Invincible Dad-Chapter 581 Isn’t there a meeting?_1

"What’s the matter?"

"I think we should have another child."

"Xu Lai, stop talking nonsense."

Ruan Tang’s face flushed as she chided, "I’m hungry. I want to eat first."

"Alright, eat. After you’re full, we’ll have a meeting about this matter."

Xu Lai said seriously, "Besides, honey, think about it. A hundred years from now, it would be so pitiful for Yiyi to be all alone."

"Still talking about a hundred years from now..."

Ruan Tang rolled her eyes dramatically. "Mr. Xu, may I ask how old you are today?"

"Cough, cough."

Xu Lai choked. "It’s not about age! ’A hundred years’ is just a metaphor. Do you understand? A metaphor!"

"Not really."

"It’s alright if you don’t understand. I’ll discuss it with you in detail during our meeting later."

Ruan Tang was speechless.

She ate her late-night snack very, very, very slowly.

Xu Lai wasn’t in a rush either. He took out the paper engraved with the Immortal Scripture hidden within the Cloud Water Rust and began to study it carefully.

Once he started, Xu Lai became completely engrossed.

There were thirty-six symbols in total; some had only a few strokes, while others had over a hundred. For some reason, just looking at these symbols immensely drained his mental energy, to say nothing of deducing the information hidden within them.

After just half an hour of study, Xu Lai had not only made no progress but was utterly exhausted. He had never felt so tired, not even when battling a Quasi-Emperor at the Ninth Heaven realm.

He propped his head up with one hand, gasping for breath. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Are you okay?"

Ruan Tang’s heart ached for him. "Stop looking at those symbols and get some rest. Your face is terrifyingly pale."

"Okay."

Xu Lai didn’t try to act tough anymore.

His eyelids were so heavy he could barely keep them open. Once back in his room, he collapsed onto the bed to rest.

As Xu Lai’s consciousness blurred, he felt a soft body slide into his arms, accompanied by a teasing giggle.

"Weren’t we supposed to have a meeting?"

"Come!"

Even though his spirit was flagging, Xu Lai still couldn’t resist the temptation.

...

...

「Penglai Island.」

The place was now a field of ruins; the once-majestic Penglai Sword Pavilion was a thing of the past.

At this moment, eleven people stood here—men and women, all dressed in different garments. They were none other than the sect masters of the remaining three sects and eight pavilions, excluding the secluded Yunxiao Sect and the annihilated Penglai Sword Pavilion.

"The fall of Penglai spells doom for us all! For the Martial Dao Association to leave us to find Xu Lai by ourselves is... infuriating!"

The elder who spoke was dressed in blood-red robes embroidered with three golden flames. He was Daoist Chi Huo, the Pavilion Master of the Red Fire Pavilion, renowned in the Cultivation World as the ’Fire God’ for his mastery of fire-based Divine Skills.

At this moment, Daoist Chi Huo’s face was filled with endless grief and fury, for he and Xu Chen, the Pavilion Master of the Penglai Sword Pavilion, were friends who had braved death together.

In their youth, they had adventured to Sea City. If not for Xu Chen, he would have long since died in the jaws of a Sea Demon.

"The Penglai Sword Pavilion brought this all upon themselves." A middle-aged woman, holding a horsetail whisk and dressed in a white Daoist robe, spoke calmly. "Chi Huo, you went too far when you pressured the Martial Dao Association on behalf of the three sects and eight pavilions."

"Mo Lian!"

"Your Dao Sect may have had past conflicts with the Penglai Sword Pavilion, but now that the Sword Pavilion has fallen, you’re blaming me?"

Daoist Chi Huo lived up to his name, with a temper as volatile as fire. He bellowed, "Has the Dao Sect forgotten the bond that unites the one school, three sects, and nine pavilions? For all we know, Penglai’s calamity was the result of you colluding with Xu Lai!"

"Ridiculous."

Mo Lian said no more. She never bothered arguing with brainless people, and Daoist Chi Huo was clearly one of them.

