Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nan Luo Appears (In Celebration of the End of the College Entrance Examination)

The Divine Mountain of Buzhou towers ninety thousand zhang high, spreading across millions of miles. On its slopes are countless celestial grottoes and blessed lands, inexhaustible treasures of heaven and earth, and an endless stream of cultivators. Ordinary cultivators, once they step onto the Divine Mountain of Buzhou, find it hard to leave, unless a living being has cultivated to the realm of a perfected Divine King, and must descend the mountain to seek further opportunities for breakthrough.

A celestial spirit clad in crimson robes, riding upon a red cloud, swaggered leisurely down the mountain. The immortals ascending the mountain gazed curiously at this descending spirit, while those already upon the mountain looked on with envy. For someone bold enough to leave the mountain, surely he must have reached the realm of Golden Immortal! Truly a model and paragon for those of us who toil endlessly atop the divine mountain.

Yet who could know the bitterness in the heart of this crimson-robed immortal? If he could, Red Sun Master would not have been in such haste to descend, and would have liked to linger a while longer. Alas, circumstances force the immortal’s hand!

Under the divine might of a certain ruthless, domineering, and cold-hearted Divine Lord, Red Sun Master had no choice but to obediently leave the mountain. He would never forget the humiliation of that day. After being knocked unconscious by a golden divine fist, he awoke to find himself still in his Fire Spirit Grotto, but the grotto had been forcibly transformed into a Water Spirit Grotto.

Rain cascaded in the Water Spirit Grotto, and a deity dressed in sapphire robes, with blue hair flowing down his back, sat upon a crystalline throne. Above, a pair of sacred, awe-inspiring golden eyes looked down upon Red Sun Master from on high.

Raising his head, Red Sun Master met those sacred, eternal golden eyes, feeling the overwhelming pressure radiated by the deity—his heart filled with despair. A Primordial Divine Demon at the level of Divine Lord! The Primordial Divine Lord!

As an innate spirit, Red Sun Master knew well the terror of the Primordial Divine Demons, let alone the aloof, untouchable Divine Lords among them. It was known throughout the wilderness: once a Primordial Divine Demon became a Divine Lord, he ceased to be prey and became the hunter. Who among all beings of the wild did not bow beneath the vast divine might of the Primordial Divine Lord? The heads of every major power—the Eastern Sea Ancestral Dragon, the Southern Mountain Phoenix, the Central Wilderness Qilin—all were Primordial Divine Lords who ruled the land.

Red Sun Master understood his place, forced to kneel respectfully and prostrate himself, praising, “Greetings, Your Highness! May Your Highness’ divine power remain unrivaled!”

Seeing Red Sun Master kneeling in submission below, Nanluo nodded in satisfaction, thinking, “A sensible fellow! Worthy to be used.”

“Red Sun Master, I now command you to carry out a task. Are you capable?” Nanluo’s majestic and authoritative voice echoed in Red Sun Master’s ears.

Red Sun Master bowed again with utmost respect: “Your Highness, please command me. Should I be smashed to pieces and my soul scattered, I will still fulfill your order.”

Hearing this, Nanluo’s lips curled into a mysterious smile.

“Descend the mountain? And to do so so brazenly? I have no idea why that fellow wants me to act this way,” Red Sun Master grumbled inwardly. When first hearing Nanluo’s command, he was shocked, unable to fathom what Nanluo intended.

To assign him such a simple task—Red Sun Master, a Golden Immortal, felt slighted by Nanluo’s contempt. Yet he could neither resist nor object. Whenever he recalled Nanluo’s soul-shaking, awe-inspiring golden eyes, Red Sun Master trembled and grew cold all over.

Ironically, though Red Sun Master had seen Nanluo once, he could no longer remember Nanluo’s appearance, only those sacred, soul-shaking golden eyes. Especially thinking of the restriction Nanluo had placed within his mind, Red Sun Master was utterly powerless to defy Nanluo’s absurd command.

