Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

When the news of the Azure Dragon Society's capture of Chidu reached the capital the following day, all the officials and civil servants were deeply moved.

Within four days, eight prefectures were captured, two Grandmaster Elders of the White Lotus Sect were beheaded, the Southern King himself was captured, and the main force of the Red Armor Army was annihilated. This battle was fought as swiftly and decisively as cutting tofu with a knife.

Some people have begun to re-examine the Azure Dragon Society of the thirteen western prefectures.

Having seized the halberd from the imperial tomb and quelled the rebellion in the southern border, this behemoth, now open to the public, has the capability to simultaneously contend with two fronts.

The mysterious "Big Dragon Head" behind it has yet to appear—all command is handled by the Second Dragon Head Bai Yujing and the Third Dragon Head Li Chenzhou.

This makes one wonder, what kind of person is that unseen, deepest-level controller, who can suppress a peak eighth-level grandmaster like Li Chenzhou and a mid-ninth-level expert like Guan Qi?

After reading the report in the imperial study, Qin Muzhi remained silent for a long time. He rested one hand on the desk, his fingertips tapping the surface absently, while he held the thin piece of paper in his other hand and read it again.

The only sounds in the hall were the occasional pop of candlelight and Cao Zhengchun's barely audible breathing.

After a long while, Qin Muzhi put down the report and chuckled softly. The laughter was faint, like a ripple suddenly spreading across the surface of an autumn lake.

"The White Lotus Sect is affiliated with the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. The Azure Dragon Society has eliminated the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple's pawns for me, which saves me a lot of trouble."

He didn't say anything else.

But Cao Zhengchun, standing beside him with his eyes downcast, clearly saw that when the emperor put down his pen, the tip paused for a moment at the end of the report, leaving a trace of ink.

The ink mark was small, but it landed precisely on the three characters "Azure Dragon Society," spreading out in a circle, like a raindrop about to fall, hanging heavily above the paper.

Cao Zhengchun's breathing became even shallower. He looked down at the tips of his boots, saying nothing and asking nothing.

But he remembered the emperor's brief pause.

While the situation in the southern border was being resolved, a far more dramatic upheaval was taking place in the East China Sea than the chaos at the imperial tombs.

On the 24th day of the first lunar month, night fell.

After seven days of silence, the dark golden vortex at the site of the sunken Penglai Island suddenly began to rotate counterclockwise.

A dark red beam of light surged from the center of the vortex, interspersed with countless tiny fragments of black runes, like a door being pushed open from the inside.

On Wanshe Island, Pang Ban slowly walked out of the main hall and stood at the edge of the dock.

He looked up at the expanding pillar of light in the distance, his purple robes motionless in the sea breeze, as if the air around him was solidified by his aura.

"Here I am," he said.

Before he finished speaking, the entire surface of the East China Sea suddenly sank.

All the ships sank three feet at the same time, and the waves receded in all directions, exposing large areas of dark brown seabed reefs.

Then the dark red beam of light suddenly exploded—Penglai Island rose again from the sea surface at an extremely fast speed, bringing with it seawater from the entire area back into the center of the vortex, creating a deafening roar.

The resurfaced Penglai Island has changed its appearance.

The black sand beach has disappeared, replaced by a smooth, mirror-like dark rock surface.

The stone steps are still there, but the dark stone door at the end of the nine hundred and ninety-nine steps has been completely shattered.

Behind the stone gate was no longer a tomb chamber, but a passageway—a dark gray passageway more than ten zhang wide and of immeasurable height, with thick, almost tangible black mist swirling deep within.

In the mist, the sky over the entire East China Sea was tinged with a dark purple.

All the cultivators in the East China Sea simultaneously felt a bone-chilling cold—a cold that did not come from temperature, but from a suppression of some level of life.

Two figures slowly emerged from the depths of the passage.

The person walking in front was over three zhang tall, his entire body covered with a dark purple, carapace-like keratin layer. His face was humanoid but only had the outline of facial features. He had no eyebrows or hair, and his vertical pupils gleamed with a pale, eerie green light.

Countless wailing phantoms could be vaguely seen within the black mist surrounding him. His aura as a celestial being in the early stage was extremely suppressed—but the more tightly it was suppressed, the heavier the sense of oppression became.

The person behind him was slightly shorter, but still over two zhang tall, with a similar appearance. However, the color of his armor was darker purple, almost black, and his aura was a bit stronger than the former's. He was also a genuine early-stage Celestial Being.

After emerging from the passage, the two demon celestials simultaneously stopped before the ruins of the stone gate, their vertical pupils sweeping across the East China Sea before them. Their gazes were as if scrutinizing a world they had never seen before, curiosity tinged with scrutiny, and scrutiny concealing greed.

"Is this the Eastern Continent?"

The person walking in front spoke, his voice hoarse and grating, like countless pebbles rolling in an iron urn, "It's much more spacious than the small borderlands in the southern frontier."

The person behind him didn't reply, but simply took a deep breath of the East China Sea breeze, his vertical pupils gleaming with excited emerald light. "The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is several times richer than in the Southern Frontier. This place... is worth fighting."

The man in front laughed, a laugh like a steel saw cutting through bone:

"No rush. General Blackstone ordered us to scout ahead and confirm the passage is stable before the Black Tide army can pass. Let's see how many creatures are still breathing in this Eastern Continent sea area first."

As soon as he finished speaking, a gentle and deep voice came from the direction of the Wanshe Island pier.

"You two have come from afar, have you brought visiting cards?"

Pang Ban walked on the waves. With each step he took, the sea beneath his feet solidified into a transparent ice lotus, supporting his figure as he moved steadily forward.

The purple robe stood out against the dark purple sky, making him appear as if he were wrapped in a piece of night, yet a single, blinding light shone in the center of the darkness.

