After Shang Si issued the Summons to All Living Beings, she received a message from Shang Luo within less than two hours.
When they had previously traveled from the Kunlun Mountains through the ruins of the Immortal Realm back to Yedu, that area had fallen into decline millions of years ago. Yet numerous restrictions lingered, including one that blocked transmissions from the outside world.
Only now did the news of Lu Shiyuan venturing there alone finally reach Shang Si.
“That Teleportation Array can’t be activated again anytime soon. Even if it’s repaired someday, it would come at an enormous cost. I could only watch helplessly as she vanished into the array.” Stopping her or following after was impossible by that point. Shang Luo’s voice sounded hoarse over the line. “Little Aunt, has Sister Lu returned to Yedu?”
By her calculations, if Lu Shiyuan had passed through the Immortal Realm ruins without incident, she should have arrived in Yedu by now.
Though her cultivation wasn’t as profound as Shang Si’s or the others’, traveling at full speed should have brought her back without much delay—unless something unforeseen had held her up along the way.
Shang Luo held her breath, anxiously awaiting Shang Si’s reply from the other end of the Spirit Talisman. But all that returned was endless silence.
Silence was, perhaps, the worst possible answer.
“She hasn’t come back to Yedu,” Shang Si finally said after a long pause.
She had taken the time to confirm the matter repeatedly with Nan Jin, who had been guarding Yedu these past few days. She had also immediately dispatched people to check the Underworld entrance beneath the city for any sign of followers emerging. Yet every report was disappointing.
Lu Shiyuan had truly gone missing.
Eyewitnesses on the Kunlun Mountains had seen her enter the Immortal Realm, but after all this time, no one had emerged from the Underworld side.
Either she had run into some trouble that delayed her exit, or she would never come out at all.
The air around Shang Si grew heavier by the moment. Beyond essential reports, everyone stuck to their tasks, careful not to provoke Ye Lord. Even Lin Xiao—the perennial unruly old kid—showed uncharacteristic restraint in this matter.
He knew all too well how Shang Si straddled the line between righteousness and ruthlessness, striking without mercy. Without Lu Shiyuan there to run interference, he had no intention of provoking this “junior.”
Five days slipped by in the blink of an eye for them. Nearby clans and sects began arriving in Yedu one after another.
It evoked the grand spectacle of the Three Realms gathering on the day of Shang Si’s wedding years prior. But this time, the assembled sect leaders and family heads had come for a crisis that threatened their very survival—not mere revelry.
For five straight days, Shang Si had made a point of visiting the Underworld exit personally each day, lingering just a short while. Yet she never saw the one she waited for.
She longed to reenter the Immortal Realm and search for any trace of Lu Shiyuan. But with the dire state of affairs, she simply couldn’t spare the time.
“You all know what issuing the Summons to All Living Beings signifies. You’ve witnessed the chaos engulfing the Three Realms. I’ve called you here to devise a plan.” Radiating the innate regal authority of the Shang Family, Shang Si addressed the hall packed with leaders clutching their summons. Her voice was grave. “The Jiao Dragon Demons’ power has grown to a level none of us here could withstand alone.”
Qin Xinying had arrived in Yedu on the second day after the summons went out. With her came valuable intelligence.
After Cheng Qi’s self-detonation, those nearby had suffered varying degrees of injury. The Jiao Dragon Demon had traded a clan leader’s life for precious time and wounds inflicted on their foes—a move that had undoubtedly constrained their counteroffensive.
Puzzlingly, from the incident onward, every appearance by the Jiao Dragon Clan involved nothing but raw slaughter and venting rage. It was as if their elaborate diversions and unleashing of resentful spirits had been for nothing more than catharsis and killing.
To flaunt such a blunt, savage motive so openly—could it truly not be a smokescreen for some grander scheme?
“We know all that already,” someone retorted, tempers fraying under the strain. Propriety had long been cast aside. “We assumed Ye Lord summoned us because you’d devised a strategy. To think… we still have to deliberate.”
No one dared voice agreement.
Seated at the head of the right side as the Fire Phoenix Clan’s representative, Qin Xinying fixed the speaker with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
Shang Luo had a fiery temper unlike Qin Xinying’s. Sitting on the left side of the long table, she exploded the moment she heard those words. “Might I ask which sect or family you hail from, sir, to come out here spouting such nonsense and making a fool of yourself? By your logic, is our Ye Lord supposed to be your nanny, scrambling to wipe your asses for you?”
Yedu lay beyond the Three Realms. Even if the realms faced annihilation today, it wouldn’t touch them in the slightest. They could simply seal their gates and bide their time for tens of thousands of years until heaven and earth birthed the next cycle of realms.
The man’s words painted Shang Si as a fool for failing to produce a plan by now.
Scolded outright, he didn’t dare retort.