And so, Red Sun Master swaggered brazenly, riding his red cloud, leisurely descending the mountain. If not for his Golden Immortal cultivation, there would surely have been spirits eager to teach this arrogant fellow a lesson.

He drifted slowly to the foot of Buzhou Mountain, watching the beings coming and going, preparing to depart the mountain. As his red cloud crossed the boundary of Buzhou Mountain, there was an imperceptible, momentary pause—so subtle that only Divine Lords versed in spatial laws could detect it.

Red Sun Master noticed nothing amiss and continued flying toward the distant Buzhou mountain range. At that fleeting pause, a figure in purple robes standing in the endless expanse of time and space turned his gaze to Red Sun Master and chuckled, “What good are clever tricks?”

With a motion of his divine sense, the purple-robed figure permitted Red Sun Master to exit the barrier. Red Sun Master remained oblivious.

Nanluo, whose divine sense was attached to Red Sun Master, frowned slightly, thinking, “As expected, there is a barrier.” As a Divine Lord, Nanluo saw clearly what Red Sun Master could not. In Nanluo’s eyes, upon leaving Buzhou Mountain, Red Sun Master was drawn into a purple barrier, subjected to a thorough inspection before being released.

Nanluo regarded the faint purple barrier at the mountain’s foot with a grave expression, knowing he had already been detected by Ancestor Hongjun. With a trace of divine sense attached to Red Sun Master, when Hongjun scanned him, it would be easy to locate Nanluo.

Nanluo masked his grave expression, transformed into a beam of golden light, and flew toward the foot of the mountain. Unlike Red Sun Master’s brazen swagger, Nanluo’s approach was even more arrogant and wild, manifesting a three-zhang-tall form and charging straight down.

“Nanluo? Isn’t that Nanluo?” The powerful figures of the great factions, seeing Nanluo’s high-profile display, exclaimed in shock and uncertainty. Blue hair, blue eyes, a three-zhang-tall form, and the perfected realm of Divine King.

“Yes! That’s Nanluo!” The great powers’ experts confirmed without doubt. This arrogant being matched their mental image of Nanluo precisely.

In an instant, countless jade slips transformed into beams of light, shooting toward the bases of the various factions stationed in the Buzhou mountain range like a meteor shower. Nanluo’s defeat of Black Earth and his devastating blow to the Xuanming Black Serpent army were already known throughout the world. Especially after Nanluo’s demonstration of power over the races and his audacious proclamation of his existence, the factions were even more intent on monitoring him.

Each faction dispatched their strongest to Buzhou in pursuit of Nanluo. But Nanluo had vanished! No matter how they searched, not a trace could be found. After all, who would have guessed Nanluo had been lingering at thirty thousand zhang up Buzhou Mountain—a place famed as the absolute deadland for all beings?

Nanluo saw the factions eagerly broadcasting news of his arrival, smiled faintly, and flew out of Buzhou Mountain’s domain.

The moment Nanluo exited Buzhou Mountain, his head was struck hard, and he was overwhelmed by dizziness. Even as a Divine Lord, he was powerless before this mysterious force. When he awoke, he found himself in a twisting expanse of time and space, within a purple barrier.

Nanluo spread his divine sense, scanning the purple barrier, and was instantly appalled, unable to believe what he saw. Unlike Red Sun Master, who perceived only emptiness in the purple barrier, what Nanluo saw was a purple world in its own right: purple sun, sky, earth, oceans, flowers, trees—everything but living beings. The purple barrier contained all things.

“This is practically a miniature small-thousand world!” Nanluo exclaimed inwardly.

To create a small-thousand world signifies the power of an Emperor, a Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal. Now, Ancestor Hongjun had effortlessly created a purple world encompassing all things.

Just how powerful was Ancestor Hongjun?

A figure in purple robes, high above, gazed coldly at the unsettled Nanluo below, his expression unchanging, a chilling smile on his lips.