Once Bao Gu came back to her senses, she found herself facing a man in his early thirties, with an extraordinary bearing, unfathomable cultivation, clear sharp eyes, and a calm expression. A quick glance at how everyone around stood—positions, postures, all faintly oriented around him—told her this man held the highest status here.
She took several steps forward, stopped before him, and bowed respectfully.
“Senior, Bao Gu pays her respects. Thank you for taking us in and looking after us. My disciple acted rashly and damaged your hall. I am willing to take full responsibility for all losses. I beg senior’s forgiveness.”
When she finished, she bent down again and gave a deep apologetic bow. They were guests in someone else’s manor and had literally stomped a building flat. No matter how you looked at it, they were in the wrong.
The man’s expression was indifferent yet not cold, his eyes as clear as if untouched by a speck of dust. He lifted his hand slightly, signaling Bao Gu to rise.
“It’s of no consequence. Your disciple’s strength is truly impressive.”
Impressive was an understatement. There was only a single footprint on the ground, yet an entire side hall, defensive formation and all, had been wrecked. Bits of shattered wall tiles and broken beams were still pattering down, and the whole side hall looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Since the hall was about to fall in, the man led Bao Gu to the main hall instead. At the same time he ordered the guards who had rushed over, as well as those from other halls who had come after hearing the commotion, to disperse.
Bao Gu followed behind him into the main hall and watched as he walked straight to the main seat. He lifted a hand in invitation for her to sit. She nodded in thanks, turned, and took a seat.
“May I know senior’s honored name?” she asked.
A faint trace of surprise flickered through the man’s eyes, then he replied,
“I am Xuan Zhan.”
“I am Xuan Zhan, this old man,” was what he’d said.
Old man?
Looking at that thirty-something face and clear fair complexion, hearing him refer to himself as “this old man,” Bao Gu couldn’t help pausing. Cultivators lived long lives; there were plenty who’d lived several hundred or even a thousand years and still thought of themselves as young. Very few people with such a young appearance would call themselves “this old man.”
Given Xuan Zhan’s unfathomable strength and his demeanor, he had very likely lived a long, long time.
Bao Gu bowed respectfully again.
“Senior Xuan Zhan.”
Xuan Zhan asked, “I wonder where you have come from, little friend?”
When Bao Gu had talked with Ba earlier, she hadn’t avoided the maids, so their origins were no secret by now. She answered frankly,
“Junior comes from the Huangtian Realm.”
“Huangtian Realm?” Xuan Zhan exclaimed in surprise. “Little friend means you came directly from the Huangtian Realm to this Manhuang Realm?”
“No,” Bao Gu said. “Qingying and I entered the void and drifted there for several hundred years before we reached this place.”
The moment Xuan Zhan heard she was from the Huangtian Realm, his interest was clearly piqued.
“Could you tell me the details? The legacy you cultivate—does it come from the War King Clan’s lineage in the Huangtian Realm?”
Bao Gu nodded.
“It’s the legacy of the War God Xuantian of the Upper Realm’s War King Clan.”
“War God?” Xuan Zhan’s voice jumped.
Seeing his shock, Bao Gu suddenly remembered: the War God Sword was a treasure that even Ba had coveted like crazy. She’d just casually revealed it—was that really wise? What if it attracted greedy eyes?
Then she thought again: she wasn’t some soft persimmon to be kneaded at will. The War God Sword had already recognized her as its master. Even Ba couldn’t take it from her; everyone else was even less of a concern.
She gave a slight nod.
“Truly?” Xuan Zhan pressed.
Bao Gu nodded again.
Xuan Zhan still found it hard to believe, though he forced himself to remain composed.
“Would it be possible to lend it to this old man for—”
He never finished the sentence.
A blinding light suddenly exploded in the sky outside. A vast wave of energy swept out, that overwhelming power twisting the very heavens as if they might tear.
The sudden disturbance cut his words off mid‑phrase.
