The funeral procession for Grandmaster Tianji was solemn.
The Heavenly Dao Sect had received the message. They didn't trust Mo Tian, but they couldn't refuse the return of their ancestor's body. It was a matter of honor.
Ten thousand disciples lined the floating steps of the Heavenly Mountain.
A lone black airship approached. No weapons visible. Just a black coffin on the deck.
Sect Master Daoist Sky (Nascent Soul - Late) stood at the gates.
"Halt!" he commanded. "Leave the coffin. And begone."
Mo Tian stood on the deck. He wore white mourning robes—a mockery of their grief.
"I bring him back out of respect," Mo Tian lied smoothly. "He was a worthy opponent."
He waved his hand. The coffin floated down.
The Heavenly Dao Elders rushed forward to catch it. They scanned it for traps.
"No explosives," an Elder confirmed. "It is just the body."
They opened the lid.
Inside lay Grandmaster Tianji. He looked peaceful.
"Ancestor..." The disciples wept.
Sect Master Sky looked at Mo Tian. "You show unexpected honor, Demon. Perhaps there is humanity in you."
"Perhaps," Mo Tian smiled.
"Take him to the Core Formation Array for the burial rites," Sect Master Sky ordered. "The spiritual energy there will preserve his body forever."
Mo Tian watched them carry the coffin deep into the heart of the sect—right into the center of their defensive array.
He checked his mental clock.
3... 2... 1...
Inside the coffin, Grandmaster Tianji's eyes snapped open.
They weren't his eyes. They were purple.
Mo Tian hadn't just returned the body. He had turned the Grandmaster into a Super-Puppet.
And inside the puppet's chest, he had stuffed the Five Elemental Pearls (replicas made of unstable energy).
"Detonate."
BOOM!
The explosion wasn't fire. It was a Dao Resonance Collapse.
The Core Formation Array—the foundation of the Heavenly Dao Sect's floating mountains—shattered.
The mountains groaned. Gravity returned.
The floating islands began to fall.
"He rigged the body!" Sect Master Sky screamed, stumbling as the ground tilted. "HE CRASHED THE SECT!"
Mo Tian laughed from his airship.
"I told you," Mo Tian shouted as the holy land began to plummet from the sky. "I was coming to return him... to the earth!"
"ALL FORCES! ATTACK!"
From the clouds above, the Eternal Night Armada decloaked. Five hundred ships. Ten thousand demons.
The Invasion of the Heavens had begun.