The moment the words fell, an utterly domineering voice came from beside him. "Because I... will not allow it!"
Zhao Sheng turned toward the voice and saw the Second Ancestor, Zhao Hongyun, silently appear at his side.
Zhao Sheng looked at the Second Ancestor's jade-white face, a hint of confusion showing in his eyes, as if asking why.
Zhao Hongyun seemed to know what he was thinking. He suddenly swept his broad sleeve and said in a deep voice, "Now... look again."
The motion of the Second Ancestor's sleeve seemed to brush away a layer of fog that had shrouded heaven and earth.
As the fog gradually dispersed, Zhao Sheng saw, upon the vast and boundless land below, specks of multicolored cloud qi suddenly rising.
Cloud qi of all sizes slowly rose, like a sky full of stars beneath the night curtain. Not only did they illuminate the darkness around them, they also added countless brilliant colors to the earth. Their numbers were too many to estimate.
Zhao Sheng's heart shook. He focused his gaze on the earth below once more, and actually saw the densely packed cloud qi undergo another subtle change.
Some clouds less than ten feet across gradually transformed into the shapes of oxen, horses, pigs, dogs, fish, snakes, swallows, sparrows, doves, and all manner of beasts.
And those clouds with diameters of over ten feet but less than a hundred zhang gradually transformed into the forms of fierce beasts such as lions, tigers, wolves, leopards, eagles, falcons, crocodiles, and pythons.
As for those even larger masses of cloud qi, they likewise transformed into all kinds of even more powerful spirit beasts: immortal cranes, luan birds, Vermilion Birds, White Tigers, Wind-Thunder Falcons, and other strange beasts steeped in mythic color.
After a few breaths, Zhao Sheng quickly