“The Twelve-Petaled Red Lotus?”

In a remote great world, within a solemn and majestic hall, in a corner shrouded by layers of barriers…

Baize frowned and muttered softly, glancing at Li Changshou’s paper avatar before him, pondering:

“Could this truly be the Severing Sect’s scheme?

From the perspective of who benefits, indeed the Severing Sect needs such a treasure more right now, but Patriarch Tongming acts with integrity—there’s no reason he would do such things in secret.

Given Patriarch Tongming’s character, even if the blood lotus seed must take root in the Blood Sea, at worst he would lead tens of thousands of immortals to establish a grand formation in the Blood Sea.

With the Severing Sect’s current strength, as long as no Sage intervenes, speaking only of Sage disciples, even the Western and Enlightenment Sects combined would struggle to shake the Severing Sect.”

“Indeed, this matter has many suspicious points.”

Li Changshou asked: “In ancient times, do you know who obtained the third lotus seed, Sir Baize?”

Baize instinctively began to divine with his fingers but immediately remembered that the heavenly mechanisms were now obscured by catastrophic fate, and could only shake his head.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing, though perhaps Dicheng has news.”

“Dicheng cannot be fully trusted.”

As Li Changshou pondered with folded arms, about to continue speaking, he suddenly made a soft sound of surprise, looking beyond the layers of barriers.

Outside the hall, hundreds of streams of light flew in, transforming before the hall into men and women wrapped in snow-white cloaks, who bowed their heads and entered.

Their footsteps sounded like rain on banana leaves, quite melodious.

These figures moved with graceful steps and steady auras, mostly at the True Immortal realm, with the front few rows uniformly at the Heavenly Immortal realm, mixed with several Golden Immortals.

At the deepest part of the hall, a figure slowly flew in accompanied by falling flower petals. When Li Changshou looked closely, this avatar nearly self-immolated.

This?

Junior Aunt Jiu?

She had only been Holy Maiden of the Lingxiao Hall for a few years, and he had been busy with Immortal Alliance affairs, only using paper avatars to sense if the ‘living auras’ here were normal without looking closely, how had she…

Become like a different person?

The style had completely transformed!

Look at Jiu Yao—her light red inner garment still bore the grievous sin of being overwhelmed, but with much less sense of incongruity than before.

Her dress style had changed dramatically, with no trace of the unchanging short jacket and skirt of ten thousand years. The inner garment was paired with a matching long dress, its full skirt trailing half a zhang behind…

That slender waist seemed unable to bear a grip, yet was conservatively covered by the long dress. Her jade feet wore a pair of thick-soled ‘wedge boots’, compensating for her slight height disadvantage and making her figure more natural and harmonious.

Add to that the light makeup, high-coiled hair, red lips striking even behind the thin veil, long white neck, and those slightly intoxicated, somewhat lazy eyes…

Li Changshou truly had to ask—

With such a Holy Maiden, how could Lingxiao Hall not prosper?

With swaying skirts and falling red gauze, accompanied by slight immortal light, Jiu Yao had reclined on a soft couch, receiving the single-knee salutes of the hundreds of figures below…

A somewhat weary voice came from her lips, spreading throughout the hall:

“Does the Northern Division have any important matters?”

Below, a middle-aged Daoist immediately stood up, bowing to report on Lingxiao Hall’s daily affairs.

In the back, many young Daoists couldn’t help raising their heads to steal glances at the beautiful figure on the throne, then quickly lowering them again, as if looking for half a moment more would cost them their eyes.

Li Changshou praised: “Such speed of growth is truly amazing.”

Baize nodded with a smile, saying:

“According to Water God’s previous instructions, we’ve made various adjustments, building Lingxiao Hall entirely in the manner of a righteous immortal sect, using cultivation ideals and abundant cultivation resources to attract them to join.

Also inspired by Water God’s supercelestial soldier plan, we’ve shaped Holy Maiden Jiu Immortal into our Lingxiao Hall’s recruiting face, and the effect has indeed been excellent!”

“Is that so?”

Li Changshou smiled, not correcting Baize’s words, and looked a few more times at Junior Aunt Jiu, somewhat dazed.

Unexpected that Junior Aunt Jiu Yao would have much room for improvement!

Only by restraining one’s particularly prominent points can one achieve all-around enhancement.

Such is the way of the Dao, the Dao follows nature.

