"What’s going on?!" Hou Feng did not understand the situation. He quickly took out a jade talisman and scanned it with his psychic thought. His expression immediately darkened. "Yaoguang has already returned to the Heavenly Dao Sect."

"My family members have also sent word to inform me of this. In addition, they said Yaoguang is attempting to become a true disciple." Tong Ming lowered the jade talisman in his hand as well.

"He returned to the Heavenly Dao Sect?! How is that possible?!" A trace of disbelief appeared in Xi Liu’s eyes. "Our family has already infiltrated the Biyou Immortal Market and placed watchers in all the key locations. We also have many Void-Piercing Realm cultivators keeping watch outside the Biyou Immortal Market. How could he possibly leave and return to the Heavenly Dao Sect unnoticed?"

"We know Yaoguang obtained a mysterious inheritance; it's possible for him to have some means of returning to the Heavenly Dao Sect. No wonder the people of the Cangwu lineage said Yaoguang was not in the Biyou Immortal Market." Heavenly Venerable Jiang spoke with an ugly expression.

However, he quickly adjusted his state and turned toward Hou Feng. "The Heavenly Dao Sect is your home ground. Dealing with a mere inner sect disciple should be effortless, shouldn't it?"

Hou Feng nodded and was just about to speak when Tong Ming said in a heavy voice, "I am afraid there is trouble. I said just now that Yaoguang is attempting to become a true disciple, but if we calculate the time, there should still be several months before the inner sect’s number one challenges the true disciples. Yet Yaoguang has initiated the true disciple challenge ahead of time..."

"Is he attempting to become a true disciple before the challenge period?!" Hou Feng, standing nearby, frowned in confusion.

"The Great Dao Golden Book! He wants to become a true disciple under the witness of the Great Dao Golden Book by defeating the true disciples of the eighty-eight peaks!" Tong Ming took a deep breath. "Although I do not know how he invited the Great Dao Golden Book to appear and verify this challenge, according to the news that came through... the process has already begun."

"Defeating the eighty-eight peaks to become a true disciple?!" Hou Feng’s expression changed at once.

He clearly remembered this rule written in the Great Dao Golden Book.

"Impossible! He cannot possibly accomplish this! He is trying to step over every true disciple to rise to power! Liang Lin will not agree, Ling Xi will not agree, and Yan Huang, as the sixth-ranked figure on the Void-Piercing Realm Candidate Rankings, will never agree, no matter what!" Hou Feng immediately exclaimed.

However, Heavenly Venerable Jiang asked, "What if he succeeds?"

"This is one of the basic rules of the Great Dao Golden Book. Once he defeats the true disciples of the Heavenly Dao Sect’s eighty-eight peaks, he will become the undisputed number one true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect. Even the sect master, Zong Wenxian, would be unable to change that," Mo Shan said.

As a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator, even if he was only a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, he was still thoroughly familiar with the rules recorded in the Heavenly Dao Sect’s Great Dao Golden Book.

"The number one true disciple!" A bad premonition immediately rose in Heavenly Venerable Jiang’s heart.

"Don't worry. There's no way he will succeed!" Hou Feng immediately said. "Even if you don't trust the others, do you not trust Yan Huang? I remember you once exchanged blows with Yan Huang. Although it was only a spar, you know very well just how powerful he is. You were slightly weaker than him, were you not? No matter how extraordinary Yaoguang may be, it is impossible for him to grow to such a level in such a short time."

These words seemed to be directed at Heavenly Venerable Jiang, yet they also seemed to be meant to convince himself.

After hearing this, Heavenly Venerable Jiang was about to respond, but at that moment, the communication jade talisman on Hou Feng’s body vibrated again. He gripped the jade talisman and barely forced out a smile. "It must be good news from my family, telling me that Yaoguang has been defeated, or even killed on the spot by Yan Huang..."

As he spoke, his psychic thought had already seeped into the jade talisman.

