"Today, I have summoned you all because there is an important matter to entrust to you." The Dao ancestor's lips had yet to move, but his voice had already arrived—like wind passing through a pine forest, ethereal and impossible to trace to its source, yet sounding at once from all eight directions and the four extremes. Its tone was ancient and strange, containing both the benevolence of heaven and earth and the stillness of the Great Dao, neither warm nor cold, beyond emotion and reason.
The six Sages lowered their heads and listened respectfully. Even Sect Master Tongtian, who usually sat with his eyes closed in meditation, suddenly opened them. His gaze was clear as freshly washed water as it fixed upon the high platform, not daring to slacken in the slightest.
Suddenly, cranes cried out across the sky, their calls shaking the nine heavens like an inverted Milky Way pouring down; immortal music rang sonorously through the void, celestial flowers whirled in the air, ten thousand rays of auspicious light shone forth, and layers upon layers of auspicious mist drifted about. The Dao ancestor's gentle yet strange voice flowed forth with it: "The Immortal Calamity has ended. The Zhou Dynasty shall enjoy eight hundred years of fortune—this is the fixed decree. Yet in the battle of the Zhu Xian Sword Formation and the battle of the Myriad Immortals and Myriad Demons Formation, you, as Primordial Sages, fought with all your strength, causing countless living beings to perish unjustly in devastation. These formations were meant to let you see with your own eyes how fragile all beings are, how easily lives can break."
"To prevent you from repeating the same mistake in the future, from this day onward, the immortal and mortal realms shall be forever divided—the places where Qi