Chapter 645: Immortal Lord Lu Wu

Immortal Realm, Kunlun Mountain.

A massive creature with nine tails coiled atop the mountain peak, its brow slightly furrowed, causing the celestial phenomena to change accordingly, becoming gloomy and overcast.

“Can’t contact Eight Desolations anymore?”

Immortal Lord Luwu murmured to himself, unable to quite comprehend this.

Immortal Lord Luwu was a celestial tiger with nine tails and upturned eyes, and among the immortal beasts, his status was the highest, with all immortal beasts revering him as their leader.

“When I contact Eight Desolations, Eight Desolations wouldn’t dare not respond, which means something unexpected has happened to Eight Desolations?”

“How is this possible? I already dispatched four Earthly Immortals to provide support, and Eight Desolations’ overall strength rivals that of a Celestial Immortal. Facing just a single isolated Nine Provinces, what difficulty could there be?”

“Baiye Immortal was Netherfire Immortal Lord’s subordinate. His creation of the Heavenly Dao prototype was a serious mistake, and Netherfire Immortal Lord, as his superior, bears direct responsibility.”

“I originally wanted to use the Baiye Immortal incident to bring down Netherfire Immortal Lord, but unfortunately he reacted too quickly, executing Baiye Immortal with lightning speed and hanging him at the Southern Heavenly Gate, claiming it was to make an example, but really it was just for show to the Immortal Emperor.”

“It’s such a pity I didn’t seize that opportunity with Baiye Immortal.”

“Nine Provinces falls under Netherfire Immortal Lord’s jurisdiction, and this time presents a perfect opportunity to bring him down in one move. I absolutely cannot give up this chance.”

Immortal Lord Luwu belonged to the Immortal Emperor’s faction, and his responsibilities differed from most Golden Immortals. He followed the Immortal Emperor’s commands and bore supervisory duties, monitoring whether the Golden Immortals were negligent in performing their tasks or had made work errors that led to the creation of Heavenly Dao prototypes.

Eight Desolations was one of his monitoring methods – having Eight Desolations randomly collide with worlds, regardless of which immortal’s jurisdiction it was, just crashing directly into them.

If a world didn’t produce a Heavenly Dao prototype, then destroy that world; if it did produce a Heavenly Dao prototype, then report it to himself.

As for Eight Desolations, of course it wouldn’t survive. When the Great Cleansing reached its final stages and Eight Desolations lost its usefulness, it would simply be destroyed.

If Eight Desolations itself produced a Heavenly Dao prototype, that would be fine too – before a Golden Immortal, destroying a newly born Heavenly Dao prototype wasn’t difficult.

Besides Eight Desolations, he had other methods to randomly inspect worlds, and he had already found two worlds where work errors had led to the appearance of Heavenly Dao prototypes.

Some immortals were indeed too eager for quick success, after all, the will of living beings before death only had the possibility of producing Heavenly Dao prototypes, not the certainty. These immortals harbored a fluke mentality and destroyed worlds, ultimately being discovered by himself, causing both them and their Golden Immortal superiors to suffer misfortune.

Two Golden Immortals had already been punished for this, but it wasn’t enough.

Among all the Golden Immortals, the one he was most wary of was Netherfire Immortal Lord.

Among the Golden Immortals, two were particularly conspicuous – one was Netherfire Immortal Lord, the other was War Immortal.

Both were immortal path geniuses rarely seen in hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, advancing from Earthly Immortal to Golden Immortal in just tens of thousands of years, with foundations extremely stable, not inferior to veteran Golden Immortals like themselves.

War Immortal was fine – he belonged to the Primordial Ancestor’s faction, and his mind was full of nothing but fighting, so he wouldn’t compete for favor.

But Netherfire Immortal Lord was different – like himself, he belonged to the Immortal Emperor’s faction, as could be seen from his position in the front row during court sessions, showing how highly the Immortal Emperor regarded him.

This wasn’t a good sign. If the Immortal Emperor were to delegate some of his power to Netherfire Immortal Lord, wouldn’t that mean his own power would decrease, and his prestige among the Golden Immortals would diminish?

There were quite a few among the Golden Immortals who held grudges against him.

But Netherfire Immortal Lord was responsible for too many worlds, making it impossible to investigate them all, so Immortal Lord Luwu only focused his work emphasis on Netherfire Immortal Lord, not placing all his attention on him.

Coincidentally, Eight Desolations reported to him that Nine Provinces had produced something called an Earth Vein, suspected to be a Heavenly Dao prototype, and described the Earth Vein’s characteristics to him, which delighted Immortal Lord Luwu immensely.