The two demon celestial beings turned their heads at the same time.

When they recognized the aura of the newcomer, the excitement in their vertical pupils turned into wariness. The demon with the deep purple armor behind them whispered, "Celestial Being... Initial Realm."

"So what if you're at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm?" the man in front scoffed. "There's only one."

Pang Ban stopped thirty feet away from the two of them, and stood with his hands behind his back.

He didn't draw his weapon, nor did he adopt any defensive stance. He simply looked calmly at the two demon celestials, as if they were two lost travelers.

On Ten Thousand Snake Island, Song Que, Tie Zhongtang, and Jue Wushen stood on the shore. Song Que's gaze lingered on Pang Ban for a moment before turning to the two demon celestial beings, and he whispered:

"The auras of those two... are on the same level as the Ghost Emperor."

Tie Zhongtang said gruffly, "Two people at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm versus one at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm?"

Absolute God remained silent, but slowly clenched his left fist.

Pang Ban ignored the tremors of the three people behind him. He sized up the two demon celestials and suddenly said, "Scouts?"

The demon's vertical pupils contracted for a moment—before he could speak, Pang Ban had already said everything for him.

"You carry an aura of 'testing' about you."

Pang Ban tilted his head slightly. "A real army wouldn't send just two scouts. But you are far superior to ordinary scouts—two people at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm should be considered garrison commanders in the Southern Frontier."

Sending someone like this as a scout shows how much importance you place on the Eastern Continent. And the fact that you arrived so soon after the passage opened indicates you were already waiting there as soon as it opened.

He paused, shifting his gaze from the two men to the churning black mist deep within the passage.

"How much more is there beyond the passage?"

The demon celestial being in front of him stopped talking nonsense. He suddenly took a step forward, and the black mist around him suddenly increased threefold. A long whip formed from black baleful energy emerged from the mist and lashed down at Pang Ban with the full force of a celestial being in the early stage.

The wind cleaved the sea surface, creating a deep trench more than ten feet deep. The seawater surged to both sides, and the waves rose as high as mountains.

Pang Ban did not move.

The long black whip suddenly stopped three feet above his head, as if it had struck an invisible barrier. The malevolent aura on the whip crumbled, dissipated, and vanished into nothingness. The entire process took less than a breath; the whip evaporated completely from tip to end, leaving not a trace behind.

The demon in front of him narrowed his eyes and was about to retreat—

Pang Ban moved.

He raised his hand, his five fingers slightly spread. An invisible force field erupted from his palm, enveloping the demon in front of him.

The demon's carapace, standing three zhang tall and weighing over several thousand jin, trembled violently, deformed, and twisted within this force field, with dense cracks appearing on its surface.

He let out a sharp howl, trying to unleash his evil energy to break free, only to find that the power within his body was being forcibly crushed by a purer and deeper force.

"You—" He spat out a mouthful of dark purple blood, and the fierce light in his vertical pupils turned into horror.

This person's internal energy is so pure that it far surpasses that of ordinary people at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm.

The force field contained a certain technique that seemed to have borrowed the energy of the entire East China Sea as its own array base—a battle between two people at the initial stage of the Heavenly Human Realm should have been evenly matched, but at this moment the opponent seemed to have amplified his cultivation by an entire level.

Pang Ban slowly closed his five fingers.

The force field compressed, and the demon celestial being's body was compressed from three zhang to less than one zhang. Its carapace cracked into fragments, then turned into powder, and finally its entire body turned into a dark purple dust. But the dust did not dissipate; it was swept away by Pang Ban's palm and sent flying backwards, crashing into the black mist deep in the passage.

The body may not be destroyed, but the spirit has already perished.

The expression on the face of the demon with the deep purple armor behind him changed completely.

Without further hesitation, he turned and sped towards the depths of the passage, moving with lightning speed, as if he were using all his cultivation to escape.

Just as he was about to crash into the black mist, Pang Ban's voice drifted from behind him:

"Go back and tell your Black Stone General that the Eastern Continent has a master. I suppose you should send a letter of credence first."

The figure in the deep purple armor disappeared into the depths of the passage. The black mist surged violently for a few breaths before gradually calming down.

The dark purple dust that Pang Ban had swept back followed closely behind and disappeared into the mist—the demon celestial being who had been reduced to his original form was now just a remnant soul wrapped in the fragments of his carapace as he fled back.

Pang Ban withdrew his hand, stood with his hands behind his back on the sea, and stared at the dark gray passage and the churning black mist for a moment in silence.

On Ten Thousand Snake Island, Tie Zhongtang took a deep breath: "Two people at the initial stage of the Celestial Realm... The Ghost Emperor only used two moves, one of which forced them back to their original form, and the other was directly frightened away."

The Underworld has been operating in the East Sea for many years, and the world only knows of the Three Kings. Only today do we learn that above the Three Kings is the Ghost Emperor. And what is above the Ghost Emperor?

Unfathomable.

Pang Ban turned and walked back to Wanshe Island, each step he took causing the ice to freeze faster than when he came. The ice left a straight white path behind him, like a silent declaration.

Upon reaching the shore, Song Que approached, his sword intent still lingering but his expression grave: "Ghost Emperor, that passage..."

"The passage leads to another continent, Tianxuan."

Pang Ban said, "The ancient war shattered this continent into several pieces, and what lies beneath the East Sea is the connection to the Southern Frontier. It has been sealed for millions of years, and the Penglai Stone Gate is just the keyhole; what has truly been opened is the entire passage."

He looked up at the dark gray passageway, his gaze distant.

"The demons call that place 'Southern Frontier,' and they have been operating there for a long time."

The two who came today are just scouts—there's a Black Stone General and the so-called "Black Tide Army" following behind.