Mochou Mountain that Xing Heng hailed from was the closest mountain to Shenzuo Mountain; the two mountains were on good terms.
After Xing Wuliang returned from his trip, Xing Heng called him over and obliquely asked him a significant amount of questions. Given Xing Wuliang’s deep trust in the other, he wasn’t on his guard and told him everything he’d learned. He also asked Xing Heng to take good care of Lu Yun.
Xing Heng was a true grandmaster and the head disciple of Mochou Mountain. Given Lu Yun’s lack of patronage in the sect, he could avoid wasting effort in futile endeavors if Xing Heng took the young man under his wing.
Hence, Xing Wuliang never imagined that Xing Heng would come to capture Lu Yun as soon as the former entered closed door cultivation. Due to Xing Wuliang’s deep understanding of Lu Yun, Xing Heng brought out his strongest ace as soon as he made a move. His soul weapon, Argent Snow, manifested an attack of one hundred and eight snowflakes.
The snowflakes collided with Lu Yun’s two worlds, yet remained on their course.
Lu Yun swiftly retreated, his expression tensing.
“Give it up, junior brother Feng.” Xing Heng’s body drifted in and out of the snowflakes. “Soul weapons are the most optimal weapons for supplemental cultivators. They’re superior to connate treasures. Your treasures will not pierce through my Domain of First Snowfall.”
His smile slipped off his face and he continued coldly, “I will request you come with me, junior brother. If you continue to refuse, then things will get ugly.”
Within the domain, Lu Yun’s forehead was furrowed tight. The one hundred and eight snowflakes had cut through his two worlds. This was a method of attack that he’d never seen before. It wasn't a combat art or cultivation method, but something else that he couldn’t quite explain.
He suddenly very much wanted a soul weapon of his own. Xing Heng was just a Void World King, but he’d instantly broken both of Lu Yun’s connate worlds as soon as he deployed his weapon.
“Am I undergoing interrogation from the Star Sect, or from someone else?” Lu Yun asked calmly while putting his two orbs away.
“You ask too many questions, junior brother.”
Whoosh!
Snowflakes flurried into the air and turned into three hundred and sixty-five flakes. A light breeze swept by and churned them toward Lu Yun, like they were sword qi.
They were infinite times more terrifying than sword qi.
Each snowflake was a world unto itself—ethereally light, yet also weighty beyond belief.
Lu Yun’s face darkened.
“So it would seem that those who wish to question me have nothing to do with the Star Sect?” he sneered. “Senior brother, you are one of the foremost disciples of the Star Sect, yet collude with outsiders to question fellow disciples. Can I consider this an act of betrayal?”
“How dare you!” Xing Heng grew irate and waved his hand, sending the three hundred and sixty-five snowflakes toward Lu Yun’s head.
Boom!
A massive roar sounded from the void as his attack was bounced away. A hand probed out from the Domain of First Snowfall and grabbed Xing Heng’s collar.
Lu Yun appeared in front of him. Xing Heng’s eyes grew wide and he stared at Lu Yun, not sure of what to do.
“Don’t you want to ask about the Nihil World Sovereign from the Central Hongmeng?” A smile slowly crept over Lu Yun’s face. “At your service. Why else do you think no Nihil World Sovereign in the sect would take me as their disciple? It’s because I am one myself.”
The color drained from Xing Heng’s face.
“When have you ever seen an inner disciple create his own residence in the middle of nowhere?” Lu Yun threw Xing Heng to the side. “Out with it, who sent you?”
Xing Heng mulishly sent his jaw.
“Not spilling the beans, are you?” Lu Yun cocked his head at the other. “Then I’ll take you to the Star Sovereign King. The sect obviously values you since you have a soul weapon, but you’ve betrayed the Star Sect…”
Xing Heng’s expression changed when he heard the words “Star Sovereign King”, but neither did he believe that this newly recruited Nihil World Sovereign had the right to an audience with her august majesty.
The Star Sovereign King was a pillar of the Star Sect and the only one who’d set foot into sequence. Even Xing Heng’s master, founding elder Xing Mochou, didn’t have the right to speak to her.
“Her Sovereign Majesty does not need to be bothered with such a trivial task,” sounded an aloof voice from the other side. A young girl dressed in black had appeared behind Lu Yun at some unknown point. She looked roughly seventeen years old, her frosty features framed by silver hair, and she was practically expressionless.
“Sovereign… Sovereign Chen!” Fear flashed through Xing Heng’s eyes to see the newcomer.
Xing Chen!
The first Nihil World Sovereign of the Star Sect!
“Greetings to Sovereign Chen.” Lu Yun turned around and raised a cupped fist salute.
“You and I are both Nihil World Sovereigns, there is no need to stand on ceremony.” Xing Chen nodded at him, then turned coldly to Xing Heng. “Speak, who’s behind you?”
Xing Heng had harbored a tiny bit of hope that Feng Feifan had infiltrated the Star Sect, that no one in the sect knew who he was. But Sovereign Chen’s appearance completely shattered his delusions.
He’d never imagined that simply following orders to interrogate a suspected Eastern Planes denizen would land him in such hot water. It seemed that he’d provoked the ultimate mastermind behind it all.
“Sovereign Chen!” he rasped out. “This person is a Nihil World Sovereign from the Central Hongmeng! He nurses ulterior motives for joining our Star Sect!”
“The Star Sect cares not about identity when we recruit disciples. They are one of us if they abide by the law and do their duty after joining the sect. Not to mention, the sect is not at odds with those from the Eastern Planes or Central Hongmeng.” Xing Chen leveled Xing Heng with an arctic glare. “But to offer your allegiances elsewhere after joining the sect or collude with other factions in the Boundless Planes is betrayal that should be punished by death!”
Xing Heng lost all hope.
“Speak, who is it behind you?” Xing Chen asked once more. “I can spare you for now if you answer honestly.”
Xing Chen took a look at Lu Yun before answering, “The Luminaries… I’ve joined the Luminaries.”
“So it’s them.” That was a very unwelcome revelation for Xing Chen. The Luminaries self-styled themselves as the rulers of the known expanses and wanted to dominate the Boundless Planes like the original Hongmeng of the last epoch. They wished to be the ultimate sovereign of the realm.
But those of the Boundless Planes had grown used to freedom. Why would they willingly return to the rule of another?
The ones to seal off the Eastern Planes and target the Central Hongmeng was this organization that called themselves the Luminaries.
The Star Sect didn’t have much of an opinion about them and didn’t plan to join them, but wouldn’t be enemies with them either. However, the Luminaries stretching their hands into the Star Sect was blatant provocation.
“Why don’t we play along?” Lu Yun suddenly smiled. “Have Xing Heng take me to the Luminaries and see what else we might gain.” He continued when it appeared that Xing Chen wouldn’t agree, “Xing Chen is the head disciple of Mochou Mountain. If even he’s been turned, so it’s possible that there are others in the sect who have also turned traitor.”
etvolare's Thoughts
Oh this be good, I wonder who else has been?
