“Wow…”

“Hmm…”

On Three Immortals Island, Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao looked up at the jade statue that stood on the mountaintop, protected by their sister’s formations, expressing various admirations.

Bi Xiao tilted her head: “But why would Brother-in-law give Big Sister a divine statue as a gift?”

“Right, logically speaking, if he were giving this kind of gift, he should have given a statue of himself. What’s the reasoning behind giving Sister a statue of herself?”

Qiong Xiao muttered, as the two young women, one tall and one small, stood between the mountains, gazing continually.

Bi Xiao blinked: “Should we sneak over and take a look?”

“Better not, Brother-in-law didn’t give it to us.”

Qiong Xiao stretched lazily, “More than this, I’m more curious about what my Brother-in-law usually does in the Heavenly Court.

Creating such a divine statue must have taken quite some time.”

Bi Xiao’s small face carried a hint of yearning as she muttered softly:

“I heard them say that after going to the Heavenly Court, you can increase your cultivation without practicing, and all insights are given by the Heavenly Dao.

Every day is just doing some duties while on shift, then drinking wine, chatting, discussing dao companions—so carefree and unfettered.”

“That’s just the Heavenly Court’s external propaganda for recruitment, probably from our Brother-in-law’s hand, specifically to fool people like you!”

Qiong Xiao snorted: “Going to the Heavenly Court means being bound by restrictions, and you have to watch those of higher rank than you. Aren’t we more carefree cultivating on our island?”

“But we can’t discuss dao companions,” Bi Xiao’s eyes held a small expectation.

Qiong Xiao’s lips curled as her beautiful figure turned, immortal light spreading, and amid some clouds, a handsome young man appeared—it was Qiong Xiao’s face, yet one could hardly distinguish between male and female.

“How about it, go discuss with Third Brother?”

Bi Xiao: …

Eyes hurt, mouth scared.

In the pavilion behind that [Special Treasure for Dealing with the Investiture of the Gods Killing Tribulation] jade statue.

Li Changshou stood behind a desk, brush in hand, painting the fairy sitting quietly before him.

Yun Xiao reclined by the bed, eyes lowered, thin lips slightly pursed, fingertips holding a plum blossom, right foot exposed beneath her dress. Just sitting there was a painting itself, worthy of capturing with an image-storing pearl.

When the painting was complete, Li Changshou put down his brush, and Yun Xiao also gently relaxed, resuming her proper sitting posture.

This person and painting made a scene, carrying the meaning of never tiring of gazing at each other.

Li Changshou casually asked: “Yun, how fares the Severing Sect lately?”

“Naturally all is well,” Yun Xiao said. “Master has strict orders forbidding disciples from going out causing trouble, having them cultivate in their own caves and dao fields.

However, it’s been several hundred years of speaking of the great tribulation’s approach, yet there’s been no movement. Many disciples have grown restless from too much stillness and instead developed thoughts of going out.”

“Their mental cultivation is still insufficient.”

Li Changshou said with a smile, weighing his words internally, unable to tell Yun Xiao the specifics of the Investiture of the Gods.

He could hardly say that the Investiture’s killing tribulation would descend in three to four hundred years when the mortal Imperial throne would change hands, and the Three Schools currently caught in tribulation would all have to enter the tribulation.

This was the primordial world, similar yet different from the various mythological stories he knew, resembling but not necessarily identical.

Moreover, the Investiture’s great tribulation had changed so much already—how it would happen and how it would begin were all unknown variables.

Perhaps the Western Religion would even come early to spread their teachings in the Eastern Earth’s Great Shang…

Pondering briefly in his heart, Li Changshou said: “What the Heavenly Dao reveals ultimately relates to the Human Race, with South Jambudvipa Continent being of utmost importance.”

Yun Xiao said: “Senior Sister Jin Ling said to have people investigate the preferences of the several Human Sovereigns in Fire Cloud Cave, to send some gifts.”

Li Changshou pondered, remembering something.

Bai Jian, the great general of Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan, chosen by the Heavenly Dao, the first name on the Investiture List, was destined to be the guardian of the Investiture List during the great tribulation.

After the tribulation was fully activated, the Heavenly Court would still need to build an Investiture Platform, and Bai Jian would have to make do over there.

This fellow was currently still suppressing something in the cold region where the North Sea met the East Sea.

Better secure things.

