“Not good!” Everyone cried out after seeing White Crane’s inability to stop the incoming brutality of the sphere.

“I’m dead…” White Crane muttered and closed his eyes after seeing the unstoppable sphere coming for him.

In this blink of an eye, a person leaped to the sky with the force of a dragon and the grace of a phoenix.

“Your Majesty, please show mercy!” He shouted. 

His palm blotted out the sky and pushed back the sphere, resulting in a shockwave causing the ground to quake. The person also staggered several steps backward.

The sphere rose to the sky and began to spin with ma.s.sive explosions, ready to strike again.

“Go!” The person grabbed White Crane and jumped into the pavilion. He cupped his fist and said: “Your Majesty, please go easy on my ignorant disciple and spare his life.”

He was an old man with a crane robe. He looked quite fierce with a sharp pair of eyes, not allowing people to hide anything from him.

Li Qiye only slightly furrowed his brows, not bothering to look at this person. He waved his hand once and the great sphere rebuilt itself into the miniature version then landed in his hand.

Everyone stared at this wooden sphere instantly. They didn’t expect this tiny thing to have so much power and realized that it must be a heaven-defying treasure.

Of course, it wasn’t strange at all for him to possess a weapon of this level. He used to be the king of War Saint so it made sense that he would have a few of these powerful treasures.

“Master.” Zhang Jianchuan hurried bowed and respectfully greeted the old man.

“Father.” Splendorous Saintess also greeted with a touch of coquettishness and a hint of anger. She clearly wasn’t in a good mood.

The old man was the sect master of G.o.dstep - Heavenly Crane Enlightened Being, a famous expert of Nine Secrets.

“Your Majesty, I’ve been overwhelmed with various matters and couldn’t personally come to greet you, please excuse me.” Heavenly Crane spoke with the right amount of respect, appropriate of his status as a sect master.

Li Qiye casually nodded and continued drinking his tea. This arrogant att.i.tude infuriated the already heated crowd because White Crane was the symbol of their sect. He was insulting and looking down on their sect.

“Your Majesty, how has your stay been?” Heavenly Crane was calm unlike the rest of the disciples.

“It’s okay.” Li Qiye glanced at him before standing up and coldly said: “Don’t forget your promise, tonight, tell your golden daughter to come warm my bed.” Having said that, he turned and left.

Even the good-natured Heavenly Crane’s expression turned ugly after hearing this. He was furious but someone like him would never show his anger outwardly and only snorted in response.

The rest of the disciple was gritting their teeth and glared at the departing Li Qiye.

“Pah!” The saintess felt the same way and said with disdain: “A frog wanting to eat swan’s meat, he should take a look in the mirror first!”

Li Qiye ignored all of them and continued leaving. Jianchuan had no choice but to follow right behind him.

“Master, this little b.a.s.t.a.r.d is pus.h.i.+ng it!” One disciple angrily said.

“Yes, Sect Master.” The other ones chimed in: “He’s only a useless and lecherous king with no kingdom, since when can someone like him do whatever he wants at our sect? Why are we allowing him to disgrace us like this?”

“It’ll be over soon.” Heavenly Crane’s eyes turned cold as he stared towards the horizon, revealing a murderous intent.

“Father, we need to end this. A guy like him wants to marry me? In his dream!” The saintess stressed.

“Bing’er, I will deal with it.” Heavenly Crane said with a cold expression. He would never let his daughter marry a fallen king, especially one that was so wretched.

***

Back in their place, Jianchuan opened his mouth but eventually decided from speaking. In fact, he was under great pressure. Protecting Li Qiye earlier could be viewed as a betrayal by his fellow disciples.

“You think that I have gone too far?” Li Qiye chuckled after noticing this.

Jianchuan smiled wryly: “Your Majesty, you should try to be closer to other people.”

He could tell that Li Qiye wasn’t that terrible to be around, that he wasn’t such an intolerable person all the time.

To which Li Qiye responded: “Closer? If I were still the king of Nine Secrets with seven legions under me, how would my stay here be?” 

Jianchuan had no response.

“From top to bottom, your entire sect would want to kneel and lick my feet. When I become angry, everyone will live in fear. To put it bluntly, just one order of mine and heads will start rolling on the floor.” He turned and glanced at the youth and continued: “Dignity and pride? Those only apply when speaking to weaker people. Before Lucidity King, not to mention disciples like you, even your ancestors will act subservient, stemming from their helplessness. There’s no pride and dignity involved at that point.”

“But…” Jianchuan didn’t know where to start retorting.

“But now, I am only a fallen king.” Li Qiye continued: “Indeed, just a fallen king, a dog that has lost its master in everyone’s eyes. However, in my eyes, your sect members are mere ants. Why is it that they want nothing more than to be able to lick Lucidity’s feet, but just a few comments of mine and they feel insulted? It is because you all have yet to see a ma.s.sacre from me. When I herald the stench of blood, everyone will realize that being able to prostrate and licking my feet is an honor.” He grinned after the last sentence.

Jianchuan could only sigh. He didn’t wish to comment because he was still a disciple of G.o.dstep.

“Leave now.” Li Qiye gently waved his hand. Jianchuan bowed and quietly left.

Li Qiye began meditating to search for the grand dao. He reached a state of zen with his mind traveling freely.

The Primordial Tree slowly appeared. It poured out faint strands of light, just like the opening of multiple worlds. Each strand represented the birth of a new one.

These new worlds were full of chaos - a state of the very beginning. It was full of life and possibility. The tree gave existence to the heaven and earth. In fact, even the eternal high heaven could be created by the tree.

The first dao fruit had reached grand completion. Inside were countless seeds. Each seed was a perfect grand dao, so just one dao fruit had unlimited permutations and derivations.

The second dao fruit was ripe at this point. It looked like a spinning top with a thick peel at the top - an acc.u.mulation of the evolution and changing of grand dao across the ages. One could see the beginning of the dao reflected in this thick skin.

This gave it a thick appearance with the external sh.e.l.l, seemingly impenetrable. The shade was a dark yellow. It looked quite heavy, millions and millions of pounds.

The bottom part was much thinner in comparison to the top and continued to rotate, hence the fruit’s similarity to a spinning top. The thing looked like it could spin for eternity.

Moreover, the focus of this rotation could always target the core of its target with ma.s.sive power, instantly crus.h.i.+ng everything like a dried branch.