Chapter 1730: One Thousand Years

The Asura Saint Son's threat involving the Heaven's Mystery Pavilion sounded an alarm for Jiang Fan.

This time, Immortal Yunshang reacted promptly, leading the disciples of Heaven's Mystery Pavilion to evacuate in time, preventing the Asura Saint Son from succeeding.

What about the next time they encounter other powerful enemies?

They can't possibly evacuate the entire sect every single time, can they?

Inviting a Sage to guard the Heaven's Mystery Pavilion would eliminate almost all such troubles.

Therefore, restoring Sage Tianluo's true consciousness was imperative.

Jiang Fan leaped off the continent and appeared before Sage Tianluo. After a moment of thought, he took out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled several lines on it.

Grand Libationer's gaze swept over it, and his mouth twitched.

It read:

"I, Sage Tianluo, earnestly request Venerable Xinghuo to heal my consciousness. From the day of my recovery, I willingly pledge to guard the Heaven's Mystery Pavilion for one thousand years."

"Witnessed by Grand Libationer and Sage Tiangong."

"Should I violate this oath, I invite all Sages under heaven to jointly attack me."

"Established by Sage Tianluo."

After writing, Jiang Fan took Sage Tianluo's finger and pressed his handprint onto the contract.

He blew on the ink, then tucked the contract, satisfied, into the Celestial Thunder Stone.

How could he let Sage Tianluo serve for free? Once Sage Tianluo awoke, he would present this contract and make him uphold the agreement!

Grand Libationer huffed, "One thousand years? You really dared to write that! How could he agree?"

Jiang Fan smiled faintly and replied, "I set the bar high to allow for negotiation."

"Even if it's negotiated down to one month, our Heaven's Mystery Pavilion still profits."

As Grand Libationer looked on speechless, Jiang Fan took out another pouch and placed Sage Tianluo inside.

Grand Libationer said, "In three days, Sage Tiangong and I will come here to pick you up."

"As for the disciples of Heaven's Mystery Pavilion, Grand Libationer of Hunyuan State has remained in Tianzhou; he will look after them."

Sage Tiangong, meanwhile, handed Jiang Fan a small, pagoda-shaped supreme spiritual artifact that exuded a suppressive force over souls.

"The souls of the ancient giants you asked everyone to help collect are all inside."

Jiang Fan reached out and nearly forgot about these many souls:

"Thank you, Sage Tiangong."

Luzhu glanced at Jiang Fan and Xu Youran. This continent was where their bond began, so she decided not to disturb them.

"Husband, I'll return to Tianzhou first. I will do my best regarding Sister Chen Siling's matter."

Jiang Fan smiled faintly, stepped forward, and took her small hand. When he released it again, a black scripture scroll lay in her palm.

The moment this item appeared, both Grand Libationer and Sage Tiangong were startled.

"A Realm Artifact from the Underworld?"

Although they didn't recognize it, they could sense its rank and aura.

Luzhu paused, then, realizing what it was, dropped it back to Jiang Fan as if she had touched a scorching hot piece of charcoal:

"Why did you put this in my hand?"

This was a Realm Artifact from the Underworld, a supreme existence she wouldn't even dare to imagine possessing.

Jiang Fan chuckled, "It's for you."

Not only was Luzhu astonished, but Grand Libationer and Sage Tiangong were also shocked on the spot.

They didn't even have Realm Artifacts!

Yet Jiang Fan just directly gave one to Luzhu!

Luzhu was stunned, her small mouth trembling as she said, "How can I accept something like this?"

"You're too kind to me."

Jiang Fan said, "Only the Asura clan can activate this Realm Artifact. If not you, then who would I give it to?"

"Take it!"

He put the Book of Life and Death back into Luzhu's hand.

After a brief thought, he took out cleansing spiritual liquid and washed away all traces of the Underworld Lord's aura, lest it cause trouble for Luzhu.

Luzhu held the Book of Life and Death, completely at a loss, afraid to accept it.

It wasn't until Xu Youran walked over, gently took her hand, and said kindly:

"We're all family, don't be so polite."

Xu Youran had long heard from Yunshang about this additional Asura sister, a girl of the Asura clan with a difficult fate, neither liked by her own sister nor beloved by her clan.

