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Every ten years, an Immortal of the Immortal Cloud Pavilion descended upon Maplefall Town to collect the required amount of spirit crystals from the major clans as tax.

This had long been an accepted rule among the three great families and the City Lord’s Manor. No matter how powerful the three families were, they could only throw their weight around within Maplefall Town. Should they ever offend the Immortal Cloud Pavilion, replacing them with three new families would hardly be a difficult task.

However, beginning several decades ago, the amount of tax demanded by the Immortal Cloud Pavilion had steadily increased.

At first, each family only needed to pay five thousand spirit crystals. Now, the amount had risen to fifty thousand, a full tenfold increase. Even for the deeply established three great families, fifty thousand spirit crystals was equivalent to carving flesh from their own bodies. How could Gavin not complain?

“It’s not as if we wanted to collect this much.” Daoist Kumu shot him a sidelong glance and said impatiently, “The Immortal Cloud Pavilion hasn’t kept a single spirit crystal. Every one of them has been used to reinforce the great formation beneath your feet. Do you think I enjoy playing the villain? It’s just that the formation has become somewhat unstable over the years, so naturally it requires more spirit crystals to maintain.”

“Is that formation really so important?” Gavin still felt dissatisfied, but he did not dare voice it openly. He could only mutter under his breath, “A thousand years is a long time. Maybe that Demon Emperor’s already dead.”

“Nonsense!” Daoist Kumu’s six senses were exceptionally keen, and Gavin’s muttering naturally did not escape his ears. He immediately slammed the table and thundered in fury, “You have no idea how terrifying that Demon Emperor is! A thousand years ago, if the Immortal Cloud Pavilion’s ancestor hadn’t successfully taken that final step, the entire human race might have been enslaved by her.

“A cultivation at the peak of Saint Realm isn’t something that can simply be erased by a mere thousand years. Do you believe that if she escaped right now, all it would take was a single breath from her for every citizen in Maplefall Town to become blood nourishment in her maw?

“When that happens, unless the ancestor himself returns, who else in this world could possibly stop her?”

“Please calm your rage, ancestor… Please calm down…” Seeing Daoist Kumu fly into a rage, Gavin’s face instantly turned deathly pale. He dropped to his knees and prostrated himself. “This junior has spoken out of turn. We will gather the fifty thousand spirit crystals as quickly as possible.”

“Mm.” Daoist Kumu was not an ill-tempered man. He understood that fifty thousand spirit crystals was not a sum that a great clan like the Gongsun family could produce overnight.

His tone softened somewhat. “I know you harbor resentment, but you should also remember that a thousand years ago, the three great families were implicated in colluding with the Demon Race. That was why you were exiled here to guard the great formation. This is the responsibility and price you were always meant to bear. If you faithfully protect the formation, perhaps one day you may even return to the Immortal Cloud Pavilion.”

“This junior… has been enlightened.” Gavin forced a bitter smile and bowed respectfully. Of course he knew all of that. It was just that after living as a wealthy local tyrant for so long, hearing someone demand a slice of his wealth naturally felt like a knife cutting into his heart.

“This junior has already prepared a room for ancestor. You’ve traveled a long way. Why not rest for a while first?”

“Mm, I am indeed a little tired.” Daoist Kumu nodded. The repairs to the great formation only needed to be completed before the Three Moons Festival, so there was no need for him to rush.

However, just as he rose from his chair, it was as though he sensed something. His expression changed dramatically.

“Ancestor? Has something happened?” Noticing Daoist Kumu’s sudden change in expression, Gavin asked cautiously.

Daoist Kumu paid him no attention. Instead, he silently formed hand seals, closed his eyes, and began calculating the heavenly secrets.

“How could this be?” A moment later, Daoist Kumu’s eyes snapped open, filled with shock. “The calamity of Maplefall Town… has arrived ahead of schedule?”

The reason the Immortal Cloud Pavilion had dispatched him, the Seventh Elder, to Maplefall Town in person was because the Pavilion Master had foreseen that a great calamity would descend upon Maplefall Town during the Three Moons Festival.

As for how that calamity would unfold, even they did not know. However, there was a possibility that it would be connected to the one sealed beneath Maplefall Town. To prepare for the worst, the Pavilion Master had also instructed Daoist Kumu to bring those two items with him.

Daoist Kumu had deliberately arrived in Maplefall Town ahead of schedule so he could make preparations and establish more comprehensive countermeasures. Yet he had never imagined that the great calamity would come early.

“Could it be… that some unexpected variable has appeared in Maplefall Town, forcing the mastermind behind this calamity to act ahead of schedule?” Daoist Kumu’s thoughts raced, and he quickly arrived at that conclusion. “I wonder whether this is a blessing… or a curse.”

Daoist Kumu let out a soft sigh. In the next instant, his figure blurred and vanished. When he reappeared, he was already standing high above the skies of Maplefall Town.

The entirety of Maplefall Town lay beneath his gaze, every corner visible at a glance. When his eyes fell upon the City Lord’s Manor, now engulfed in billowing smoke, his brows rose slightly. He had not expected that even the City Lord’s Manor had met with disaster.

Still, Daoist Kumu merely sighed inwardly before his gaze swept past it. Although calamity had indeed struck there, it was not the true source of this disaster. The origin of the calamity lay… in the southern district!

Daoist Kumu looked toward the south of the city. Even amidst the pitch-black night, the pillar of blood-red light soaring into the heavens was unmistakable.

“That is…” His eyes swept across what had once been the Wang family’s estate, and his expression immediately darkened into something terrifying. “A blood sacrifice? And the Blood Demon Clan’s human-demon conversion technique?

“But wasn’t the Blood Demon Clan exterminated five hundred years ago? Why have they appeared in Maplefall Town again?” Daoist Kumu’s heart gradually sank as an extremely ominous possibility crossed his mind.

Without another moment’s hesitation, his figure blurred into an afterimage and shot toward the southern district.

As Gavin hurried after him, Daoist Kumu’s voice suddenly echoed beside his ears. “Something has happened in the south. Dispatch reinforcements there immediately, and embed these Stabilizing Stones into every core node of the great formation.”

Gavin lowered his head and discovered that, at some point, a pile of stones had appeared before him.

They were the very same stones Lilith had dismissed with disdain back at the ruined temple. In truth, however, they were exceedingly precious array materials, used to repair the great formation beneath their feet that had gradually deteriorated under the Demon Emperor’s relentless assaults.

The fact that Daoist Kumu had entrusted such an important task to Gavin meant that, in his estimation, the situation in the southern district had become so severe that he might not be able to spare any attention elsewhere.

At the thought of this, a satisfied smile spread across Gavin’s face as he bent down to gather the Stabilizing Stones.

***

Outside the Wang family’s estate. Landon, who had been directing the blood sacrifice, suddenly frowned and looked toward the northern sky.

Beside him, a sheet of rice paper suddenly floated into the air. The woman painted upon it stepped out of the paper of her own accord, her form solidifying into that of a living person.

She bore the exact appearance of Landon’s former wife and the mother whom Liana had yearned for all these years. Yet she was not Liana’s true mother. She was merely a painting.

The woman in the painting also raised her head toward the sky. The moment she sensed that terrifying aura, her tone toward Landon immediately turned hostile. “Landon, didn’t you say that little girl was the Immortal from the Immortal Cloud Pavilion? She’s already been dealt with, so why has another Saint Realm expert appeared in Maplefall Town?”