Immortal Paladin

366 Wrong Fight

Tan Dong was enormous with broad shoulders, thick arms, and green hair tied behind his back like some ancient barbarian king. His aura pressed against me in slow waves, heavy and dignified. It reminded me of the Supreme Masters, but denser and older, like a mountain that learned how to breathe. I couldn’t underestimate him.

Oddly enough, despite all my intelligence networks… I had no idea who this man was.

I released a slow breath and undid my shapeshifting technique. My body shifted back into my original appearance as Da Wei. My moss-green hair faded to black, my rugged face softened, and even my posture realigned. My clothes stayed the same, but my divine presence returned, heavier and more commanding.

Since I represented a nation now, I had to act the part.

“How did you see through me?” I asked.

Yi Chan jolted. Her eyes widened for a heartbeat before she schooled her features, trying very hard not to show how startled she was. She failed only a little. Tan Dong, meanwhile, didn’t blink. He didn’t even look mildly impressed.

I dragged a chair and sat without waiting for permission. The gesture was rude, brazen, and even disrespectful.

“Easy,” Tan Dong said, as if addressing a reckless junior. “We were told.”

“By who?”

Tan Dong smiled faintly. “The Heavenly Master knows all. Learns all.”

I raised a brow. “Ever met this Heavenly Master of yours? Sounds like you trust her a lot.”

“She’s a monster,” he admitted without changing his expression. “But you… you’re different. I’ve heard your reputation. I have no quarrel with you. Leave the city, and the Martial Alliance will not interfere with you.”

“Nah.” I placed my feet on the side table. “I still have a Rising Phoenix competition to win.”

Yi Chan’s eyes almost fell out of her skull.

“You, shameless! Completely shameless!” she snapped. “How dare an ancient monster like you join a competition meant for rookies!? And take your feet off the table!”

I didn't, which made her angrier.

To be fair, she had a point.

Mentally, I was ancient: David_69’s memories plus my own time in the Underworld with Meng Po. Physically, I was around a hundred twenty. By all accounts, qualifying for Rising Phoenix was… very questionable.

“Hey,” I said casually, “this body is twenty-five years old. So do I get a pass?”

“It’s a clone,” Tan Dong observed, releasing just a wisp of his aura. “The Martial Alliance has an agreement with the Heavenly Temple to maintain peace, avoid provoking the balance between the three great powers, and cut ties with your Grand Ascension Empire. Rather than causing trouble here, shouldn’t you be minding your own lands? I believe your country just suffered a civil war.”

“It’s Holy Ascension Empire,” I corrected. “And I don’t know what you think I am, but clearly you’re not a demon. If you were, I wouldn’t be talking. I’d have smitten you where you sit.”

“Try me,” Tan Dong said as his aura exploded.

The pressure slammed into the room like a falling world. His cultivation of the Ascended Soul Realm surged with frightening depth. I couldn’t read how many layers of immortality he’d obtained, but he was easily far above Yi Qiu in presence.

But I wasn’t about to back down.

I unleashed my own aura, blood-red with golden edges. It was War Aura, empowered by will. My qi surged violently through my meridians, spiraling upward.

Fourth star. Fifth star. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth!

My cultivation roared up to the Ninth Star of Will Reinforcement, filling the room with an oppressive, battle-hungry force.

I met Tan Dong’s gaze, smiled, and said,

“How humiliating would it be for you… if you lost to my clone?”

Tan Dong’s aura detonated like a silent star collapsing. Before I could even read the technique, he stepped forward and his fist punctured clean through my chest. A wet crunch echoed through the room. Blood sprayed behind me. My lungs burned as air fled my body in a ragged choke.

I stared at the gaping hole in my torso, then at him, feeling more annoyed than injured.

I had assumed he would back down.

Instead, he followed with a brutal strike aimed to erase my clone entirely.

My temper rose with irritation. This body housed my Human Soul, not the Asura Soul. This was supposed to be a negotiation, not a brawl. I sighed… Of course, I’d get punched after provoking him so much. However, I didn’t think he’d do it so blatantly. With a simple thought, I dismissed the damaged vessel and swapped in my main body. The clone became the soulless container, while the Human Soul settled into my true form.

I didn’t move from my seat.

But the atmosphere changed instantly.

My posture straightened, becoming effortlessly regal. The Hollow Star sat above my brow. My robes, black with deep green patterns, settled around me like layered shadows. Blue motes of light floated in gentle orbits around my shoulders and arms, each mote a silent star of its own.

Tan Dong’s second punch landed. Aura cracked like thunder as he drove his fist into my chest again, tearing through divine flesh and splattering holy blood across the chair.

I neither flinched nor blinked. I simply watched him with cool disinterest as the wound stitched itself closed under Blessed Regeneration.

“We’re talking,” I said sharply, “not fighting. Sit down.”

For the first time, Tan Dong hesitated.

His eyes flicked to Yi Chan.

Yi Chan’s lips moved in the silent currents of Qi Speech, her expression tight with worry. The two of them weren’t acting like traitors who sold the Martial Alliance to the Heavenly Temple. They were anxious, defensive, and deeply wary, but not disloyal.

