Chapter 181: Reporting to Hongyun!

In the Sky-reaching Sea of Clouds, inside the Sacred Fire Cliff.

In a hall that was extremely well-hidden, its existence concealed by layers of formations shielding the heavenly secrets and karmic threads, a figure was seen lighting a candle, sitting upright at the desk.

The man’s face looked as if it had been carved by knife and axe, at first glance, his entire being seemed righteous.

More importantly, his divine abilities had reached perfection, now fully manifesting and wreaking havoc within the hall.

If unleashed outside, in the overseas lands, even if he destroyed an entire continent there, it would have been nothing remarkable.

A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator at the peak, a True Master—Hong Ju!

At this moment, Hong Ju sat solemnly.

On the desk before him lay a book and a brush, his eyes slightly closed as if deep in thought.

Rustle—!

The wind blew, flipping the pages.

The book was not thick, appearing to have only a few thin pages.

On the cover, a line of talismanic text was drawn in tadpole-like script.

【Same Fate, Easy Fortune Talisman Book】

A treasure of the fruit status under the Covered Lamp Flame, the only one of its kind in the world.

Since its appearance, it had always been sealed here and had never left.

To leave writing on this talisman book, one must use merit as the brush and fortune as the ink.

The consumption was enormous.

Without being a peak Foundation Establishment True Master, one could not even afford to use it.

Even if one could, each use required extreme caution, for fear of triggering backlash and suffering loss instead of gain.

Thus, Hong Ju had not used this secret treasure for a long time.

Just now, he had written a line on the page: 【Wu Cang kills Lü Yang】.

Once the words were formed, a killing intent from Heaven and Earth would naturally arise.

“Crack!”

The next moment, Hong Ju’s movement suddenly froze.

He saw the writing he had just made on the 【Same Fate, Easy Fortune Talisman Book】 start to glow blood red.

This was not good!

Before Hong Ju could react, a bolt of lightning suddenly burst out within the hall.

It struck his Dharma body directly, leaving no room to dodge.

Because this was no ordinary lightning.

This was heavenly punishment!

The lightning lasted for a full fifteen minutes before it dissipated, revealing Hong Ju’s slightly scorched figure.

Although he instantly activated his divine powers to restore his appearance.

However, it was only on the surface.

In reality, a full tenth of his merit and fortune had been stripped away by the heavenly punishment.

Though this would not affect his combat strength, for a peak True Master like him, the loss of merit and fortune was far more serious!

“How could this be?”

Hong Ju’s face darkened as he immediately began divination.

After a long while, he finally opened his mouth slightly: “.Mid-stage? Yuan Tu broke through to mid-Foundation Establishment Realm?”

Impossible!

“It’s unreasonable that I couldn’t foresee this at all in advance. Could it be the legacy of the Witch Ghost Path? Was the Witch Ghost Path back then really this rich?”

Countless karmic threads flashed through Hong Ju’s eyes.

His fingers almost sparked from friction, yet he gained nothing and could only speculate in his heart.

“The Witch Ghost Path holds the Skull Mountain Earth Vein, using its earth vein qi to cultivate Wu Earth…”

“Though it’s not entirely impossible, it feels too coincidental. Could it be that the fruit status is favoring him?”

Such situations were not unheard of.

For example, True Person Chong Guang—why was someone of the later Jin generation able to compete with Hong Yun, the reincarnated True Lord, for the fruit status, even suppressing him?

Because the fruit status favored him!

And Lü Yang, being the only True Master whose Dao Foundation pointed directly at 【City Head Earth】, receiving the favor of the fruit status and being blessed by fortune, was not surprising.

In fact, this was the only reasonable explanation.

However, Lü Yang’s breakthrough this time and his killing of Wu Cang had brought Hong Ju great trouble.

The fate he had previously annotated was completely broken.

Fate was not omnipotent, and there was always a sliver of chance in everything.

After all, cultivation itself was about defying the heavens.

Just like an endangered species, it could either go extinct or undergo a new evolution.

With the breaking of the annotated fate, he even suffered backlash.

After all, the killing intent he had catalyzed against Lü Yang was based on Lü Yang being only at the early Foundation Establishment Realm at the time.

But Lü Yang broke through to mid-stage, causing unexpected variables, leading to the fate collapsing.

