The Modern Martial Immortal

Having absorbed the insights into the 13th level of array casting, Yaoguang set straight to studying and reshaping the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

The array had been laid down by a Dao Lord, and worked on a simple assumption: enough raw power can create miracles. By studying the array's sigils and adding his own understanding of array formations, Yaoguang had already discovered something in just three days.

"Good! By improving this node, the array's operation will change dramatically. Anyone who previously understood the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array and tries to disrupt it the old way will only suffer a backlash and find themselves trapped inside." A smile spread across Yaoguang's face.

And more than one node could be modified.

"This node should strengthen the array's stability, making it harder to break through."

"This node has a certain subjugating effect on enemies. Even a Void-Shattering Realm cultivator would have a full tenth of his combat power stripped away."

"Hmm? This node has an extremely high affinity with the Great Dao of the void... If I were to use a void-type Dao Artifact as the array eye, it would let my Dao Techniques flow thirty percent more smoothly!"

Yaoguang's analysis found many areas of the array that could be improved.

Though the reworked Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array wouldn't rise in level, it would suit Yaoguang much better, letting him wield far greater power when he operated it.

And by improving the array, he was at the same time putting a level 13 array caster's experience into practice.

For a while he threw himself into the work with even greater zeal, pouring it all into refining the array.

***

While Yaoguang was modifying the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, the Lu and Li families, who had learned he'd once again refined a Void-Refining fiendish cultivator, this time in the Southern Capital, were already trembling with fear.

The Void-Refining peak masters backing the two families fled back to the Heavenly Dao Sect at once, no longer daring to linger in the southern domain. Only staying inside the Heavenly Dao Sect would make them feel safe.

The Lu and Li families were like this, and the Jing family fared no better. Jing Zhengyang, in particular, after learning that the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator Yaoguang had refined was none other than Crimson Malevolence, the one who had approached him, was scared half to death for some time afterward. If fleeing to the Heavenly Dao Sect at this point were not so conspicuous, he would have been tempted to relocate his entire family.

Even so, he spent these days in fear and dread. He even reached out repeatedly to Wu Changfeng, with whom he'd once had some clash of interests, hoping to learn more details about how Yaoguang had killed the fiendish cultivator.

But ever since Wu Changfeng had declared himself to Yaoguang, he had thrown himself wholeheartedly into his work, and since Yaoguang had not really trusted him or let him touch the core secrets, however much Jing Zhengyang pressed, he could get nothing useful out of the man.

Nor was it only Wu Changfeng. Even some forces that had once professed unwavering loyalty to the Jing family now seemed to waver.

For Jing Zhengyang, gathering information had become far harder than before, especially now that he was in Carefree Valley.

Many had come to recognize Yaoguang's strength, and since he was the legitimate ruler of the southern domain to begin with, they had shifted their stance and fallen into line.

Only after a good many days did Jing Zhengyang finally get word: Yaoguang's fight with Perfected Lord Crimson Malevolence had not come from discovering anything. Crimson Malevolence had simply failed to control himself and courted death by trying to sweep away a city of cultivators, only to run straight into the guardian of Xuanzhou.

And as it happened, Yaoguang, worried for his own safety, had been patrolling the border. Mo Ye, the guardian of Xuanzhou, had pinned Crimson Malevolence down with everything he had and held out until Yaoguang arrived, leaving the fiend to be refined to death and sent to the underworld.

These fiendish cultivators act far too recklessly! If he'd left the southern domain obediently after delivering his message and returned to the Yin Lunar Sect, how would that bastard Yaoguang ever have spotted him and made him another notch in his record of terrorizing the southern domain? Jing Zhengyang couldn't help cursing inwardly. A pack of good-for-nothings who ruin more than they accomplish.

He hesitated a moment, then took out a jade talisman and relayed the news here to Jing Yuntian, the supreme elder within the Heavenly Dao Sect.

On receiving the intelligence, the supreme elder's expression turned heavy as well. "So... he's slain another Void-Refining fiendish cultivator! Fiendish cultivators go to extremes in certain respects in their pursuit of cultivation speed, yes, but to kill two Void-Refining cultivators in a row... Yaoguang really does have the combat power of a top-tier Void-Refining Realm expert."

"Ancestor, Yaoguang is at the height of his power. He is too dangerous. Do you think... should we avoid him for the time being?" Jing Zhengyang asked, treading carefully.

"Avoid him?" Jing Yuntian gave a soft snort. "Are you afraid?"

Jing Zhengyang said nothing. But at a moment like this, no reply was the clearest reply.

"Hmph! However formidable that Yaoguang is, he only broke through to the Void-Refining Realm not long ago. However impressive his cultivation, how strong could he really be? My guess is that what let him refine the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Refining fiendish cultivators was a Dao Artifact, a high-grade Dao Artifact!" Jing Yuntian said solemnly.

"A high-grade Dao Artifact?!" Jing Zhengyang was taken aback, and only after a while did he speak. "But that space-sealing Dao Artifact Yaoguang displayed... didn't look like a high-grade Dao Artifact, did it?"

"You've never experienced it firsthand, so how would you know whether it's a true high-grade Dao Artifact?" Jing Yuntian said.

Jing Zhengyang fell silent. Whether or not it was a high-grade Dao Artifact seemed, to him, to carry little real meaning.

Because even if the man had needed a high-grade Dao Artifact to kill two of the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Refining Realm fiendish cultivators, it still proved he had the combat power of a top-tier Void-Refining Realm expert.

