Chapter 123: The Showdown

"Xiugang!"

"I am here, my lord."

"Gather three thousand Golden Core cultivators and five hundred Nascent Soul cultivators. Lead the team yourself and wipe out the Southern Domain branch of the Puppet Sect once and for all!"

"The Puppet Sect has overreached. In my vast Southern Domain, there is no place for such insolence from a minor sect like theirs."

"Understood."

Xiugang, a powerful expert at the late stage of the Deity Transformation realm, received his orders and withdrew to assemble the troops.

Although the Deputy Mansion Master, Xiuxuantian, felt that something was amiss, he reasoned that the Asura Mansion had been dormant for far too long. It was time to assert their dominance and bare their fangs to the world, so he chose not to intervene.

Elder Xiuji, who had been meticulously orchestrating the deception, produced a jade slip containing a list of the Puppet Sect’s Southern Domain personnel and their locations, which he claimed to have obtained through soul-searching. This made the counter-offensive much simpler and ensured a resounding victory.

A supreme sect is indeed a supreme sect. Scarcely had the mission been arranged when Xiugang had already assembled his forces.

Nearly four thousand cultivators, led by Nascent Soul elders, swept across the Southern Domain in a grand, menacing display of lethal intent. Xiugang himself, accompanied by over twenty Peak Nascent Soul experts, tore through the air, racing toward the Puppet Sect's Southern Domain headquarters.

...

At the Puppet Sect’s Southern Domain headquarters, the commander, Huo Wei—at the pinnacle of the early Deity Transformation stage—stared anxiously at a mountain of intelligence reports, his face deathly pale.

With a thunderous roar, everything in the courtyard—tables, chairs, and spiritual plants—was shattered to dust.

A month ago, his ten thousand veteran subordinates had been nearly wiped out, leaving only himself and two other Peak Nascent Soul experts who rarely ventured out. Now, nearly ten thousand new subordinates, sent by the Sect Master from the Central Domain just days ago, were scattered across the Southern Domain and were already being hunted down mercilessly.

If these forces were wiped out as well, he and his remaining men would either die in battle or be forced to pay with their lives for their failure.

"Pass my order! Assemble everyone!"

"The Asura Mansion has gone too far! They have bullied me beyond endurance!"

"Move out! If you see anyone from the Asura Mansion, kill them on sight!"

...

In an instant, nearly a hundred of their strongest fighters assembled—one Deity Transformation expert, three Peak Nascent Soul experts, and the rest no lower than the mid-Nascent Soul stage, half of whom were puppets stripped of their original spirits.

Upon receiving the battle reports from across the Southern Domain, they shouted for vengeance and took to the skies in formation.

"What grand ambition you have!"

"Kill us on sight? Are you referring to us, the Asura Mansion?"

"Only vermin like you, who hide in the shadows, would dare to be so arrogant in the Southern Domain."

"The Mansion Master’s order: leave no one alive! Kill!"

"Kill!"

Both sides, fueled by deep-seated hatred, descended into a brutal slaughter. Elsewhere in the Southern Domain, the fires of war were raging. The entire region was in an uproar.

Every cultivator in the Southern Domain wondered: how many years had it been since the Asura Mansion, which had overawed the region for millennia, last made such a massive move?

Though they did not know what had transpired between the Asura Mansion and the Puppet Sect, the cultivators of the Southern Domain were certain of one thing: the bloodbath at the Puppet Sect’s branch a month ago must have been the work of the Asura Mansion, merely carried out in secret.

This time, the Puppet Sect’s blatant deployment of ten thousand men had thoroughly enraged the Asura Mansion. No longer hiding their actions, they had declared open war before the entire Southern Domain and the Wind God Continent.

Although the force dispatched was not massive, it was more than enough to annihilate a single branch of the Puppet Sect.

...

Across the Southern Domain, in hundreds of skirmishes, the battles were almost entirely one-sided. The new Puppet Sect forces, caught unprepared and confused, were ambushed. They tried to plead their case, but the Asura Mansion gave them no opportunity. Every strike was lethal.

Overwhelmed, the Puppet Sect members could only send a distress signal to their commander before being surrounded and slaughtered.

At the Puppet Sect’s Southern Domain headquarters, the scene was apocalyptic, a living hell. Xiugang, the Asura Mansion’s late-stage Deity Transformation expert, forced Huo Wei, the Puppet Sect’s leader, out of the main fray.

Toying with him like a cat with a mouse, Xiugang suppressed the red-faced, vein-bulging Huo Wei, forcing him to watch as his hundred strongest subordinates were hunted down and butchered by twenty Peak Nascent Soul experts, leaving not a single intact corpse.

When his subordinates were finally wiped out, the vengeful Huo Wei stared fixedly at Xiugang, who continued to mock him, and began to channel all his spiritual energy toward his dantian.

"BOOM!"

"No!"

