As the teleportation array activated, Joe Di was enveloped and whisked away by a white radiance. At that very moment, he sensed that something was amiss.
By all logic, traveling from Cauldron Haven to the Quadrant Immortal Continent should not subject him to any spatial compression or tearing. Yet now, not only was he being squeezed by space, but also relentlessly torn apart.
If not for his Divine Physique, he would have suffered severe injuries.
Joe Di had taken the teleportation array from Cauldron Haven to the Aurora Immortal Continent before, and it had never caused such terrifying spatial turbulence.
Bang! Just as Joe Di thought of this, a powerful force flung him to the ground.
Even with his Divine Physique, several of Joe Di's bones fractured from the fall.
Fortunately, his body was exceptionally resilient. In just one circulation of his energy, he fully recovered without even needing any pills.
The place he landed was utterly desolate, devoid of any signs of life, filled only with a bleak and declining atmosphere.
Joe Di's heart sank. He understood why he had been cast out from the spatial passage. The teleportation array base at the Quadrant Immortal Continent had been dismantled, turning his journey from Cauldron Haven from a fixed-point teleportation to a random spatial transfer.
But what worried Joe Di most was not this. What truly concerned him was that this place remained utterly lifeless—ruined, decayed, and bleak everywhere, with not a trace of vitality.
The reason for his concern was simple: Joe Di was certain he had indeed been teleported to the Quadrant Immortal Continent. When he left this continent, he had already discovered the new source of Immortal Realm fate, and had even used the Terraflame Banner and Starwater Banner to suppress the continent's fortune.
Logically, the Quadrant Immortal Continent's fortune should have only grown stronger. After all these years away, even if its luck hadn't permeated every corner, it shouldn't still be in such a state of decline.
Joe Di swiftly summoned the Cloudspire Spear. Modified by Zhong Ao, its formation arrays made it far faster than any top-grade flying immortal artifact, though it couldn't last long.
Once the Cloudspire Spear was activated, it took only half an incense stick's time for Joe Di to find his bearings, and then he pushed its speed to the limit.
After a day, as the Cloudspire Spear was about to split apart, Joe Di finally sensed a faint breath of vitality.
Within his divine sense, the outline of Starhaven City appeared. Joe Di breathed a sigh of relief—Starhaven City still stood. The array formation he had set up seemed to have been attacked, but after placing the Terraflame Banner and Starwater Banner, it had become an eighth-grade immortal array.
Such an immortal array could only be broken by an Immortal Emperor. Otherwise, it was absolutely impregnable.
Another incense stick's time passed, and Joe Di put away the Cloudspire Spear. Looking at the nearby Starhaven Auxiliary City, his eyes burned with fury.
The auxiliary city still had its protective array, but it was no longer the seventh-grade immortal array he had left behind. It had been replaced by a new sixth-grade array.
What gave him some comfort was that Starhaven City's main protective array was still the one he had set up before leaving. As long as no one from Starhaven City betrayed them, anyone wishing to invade would have to break his array. Since it remained intact, Starhaven City was safe—for now.
Wait—Joe Di's divine sense detected that one of the two Five Element Array Banners he'd set was missing. The Starwater Banner had vanished, and even the Terraflame Banner felt faint and disconnected from his senses.
"City Lord..." a trembling voice called out.
Joe Di had already spotted the disheveled Quinn Tong, whose cultivation had only reached the third stage of Golden Immortal—not much progress.
"City Lord Quinn, with me absent from Starhaven City, you should be the one in charge. Why are you wandering out here?" Joe Di frowned slightly. He hadn't swept his divine sense into Starhaven City, worried that if the city had been taken over, his presence would be detected.
Despite being only at the early stage of Immortal King, if Starhaven City had been seized, Joe Di could still defeat even an Immortal Emperor using his mastery of arrays—provided no one knew he had returned.
Quinn Tong, sensing Joe Di's urgency, quickly explained, "City Lord, Starhaven City is safe for now. But there are too few strong cultivators inside, and the external grand array blocks all divine sense from within. I can only keep watch outside, ready to teleport back at any sign of trouble."
Quinn Tong's tone was a bit agitated. Though Joe Di's cultivation wasn't high, his array mastery was extraordinary. Back when he was just a Golden Immortal, he had defeated many Immortal King experts.
Years had passed, and though Quinn Tong couldn't sense Joe Di's current strength, he was certain Joe Di must have surpassed the Immortal King realm by now.
Joe Di sighed. "No need to investigate further—your actions have already been noticed by others. Just tell me about Starhaven City. Who came, and who stole my fortune-suppressing treasures?"
"Ah..." Quinn Tong exclaimed, urgently asking, "City Lord, the treasures suppressing the Immortal Realm's fate have been stolen?"
He was the one who discovered the Tianzhu River, witnessed Joe Di founding Starhaven City, and even helped build it. More than anyone, he longed for Starhaven City to thrive and restore the Immortal Realm's fate. But now, with the treasures suppressing the fate of the Immortal Realm stolen again, it felt as if the heavens were determined to destroy this land...
