The sound of Yao Shen’s footsteps tore through the solitude blanketing the deepest level of the Serenity Mountainhold. Earth Patriarch Kang Long led the way, his expression heavy as he contemplated upon the sequence of events that had caused him to arrive at this moment; for with every step he took, the Divine Mountain Sect’s already uncertain future was replaced with a far more dangerous one.

The thoughts of resistance flashed through his mind as the brunt of generations of Divine Mountain Sect cultivators weighing down upon his shoulders; a crushing pressure that lesser men would immediately relent to. To stake his life on a final, glorious dance against the usurper that had barged into his sect, demanded his resources and infringed upon their most sacred of secrets.

Unfortunately, karma was a fickle mistress. To invite another into one’s heart, was to invite weakness. A Patriarch was the most influential person in the sect, a cultivator at whose mere words the disciples, guardians and elders would rally— to the death, if the situation called for it. But it was those very same karmic chains that tethered him to the sect; the burden of those willing to sacrifice their lives at his command that prevented him from lashing out with the ferocity of a belligerent rogue cultivator.

For it was not he, who would suffer the consequences of his actions.

The personification of a sect— that was what it meant to be Patriarch.

Yao Shen’s gaze sharpened as the Nascent Soul cultivator he had detected in advance with his divine sense finally appeared in his line of sight. A set of armor hewn out of compressed rock completely ensconced the cultivator from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, its grayish-black color and fine-grained texture reminiscent of basalt.

However it was an oversized greatsword placed across the man’s shoulder that truly caught his attention. Yao Shen had never seen a cultivator utilize a blunt stone sword as a weapon, if it could even be called one. Its curved sides and elliptical shape did not seem conducive to combat yet someone had gone to the effort of carving out a stone hilt on one end. The ancient aura that the blade was exuding was enough for Yao Shen to deduct that the stone was an artifact; a Pseudo Soul-Emperor artifact at that.

His surprise only intensified when he reached the conclusion that the compressed stone armor the cultivator had donned wasn’t for his own protection, instead an external shell that helped him bear the sheer weight of the ancient stone artifact. Even then, the Earth Cultivators stone boots had sunk half-way into the earth beneath him.

“Kang Long,” A voice as deep as the quaking earth boomed forth from within the armor, his voice bouncing off the cavern walls and further adding to his gravitas. “What is the meaning of this!” he demanded, raising his stone sword above his head.

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Patriarch Kang Long could have chosen to avert his gaze. He could have dropped his head in shame and let his guilty expression convey the truth of the matter. Perhaps he should have begun with an apology, for he had failed his sect.

He did not.

“Patriarch Yao Shen found his way to the mine,” Kang Long explained, his words uttered with a conviction that was unbecoming of one who had failed the Sect.

Without any warning, Yao Shen activated his Human Dao Domain in the cramped tunnel, rapidly drawing Earth Qi from his Soul Lake to defend himself and prepare to contest the Elder’s control over the Earth Element.

It was all he could do from letting the shock he felt reflect on his face, for this Nascent Soul Elder not only stood at the very pinnacle of his stage but the threat Yao Shen had felt earlier had been beyond his expectations. The cultivator before him combined with the sheer magnitude of Earth Qi stored in the odd stone artifact that had flared earlier was enough to qualify, if barely, as an attack at the Soul Emperor level.

“Step aside, uncle,” Kang Long commanded, his expression stern. “Or do you intend to collapse the Serenity Mountainhold with your attack?”

Yao Shen’s gaze lit up with curiosity.

“Would that still not be a better outcome than risking their wrath?” Wenjun Long, Former Patriarch of the Divine Mountain Sect, vehemently rebuked.

“Why must you be intentionally obtuse, uncle? Surely you know enough to understand that your attack cannot harm Yao Shen,” Kang Long snapped, letting the true emotions behind the facade leak a little.

“I know more than you, foolish child!! Enough to understand the difference between the ones who shape the earth and those born of it! A meagre Soul Emperor is nothing in face of the calamity a Dwarven Incursion would bring upon our heads,” Wenjun Long’s fury was palpable in his tone but underneath that Yao Shen could sense the very distinctive color of an emotion that few could inspire in the ‘Immutable Bulwark’ of the Divine Mountain Sect—- Fear.

“And Yao Shen will share in the Dwarven fury if word of this were to ever leak out. I know you have always had ambitions for the ore, uncle, but you must understand—- handing over the artifact that generations of our ancestors have found themselves unable to part with is the closest we have come to success in centuries!”

The concentration of Earth Qi being cycled through Wenjun Long’s Nascent Soul dimmed a little, indicating that he was receptive to his nephew’s words.

“You think he can tame it?” Wenjun Long asked, his voice regaining composure.

“He is the closest that someone in the Azlak Plains has come in a thousand years,” Kang Long unflinchingly replied.

And as all present in the room knew, seeking cooperation outside the Azlak Plains was no different from inviting a calamity into one’s home.

“Why should I trust you, O’ mighty Soul Emperor of the Heavenly Sky Sect?” Wenjun Long boldly asked, a sharp light flashing in his gaze.

There were many replies Yao Shen could give at this crossroads. He could respond with a threat. He could counter with a show of force. He could threaten to expose the deepest secret, the gravest sin of the Divine Mountain Sect and doom them to foreign occupation.

All of those replies would work.

Yet, all of those replies would also form the basis of their cooperation.

“Because my ambition transcends you, your sect and this land, Wenjun Long.”