"Sect Master Mo, Pavilion Master Chi Huo is right. With the destruction of Penglai, it is only right that we seek justice for them," an old woman with a full head of long, white hair said, her voice icy. She was the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Snow Pavilion.

Mo Lian did not respond.

Another man, a burly, middle-aged figure with a saber strapped to his waist, spoke in a deep voice. "I disagree. This matter should be put to rest."

"The Blade Sect and the Sword Pavilion have always had each other’s backs, from north to south! If Xu Chen heard you say that, he would be heartbroken!" Daoist Chi Huo raged.

"Xu Chen is already dead," Blade Sect’s Sect Master, Qi Jiuyang, said indifferently. "Dead men can’t talk. We, the living, should not go seeking our own deaths."

"Qi Jiuyang!" Flames seemed to shoot from Daoist Chi Huo’s eyes. "Are you even speaking human words? Aren’t you afraid the Blade Sect will be Xu Lai’s next target?"

"Firstly, no disciple from my Blade Sect laid a deadly hand on Xu Lai’s daughter. Secondly, no elder of mine wielded the Demon Sword to assassinate Xu Lai."

"Thirdly, as a Sect Master, I am not foolish enough to provoke Xu Lai, especially with such a clear cautionary tale before us."

Qi Jiuyang continued, "One must be reasonable in all matters. I have no grievance or enmity with Xu Lai, so on what grounds would he destroy my Blade Sect?"

Daoist Chi Huo clenched his fists, unable to refute.

In truth, even he knew Penglai Sword Pavilion had brought this disaster upon themselves. But so what? Xu Lai and his daughter were still alive and well, while he had lost his dearest friend, Xu Chen!

The representatives of the remaining one sect and six pavilions said nothing more, choosing to remain silent.

Daoist Chi Huo shouted angrily, "Are you all mute? Speak! Did you forget the ancestral teachings when you took over your sects?"

The moment he spoke, the pupils of all ten listeners, including Mo Lian, contracted simultaneously.

Mo Lian of the Dao Sect finally spoke again, exhaling a breath of turbid air. "Our three sects and eight pavilions are merely affiliates of the Yunxiao Sect," she said lightly. "The Yunxiao Sect isn’t worried, so why should we be in such a rush?"

"The Yunxiao Sect appears once every hundred years," Qi Jiuyang of the Blade Sect chimed in solemnly. "By my calculations, an Emissary from there will appear in two more years."

The others fell silent again, their expressions exceptionally complicated.

Outsiders only knew of the thirteen Holy Lands—the one school, three sects, and nine pavilions—but few were aware that the seemingly glorious three sects and nine pavilions were merely affiliate sects of the Yunxiao Sect.

Every hundred years, the Yunxiao Sect would emerge to take every single treasure from the vaults of their twelve affiliate sects, ordering them to continue searching for more heavenly and earthly treasures.

This situation had persisted for a full 1,700 years.

After serving as affiliate sects for over a millennium, the three sects and nine pavilions had long grown dissatisfied with the Yunxiao Sect’s high-and-mighty attitude. After all, Earth Spirit Plants were already scarce. Over a thousand years of harvesting meant they found fewer and fewer, yet the tributes demanded by the higher sect only increased. Now, they were reluctant to even use a large number of heavenly and earthly treasures on their own exceptionally talented disciples.

Among the eleven sect leaders, three were over a hundred years old. They still remembered the last time an Emissary from the Yunxiao Sect had appeared and mercilessly berated their predecessors.

Their expressions couldn’t help but turn grim.

RUMBLE...

The ruin-filled island of Penglai suddenly began to shake, and a massive Jade Gate emerged before the eleven of them.

The Jade Gate was enormous, a full thirty zhang tall and ten zhang wide.

Specks of glittering light drifted out from within the gate, eventually forming a line of golden words in the air.

"This is..."

The sect masters of the three sects and eight pavilions stared in shock.

They looked up at the sky, and in the next moment, their expressions changed drastically.