More people were arriving from the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, and yet, nobody cared. After all, none of them were celestials, only demigod experts. And after they arrived, all of them looked over to the scene that was playing out.
Everyone was watching Bai Xiaochun mouthing off, almost as if he wanted someone to attack him….
“Bring it on! Hit me! Come on, Prince Ur-Demon. Come on, Reverend Devourer! Are you guys gonna hit me, or what? Hurry up! I'm ready. Bring it on!” He really seemed to be getting worked up.
Extremely unsightly expressions could be seen on the faces of both Prince Ur-Demon and Reverend Devourer. Just like Celestial Virūpākṣa, they couldn’t use their divine sense, and therefore couldn’t confirm what was really going on. Although they were relatively certain that Bai Xiaochun had a precious treasure of some sort, it was obvious that only a celestial-level Daoist magic could do anything to it. Ordinary magic could not.
And the mere backlash from hitting that defensive magical item was shocking to the extreme. Celestial Virūpākṣa’s shattered right hand, and the blood oozing out of his mouth, bore testimony to that. Neither Prince Ur-Demon nor Reverend Devourer had fleshly bodies at the same level as Celestial Virūpākṣa, so if such a backlash hit them, they would suffer even more.
Although it might not permanently cripple them, they would be badly hurt. And the whole point of this venture was to seek good fortune. Earlier, they had assumed that they could crush Bai Xiaochun to intimidate everyone else. Never could they have imagined that he would be so tough. The two of them were obviously not going to attack him casually at this point.
Worse, they had never seen any celestial that would go to these lengths to try to get someone to hit them….
“Completely incorrigible!”
“He obviously has some defensive precious treasure. That’s why he’s trying to get them to hit him again!!”
“He’s doing all of this on purpose!”
The people from the Vile-Emperor Dynasty were starting to get angry, and off to the side, the cultivators from the Saint-Emperor Dynasty were starting to get embarrassed. Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua exchanged awkward glances as, all of a sudden, their worldview changed….
Back before Bai Xiaochun had become a celestial, if Gu Tianjun and Sima Yunhua had learned that he had a precious treasure like this, they would have started scheming of a way to get it. But now that Bai Xiaochun was a celestial, everything was different. In fact, it might not even be possible for the Vile-Emperor or the Saint-Emperor to get that treasure easily.
After all… Bai Xiaochun was the only person in the Eternal Immortal Domains whose Daoseed was not under the control of someone else. Although that would place him in a certain amount of greater danger, it also meant that he had a lot more freedom!
Anyone else who betrayed the emperor they served would have to suffer the destruction of part of their Daoseed. But not Bai Xiaochun!
As everyone stood there with mixed feelings, Bai Xiaochun continued to make a huge scene.
“Alright, Virūpākṣa,” he shouted loudly, “they’re obviously not going to hit me. So it's back to you. Bring it on! Your right hand is broken, so I’ll ignore it for the time being. Use your left hand!”
Celestial Virūpākṣa was visibly livid. Snorting, he pretended that he hadn’t heard.
However, there was one particular demigod preceptor among the Vile-Emperor Dynasty forces who couldn’t hold back from chuckling coldly, a middle-aged man whose burly frame made it obvious that he was an apprentice of Celestial Virūpākṣa.
“Celestial Bai,” he said, “shouldn’t you act with a bit of propriety, considering your status? What’s with the hooting and hollering? You’re like an old woman! If you had any face at all, you would remove that defensive treasure of yours!”
Looking at the man askance, Bai Xiaochun said, “Who are you?”
Bai Xiaochun was already on guard. Although this man seemed like little more than a muscle-head, from the sharpness of his tongue, it was clear that he was quite clever.
“Your humble servant Li Donghao!”
“Alright, Li Donghao” Bai Xiaochun replied, glaring, “I’ll remove the magical item, and then you can come hit me! If you don’t hit me, then I’ll hit you!” This level of shamelessness was too much for even the people from the Saint-Emperor Dynasty to take….
