Chapter 563: Great Chaos in the Three Realms

"No." Yujing's face also turned cold.

At that moment, Ying Wuhuan was helped up by the Ying family's heavenly pride; he lightly coughed a few times, "Yujing, even if I'm not in the team, you cannot let Yuan Yao take my position."

No one present spoke up for Yujing.

"Yujing, since you voluntarily resigned the deputy leader position, from this moment on you will no longer be the deputy leader of this heavenly pride team." Ying Wuhuan took a deep breath and said coldly.

"Does anyone have any objections?"

"Naturally there are none." Kui Yanhong spoke first.

Immediately after, she said again: "Ying Wuhuan, the team already lacks two deputy leaders; should we select two more deputy leaders?"

Ying Wuhuan heard this and fell into thought.

The other heavenly pride members also stirred restlessly.

Kui Yanhong straightened her back slightly, lifted her chin, and spoke confidently: "I actually think I can handle the deputy leader position."

"Yanhong, don't cause trouble." Kui Yanqing only felt a headache.

Kui Yanhong glared at him and said angrily: "Brother, your not competing is your business; why can't I volunteer?"

One heavenly pride member immediately laughed, "Kui Yanhong, your strength isn't outstanding, and you lack leadership and deployment abilities; just based on you, you also want to be deputy leader?"

"Exactly."

Many heavenly pride members echoed.

Kui Yanhong's face darkened; she sneered: "If you don't let me try, how do you know I can't? Or do you think just because you can?"

Just as they were about to argue into a fray, Ying Wuhuan shouted angrily.

"Enough!"

In an instant, the noisy scene fell silent; all eyes focused on him.

Ying Wuhuan's face turned icy; he said in a deep voice: "The selection of deputy leaders will be postponed for further discussion. Haven't you all wanted to know why I and Lu Xiang suddenly lost contact?"

He took a deep breath, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion: "Not long after we parted from you, we encountered a seventh-stage peak abyssal beast. With our two strengths, we were no match; we could only flee desperately, eventually straying into a perilous abyss. That beast relentlessly pursued us; we fought but were no match, and Lu Xiang... she... to shield me, was swallowed alive by that abyssal beast...."

Saying this, his throat choked, as if bearing a thousand-jin weight: "It was Lu Xiang who expended her last spiritual power to push me away. I dragged my near-death body, which hardly could escape, when the abyss suddenly changed, the earth shook and mountains swayed as blades danced wildly; I was shaken into unconsciousness. After waking, I contacted Yujing."

The heavenly pride members heard this, their expressions varied.

No one expected Lu Xiang to have such a resolute spirit of self-sacrifice.

Ying Wuhuan stood with head lowered, shoulders slightly trembling, as if bearing a heart-wrenching pain.

"Brother Ying, my condolences...."

"Deputy Leader Lu's great righteousness, we will surely remember...."

Everyone offered words of comfort.

In the shadow of Ying Wuhuan's lowered eyelashes, a fleeting glimmer of dark light flitted by, forming a strange contrast with his grief-stricken expression, unnoticed by anyone.

On another side, the cultivation world.

Tian Jiaocheng, eleven city-guarding Elders stood on the city walls, shockingly gazing at the scene before them: the vortex leading to the Realm Abyss had been completely sealed, while the aura of the Realm Abyss was slowly dissipating.

"What on earth is going on?!"

"How did the Realm Abyss get sealed?!"

"The three-month period hasn't even arrived yet; how is this possible?!"

Yue Shan looked anxiously at the leader, "Elder Zong Guang, such a thing has never happened before! What on earth is going on?"

Zong Guang Immortal Venerable narrowed his murky old eyes and said in a deep voice: "Quick, send a message to the Buddha Venerable!"

Before they could finish sending the message to the Buddha Venerable, they consecutively received two pieces of news.

——Demons appeared on Wuliang Island.

