Nearly a year had passed.
More than half of winter had already gone by. Flakes of snow continually drifted down from the heavens, blanketing the ground in a thick layer of silver frost.
The frigid winter winds still relentlessly ravaged this land.
In such weather, ordinary households found it difficult even to leave their homes.
Even cultivators who had stepped onto the Dao Path rarely ventured outside.
Yet in weather like this, cultivators dressed neatly in Ling Clan Daoist Robes still crossed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of miles from every corner of the land, returning to the clan grounds outsiders called the "Lingxiao Immortal Realm."
At this moment.
Lingxiao Immortal Realm.
Beneath dozens of towering mountains, each possessing at least a second-tier spirit vein, more than eight thousand cultivators clad in Ling Clan Daoist Robes had gathered in a plaza spanning several hundred zhang. These cultivators stood in separate groups according to seniority, while three chairs had been placed one zhang ahead of the foremost ranks.
Those with higher cultivation stood toward the front of their respective groups, symbolizing their status within the clan.
For instance, the clan's thirty-odd Foundation Establishment Cultivators stood in the very first row. Behind them were the Ling Clan's dozens of Clan Elders at Qi Training Completion, and so on.
Today was the clan's first once-every-five-years Clan Meeting since it had destroyed the Yan Kingdom's foremost force, the Profound Yang Sect. It carried immense significance for the clan.
For that very reason, the clan members returning for this meeting were exceptionally complete. Aside from those who truly could not leave and needed to oversee the clan's shops in marketplaces across various regions, nearly everyone else had returned.
After everyone waited in the plaza for some time, two figures streaked across