While chaos enveloped the entire island as righteous and demonic cultivators fought each other, the main battle raged in the center. In the middle of Blue Emerald Island, there was a lake that had existed since ancient times. Called Tranquil Lake, this lake was considered sacred. Therefore, no sect on the island dared to use the lake as its base, even though it was an ideal place to cultivate. However, the Nether Lotus Sect disregarded this and decided to build a palace in the middle of Tranquil Lake.

This palace, made from maroon materials that look like they were made from blood, emanates a stench of blood so strong that people who drank the water from the lake would feel as if it had been spoiled. Indeed, even the water itself had begun to take on a tint of red. If nothing stopped the Nether Lotus Sect, one day this lake would become a Blood Lake.

Currently, the future of the lake, as well as the future of the entire island, was being fought for on this lake.

Hundreds of cultivators, wearing various robes, currently moved, flew, swam, and fought around the palace, trying to seize and destroy it and the people inside.

The Nether Lotus Sect disciples and several elders, who used this palace as their main base on the island, retaliated.

"Kill those fiends! Never back down!" a cultivator shouted from atop a flying sword that moved swiftly in the air. As he flew around in a circle, moving like a green blur, he unleashed golden-colored arrows toward the palace. In the air, each arrow split into two, then from two into four, and so on, until the sky was filled with golden arrows. Whistling sounds filled the air, making it tremble, as if the golden arrows made the air itself shudder.

At the same time, a fight was happening underwater. Tens of cultivators moved through the water so fast and so gracefully that their movements created no ripples. All of them were currently beating demonic cultivators who had been pulled into the lake. Some of the demonic cultivators died easily from their attacks, their eyes wide open, some desperately clung to life and fended off attacks, while some sprouted tentacles from their backs that lashed out at surrounding enemies with fearsome expressions. Their fight inside the lake, while not creating loud thumping or explosions, created a low rumble beneath the surface, making the lake churn and bubble, its water rumbling as if it were a giant, fitfully sleeping monster. Occasionally, severed limbs or heads floated to the surface or sank to the depths, red blood spreading from them as if trying to contaminate the deep blue lake.

"How dare you attack us, the mighty Nether Lotus Sect!" a demonic cultivator shouted while floating in the air, controlling thousands of red petals that circled him like a red tornado. At a glance, these petals looked like flower petals, but each had red veins, as if made from reddened skin with blood flowing inside. He extended both hands and unleashed these petals toward tens of cultivators who were trying to close the distance. Each of them launched various attacks, ranging from fireballs and earth projectiles to even rapidly growing a tree to destroy the petals and kill this particularly troublesome demonic cultivator.

Hundreds of demonic cultivators also stood all around the palace. Some extended their hands, while others pointed their weapons—swords, fans, spears, and even gourds. Each demonic cultivator had a focused and ferocious expression, and they unleashed rapid and varied attacks to destroy every golden arrow raining down on them.

"Destroy it all!"

Their fights were fierce. Explosions occurred rapidly; rumbles and shouts never stopped. A giant snake made from water successfully breached some parts of the palace, coiling around red pillars and then destroying them, causing the red palace to tilt and crumble with a huge cloud of red dust to swirl around, and some debris to fall into Tranquil Lake, making the water churn as if boiling and about to spill and evaporate simultaneously. Some parts of this lake were still blue, but a huge portion was now red. Inside the water, fierce fighting continued, with cultivators wearing sky-blue robes, who could move swiftly underwater, hurling the debris of maroon bricks and gaining an advantage. Yet, the main fight actually happened inside the palace itself.

The palace housed several elders of the Nether Lotus Sect, and it was no exaggeration that killing them was the key to victory. In total, six elders from the Nether Lotus Sect resided within this place, and the twelve strongest and fiercest cultivators from Blue Emerald Island finally succeeded in breaching the Blood Palace and entering it.

The Nether Lotus Sect had made this palace hastily, and while the palace itself was completed and could function as a base, there had been no time for them to fill it with defensive formations or traps. Such things were a low priority for them, a fact the cultivators of Blue Emerald Island now benefited from.

