Around midnight, a faint glimmer of dawn quietly pierced the hazy night, barely illuminating the thickest darkness before daybreak.
Deep within a range of continuous mountains in some plane beneath the Lingxuan Realm.
Far away, clouds and mist wound around the landscape, faintly outlining a cluster of undulating peaks. The tallest among them, Giant Peak, radiated an oppressive spiritual pressure. The magnificent structures built atop its summit resembled a heavenly palace floating above a sea of clouds—ethereal yet imposing.
At that moment, thousands upon thousands of Integration Stage human cultivators from every corner of the Lingxuan Realm had gathered around Giant Peak. Each hovered in the air, their densely packed figures almost blotting out the entire sky.
Meanwhile, on the palace plaza at the summit of Giant Peak, more than a thousand old monsters in the late Integration Stage or at its peak were presiding over a grand Zhai Jiao Ceremony.
This was the Heavenly Gate Hall of the Lingxuan Realm, as well as the sacred site of every "Open Heaven Gate" ceremony.
Only cultivators who had broken through to the Integration Stage throughout the entire realm had the qualifications to know of the Heavenly Gate Hall's existence.
Those low-level cultivators had no idea that such a secret place was hidden within this realm.
Beneath the Heavenly Gate Hall lay a massive Heaven-Piercing Formation. It was also the only channel in the entire Lingxuan Realm capable of communicating with the Upper Realm.
Although an enormous quantity of cultivation resources had to be offered to the Upper Realm every day, only during the few days when the Open Heaven Gate was held was there any chance of receiving even the slightest response from above.
Even so, the Lingxuan Realm did not dare slack off in the slightest, expending countless resources every