crystals were the common currency of the world of immortals, and a necessity for cultivation. However, they felt absolutely no desire to claim the crystal for themselves. It was too large!
Even dao immortals would have trouble hauling around the crystal mountain, and whoever threw the mountain as a weapon would be someone they couldn’t afford to offend. After being refined into a treasure, the crystal mountain had been made invincible. It was near impossible to shatter it!
“Heavens... who was it? Who threw that mountain?”
“I wonder who the unlucky victim is.”
“The skeletal ship seems to belong to a member of the Corpse Refiners!”
Donglin Shaohui blanched as well. The supreme-grade treasure, Spirit Light, which he’d borrowed from the Qing Clan, had cracked and shattered the moment the crystal mountain appeared.
Color drained out of his face as all of his bones and meridians broke. White blood trickled out of his orifices as, once again, this wasn’t his true body, but another replica.
Due to the special method he cultivated, Donglin Shaohui had a good number of replicas lying around. He always sent his replicas on missions, while he himself hid somewhere safe. Besides, his replicas were even more powerful than he was. However, the crystal mountain almost shattered his replica in one blow.
“Who’s the man in the carriage? Who did that bastard Jiangchen Wushang provoke now?!” Donglin Shaohui’s heart pounded.
Bam!
His replica exploded into ashes.
Crack!
The rib cage of the fortress ship broke, and the fifty-kilometer-long, city-sized ship fell apart. The ship growled and keened in distress, but couldn’t do anything facing the tremendous mountain.
“Grawl!!” The dao immortal zombie next to Jiangchen Wushang let loose with a heaven-shaking howl. Black light exploded out of the zombie’s body as it soared into the sky and dove down at the crystal mountain.
“You’ve bitten off more than you can chew!” Despite the carriage being in the shadow of the crystal mountain, the Deaf Prince stood on top of the carriage and took out another box. It radiated a faint light that shielded the entire carriage from outside forces.
“A dao immortal zombie, no wonder his sect is called the Corpse Refiners.” The Deaf Prince was surprised when he saw the opponent charging his crystal mountain. However, the mountain was much too heavy and was protected by natural forces. The zombie was crushed by the mountain’s tremendous aura before it could lay a finger on it, pulping even its soul.
“Free at last....” A strand of consciousness faded out of existence.
“He refined a living person into a zombie!” The Deaf Prince breathed in deeply, a trace of killing intent flashing through his happy-go-lucky gaze. He reacted the same way Lu Yun had upon first seeing Jin Heyi of the Corpse Refiners.
Splash!
The powerful skeletal ship in pieces, debris and fragments rained to the ground. Countless zombies on the fortress ship scattered as ashes, leaving only Jiangchen Wushang alive. His yellowish-gray Bag of Corpse Refinement hovered over his head in protection, but it too began shuddering as the crystal mountain continued to descend. It was a supremely powerful treasure that should’ve been invincible, but Jiangchen Wushang was just a cultivator who couldn’t take the pressure.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the void trembled and a plume of thick, black smoke billowed into the air, shifting the heavenly energy in the area. A giant formation spontaneously took shape.
“Open!!” an earthshaking growl penetrated the smoke.
Bam!
An enormous skeletal fist shot out and rammed into the crystal mountain, breaking its descent for a fraction of a second. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for the man who’d intervened.
A figure radiating faint golden light flashed to Jiangchen Wushang’s side and kicked him and his bag away, sending the injured man flying out of the crystal mountain’s range like a shooting star. Jiangchen Wushang bellyflopped into the inner sea of Levitating Island at the end of his trajectory, then vanished shortly thereafter.
The formation that’d emerged suddenly released a thick layer of smoke, which stopped the crystal mountain like an enormous ball of cotton. Although the formation was breaking at the same time, it was still enough to offset the destructive power of the crystal.
“I await your ascension to immortality, Lu Yun, Qing Han, and the Dragon Prince of the East Sea.” Golden light flickered at the center of the formation as it quickly shrank and vanished into thin air.
“Since you’re here, senior brother Jin Heyi, why don’t you show yourself so we can have a chat?” Lu Yun called out in a clear voice from the carriage. The Sugato Sword manifested in its true form—an enormous sword shadow running three thousand meters long—and pierced through the sky, slashing at the Jin scion hiding deep within the black smoke.
“You’re not yet my match. Like I said, I will wait until you become an immortal.”
A humming vibrated from within the black smoke as the skeletal arm that’d halted the crystal mountain emerged again and squeezed Lu Yun’s sword energy into nothingness. Then the black smoke shrank, disappearing everything in the smoke.
Bam!
The crystal mountain crashed into the ground, shaking all of Levitating Island. The impact undermined foundations of many smaller cities and almost destroyed them.
“Shame that he got away,” muttered the Deaf Prince.
“That formation is very powerful,” Lu Yun said in apprehension. “More so than the Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends!”
“He’ll wait until we’ve ascended to immortality… Is he planning to refine us into zombies then?”
Qing Han’s expression darkened.
Atop the carriage, the Deaf Prince waved the open box at the crystal mountain, which returned to the box in a flash of light. After a slight stumble, the prince hurriedly handed the box to Hongxiu, and the servant quickly put it away.
“This prince is Xiangliu Hongzhen, the third prince of the East Sea Court!” declared the Deaf Prince. “I will smash to death whoever dares provoke me! Anyone else wish to try their luck?!”