"It's you!?"

Things would have been fine if Lü Yang hadn't shown himself, but the moment he did, he immediately caught Ye Shaoying's eye. The Ye Family Patriarch's face changed drastically.

After all, as an "Outer Heaven Wanderer," Lü Yang's strength in this age of secluded Perfected Lords was already renowned. Not even a cultivator at Foundation Establishment Perfection could guarantee victory against him. Ye Shaoying, a Great Trueman at the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment, could only barely fend off a cultivator at Foundation Establishment Perfection by relying on his Array.

If Lü Yang were outside the Array, he would have felt a little more confident.

But now, Lü Yang had somehow gotten inside the family compound! The Grand Ward meant to repel invaders hadn't worked in the slightest!

However, the situation no longer allowed him the luxury of thought.

"Kill!"

At Lü Yang's command, the Myriad-Soul Banner unfurled. All the Banner Spirits, save for Progenitor Tingyou, swarmed out, instantly unleashing a storm of blood and gore.

After all, Banner Spirits did not fear death.

Witnessing this, Ye Shaoying's eyes turned bloodshot. 'If I really let these Banner Spirits run rampant, the great Ye Family will be utterly annihilated!'

With a furious roar, Ye Shaoying moved to activate the Array to stop Lü Yang. But the moment he acted, a boundless torrent of Incense Smoke poured from the Myriad-Soul Banner, pressing down on the Ye Family's internal and external Arrays like a great mountain and halting their function. At the same time, several Banner Spirits moved to intercept him.

"Get out of my way!"

Ye Shaoying immediately slashed out with his sword. But as the Sword Light fell upon the Banner Spirits, a brilliant flare of Incense Light erupted, completely neutralizing his attack.

In an instant, a terrifying pressure from their high Positions crashed down.

BAM!

The Banner Spirits Long Yue, Mother of Non-Birth, Yan Taizu, and the Capital City God—all four Incense Fire Great Gods—attacked simultaneously. The sight nearly made Ye Shaoying's eyes pop out of his head.

"Foundation Establishment Perfection... Four of them!?"

'Are you kidding me!'

Ye Shaoying desperately drew upon the power of the Array to strengthen himself. That, combined with the fact that Incense Fire Great Gods were inherently weaker than other cultivators of the same rank, was the only reason he wasn't instantly crushed by the four of them.

Even so, the overwhelming disparity in power between them made him despair.

At that moment, countless countermeasures flooded his mind, only to be discarded one by one. 'As for a backer... Exorcist Zhenren? He can't even save himself!'

In the end, there was only one option—

"Demon-Vanquishing Perfected... Guangji!"

With this thought, Ye Shaoying cast aside all emotion. He pulled out the Jade Scroll he had previously used to contact Demon-Vanquishing Perfected and quickly poured his Divine Sense into it.

「Meanwhile, at the border of the South.」

"...A call for help?"

Demon-Vanquishing Perfected, who had been heading toward the West, suddenly stopped. He took out a Jade Scroll and glanced back, a trace of sorrow in his eyes.

"Master?"

Lü Yang had been monitoring Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's status with his Sword Dao Avatar the entire time. Seeing this, he was slightly alarmed and respectfully stepped forward to ask.

However, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected quickly retracted his gaze. 'Exorcist Zhenren was right about one thing,' he thought. 'I truly am a cold, heartless person.' Previously, when Exorcist Zhenren had asked him which of the two Sword Intents, *Non-Killing* and *All Slash*, was truly his own, he had not answered.

The reason was that the answer might have been beyond anyone's expectations.

His true Sword Intent was *All Slash*. The *Non-Killing* Sword Intent, which he had used for most of his life, was actually a legacy inherited from another.

'Perhaps I'm truly not a good person...'

Demon-Vanquishing Perfected sighed internally. In his view, he had simply used *Non-Killing* for so long that it had become second nature.

"It's nothing."

Coming back to his senses, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected spoke flatly. Before the words even left his mouth, he crushed the Jade Scroll in his hand and paid no more heed to the changes in the Sword Pavilion behind him.

"Phew..."

At the same time, Lü Yang, who had been tense and ready to flee at a moment's notice, let out a sigh of relief. A flicker of excitement rose in his heart.

'Demon-Vanquishing Perfected isn't getting involved!'

