ISWI Chapter 1269-1270 (Patreon)

Chapter 1269: Moon Arrival Immortal King

Ascending the immortal peak, they beheld an immense and magnificent cave abode. The gate elder lowered his head and bowed toward it. "Greetings, Immortal King. I have brought Ye Chen."

Within the cave abode, Immortal King Tuoba felt a measure of anticipation. A genius with an Immortal spiritual root was among the highest talents even in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Discovering such a one ahead of time was an absolute stroke of fortune. He had found a treasure!

Yet he could not appear too eager. That might make the youth arrogant, and should the boy then grow lax in cultivation, it would be counterproductive. Better to remain somewhat cold and cultivate him step by step.

Having settled on his training plan, Immortal King Tuoba wiped the smile of having found a treasure from his face, assumed a detached expression, and walked slowly outward.

The great doors of the cave abode's main hall opened smoothly. Clad in a robe of cyan-green and radiating a majestic aura, Immortal King Tuoba stepped unhurriedly from within. He calmly surveyed Ye Chen.

"Ye Chen, your talent is passable and has come to my notice. Yet your earlier performance alone is insufficient to make you my nominal disciple. You must cultivate even more diligently from now on."

The measured voice resounded in their ears.

Ye Chen bowed and offered thanks while inwardly feeling no interest whatsoever in becoming the man's nominal disciple. From the sound of it, this Immortal King Tuoba ranked among the roadside variety of foreign-realm Immortal Kings and was certainly inferior to his own master. He feared his master might misunderstand. Outright refusal, however, would be too great a loss of face and risk offending an Immortal King. Better to play along for now.

Besides, Immortal King Tuoba appeared middle-aged and did not seem the villainous type. Yet such sudden enthusiasm made one wonder whether schemes lay behind it. Ye Chen's wariness remained strong.

Immortal King Tuoba continued, "Your cultivation is far too low and falls well short of my requirements. Your talent is not ordinary, so the upper limit for compressing immortal energy is higher, and breakthroughs will take longer. Still, I can grant you an opportunity. For the Multiverse Great Luo Dao Fruit secret realm two years from now, I can reserve a place for you. If by then you have reached the peak of the Golden Immortal realm, the place will be yours. Should you obtain one Multiverse Great Luo Dao Fruit, you will pass the trial and become my nominal disciple."

Ye Chen was silent. He had been wondering how to secure a Multiverse Great Luo Dao Fruit. More than half a year had already passed since his breakthrough to Golden Immortal. Within two years, he would certainly reach the peak. The quota for entering the secret realm no longer needed to trouble him. Just as he grew drowsy, a pillow was delivered. His luck truly grew better and better.

Yet this Immortal King Tuoba's attitude remained cold, as though he did not particularly favor Ye Chen and was merely making a casual investment. That was only natural. To an Immortal King, even the most outstanding performance from someone at Ye Chen's level amounted to little.

Ye Chen felt no disappointment. On the contrary, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. For him, it was a good thing. Perhaps the man would forget him later. Otherwise, how could he still have the face to cling to the Western Empress's thigh in the future?

"Many thanks, Senior Tuoba. This disciple is deeply grateful!" Ye Chen bowed earnestly.

Immortal King Tuoba maintained his indifferent demeanor and said nothing further to Ye Chen, merely giving a faint nod as though it truly were only a casual investment. He then turned to the gate elder. "Afterwards, go and complete the entry formalities for him. There is no need to test talent, bloodline, or the like. Simply fill in whatever you like, something about a Sacred Spirit Root and Immortal Physique will do."

The gate elder's mouth twitched. It went against the rules, yet within the War God Academy, an Immortal King still possessed the authority to handle such minor matters. He simply could not understand it.

Some Immortal Kings resorted to such methods in order to bring in juniors of unqualified aptitude. Ye Chen's origins might be humble, a mud-legged peasant from the Nineteenth Realm, yet his talent was certainly not lacking. There was no need for this at all.

Confusion aside, the gate elder nodded at once.

Ye Chen himself was somewhat puzzled. As a temporary student, he had no intention of hiding his Immortal spiritual root. He had planned to astonish everyone in one stroke and thereby obtain more resources. Immortal King Tuoba's sudden move left him at a loss. Still, since the matter of entering the Multiverse Great Luo Dao Fruit secret realm had been settled, everything else was secondary. Ye Chen voiced no objection.

Only after Immortal King Tuoba drifted away did Ye Chen follow the gate elder to complete the formalities. With an Immortal King's decree, everything proceeded with almost unbelievable smoothness. Apart from his name, virtually no proper information was recorded. Ye Chen thus entered the War God Academy and formally became a core disciple of the Golden Immortal sequence, beginning his life as an exchange student.