Li Changshou truly hadn’t expected that admiring an immortal maiden’s beauty could lead to such insights…

“Sir Baize, do you have avatar techniques?”

Baize smiled: “Walking the primordial chaos for so many years, how could I not have avatar divine abilities?”

“Leave an avatar here and come with me to tour the Blood Sea.”

“Good,” Baize agreed readily, his form stepping sideways, leaving an afterimage in place.

The afterimage quickly solidified, taking Baize’s appearance, and then both avatar and true form bowed to Li Changshou in salute.

“Without careful discernment, one truly cannot tell the difference between Sir Baize’s avatar and true form.”

Li Changshou gave symbolic ‘praise’, his form transforming into a paper person, floating into the sleeve of Baize’s avatar to continue guarding this place.

Li Changshou also instructed: “Sir Baize, be careful on the road, don’t rely too much on your divine abilities.”

“Water God, rest assured,” Baize said gently, “I will surely return steadily, trying not to delay the great matters of the Five Continents…”

…

After chatting with Baize for a few more sentences, his consciousness returned to Little Qiong Peak.

Li Changshou was now in the underground secret chamber, looking down at the wooden bathing tub that no longer had immortal mist, adding some heat to the clear water around him.

Taking a bath to quickly repair his dao body damaged by heavenly punishment.

Regarding the Red Lotus matter, his teacher told him to ‘go’, but didn’t tell him to what extent he should ‘go’…

It was always like this, his teacher truly trusted him too much!

Whose scheme was the Red Lotus?

If the Red Lotus wasn’t planted by Patriarch Tongming, then his objective should be to destroy it or seize control of it.

This Twelve-Petaled Karmic Red Lotus was a treasure of equal rank to the Western Sect’s Twelve-Petaled Golden Lotus, and they opposed each other, having the effect of stabilizing a great sect’s fate.

In today’s primordial chaos, such supreme treasures were incomparably precious. Li Changshou could understand even if the four great sects fought fiercely over it…

Supreme treasures of the primordial chaos had long existed.

Whether or not this Red Lotus was planted by Patriarch Tongming was no longer very important;

The current problem was that after receiving the news, the Severing Sect would surely want this Red Lotus to stabilize their sect’s fate.

And the Enlightenment Sect didn’t want to see the already mighty Severing Sect, with its tens of thousands of immortals at court, truly stabilize its fate—then in future catastrophes, the Enlightenment Sect would surely face greater risks.

Because of a Red Lotus planted by who knows whom, the conflict between the Enlightenment and Severing Sects suddenly escalated.

And this was the most brilliant part of Zhunti’s scheme this time…

The matter of Xu Puti was just Zhunti’s casual mention—if it could be resolved, that would be best, and if the Heavenly Court didn’t agree, there was no additional loss.

Indeed, later Xu Puti could be cultivated into the Western Sect’s scapegoat, attributing the sins of the divine kingdoms of incense to Xu Puti’s name.

A Sage was still a Sage—even on the edge of leaving the group chat, their moves remained extraordinary.

Whether in terms of the Dao realm or thick skin or even in scheming, he was still far behind the Sages in experience.

“So, what can I do?”

Splash—splash—

Using a gourd ladle to scoop up some warm water, Li Changshou dried his now-restored elegant hair and sat pondering in the wooden tub.

His teacher likely wanted him to intervene at the critical moment, trying his best to prevent war between the Enlightenment and Severing Sects, delaying everything until after the Purple Void Palace meeting.

This Red Lotus—should he destroy it or preserve it?

If this choice was placed before him, how should he choose?

Li Changshou carefully considered, analyzing various scenarios that might unfold if the Red Lotus went to the Severing Sect versus being destroyed or falling into other forces’ hands.

He very much hoped the Severing Sect could obtain the Red Lotus to stabilize their fate, giving him better odds of saving those he wished to save in the future.

But if the Severing Sect got the Red Lotus, the Enlightenment Sect would truly suffer…

Just as Sage Zhunti deliberately said in Lingxiao Hall, the Severing Sect harbored corruption, indeed having many ancient beings who joined carrying karma.

When Patriarch Tongming lectured on the Dao at the Overseas Immortal Islands back then, some cunning and treacherous beings had mixed in to listen, all claiming to be the Sage’s recorded disciples, their fate, karma, and merits all merging into the Severing Sect’s greater fate.