The inner disciples, as well as the most fearsome disciples of the Nether Lotus Sect, were spread across the entire island with their assigned duties. Some were to capture mortals for various functions—as sacrifices, to be refined into pills, enslaved, pleasure workers, and many more. Some needed to create wide-scale array formations, some to build various bases with different functionalities, some to establish communication lines, and a group of particular disciples needed to create a backup teleportation formation, among many other tasks. Hence, there were not many of them inside the palace. Currently, while close to fifty disciples tried to ambush the twelve cultivators, they were merely outer disciples or the less talented ones.

When they unleashed their attacks—creatures made from blood, zombies, spirit beasts, projectiles, illusions, and more—all their attacks were torn apart by the blades and techniques of these twelve cultivators. When they successfully tore down the attacks, these twelve individuals moved inside the palace so fast they looked like ghosts. Some used swords to split and behead the demonic cultivators, some used their bare hands to create holes in their enemies, and some launched techniques that paralyzed and killed them on the spot.

After they were done, this group split into four groups of three.

"There are dozens of prisoners here," said a cultivator with a white beard, wearing a white and blue robe. He looked old, but the qi emanating from him was strong and vast. He was a Core Splitting cultivator with seven full cores. "Groups One and Two, you need to comb this palace and escort them out. They are royals and important people needed if we want our home to be stable after this war is over. Group Three and my group will hunt down their leaders. One of the three most fearsome of them is a demonic cultivator who calls herself Bewitching Princess. Her assistant, Blood Moon, is rumored to control shadows, while the Graceful Phoenix hides behind his fires to pretend to be a righteous cultivator."

Stolen novel; please report.

Groups one and two, consisting of the younger generation, accepted their orders and moved swiftly forward. Each of them activated their movement technique and vanished, creating various marks on the ground. Some merely cracked, while some burned with black fire and crackling thunder.

The leader of group four, as well as the entire operation, was a man called Cangxuan Wutian. While he was not the sect leader of one of the three great sects of this island—all of them were dead—he was the strongest elder who had successfully escaped when the Nether Lotus Sect invaded. He was a great leader, a fearsome one, respected by his allies and even his enemies. Hence, he was the de facto leader of the resistance.

"Elder Wutian," a man with blue hair and eyes as blue as gleaming jewels said while following the elder. "I ask your permission to kill that Despicable Phoenix with my own bare hands." He gritted his teeth, his face contorted into fearsome anger. "I need to avenge my father."

"Junior, don't be too cocky," the elder said calmly. Then, when they entered a large circular room with several doors on the other side, he bared his hand to make the five people behind him stop. "You all need to understand that even with six of us, there's a chance for us to lose and die at their hands. So, instead of trying to avenge your father and follow your bloodlust, we need to be calm and support each other while also looking for opportunities. If an opportunity comes for you to kill him, then I will try as hard as I can to make an opening, but when that opportunity comes to me, you need to try to create an opening for me as well."

Cangxuan Wutian then suddenly crouched, pressing his palm on the red marble tiles below. He nodded and then looked behind with a mirthless smile. "After all, it's not only you who have grudges against them."

Tongues of flame began to shroud Cangxuan Wutian, and strong, vast qi emanated from him, making the air in the room suddenly shift. If Liu Xing had been there, he would have felt that, while this cultivator was only at the peak of the Core Splitting realm, his qi possessed a certain quality above others. It felt like an ancient tree, full of power and wisdom, and like a power that could split the sky.

"They are down there," Cangxuan Wutian said.

The five cultivators behind him, consisting of three males and one female, gulped, as if they suddenly stood before an ancient and deadly beast. But then, the female cultivator, who had hair as dark as night but eyes that shone with a red color, suddenly said, "I have a bad feeling about this."

When she said so, the rest of them looked at her intently. She did not come from the three former great sects, nor from a prominent clan. Instead, she came from a small clan. This Song clan was rather unassuming, but that was until she became their patriarch. Her power was not too overwhelming. Among the six people gathered in the center of this red palace, she was the weakest, only at the Core Splitting realm's third stage. Yet, her opinion and voice were valuable because she possessed a potent bloodline that had even made the three former great sects try to invite her to their sect. She was called Soft Oracle, and she had an uncanny ability to perceive the future.