No wonder he sensed that after the Immortal Realm's fate had gathered to a certain degree, it stopped accumulating and even began to thin out.
Joe Di waved his hand. "Don't worry. I used two array banners to suppress the fate here. One has been stolen, but the other remains. Let's return to the city first."
"Understood." Hearing that one array banner was still safe, Quinn Tong breathed a sigh of relief.
He then began recounting the changes in Starhaven City. In the first few years after its founding, even after Joe Di left, the city prospered. Many cultivators advanced to Golden Immortal, and some even reached the Immortal King realm.
But the good times didn't last. A powerful figure forcibly seized Starhaven Auxiliary City. If not for Loraine Puregate's quick thinking in activating the city's protective array, Starhaven City itself would have been taken.
"How strong is the one who took Starhaven Auxiliary City?" Joe Di asked, suspecting an Immortal Venerable. Otherwise, with several Immortal Kings in the city—especially Lucas Infinity, a late-stage Immortal King—they shouldn't have been so hesitant to fight.
Quinn Tong replied gravely, "The one occupying Starhaven Auxiliary City is only a late-stage Immortal King, but Sect Master Lucas said the one who broke through the auxiliary city's array was an Immortal Emperor—a very powerful one. Strangely, after shattering the array, that Immortal Emperor didn't attack Starhaven City but handed the auxiliary city over to the Immortal King and left."
Joe Di knew all too well—the Immortal Emperor hadn't just left. He'd taken the Starwater Banner with him.
Joe Di had killed Immortal Emperors before; no matter how powerful this one was, anyone who took his Starwater Banner had to die. Yet if the Immortal Emperor took the Starwater Banner, why not take the Terraflame Banner too? It was a mystery. Besides, what other place could be better for secluded cultivation than Starhaven City, the new source of fate in the Immortal Realm? He refused to believe an Immortal Emperor couldn't see its value.
There was definitely something wrong here. But what was the problem?
Quinn Tong continued, "When we learned an Immortal Emperor coveted Starhaven City, we were all in despair. Sect Master Loraine decided to leave Thunderfloat Island to seek you out, City Lord. She said that to restore the Immortal Realm, only you could do it. Sect Master Lucas said Loraine couldn't leave, as Starhaven City needed her leadership, so he went to Thunderfloat Island to find you himself..."
"I understand." After entering Starhaven City through a different array gate with Quinn Tong, Joe Di was surprised that no one in the auxiliary city tried to stop them.
This puzzled Joe Di. He had suspected Quinn Tong's transmissions outside had already been noticed and permitted by others. Now that Quinn Tong had found him and even entered Starhaven City, the enemy ought to have tried to stop them.
"The City Lord has returned!" Ian Shaw rushed out, shouting excitedly as soon as Joe Di entered Starhaven City.
Following him, Sect Master Loraine Puregate, Ben Taylor, Yvonne Liu, Tamor Grand, and others came rushing out as well.
Joe Di was delighted. Although the restoration of the Immortal Realm's fate had been halted, thanks to his arrangements before leaving, Starhaven City was still as solid as iron, with its laws strictly enforced. Even with the influx of new residents over the years, there had been no major trouble.
"City Lord, is Moria Lane well...?" Loraine Puregate immediately asked, her voice trembling. In her eyes, Moria Lane was the only hope left for Puregate Sect.
"Moria Lane is safe. Thank you, Sect Master Loraine, for all your hard work in Starhaven City these years." Joe Di didn't explain Yannette Hui's situation. Starhaven City looked much as it had when he left—perhaps even more refined. Yet Joe Di knew all too well that the city was now teetering on the edge of disaster.
He didn't understand why the Immortal Emperor hadn't come, but regardless, he had to upgrade Starhaven City's trapping-kill array to the ninth-grade immortal array before that Immortal Emperor returned.
Otherwise, no matter how skilled Joe Di was, he would be doomed.
"I need to upgrade the city's trapping-kill immortal array now. Everyone, prepare yourselves—there may be a great battle ahead." Joe Di didn't waste words, getting straight to the point.
While Joe Di was away, Lucas Infinity, Loraine Puregate, and Tamor Grand—three Immortal Kings—held the fort, but Joe Di was the true City Lord, the backbone of the city.
Now that Joe Di had returned, everyone felt much more at ease.
Joe Di was already a Ninth-Grade Immortal Array Grandmaster; the city's protective array was his own handiwork. In just two days, he upgraded all the defensive and trapping-kill arrays in Starhaven City to ninth-grade immortal arrays.
After finishing, he made his way to the Tianzhu River array core. He suspected the reason the Immortal Emperor hadn't made a move was closely tied to the location of the array core that suppressed the fate of the Immortal Realm.
(That's all for today's update. Good night, friends!)