"Immortal Friend Star Constellation, are the rumors in the Treasure Yellow Heaven true?" Juyang Immortal Venerable clashed with Phantom Demon Venerable even as he reached out to Star Constellation Immortal Venerable to demand an answer.
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was evasive: "This is Fang Yuan's scheme, meant to sway your resolve, Immortal Friend Juyang."
Juyang Immortal Venerable dodged Phantom Demon Venerable's counterattack and pressed on: "Right now Fang Yuan is plundering Central Continent. Why don't you go stop him, Immortal Friend Star Constellation? If you're willing to abandon Central Continent's resources, then come deal with Phantom Demon Venerable alongside me! Wasn't eliminating him your idea to begin with?"
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable deflected: "Do your best for now, Immortal Friend Juyang. Once I've tended to my injuries, I'll come to lend you a hand."
Juyang Immortal Venerable could only sigh: "What a Star Constellation Immortal Venerable! What a scheme, what a scheme."
As a Venerable, the moment he learned that Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had captured Qi Sea Ancestor and then retreated into the Heavenly Court without setting foot outside — even going so far as to willingly abandon Central Continent's resources and recall all the Gu Immortals of Central Continent's ten great ancient sects into the Heavenly Court — he had already guessed the truth.
What else could make the great Heavenly Court, the great Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, willingly make such sacrifices?
Only the resurrection of a Venerable!
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable fell silent and responded no further.
Juyang Immortal Venerable had no choice but to pull back. He stopped deliberately engaging Phantom Demon Venerable and instead sent a voice transmission to Fang Yuan: "Immortal Friend Fang Yuan, I couldn't lure Star Constellation Immortal Venerable out. Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable's resurrection is likely a foregone conclusion. Sigh — now that I think about it, there were early signs everywhere."
"Remember the struggle at the Madness Demon Hollow? There was a moment when Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and I teamed up to suppress you, yet she faltered for the first time and we lost a critical opportunity. That was when you used Qi Sea Ancestor to block the blow, making Star Constellation Immortal Venerable deliberately hold back."
Fang Yuan let out a cold snort and replied: "Star Constellation Immortal Venerable truly deserves her reputation as the foremost person across all of history! It's only natural that my wisdom Dao cannot compare to hers! But what's the use of talking about this now? Our only option is for you and me to join forces and storm the Heavenly Court. That's our only sliver of hope!"
Juyang Immortal Venerable ceased all offense, focusing solely on evading Phantom Demon Venerable and widening the distance between them as he sank into deep thought.
His brows furrowed as his mind raced.
Looking back now, the battle over the Heavenly Dao Dream had made him the greatest loser.
Fang Yuan had obtained the Heavenly Dao Dream but lost the Qi Sea Ancestor clone — though he had since plundered a great deal of Central Continent's resources.
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had sacrificed Central Continent's resources, but she had captured the Qi Sea Ancestor clone. If Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable were to resurrect because of it, then she would be the greatest winner of this entire conflict. Even if every living being in Central Continent were slaughtered by Fang Yuan, she would still come out ahead!
An additional Venerable would represent a qualitative transformation of the entire situation. No matter how many resources and lives Central Continent lost, that was merely a quantitative change.
These two things were fundamentally different concepts.
Even a fool knew how to choose.
Once the Heavenly Court's two Venerables joined forces, they could easily crush Fang Yuan, Juyang Immortal Venerable, or Phantom Demon Venerable — any one of them.
If Fang Yuan, Juyang, or Phantom wanted to refine Natural Dao Marks, it would essentially become impossible. Once the Heavenly Court dispatched both Venerables to strike, anyone would be forced to retreat, let alone carry out something continuous like refining Dao Marks.
Conversely, the Heavenly Court need only send one Venerable to harass while the other refined Dao Marks at leisure.
Over time, the Heavenly Court's advantage would only grow. Once they had refined the Natural Dao Marks across the Five Regions, there would be virtually no room left for other Venerables to operate.
Of course, in such a scenario, Juyang, Fang Yuan, and Phantom would certainly join forces.
But could their alliance compare to the Heavenly Court's Venerables fighting together?
Phantom Demon Venerable was of unsound mind and relied primarily on Juyang Immortal Venerable and Fang Yuan working in concert.
But Juyang Immortal Venerable himself had little confidence in this.
It clearly wouldn't work!
Whether in terms of coordination and synergy or fundamental differences in ideology, all these gaps would be magnified in a life-or-death battle.
And on top of that, there was the Heavenly Court's third-generation Immortal King, Yuan Lian Immortal Venerable!
If two Venerables were resurrected, the difficulty of resurrecting a third — Yuan Lian Immortal Venerable — would plummet.
"That means the Heavenly Court has reached the most critical turning point." Juyang Immortal Venerable recognized this fact with absolute clarity.
It was just like when Fang Yuan had been refining Gu and faced the backlash of Venerable luck. Once you weathered the storm, a qualitative transformation awaited — and after gaining the upper hand, everything became far easier than before.
The reason the Venerables had reached a stalemate was that they were either newly resurrected or had just ascended to Venerable, all starting from roughly the same line — or rather, the differences between them were minimal.
But if another Venerable of the Heavenly Court were resurrected, it would shatter the very foundation of that stalemate. Even if Juyang and Fang Yuan joined forces, they would not match the Heavenly Court.
"If I can't stop Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, then this may well be the moment the Heavenly Court rises to dominate the world once more and defeats all other Venerables."
Based on this understanding, the moment Qi Sea Ancestor had been taken to the Heavenly Court, Juyang Immortal Venerable's stance had already flipped.
He proactively reached out to Fang Yuan, devised a scheme, and feigned that he was still battling Phantom Demon Venerable.
"Unfortunately, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable sees through people's hearts. I simply cannot lure her out!"
If Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had been in Central Continent, Juyang would still have had hope. After all, the geographical advantage she gained from Central Continent would be nothing like the advantage she had inside the Heavenly Court.
But now Star Constellation Immortal Venerable stubbornly refused to budge, leaving Juyang Immortal Venerable with absolutely no way to make his move.
A master strategist achieves no dazzling feats!