As the main tribulation master of this great tribulation, though it wasn’t yet time for Bai Jian’s appearance, he should prepare some gifts to comfort him and build a good relationship with this deputy in advance.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Matters concerning the Investiture,” Li Changshou smiled. “Yun, why don’t we go tour around various Severing Sect dao fields?”

“Is that appropriate?” Yun Xiao’s brows furrowed slightly. “If you appear, they will surely say you’re favoring the Severing Sect, afraid it might bring you trouble.”

Li Changshou said seriously: “Public affairs are public, private matters are private—keeping them separate is my principle of conduct. That I have private feelings because of you is already common knowledge; hiding and covering up would only invite ridicule.

Moreover, I’m going to scout some candidates for proper deities for the Heavenly Court. If they later respond to the tribulation, we can also use the Investiture List to select elite generals for the Heavenly Court.”

Hearing this, Yun Xiao smiled faintly with mock anger: “Star Lord’s silver tongue is truly unbeatable.”

Li Changshou immediately straightened up, showing a bit of the overbearing manner of an ordinary powerful minister of the Heavenly Court.

Thereupon, the two left the jade statue behind and secretly departed Three Immortals Island, heading first toward Green Touring Palace.

The investiture-killing tribulation would arrive in the blink of an eye. Li Changshou now also felt time passing unconsciously, often spending months just in one thought or daze.

Looking back, it seemed like only a month or two ago when the Six Sages gathered in Purple Apex Palace and dispersed unhappily.

Now in the blink of an eye, if he were to do any more major projects, there basically wouldn’t be enough time.

It was time to make some small arrangements.

Arriving at Green Touring Palace, Yun Xiao and Li Changshou naturally drew the sidelong glances of many Severing Sect direct disciples. Several Holy Mothers came forward to greet them, and several male immortals exchanged pleasantries, yet there was no sign of the Sage or Treasure Master Dao Ren.

However, two of Original Heaven Sage Master’s attending immortals came, explaining to Li Changshou that the Sage Lord had gone to the Chaos Sea to confirm the whereabouts of certain treasure, and would notify Li Changshou promptly if news came.

The weight in Li Changshou’s heart finally lifted somewhat.

The previous promise to the Original Heaven Sage Master about lending the Kun Peng could be fulfilled as agreed, and he wouldn’t be owing the Severing Sect a favor for nothing.

As for whether they could catch up to or capture certain treasures, Li Changshou dared not make any guarantees.

As usual, careful consideration and doing one’s best.

After the immortals exchanged pleasantries and laughed for a while, it also drew many younger generations to peek outside the hall.

During the chat, Li Changshou casually asked: “Previously heard from Elder Brother Gong Ming that Senior Sister Jin Ling recently took a new disciple, wonder who that might be?”

A middle-aged Daoist in the hall, with a fierce countenance but rather gentle eyes, now spoke up:

“Uncle Master Chang Geng, are you speaking of Junior Brother Wen Zhong?”

This Daoist was none other than Yu Yuan, Jin Ling Holy Mother’s famous disciple, whose abilities directly pursued the experts among the Severing Sect’s second generation, an outstanding figure among the third-generation disciples.

Li Changshou smiled and said: “Seems to be that dao title.”

Yu Yuan hurriedly said: “This is Junior Brother Wen Zhong’s birth name, not his dao title.”

A second-generation male immortal laughed: “Yu Yuan, if Chang Geng says it’s a dao title, then naturally it’s a dao title.

Where is Nephew Wen Zhong? Why not invite him over for a meeting?”

“This disciple will go call him now,” Yu Yuan said with a smile, but as he turned he added: “Dao titles and birth names are still somewhat different.”

“Alright, alright, we know,” that male immortal said, also full of helpless resignation.

Hearing this, Li Changshou smiled slightly, watching Yu Yuan walk away.

Last time when the Crossing Immortality Gate was attacked, the master-disciple pair Yu Yuan and Yu Hua had taken the blame for the Severing Sect over the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade incident.

Their loyalty to the Severing Sect was beyond question, and they were also notable figures on the Investiture List.

But the renowned Grand Tutor Wen made Li Changshou even more expectant.

Before long, Yu Hua led a young Daoist, riding clouds from a corner of Green Touring Palace.

Looking at this Daoist, he had a naturally dignified countenance, with a full forehead and a vertical eye in the center, short eyebrows, large eyes, and a high straight nose. His eyes sparkled with spirit, and his build was rather imposing, carrying the natural bearing of a divine general.

Li Changshou carefully examined him with his immortal awareness, discovering that Wen Zhong’s vertical eye was an innate divine ability, unlike Yang Jian’s which came from Ancestral God blood.

