"All right. Fellow Daoists, take care," Hongyun said.
Saint Taiqing, Venerable Lord Yuanshi, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti had just turned around and were about to step out of Huoyun Cave.
At that very instant, the five saints seemed to be pinned in place by an invisible force, their movements all freezing at once.
As if by prior agreement, they raised their heads, their gazes piercing through endless void and shooting toward the Heavenly Court beyond the Thirty-Third Heaven.
There, the Heavenly Court's Destiny, which had originally gathered into a magnificent nine-clawed golden dragon, began to collapse without warning like a punctured balloon.
That vast aura that had been climbing higher and higher, attempting to assault the final barrier, also came to an abrupt halt at this moment. What followed was swift decline and silence.
This scene was all too familiar.
Not long ago, the sky above Spirit Mountain had looked exactly the same.
Haotian had failed to prove his Dao.
This outcome was not beyond anyone's expectations, yet it still made the atmosphere grow even heavier.
Venerable Lord Yuanshi's taut body loosened, turning into a cold snort.
"Haotian failed too."
"It seems he didn't obtain the Dao Ancestor's true teaching either."
Everyone's hearts turned icy cold.
Even they, his personal disciples, had been kept in the dark, walking down a road that led to a severed head. How could Hongjun possibly have passed the true method on to a gatekeeping boy?
A voice tinged with mockery came from behind them.
"You few took Hongjun as your master, yet still couldn't obtain his true teaching."
"Let alone Haotian, that boy who served tea and poured water in Zixiao Palace back then."
Hongyun's words made the five saints fall silent once more.
That was right.
They had been guests in Zixiao Palace,