Small, it was called a clam; grown large, a mirage dragon.
It swallowed clouds and breathed mist, stirred winds and summoned rain.
Gathered, it towered like a mountain; scattered, it dissolved into flowing seas.
As it gathered and dispersed without form, it held mountains within mustard seeds inside its body, becoming a world unto itself.
This beast was called—the Mirage Dragon!
Legend held that in the primordial age, countless Desolate Beasts roamed Central Province, and the Great Wilderness Mirage Dragon was the most renowned among them.
It had neither shape nor fixed appearance, gathering and scattering at will.
At times it appeared in the world as a beast or bird; at others, it covered Central Province like cloud and mist.
Because of its existence, the Heaven Origin Dao Sect had suffered bitterly when it opened up Central Province, paying in blood and lives beyond counting.
And now, thousands of years after its death, it opened its mouth once more.
The crowd gazed at the deep, gaping maw beside the Passing River. Their attention swung away at once from the Pill Saint's astonishing ascension.
A clamor broke out in an instant.
"So the entrance to Mirage Dragon Cave Heaven was beneath Heaven Earth Peak all along!"
"It makes sense. How could a Top-Grade Great Wilderness be wiped out so easily? Given the Mirage Dragon's nature, the slightest oversight could let it return from the dead. Only a blessed mountain as rare as Heaven Earth Peak could suppress it for all eternity and never let it rise again!"
"So the Heaven Origin Dao Sect's disciples are about to enter for that competition held every five hundred years?"
"That should be it."
"What I'm curious about is why Nascent Soul Cultivators have to have formed their Nascent Souls within the last hundred years