Chapter Forty-One: Coming to Negotiate, Yet Bringing Enforcers

After a long stalemate, the sharp-nosed dwarf appeared once more, followed by the stone golem, a lady in red, an elder with a blackened face, a crimson poison dragon, and finally an ancient, yellowed broken blade. At last, the cultivator with immortal bones and white skin at the Concentration Stage made his entrance.

Yet this cultivator bore a cloud above his head, identical to the one atop Long Yi’s own.

“Hahaha, so the elder truly has a hidden trump card…” Bear Third was halfway through his laughter when his words faltered, and his entire bear body sunk into the strange bridge, rendered immobile.

“Is it really necessary to bring so many enforcers for a negotiation?” Wuyun teased, and the opponent replied impassively, “Even if I am ambushed, the other artifact spirits will rip you all to shreds!”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, especially Long Yi, who sensed that the cloud above his head spelled nothing good.

Everything connected to him seemed cursed, poisoned, or bound by prohibition!

“The clay monkey is a fine vessel—you’ve cursed it specifically to target artifact spirits. I hadn’t expected such exceptional beings to exist among the myriad immortal realms. Are you, perhaps, from the legendary, elusive Divine Realm?”

Wuyun did not answer directly, but mused aloud, “The myriad immortal realms are but middling spaces, while higher realms are shrouded in mystery. Though they seem the smallest and most exalted, they are vast beyond measure. In your realm, those who ascend to the Divine Realm never return to their immortal homeland. One god, one immortal realm—their lifespans are eternal.”

“No, gods have descended before. In our Second Immortal Realm, my master—the Emperor of the Golden Bridge—was a being beyond the Immortal Emperor, yet a god struck him down, casting him into mortal reincarnation, never to be seen again.”

“You…”

“Call me Bridge Spirit. All those beside me are from the Second Immortal Realm—those who coveted my master’s treasures and secretly descended. All have been enslaved by me. My vengeance is hopeless; I only wish to find his reincarnated self and once more become his indestructible weapon.”

“A god descended to the immortal realm and struck down your master? Reincarnation?” Wuyun cut off the rambling, puzzled. “Impossible—the gulf between higher and middling realms is too vast. Descending is tantamount to self-destruction! Besides, an Immortal Emperor can hide within his own realm. Unless faced with a mortal enemy, an irreconcilable hatred, forsaking all the Divine Realm offers just to exact vengeance.”

Bridge Spirit hesitated, then explained: The Emperor of the Golden Bridge truly provoked someone he should not have—he killed their wife and child. That foe ascended first, and then exacted a lethal revenge from above.

“In that case, why not make a wager? Among the artifact spirits you pride yourself on, choose the strongest to fight against one of mine. Remember, it must be the best.”

“What are the terms?”

“A small bet, then—if you win, I’ll help you locate your master’s reincarnation free of charge. If you lose, I still help, but I get to pick three treasures from the bridge.”

Wuyun, hands behind his back, seemed inscrutable. Bridge Spirit’s expression grew grave. “Mind games won’t work on me—I’ll only choose what suits me best. Why not guess which of my artifact spirits is strongest? If you guess correctly, even if you lose, I’ll grant you a treasure.”

Wuyun was decisive, pointing his finger and tracing before Bridge Spirit, finally bypassing the ancient yellow blade and landing on the sharp-nosed dwarf. “He’s the strongest!”

“Nonsense!” the dwarf cursed loudly, but Wuyun was unfazed, and Bridge Spirit shook his head, then nodded.

“I’m willing to slay them and devour their essence!” The ancient yellow blade spoke in immortal tongue, startling Liu Ruyan and the others.

The great battle was on the verge of erupting, but Battle King whispered, “Elder, I’m grievously wounded—I can’t hold out much longer.”

Long Yi quietly tended to his broken dragon scales, his condition clear for all to see.

Bridge Spirit snorted, “Brother Broken Blade, you may be strong, but like me, you’re merely an artifact spirit. I fear you may be ambushed.”

He then looked to the sharp-nosed dwarf, ignoring the others, and said, “You’re not the strongest, but you secretly mastered some of the Golden Bridge Emperor’s restrictions. I underestimated you.”

“Don’t listen to this brat’s nonsense—how could I be the strongest?” The sharp-nosed dwarf hadn’t finished explaining when he faded away, screaming.

Bridge Spirit erased him instantly, leaving no trace.

“Never offend the elder—this little wretch was too insolent, and now he’s done for!” Bear Third admonished the little bug and eagle, his bear face twisted into a smirk.

“In that case, let’s forgo the contest. Find where my master’s soul is, and among all the treasures here—excluding myself and the Golden Bridge Emperor’s artifacts—you may choose one freely!”

Bridge Spirit finished speaking, and noticed disappointment flash across Wuyun’s face, confirming to himself he had made the right decision.

