As the innate supreme spiritual root once gifted to her by the Dao Ancestor, the Queen Mother had left a spiritual mark on the peach tree.
The moment someone tampered with the tree, she sensed it immediately.
In an instant,
The Queen Mother moved. Her figure vanished from the Jade Pool without a trace.
Meanwhile, inside the Peach Garden
Having uprooted the mother of all peach trees, Zhao Feng didn't hesitate for a moment and fled the garden at top speed.
He exited through the main gate, and in the blink of an eye, not even the heavenly soldiers stationed outside noticed he had left.
Just as Zhao Feng disappeared
The Queen Mother appeared at the entrance of the Peach Garden.
The heavenly soldiers were stunned, then immediately dropped to their knees:
"Greetings to Her Majesty, the Queen Mother!"
She cast a cold glance around and strode straight into the Peach Garden.
When she saw the scene inside, her face turned incredibly grim.
"Who dares such audacity?"
"Come out now, if you dare!" she bellowed.
A terrifying pressure burst forth from her body, sweeping across the entire Peach Garden like a storm.
As the Queen of the Heavenly Court and the ruler of all celestial maidens, her status was second only to one.
Having reached such a lofty position, she was usually calm and composed but the sight before her left no room for composure.
Her Peach Garden had been turned into a complete ruin.
Ten thousand peach trees, including the original mother tree, had all been uprooted.
"Power of Time…"
The Queen Mother's eyes narrowed.
With a wave of her hand, a ripple of law power appeared forming a mirror image of the past.
Inside the projection, Zhao Feng disguised as Li Jing appeared, killing two celestial generals and then proceeding to uproot the entire Peach Garden.
The Queen Mother stared at the figure in the image.
A powerful wave of divine sense radiated from her.
"You dare steal this palace's Peach Trees…"
"No matter who you are, you will die," she said coldly.
Clearly
She had immediately seen through the illusion. The intruder was not the real Li Jing. But since she hadn't witnessed the true form directly, she couldn't yet identify Zhao Feng's true identity.
Then
She spread her divine sense wide.
Enveloping the entire Peach Garden, she searched for even a trace of Zhao Feng's aura.
"Not a single shred of aura left behind?"
"How is that possible?"
"Even a Quasi-Saint couldn't pull this off without leaving a trace!" she muttered, frowning deeply.
At that moment
Her divine sense surged outward, sweeping across more than half of the Heavenly Court.
Inside the Lingxiao Hall
Sensing the Queen Mother's divine sense, tinged with fury, Haotian's expression shifted slightly.
Immediately, he sought out her location and instantly crossed the void arriving outside the Peach Garden.
As he arrived
The Queen Mother walked out with a frosty expression.
"Yaoyue, what happened?" Haotian asked, surprised.
"See for yourself," she replied coldly.
With a confused frown, Haotian stepped into the Peach Garden. But the moment he saw the devastated scene, his face turned dark as iron.
"Outrageous!"
"Who did this!?"
he roared at the heavenly soldiers guarding the gate.
A wave of terrifying pressure exploded from him.
"Your Majesty, please have mercy!"
All the heavenly soldiers dropped to their knees, trembling in fear.
Under Haotian's might, they seemed on the brink of annihilation.
"Your Majesty…"
"It… it was the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, Li Jing, who came with your decree to inspect the Peach Garden…"
"After that… we don't know what happened." a Golden Immortal General stammered.
"Li Jing? With my decree?" Haotian frowned.
"It was someone disguised as Li Jing using transformation magic," the Queen Mother said solemnly.
"Their methods are extremely advanced. They left no trace behind."
"Absurd!" Haotian cursed.
He knew all too well how important the Peach Trees were and how vital the Peach Garden was to the Heavenly Court.
"This person snuck into the Heavenly Court using transformation magic."
"Their cultivation is no less than Quasi-Saint."
"We must seal the Four Gates of Heaven immediately," the Queen Mother urged.
"Agreed."
Haotian nodded and raised his hand, drafting an imperial decree on the spot:
"By decree of the Heavenly Emperor, there is an intruder in the Heavenly Court. All Four Heavenly Gates are to be sealed immediately. No one may enter or exit. Any violator shall have their divine soul destroyed and their immortal root severed."
After issuing the decree
Haotian turned to the Queen Mother again.
"Is there any chance the Peach Garden can be restored?" he asked.
The Peach Garden was far too important to the Heavenly Court.
"If it were just ordinary innate-grade peach trees, I still have some preserved peach pits from before. They can be replanted…"
"But without the return of the true mother root, the quality of the peaches will be severely diminished," she said gravely.
"Then we must find this person," Haotian said coldly.
"Either this person has been hiding in the Heavenly Court for a long time…"
"Or they've found a way to evade the Demon-Revealing Mirror," the Queen Mother said.