Had Jiang Fan not intervened, her fate at this moment would have been truly miserable.

This was somewhat similar to her own initial predicament, so she felt pity for her.

Moreover, she had blocked a fatal blow for Jiang Fan in the Ancient Hunting Ground; how could Xu Youran bear to reject such a girl?

Hearing "family," Luzhu's eyes welled up slightly.

Her greatest fear was that the women around Jiang Fan wouldn't accept her.

Unexpectedly, Xu Youran, as the main consort, generously accepted her without any difficulties.

Now, seeing Jiang Fan give her a Realm Artifact, Xu Youran showed no jealousy and even encouraged her to accept it.

Furthermore, she said Luzhu was family.

This filled her heart with immense warmth, a feeling that the world had suddenly expanded, and her future was bright and promising.

She had come to the Central Lands for a good reason.

Following Jiang Fan was also the right choice!

With tears in her eyes, she smiled and said, "Thank you, Sister, thank you, Husband."

"It's so good to have you both."

Without further hesitation, she accepted the weighty Book of Life and Death and said, "Then I'll wait for you in Tianzhou."

With that, she vanished into the sky with the two Sages.

Jiang Fan cast an apologetic glance at Xu Youran: "I've made things difficult for you."

Xu Youran lightly pinched his arm and chided, "So you do know?"

"Adding three at once, even an emperor choosing concubines isn't as fast as you."

The successive appearances of True Word Venerable, Yue Mingzhu, and Luzhu had caught her somewhat off guard.

Jiang Fan looked embarrassed.

Just then, he suddenly looked up towards the continent's interior, his face showing surprise.

"What's wrong?" Xu Youran asked, releasing his hand.

Jiang Fan said in a deep voice, "I sensed a Manifestation Realm fluctuation."

Wasn't he the only Manifestation Realm cultivator on this continent?

How could another Manifestation Realm cultivator have also set foot on the continent?

Wait!

Jiang Fan suddenly remembered that the last time he was on the continent, he had left a Manifestation Realm talisman for Gong Caiyi for self-defense.

Now that the talisman had been activated, didn't that mean she had encountered an enemy requiring a Manifestation Realm level response?

"No good, something happened to Gong Caiyi!" Jiang Fan didn't have time to explain and instantly teleported away, pulling Xu Youran with him.

A quarter of an hour later.

Jiang Fan arrived at the source of the Manifestation Realm fluctuation, but it wasn't Gong Caiyi's Spirit Beast Sect.

Instead, it was the Demon Clan's Nine Dynasties Ancient Capital.

Jiang Fan had once discovered an injured ancient giant here and nearly died at its hands.

At this moment, outside the Nine Dynasties Ancient Capital, lay a massive hundred-mile-wide lake of lava.

It was the result of a Manifestation Realm attack.

Within the lava lake, faintly visible were some bones of foreign races, clearly larger than humans, with horns on their heads.

They were indeed Asura clan members!

"Where did these Asura clan members come from?" Jiang Fan's expression was grim. His gaze swept over the scene, and he spotted Gong Caiyi.

She and a group of powerful cultivators from the Nine Sects were gathered at the ruins of the Nine Dynasties Ancient Capital, all wounded and disheveled.

Among them, Elder Xu Qingyang of the Myriad Sword Sect lay in the mud, half his body missing, his breath barely a whisper.

Everyone surrounded him, their faces filled with sorrow.

Gong Caiyi also shed silent tears, saying, "I'm sorry, Elder Xu, I came too late."

Xu Qingyang weakly said:

"Senior Gong, you overstate it... This is my fate..."

"I heard the ancient giants were repelled... I had intended to go to Taicang Great State to see if Liang Feiyan was still there... Unfortunately, I won't be able to... I hope he's still alive..."

With that, his eyes slowly closed.

Gong Caiyi's sorrow deepened. She recalled the death of Elder Li Qingfeng of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Li Qingfeng had not fallen in the Boundary Mountain battle but had died at the hands of the Giant Sect.

Now Xu Qingyang met the same fate.

The ancient giant battle had ended, yet he fell just before dawn.

Why was Heaven always so cruel and merciless?

But just then, Gong Caiyi suddenly noticed that the wound on the back of her hand was miraculously healing.