The sky howled with wind, blanketed by dark clouds.
The earth lay ringed by mountains, solemn and towering.
Palaces dotted the rolling mountain ranges in twos and threes. Today, countless cultivators emerged from them and looked up at the patch of sky above the Southern Heaven Dao Palace.
Their gazes rested on the center, where the Heaven Origin Observatory stood. There, a white-clad figure sat cross-legged in the void, drifting like an exiled immortal.
Beneath the oppressive clouds, the cultivators regarded the man in white with complicated feelings.
There was awe, worship, and even envy and jealousy.
The war on the East Sea Coast had dragged on intermittently for three years.
After Zhenhai City Lord True Person Wen joined forces with Fairy Qing Lan, the master of Houtu Hall, to defeat the three Great Demon Emperors, the outcome of the subsequent war had already been destined.
The reason it had continued for so long was that the Nascent Soul True Persons had stopped taking action, instead handing the opportunity to the low-level cultivators below, especially the Direct Disciples of the Dao Palace.
This could be regarded as a trial!
A different kind of minor sect competition!
The strength rankings of this generation's Southern Heaven Dao Palace Direct Disciples were decided based on the number of demons they slew, their cultivation realms, and even the territory they reclaimed.
This not only eliminated the demon menace, but also tempered the new generation's combat experience without having them fight among themselves.
And throughout the three-year demon-slaying trial, that white-clad man had delivered the most outstanding performance!
At the Early Stage Golden Core, he had first held Liubo Mountain. Then he had survived at the hands of a Desolate Beast that had broken through the Six-Layered Zhenhai Sluice. His subsequent achievements in hunting demon