To put it vividly, this was like paying Heaven and Earth to launch a project, but after Heaven and Earth funded it, they discovered the project’s information was flawed, the returns were falsified, and all the money was lost.

How could this not trigger heavenly punishment?

However, there was still room to salvage the situation.

Hong Ju thought for a moment and wiped away the writing on the 【Same Fate, Easy Fortune Talisman Book】.

His merit and fortune flowed away like a breached dam.

In an instant, he wrote a new line:

【Lü Yang dies overseas】

Boom!

As the words were formed, Hong Ju’s face grew noticeably more withered.

However, if he wanted to eliminate Lü Yang quietly, this was the only method left.

“.Seal the cave dwelling, from today I will enter seclusion.”

Hong Ju shook his head and put away the 【Same Fate, Easy Fortune Talisman Book】.

He spoke softly to the formation spirit outside the hall, knowing that with his fortune damaged, he could not leave again.

Only by meditating in seclusion, dissipating the calamity qi, and waiting for his mind to clear could he emerge once more.

Otherwise, with his current cultivation, he would surely fall into calamity.

If he was lucky, he could reincarnate and gain another life.

If he was unlucky, he might not even get the chance to reincarnate.

“Yuan Tu…”

In the dim hall, Hong Ju slowly savored this name.

His voice echoed faintly within the hall but gradually faded until silence returned completely.

Sky-reaching Sea of Clouds, Mending Heaven Peak.

At this moment, everything was still silent.

【Embracing Mountain】 stood tall, and a long streak of blood hung down the mountain wall like a waterfall.

That was Wu Cang’s blood.

At that time, the scene had been quite chaotic.

A group of True Masters from the Primordial Saint Sect had gathered outside Mending Heaven Peak, planning to ambush Wu Cang after he obtained the True Lord’s letter.

Who would have thought, in the blink of an eye, it was Wu Cang who ended up fleeing in panic.

While everyone was still reeling from the shock of Lü Yang’s breakthrough to mid-Foundation Establishment Realm, they saw Wu Cang suddenly charge headlong toward the 【Embracing Mountain】.

At first glance, it really looked like he was seeking death.

However, everyone here was a True Master of the Primordial Saint Sect, all adept at underhanded tactics, so most still harbored doubts, their eyes showing strange expressions as they looked at Lü Yang.

“What? You all don’t believe me?”

Seeing this, Lü Yang remained expressionless and took out the All-Spirit Banner.

“If I truly intended to kill, why would I use this 【Soul-Guarding Banner】 to preserve Senior Wu Cang’s soul?”

“This is a Soul-Guarding Banner? Something doesn’t seem right?”

“Why is it still emitting black qi?”

Lü Yang did not bother to explain.

He simply shook out the now banner spirit-bound Wu Cang, making him fabricate a story about having momentarily lost his will.

Both evidence and testimony were present.

Under such circumstances, even the True Masters who still held suspicions could say nothing more.

Besides, this was the Primordial Saint Sect—what the truth really was didn’t matter.

What mattered was that Lü Yang was still alive, while Wu Cang was dead.

At this moment, a voice suddenly rang out:

“Yuan Tu, come see me at Sacred Fire Cliff.”

It was True Person Chong Guang.

His tone was urgent and carried an uncontrollable excitement, which was extremely improper for a peak True Master.

Lü Yang had long expected this.

‘I’ve broken through to mid-Foundation Establishment Realm, standing alongside True Person Yinshan. It seems I’ve barely met his expectations. I wonder what he wants from me?’

However, Lü Yang quickly composed himself.

After all, if True Person Chong Guang needed him, it would only work to his advantage.

Especially at this critical moment, Chong Guang would definitely not ignore his requests.

So Lü Yang had already made up his mind.

‘I’m going to report to Hong Yun!’

‘Overseas is so dangerous. Instead of facing that Dao Sinner in the Biyang Cultivation World alone, I might as well tell True Person Chong Guang and let him handle it!’

‘First-grade Grand Completion True Qi—there’s no way Chong Guang won’t be tempted!’

As for the benefits, as long as True Person Chong Guang still needed him and he held sufficient value, Lü Yang believed Chong Guang would not mind sharing a piece with him.