Yet in less than a breath, the smile on his face had already frozen. It quickly turned completely gloomy.

This change immediately caused Heavenly Venerable Jiang’s heart to sink to the bottom.

"He became a true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect? And the number one true disciple?" Mo Shan, who stood nearby, could not help asking.

If the news were true, facing the Heavenly Dao Sect’s first-ranked true disciple, even though Heavenly Venerable Jiang represented the direct disciple of the Supreme Jade Emperor, Mo Shan would still have to carefully consider whether they should allow Heavenly Venerable Jiang to continue targeting Yaoguang.

Otherwise, if they made even the slightest mistake, it would likely provoke the Heavenly Dao Sect’s dissatisfaction. This responsibility was absolutely not something a mere true disciple like Heavenly Venerable Jiang could bear.

Even if he was a supreme elder’s direct disciple, he was no exception.

"Yes. He defeated all of them, including Yan Huang, and took his place as the first-ranked true disciple," Hou Feng answered in a somewhat bitter voice.

He looked at Heavenly Venerable Jiang...

For the first time, he regretted being dragged into this whirlpool.

The first-ranked true disciple! That title carried far more weight than that of an ordinary true disciple.

He might be directly accepted as a disciple by the sect master. At the very least, a supreme elder would step forward and take him as a disciple.

In that case, Yaoguang’s importance was already no less than Heavenly Venerable Jiang’s.

Most importantly, Hou Feng was a Void-Piercing Realm elder of the Heavenly Dao Sect.

A county magistrate is not as useful as the official in charge.

To offend his own sect’s supreme elder’s direct disciple because of someone from the Taiyi Immortal Sect was a grave sin.

How did Yaoguang suddenly become the Heavenly Dao Sect’s number one true disciple? Hou Feng thought.

"The Heavenly Dao Sect’s first-ranked true disciple!" When Mo Shan heard Hou Feng’s affirmative reply, he could not help but gasp.

He turned toward Heavenly Venerable Jiang with a grave expression. "I am afraid this matter needs to be considered in more detail."

Tong Ming’s communication jade talisman also vibrated.

He immediately picked it up and checked it.

With just one glance, this Void-Piercing Realm cultivator could not help losing his composure and crying out in shock, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Because his emotions were too agitated, the communication jade talisman in his hand was directly crushed with a loud bang.

His intense reaction instead caused Hou Feng to calm down.

While secretly feeling that Tong Ming was making far too much fuss, Hou Feng still said coldly, "So what if he became the number one true disciple?! I refuse to believe there is no other way... Do not forget, he is the murderer who killed True Disciple Xuan Shuang. There is no doubt about this... Even with his status as a true disciple, he may not be able to avoid the crime of killing another true disciple..."

"He is not the number one true disciple!" The expression on Tong Ming’s face shifted again and again.

Shock, horror, disbelief... All kinds of emotions flickered across his face one after another.

Only after a long while did he speak with an expression that looked as if he did not know whether to cry or force out a bitter smile. "He is no longer the first-ranked true disciple..."

He then looked at Hou Feng. "He is the young sect master! He broke through to the Void-Piercing Realm and became our sect's young sect master!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Hou Feng, Heavenly Venerable Jiang, Mo Shan, Xi Liu, and the others all froze on the spot.

"Young sect master?!"

"Void-Piercing Realm?!"

"What kind of joke is this?!"

These Void-Piercing Realm cultivators, as well as Heavenly Venerable Jiang, could not help but cry out at the same time.

Heavenly Venerable Jiang and Xi Liu's voices were even trembling.

"How is that possible?! How could Yaoguang possibly advance to the Void-Piercing Realm and become the Heavenly Dao Sect’s young sect master?!"

"This can't be real. This is absolutely not real. Is the Void-Piercing Realm so easy to break through to?! How could Yaoguang possibly break through to the Void-Piercing Realm so quickly?!"