Dazzled by the light, Bao Gu instinctively closed her eyes and spread out her divine sense.
She saw, hanging in midair, the old tea tree.
The terrifying energy fluctuations were coming from it—and around it, at least several dozen experts of such deep cultivation that Bao Gu couldn’t see through any of them had surrounded it on all sides.
The old tea tree was in the middle of being besieged. It was jumping frantically, its entire crown exploding with leaves. Those leaves flew out and formed a defensive shell of tens of thousands of glowing blades of foliage, stubbornly resisting the barrage of attacks as the tree dodged left and right, bouncing around in panic.
Above the old tea tree hung an enormous bell, its domain sealing off the space with the tree trapped in its center. The many groups attacking the tree were split into more than a dozen factions, each launching their own assaults. From the way they attacked and the treasures they used, there was no doubt—they meant to capture it alive.
Bao Gu understood instantly.
They’d spotted a supreme treasure and all made their move. They were trying to steal her Horned Dragon Dao‑Comprehending Sacred Tea Tree!
Xuan Zhan cried out in shock, “That is… an immortal treasure!”
With the appearance of an immortal treasure, who could still care about anything else? Before the words fully left his mouth, his figure had already shot out, joining the crowd besieging the tree.
Bao Gu saw that they were about to snatch away her tea tree. There was no way she could sit still. She tapped her toes and slid out of the Misty Waves Hall, riding the wind straight up. In an instant, she reached the outer edge of the encirclement.
A barbarian powerhouse swept a glance over her and snorted coldly.
“Just an early Tribulation brat, and you dare come courting death?”
He shot a look at Xuan Zhan, then raised a hand and slapped toward Bao Gu.
After being beaten down by Ba for several hundred years, Bao Gu’s combat sense was honed to the bone. She’d already felt the strike the moment he moved. With a twist of her body, she slipped cleanly out of its range.
The old tea tree, being blasted back and forth, jumping up and down and not even knowing which way to run, saw Bao Gu rushing over. It was like seeing a savior descend.
It screamed at the top of its lungs,
“Cheap mas—no—Bao Gu—no, honored Lord Master, save me! I… I’ll give you three jin of tea leaves!”
Bao Gu gave a cold laugh.
“Run, then!”
Thinking of the message it had left on the wall and how it had emptied out her whole courtyard before running off, she couldn’t help getting annoyed.
If you’ve got the ability to escape, how did you let them trap you and pound on you like this?
Annoyed as she was, she couldn’t stand by and let others chop apart or steal her Horned Dragon Enlightenment Tea. She calmed her mind, searching for a gap in their formation, preparing to pull the old tea tree out.
Under the joint siege of all those factions, the old tree howled non‑stop as shockwaves crashed against it. It flashed about desperately, but the space it could move in grew narrower and narrower as the encirclement tightened. The situation was getting more and more dangerous.
Within that shrinking cage, the old tea tree dodged while tanking blows, bawling like a snot‑nosed child,
“At least let me hide for a bit! Think of my tender new shoots I offer every three years!”
Xuan Zhan, who’d been about to attack again, froze when he heard Bao Gu’s exchange with the old tea tree.
“Bao Gu, that immortal treasure is yours?” he asked, withdrawing his hand.
“That’s the Horned Dragon Dao‑Comprehending Sacred Tea Tree I planted in my courtyard,” Bao Gu replied. “It emptied my yard while I wasn’t watching and ran off. I was just about to drag it back.”
The old tea tree shrieked hastily,
“No need to drag, no need to drag, I’ll go back on my own, I’ll go back on my own! My leaves, they’re going bald, hurry and save me! Ow, that hurts! Stop hitting, damn it, I already have a master! You’re still hitting—Qingying! You dead girl, come save me, I’ll give you tender shoots to eat… ow… it hurts… stop hitting…”
A barbarian woman among the attackers sneered.