She could not see the future exactly, or even dream about what would happen. But her gut feeling was always right, and when she said she had a bad feeling, it was ominous.

Cangxuan Wutian rose from his position and said calmly, "Please elaborate on your feelings. Do you feel that our enemies cannot be defeated? Is there any trap? Are there any traitors among us?"

Soft Oracle closed her eyes for a while. "I do think there's a trap below us. I'm quite sure there's no traitor among the six of us. And as for our enemies, I feel that they are formidable, they are strong, stronger than us. Yet, I feel like this fight is winnable. My bad premonition is actually not specifically about the enemies below, but rather, about this whole situation."

"The most important part of what you said is the fact that this fight is winnable," the man with blue hair and blue eyes smiled wildly while clenching his fist. "Nothing matters aside from that."

"Let her finish," Elder Wutian said, nodding to Soft Oracle, as if signaling her to continue.

"I think that the conflict with the Nether Lotus Sect will grow bigger until it spirals out of our control. You guys know that I possess a unique bloodline, and while all of you think it's wondrous, it's actually not. My heart is always filled with anxiety, as if the world around me is full of smoke that is slowly trying to suffocate me. These several last years have been especially so. It feels like my heart cannot feel content. When the Nether Lotus Sect came and massacred the three great sects, I thought I would feel relieved, but instead, my feeling has grown more and more anxious. It's as if the world itself is going to explode." She inhaled deeply. "Of course, I don't mean it literally, but I sense that the future is full of turmoil."

"Of course it will be," the man with blue eyes said. "I'm not an oracle. I cannot sense fate dictated by heaven, but I know that our conflict with the Nether Lotus Sect will escalate. A great war between the whole Wild Tide Region will occur. So, while you're rightfully anxious, it's not something you need to think about right now."

"That's right," another said.

Even Cangxuan Wutian nodded. "A great peril awaits us ahead. After all, I know for a fact that after we repel these demonic cultivators, we, the entirety of Blue Emerald Island, will earnestly try to fight the Nether Lotus Sect. Still, I also know for a fact that your words are not light, Lady Oracle. There must be some hint about the future in your feelings, and you're free to share them with us."

The others nodded in unison. After all, one of the reasons many people had survived the Nether Lotus Sect was because of her gut feelings. Of course, while her feelings were always right, there were occasions where they failed to discern the source of her feelings. Sometimes, even Soft Oracle herself failed to discern her feelings. For example, around two weeks ago, she knew that someone was going to die in their camp, and she thought it would come from an ambush. But, while there was truly an ambush, the one who died was not murdered, but instead, died by suicide. Still, while there were many occasions of her failings, her gut feeling was always true.

Soft Oracle continued. "I think… I think my current anxiety stemmed from around a month ago. Do you guys remember the first demonic cultivator who openly did a sacrifice ritual?"

At her words, each of their eyes hardened. They could not forget that hellish sight.

"At that time, there were rumors that the Nether Lotus Sect was trying to create an ultimate pill that could make a cultivator advance into an Immortal."

"Didn't you crush that rumor, Lady Oracle?" Cangxuan Wutian narrowed his eyes. "You didn't lie to us, did you?"

"No, my gut feeling told me that was a baseless rumor. Such things are impossible, and even if it's possible, the Nether Lotus Sect wouldn't dare to even think about creating a pill like that. It would bring them doom. But… but there's always a nagging feeling screaming at me, and I cannot understand this feeling."

Cangxuan Wutian stroked his white beard for a while, his eyes narrowed. The man with blue eyes shot him a glance. "Elder Wutian, should we talk about this right now? We're in the middle of something urgent. If we waste too much time, our enemies can set several traps to welcome us. Or even worse, they might try to flee."

"You're right," Elder Wutian said after a while. "But her words are worth more than gold." He looked calmly at Lady Oracle's eyes. "What part of this feeling confuses you? I believe since you've been thinking about this for a while, you must know something. If you can, please do tell us. But, if you cannot, then I ask you to store this conversation for later. After all, he is indeed right; we cannot waste much time."

The oracle licked her lips. "I actually don't know, but my gut feeling tells me that somehow, there's a mother and a child connected to all of this."

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