The thunderous self-detonation of a Deity Transformation expert echoed across the horizon, shaking half the Southern Domain. Xiugang, who had grown too complacent, was not severely injured, but he was blown back several thousand meters, his chest heaving.

"You deserve to die!"

Helian Tu, a confidant of the Puppet Sect Master who had been rushing from hundreds of thousands of miles away to provide reinforcements, roared in despair. He was a split second too late, witnessing Huo Wei sacrifice everything in a final act of atonement.

Helian Tu’s eyes turned ice-cold. He appeared before Xiugang as if by teleportation, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him up, unleashing his full cultivation and crushing pressure upon him.

The gap between the late stage of Deity Transformation and the early stage of the Tribulation Transcendence realm was an insurmountable chasm.

"Ah..."

Xiugang, who had been playing the cat just moments ago, was now reduced to a piece of meat on a chopping block, helpless and inferior to a rat. As Xiugang shrieked in agony, Helian Tu exerted more force until Xiugang exploded into a mist of blood.

...

The high-ranking officials of the Asura Mansion heard the distant, earth-shaking blast and nodded with smiles, assuming that their Xiugang had finished off the enemy’s Deity Transformation expert.

But before the joy could fade, a second, more powerful detonation echoed clearly through the air.

"Mansion Master! Mansion Master! It’s terrible! Elder Xiugang’s life tablet has shattered!"

At that moment, an elder tasked with guarding the life tablets rushed into the hall, shouting in panic.

"What?! What did you say? Say it again!"

"Elder... Elder Xiugang’s life tablet has shattered."

"Detestable! They were prepared! There was a hidden expert!"

"Move out! Everyone, mobilize!"

"Capture him! Do not let him return to the Central Domain!"

...

Countless people watched as four great experts of the Tribulation Transcendence realm and several Deity Transformation masters soared out from the depths of the Asura Mansion, teleporting toward the source of the explosions.

The consecutive self-detonations of two Deity Transformation experts had left the entire Southern Domain in shock. Every sect, royal court, and noble family was terrified.

Helian Tu, decisive in his actions, crushed Xiugang and then, before the Asura Mansion’s true elites could arrive, swept his hand to execute the twenty Peak Nascent Soul elders who had butchered his men.

Without hesitation, Helian Tu unleashed his full speed, fleeing toward the Central Domain. He knew that if he were even a step late and blocked by the real experts of the Asura Mansion, he would certainly meet his end. As he fled, he sent a distress message to the Puppet Sect Master via jade slip.

As the pursuers drew closer, Helian Tu clung to the hope that his Sect Master could reach him in time.

...

Nangong Hongbo, the Supreme Elder of the Ethereal Sect—also in the Tribulation Transcendence realm—trembled in fear, concealing his presence in the high heavens, terrified of becoming collateral damage. His sect was no match for the enraged Asura Mansion, and he wanted no part in the affairs of the despised Puppet Sect.

He subconsciously forgot that the culprit who had stirred the Southern Domain and ignited the conflict was none other than the young sect master of his own sect.

At the southernmost Ethereal Sect, the Sect Leader, Nangong Kang, had immediately ordered the sect’s protective formation to be fully activated, forbidding anyone from leaving.

In a private residence in the central region, Bai Ling’er was pale with fright, worried for Gu Xiaopang’s safety. Fortunately, she soon received a message from him, telling her to meet him in the Endless Forest via the back door.

Across the Southern Domain, countless factions urgently recalled their disciples.

As for Gu Xiaopang, the instigator, he had already snuck into the Endless Forest. In his view, the human territories were far too dangerous. When gods fight, innocents often get caught in the crossfire, and there is no logic or recourse to be found. He deemed the Endless Forest the safest place in the entire Southern Domain.

Known as a forbidden zone for high-level cultivators, the Endless Forest was manageable for low-level ones. But if anyone, even a Tribulation Transcendence expert, dared to intrude recklessly, the mysterious master of the Central Domain’s Beast Forest would never stand idly by; wiping out a sect would be an effortless task for such a being.

True to his prediction, even in his desperate state, Helian Tu dared not flee into the Endless Forest. This was why Nangong Hongbo, watching Gu Xiaopang flee into the forest, breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to focus entirely on masking his own presence.

...

The fallout from this provocation had far exceeded Gu Xiaopang’s expectations.

His original plan was to sow discord between the two sides, but he never imagined that the subordinates he had painstakingly recruited from the Puppet Sect would not even be needed before the two factions began a bloody, all-out war. He had initially estimated that a few Nascent Soul experts would die on both sides, enough to ruin their relationship.

But now? The relationship was not just ruined; they were losing Deity Transformation experts, and even late-stage ones at that. If fate willed it, Helian Tu’s death could lead to the fall of a Tribulation Transcendence expert.

If that happened, the Asura Mansion and the Puppet Sect would become mortal enemies, beyond any hope of reconciliation.