“Empty words. Just because you say it’s yours, we’re supposed to believe it?”
As she spoke, she shot skyward. Her snow‑white jade‑like bare foot stomped down on the top of the massive bell that covered the old tea tree’s head and sealed that stretch of heaven and earth, preventing it from slipping into the void. The bell descended with a momentum that seemed ready to crush the world, pressing down toward the tree.
Seeing this, Bao Gu summoned the Xuantian Sword.
She flashed through the gaps in the encirclement at an impossibly tricky angle. Her figure, fast as a phantom, appeared above the old tea tree in the blink of an eye. The Xuantian Sword art unfolded.
Bao Gu’s speed soared to its limit. Waves of sword qi, one after another, crashed against the great bell like storm tides. A dense barrage of metallic crashes echoed out, like a violent squall hammering on metal.
A heartbeat later, a single incomparably fierce sword slash erupted.
The sword aura ripped a jagged tear straight through space itself.
With a deafening crack, the barbarian woman’s bell shattered into a cloud of fragments that scattered in all directions.
The barbarian woman herself was hurled dozens of zhang away, her body drenched in blood. Sword marks crisscrossed her from head to toe. Every cut went straight to the bone. She looked as if she’d been carved apart by slow dismemberment—no sound flesh, not even a whole bone left intact.
No one had expected a little girl in the early Tribulation stage to have that kind of battle power.
Everyone was stunned.
Bao Gu stood in midair, Xuantian Sword in hand, the wind whipping her robes. Above her right arm, a gateway to another world opened out of thin air.
The old tea tree saw her open the entrance to the massive storage space and, in a single step, darted into it. Its speed and motion were exactly like a mouse diving back into its hole at the sight of a cat.
Bao Gu tossed the old tea tree back into the Xuantian Mountain Range inside, then closed the entrance to the gigantic storage pouch.
She swept a cold gaze over the surrounding crowd.
“Apologies, everyone,” she said evenly. “You’ve been busy for nothing. That tree already has an owner.”
The words had barely left her mouth when a gigantic foot came stomping down from the sky toward her. It moved fast and heavy, obviously meant to crush her into a smear of meat in one blow.
Bao Gu knew very well that treasures stirred people’s greed. If she didn’t show enough strength, none of these people would let the matter drop.
Facing the falling giant foot, she did not retreat. She advanced instead.
She released her Sword Domain. Swords formed into a formation, and she gathered all her power to meet the descending foot head‑on.
The foot plunged down like a sky‑supporting pillar.
Bao Gu was like a dragon coiling around that pillar, roaring as she spiraled upward.
Sword qi surged out, blanketing the area. Sword light wove into a bright, spinning storm. Within that blizzard of blades, flesh was shredded, bones were pulverized, and blood sprayed.
Bao Gu wound her way along the giant leg into the sky, like a colossal meat grinder, mincing everything in her path. When she reached the level of the giant’s waist, a titanic fist came crashing down on her head.
She instantly slipped behind the giant, gripped her sword with both hands, and hacked down from above with all her force.
That soul‑chilling power made every watcher’s heart clench.
The sword fell, and the giant was cleaved cleanly in half.
Blood poured down like a torrential red rain. The pure spiritual power in the giant’s body burst out as thick white mist, dispersing on the wind.
Bao Gu hovered in the air, sword in hand, surrounded by drifting blood‑rain, shredded flesh, and splintered bone. Her cold, beautiful face and upright figure against that sky of gore made her look like a war god of slaughter descended to the world.
Silence crashed down over everything.
In a single clash, an early Tribulation cultivator had destroyed a Great Ascension‑grade bell treasure, heavily injured a Great Ascension barbarian witch, and then slain a Great Ascension barbarian expert in one stroke—body and manifested form together.
Tribulation and Great Ascension were a full major realm apart.
