"Thank you for your trouble, Senior."
Tang Qicen was not as perceptive as Fu Young. Without any information, Fu Young had inferred from his observations alone that this realm suffered from a water shortage. Tang Qicen, on the other hand, had not understood the significance of each newcomer taking away some of the water veins.
Now that Shen Wenrui had handed over the water veins in front of an Immortal Ascendant from the Celestial Artifice Palace, however, there was clearly something more to the gesture.
Tang Qicen immediately looked toward the Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan. Only after receiving a nod from him did Tang Qicen store the water veins inside the only spirit treasure he possessed.
After Tang Qicen had put them away, Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan asked with obvious displeasure, "Where are the Peak Master of Celestial Truth Sect and her disciple? Why haven’t they come out to welcome me?"
"Reporting to you, Senior, Senior Ying Ruohan and her disciple have both suffered severe injuries and are currently unable to move. I humbly ask you to enter the palace and examine their condition. This junior has exhausted every means available and can do nothing more for them."
Tang Qicen wore a bitter expression. Having witnessed the might of an immortal, he now hardly dared breathe too loudly in the presence of an Immortal Ascendant.
After hearing his report, Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan immediately nodded, and his figure vanished.
At this point, Xiao Shou developed a bad feeling. Both Tushan Shanhe and Fu Young also grew cold in expression and quietly prepared themselves for trouble.
Sure enough, when the old Daoist, Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan, emerged again, his previously peaceful face had become filled with rage.
With a casual wave of his hand, he collected the palace and mountain range belonging to the Heavenly Void Sect. Then, after sweeping his immense divine sense across the entire Heaven Origin Realm, he suddenly struck the Eternal Prosperity Mountain Range with a palm from midair and roared, "You insolent wretch! How dare you destroy the foundation of my Celestial Artifice Palace’s branch! You deserve to die!"
"Lord Xuanyan!"
Seeing this, Shen Wenrui cried out in alarm and looked at Tushan Shanhe with an apologetic expression.
However, Tushan Shanhe remained calm, with even a faint trace of disdain on his face.
Just as Shen Wenrui was wondering what was going on, he saw Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan’s palm strike gather a tremendous amount of highly concentrated spiritual energy, forming a dark red palm strike. It was about to land on the mountain protecting formation of the Eternal Prosperity Sect when a osmanthus tree suddenly took root and sprouted in midair.
Its roots actually gained a foothold directly upon the enormous dark red palm!
In the blink of an eye, the tree absorbed all the spiritual energy contained in the palm strike. It then grew at an astonishing speed, rapidly becoming a towering osmanthus tree.
Under Shen Wenrui’s dumbfounded gaze and Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan’s disbelieving expression, its lush branches pierced through Ying Xuanyan’s defenses and wrapped around his body and limbs. At the same time, one branch pierced directly into his internal organs and retrieved the realm stone of the Heaven Origin Realm that had just been taken away. The branch then delivered it into Tushan Shanhe’s hand.
At the same time, a voice that sounded both amused and mocking rang in everyone’s ears.
"Lord Shanhe, please calm your anger. This junior knows that my Master is a descendant of your clan’s bloodline, directly descended from one of your clan brothers. Naturally, you can’t bear to see him bullied. However, this senior is also an influential figure in this realm. Since we’ve only just arrived, we should keep a low profile and avoid unnecessary trouble."
It was Fu Young speaking.
"Cough, cough..."
Shen Wenrui coughed awkwardly, breaking out in a cold sweat.
This Fellow Daoist Shanhe truly possessed heaven defying abilities! He had casually restrained a Four Tribulation Immortal Ascendant and calmly seized a treasure right out of his hands. No wonder he had remained indifferent when the water veins were being distributed and when Immortal Ascendant Ying Xuanyan suddenly attacked. Only now had he shown that faint look of disdain.
It turned out that his combat strength was simply overwhelming, so he had been confident of the outcome all along!
Hearing Fu Young’s words, Tushan Shanhe stiffened slightly as he looked at the realm stone held out to him by the tree branch. He truly did not know whether he should accept it or refuse it.
That wretched brat was using him as a shield again!
Infuriated, he took the realm stone and cooperated with Fu Young’s act, saying disdainfully, "Hmph! He’s merely a Four Tribulation Immortal Ascendant. How could someone like him be considered influential? Brat, you’re giving him far too much credit."
After all, back in the Spirit Fox Realm, he and Tushan Qing had often bullied lower ranked Immortal Ascendants. Of course, they still couldn’t afford to provoke those high ranked Immortal Ascendants who had passed beyond the Tribulation stage, which was why they had never deliberately antagonized them.
"Hmph! You’re asking for death!"
Even an Immortal Ascendant standing at the top of the Spirit Realm’s food chain was not someone to be trifled with.
Although Ying Xuanyan did not understand why the osmanthus tree could absorb his attacks or suppress the spiritual energy throughout his body, the difference between an Immortal Ascendant and a powerful cultivator was that after failing their tribulation and becoming an Immortal Ascendant, they could convert a large amount of spiritual energy into a small quantity of immortal power.
Immortal power ranked above spiritual energy. Attacks and spells created with immortal power were dozens of times more powerful than those using ordinary spiritual energy. Furthermore, immortal power possessed a strong suppressive effect over spiritual energy, much like the suppression of a lower bloodline by a higher one.
Although converting spiritual energy into even a small amount of immortal power required an enormous expenditure, the process of accumulating it over time meant that the reserves of immortal power within an Immortal Ascendant’s body could not be underestimated.