"Jun… Jun Tianlin, impossible. Why did you exit seclusion early?" Evil Sword Immortal froze in terror. He had clearly sensed that Tianlin was about to reach the half-step God-Emperor realm and would need several more days before emerging.
Why did Tianlin appear the instant he did? And from the looks of it, Tianlin hadn't forcibly ended his cultivation—he had fully completed his divine ascension.
The newly ascended Asura God had already reached the half-step God-Emperor realm.
Tianlin smiled. "Don't get it? It's simple. When you came to the Human Realm and the God of Lust returned to the God Realm, the Gate of the Gods closed again. You can no longer absorb the God of Lust, which means your Evil Emperor trial has failed. As far as I know, the stronger the divine trial, the harsher the backlash upon failure."
As his voice fell, a gloomy voice rang in Evil Sword Immortal's mind: ["Evil Sword Immortal: Evil Emperor trial failed. God-seat inheritance revoked. Evil-thought Devouring ability stripped. Evil Spirit Pearl fractured."]
Evil Sword Immortal incredulously took out his treasured Evil Spirit Pearl and saw cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
"Familiar voice, right? That's the will of the previous Evil Sword Immortal hidden in the pearl. He'd hoped you would one day slaughter your way back to his original world to take revenge on Jing Tian and Chong Lou. So he set trials for you. But your scheming and your strength—even on this Douluo Continent, whose power system is beneath the Sword and Fairy world—fall short. Go to that world and you'd only be courting death. He's completely given up on you; his obsession dissipated." Tianlin explained.
"You know Jing Tian and Chong Lou… so you're also a soul from that world." Evil Sword Immortal assumed Tianlin came from Sword and Fairy; no wonder he had the Holy Spirit Pearl to counter him—surely a contingency left by those great beings.
"Think what you like; it's close enough," Tianlin nodded. "Now you understand why my strength spiked. Our trials are oppositional. My Holy Emperor trial is to stop you from destroying the world and to eliminate you. With your trial's failure, mine is more than half complete, so my power surged."
"Despicable! Holy Emperor? You plotted against me!" Evil Sword Immortal roared.
Tianlin shrugged. "We may be acquainted, but slander is still slander. I didn't plot you. I intended to kill you head-on. The one who plotted you was my father-in-law."
Hearing this, Evil Sword Immortal turned to Ning Fengzhi. To him, Ning Fengzhi was an ant, never worth a glance. Now even more so: after self-exploding his rings, Ning Fengzhi's spirit was shattered and his power gone—he couldn't beat an ordinary person.
Ning Fengzhi gave a bitter smile. This son-in-law was truly ruthless, selling him out in a heartbeat.
"I was only hypothesizing," Ning Fengzhi said. "The God of Lust mentioned that even a Supreme God-King can't change the world's rules. From Tianlin, I heard key points of your Evil Emperor trial. So I devised this: separate you and the God of Lust into different realms and then lock the Gate of the Gods. That should finish you, no?"
"Because under those conditions, to absorb the God of Lust you'd need to first become a God-Emperor to ignore the rules and force open the gate. But to become a God-Emperor, you'd first need to absorb the God of Lust. A paradox."
The God of Destruction nodded. "Right. When the Sword God wrote this plan to me with sword-arts, I realized there was another way to break the game. Ning Fengzhi also told me that not only do you hold leverage against me, I actually hold leverage against you. We could lure you out under the pretext of a deal, then send the God of Lust back once you emerged."
"Impossible. That talisman the God of Lust used requires coordinates. The God Realm doesn't have the Star Shift Talisman's coordinates." Evil Sword Immortal was becoming hysterical. He refused to accept the truth, insisting the God of Lust was still in the Human Realm, merely hidden by some secret art.
"Who said there weren't?" Ning Fengzhi smiled. "You control the God Realm's hub and know our side's power well, but there's one exception: a newly created god-seat not yet admitted into the God Realm registry—a self-made god. The Artificer God, Lou Gao. As an unprecedented craftsman-type first-rank god, he excels at forging divine artifacts. Three years ago, I had him craft a special artifact that can completely conceal figure and aura. With Oscar's Invisibility Sausage as reference, he succeeded smoothly."
"When you opened the Gate of the Gods, Lou Gao wore that artifact, hid himself, and entered the God Realm. The artifact was inscribed with coordinates."
"Otherwise, why do you think Qian Renxue waited until four hundred god-servants had appeared before activating the formation she'd already set up on the gate? Not a mistake—she was waiting for Lou Gao to enter first."
Ning Fengzhi laid out the plan in full. It sounded simple, but he staked everything on it. To execute it, he faced four hundred god-servants and four God-Kings; a single misstep meant total defeat.
But now, he had won. The price paid was only his own cultivation.
"Evil Sword Immortal, do you remember how your predecessor lost? Arrogance—he looked down on everyone and was tricked by Jing Tian and Xu Changqing. Today you're the same. You ignore everyone except me. I, on the other hand, trust every comrade's strength. That's the decisive difference." Tianlin's gaze swept the mountainside, full of gratitude.
"In truth, we each had advantages. I had better intel; you had the higher starting point and easier path to Evil Emperor. From the beginning you maneuvered: using avalanches to perfect the spirit-hunting plan; using the Heaven Dou to scheme against the Three Upper Sects; exposing Bibi Dong's secrets; seizing the Slaughter City; plotting to use the Grandmaster to scheme against Bibi Dong again; pushing continental war; hunting the Emerald Swan; aiding the Heaven Dou Empire to prolong the war… If even one plan had succeeded, today's victor would be you."
"I could only counter each move as it came. In other words, you could fail countless times, but I could not fail even once—or it was total defeat. I was fortunate: my family and friends were strong enough. With their help, every one of your plans was foiled. Your loss was sealed."
After hearing Ning Fengzhi and Tianlin, Evil Sword Immortal finally understood. No wonder every plan felt "coincidentally" spoiled—this father-in-law and son-in-law had been plotting him all along.