A Great Ascension cultivator only needed to cross one more tribulation to ascend. Even if they failed, they would still be an Earth Immortal‑level existence. Compared to the Tribulation stage, it was the difference between heaven and earth. Under normal circumstances, a Great Ascension expert could crush an early Tribulation cultivator with a single finger.
Yet now, a barbarian cultivator in the Great Ascension realm had been killed outright, true body and manifested dharma body both erased.
Those with the courage to fight over an immortal treasure were all overlords in their own territories, rich in experience and knowledge. After watching Bao Gu unleash two blows in succession, they all clearly saw how extraordinary her sword was.
That was an immortal weapon. Without a doubt.
One of the experts recovered first, glanced at Xuan Zhan, and said,
“Brother Xuan, could it be that another Upper Realm immortal from the War King Manor has descended?”
Xuan Zhan said nothing, his expression unfathomable. Inwardly, though, he felt a growing sense of unease.
With what Bao Gu had just done, it would not be easy to settle things with the barbarians.
A dignified, majestic voice rose from the ground below.
“War King Manor is truly impressive. To take a life at the slightest disagreement—is that your so‑called ‘way’?”
Bao Gu frowned faintly, a wave of inexplicable irritation washing through her.
Why is it always like this wherever I go?
In the past, she would have patiently argued her case. After everything she’d been through, she understood that before talking reason, you had to talk fists.
She transmitted her voice,
“I killed him. That’s all there is to it.”
The majestic voice boomed again.
“What rampant arrogance. Do you think that with a single king‑grade weapon from the Upper Realm in hand, you can look down on all of us?”
Bao Gu’s voice was calm.
“You tried to seize my immortal treasure first. Then you attacked me. And I’m not allowed to strike back? If you think I was wrong to kill your man and want to make a move, then draw your line. I’ll take the challenge.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to,” the majestic voice replied.
Xuan Zhan’s brows knit together.
“Barbarian King,” he said sharply, “in all things, there must be some reasoning.”
The Barbarian King gave a cold laugh.
“When I talk reason with you, you talk fists. When I talk fists with you, now you want to talk reason? Didn’t the War King Clan claim to fear no battle?”
His tone shifted.
“Girl, if you can survive for three days, this matter will be considered closed.”
“I think it’s better not to fight,” Bao Gu said. “I’m just passing through.”
She was thoroughly tired of this pattern—kill one person, then have an entire faction come demand answers and escalate into a faction war. The cultivation world in the Huangtian Realm had been like this, and so was this place.
“Too late,” the majestic voice said.
“Barbarian King, think this through,” Xuan Zhan said gravely.
“What?” the Barbarian King snorted. “War King Manor wants to get involved as well?”
“No need,” Bao Gu cut in with a frown. She turned to Xuan Zhan.
“Senior Xuan Zhan, this began because of me. Please let me handle it myself. I’ve troubled you enough these days.”
“You may have come from afar, but you are of the War King Clan’s lineage,” Xuan Zhan said. “No matter what, the War King Clan has a duty to protect you.”
This little girl had no idea how high the heavens were. If she provoked the barbarians and the War King Clan didn’t shelter her, never mind three days—she might not survive the present moment. She was a seedling with great potential, very likely to ascend in the future. How could he bear to watch her die here?
“Thank you, Senior Xuan Zhan,” Bao Gu replied. “I have the power to protect myself.”
As she spoke, she took out a voice‑transmission jade slip and held it in her hand. Quietly, she sent an order to the army hidden in the starry sky: enter full combat readiness.
Once the command went out, she transmitted again.
“Barbarian King, I ask you to think twice. I do not wish to start a faction war. Once war begins, there will be no clean end to this.”
“Interesting,” the Barbarian King said. “A faction war? Little girl, if you have some backing, bring it out. This king has already spoken: if you live for three days, this will be over.”
With his words, barbarian cultivators gathered in from all directions, surrounding Bao Gu in a tight ring. Every one of them had considerable strength.
