The silence lasted a long time.
Zhou Xuan did not press him. He leaned against the edge of the table, holding the wound on his left shoulder, and waited.
"You guessed half of it right."
The old man finally spoke, his voice a shade deeper than before.
"They aren't about to wither. They're already withering."
Ye Changqing's breathing stopped for a moment.
"Thirty years ago, all seventy-two Immortal Veins could still function normally."
The old man slowed his speech. The dangling beads of his crown veiled half his face.
"Now, nineteen have dried up completely. In the remaining fifty-three, the concentration of spiritual energy declines every year."
Zhou Xuan's fingers tightened slightly.
"So your Longevity Realm experts..."
"Are all asleep."
The old man's voice grew hoarse.
"It isn't that they don't want to act. They cannot. Every use of their power consumes a hundred years of an Immortal Vein's reserves. Of the seven Longevity Realm Old Ancestors under my command, three have already fallen into eternal slumber because their Immortal Veins ran dry. They will never wake again."
Zhou Xuan kept his back against the table's edge, his mind racing.
The Central Province Immortal Alliance possessed seventy-two immortal cities and more than ten thousand Cultivators. It sounded immensely powerful.
But something had gone terribly wrong within it. The Immortal Veins were drying up, its Longevity Realm experts could not act, and the entire faction could barely maintain the status quo.
That was why the old man had come to negotiate in person. They had few choices left.
"Why are the Immortal Veins withering?" Zhou Xuan pressed.
The old man's gray eyes flickered.
"Because the Heavenly Dao is incomplete."
As the old man spoke those words, an aura of decay spread from the Light Pillar.
"The Heavenly Dao of this world