Back inside the cave abode, Immortal King Tuoba returned to the main hall with a grin so wide it nearly twisted his face. Looking closer, he felt the denseness of Ye Chen's Immortal spiritual root even more clearly. Even among all Immortal spiritual roots, it likely ranked in the highest tier. His future was boundless. To have intercepted such a genius ahead of time filled him with the pure exhilaration of having snatched a bargain.

As for not registering Ye Chen's Immortal spiritual root, the reason was simple: to prevent others from competing with him. Certain Immortal Kings had no sense of shame whatsoever. Upon spotting a fine seedling, they struck first, accepting the youth as a nominal disciple on the spot.

They then paid him little attention and left him to fend for himself, yet once the name was recorded, no one else could snatch him away. Not registering the Immortal spiritual root would cause Ye Chen some inconvenience, yet Immortal King Tuoba intended to compensate him far more generously. It would be infinitely better than those Immortal Kings who accepted disciples in bulk and then ignored them entirely.

The more Immortal King Tuoba thought about it, the more excited he became, recalling the wild joy he had felt upon first breaking through to the Immortal King realm. Joy had to be shared, yet sharing it with just anyone would not do. That risked interception. A tall and graceful figure immediately rose in his mind.

"I shall go chat with Fellow Daoist Moon Arrival. Moon Arrival is different from the others. She never accepts disciples at the War God Academy and is the least likely to steal mine. All the way along our paths of growth, I have always lagged half a head behind her, and after we both became Immortal Kings, the gap has only widened. Now that I am about to accept an excellent disciple, I must properly show off."

Thus, the dharma body of Immortal King Tuoba flew straight out of the cave abode and toward the deeper reaches of the War God Academy. Moon Arrival Immortal King was likewise one of the current guardians of the War God Academy.

Immortal Kings, however, had ranks among themselves. Moon Arrival Immortal King's combat strength was universally acknowledged as terrifying. Many believed she could match the Seven Extremes Heavenly Maiden of old, with the outcome impossible to predict. Her residence was naturally far superior to Immortal King Tuoba's.

Accustomed to this, Immortal King Tuoba arrived at a crystalline divine mountain that seemed forged of pure moonlight and slowly descended. Soon, he stood before a lunar palace temple. "Is Fellow Daoist Moon Arrival occupied?"

A calm voice answered. "Nothing of importance. What brings Fellow Daoist Tuoba here today?"

The next moment, the temple doors swung wide. A tall and graceful figure stepped out slowly, lowering her head a fraction as she calmly regarded Immortal King Tuoba.

Chapter 1270: Congratulations on Accepting an Excellent Disciple!

Immortal King Tuoba looked up at the woman, his expression complicated. The Moon Arrival Immortal King before him stood tall and straight as a jade pillar, nine chi in height, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Her lines were smooth and clean; her waist possessed strength without losing the fluid contours of a female cultivator. Every inch of her form seemed flawless, in perfect accordance with the order of heaven and earth.

She wore a long robe of pure black embroidered with golden patterns. As it fluttered, countless points of starlight drifted down. Before her chest, a flock of phoenixes was carved in relief. Because of the woman's exaggerated and towering stature, the phoenixes seemed to have taken on flesh and bone, growing ever more lifelike, as though they might take flight at any moment.

Her brows were sharp as if carved by a blade, yet they held no ferocity, only a composed air of looking down upon all living beings. Her eyes were deep; the left melted with gold, the right froze with silver.

When they opened and closed, light and darkness shifted unpredictably, like the alternating of sun and moon. In every movement, there was none of the coquettish charm common to female cultivators, only a grand and imposing majesty of unparalleled dominance, as though she were an innate goddess of ancient times.

Gazing at the tall woman, Immortal King Tuoba's expression remained complex. There was envy, yearning, a sense of closeness, and a thread of affection buried very deep. The woman before him was Moon Arrival Immortal King, a figure of the same era as himself. That he had become an Immortal King was no small feat, yet back then he had been suppressed by her at every turn. She had even become an Immortal King ten thousand years earlier than he. Thereafter, she had pulled far ahead, leaving him completely behind.

He had long since abandoned any thought of pursuit and thoroughly given up. Yet facing such a magnificent and extraordinary woman, having lived in the same era and witnessed all her moments of brilliance, how could he easily let go?

Immortal King Tuoba quickly composed himself and followed her into the cave abode. At the thought of Ye Chen, the look of melancholy vanished at once. He smiled and said, "This time I have selected an excellent new disciple who only just entered today. He possesses an Immortal spiritual root.

"Moreover, at the mere early stage of the Golden Immortal realm, a full-powered strike from him nearly destroyed a high-grade immortal artifact. The He Family's peak Golden Immortal prodigy, ranked among the top ten of the Golden Immortal sequence, could not even block a single blow before my disciple.

