Choosing a Successor

As he raised his head.

The daylight dimmed.

Only the bronze lamps burned quietly in the hall. There was no one else inside but a barefoot middle-aged man.

Yet this middle-aged man's complexion was even paler, like gold paper. It seemed that the slightest touch would shatter him into scattered fragments; perhaps the next gust of wind would blow away even his ash-gray remains.

Taiyi held three incense sticks in his hand.

He looked at the enormous incense burner before him, piled high with gray ash.

"Another hundred years!"

Taiyi murmured softly.

The sect sacrifice ceremony from a century ago still lingered vividly in his mind.

One could not help but sigh at how swiftly time had passed.

The only thing unchanged was the jade statue of the Patriarch before him, still exactly as it had been when he first saw it.

Taiyi had forgotten how many times he had offered incense to the jade statue. He only remembered that seventeen Ascension Ceremonies had already been held. During their time in the Sea of Wandering Souls, only two had been held because of the war. After arriving in the Five Domains, they had first needed to stabilize themselves, and only held the third ceremony ten years later.

There were nearly three million Qi Refiners under the sect, countless Foundation Establishment cultivators, and more than seven hundred Golden Core True Persons alone.

Three more Nascent Soul cultivators had emerged: Qiu Wandao, Wu Rong, and Yu Long.

Among them, Qiu Wandao and Wu Rong had already reached mid-stage Nascent Soul, while Yu Long remained at early-stage Nascent Soul. Taiyi Sect now possessed nine Nascent Soul cultivators: Tu Shan Jun, Golden Ao, Taiyi, Jade Whale, Qiu Wandao, Wu Rong, the Devil, Yu Long, and Sikong Xingye.

Sikong Xingye had personally witnessed Taiyi Sect's