But could Wuyun truly divine the reincarnation of an Immortal Emperor?

The others doubted, and so did Bridge Spirit. He dwelled in a spatial rift, able to perceive the movements of spaces and, from the faintest clues, deduce their trajectories.

Moreover, he possessed other Dao artifacts capable of penetrating space and gathering intelligence before entering.

Thus, it would be hard for Wuyun to deceive him.

With conflict averted, everyone breathed easier for a moment—only to tense up again in the next second.

Bridge Spirit declared, “If you dare trifle with me, I’ll break through your curse, even if it means shattering myself and falling into slumber, and grind you eternally beneath the bridge!”

The tone shifted abruptly. The group followed Bridge Spirit as they slowly descended to the center of the bridge, where a magnificent palace stretched out around them, grander than any royal residence by tenfold.

Upon closer inspection, the jade tiles had once been broken and showed traces of repair.

They entered the grandest hall, and at its center rose a round table of white jade inlaid with gemstones. One half was laden with wondrous elixirs, the other with strange cuts of meat.

“The flesh of immortals—for your enjoyment!” the artifact spirit declared grandly.

Liu Ruyan vomited repeatedly, while Bear Third clutched an unknown chunk of meat, gnawing away until his teeth broke, unable to bite through.

Even using a treasure to cut, he found it tougher than the treasure itself.

Staring at his broken, pointed treasure, Bear Third thought the artifact spirit was stingy, but the next moment, the little bug seized a round object and began gnawing on it as if it were a watermelon.

“This is a monk’s skull—within it lies a stubborn spirit. Only by earning its approval can you comprehend and consume it. Otherwise, it will split apart and explode!”

The artifact spirit was proud—these were remnants of slain Immortal Kings from previous lives, traces of their true spirits embedded within. Even he could not subdue them for his own use.

The group understood. The little bug, munching, cried out, “This old Buddha thanks me, and even passed me a scripture!”

After finishing, he rubbed his belly and drowsed, his whole body emanating Buddhist energy. Suddenly, he recovered to the peak of the Broken God stage, and within a tide of Buddhist words, advanced to Concentration—a realm intolerable to this space.

Bear Third was both delighted and anxious. Long Yi shook his head, “Like a starving ghost among mortals—none here will let you truly feast. I think you’ll end up famished.”

While Bear Third sought advice from Long Yi the Immortal King, Wuyun’s eyes roamed the table, probing everywhere.

A pile of rubbish, nothing remarkable, but one thing caught his attention—a round stone sphere, the size of a basketball, streaked with violet and blue, touched by a hint of mixed color.

Such an unremarkable item, placed among the elixirs, occupied a corner.

“How interesting!”

Wuyun laughed, pointing to the violet-blue stone ball. “How can you take this as a pill?”

Following his gesture, Bridge Spirit observed for a long time, puzzled. “It’s a necessity for cultivating the third goal—consume it directly. Can you discern any other effects?”

“If I tell you, this thing must be given to my subordinate, and you’ll not be able to stop it.”

“It’s just food—enjoy it as you wish, but it may not be taken away.” Bridge Spirit was curious—this stone ball was an accidental acquisition of the Golden Bridge Emperor, who claimed it could sharpen vision, but nothing more.

An old Immortal Emperor said thus—could Wuyun really prove him wrong?

Not trusting one’s master is the mark of a poor servant.

Holding the stone ball in his palm, Wuyun scrutinized it, as if searching his memory—in truth, he was rifling through his mind’s archive.

Like a hundred million gigabytes of books and images, it required comparison to find anything similar.

After a long while, urged by Long Yi, Wuyun returned to himself and spoke, “Across the dimensional spaces, there are many layers—roughly upper, middle, and lower. But there are minor layers, like the dark Underworld clans and the fiery Phoenix clans, belonging to the lower of the upper or the upper of the middle races.”

“These races are much the same across other dimensional spaces—though some are odd, we’ll set those aside. This stone ball comes from another layer—not the egg of a creature nor the core of a cultivator, but the eye of a race.”

“When one of them reached demi-god level, only a single eye became a divine eye. Thus, after their annihilation, the divine sense hid within, passing through spatial channels and rifts, finally polished into this form.”

Bridge Spirit snorted coldly, “Nonsense! How could the Golden Bridge Emperor be mistaken? Even if his soul was reincarnated, he could arrange everything for me. What proof can you offer to convince me?”

“It’s simple!” Wuyun tossed the stone ball to Bridge Spirit, where the ancient yellow blade caught it flatwise and said, “Use this blade to carve it into one hundred twenty thousand pieces, each layer whole and intact. Can you do it?”

The ancient yellow blade quivered, radiating imperial might that fluctuated from strong to weak. Though its power was less than the Tiger-faced Immortal’s imperial aura, it could not be ignored.