The Slaying Evil Divine Monarch Temple stood atop a mountain at the very central hub of the Three-Five Sinful God Mansion—one of the Eight Hundred Divine Mansions on Earth within the Central Yellow Heaven and Earth.
All day long, a phantom aura of his divine likeness would rise from the Divine Temple on the mountain peak, transforming into a Dharma Body hundreds of feet tall that seemed to prop up the heavens. It had a third eye on its brow and the Sin-slaying Sword in its hand.
That Celestial Eye was always open, as if it could survey every last detail of the entire Three-Five Sinful God Mansion.
But at this moment!
From the distance, however, an Ancient Dragon Elephant as magnificent as the divine statue itself came crashing forward. It carried with it the resplendent Martial Saint True Intent, crossing one towering mountain range after another as it headed straight for the Divine Temple’s peak!
The figure moved like a falling meteor, its impact colossal and its momentum ferocious.
Then, a supremely domineering BOOM shook the heavens above the Divine Monarch Temple, and a coffin came crashing down!
A corner of the Divine Temple was instantly and brutally smashed to rubble.
The massive disturbance rippled outward, leaving every living being in the Three-Five Sinful God Mansion who witnessed it utterly stunned.
After all, everything in the Central Yellow Heaven followed a certain order, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the moon. For one of the Eight Hundred Divine Mansions on Earth to change hands... that was a process that often took decades, if not a full century, of war between two Divine Monarchs!
Such a conflict would inevitably engulf the entire Divine Mansion, and there were always warnings in advance. An attack like today’s, without a single omen, was completely unheard of.
’Could this have something to do with the ’portal’ connecting to another realm that had recently appeared near the Three-Five Sinful God Mansion?’
Just as the inhabitants of the Divine Mansion who saw this felt their hearts clench in fear, their minds racing with speculation.
On the mountain peak, in the Divine Monarch Temple.
The Three Five Evil Slayer Divine Monarch’s Celestial Eye blazed, his gaze flashing with sharp light as he stared at the "Mortal Martial Saint" who had just stepped through the Realm Gate. His tone was cold.
"What kind of fool are you, so ignorant and reckless?"
"If Great Xuan were filled with imbeciles like you, your entire Celestial Universe would have been devoured by other Realm Universes long ago! How could it possibly have survived to this day?"
"You cross the Realm Gate, suffer the suppression of this realm, and yet you still dare to come charging to my very doorstep without any attempt at concealment..."
"Old man, you are clearly a master of the Upper Three Realms. In Great Xuan, you must be a person of great power and status. When the Realm Gate opened and the Spiritual Mechanism began to spill out, if you had simply guarded the other side, we could have had a mutually beneficial exchange. It would have been only gain, with no loss!"
"But now you’ve torn down my Temple, disgraced me, severed my general’s arm, and shattered three hundred of my Divine Armors. This feud is now set in stone. If you intend to guard the other side of that portal and hope for things to go smoothly..."
The Three Five Evil Slayer Divine Monarch’s voice turned sinister.
"Do you think I will let things be easy for you?"
The Divine Monarch was seething with frustration.
He had searched the Divine Scrolls and never found a precedent for something like this!
When other Martial Saints from Great Xuan suppressed a Realm Gate, even if they didn’t want to cooperate to gain more benefits, they would usually just seal the gate and absorb the Spiritual Mechanism to further their own Cultivation.
Who would be like this reckless old man, throwing all caution to the wind and charging right to his doorstep!?
The Divine Talisman message from the Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General had been so absurd that the Three Five Evil Slayer Divine Monarch had almost thought it was a joke.
But when Xu Longxiang came soaring through the air with him as the clear target, he found he could no longer laugh.
Xu Longxiang, standing high in the air and looking down on the Temple, heard this and sneered.
"You absorbed the Spiritual Mechanism, and in the process, you abducted the body of the disciple I buried in the Earth Dragon Cave. How do we settle that score?"
’Disciple?’
The Three Five Evil Slayer Divine Monarch paused for a moment. He immediately recalled the superb skeleton of a Grandmaster from the Earth Dragon Cave. ’If refined properly,’ he thought, ’it could be crafted into a Divine Dao Warrior Puppet on par with a Dharma Guardian General.’
’He came storming my gates just for that?’
Hearing this, his temper flared.
"You buried your disciple in the wilderness. I assumed they were just abandoned bones, so I took them. It’s done."
"If you want the body back, you can have it!"
"But you can’t just come and go as you please. Don’t I deserve some compensation? Perhaps you could cede a larger portion of the Spirit Mechanism Land behind the Realm Gate to me?"
"That Earth Dragon Cave of yours seems like a fine place. From now on, let my realm’s border expand and swallow it. We can use the small mountain County over there as the boundary. We can divide the territory and rule our own sides, coexisting peacefully. How does that sound?"
’Compensation?’
Xu Longxiang’s hair and beard whipped about him. With one arm, he held aloft his Martial Saint’s Aura. He shot the Divine Monarch a sidelong glance and then roared like thunder.
"Subdue!"
He then leaped forward, launching a brazen assault on the Divine Temple.
The colossal, majestic Ancient Dragon Elephant came crashing down, brutally smashing the entire Divine Temple to dust—a temple built with painstaking effort, filled with countless Restrictions, and used to gather the faith of Incense and Candlelight for Cultivation!
In that instant, the Three Five Evil Slayer Divine Monarch stared in furious disbelief, his eyes seeming ready to split at the seams.
Immediately after, the old man’s long roar echoed across the land.
"You think the Earth Dragon Cave is a fine place..."
"But this Saint thinks your Divine Temple is a fine place, too!"
"Did you think returning my disciple’s body would settle this score?"
"I have never in my life made a habit of returning empty-handed."
"This Three-Five Sinful God Mansion of yours... I think it’s quite nice, too..."
"Why not drag it into the Earth Dragon Cave to serve as a Dao Foundation for my student’s future!?"
"Let this old man test your mettle, Outer Deity, and see if you’re even qualified to be in charge!"
Xu Longxiang had already founded the Dragon Elephant True Sect. If he were to personally occupy another Realm Gate to absorb its Spiritual Mechanism, those without a Spirit Mountain upon which to found their own sect would surely grow jealous, and the One State’s Prefecture Cangdu would never allow it.
However, he knew that his student’s Ancestral Master, though erratic, would inevitably achieve Great Success in Divine Skill. For him to attain a Title was only a matter of time.
As the saying goes, one should keep the choicest bits for oneself.
Since he had seen it, it belonged to his side. How could he possibly just hand it over to someone else?
The initial trigger for his charge through the Realm Gate had been his extreme rage at his disciple’s body being dug up.