Wuji Doesn't Dare to Move, While Chen Yi Is Moving Recklessly

The Immortal Realm, Wuji Divine Palace.

Immortal Emperor Wuji stood motionless as a statue before the Mirror of Heaven’s Gaze.

Reflected within its surface were multiple scenes from a "corner of the Immortal Realm."

A ten-thousand-zhang golden dragon battled through thirty thousand miles of roiling clouds before plunging downward, shattering the thick layer of Profound Ice with a thunderous crash. From the depths of the extreme cold, it seized the Ice Soul Frost Vein and refined it in an instant.

A graceful female immortal, clad in a flowing, plain-colored robe, tread lightly upon the ground, each step giving rise to a lotus blossom. She moved effortlessly through the Land of Supreme Yin, her ethereal Dao essence transforming into starlight that soothed the violent spirits and purified their chaotic obsessions, restoring them to clarity. In the end, surrounded by countless spirits, she plucked the Nine-Leaf Soul-Restoring Herb and casually scooped up large quantities of Spirit Source Nethersoil.

A male immortal with feminine features carried a massive hammer that starkly contrasted with his delicate appearance. He struck the Primordial Blackgold Mountain again and again, harvesting vast amounts of Primordial Blackgold ore.

A Daoist draped in a Yin-Yang Taiji robe, wielding an engraving knife and a recording brush, skulked about, measuring the earth with his feet. With precision, he anchored the hidden immortal crystal veins deep underground, trapping them in an inescapable prison before extracting warm Immortal Essence Stones one by one...

A towering, bare-chested celestial, his explosive muscles on full display, uprooted the Sky-Piercing Tree with sheer brute force...

And another...

Nine scenes, nine immortals, all frantically seizing rare resources.

"Though these ants seem full of openings, my instincts tell me that rash action will only invite calamity!"

"Alas... the lower realm must not be touched..."

Immortal Emperor Wuji sighed deeply, his expression grave as he returned to his throne.

The danger of variables lay in their unpredictability and uncontrollability.

Unpredictability meant that until a variable fully manifested as his destined tribulation, it could be anyone, anything—or even nothing at all!

Uncontrollability meant it could not be foreseen, judged, or suppressed!

Thus, sealing the Immortal Gate and cutting off ascension was the best defensive measure he could take. After all, as long as variables remained trapped in the barren lower realm, their growth would always be limited!

Given enough time, once he reached the threshold of the Chaos Sovereign Realm, he would no longer need to fear variables—he would suppress them all!

But alas, the damned Ling Xiao had secretly moved the Epoch Treasury to the lower realm!

Now, even without entering the Immortal Realm, variables could gather enough resources to grow strong!

Still, there was good news.

The lower realm's laws were incomplete, even broken. Beings nurtured in such an environment would never match the solid foundations of those from the Immortal Realm—their power would be diminished by at least thirty percent, if not more!

It was like comparing a child raised on gruel to one raised on meat—how could the scrawny one hope to match the other’s strength?

Of course, exceptions existed—freaks born with divine might—but such beings inevitably harbored fatal flaws. Once identified, they could be dealt with accordingly.

"Overall, the advantage is still mine!"

Wuji’s gaze deepened as he reached a decision.

Since he could not avoid it, he would fight head-on!

He would allow the variable to grow in the lower realm until its unpredictability vanished and it fully became his destined tribulation—only then would he crush it with overwhelming force!

You eat grass, I eat meat—you were born to be devoured by me!

"This corner of the Immortal Realm shall be the buffer between us. I grant you time to grow... until you can no longer see my shadow!"

"Ling Xiao, you lured me to the lower realm, hoping I would be trapped and distracted?"

"You wish to restore the old order? You are unworthy!"

"The Epoch Treasury shall be mine... and the variable of uncertainty—it too shall be mine!"

The Void Expanse.

Chen Yi, bare-chested and radiating his unrestrained aura, suddenly fell into deep thought.

Wait... this doesn’t make sense!

In the past, the Immortal Ascension Tribulation would come charging the moment it caught his scent. So why, after all this time, was there still no sign of it?

What? Did it really think he’d died during the eighty-second tribulation?