"The Demon-Revealing Mirror can shatter all illusions even Quasi-Saints cannot hide from it."
"This person must have been lying low in the Heavenly Court for ages."
"Otherwise, there's no way they could've escaped detection," Haotian said icily.
With that
Haotian fully unleashed his divine sense.
It spread instantly across the entire Heavenly Court.
Under the sweep of his consciousness,
nothing could remain hidden.
With his power, not just the Heavenly Court, but the entire celestial realm could not escape his scrutiny.
Inside the palace allocated by the Pill Hall
"Good stuff."
"This peach tree does have the Celestial Court's restriction spells. They came pretty fast."
"But I didn't leave a single trace of aura in the Peach Orchard you won't find me." Zhao Feng smiled with deep satisfaction.
The moment he left the orchard, Zhao Feng immediately returned to the Pill Hall.
It was almost instantaneous.
Even when Haotian's divine sense swept across the area, it didn't linger on Zhao Feng at all.
With so many beings in the Celestial Court, and Zhao Feng carrying the aura of the Pill Hall, he naturally didn't raise suspicion.
"But still…"
"Haotian's divine sense is ridiculously powerful he's probably at the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm."
"Right now, I'm nothing more than an ant before him. I need to proceed with caution."
"Looks like…"
"I need a way out."
"I'll keep an avatar in the Celestial Court. That avatar can stay linked to me and my small world. Even if it gets discovered, it won't matter."
"As for my true body… I'll just return to the Earthly Immortal Realm."
After sensing the strength of both Haotian and the Queen Mother of the West, Zhao Feng understood clearly: even if he went all out, he wouldn't be their match.
After all, they were truly seasoned Quasi-Saints the strongest beneath the Saint level.
With that realization, Zhao Feng made up his mind.
"One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones."
Zhao Feng activated a divine technique.
Three avatars instantly appeared before him.
The Daoist of Time.
The Daoist of Space.
The Daoist of Thunder.
This time again, Zhao Feng used his comprehension of the laws of the universe to manifest the avatars through "One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones."
"The Pill Hall, the Tool Hall, and the Celestial Court's armory…"
"Gotta sweep them all clean."
"Maybe even give the Doushuai Palace a visit."
"If the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord (Taishang Laojun) isn't there, that's ideal. His pills are truly the best in the entire prehistoric world," Zhao Feng thought to himself.
At that moment
Because of Zhao Feng's actions in the Peach Orchard, the entire Celestial Court entered high alert.
All four Heavenly Gates were sealed.
No one was allowed out entry only.
This left many gods and immortals within the Celestial Court confused and unsettled.
But
Zhao Feng had no intention of stopping.
His three avatars manifested through One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones shot out from the palace.
Each one took the form of an elderly man.
One flew straight toward the Pill Hall.
One toward the Tool Hall.
And one headed to the Celestial Treasury.
Normally, it would've been extremely difficult to figure out the locations of these halls, but thanks to the map jade slip from the Pill Hall, Zhao Feng navigated with ease.
At the Pill Hall
The heavenly soldiers stationed outside saw Zhao Feng arrive.
"Elder Yuanyangzi, weren't you supposed to have ten days off? Why are you back already?" one heavenly general asked with a smile.
A fifth-tier alchemist, capable of refining celestial-grade pills, held high status in the Celestial Court.
"Hehe."
The Thunder Daoist Zhao Feng's avatar chuckled softly.
Then raised his hand.
In an instant, lightning surged into his palm.
The heavenly soldiers stared, confused.
The next moment
Zhao Feng struck with a palm.
Lightning burst forth violently.
It shot toward the hundreds of heavenly soldiers outside the hall.
In an instant
All of them were annihilated.
No one could've predicted Zhao Feng would strike.
This was the heart of the Celestial Court who would dare commit slaughter here?
At the same moment, Zhao Feng's avatar attacked
The Great Golden Immortal stationed inside the Pill Hall, along with a Quasi-Saint, instantly reacted and sent their divine sense sweeping over.
But Zhao Feng didn't hesitate.
"Thunder!"
He raised both hands high.
Vast thunder energy gathered manifesting the laws of nature.
No hesitation.
He summoned divine thunder, forming a ten-thousand-foot-long lightning dragon.
The entire Celestial Court trembled with the surge of lightning.
At that moment
Every immortal in the Celestial Court turned their gaze toward the Pill Hall in shock and confusion.
BOOM!
The lightning dragon dove straight into the Pill Hall.
In an instant, the terrifying thunder force exploded outward from the hall, spreading in all directions.
Wherever the thunder passed
Even the structures of the Celestial Court were instantly reduced to ruins.
The thousands of alchemists inside the Pill Hall were obliterated by the thunder strike before they could even react.
In the blink of an eye
Dozens of palaces surrounding the Pill Hall were razed to the ground. Countless alchemists and immortals perished in an instant.
