Xuanyangzi said, “I guess that’s probably the case. It’s hard to find such powerful people around here. Forgive me if I sound pompous by saying this, but I dare say that my powers right now are at the very top in the world. I’m confident that I could win in a fight against them.”
Lu Xuan commented, “Based on what you’ve just said, those people will definitely strike again sooner or later.”
At that moment, he wore a serious expression on his face. If such an organization did exist, they would have already been wildly killing members of the sacred ones who had awakened throughout the millennia.
With news of Liu Haotian’s awakening having spread so far and wide, it would have definitely caught their attention as well. Given the way that those people went about things, there was no doubt that they would target Liu Haotian.
He had initially planned on leaving once he had recovered, but that was when he discovered that the situation was far more complex than he initially thought them to be.
If such dangers were lurking around, he would only be able to leave in peace after he had taken out those in the dark.
Furthermore, as one of the sacred ones, he possessed born Taoism aptitude as well. With such an organization going about hunting down those with born Taoism aptitude, he felt like someone had their sights on him as well.
That was because he was also a potential target of those people.
His physique was kept a secret only because nobody else knew of his sacred bloodline. However, just the thought of such people being out there had prompted him to want to get rid of them all.
Xuanyangzi said, “That is correct. I figure that they would definitely do so. The news would’ve had to come out eventually. As such, I’ll take charge of the central gates and protect Haotian.”
Lu Xuan scoffed at that notion and retorted, “What? How would you protect him? One could take up thievery as a profession, but one could never guard against thieves all the time. If that is what you intend to do, then I think it would be best if I took Haotian away instead. At least then, the sect wouldn’t lock him up and make him little more than a sheltered flower.”
Xuanyangzi looked at Lu Xuan with some doubt in his eyes and said, “Then what do you suggest we do?”
Lu Xuan coldly said, “We kill every last one of them. Anyone bold enough to hunt down the sacred ones would’ve definitely had some kind of support, but I don’t care about any of that. Anyone bold enough to take on the sacred ones must pay with their blood.”
Xuanyangzi was stunned; he never expected Lu Xuan to have ever made such a suggestion. Even though he had just told Lu Xuan that there were people in the organization who were as strong as him, Lu Xuan still wanted to eradicate them.
However, he quickly recalled how Lu Xuan had gone on a never-ending killing spree.
The fact that Lu Xuan didn’t go about hunting every single member of the Jiang Clan down meant that he wasn’t someone who would kill for sport. However, he wasn’t the type of person who’d spare his enemies when he intended on killing them.
He had never shown any example of sparing anyone who dared to defy him.
Based on that, one could easily tell that Lu Xuan was absolutely a man of his word. Those who stayed out of his way would’ve been spared, while those who dared to get on his bad side would all be killed.
Xuanyangzi said, “We would need to plan this out then. Judging from how they would usually operate, however, they definitely wouldn’t have left Haotian alone now that the news of his identity is everywhere. I would double the efforts on intelligence gathering to locate them first before they get to us.”
That was when they both came to an agreement. Neither Xuanyangzi nor Lu Xuan would let anyone threaten Liu Haotian.
Lu Xuan nodded as well. The enemy was lurking in the dark while they were fully exposed. There was little information to be found in the sect; they had yet to learn of the other party’s background. That meant that there was no point fretting for the time being.
The only thing they could do at the moment was lay low and wait for the other side to make the first move.
Lu Xuan paused before he asked, “By the way, I wish to ask you about one thing. Shi Buyi once said that the sacred ancestors left something in the Immemorial Path and was of crucial importance to the sacred bloodline. I would like to know what that might be.”
Xuanyangzi replied, “That would be the Sacred Ancestral Stele. There are things that the sacred ancestors left inside it. You know that the Immemorial Path was established by the last recorded sacred ancestor back then. The Sacred Ancestral Stele had been here since then, but I have no idea what that is. Only those of the sacred bloodline could probably sense what’s inside.”
“Truth to be told, friend, we have tried touching the stele throughout the ages. We’ve tried everything we could, but we never got any reaction from it. We eventually gave up, thinking that perhaps it is exactly how the old grandmasters put it; the stele would only be opened to those of sacred bloodline.”
Xuanyangzi didn’t bother hiding anything from Lu Xuan, blurting out all the results of the research done throughout the years.
Lu Xuan nodded and figured that the stele which the sacred ancestor left behind probably required a specific bloodline to open it.
He was coincidentally one of those of the sacred bloodline.
“May I take a look at it, friend?” Lu Xuan made his request.
Xuanyangzi nodded and said, “Of course.”
While the Sacred Ancestral Stele was said to be of utmost importance, it was actually little more than a piece of rock sitting around collecting dust. Since nobody could use it, it had been dormant for thousands of years now.
Lu Xuan cupped his hands and said, “Please lead the way, then.”
…
Inside some secret realm of the central gates of the Immemorial Path was a piece of towering stele that was over a kilometer tall and made of some unknown material.
Lu Xuan, Liu Haotian, and Xuanyangzi stood at three different sides.
The stele had nothing written on it at all, making it look like just a massive stele that had somehow naturally taken such a form. It looked like just a normal stele otherwise.
When Liu Haotian got near the stele, that plain-looking piece of flat rock suddenly burst into boundless golden light.
Boundless golden light formed words. All of those huge, golden words shot into Liu Haotian’s mind at blitzing speed.
Liu Haotian shimmered with a golden glow all over him, making him look as if he had just been gilded in gold.
“This must be a heritage from the sacred ancestor!”
Xuanyangzi nodded. That was what he thought should have happened as well.
However, he was frightened as soon as he looked at Lu Xuan, who was beside him. That was because Lu Xuan shimmered with such a golden glow as well. Furthermore, he glowed over a hundred times more intensely than Liu Haotian did.
Liu Haotian had no way of controlling the golden energy. As such, a terrifying storm formed around him as he stood at the center of the eye of the storm.
The golden glow on Lu Xuan was locked firmly inside his body instead, leaking only in the form of an intense golden shimmer on the surface of his body.
This meant that Lu Xuan’s ability at controlling the energy had truly reached the very peak.
Xuanyangzi’s eyes almost popped out of his sockets. Lu Xuan’s masterful control of such energies wouldn’t have been enough to faze him; he knew that Lu Xuan was anything but ordinary. The thing that shook him was how Lu Xuan managed to get the stele to resonate with him.
This is ridiculous!
Well, not necessarily.
That was when Xuanyangzi thought of a terrifying possibility.