But shouldn’t it recognize his aura by now?

Why wasn’t it chasing him?!

"Hey!!!"

Refusing to believe it, Chen Yi unleashed his aura once more.

A vast, crushing pressure erupted from him, collapsing outward like a tidal wave capable of annihilating everything in its path!

Yet...

Still no Immortal Ascension Tribulation.

Now, Chen Yi began to panic.

"No... Tribulation, how can I live without you?!"

For the past 721 years, he and the Immortal Ascension Tribulation had engaged in passionate clashes, averaging about once every nine years.

But the intervals depended on Chen Yi’s recovery speed—sometimes as short as three or four years, the longest stretch being twelve. Each time, the tribulation arrived at its peak, allowing Chen Yi to revel in the battle to his heart’s content. Eighty-two times they had danced!

In this barren lower realm, only the Immortal Ascension Tribulation could excite him!

And now... it wasn’t coming!

Without the tribulation, how could he stand against the Twin Emperors?!

"Perhaps refining the Chaos Divine Thunder Essence altered my aura in some unknown way. Though not as self-sustaining as an immortal body, it might have disqualified me from attracting the tribulation..."

"Also, during the eighty-second tribulation, I faked my death. The tribulation clouds might have believed it, burying all records of me in the past. That’s why it’s not coming now..."

"It can’t be that the Immortal Realm is pulling another stunt and stopped sending tribulations. It can’t be. No, absolutely not!"

"Stay calm. First, find a normal Transcendent Realm cultivator to test this!"

His gaze sharpened as he donned his Concealing Azure Heaven-Shrouding Robe. With a wave, he conjured a spatial portal and stepped through, setting the destination—the Celestial Pivot Star Domain!

Celestial Pivot Star Domain.

Twenty-three years had passed since the Cloud Province Incident.

The once-feared Forbidden Zone, whose name alone could make children tremble, had long become a laughingstock.

Two decades ago, Fang Zheng, the first-generation Quasi-Emperor of the Fang Clan, had stood at the entrance of the Forbidden Zone, wielding the Imperial Seal. He pummeled the twenty-four Supreme Beings so thoroughly that they couldn’t even lift their heads. Whether in high spirits or foul moods, he beat them for amusement or venting—much to the delight of the masses, who cheered him on!

Yet he did not exterminate these tumors. Instead, he left them as whetstones for his successor—Fang Fan, the second-generation Supreme Being of the Fang Clan.

Thus, ten years ago, after Fang Zheng mysteriously vanished, Fang Fan rose swiftly to take his father’s place. With the Imperial Seal in hand and only half-step into the Quasi-Emperor Realm, he sat alone before the Forbidden Zone, suppressing all twenty-four Supreme Beings and preventing them from stirring up another Dark Calamity!

Such unparalleled dominance!

Fang Zheng had been like a dazzling meteor—unremarkable at first, ignored by all until his final descent, where he erupted in brilliance, illuminating an era. His legend was confined to that glorious decade and the mysterious extraterrestrial Emperor who stood behind him.

But Fang Fan?

He had been extraordinary since childhood. Tales of his exploits were countless, and the world reveled in recounting them, elevating his fame to unprecedented heights!

At the age of three, he went missing, only to return carried on the back of a qilin. By six, he stumbled into the sacred grounds of the True Martial Emperor and inherited fragments of the "Scripture of Demon Subjugation." At nine, he ventured into the Fallen Dragon Abyss, where the blood of a true dragon cleansed his meridians and tempered his bones. By twelve, he had forged his Divine Bridge, sweeping through the younger generation of Yunzhou like a storm... At fifteen, he slew the young patriarch of the Wang Clan, the ruling power of Yunzhou, igniting a calamity that threatened his clan's annihilation—until his father, Fang Zheng, summoned a mysterious emperor from beyond their realm...

Now, at merely thirty-eight, he has reached the Sixth Heaven of Quasi-Emperor cultivation, traversing a path that would take others centuries to complete.

Given a little more time, flattening the Forbidden Zones of Life would be inevitable. The only question is whether he, like his father before him, will reject the Heaven-Sent Heart Imprint and refuse to ascend as a true emperor.