Nascent Souls Gather, Nine Underworlds Pagoda Illusion?

Thirty years later, Crouching Dragon Mountain Range, rear mountain of Dragon Claw Peak.

Dawn had just arrived, and a thin mist hung in the air. Patches of Spirit Pine Bamboo stretching for hundreds of li had dyed the rear mountain into an emerald sea of forest. Beneath the green bamboo and verdant pines lay ancient, elegantly simple courtyards.

Deep within this forest sea on the rear mountain stood a massive plaza spanning roughly three li, paved entirely with premium spirit jade.

A nine-story pagoda over ten zhang tall stood at the center of the plaza, its entire body giving off an eerie gray-black glow.

The pagoda's outer walls were smooth, constructed from some mysterious spirit metal. Its body was octagonal, with a crystalline bell hanging from each floor. It was completely sealed, without a single window; only the lowest floor had a jade-white pagoda gate.

As the sun slowly rose over the mountaintop and scattered vast swathes of golden light across the rear mountain forest, streaks of light raced in from every direction. They landed one after another on the plaza before the pagoda, transforming into figures clad in bright yellow robes.

These people ranged from old to young, yet every one of them possessed extraordinary bearing and unfathomable auras.

Had any younger Zhao Clan members been present, they would have been utterly shocked, because everyone who had arrived at this plaza was a Nascent Soul clan elder of high rank and authority.

Ordinarily, these people should have been scattered throughout various regions, each commanding their own territory, wielding immense power and able to summon wind and rain.

Yet today, nearly a hundred Nascent Soul clan elders had gathered at this plaza without prior arrangement. Who exactly had summoned them here? "Third Uncle, tell me—could Ancestor Xi have gathered us