Phantom Star Domain, Cloudmist Star.
The southern part of Cloudmist Star, once home to one hundred thousand spirit mountains, was now known as the Tianyan Mountain Range.
A grand sacrificial ceremony was underway atop the range's central peak.
It was the first ceremony held since the founding of the Tianyan Sect, and it was an extraordinarily grand affair. Guests from Cloudmist Star's four royal lineages and the countless smaller lineages under them had all come to witness it.
On one side of the main peak stood a statue several thousand zhang tall, painstakingly carved from an entire spirit peak. It looked lifelike, its eyelids half-open and every strand of hair rendered in exquisite detail.
A magnificent plaza stretched out before the statue.
On a colossal altar ninety-nine zhang high, sacrificial offerings and piles of meat rose like mountains.
Li Canglan stood in the plaza, dressed in a blue brocade robe trimmed with gold and patterned with clouds. The robe made his already handsome features look all the more striking.
In the brief time since its founding, the Tianyan Sect had grown to more than a hundred thousand disciples. After layer upon layer of selection, its inner disciples numbered six thousand, and the foundations of its core structure were already in place.
It could be said that the Tianyan Sect had now fully settled into its stride.
Over this time, Li Canglan had grown at astonishing speed. Taking charge of a powerful force that commanded an entire region had been an immense trial by fire.
Sacrifices were a privilege reserved for the immortal Buddhas, apart from ancestral spirits and ghosts.
Li Canglan had planned this ceremony himself. He intended to raise Shi Lan from the position of sect master and place her firmly upon the altar of divinity.
Only by setting