With strength like that, anyone who tried to deal with him might fail to escape in one piece.

"The southern domain provides our family with over two hundred million Pure Yang Grand Pills in profit each period. The fact you were able to reach the Void-Refining Realm is in no small part thanks to that profit. Once you withdraw from the southern domain, that income will be lost entirely. So unless absolutely necessary, this revenue must never be given up." Jing Yuntian's tone brooked no argument.

"Then about Yaoguang—"

"Enough. I'll inform the sect master of this. The sect master chose to go to the outer battlefield precisely to give you, and the Yin Lunar Sect, an opening. Who'd have thought you'd prove this useless?" Displeasure rippled through Jing Yuntian's psychic thought. "If only none of the younger generation had grown capable enough to shoulder the burden, would the affairs of the southern domain ever have fallen to you?"

Jing Zhengyang didn't dare argue back.

"Ask the Yin Lunar Sect whether they're going to make their move at all. If they are, they'd best be quick about it. Otherwise, once our sect master returns, even if they want to act, we'll no longer be able to buy time by convening the Supreme Elder Council to deliberate." With that, Jing Yuntian ended the communication.

Though Jing Zhengyang's heart was full of dread toward Yaoguang, Jing Yuntian still wouldn't permit him to return to the sect, and he didn't dare disobey.

Besides, over two hundred million Pure Yang Grand Pills in profit per period was enough to support a dozen-odd Void-Piercing Realm cultivators and sustain their daily cultivation. The revenue was immense. As long as the slightest hope remained, he couldn't bear to give it up.

At the thought, a wave of gloom welled up in him. "What was the Yin Lunar Sect thinking, sending such an unsteady Void-Refining cultivator and throwing off the plan at the final moment..."

Just then, psychic thought suddenly rang out in his mind.

"It had better be that one of us in the Yin Lunar Sect acted carelessly and caused the mishap."

Feeling it, Jing Zhengyang's expression changed, and his own psychic thought quickly spread out to cloak his surroundings.

"Don't bother searching. I used a Fiendish Dao secret technique and merely sent this message through an external object by psychic thought. My true body has never set foot in the southern domain." The psychic thought rang out again.

"This technique..." Jing Zhengyang's expression turned grave. "The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord?"

"Correct. You'd best count yourself lucky. As things appear for now, it really was Crimson Malevolence playing the fool and running into Yaoguang, who was on full guard. If I learn that all of this was a scheme of your sect, that Yaoguang was in fact bait to lure the Yin Lunar Sect's experts into being trapped in the southern domain, I can't say whether the others will die, but you, and your family, will most certainly die. Every last one of you."

"Hmph!" Jing Zhengyang's expression soured, but he didn't argue.

Facing a Void-Shattering Realm cultivator, he couldn't help but feel short on confidence in the exchange.

"When will your Yin Lunar Sect make its move?" The Jing family's head changed the subject.

"You can tell from the fact that Yaoguang is patrolling the border in person that he's on guard right now. If we slip in at a time like this, we might well tip our hand."

"What do you mean?" Jing Zhengyang's expression changed, and he pressed on. "Yaoguang has stirred up such a great affair in the southern domain that the feud between the two sects grows ever fiercer. However many excuses our sect master has, he'll have to return from the outer realm. Otherwise, if a Void-Shattering Realm clash breaks out while the sect master isn't there to take command of the sect, that's dereliction on his part, and he might even be impeached by the Supreme Elder Council."

"A person's energy is limited. He can keep up the utmost vigilance, patrolling the surroundings and keeping his subordinate forces on full guard, for a year... Maybe three, or five. But he can hardly keep it up for a decade. In three to five years at most, when his guard will inevitably drop, and his mind relaxes, our sect will strike with full force and rid your Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master of this thorn in his side." The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's psychic thought turned this over.

"Three to five years?" Jing Zhengyang frowned. "That's too long. The sect master can't possibly linger in the outer realm that long."

"That's your problem. I imagine that as long as we make no rash moves, your sect master can always find an excuse. Yaoguang reached the Void-Refining Realm through the Dao of the void, and he commands a Dao Technique like Void Flicker. Even if I act in person when the time comes, he might still escape with his life. So I have to make full preparations and persuade more to act in order to ensure there are no mishaps," the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord said coldly.

"If we fail to kill Yaoguang this time, then with the vast resources he's gained, he'll just need to hole up in the Southern Capital and swiftly reach the Void-Shattering Realm. That process could take only a few hundred years, even a single century, if he's quick. Once he reaches the Void-Shattering Realm and has enough strength, and then brings that mysterious artifact paragon behind him out into the open, do you think your sect master's seat will still sit securely beneath him?" the Yin Lunar Sect's supreme elder reiterated.

As a supreme elder of the Yin Lunar Sect, the Void-Shattering Realm fiendish cultivator knew very well what Jing Zhengyang and the people behind him truly feared.

These words struck right at the heart of it. Jing Zhengyang opened his mouth to say something, but for a good while no words came.

Only after a full several breaths did he speak, "I'll report this. But in the meantime, you'd best make no rash moves. As long as nothing happens, the sect master can find a fitting reason to stay away."

"I don't need you to tell me that much. Let's leave it there," the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord answered coldly and ended the transmission.

Feeling the psychic thought disperse, Jing Zhengyang fell silent.

In that moment, his wish to pull himself out of the whirlpool that was the southern domain grew stronger than ever. Yet at the thought of his ancestor's attitude, in the end he could only let out a sigh. He could only hope it would all go smoothly.

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