Another two months passed. After Joe Di stabilized his cultivation, he began forging blade weapons. Now that he had stepped into the third layer of the Cauldron Lord Stage, with his Spiritual Sense firmly at the tenth level, he could fully deploy a Ninth-Rank Skyveil Blade Array composed entirely of top-grade spiritual blades.
After several months of continuous forging, Joe Di finally gathered 6,642 top-grade blades. Only then did he use a Ninth-Rank Guardian Array and a concealment array to protect Martin Kee's tomb before leaving Pillfall Mountain. He estimated that Little Central Star would soon open, and Miles Phantom should be waiting there with Di Di.
……
The road to Little Central Star was a wide official path, seven or eight zhang across, with no end in sight on either side. The ground was long since covered in yellow leaves.
In this late autumn season, the yellow leaves carpeting the main road seemed to tint even the sky a shade of gold.
A bleak autumn chill filled the air, but on the broad official road strewn with withered leaves, people still hurried past one after another.
A seemingly ordinary young man, carrying a Red Tassel Blade on his back, also stepped onto this wide road. He looked up at the sky, deeply admiring the array masters of Little Central Star—the air-forbidding restriction here was so subtle that even he had to examine it closely to spot any traces.
"It's Red Tassel Joe!" As soon as the young man set foot on the road, someone recognized him and cried out in surprise.
It was indeed Joe Di. This time, he hadn't disguised himself for his trip to Little Central Star. He figured he would be recognized anyway, so there was no point in changing his appearance.
"Lord Di, you mustn't go to Little Central Star. The Kun Sect is already hunting for you." A sudden voice transmission sounded in Joe Di's ear.
Joe Di swept out with his Spiritual Sense and found the person who had sent him the voice transmission—a male cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage whom he didn't recognize at all. Yet the man kept his head down and hurried along, making it seem as if he hadn't been the one to contact Joe Di.
Joe Di didn't expose him. He frowned slightly; logically, even if the Kun Sect was looking for him, they wouldn't dare issue a public warrant unless they had solid proof that he had killed Howard Lane.
Seeing that Joe Di hadn't left after the warning, the cultivator who had spoken to him sighed and hurried his pace.
……
Little Central Star hovered a thousand zhang above the Central Realm. From afar, it looked like a boundless, hazy sphere floating above the lower world.
Yet no one's Spiritual Sense could see what lay on the surface of that sphere—not even the strongest Ascendants could make out anything but a blur. Unless it was the day Little Central Star opened, no one could enter by any means.
Beneath Little Central Star was a vast plaza, surrounded by all kinds of shops, Resthaven Inns, and sect headquarters. For ten thousand li in every direction under the star, flight was strictly forbidden—and there were no teleportation arrays here.
Little Central Star opened once every hundred years. To mortals, a century was a lifetime; to cultivators, it was but a brief span. So whether the star was open or not, the shops and Resthaven Inns on the plaza below remained year-round.
Joe Di had just reached the plaza's edge when a voice rang out, "Red Tassel Joe, if I were you, I wouldn't be so bold. You really dare to come to Little Central Star?"
A not-so-tall cultivator stood before Joe Di. With just a glance of his Spiritual Sense, Joe Di could tell the man was at the second layer of the Cauldron Lord Stage.
"Who are you?" Joe Di frowned slightly, guessing this was someone from the Kun Sect. But for the Kun Sect to send a mere second-layer Cauldron Lord to block him meant they clearly didn't take him seriously.
The man snorted coldly. "Quentin Kee of Kun Sect."
"I don't believe I know you. Why are you blocking my way?" Joe Di's tone was icy. He sensed that this trip to Little Central Star would likely end in a fight.
With his current cultivation, Joe Di wasn't afraid of a fight. Even if he couldn't win, he could still escape. The only regret was that if he did fight, he wouldn't be able to enter Little Central Star. He knew Quentin Kee—once ranked second on the Sea List, and one of the Five Sea Lords.
Quentin Kee laughed heartily, then clasped his hands to the gathering cultivators. "Fellow Daoists, I trust many of you know me—Quentin Kee from Kun Sect, formerly lucky enough to hold the second spot on the Sea List. Thanks to your regard, I squeezed into the ranks of the Five Sea Lords.
Many friends must be wondering why I've stopped this man. Some of you surely know him too: Red Tassel Joe, who climbed to the ninetieth floor of the Fivefold Dao Tower years ago. But our Kun Sect's master has gone missing, and it involves him. I just want him to answer a few questions..."
The news of the Kun Sect master’s disappearance had already spread; most cultivators here knew about it. But when Quentin Kee suggested that Joe Di was involved, the majority didn’t take it seriously.
Joe Di had made impressive progress—he was probably at the Seabreaker Stage now, and had even managed to challenge Kevin Jin of the Sea List back in Fivefold City. But no matter how strong, he was still just at Seabreaker. The Kun Sect master, Howard Lane, was an Ascendant, one of the Thirty-Six True Kings. To claim that a True King could disappear because of a Seabreaker cultivator was laughable.
For Joe Di, an unaffiliated cultivator, to advance so quickly, he must have his own secrets. Most believed the Kun Sect was only targeting him for whatever mysteries he possessed.
Only the Five Grand Sects could be so domineering; lesser sects wouldn’t dare act this way.