A thousand songs of your name, in exchange for the merit that would carry him to the heavens.

Most people couldn't bring themselves to say a thing like that.

But from the tone of Hongze's Great Immortal, you'd think he was granting some tremendous favor.

The faces of the two elderly Boundless Dao-Sovereign Sect masters didn't change. They quietly watched the Golden Body dharma form in front of them, not the least surprised by the immortal's order, as if long used to this.

Xue Yan hadn't been at this level long. He raised an eyebrow slightly. Remembering the merit immortal's commanding tone with them earlier, and how calm and composed he had been the whole way here, and now seeing him trussed up tight, he couldn't help wanting to laugh.

Sure enough, all that hard cultivation had rotted his brain.

He might carry great merit, but until he turned it into real strength, being this careless only showed he didn't know his place.

“Hm?”

The smile faded a little from Xue Yan's face. He saw that the merit immortal wasn't showing the fury and shock he'd imagined. Instead he stood silently where he was, carefully studying Hongze's Great Immortal at the top of the stairs.

That was a bit odd.

Beside the Prison Golden Body, the black dragon, its face cold and indifferent and a white robe over its shoulders, raised its head slightly. Its lip curled back to bare a row of cold, sharp teeth.

It was as tall as the dharma form. Suddenly it reached out and pressed a hand down on his shoulder, and hissed in a low voice, “How dare you profane the immortal's majesty! Kneel!”

The black dragon clearly came from the North Dragon Palace, and its standing was no ordinary one. Even if it wasn't the Dragon King, it had to be one of the finest among them.

With the slightest move, it gave off a terrifying aura that made the heart pound.

Pinned from so close, never mind a Prison Golden Body at Return-to-Void—even if Shen Yi had come in his own true…