Lin Xiao, as the leading representative of the major cultivation sects, had no choice but to step in and play peacemaker. “Enough, all of you. Why bicker at a time like this? Our priority is figuring out what to do, not sitting around waiting for someone else to save us.”
“Don’t forget, the chaos engulfing the Human Realm is the human race’s chaos. Not one of us seated here can escape unscathed.”
Clad in the handsome guise of a young scholar, Lin Xiao finished dressing down the white-haired sect masters and elders. Only then did he turn toward the figure at the head of the table and slap it with his palm. “Shang Girl, it’s your call. You sent out the Summons to All Living Beings, so you take point. Whatever you say, this old man will follow without question!”
Shang Si gave him a glance before slowly reclining against the back of her chair. “Shang Luo, you speak.”
“Yes, my lord.” At her command, the young sovereign rose gracefully and faced the assembly. “Five days ago, Yedu issued the Summons to All Living Beings to every clan. Every sect within the Three Realms, great or small, every race thriving or fading—all received our missive. We’ve gathered you here for one purpose alone—”
Shang Luo still appeared as a human girl of seventeen or eighteen, yet her words already carried the weight of true authority. As Yedu’s Young Lord, every syllable she uttered spoke for Yedu—for Shang Si herself. “Any sect or clan that failed to appear may be marked as colluding with the Jiao Dragon Demons.”
“Look around, everyone. Check your allies, your trading partners, even your old rivals. Are they all here? If not, from this moment forward, they are the enemies of every soul in this room.”
Her declaration rang out like a thunderclap, heavy with implication. Yet no sooner had the words faded than chaos stirred in the hall.
It might have been better if she hadn’t said anything. Now the crowd began scrutinizing faces, murmuring in shock.
“What? Someone didn’t show?”
“No way—are there people who aren’t afraid?”
“Now that you mention it… Did the Nanyang Luo Family arrive?”
Shang Si let the clamor build for a moment, then raised her hand. A list of no-shows floated into view before the assembly. “Take a good look, everyone.”
“No need. The Ghost Chariot Clan is absent too.” Qin Xinying could hold her tongue no longer. Her words yanked every gaze her way.
“They’re thick as thieves with the Jiao Dragon Clan—vassals on the surface, slaving away for the dragon demons. But in truth… Countless lives have been lost across the Three Realms lately, humans and demons alike. Every soul harvested afterward has likely fattened the Ghost Chariot Clan.” She turned to Shang Si. “What say you, Ye Lord?”
The mantis hunts the cicada, heedless of the oriole lurking behind.
This group had only recently pierced the smokescreen. The true foe this time wasn’t the Jiao Dragon Demons at all—but the Nine-Headed Birds.
Suddenly, it all made sense: the Ancient Extermination Grand Arrays secretly arrayed before the sects’ gates, the small demon clans wiped out with no leads at first. Now every thread converged on a single point.
From the shadows, the Ghost Chariot Clan had always skulked behind the Jiao Dragon Demons, feigning submission while wielding them as a proxy spear.
All for one purpose: devouring souls to bolster their own clan’s power.
Nine-Headed Birds feasted on souls, and with the Three Realms’ death toll skyrocketing… Who knew how much stronger they’d grown?
Shang Si nodded at Qin Xinying’s assessment. “The Young Clan Leader speaks true. The Ghost Chariot Clan must be eradicated.”
“But they’ve lurked in the Jiao Dragon Demons’ shadow from start to finish, never once showing their faces. Cautious, insidious, cunning to the core. To cut out the root, we’ll have no choice but to clash with those rampaging Jiao Dragon Demons first.”
Talk was cheap if they couldn’t neutralize the Jiao Dragon Demons slaughtering freely outside. Everything else was moot.
To strike at the Nine-Headed Birds, they had to staunch the bloodshed. Otherwise, the Three Realms would serve as the Ghost Chariot Clan’s bottomless larder.
Nearly a hundred souls packed the grand hall, debating from noon straight through till nightfall. Only after hammering out a preliminary plan did they disperse.
Shang Si returned to her Residence Hall, where a fresh wave of reports awaited.
It had been nearly half a month since she last closed her eyes. Though cultivators of their level no longer needed sleep and never felt weary, she had grown so accustomed to being around Lu Shiyuan that suddenly going back to her old sleepless ways felt strangely uncomfortable.
The mental exhaustion far outweighed any physical strain, and she had no idea how Lu Shiyuan was faring at that moment.
Shang Si had unwavering faith that Lu Shiyuan was still alive. Her confidence stemmed from the strand of divine sense she had imprinted on the Black Iron Token—a token Lu Shiyuan had always kept close to her body, never parting with it.
If Lu Shiyuan were ever in mortal danger, that divine sense would surely alert her.
With no stir or reaction so far, she was probably safe.