'The outcome is settled!'

With this thought, Lü Yang rode his Flying Light to the deepest part of the Ye Family estate. Master Xiuxin had already secretly informed him of the treasury's location.

The Heaven-Receiving Hall!

As soon as he stepped into the Ye Family's treasury, a powerful aura of Qi washed over him. Even with Lü Yang's current Cultivation, he still felt a slight pressure.

'The lingering Power of a Fruit Position...'

Lü Yang knew full well that this treasury had likely been sealed by True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde using his Fruit Position, making it impenetrable. It was only because All True Monarchs were now in seclusion and most of the Power of Fruit Position had dissipated that he even had a chance to enter. Otherwise, it would have been suicide.

'These methods are even more sophisticated than the Dragon Palace's.'

Lü Yang wasn't surprised. After all, the gap in foundational heritage between the True Dragon Race and the Sword Pavilion was immense. True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde had benefited from his Dao Lineage.

He walked into the grand hall.

Soon, a deep black door appeared before him. Carved upon it, in place of a door knocker, was a blood-red Array.

Lü Yang's brow furrowed at the sight. 'Should I try using the Profound Thunder Entering Dao Cloud again?'

The next second, he dismissed the thought. The Profound Thunder Entering Dao Cloud was far too powerful; using it here could easily destroy the entire treasury.

Besides, the True Treasure was no longer willing to be commanded by him.

'The Profound Thunder Entering Dao Cloud is a True Treasure refined by Xiang Ye's backer, the True Monarch of Contained Light and Floating Heaven. With the Perfected Lord in seclusion, the treasure itself is not in good condition.'

Attacking even once had been a great strain on it.

Most of the time, it needed to remain dormant to maintain its state and avoid excessive consumption of its power. It wouldn't act again just because he wanted to kill someone and take their treasures.

'Fortunately, I anticipated this.'

With a thought, Lü Yang tossed out the Ye Family Zhenren he had just suppressed. He used his Puppet technique to manipulate the man, forcing him to walk step-by-step toward the treasury door.

WHIRR!

With the bloodline of the Ye Family's Direct Lineage for verification, the treasury door immediately swung open, revealing a passageway. A smile appeared on Lü Yang's face.

But in the next second, he froze.

Behind the door was not the treasury he had imagined. There was no sky full of Spirit Light, only a gloomy, dark, and deathly silent Quiet Chamber.

"This is..."

Lü Yang looked up. On the walls of the gloomy Quiet Chamber, he saw densely packed text. The characters were twisted and blurry, as if corroded by the long years.

It was a Cultivation Technique.

Its name was—the *Rising Profound Mysterious Realm Observation Talisman*!

Lü Yang understood the nature of this Cultivation Technique at a glance, because the *Upper Bright Golden Cup Jade Light* he had seen in Fortune's memories was the same type of thing.

'This is... a method for Sensing a Fruit Position!'

'That's right. True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde's time in this life was short. To reclaim his Fruit Position after reincarnating, how could he not leave behind a trump card?'

'With this Cultivation Technique, one can sense the Fruit of Wall-Surface Earth!'

As Lü Yang's thoughts reached this point, a strong sense of crisis suddenly washed over him. He subconsciously took a step back and looked at the gloomy Quiet Chamber again.

"...Something's not right."

'How could a treasury this vast contain only a single Cultivation Technique?'

'And True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde's backup plan... how could it be just this one Secret Technique for sensing a Fruit Position? Even Fortune had prepared several!'

CLACK, CLACK, CLACK...

Heavy footsteps emerged from the shadows of the Quiet Chamber and soon came into Lü Yang's view. It was a young boy with rosy lips and pearly teeth, holding a sword.

HISS...!

In an instant, Lü Yang sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

But reacting even more strongly was Progenitor Tingyou. His eyes instantly turned blood-red as he forced a furious roar through clenched teeth:

"Zhengde...!!!"

'Impossible... No, that's not his real body!'

'I understand now... Just as Fortune created Great Undertaking, True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde also left behind a similar contingency. This is his Incarnation!'

The next second, Lü Yang's eyes lit up.

Because within the body of the sword-wielding youth before him, he saw a faint yet incredibly pure light, burning like a flame!

'The Gold Attribute!'

True Monarch Chengtian Zhengde's Gold Attribute!!!