The experts who’d been encircling the old tea tree earlier all withdrew, save for the barbarians and those of the War King Manor.
The people of War King Manor grouped together as well, forming a protective ring around Bao Gu. Xuan Zhan stepped forward, putting himself in front of her, every inch the stalwart shield.
Both sides were drawn up, tension crackling in the air, ready to explode at any moment.
Suddenly, a violent surge of energy rippled through the sky overhead. Space twisted, opening into a tunnel. A huge swath of blackness appeared, as if a chunk of the heavens had been gouged away. From that yawning black passage, a colossal dark shadow emerged.
In the span of a few blinks, the massive shadow loomed over the city below.
When they looked closely, everyone saw it clearly—a gigantic warship, nearly half the size of the city itself, lay horizontally across the sky. From the warship’s hold, thousands of smaller warships shot forth, fanning out into a battle formation that stretched across the firmament.
The barbarians surrounding Bao Gu and the War King Manor clearly felt themselves being locked onto—each of them targeted by those thousands of warships.
Faces darkened both among the barbarians and the War King Manor cultivators.
Bao Gu’s expression was calm and shadowed.
Her cool voice floated out,
“Barbarian King, if we go to war, we won’t need three days. In the time it takes three sticks of incense to burn, I can turn this place into a wasteland.”
The Barbarian King fell silent.
The barbarians surrounding Bao Gu and the War King Manor quietly backed away and dispersed.
The War King Manor cultivators stared at Bao Gu as if they’d just seen a ghost, their expressions extremely complicated.
Xuan Zhan gave Bao Gu a long, deep look, then raised his eyes to the sky‑filling fleet overhead, then looked back at Bao Gu again.
“Return to the manor and talk,” he said. “Please.”
He gestured invitingly toward her.
He couldn’t make sense of it. Bao Gu had said that she and her disciple had drifted for hundreds of years in the void before reaching this realm. So where had such a colossal war fleet come from?
And she’d better not tell him that this entire fleet had gone into the void drifting with her. The consumption to take something this massive into the void was unimaginable. How much backing did it take to afford such extravagance?
Bao Gu inclined her head slightly, then glanced around. She didn’t see Qingying anywhere.
She sent a message to order the army back beyond the clouds to stand by, then sent her voice in all directions.
“Qingying.”
Ba didn’t appear, nor did she answer. Bao Gu knew Ba wouldn’t go far. She was probably hiding somewhere nearby, staring at her.
“I’m not planning to abandon you, nor to throw you away,” Bao Gu said. “We’ve relied on each other for more than five hundred years. You’ve been with me longer than anyone. You called me Master and served me tea to acknowledge me. I’ve raised you for more than five hundred years. Without your company, I wouldn’t have endured it. Without your guidance, I’d still be drifting aimlessly in the endless starry sky. Without you taking action, I’d have died the moment I took you into the void.
“I know what you’re worried about. I can promise to treat you as I always have. But I hope you can promise me not to hurt the people at my side. I want to keep being your master. I don’t ever want us to have to fight to the death one day.”
Ba suddenly appeared a little more than a zhang in front of Bao Gu, then drifted slowly to her side. Puffing her cheeks in anger, she glared at Bao Gu.
“You’re going back soon, aren’t you?” she demanded.
Bao Gu let out a soft sigh.
“You tore their house down,” she said gently. “I have to compensate them for it first.”
Her tone shifted.
“Qingying, you’re not some stray cat or dog. You’re my disciple. My senior sister, Yu Mi, is much better than I am at taking care of people. I’m cold by nature and distant to others. She’s different…”
She gave a quiet laugh.
“Don’t worry. She won’t be stealing your food.”
Ba dropped her head, staring at the tips of her shoes.
“The Huangtian Realm is the harshest place to cultivate in,” she muttered.
“I’ve never sought to become an immortal through cultivation,” Bao Gu said.