"An Immortal spiritual root already gives a high probability of becoming an Immortal King, and this youth is even fiercer than ordinary ones. I believe his future may well surpass both of us. To obtain such a disciple is truly a great blessing, so of course I must share the news with Fellow Daoist."

Moon Arrival Immortal King raised her blade-sharp brows at the words. The body she maintained at the War God Academy was merely an avatar. Many of the guardian Immortal Kings did the same, leaving only an avatar while their true bodies secluded themselves or attended to other matters.

Today, her true body had sensed the aura of her imprint. Just now, the avatar at the War God Academy had likewise sensed that imprint. And at this very moment, Immortal King Tuoba had accepted a disciple who had come to register at the academy today, a disciple who possessed an Immortal spiritual root.

In a single instant, Moon Arrival Immortal King became certain. The disciple of whom Immortal King Tuoba spoke was none other than the one who carried her imprint. Yet why did the other party possess an imprint that should have been left in the Immortal Realm? What exactly was his identity?

And he had come straight to the War God Academy precisely during the period she was standing guard. Was it a coincidence or a deliberate lure? Was Immortal King Tuoba's arrival itself part of some plan, hoping to draw her attention so that she would take the initiative to contact the youth and reveal a flaw?

Moon Arrival Immortal King narrowed her eyes slightly; sun and moon alternated within them. Soon she shook her head. Given Immortal King Tuoba's temperament, he did not seem the sort to plot against her. On the contrary, if someone truly tried to recruit him, he would more likely tell her in secret. So was it truly a coincidence?

She did not lower her guard, intending to observe further later. A faint smile then curved her lips as she spoke lightly, "Immortal spiritual roots are few even within the War God Academy. There are Immortal Kings who would fight for one. Congratulations on accepting an excellent disciple."

That was precisely the sentence Immortal King Tuoba had wanted to hear. He immediately waved a hand. "Not at all, not at all. It is pure luck. The youth's talent is decent, yet his cultivation is far too low. Time waits for no one. If he misses certain opportunities, he will have to wait another thousand or ten thousand years. One step is slow, and every step thereafter is slow. So although I have gained a fine disciple, the investment will certainly not be small. And when the time comes, I may need your help as well."

Moon Arrival Immortal King gave a soft laugh but did not respond.

Immortal King Tuoba quickly added, "I will of course provide the corresponding resources."

Only then did Moon Arrival Immortal King nod. After a few more idle remarks, she simply dismissed him.

Immortal King Tuoba had long grown accustomed to her manner. He had come mainly to show off and to chat with her, even if only with an avatar. His purpose achieved, there was no need to linger. Next time, when Ye Chen distinguished himself in the secret realm, he could return to boast before Moon Arrival Immortal King once more.

Although the number of core disciples was considerable, their status remained high. Each was allocated an immortal peak of their own where the concentration of immortal energy was quite dense. The class schedule was packed; nearly every day, Immortal Monarchs lectured and discussed the Dao. Once a month, an Immortal King would deliver a sermon.

Attendance was not compulsory, yet an ordinary Golden Immortal might never encounter an existence of Immortal King level in an entire lifetime. Within the War God Academy, one could gaze upon such a figure once a month. The privilege spoke for itself.

Beyond that, resources were abundant. Core disciples at the Golden Core stage received a full ten Immortal Radiant Pills each month. The Immortal Radiant Beast, long extinct in the Immortal Realm, was said to still exist in the Other Domain, though extremely rare.

The Immortal Radiant Pills had been refined by Immortal King experts skilled in the Dao of alchemy who, after hundreds of thousands of years of research, had found substitutes. Without requiring the bone powder of the Immortal Radiant Beast, they could still produce a similar pill whose efficacy reached one-third that of the genuine bone powder.

Reading the introduction, Ye Chen found it almost unbelievable. Compared with the Immortal Realm, the Other Domain was simply far more formidable. Once the Immortal Radiant Beast went extinct in the Immortal Realm, there was nothing more to be done, yet the Other Domain had actually conducted research. It was a bit outrageous.

At the same time, core disciples enjoyed high privileges. By completing missions or competing for rankings, they could earn academy points, which could be exchanged for all manner of rare treasures, even divine pills refined from qilin blood whose efficacy surpassed that of the Immortal Radiant Beast's bones.

From the exchange catalog of the Golden Immortal sequence alone, Ye Chen could sense the profound foundation of the War God Academy. Treasures from every realm were available in abundance. It was simply absurd. Coming to the Other Domain had truly been the right decision.

Soon, Ye Chen flipped through the class schedule and spotted a familiar name: Moon Arrival Immortal King. Three months later, Moon Arrival Immortal King would deliver a public lecture.

Ye Chen's eyes lit up at once. Others might not know, but he knew perfectly well that this Moon Arrival Immortal King was none other than his master, the Western Empress. Was he finally about to grasp the greatest thigh available to him in the Other Domain?