A Sudden Upheaval!

The next day, the rain cleared and the sky brightened.

Chen Qing stood in Jiaowei Qin Lu, gazing up at the sky.

Several floating immortal palaces drifted slowly above Yujing City, like stars adorning the heavens.

His gaze settled on one of them.

The palace looked like a ring of white jade, with layer upon layer encircling a verdant little mountain. A waterfall spilled from its peak, refracting into a seven-colored rainbow in the morning light.

"Yunmiao Immortal Palace." Chen Qing's voice sank. "Elder Lü, is my Spiritual Bone really inside? I thought they had to implant a Spiritual Bone in someone else after digging it out. Why was mine stored on its own?"

Inside the house, Lu Feng's withered fingers hovered over the Jiaowei Qin as he replied, "My old eyes and ears have investigated for years. I've confirmed it's in Shuyu Pavilion, inside the immortal palace, sealed in the Nine Nether Cold Jade Box. Judging by the care taken, your Spiritual Bone is more precious than we imagined."

"But you also said that's where the Empress cultivates in seclusion! How does everything have to do with her?" Chen Qing's heart sank. "Is there any way to break this deadlock?"

Lu Feng shook his head. "Yunmiao Palace has the tightest security in all of Yujing. Forget a living person—even a wisp of foreign spiritual energy approaching within a hundred li of the immortal palace would be shredded in an instant by the 'Circumference Star Dou Forbidden'!"

It felt as if a boulder had crushed Chen Qing's heart. "No one can get in?" By now, he had more or less guessed that his Spiritual Bone was indeed special. But precisely because of that, leaving it out of his possession was a hidden danger.

"There is." Lu Feng changed tack. "Whenever the Empress celebrates her birthday or holds a grand sacrificial ceremony, the immortal palace opens a side hall called the Sound Listening Platform and summons musicians to play celestial music for the gods. I've been inside seven times."

"Is there still time for me to learn the qin?" A glimmer of hope lit Chen Qing's eyes, only for Lu Feng's next words to snuff it out—

"But Shuyu Pavilion lies in the immortal palace's central forbidden grounds. Forget musicians—even princes and princesses who enter without a Yunmiao Token will be... obliterated in body and soul!"

Dead silence settled over the courtyard.

Chen Qing stared at the palace in the clouds. After a long while, he said, "So the Empress is behind Li Xiao? Was she also involved in framing me back then? Then this grudge goes back a long way."

Lu Feng walked into the courtyard and faced Yunmiao Immortal Palace. "There is, in fact, one other person who can freely enter and leave the immortal palace's forbidden grounds, including... Shuyu Pavilion."

"Who?" Chen Qing turned abruptly.

Lu Feng slowly uttered three words: "The Tenth Princess."

Chen Qing was first taken aback, then furrowed his brow. "Because the Immortal Emperor made an exception for her?"

Lu Feng nodded.

Chen Qing said, "If she has the Immortal Emperor's favor, how dare the Empress suppress her?"

"For those at that level, the chance to seek the Dao outweighs the love between parent and child." Lu Feng shook his head with a sigh. "The Empress has been at the Immortal Emperor's side for ten thousand years. How could she not know her limits? She dares to act this way precisely because she understands that, before the pursuit of immortality, even one's own flesh and blood are but fleeting clouds."

After a pause, he added, "If the Immortal Emperor emerges from seclusion and the princess has already... to him, she'll be no more than a speck of dust from his journey of cultivation."

He said it as if it were nothing, yet Chen Qing felt a chill creep down his back.

He suddenly understood why the princess had wanted him to stay far away from this place.

Before the overwhelming might of an immortal dynasty, an individual's life, death, honor, and disgrace truly were as insignificant as ants.

Steadying his thoughts, Chen Qing asked, "Elder Lü, how can the princess freely enter and leave the immortal palace's forbidden grounds?"

Lu Feng replied, "The Immortal Emperor once bestowed a Formless Token upon the princess, allowing her to freely enter and leave the forbidden grounds of all thirty-six immortal palaces. The Empress has always been deeply troubled by it."

Chen Qing pondered for a moment, then made up his mind. "Then the plan is simple. First, have the princess leave the other estate, then enter the immortal palace and retrieve my Spiritual Bone! Have you found any leads on the ingredients needed for that prescription?"

Lu Feng replied, "We'll have an answer soon..."

Chen Qing nodded, then suddenly asked, "Elder Lü, do you know whether anyone in or around Yujing goes by the name 'Xuanming'?"

Lu Feng's face changed slightly, but then he shook his head. "Don't mention other people's names so casually here."

Just then—

Tap, tap, tap—

A brisk patter of footsteps drew closer.

"Elder Lü! I'm back!"

A flash of silver streaked by, and a boy of about twelve or thirteen bounced into the courtyard. He had delicate features, except for several fine silver scales on either side of his nose, which quivered faintly with each breath.

Hearing the boy's voice, a faint smile appeared on Lu Feng's gaunt face. "Yin Lin'er, did you find them?"

"This was easy!" The boy raised his chin proudly and rattled off, "The Thousand Year Snow Lotus is hidden in a secret compartment at the Hundred Herbs Hall in the south of the city. The Profound Yin Cold Marrow was just shipped from the Northern Cold Continent to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion last night. As for the Nine Revolutions Soul Returning Grass..." He smiled slyly. "That one in the Zhao family's herb garden in the west of the city will bloom at midnight tonight!"

Chen Qing's eyes lit up. "That fast?"

The boy abruptly fell silent. His silver scales trembled as he warily retreated behind Lu Feng, nostrils twitching nonstop.

