When that Dao sword condensed from the Heavenly Dao Luck, almost no one in the world knew that, across the mortal lands of the Five Great God Continents in the Hongmeng Celestial Domain, five anomalies were occurring in succession.
Eastern Earth Divine Continent, outside the gates of a city called Peach Talisman.
A bare peach tree suddenly seemed to have been struck by lightning. Its branches scattered across the ground, while its trunk split into pieces.
Even the roots buried deep in the earth turned into burning Calamity Ash.
Near the city gates, an Old Beggar who had been huddled there through countless years suddenly shuddered all over and burst into crazed laughter.
"Nirvana? Fate? Reincarnation? If I become the Azure Emperor one day, I'll make peach blossoms bloom everywhere!"
Like burning scraps of paper, the Old Beggar's figure turned into ashes that filled the sky and drifted down where the peach tree had once taken root.
Both the peach tree and the Old Beggar vanished.
Yet they caused no stir.
After all, this was a mortal land. Who would care about a peach tree that had never bloomed or borne fruit, like dead wood?
Naturally, no one knew that deep beneath where the peach tree had rooted, a tender sprout had emerged from a charred peach root.
Western Earth Divine Continent.
In an isolated rural village stood a dilapidated ancestral hall that had fallen into disrepair over the years.
The hall was thick with cobwebs, and dust covered the floor.
A copper coin missing one corner suddenly trembled slightly atop a collapsed offering table. The dust covering it immediately vanished like flowing water.
The coin was mottled with rust, round on the outside and square within, with a small hole in its center. At that moment, a whimpering