Chapter 50: The Hidden Plot, and the Choice of Wielder for the Shanhai Immortal Diagram

Just as Chen Daoxuan passed through the Kunlun Mirror to head to the Yuanling Realm and began cultivating the Innate Celestial Art 【Innate Creation Celestial Flame】.

On Yuan Yi Xing, within a cave dwelling at the Zhang clan's territory, after Zhang Mingye severed his communication with Chen Daoxuan.

His languid expression vanished completely, his face turning utterly grim. He stood still for a moment, a trace of struggle surfacing in his eyes, but in an instant it hardened into resolve.

After a long, quiet sigh, he returned to his usual languid demeanor, went deep into the clan territory, and came to pay audience to the family's Incarnation-stage Ancestor.

"Ancestor, as you instructed, I have already sent word to Chen Daoxuan, inviting him to attend my Dao Lu ceremony five hundred years from now."

"Mingye, do not bear any psychological burden. The rise and fall of the clan, your personal Immortal Achievement—all hinge on this one time."

"The Tianshan Wan Clan wants Chen Daoxuan's life. Within this Shanhai Immortal Sect, who can stop them?"

The Zhang clan Ancestor, seated cross-legged with the form of a three-year-old child, looked at Zhang Mingye and chuckled:

"You are merely a lure. The outcome will not change in the slightest."

……

Hearing this, Zhang Mingye merely smiled and shook his head, asking with full curiosity: "Ancestor, since the die is already cast, I naturally will not labor in vain, adding inner scars to myself."

"It's just that this child has some doubts. If the Tianshan Wan Clan wants Chen Daoxuan's life, do they still need to go to such lengths?"

"Any one of their stationed Incarnation-stage elders could likely arrange him at will, could they not?"

"Is there some particular reason behind all this?"

"Or is it merely some Wan Clan junior acting under the clan's name…"

Hearing Zhang Mingye's questions, a trace of gravity appeared on the Zhang Ancestor's three-year-old childlike face, and he directly rebuked sharply:

"Silence!"

"How dare you speak of the Tianshan Wan Clan?"

Within the rebuke, Great Dao Power suffused the air, binding Zhang Mingye and severing inside from outside.

After a long while, when nothing happened, the Zhang Ancestor's expression eased slightly.

He released the binding on Zhang Mingye.

Looking at Zhang Mingye, who was full of doubt and fear, he sighed softly and said:

"Mingye, since you know that the Law is not transmitted to a third ear, you should also understand that the methods of this world are boundless.

"We are already working for the Tianshan Wan Clan to begin with. Five hundred years from now, you will further be forming a Dao Lu bond with a daughter of the Wan Clan. Speaking of them as you did, one careless moment could be perceived by certain existences, bringing great disaster upon us."

"Remember this well, remember this well—before achieving an immortal Primordial Spirit, do not speak thus of that Immortal Clan that nearly coexists with the Immortal Sect."

"Go now!"

"Yes, Ancestor!"

Watching Zhang Mingye depart, the Zhang Ancestor, in his three-year-old childlike form, shifted his expression, becoming utterly sullen, his thoughts churning unsettled within.

"Heh, merely to draw out this little Nascent Soul True Disciple Chen Daoxuan—is it worth a Wan Clan daughter marrying down?"

"Is it to seize the opportunity of this great war to swallow up my Zhang clan's foundation, or does that Chen Daoxuan truly hold something special?"

"Or both?"

"Or does the Wan Clan daughter being married down have some great problem of her own?"

After a long while, he gathered his thoughts, wielded Great Dao Power, and sent out a transmission.

……

Deep within Shanhai Star.

A dimensional spacetime containing one Dong Tian Blessed Land after another.

Within one vast Dong Tian, one of the three Incarnation-stage cultivators the Tianshan Wan Clan publicly stationed in the world—Shanhai Immortal Sect Incarnation-stage Elder Wande Zhen.

Looked at the message transmitted by the Zhang Ancestor and nodded slightly.

Thinking of the result the clan had spent a heavy price to divine over two hundred years ago, using one Immortal Artifact authorization, a dense killing intent surfaced in his eyes.

"If not for fear of alarming the Immortal Spirits, why would such roundabout methods be needed."

"It is also a pity. If you had not blocked the path of my Wan Clan, in the future you should have had the possibility of achieving Integration."