For a celestial to ask a demigod to hit them, even without a defensive treasure, was ridiculous. Given the power of a celestial’s Daoseed, any demigod would be severely injured by doing so.
It would be like a Foundation Establishment cultivator asking a mortal to hit them….
Li Donghao was enraged by Bai Xiaochun’s words, and was about to offer a furious retort when the last of the Vile-Emperor Dynasty cultivators teleported to the fan. By this point, there were more than fifty people present…. At that point, the damaged fan’s restrictive spells seemed to activate, and the ribs and fan face alike all began to glow with bright light!
It was so blinding that, in the blink of an eye, the minds of everyone present went blank!
Even the celestials were powerless. Everyone was instantly struck so deeply that they lost consciousness!
As of this moment, the damaged fan looked almost like a new star within the starry sky that people saw from down in the Eternal Immortal Domains!
This brightness caused the fan to surpass the gigantic sovereign, and provoked many shouts of alarm from the cultivators below!
“What’s that light!?”
“Heavens, what’s… what’s going on?!?!”
“It’s the damaged fan! Why is it shining so brightly!?!?”
Within the five immortal domains that made up the Saint-Emperor Dynasty and the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, countless people noticed what was happening, and looked up in shock. They could all sense an indescribably powerful energy radiating from the damaged fan, an energy that filled all of the Eternal Immortal Domains!
After Chen Su, Gongsun Wan’er, and the other celestials sensed that energy, their minds and hearts leapt with shock.
“That energy… it surpasses the Archaean Realm!”
The Saint-Emperor and Vile-Emperor felt like they were about to collapse mentally, and their faces fell. Both of them instantly vanished, to reappear in the sky near the fan!
Unfortunately, the shining light made it impossible for them to get any closer, let alone enter the fan.
“The aura of a sovereign!!”
“Dammit! That’s not an archaean magical item! It belonged to a now-perished sovereign, left behind as a precious treasure!!”
The difference between archaean treasures and sovereign treasures was so vast that they almost couldn’t be compared to each other. An archaean treasure would be something that neither of the two emperors would care much about. But a sovereign treasure… would be the type of thing the two dynasties might be willing to go to war over!
Both emperors had been in the Archaean Realm for a very long time, and weren’t even sure of how to advance beyond it. A sovereign-level precious treasure would give them much more hope of being able to break through.
To see such hope vanish right in front of them was a maddening thing. But nothing they did, no attack or technique, could do anything to the light that blocked their paths!
Eventually, the light faded, but it left behind a barrier that was just as impossible for anyone to get through. Only those on the inside could possibly acquire the good fortune of the damaged fan, forcing the Vile-Emperor and the Saint-Emperor to look on helplessly with bloodshot eyes.
The only thing that made them feel better was the possibility that some of the important celestials and demigods they had sent in could theoretically achieve breakthroughs.
But then the Saint-Emperor noticed Bai Xiaochun, and felt deep regret. “Dammit, I can’t believe I let him go in!”
It was at around this time that the group who had already reached the fan began to come to their senses. When they did, they saw something like a mist around them that separated them from the piercing gazes of the Saint-Emperor and the Vile-Emperor!
It left them shaken, but at the same time, they trembled with anticipation as they looked over at the fan ribs.
Even the celestials among them were included. They had the strongest cultivation bases, and therefore, had a much better chance of coming out on top.
It was the same with Bai Xiaochun. Although the entire group seemed to have fully lost consciousness, the truth was that a message from the spirit automaton of the fan had been implanted into their minds. The nature of that message left Bai Xiaochun totally stunned. Never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that his earlier judgement about the fan had been completely wrong. The fan was not a place of profound danger, but rather… a place of unprecedented good fortune!
“Someone will become… the new owner of the fan!?!” Bai Xiaochun thought, his chest heaving. It was at this point that everyone began to fly at top speed toward the various ribs.