"Killed an Immortal gained +1 to all attributes."
"Killed an Earth Immortal gained +5 to all attributes."
"Killed a Celestial Immortal gained +10 to all attributes."
"Killed an Immortal gained +1 to all attributes…"
At that moment
The notifications flickered endlessly before Zhao Feng's eyes.
If the avatar did the killing, it was as if Zhao Feng had done it himself.
As the thunderous power slowly dissipated
Dozens of figures burst forth from the rubble.
None were below the realm of Grand Luo Golden Immortal, and one of them was even a Quasi-Saint.
At the same time
Inside the Lingxiao Hall, Haotian's expression changed. He took a step forward, instantly vanishing from sight.
The many celestial gods in the great hall also looked alarmed.
"Something's happened!"
"Hurry…"
None of the Celestial Court's deities dared to delay. They all followed Haotian's trail.
In the blink of an eye
Zhao Feng was surrounded by the strongest of the Celestial Court.
"Demon! How dare you act recklessly in our Celestial Court!"
"You seek death!"
All eyes burned with fury as they stared at Zhao Feng, killing intent surging like a tidal wave.
Dozens of deadly auras locked onto him at once.
Just then
Haotian arrived, stepping across the void.
The surrounding immortals instantly stepped aside and bowed respectfully.
"Your Majesty!"
"This person attacked without cause and slaughtered countless alchemists from our Pill Hall!"
"Please deliver justice, Heavenly Emperor!"
Fearing blame, the many immortals all rushed to report to Haotian.
But Haotian locked his gaze onto Zhao Feng. The moment he saw him, he instantly sensed something familiar in his aura.
"You again, demon…"
Murderous intent flared in Haotian's eyes.
Zhao Feng's avatar also looked straight at Haotian.
This was the first time Zhao Feng had truly seen Haotian with his own eyes despite being hunted by the Celestial Court for so long.
The legendary Heavenly Emperor of the Celestial Court ruler of heaven and earth, supreme above all.
Wearing golden imperial robes, his entire being radiated a divine pressure, as if he embodied the will of the heavens themselves.
Seeing that Haotian had already identified him, Zhao Feng's avatar simply dispelled his disguise and revealed his true form.
"The Heavenly Emperor, huh?"
"I told you long ago…"
"One day, I'd come knocking on your Celestial Court's gates."
"And today… I've done just that."
Zhao Feng sneered.
"Such arrogance!"
Haotian's eyes burned with fury. His immense aura locked tightly onto Zhao Feng, and the surrounding space was instantly sealed.
Clearly
Zhao Feng's avatar had no chance of escaping now.
"Today…"
"You're not getting away."
"I shall seize your soul and banish you to the deepest pits of hell!"
Haotian said coldly.
As he raised his palm
He pressed it toward Zhao Feng.
This strike was vast and boundless, containing the supreme might of the heavens.
It felt as though all of creation would crumble under its force.
Even facing it as just an avatar, Zhao Feng felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness like an ant before a storm.
"No wonder he's the Heavenly Emperor truly powerful."
"I'm no match for him."
"Of course…"
"As the Dao Ancestor's former attendant, and ruler of the Celestial Court for so many years, if he wasn't this strong, he wouldn't have lasted this long."
Seeing Haotian make his move, Zhao Feng was shocked deep down.
And also relieved that it was only an avatar facing him.
If it had been his true body, he would've had no chance to escape.
At the Quasi-Saint level, space and time could be sealed entirely.
There was no escape.
"Hahaha!"
"Haotian!"
"Do you think I am just me?" Zhao Feng's avatar burst into laughter.
The next moment
He didn't fight back.
Instead, he channeled all of his remaining power unleashing all his thunder energy.
Self-destruction!
BOOM!
A terrifying blast of power erupted from Zhao Feng's avatar. So powerful that even peak-level Grand Luo Golden Immortals would be killed on contact.
But
Haotian's palm pressed down.
The explosion was completely contained within his hand. With a slight squeeze, it was snuffed out into nothingness.
"…Something's wrong."
"No soul it's just an avatar!"
Haotian's expression changed.
At that moment
BOOM!
A powerful spatial disturbance erupted from the direction of the Tool Hall.
Just like the Pill Hall
That surge of energy devoured the entire Tool Hall.
Countless Celestial Court artificers and blacksmiths were torn apart by the rampaging spatial forces.
"Damn it!"
Haotian cursed.
He took a step and vanished toward the Tool Hall.
What met his eyes
Zhao Feng's figure hovered in the air.
Below, the Tool Hall and dozens of surrounding palaces had been reduced to rubble. Corpses and lost souls filled the scene.
"You deserve death!"
Haotian launched another strike.
"Haotian…"
"You'll never kill me."
Zhao Feng's Space Dao avatar laughed wildly.
And self-destructed once again.
-support me on Patreon for more chapters, 375+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LordoftheReader