At that moment, the floating warship of the Ling Clan Lord had not only come to a halt, but had also been concealed using hidden techniques.
The Ling Clan Lord stood at the very front of the deck, cradling a delicate white jade box in his hands.
Inside the white jade box lay a leaf condensed from barrier force.
The Ling Clan Lord gazed at this leaf, his expression conflicted.
Earlier, out of curiosity, he had used his techniques to observe in the direction of Jie Tianran.
But what he discovered was that Jie Tianran had actually deployed a concealment formation, shrouding that stretch of starry sky from view.
This barrier leaf was a treasure of the Ling Clan lineage, possessing extremely powerful observational capabilities that could pierce through concealment formations.
He desperately wanted to see what Jie Tianran was doing with those two Saint-level Elders.
Because somewhere in the back of his mind, he sensed that something was off.
But the more crucial the moment, the more conflicted he became.
The fact that Jie Tianran had used concealment clearly meant that whatever he was planning, he did not want outsiders to see.
If he continued observing, it would amount to prying into the man's private affairs.
If it were anyone else, that might have been tolerable.
But this was Jie Tianran — that made it even more inappropriate to spy on him.
Yet just then, words that Ling Sheng'er, Ling Mo'er, and Shuang Yu had spoken to him before began echoing in his ears.
Jie Tianran's actions had indeed set off alarm bells in his mind.
"Damn it, to hell with all this agonizing."
"I swear loyalty to the Seven Realms Holy Mansion, not to Jie Tianran."
With that thought, the Ling Clan Lord hesitated no longer. He picked up the leaf and gently wiped it across both of his eyes.
The barrier force of the leaf faded considerably.
And at the same time, when the Ling Clan Lord opened his eyes once more, he could not only span the vast stretch of starry sky.
He could precisely lock onto Jie Tianran's exact location.
Even the starry sky that had been impossible to see through before had now become crystal clear, every detail laid bare before his eyes.
Sure enough, Jie Tianran's figure stood right before the ten-million-strong army led by the two Saint-level Elders.
The moment they spotted Jie Tianran, the Seven Realms Holy Mansion's army of ten million immediately halted their advance and, in perfect unison, bowed deeply to Jie Tianran.
"We greet the Mansion Master!"
Even Jie Qinghe and Jie Zhenfu, the two Saint-level Elders, hastily flew out from within the palace and rushed to Jie Tianran's side.
"If it weren't for the two of you extracting power too slowly, allowing the unextracted strength from the Divine Era to provide Chu Feng the power to activate the Heavenly River Formation, that grand formation would never have been triggered so smoothly."
"Do you understand your guilt?" Jie Tianran asked coldly.
"Mansion Master, it was our incompetence. Our extraction speed was far too slow."
Upon hearing this, Jie Qinghe and Jie Zhenfu — the two Saint-level Elders — immediately dropped to their knees before Jie Tianran, admitting their fault.
If they had not previously understood why Jie Tianran had specifically sought them out, they understood now: he had come to hold them accountable.
Any formation required energy to activate.
The power from the Divine Era was indeed the fuel that drove the Heavenly River Formation — but only the unextracted portion. Once extracted, it could no longer serve as the formation's catalyst.
And yet, their abilities had been limited. They had managed to extract only half of the power.
Though it had not been intentional, that remaining unextracted energy had, in truth, aided Chu Feng in activating the Heavenly River Formation.
"Jie Qinghe. Jie Zhenfu."
"In order to help the two of you elevate your cultivation, I not only exhausted vast quantities of Primordial Divine Water."
"I further expended the power I myself had obtained from the Divine Era."
"Had I not merged that power into the Primordial Divine Water to forcibly boost your cultivation."
"I could have seized the upper hand long ago."
"I would not be so disadvantaged in matters concerning the Divine Era, nor would I be suppressed by that Chu Feng."
"And yet you failed to help me. Worse still, you failed to help the Seven Realms Holy Mansion."
"You two... have disappointed me beyond measure."
Jie Tianran let out a bitter sigh, the look on his face one of bitter frustration at those who simply could not measure up.