The Sect's Supreme Elder is going to attempt the Nine-Nine Immortal Tribulation. Regardless of success or failure, a wielder of the Shanhai Immortal Diagram must be chosen.

Originally, in the clan's divination, the Sect Heir's potential in Immortal Achievement, apart from the Celestial Ancestor who founded their Tianshan Wan Clan, could rank in the top ten in clan history.

Among the existing six Dao Children, both open and hidden, only this generation's Wan Clan Sect Heir was the most suitable to wield the Shanhai Immortal Diagram.

If nothing unexpected occurred, before the Supreme Elder's Tribulation Crossing, there was a seventy percent chance the Shanhai Immortal Diagram would be passed to their Wan Clan Sect Heir to wield.

This was still due to the drag of the Sect Heir's status. If it were a Master-Disciple Lineage, it would be nearly a hundred percent, and none other than him.

……

It was just that over two hundred years ago, a sudden change in the heavenly secrets was discovered. At some unknown time, a massive variable had appeared.

The divination revealed that with the appearance of this variable, the probability of their Wan Clan Sect Heir becoming the wielder of the Shanhai Immortal Diagram would directly drop to less than thirty percent.

Moreover, with the clan's accumulated foundation of countless years, they actually could not divine what that variable was.

In the end, they had to expend one of the clan's dwindling Immortal Artifact authorizations, using one of the Sect's eight great Immortal Artifacts—the sole destiny Immortal Artifact, the Wanming Immortal Wheel—to perform the divination.

Only with the power of an Immortal Artifact did they finally divine that the variable was related to the Nascent Soul True Disciple Chen Daoxuan.

At first they all thought it was a miscalculation. After all, even an Immortal Artifact is not a hundred percent accurate.

But after investigating Chen Daoxuan, they discovered that he had already become a Reserve Dao Child of the Sect, protected by Immortal Spirits.

At this point, it was confirmed that the variable was most likely Chen Daoxuan.

Thus arose the matter of marrying out a clan daughter to lure Chen Daoxuan into appearing.

……

"A mere Soul Egress cultivator, to make my Tianshan Wan Clan pay such a great price and attach such importance—his death will not have been in vain."

In thought, Wande Zhen stood up, left the Dong Tian, and went to the depths of the dimensional spacetime, to that expanse of void.

His hands formed a set of mysterious arcane seals.

In an instant, within that stretch of void, a vast, boundless mountain appeared.

The vast mountain trembled slightly, the radiance of the Great Dao converged, and a figure harmonized with the Dao emerged.

"Wande, what matter calls upon me?"

"I pay my respects to the Fifth Ancestor."

Wande Zhen cupped his hands in a salute, then, using Zhang Mingye as the lead-in, laid out the scheme devised by Chen Daoxuan one item at a time.

"Fifth Ancestor, wait five hundred years; when Chen Daoxuan reveals himself, I will personally take action to guarantee the elimination of this variable."

"Good!"

The figure harmonized with the Dao nodded slightly, but after a moment's deliberation, said:

"Since that Chen Daoxuan has the protection of a sect's immortal spirit, even if you are at late-stage Spirit Division, I fear you cannot guarantee absolute safety."

"Take my decree and request the Duntian Shuttle from the ancestral shrine."

"Although the Duntian Shuttle is nearly half damaged, it still far surpasses a Heavenly Harmony heavenly treasure, and can manifest a portion of a quasi-immortal's power."

"With this, it should be foolproof."

As he spoke, on the vast mountain, radiance converged, condensing into a scroll of decree that fell before Wande Zhen.

Seeing this, Wande Zhen rejoiced in his heart and received the decree.

"Yes, Fifth Ancestor!"

……

Watching Wande Zhen depart, the Wan Clan's Fifth Ancestor—who was preparing to fall back into slumber and wait for the next opening of the Immortal Path—suddenly felt a stray thought rise in the depths of his heart.

"Could I perhaps use some other method, paying a price, to make that Chen Daoxuan give up on his own?"

But in the next instant, the Heavenly Dao Harmony figure wore that stray thought away.

"I'm getting old after all—a mere variable at the Soul Egress stage actually made me harbor weak, stray thoughts."

"He must be killed!"

In the span of a thought, the Heavenly Dao Harmony figure merged into the vast mountain, and then the vast mountain also vanished from sight.

……