The Human Race wasn’t entirely without bloodline power. The first batch of humans molded by Lady Nüwa were naturally gifted with outstanding aptitude and divine strength, and Lady Nüwa had bestowed some divine abilities and skills upon them.

—Like his own Grand Magus.

But by today, awakeners of human bloodlines had become extremely rare, and Wen Zhong deserved the title of ‘Heaven-gifted Material.’

Li Changshou and Yun Xiao sat properly in the inner hall. Wen Zhong was led inside by Yu Hua, and before Li Changshou, they together performed a Daoist salute.

One could see that Wen Zhong was somewhat nervous, raising his head to glance at the legendary man before quickly lowering it and maintaining silence.

This proper deity of the Heavenly Court who could stir up the primordial world’s winds and clouds, directly facing the Six Sages…

Was so young?

“Very good, very good,” Li Changshou nodded with a smile, speaking slowly, “Nephew Wen Zhong has extraordinary aptitude, achieving such cultivation in such a short time since entering the sect, surely to become a great power in the future.

Here, a small gift, please accept it, Nephew.”

As he spoke, Li Changshou took out two treasure pouches from his sleeve, containing spirit pills and miraculous medicines, all made by his hand as the Human Sect’s small pill refiner.

As the Heavenly Court minister whose pill refining methods steadily ranked in the top three among the Human Sect, what Li Changshou gave out naturally wouldn’t be inferior.

Many surrounding Severing Sect disciples’ eyes carried traces of envy, and after Wen Zhong received the treasure pouches, his dao heart became somewhat unstable.

A bit excited.

Li Changshou had now become a big shot in others’ eyes, and a single word of praise or slight favor could affect the minds of major sect disciples.

“Thank you, Uncle Master Chang Geng,” Wen Zhong made another Daoist salute, “This disciple will certainly cultivate with all his might, contributing to the Severing Sect’s prosperity.”

Li Changshou nodded with a smile, but secretly muttered in his heart:

‘You don’t need to contribute too much effort, just later during the Investiture killing tribulation, when you can’t find extraordinary experts for support, avoid wandering around places like Golden Tortoise Island.

The tribulation’s progress might even be interrupted.’

Of course, this was just idle thinking, and he dared not say it.

Everything followed the Heavenly Dao’s script, and Li Changshou could only make minor adjustments.

Regarding Senior Sister Jin Ling’s disciples, Li Changshou naturally couldn’t show favoritism.

He immediately took out another treasure pouch from his sleeve and handed it to Yu Hua, also offering words of encouragement.

Li Changshou’s age was only a fraction of Yu Hua’s, yet he had to seriously act like an elder, encouraging Yu Hua to cultivate diligently.

Yu Hua was also one who dared to speak and listen, his eyes full of emotion.

This made Yun Xiao at the side nearly lose composure several times, almost laughing out loud.

…

Li Changshou accompanied Yun Xiao, touring all the famous dao fields of the Severing Sect, both openly and secretly.

From Green Touring Palace they went to nearby Golden Tortoise Island, then to Nine Dragons Island, Penglai Island, Yingzhou Island, and so on.

They walked and stopped, staying a while wherever the scenery was beautiful, spending most of their time like this.

After several days together, Li Changshou expressed his intention to leave, and Yun Xiao unusually showed reluctance in her eyes.

The two exchanged several words of care, each performing a Daoist salute, without any overtly intimate gestures, yet feeling their primordial spirits had been very close for a moment.

Generally, when cultivators court each other, it’s quite different from mortal courtship.

Especially the serious kind.

Stepping onto the cloud path back to the Heavenly Court, Li Changshou concealed his form, using the paper avatar sleeve-within-true-body technique. After brief consideration, he didn’t privately go to see Bai Jian.

To be safe, he would return to the Heavenly Court first and discuss with His Majesty the Jade Emperor, saying it was a request from Senior Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan—the Jade Emperor wouldn’t likely refuse.

There was an eighty percent chance that an avatar of the Jade Emperor would come along.

Seeing Wen Zhong today also made Li Changshou think of Li Jing, whom he had left at the Crossing Immortality Gate.

Wen Zhong and Li Jing had many similarities—the former would become Great Shang’s Grand Tutor, the latter Great Shang’s Chen Tang Pass Commander-in-Chief.—Commander-in-Chief being equivalent to a provincial governor.

However, these two chose different paths.