Now with catastrophe approaching, if the Severing Sect could ‘streamline’ some disciples, perhaps they would be in a better position.

Unfortunately…

Uncle Master Tongming was ninety-nine percent unlikely to do such a thing to harm his disciples.

You better find more help for breaking up fights later.

Thus, Li Changshou began flying to the nine heavens and diving into deep seas, asking all the non-Dao Sect experts he could recruit.

Wen Jing Daoist was currently still a high-ranking member in the Western Sect, so he couldn’t be mobilized for now;

Big Sister Kong Xuan was at some unknown stage now and shouldn’t be disturbed—being able to watch over the Seven Emotions reincarnation in the Shang tribe was already a great help.

Brother Niu from Doushuai Palace could be asked.

—If Lord Laojun wasn’t going out recently, and if the Azure Ox had an opening in his ‘schedule’.

Li Changshou went to find Wu Gang, but Wu Gang couldn’t leave the osmanthus tree for too long due to his mission.

There was no need to consider Immortal Heng’e further—she was essentially under house arrest by the Heavenly Dao now. If she left the Great Yin Star without permission, heavenly punishment would likely arrive immediately.

This was due to Senior Lang’s influence, nothing could be done.

As for Jade Rabbit, the only combat power that could be freely deployed from Guanghan Palace… she was better off just dancing regularly, better not involve her in battles.

The Dragon Race was now Li Changshou’s only hope among the great powers of the primordial chaos.

Li Changshou activated a paper avatar hidden near the Crystal Palace in the East Sea, taking the form of the Heavenly Court’s Water God, carrying his unique Dao rhythm, and using water teleportation to rush to the Crystal Palace.

Before reaching the palace gates, several Dragon Race elders had already sensed Li Changshou’s aura and came out to welcome him.

The Dragon Race was immensely grateful to Li Changshou.

From helping the Dragon Race improve their fate through incense offerings, all the way to the ‘Sea God’ period, helping them obtain divine positions, guiding them step by step to join the Heavenly Court, and assisting them in suppressing the East Sea’s eye…

The entire Dragon Race held gratitude in their hearts toward Li Changshou.

They even said that if Water God gave the word, many young dragon maidens would willingly serve as maids in the Water God’s mansion—the kind that could make music night after night.

Walking across floors paved with precious treasures and jade, arriving in that spacious yet austere great hall, accompanied by the gentle immortal music played by sea maidens, the East Sea Dragon King was already waiting below the high platform.

The two deities met and exchanged Daoist salutes.

The Dragon King invited Li Changshou onto the high platform, where sea maidens brought a chair inlaid with precious treasures, placing it beside the Dragon King’s throne.

After exchanging pleasantries, the East Sea Dragon King said: “Water God, you’ve been visiting the Dragon Palace too rarely!”

“Heavenly Court affairs are numerous, and I must also attend to Human Sect matters, truly leaving me overwhelmed with no time to spare.”

Li Changshou sighed, then got straight to the point, explaining his purpose.

For a moment, the Dragon King’s dragon face was full of difficulty.

“Water God, never mind borrowing a group of experts—even if you deployed all the Dragon Palace’s experts it would be fine.

But you want to mediate possible conflict between the Enlightenment and Severing Sects…

The Dragon Race truly cannot afford to offend the Dao Sect’s three schools. If we incur the hatred of any side, the Dragon Race might be endangered.”

Li Changshou smiled: “Dragon King, rest assured. I will deploy Dragon Race experts in the Heavenly Court’s name—the stance taken will be the Heavenly Court’s, not the Dragon Race’s.

Furthermore, the catastrophic fate has only just begun rising these few decades, and the day when the Dao Ancestor summons the six Sages to Purple Void Palace is still far off. How could the wise and mighty Sages let their disciples truly fight?

It’s just going through the motions, building the Heavenly Court’s prestige, and increasing our say in this matter.”

“This…”

The East Sea Dragon King pondered deeply.

If Li Changshou had asked to borrow troops to attack Spirit Mountain, the Dragon King wouldn’t have hesitated at all, but involving Dao Sect family matters truly gave him many concerns.

The East Sea Dragon King was also an old being of primordial chaos, and his one question hit the key point:

“Water God, that Twelve-Petaled Red Lotus—will it ultimately be destroyed or what?”