Heavenly Venerable Jiang suddenly fixed his gaze on Tong Ming. "You are joking, aren’t you?! You are lying to me, aren’t you?!"

Tong Ming looked at Heavenly Venerable Jiang's reaction, stunned by his behavior. Then, he seemed to realize something.

Had he expected this? His expression is not because he doesn't believe it. On the contrary, it is precisely because he believes it and fear has risen in his heart that he has lost control of his emotions and spoken so improperly.

However, upon careful thought, according to the clues Heavenly Venerable Jiang has provided, Yaoguang only took fourteen years to go from a Heavenly Fire Realm cultivator to a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator, and he was a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator with combat strength comparable to that of an Azure Golden Core cultivator!

Afterward, he spent another four or five years tempering himself in the Chaotic Sea and the Biyou Immortal Market... Advancing to the Azure Golden Core Realm would naturally follow.

And with his foundation, after becoming a true disciple, in order to break out of his predicament, it seems reasonable for him to forcefully attempt to break through from the Azure Golden Core Realm to the Void-Piercing Realm—Reasonable, my ass!

"The Void-Piercing Realm! How could he really have reached the Void-Piercing Realm!? How is this possible?!" Tong Ming immediately reached for his communication jade talisman again.

Only then did he realize the jade talisman had already been crushed in his hand.

Fortunately, at that moment, Hou Feng also received the news.

He swiftly picked up the faintly vibrating jade talisman. His right hand trembled slightly as he activated his psychic thought and sensed the information within.

And under Heavenly Venerable Jiang’s expectant, eager, even faintly pleading gaze, Hou Feng's entire body shook violently. He could not even hold the jade talisman in his hand, letting it slip from his grasp and fall toward the ground.

Mo Shan, the Void-Piercing Realm cultivator of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, could no longer care about propriety. With a casual wave of his hand, the jade talisman landed in his palm. His psychic thought swept over it, listening to the message the Hou family had sent.

"Yaoguang defeated the true disciples of the eighty-eight peaks, became a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator on the spot at the Heavenly Dao Sword Platform, had his name recorded in the Golden Book, and officially became the Heavenly Dao Sect’s young sect master, as recorded by the Golden Book Venerable."

Upon seeing this message, even Mo Shan could not help muttering a curse under his breath at this moment. "Fuck!"

Heavenly Venerable Jiang also immediately took the jade talisman and probed it with his psychic thought.

After he saw the information inside, his body seemed to be struck by lightning. He involuntarily staggered three steps back and nearly fainted.

"Void-Piercing Realm...!" He repeated those three words again and again, his entire being filled with disbelief and despair.

Xi Liu had also seen the message. Compared with the other elders, he felt uncontrollable fear.

Although the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty was also one of the Four Great Immortal Dynasties, his status as a second-rank official of the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty and a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator was far from enough to compare with a young sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.

"How did things become like this?" he muttered softly.

Because of a bounty worth 460,000 Pure Yang Grand Pills, not only had the Xi family within Haizhou's capital been eliminated, but now, they had offended a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator! One who had just become the young sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect!

While fear surged in his heart, irrepressible anger toward Xi Hai also welled up, even killing intent. Your actions have led the Xi family to ruin. How can we deal with such an enemy? Damn you, Xi Hai!

Everyone present had been left shocked by the news received.

After a long while, Mo Shan was the first to speak. He let out a long breath and said, "There is no point anymore."

This Void-Piercing Realm cultivator of the Taiyi Immortal Sect turned his gaze toward Heavenly Venerable Jiang. "Let’s go. Return to the Taiyi Immortal Sect and immediately enter seclusion. Do not come out until you reach the Void-Piercing Realm! Cultivating to the Void-Piercing Realm as quickly as possible is your only remaining hope of competing with him."

After saying this, he did not wait to see whether Heavenly Venerable Jiang agreed. He simply took him with him, shot into the sky, and disappeared from the sight of the other Void-Piercing Realm cultivators.

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