——The lord of the Second Continent died suddenly, and the spatial pillar was stolen.

The eleven city-guarding Elders' faces drastically changed, and a deep sense of unease welled up in their hearts.

"The appearance of demons on Wuliang Island must mean the seal on the stone tablet has been broken! If we don't reseal it in time, endless troubles will follow!"

Zong Guang Immortal Venerable said in a deep voice: "Yue Shan, go to Wuliang Island immediately to handle this!"

"Hua Bai, go to the Fifth Continent immediately."

"Yes, Elder Zong Guang!"

The two city-guarding Elders vanished instantly from the spot.

When the Buddha Venerable received the message, he was meditating at the Spirit Mountain Chan Monastery.

The jade slip, made from a thousand-year-old Buddha bone, suddenly emitted a blinding golden light; the eighteen ever-burning lamps hanging in the meditation room swayed violently; the Buddha Venerable's eyes flashed with Buddha light, and his form turned into a golden rainbow that burst out the window, leaving the room filled with sandalwood fragrance.

In just a moment, he had already arrived at Tian Jiaocheng.

"Buddha Venerable..." Zong Guang Immortal Venerable hurried over, about to speak, but the Buddha Venerable raised a hand to stop him.

Next, the Buddha Venerable's palms, pressed together, slowly opened, his face covered with a heaviness like ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.

"Form the Buddha divination, calculate the heavenly secrets!" the Buddha Venerable shouted solemnly; his kasaya robe stirred without wind, and three thousand Buddhist texts flew like living things, dancing and converging.

Only then did we see his hands form intricate seals; in the void instantly appeared a massive diagram made of glazed Buddha light, sixty-four Buddhist-text lines moving slowly along the celestial orbits, each pause causing the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy to violently tremble.

As the time of an incense stick quietly passed, the golden light on the Buddha diagram grew dimmer, and the trajectory of the moving lines gradually became obscure and twisted.

When the last Buddhist-text character "calamity" shattered into powder, the Buddha Venerable's face, lined with grooves, instantly lost all color; he coughed heavily, and a trace of blood actually seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Gazing at the fading light of the scattered diagram, his voice hoarse as if two stones were rubbing together, he said: "The karma lines are in chaos...."

"This matter is inseparable from Yuan Yao!" the Buddha Venerable's eyes filled with anger and sorrow, he said in a deep voice: "That girl must have entered the Realm Abyss! Her destiny originally clashed with the Realm Abyss; now she forcefully barged in, which is tantamount to tearing a hole in the three realms' karma net! If it weren't for her, how could the passage to the Realm Abyss have closed?"

The city-guarding Elders heard this, their expressions shocked; they were about to ask questions, but saw the Buddha Venerable slowly close his eyes and press his palms together again.

Under the watchful, held-breath gazes of everyone, he spoke each word with a pause, his voice carrying a soul-piercing chill: "Before long, the three realms will plunge into great chaos!"

The city-guarding Elders heard this, their faces turned deathly pale.

"Yuan Yao!" Immortal Venerable Zong Guang almost squeezed these two words from between his teeth, his murky old eyes seeming about to spit fire.

"Immediately have Qian Jueshan come over!"

Meanwhile, the major powers of the cultivation world also seemed to sense the imminence of a storm, faintly restless.

When Qian Jueshan appeared in Tian Jiaocheng, it was already two hours later.

As soon as he appeared, Immortal Venerable Zong Guang could not contain his anger and launched into a fierce scolding:

"Qian Jueshan, are you going to let your disciple ruin the cultivation world? How could you allow your disciple to enter the Realm Abyss? Do you still have the cultivation world in your eyes, or the rules of Tian Jiaocheng?"

Qian Jueshan stood amidst the gale, his white Daoist robe flapping loudly.

He gazed at the furious Immortal Venerable Zong Guang and the surrounding Elders, tense as drawn swords, his face showing no hint of excuse, only a deep, unfathomable gloom.