Wen Zhong chose to support Great Shang’s state affairs, rushing east and west, campaigning south and north to protect Great Shang, and finally dying tragically during the campaign against Western Qi.

Li Jing was much more pragmatic. When Nezha was ordered to assist the Zhou state, Li Jing later turned to Zhou’s side, finally occupying a high position on the Investiture List, and having smooth sailing after entering the Heavenly Court.

Li Changshou wasn’t judging anything, just purely admiring Wen Zhong more.

Now, both Li Jing and Wen Zhong were considered his juniors, so it became somewhat inappropriate to speak of respecting either one more.

The Investiture killing tribulation, the Investiture killing tribulation…

Li Changshou carefully considered what arrangements he could still make at this point, and what kind of effects they might achieve.

Imperceptibly, he now had to play games with the Heavenly Dao and the Dao Ancestor, but the game wasn’t for mutual opposition or personal gain.

More accurately, it was to optimize the great tribulation.

Later he would send paper avatars to wander around, looking for those ‘extraordinary people’ who would later appear in the Shang state, to see exactly what their backgrounds were.

If there were opportunities for manipulation that would benefit his subsequent arrangements, Li Changshou naturally wouldn’t let them pass.

Flying on clouds near the East Heaven Gate, Li Changshou revealed his previously disguised false identity, just about to pass near the Heaven Gate;

His immortal awareness slightly trembled, Li Changshou’s ear tips swayed, and the all-weather, no-blind-spot operating Wind Speech Spell heard a segment of idle chat among the Heavenly Generals…

“Nobody can tell the origins of that immortal mountain in East Victory Divine Continent. Many immortal sects went to look and all felt it was a nice blessed land, but unfortunately, it was occupied by those demons who were driven to the Eastern Continent.”

“Those self-proclaimed good-natured demons, who knows if they’re truly good-natured beings.”

“Star-Lord used a divide-and-transform strategy, otherwise our losses in clearing demons from the North Continent would have been greater. Winning over some demons is also reasonable.

However, demons are demons, how could they truly be good-natured?”

“If that immortal mountain blessed land is truly secured by demons, it would waste a good place for cultivation…”

Immortal mountain?

Li Changshou was somewhat puzzled, subconsciously concerned about this.

Seemingly sensing something in the mysterious beyond, this immortal mountain the Heavenly Generals spoke of held a portion of his destiny.

What was this situation?

Tribulation’s influence?

Li Changshou instantly activated his void-clarity dao heart, carefully pondering as his form headed toward the Heaven Gate, pretending nothing had happened.

A troop of paper avatars stationed near the Crossing Immortality Gate had already headed toward the edge of East Victory Divine Continent.

Could it be the Flower Fruit Mountain that he had secretly searched for many years but found no trace of?

Li Changshou felt some small anticipation in his heart. His true body successfully returned to Tai Bai Palace, diving straight back to his Small Jade Peak, controlling paper avatars to begin searching various places with immortal awareness.

However, just as Li Changshou was following the demon qi and distantly discovered that cloud-wreathed, spirit energy-rich coastal immortal mountain;

Long Ji came hurriedly riding clouds, landing before Tai Bai Hall, running in urgently.

“Master! Please go look quickly! General Bian Zhuang forcibly entered the Moon Palace and is about to be beaten to death by the Chang’e fairies!”

Li Changshou: …

Why did he feel no ripples in his heart upon hearing this news, without the slightest sense of surprise?

However, the Journey to the West tribulation was already appearing before the Investiture killing tribulation had begun.

That made no sense, it shouldn’t be.

The mortals hadn’t completed ‘cutting off the heaven-earth connection,’ Great Shang was still prosperous, and Great Tang was at least two or three thousand years away. Even placing it on the primordial world’s time scale, Li Changshou could accept an interval of eight or ten thousand years between the two tribulations.

This probably wasn’t the ‘harassing Chang’e’ incident that would result in Bian Zhuang being banished to the mortal realm.

Right, Bian Zhuang’s abilities were far too lacking at present, not having learned even half a move of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations—not time for his mortal descent.

The paper avatars in East Divine Continent temporarily halted, hiding in place.

In Tai Bai Palace, the old immortal skin paper avatar emerged, wearing a faint smile, speaking slowly to Long Ji:

“No hurry, tell me slowly. General Bian Zhuang is the Heavenly River’s Vice Commander, this master’s capable assistant, and the Moon Palace’s Chang’e fairies are also this master’s subordinates… they probably won’t beat him to death.”