258: I urge all my fellow students to write their wills as soon as possible!

"Respectfully seeing off the Elder."

Xi Yao bent her waist in a respectful arc, not straightening up until Elder Lingyao's suffocating pressure had completely dissipated into the clouds.

The moment she turned around, the cautious expression on her face changed as instantly as a Sichuan Opera face-swap, switching to a sweet smile that felt like a spring breeze.

"Fellow Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters, you must be exhausted from this journey, aren't you?"

Xi Yao's voice was soft and sweet, like honey laced with poison, easily lowering the defenses of this group of frightened newcomers.

"I am Senior Sister Xi Yao, responsible for receiving you. Now that you're here, you can set your hearts at ease. Although our Dengxian Island has strict rules, we treat our own people exceptionally well."

These words, paired with her deceptive and pure face, were incredibly potent.

Several young and hot-blooded male Cultivators in the crowd stared blankly, their originally tense nerves relaxing. Some even had reddened eyes, feeling that this cold world of cultivation finally had a touch of humanity.

Xi Yao was very satisfied with this effect.

She directed her subordinate Law Enforcement Disciples to distribute Identity Plates while flitting through the crowd like a social butterfly.

With a few warm greetings and well-timed glances, she made several inexperienced young men eager to reveal their entire family fortunes to her.

These were all resources.

On Dengxian Island, connections were resources, and newcomers were even more like leeks waiting to be harvested.

"Oh, by the way."

Xi Yao spoke as if in casual conversation, her beautiful eyes roaming over a few Disciples who looked relatively clever.

"I saw the Grand Elder and Elder Xing Tian leaving in a hurry just now, and it seemed they took two people with them? They looked about the same age as you; were they also part of this batch?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the originally warm atmosphere felt as if a bucket of liquid nitrogen had been dumped over it.

It was a drop in temperature in the literal sense.

The smiles on the faces of the male Disciples who had been currying favor with Xi Yao froze instantly.

The admiration and flattery in their eyes vanished, replaced by a shudder that originated from their very marrow.

It was like someone telling a ghost story in the middle of the night, and just as it reached the most terrifying part, the lights suddenly went out.

"This..."

A young Cultivator from the North Sea swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with a loud gulp.

He looked at Xi Yao, then at the clouds above that hadn't fully dispersed, and his legs began to shake uncontrollably.

"Senior Sister Xi Yao... those two you mentioned were indeed part of our batch."

"Oh?"

Xi Yao's eyes lit up.

Since they were in the same batch, they were newcomers.

And since they were newcomers, no matter how high their talent, they wouldn't know the rules yet, making it the best time to manipulate them.

The smile on her face grew even wider, carrying a hint of deeper meaning: "It seems their talent is quite good? To have the Grand Elder personally take them away and name them as Dao Children... our island hasn't been this lively in years. Many Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters in the Inner Court are probably itching to go 'show them some concern'."

She placed heavy emphasis on the word 'concern'.

Those who understood, understood.

This was about giving them a show of force, establishing rules, and squeezing benefits out of the newcomers.

According to the usual script, the newcomers should be agreeing, flattering, or even joining in the mockery to show their loyalty.

But today, the script was wrong.

No one laughed.

No one agreed.

That North Sea Cultivator looked up, staring at Xi Yao with an extremely strange expression.

In that gaze, there was no awe for a Senior Sister, nor any worship for the strong.

There was only pity.

It was like looking at a fool who was jumping around happily, unaware that they were about to fall into a meat grinder.

"Senior Sister... if you mean that you want to find trouble for those two..."

The North Sea Cultivator squeezed the words out from between his teeth, each syllable sounding as if it took all his strength:

"Then I advise all the Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters... to write your suicide notes as early as possible."

"It would be best to order a decent coffin for yourselves too, so that there's at least somewhere to put your remains when the time comes."

Xi Yao's fingers, which were playing with a Jade Slip, suddenly froze.

The smile on her face could no longer be maintained. She raised an eyebrow, her gaze turning cold and disdainful.

"Junior Brother, that kind of joke isn't funny at all."

Xi Yao covered her mouth, letting out a few crisp but cold laughs. "Write suicide notes? What, are they man-eating vengeful spirits? Our Dengxian Island is a place of hidden talents; what kind of Prodigy haven't we seen? Don't tell me you people from small places have never seen the world and have been scared out of your wits?"

Several True Disciples nearby who were eavesdropping couldn't help but burst into laughter as well.

"Exactly! What do you take us for?"

