The Nine Heavens Gale howled fiercely, sweeping up the boundless Immortal Light and fragments of Calamity Qi that floated around the Investiture Platform.
The towering platform stood above a sea of clouds. Cracks left by the great battle covered its stone surface. Its once-sacred, majestic Immortal Dao aura had vanished, leaving only a heavy, oppressive stillness.
A dull thud broke the silence. Jiang Ziya fell into the center of the Investiture Platform, his Daoist robes in tatters, his sleeves torn and his headpiece askew. Ash-gray Immortal Qi left by the fighting stained him from head to toe.
His knees weakened, and he swayed where he stood. The sight of Great Shang turning the battle around, of Human Dao Fortune crushing the immortal sects, still filled his mind. For decades, he had painstakingly plotted the grand scheme of God Conferment under Yuanshi's Imperial Edict.
In a single day, it had collapsed. All of it had come to nothing.
The pride of the man who had once wielded the authority to confer godhood was gone from his eyes. Only numbness and despair remained. He looked as though most of his soul had been torn away.
Clouds spread like a vast carpet on every side of the Investiture Platform. The atmosphere was suffocatingly solemn.
Taiqing Laozi's purple aura had receded. His eyes were calm and unreadable, betraying neither joy nor anger, yet he still carried the crushing authority of one who stood supreme over heaven and earth.
Primordial Heavenly Venerate stood on the eastern side of the platform, his Jade Clarity Immortal Light dim and murky. A cold gloom veiled his usually stern and immaculate face. He could not conceal his anger at the defeat. A thousand years of planning had been ruined, and his dignity as a saint lay in tatters.
Saint