—This was asking about the Human Sect’s stance, whether they stood with the Enlightenment Sect or Severing Sect.

Li Changshou said: “This matter needs specific analysis of specific circumstances; I cannot give Dragon King a definitive answer yet.

But as a Dao Sect disciple, I certainly don’t want to see Dao Sect strength damaged by internal strife.”

“Good,” the East Sea Dragon King stroked his beard and thought for a while, finally agreeing.

The first part of reinforcements was thus settled!

Li Changshou naturally wouldn’t only do this much.

He went to the Netherworld beforehand to discuss the Red Lotus matter with several Kings of Hell, obtaining support from the Netherworld’s Shamanic Race and also recalled the demon soldiers who had gone sightseeing in the Three Thousand Worlds.

Of course, most importantly, he successfully contacted the Grand Mage and obtained his agreement to return to the Five Continents in time.

What followed would be games and schemes.

Following the principle of seeking truth from facts, Li Changshou sent paper avatars into the Blood Sea to investigate its current situation.

In less than half a day, he encountered two groups of Western Sect experts, though Li Changshou always fled far away, avoiding conflict.

The Blood Sea was now even more lively than Li Changshou had imagined.

Wandering for three days, Li Changshou encountered countless experts, even capturing many familiar auras.

For example, the Asura Race, who had received news from the Western Sect and became excited, sent out all their experts!

They almost turned the Blood Sea upside down, not missing any corner, frantically searching for traces of that Red Lotus.

The Western Sect’s many experts hadn’t withdrawn either, still searching everywhere, their strategic intention to ‘pick up what others missed’ incredibly obvious.

If they couldn’t get the Twelve-Petaled Red Lotus, the Western Sect could claim they had helped the Asura Race with all their might, forcing the Asura Race to be grateful;

If they could get the Twelve-Petaled Red Lotus, naturally it would be ‘this treasure has an affinity with our Western Sect’, and the Asura Race would be oppressed even more severely in the future.

Besides these, the Severing Sect already had experts watching this place, as did the Enlightenment Sect.

Li Changshou pondered for a long time but couldn’t determine which direction things would develop next.

He spent another five days of effort having the Heavenly Court’s hundred thousand elite troops, along with the Netherworld’s three hundred thousand ghost soldiers, stationed at the edge of the Blood Sea.

Many Dragon Race and Shamanic Race experts were mixed among them.

Using stillness to control movement, watching from the sidelines.

Several days later, Baize, treading on water-blue ripples, slowly flew in from the horizon of the Netherworld realm, landing in the Heavenly Court-Netherworld allied forces’ encampment.

Seeing Baize, Li Changshou’s heart settled considerably. He notified the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the Azure Ox he had arranged with earlier to come to the Blood Sea.

True mounts could hold up half the sky!

This time they couldn’t rely on the Enlightenment and Severing Sects—they had to resolve it themselves.

However, Li Changshou and Baize had barely exchanged five sentences.

Screech—

A high cry suddenly came from the horizon. Li Changshou smiled, about to introduce the Human Sect’s new member to Baize, but had only said “Sir Baize” when he saw no one beside him.

Looking more carefully, he saw Baize had already taken his auspicious beast form, walking with elegant steps, slowly approaching from afar.

He had to defend, with his own hands, the title of the Human Sect’s number one mount!

…

“The Netherworld has been quite unsettled lately.”

In the Reincarnation Tower, a young Daoist standing by the window gazing at the Blood Sea in the distance asked somewhat halfheartedly.

Dicheng curled up in a corner, opened its eyes, and said: “All because of that Red Lotus—something big is likely to happen in the Netherworld realm.”

The young Daoist was unconcerned, gazing absently at the low horizon of the distant Netherworld realm.

“Dicheng, tell me, how will Water God win this time?”

Dicheng couldn’t help rolling its eyes: “Still thinking of scheming against Water God? Master, can’t you just settle down?”

“Hmph!”

The young Daoist flicked his sleeve. “I’m merely somewhat puzzled. Everything outside this place no longer concerns me—I’ll listen to you!”

Dicheng made a grotesque face, then closed its eyes again, monitoring all beings in the Three Realms, watching all parts of the Blood Sea.

It, too, was searching for traces of that Red Lotus.

If it could find it one step ahead and thereby sell a favor to the Heavenly Court’s Water God, that would truly be a great profit…