"Don't worry." Lu Feng gently pressed a hand to the boy's shoulder. "Young Master Chen is one of us."

Only then did the boy relax, but his little face immediately fell. "The other herbs are easy enough, but that Red Vein Stone..." His face crumpled. "I searched the whole city and couldn't find one. In the end, I heard at the Curiosity Shop that the last one was sent to Yunmiao Immortal Palace three years ago."

Chen Qing's expression tightened.

Now they were at a dead end.

"But—" The boy suddenly changed tack. "I heard at the black market that Void Abyss Floating Li will pass through the southern border of Yujing in half a month! That mountain is full of heavenly treasures. There might be one there!"

"Void Abyss Floating Li?"

Chen Qing's heart stirred.

That sacred mountain that could connect the past and present?!

"They hold a flowing-cup banquet on Void Abyss Floating Li," the boy said, growing more excited as he waved his arms about. "They say if you solve an immortal's couplet outside the mountain or present a peerless treatise on the Dao, you can attend the banquet and claim a treasure! Last time, someone traded a copy of the Theory of Supreme Void Induction for a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Crystal!"

"The flowing-cup banquet?" Chen Qing recalled a passage he had read in an ancient book—

[Whenever Void Abyss Floating Li passes through a place, cultivators climb its peaks to attend the banquet, drink from crystal goblets of the void, listen to immortal music from the nine heavens, pluck stars and seize the moon. Extravagance reaches its height, and prosperity its zenith.]

"It is indeed an opportunity." Lu Feng thought for a moment. "In principle, if you can offer something that pleases this generation's Void Abyss Mountain Master, you can claim a treasure. But the mountain's rules are strange, and it drifts unpredictably. The path up is also perilous in the extreme."

Chen Qing fell into thought.

"Half a month, but I can only stay for seven days. That means I'll have to leave another Dao Mark at least once to make the timing work—and even that might not be enough..."

He still had three Dao Marks, and he could replenish them after waking up, so that wasn't a problem. Besides, Chen Qing had already planned to seek out this mountain and leave something behind to test his theory.

With that in mind, he had made up his mind. "Brother Yin Lin'er, do you know the exact time the banquet will be held on the mountain?"

"They say it's at midnight." The boy scratched his head. "Are you going to climb the mountain? Without some real skill, you won't even make it to the banquet. There are man-eating monsters up there, too..."

"It's fine. Climbing the mountain is still easier than breaking into the immortal palace." Chen Qing had instead grown calm. "But that's half a month from now. The pressing matter is still the pill prescription..."

"Right, then let's..."

Lu Feng nodded and was speaking when the ground beneath their feet suddenly shuddered violently, without warning!

RUMBLE—!

A muffled roar surged from the depths of the earth, sweeping across all of Yujing City in an instant!

The bluestone streets rose and fell like waves. The old tree in the courtyard shook violently, its withered leaves raining down in a rustling shower!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Then came a colossal pulse, as if from the highest heavens, crashing down like a god beating a war drum!

Chen Qing felt an invisible hand seize his heart and squeeze hard. His blood and qi surged, and darkness swam before his eyes!

He frantically circulated his Supreme Harmony Qi, barely managing to steady himself. Then he whipped his head up and saw crimson clouds like blood, staining half the sky!

To the east, purple qi shot into the heavens, gathering into nine colossal dragons ten thousand zhang long. They roared and thrashed through the sea of clouds, their cries shattering the floating ones!

At the far edge of the western wastes, the shadow of a pitch-black sword tomb, reaching from earth to sky, rose from the ground. Countless ancient swords hummed as one, their killing Sword Qi piercing the firmament!

On the southern coast, towering waves rolled up a water wall ten thousand zhang high. Above it, the hazy silhouette of an ancient, magnificent underwater palace slowly rose, its gates seeming half-open, half-shut!

"What is this...?"

Neither before nor after transmigrating had Chen Qing ever witnessed such a terrifying celestial phenomenon!

"It's coming!" Beside him, Lu Feng, who should have been blind, suddenly "looked" toward the center of Yujing City, toward the deepest part of the nine-tiered palace! His hollow eye sockets constricted violently, his expression turning grave beyond measure. He clutched the Jiaowei Qin against his chest so tightly that the instrument groaned under the strain!

Chen Qing's heart leapt. He had guessed what it was, yet still couldn't help asking, "What's coming?!"

"The Emperor Lord..." Lu Feng's voice trembled with something close to a delirious murmur. "...is about to shatter the Gate of Heaven!"

"Is it true?! At a time like this?"

Chen Qing whipped his head around, staring at the nine-tiered palace as well!

The First Origin Immortal Emperor was about to ascend!

I... could I really witness the Immortal Emperor's ascension?!

The next instant—

A brilliant golden beam shot up from the depths of the palace!

Wherever the golden light passed, space shattered inch by inch like fragile glass!

Countless golden runes flowed and flickered within the beam, their life and death radiating an authority supreme above all!

All of Yujing City trembled beneath the golden light. Countless cultivators felt their bodies grow heavy under its pressure, as if they were carrying mountains on their backs!

Within the golden light, a hazy yet towering phantom slowly took shape!

The phantom wore an imperial robe and a crown. His face was indistinct, but his eyes alone shone like two burning suns as he looked down upon the entire immortal dynasty!

A vast will, transcending all living beings and yearning to break free of this world's bounds, swept across the eight wildernesses like a tsunami!

He slowly raised one hand, palm facing upward, as if to hold up the entire world!