Ba knew that what Bao Gu wanted was definitely tied to Yu Mi. The thought that someone held a place in Bao Gu’s heart more important than her own made her sulk. Staying here was so nice—here she was the closest to Bao Gu. Whatever she wanted, Bao Gu gave her. With Yu Mi around, she’d be pushed aside.
She lowered her head even more, cheeks puffed out, lips jutting in a pout. Fierce indignation rose up; she wanted, just once, to be stubborn enough not to follow Bao Gu back.
But then she thought of all the delicious food, of how well Bao Gu fed her and how much she’d taught her, and she couldn’t bear it.
“You can go back by yourself,” she snapped instead. “I’m not going back. I’m staying right here! If I get annoyed, I’ll eat Earth Immortals—one after another, string them up like skewers and roast them! Red‑braised, steamed, stewed, slow‑boiled soup—I’ll change the recipe every day so I never get tired of the taste!”
“You don’t have the spices for red‑braise, steam, stew, or soup,” Bao Gu replied mildly. “And you don’t have any Monkey Wine. This realm isn’t suppressed by Heaven’s laws. Immortals from the Upper Realm can come down for short visits, can’t they?”
Ba’s eyes changed instantly. She looked at Bao Gu with a deep, haunted stare. In a single moment, all her bluster vanished. She fell silent, only staring at Bao Gu with pitiful little eyes, her red lips trembling slightly as she drew out a tiny, drawn‑out whimper.
“Master…”
Bao Gu gave a light “mm.”
“Let’s go,” she said.
Bao Gu led Ba into War King Manor. In the main hall they saw Xuan Zhan, and with him a dozen or so experts whose cultivation she couldn’t see through. Xuan Yi and Xuantian were there as well.
The moment Xuan Yi saw Bao Gu, she snapped at her,
“I’ve turned through the clan records for seven days straight. My eyes are about to go blind!”
And in the end, the Xuantian senior she wanted to find wasn’t from this realm at all.
Bao Gu looked at Xuan Yi with an innocent face.
“Ancestor Xuantian broke the realm barrier to reach the Huangtian Realm,” she said. “I didn’t know which realm he was in before he became an immortal.”
Xuan Yi was so angry she almost choked.
She waved a hand.
“Forget it!”
Her tone shifted.
“The Huangtian Realm has always had no contact with the other realms. Every realm knows very little about it. Now that you’re here, do you think it’s possible to establish a link between the War King Clan in the Manhuang Realm and the War King Clan in the Huangtian Realm?”
Bao Gu thought of Qingying’s origins, of the assassins who had chased her master’s wife, and of how this realm still had contact with the Upper Realm. If word leaked out and the Upper Realm sent people down again, it would mean another storm of blood.
“The realm‑breaking gateway of the Huangtian Realm is broken,” she said. “The place where the realm gate stood has become a dead, shattered wasteland. Never mind connecting with the Manhuang Realm—even ascending to the Upper Realm is… impossible, at least for now. I only reached this place because I entered the void and got lost, stumbling here by accident.”
As she spoke, she took out a treasure inscribed inside with a star map and coordinates, and handed it to Xuan Yi.
“This is a star map I drew along the way,” she said. “It records in detail the stars I’ve scouted and their coordinates. Some even have notes on what kinds of mineral veins and resources they hold. I think it should be of great use to you.”
How could it not be of use? This was a treasure map containing an uncountable number of hidden hoards. But once she left this realm, it would be of little use to her.
Xuan Yi sent her divine sense into the treasure and probed it slightly, activating it. The treasure projected a three‑dimensional image.
It showed a vast swathe of starry sky, galaxies scattered throughout. Every galaxy’s stars were marked with labels and coordinates. Some even had detailed notes about what resources and ore veins they contained.
The moment the star map appeared, everyone present was stunned.
First, at the sheer value contained in the map.
Second, at the number of stars Bao Gu had explored. There were so many that even a sweep of divine sense couldn’t count them in one pass.