There was something they didn’t understand, and something I didn’t either.

“I believe there’s a misunderstanding,” I continued. “Or do you truly want a fight here, in your own residence? Think about Yi Chan.”

The “residence” was buried deep within a forest. With a sweep of Divine Sense, I found no human presence for kilometers. They had deliberately brought me somewhere isolated, prepared for a confrontation if needed. That meant Tan Dong wasn’t reckless. He was cautious.

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But he made one mistake.

He brought Yi Chan.

A Ninth Realm cultivator wasn’t weak, but against me… She’d vanish in the shockwave of the first real exchange.

“You think she’ll be safe if a fight breaks out?” I asked quietly. “Your martial arts are impressive, Tan Dong, but not impressive enough. Do you want to try me?”

The blue motes circling me vibrated, resonating like a choir of tiny worlds. The air dimmed around them as they aligned with my intent.

Each mote was a Manasoul, capable of unleashing a spell instantly, simultaneously, and relentlessly. The pressure in the room tightened like a noose around the world itself.

“I heard from a trustworthy friend about the Three Martial Sovereigns,” I said calmly. “The last of the Martial Saints who kept the Alliance alive. So how about we start over… and do proper introductions?”

The tension broke, not with violence, but with Tan Dong’s long breath.

Finally, he spoke.

“I am Tan Dong,” he said, voice steady. “Currently, the acting Alliance Master… and the last of the honorable Martial Saints of the Martial Alliance.”

Tan Dong lied.

I let it pass. A name was a small thing in this conversation, and I already had the leverage I needed.

Still… the last Martial Saint?

That was a revelation. I had never measured myself against one. But through the memories I carried from Divine Possession, from Yuan Shen and Lei Jia, immortals who had walked the Greater Universe, my understanding of Martial Saints should be enough basis to get a feel of what they could do.

“What happened?” I asked.

Tan Dong clenched his jaw. The light in his eyes dimmed with an old, bitter sorrow.

“The existence you know as the Three Martial Sovereigns is dead,” he said. “In the history of the Martial Alliance, there were thirteen Martial Saints. Ten died long ago. I am counted among the dead ones.”

Before I could speak, Yi Chan stepped forward. Her voice was steady, but her eyes held pain deeper than Tan Dong’s.

“I should explain the rest,” she said. “For the past fifteen hundred years, the Martial Alliance has fought a silent war with the Heavenly Temple. They have exhumed the bodies of our ancestors and searched for the ancestral grounds of the eminent Martial Saints. At the same time, they hunted our current Saints. It forced the Three Martial Sovereigns to vanish completely and hide themselves.”

Her tone dropped lower.

“The Martial Alliance cannot expose the Heavenly Temple. If we do, we will attract the attention of other factions and plunge the world into chaos. The Union was rising in power at the height of the conflicts back then. If they learned there was hostility between the Martial Alliance and the Heavenly Temple, it could trigger a chain of events we cannot control.”

I crossed my arms, leaning back.

“What do you mean by ‘ancestral grounds’? Cultivators in high realms return to nature. Even an Ascended Soul leaves nothing behind.”

Tan Dong shook his head.

“It’s different for those who experienced Martial Ascension. Their bodies remain. Their skin is thicker than most divine ore. Their flesh is immortal. They do not decay. When the first Martial Saint fell, everyone believed the master had entered a deep meditation lasting twenty thousand years. Only when the Heavenly Temple attempted to steal his body, starting a war a hundred and ten thousand years ago, did we learn the truth.”

His eyes turned distant.

“The Heavenly Master back then was Shouquan. The Martial Alliance was known by another name.”

“So you know the current Heavenly Master?” I asked.

“Not directly,” he said with a tired sigh. “But it was she who resurrected the ten Martial Saints who were supposed to be lost forever.”

Yi Chan continued softly, “While you were quelling the Civil War in your territory, Your Holy Majesty, the Martial Alliance was fighting a life-and-death battle. The Heavenly Temple finally found the ancestral grounds. Only the Three Martial Sovereigns knew the location, and they defended it alone. My father was away investigating the Heavenly Temple. During that time, many of our officials were assassinated. When he returned, he brought Master Tan back with him.”

Tan Dong’s voice became grim.

“The Heavenly Master personally joined the battle. She used her arts to resurrect the ten fallen Martial Saints and breathed back life to them.”

Yi Chan looked directly at me.

“And that… happened around the time you declared yourself the Holy Emperor of the Hollowed World.”

I imagined the Heavenly Temple must’ve panicked when I made my flashy declaration as the Holy Emperor.

If they accelerated their plans because of me, then the cost must have been enormous. The Three Martial Sovereigns alone sounded like legendary figures, strong enough to hold back the entire Heavenly Temple and forcing the Heavenly Master herself to intervene.

If the Heavenly Master had to personally step in, that meant the Sovereigns weren’t just mighty.

They were monstrous.