The Human Sovereign was chosen by the Earth Vein – didn’t this exactly correspond to how the Immortal Emperor was the Heavenly Dao’s spokesperson?

There was a ninety percent probability that this thing was a Heavenly Dao prototype.

Moreover, from a timing perspective, the Earth Vein had already existed for nine thousand years, but Netherfire Immortal Lord had remained unaware all this time, constituting negligence of duty.

“Negligence of duty alone isn’t enough – it needs to be manipulated and transformed from negligence of duty into complicity in concealment.”

“Netherfire Immortal Lord intends to cultivate Bai Ze, and Nine Provinces still has that Bai Ze, so I can interpret this as Netherfire Immortal Lord concealing the truth to protect Bai Ze.”

“And there’s the Executor of Honghu – it can be said that Netherfire Immortal Lord killed him to shift responsibility. If someone investigated the Nine Provinces Earth Vein matter, he would claim the Executor of Honghu was responsible.”

“That makes sense.”

A cold glint flashed in Immortal Lord Luwu’s eyes. Of course he knew that Netherfire Immortal Lord wasn’t aware of this matter, and that he hadn’t killed the Executor of Honghu either.

But did that matter? He would only report the truth he wanted to the Immortal Emperor.

“But why has Eight Desolations gone silent? Did Nine Provinces destroy Eight Desolations? That doesn’t make sense.”

At that moment, a majestic phantom appeared before Immortal Lord Luwu.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.” Immortal Lord Luwu knelt on the ground, listening for the imperial decree.

Even though this was just the Immortal Emperor’s phantom, and this phantom couldn’t even relay what it saw back to the Immortal Emperor, Immortal Lord Luwu still maintained a respectful posture.

“Come to the Golden Palace of Clouds and accompany me for a game of chess.”

“As you command.”

The Immortal Emperor’s command was the top priority, not to be neglected. Immortal Lord Luwu immediately rose and flew toward the Golden Palace of Clouds.

But the Nine Provinces matter concerned his political rival, so he needed to investigate it quickly as well.

“Yingzhao, Xiangliu, Wuhán, you three go to Nine Provinces to investigate the Earth Vein matter! Report any findings to me immediately!”

“Remember, this must be conducted secretly – absolutely must not let others know, especially Netherfire Immortal Lord!”

Along the way, he used sound transmission immortal arts to command three trusted subordinates.

“Yes.”

Three Celestial Immortals simultaneously received their superior’s command.

With all matters properly arranged, Immortal Lord Luwu stood respectfully outside the Golden Palace of Clouds, awaiting the Immortal Emperor’s summons.

“What are you doing standing outside? With our relationship, why be so formal? Come in.” The Immortal Emperor’s lazy voice sounded, though he was actually quite satisfied with Immortal Lord Luwu’s posture.

“As you command.”

Immortal Lord Luwu walked into the great hall with perfectly measured steps, appearing thoroughly awestruck and apprehensive.

He knew that if he entered the hall directly, or showed impatience outside the hall, it would inevitably displease the Immortal Emperor.

Don’t be fooled by the Immortal Emperor’s calm exterior – he would absolutely make a mental note of it.

Having followed the Immortal Emperor for four hundred thousand years, he understood the meaning behind every subtle expression and small gesture of the Immortal Emperor perfectly clearly.

After his ascension, he had entered the Golden Palace of Clouds as an ordinary attendant, then through cleverness, obeying his superior’s will, and interpreting the emperor’s intentions, he had finally gained the Immortal Emperor’s promotion and trust. Seeing how obedient Luwu was, the Immortal Emperor had intentionally allocated resources, enabling Luwu to become a Golden Immortal, and Luwu had finally become the powerful Immortal Lord Luwu who held sway throughout the celestial court.

Now that the disobedient Dao Ancestor had died, and Buddha and Confucius Sage were fighting in Great Brahma Heaven with no time to manage their disciples, the followers of Dao Ancestor, Buddha, and Confucius Sage had all been incorporated into the celestial court’s jurisdiction, obeying the Immortal Emperor’s decrees. The celestial court had reached the peak of its power, and Luwu had reached the peak of his influence.

That he, Luwu, could achieve what he had today, having offended countless immortals along the way, was truly hard-won, and he absolutely couldn’t let Netherfire Immortal Lord snatch it away!

Pushing aside rivals, scheming against opponents, eliminating competitors – only then could one gain opportunities for development. This was the truth he had comprehended back when he was still in Eight Desolations.