"I think these newcomers were scared stupid by the Ascension Road and haven't snapped out of it yet!"

"They're probably just some slightly lucky ninth level seedlings who caught an Elder's eye. Is there any need to hype them up like this?"

Mocking laughter rose from all sides.

However, the expressions of the newcomers grew increasingly solemn, even tragic.

They looked at these "Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters" who didn't know they were courting death as if they were watching a group of madmen dancing on their own graves.

"Senior Sister, you are wrong."

The North Sea Cultivator from before took a step forward.

He didn't want to cause trouble, but he even less wanted to watch these fools go to their deaths and potentially implicate their entire batch of newcomers.

"They are ninth level. But that is not important."

The Cultivator's voice was very low, yet it carried a scent of blood:

"What matters is... they are both ninth level extreme realm who have broken the shackles of life!"

extreme realm.

These two words were like a heavy hammer slamming into Xi Yao's heart.

The mockery on her face froze.

The surrounding laughter was cut short, as if an invisible giant hand had squeezed their throats.

extreme realm?

That absolute ceiling of every major Realm that only existed in ancient legends?

"Not only that..."

Before these locals could digest this bombshell, a newcomer Disciple nearby with a broken arm and bandages all over his body added another blow while trembling:

"That man... the one taken by the Grand Elder..."

"On the Ascension Road..."

"He used a Dragon Incarnation!"

"A real... Five-Clawed Golden Dragon!!"

Clatter.

A crisp sound rang out.

The identity Jade Slip Xi Yao was about to hand out fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

She was completely unaware of it, her eyes wide as she stared fixedly at the Disciple who had spoken, her lips trembling.

"W-what did you say?"

"A True Dragon?!"

An Inner Court Deacon nearby in charge of recording was so shocked he dropped his brush and screamed, "Bullshit! True Dragons have long been extinct! You're talking nonsense!"

"Nonsense?"

The Disciple with the broken arm gave a tragic laugh and pointed at the sky above.

"We saw it with our own eyes!"

"With a ninth level body, he ignored the Soul pressure and climbed to the one-thousandth step of the Ascension Road in one go!"

"The moment he reached the top, a Purple-Gold Lightning Tribulation split the sky! The heavens cracked for ten thousand miles, and that phenomenon... was ten thousand times more terrifying than the apocalypse!"

"Elder Li said it himself... he is the only True God Seed of the Human Race in this era!"

"And you call that good luck?!"

The wind blew across the White Jade Plaza.

No one spoke.

There was only the sound of heavy, ragged breathing.

If the previous mention of 'extreme realm' was merely shocking, then the 'thousand-step climb' and 'True Dragon descent' had completely crushed the worldviews of all the True Disciples present, grinding them into dust.

One thousand steps?

The strongest True Disciple present had only reached the eight-hundredth step!

That wasn't just a difference in strength.

That was a difference in dimension!

That was the chasm between Mortals and gods!

Xi Yao felt her legs go soft. A chill surged from the soles of her feet straight to her head, making her whole body shake uncontrollably.

Just moments ago, she was plotting how to trip up this new 'Dao Child', how to join forces with other Senior Brothers to give him a show of force, and how to take a bite out of this piece of fat meat.

Now it seemed... what kind of show of force was this?

This was clearly handing one's business card to the King of Hell—it was simply tired of living!

"This is what you meant by... easy to bully?"

Xi Yao's neck turned stiffly as she looked at the True Disciples who had laughed the loudest.

Those people were already pale as death, cold sweat soaking their clothes, each one shaking like a leaf.

"No wonder..."

Xi Yao murmured to herself, her voice carrying a hint of a sob, "No wonder Elder Li would publicly give him 'Killing Immunity'..."

"No wonder he said... for us to wash our necks..."

It turned out that in the eyes of that True Dragon.

They, the usually high-and-mighty True Disciples, were really just a group of... livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

Killing them was just killing them.

No compensation needed, no life for a life.

The news spread like a terrifying plague, centered on the White Jade Plaza and frantically spreading across the entire Dengxian Island.

"Have you heard? The new Dao Child is an extreme realm True Dragon!"

"He climbed a thousand steps?! My god, is he even human?"

"It's over, it's over. I just cursed him a few times. Should I flee the island overnight?"

"Quick! Go check if we've offended any of those newcomers! Go apologize immediately!"

On this day.

The cloud layer above Dengxian Island seemed to press down a bit lower.

All the True Disciples were shivering under the shadow of a single name.

That name was—Lu Sheng.