I recalled the sacred mountain of Ward, the Arch Gate, and my brilliant, world-shaking, totally reasonable solution of blowing up the entire mountain because I was busy.

If Jia Sen already felt like a brick to the face, then meeting the Heavenly Master herself would’ve been more trouble than it was worth. According to Gu Jie’s notes, she would actively avoid me for the next two hundred years.

I wondered if she was afraid of me for some reason, or if she had some other plans…

Tan Dong continued speaking.

“The resurrected ten masters were given the choice to serve the Heavenly Master or die. Six out of ten joined. The Three Martial Sovereigns, along with the remaining three resurrected masters, were slaughtered and cremated.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“How about you? You conveniently survived? Alone?”

His expression tightened.

“If you think I am colluding with the Heavenly Master, then I am not. The Three Martial Sovereigns were my disciples. I raised them for fifty thousand years. I loved them deeply. If I survived, it was thanks to Yi Qiu. He uncovered the Heavenly Temple’s scheme, found the ancestral grounds, and saved me with powerful talismans that distorted space.”

Ah. It was probably the teleportation scrolls I gave Yi Qiu.

I studied Tan Dong’s aura, demeanor, heartbeat, and qi circulation. No lies. Not even a flicker.

“Then why did Yi Qiu end up like that?” I asked, voice low. “His lower body was destroyed. Barely flying with qi. A black palm mark on his chest. Why would he tell me the Martial Alliance betrayed him? Why say the Martial Alliance is under the Heavenly Temple’s thumb? Right now, he resides in my territory, receiving the best care he could ask for. But even now, his fate is uncertain.”

Yi Chan answered with a sorrowful firmness.

“Because it’s the only way we can achieve peace.”

“You’re talking about your father,” I reminded her. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“It was a scheme,” Tan Dong added. “A scheme Yi Qiu and I devised.”

“My real name,” she said, “is Tan Jin.”

A soft puff of smoke expanded from her body as vines crept from her skin like living threads. The huge, muscular man shrank and reshaped into a slender woman with delicate features. Her aura softened, turning calm and ancient, like a long-lived forest after rain.

I blinked.

Another shapeshifter.

Tan Jin bowed her head slightly.

“I am an enlightened fauna, born from a long-extinct spiritual plant,” she said gently. “I have walked this world practicing martial arts for hundreds of thousands of years. I apologize… for testing you.”

Her gaze sharpened, carrying an undertone of warning.

“And I also apologize… for what I am about to do next.”

“Alliance Master, what is the meaning of this!?” Yi Chan’s voice cracked sharply through the room, but before Tan Jin could answer, Yi Chan vanished.

A flare of spatial light had swallowed Yi Chan whole, courtesy of the jade ring on her finger that had been forcibly activated, ripping her away from danger.

Tan Jin let out a tired breath. “Yi Qiu offered to erase his memories and install me in the position of power within the Martial Alliance, using Yi Chan’s cooperation. He intended to die back then, when we were being hunted by the Heavenly Temple and six resurrected Martial Saints. I never imagined he would survive… and end up coming to you.”

“So this is your brilliant method of protecting the Martial Alliance?” I asked coldly.

I unleashed Stagger with quintessence. The entire residence detonated outward in a clean, spiraling blast with walls shredded, the roof vaporized, and the ground split.

My golden aura roared to life as I rose from the debris-dusted crater.

Above me, six powerful Ascended Souls hovered in formation.

Their combined aura pressed like a stormfront, and over us stretched a massive barrier, woven tightly enough that even space hummed.

“You were buying time,” I said, glaring at Tan Jin.

She winced.

“I saw no other way. They threatened to open a Hell’s Gate in the heart of the Martial Alliance if I didn’t comply. I have no intention of serving them… but you had to come strutting into our territory, drawing attention. I needed to occupy you long enough to stop them from triggering their trump card and make preparations for this trap.”

“So you’re saying this is my fault?” I scoffed. “What if I didn’t show up? What then? They’d simply wait a few days and open the Hell’s Gate they’ve already prepared for the Rising Phoenix Tournament.”

Tan Jin’s eyes sharpened. “What are you talking about?”

“Exactly what I said. Count your blessings that I came prepared. My disciple should be able to handle the demons pouring out, but we can’t be careless.”

Her breath hitched. She hadn’t seen what happened under the Black Veil. She didn’t know a Seventh Realm demon had already made its move, and probably had dozens of comrades roaming around Phoenix City.

High above, the six Ascended Souls murmured among themselves.

“Let’s end this quickly.”

“Tan Jin, take the lead. You need the merit.”

“Don’t let him escape. The Heavenly Master’s orders are clear.”

“Kill or capture. No negotiations.”

They really thought this would be simple.

I exhaled once, then flooded my entire being with quintessence.

“Divine Mandate of Proximity.”

The world shuddered.

From my body, a colossal golden dome erupted outward, swallowing the sky, devouring the barrier they’d woven, bending space into a closed commandment of my will.

The six Ascended Souls froze as their qi circulation faltered.

Tan Jin paled instantly.

I looked up at them, voice plain and steady.

“You picked the wrong fight.”