Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Blossom Unfolds in the Prime Sun

Wang Zhenling’s expression suddenly changed as he exclaimed, “No, this isn’t right. Weren’t you all dead? Especially you—I saw you die with my own eyes, your soul scattered and gone. What kind of demon dares to take this form and deceive me?”

Wang Zhenling had been in a muddled, hazy state, his consciousness vague and clouded. Yet within the sea of his mind, the Lotus Seed of Heaven emitted a cool, refreshing sensation, instantly jolting him awake and alerting him that something was amiss.

The scene before him was anything but normal; it felt just like a dream.

How could Wang Zhenling know whether these people were truly dead? He deliberately spoke to test them, claiming they were dead to see how they would react.

Indeed, the moment he felt something wasn’t right and shouted, everything before his eyes shattered like a mirror.

Suddenly, Wang Zhenling jerked awake from the dream and looked around—he was still sitting in the carriage.

Anyone else might have dismissed it as nothing more than a fleeting dream. But Wang Zhenling, as a cultivator, was immediately alert.

Could it be that someone was intruding upon my dreams?

If so, the intruder must be a master of the Out-of-Body Stage, at the very least at the Divine Elder Realm, to invade another’s dream and pry into their secrets.

With this thought, Wang Zhenling noticed that the carriage had stopped at some unknown point. An eerie, unsettling silence enveloped everything, inside and outside the carriage; it was utterly still.

“Stop hiding in the shadows!” Wang Zhenling sneered, pushing open the door and stepping out. As the mist surged around him, he took just one step and was immediately lost in its dense embrace.

Everything before him was exactly as he had seen in the dream.

Yet when Wang Zhenling bit the tip of his tongue, he could feel his own clarity, confirming his wakefulness.

This realization sent a chill through his heart, and an involuntary thought escaped his lips: “A master of the Divine Enlightenment Realm…”

If this was not a dream, could this be a domain of law?

If it was a domain of law, did that mean a master of the Divine Enlightenment Realm was targeting him?

Divine Awakening, Divine Elder, Divine Treasury, Divine Nether, Divine Enlightenment.

Divine Enlightenment was already the pinnacle of the Out-of-Body Stage, the summit of the Human Immortal level.

As far as Wang Zhenling knew, this was the highest realm attainable by any cultivator in this world.

Having cultivated to this level, one could condense a Domain of Law.

At that moment, Wang Zhenling suspected he had been trapped within such a domain.

In truth, a Domain of Law was a semi-real, semi-illusory space forged by a powerful force, much like the time Wang Zhenling had been trapped by the mists of the Valley Cultivators, lost in a maze.

Back then, he’d thought those misty valley cultivators were masters of Divine Enlightenment, but later learned they were only using an array formation. And that formation fell far short of a true Domain of Law!

They were not even on the same level. That ghostly maze was crude—anyone at the Divine Treasury level could have broken it.

But a Domain of Law created by a Divine Enlightenment master could easily trap and kill several Divine Treasury experts without effort.

Let alone someone like Wang Zhenling, who was barely half a step into the Divine Awakening Realm.

Truth be told, Wang Zhenling had never truly witnessed a Domain of Law before. He could only suspect that he was now facing such a master and had been captured within their domain.

As he cried out in alarm at the presence of a Divine Enlightenment master, squads of soldiers clad in bronze armor appeared, arrayed in perfect order, like a military formation, surrounding a carriage that approached him.

“These bronze-armored soldiers… why do they seem so familiar? Where have I seen them before?” Wang Zhenling murmured to himself. The carriage halted before him, and from it stepped a Taoist in a cloak woven of feathers, wielding a five-section staff.

This figure was not unfamiliar to Wang Zhenling at all. “An Emissary of the Heavenly Path…”

His heart sank.

The last Taoist he had killed wielded only a three-section staff, but this one bore a five-section staff—clearly, his rank and status were much higher.

And Wang Zhenling now recalled the bronze-armored soldiers—they were the famed Azure-armored Divine Troops of the Heavenly Path.

The so-called Divine Troops were a type of ghost warrior, or rather, magical soldiers cultivated and refined by great sects.

In their day, the Azure-armored Divine Troops of the Heavenly Path were renowned, having slain countless local deities and spirits during the rebellion.

Now, Wang Zhenling could see at a glance that these Divine Troops were far superior to the county’s common ghost soldiers, on par with the hundreds of heroic spirits that Chen Bushi had once dispatched when they destroyed the Wuhua Society.

And now, at least two hundred of these Divine Troops were gathered, along with this five-section Emissary of the Heavenly Path. Wang Zhenling felt a chill—he was surely doomed this time.

But to his surprise, the Emissary smiled slightly. “Lord Wang, don’t misunderstand. We are friends, not foes… We’re not here to trouble you today, but to assist you!”

“Oh?”

Wang Zhenling raised an eyebrow.

The Ivy-robed Taoist, seeing Wang Zhenling’s disbelief, smiled and said, “After all, we are all part of the same path of cultivation. Helping each other is only right.”

Wang Zhenling snorted coldly, feeling as if someone had found leverage over him, a threat hanging overhead.

He was both an official and a cultivator. Normally, such matters would be conveniently overlooked by all involved.

But to think they could control him with such leverage—Wang Zhenling would not be so easily swayed!

At the very least, he already knew Chen Bushi’s true attitude toward cultivators.

Since even his own superior didn’t mind, what did Wang Zhenling have to fear?

If this Emissary of the Heavenly Path thought such leverage was enough to command his obedience, he sorely underestimated Wang Zhenling.

To drink poison as a remedy—such folly must never be committed!

When dealing with those who threaten you, never harbor any hope of luck; it will only drag you deeper, until you end up on a pirate ship with no escape!

“I know you’re thinking of silencing me right now… but there’s no need. We actually worked very well with County Officer Chen Bushi in the past,” the five-section Emissary said with a smile.

“What do you mean?”

His first words were entirely beyond Wang Zhenling’s expectations.

Truthfully, Wang Zhenling certainly wanted to kill this Emissary—but whether he had the ability to do so was another question.

“Heh. How do you think County Officer Chen came by all that intelligence on the Wuhua Society and Mount Wujishi? Have you ever wondered about that?” the Emissary said with a booming laugh.

“So you were the ones who supplied the information to Officer Chen… Hmph, Officer Chen comes from a noble family and is a pillar of the state—why would he ever consort with the so-called heretics of the Heavenly Path?”

The Emissary laughed heartily. “Who says we, the Heavenly Path, are heretics? When the Original Yang blossoms, do you know what flower it is?”