"Amitabha."
The deep, resonant invocation echoed across the heavens.
The endlessly churning sea of clouds abruptly stilled, and the spiritual energy throughout the world seemed forcibly pinned down by an immense, invisible force.
A vast golden fissure split the sky, pouring down boundless Buddhist light.
An elderly monk clad in the Nine-Treasure Glazed Kasaya stepped out from the depths of the fissure.
His face was withered, his eyebrows drooped to his shoulders, and the Twelve-Petaled Golden Lotus of Merit rested beneath his feet. Four solid-looking Tribulation Light Divine Rings encircled his body.
The fourth Tribulation Immortal stage.
This was the supreme overseer of the Heavenly Void Grand Tournament, a secluded elder from the Great Thunderclap Temple—True Person Kongwu.
The moment the old monk appeared, the expressions of cultivators from every major faction changed.
The Tribulation Immortal Realm had nine stages, each a world apart from the next.
Anyone who had survived four heavenly tribulations stood at the very pinnacle of the pyramid across the entire Nine Provinces.
The three golden-bodied arhats from the Great Thunderclap Temple were overjoyed at the sight of him and hurriedly bowed.
"Greetings, Martial Uncle Kongwu!"
Several elders aboard the Ji Clan's warship straightened their backs once more.
Chen Changqing's thunderous methods had cowed them so thoroughly that they had scarcely dared to breathe.
Now that the fourth-stage Tribulation Immortal overseeing the tournament had arrived—and a Buddhist elder at that—the Ji Clan cultivators finally found someone to rally around.
A Ji Clan elder scrambled off the deck, pointing at Chen Changqing as he wailed shrilly.
"True Person Kongwu, you must uphold justice for our Ji Clan!"
"This Chen Changqing of Shushan relied on a murderous weapon to slaughter our Holy Son Ji Xuan in the secret realm. After leaving it, he became even more vicious and