The Starting Point is the End

The Evergreen Realm of today was vastly different from when Ning Ye had left it years ago.

First, the world of five realms had somehow returned to being a world of seven realms.

Second, that Evergreen Ageless Pine had grown into a towering giant tree, like the legendary World Tree.

Mountains stood upon its branches, as did sects—and more than one.

Looking out, Ning Ye saw that even a single branch was crowded with mountains and crisscrossed by sect gates.

On this one Evergreen Ageless Pine alone, there were likely more than a thousand immortal sects.

The tree had grown so tall that it had already pierced through the realm-protecting astral winds and Baleful Intent.

The astral winds and Baleful Intent swirled around the Ageless Pine, yet could not harm it. The beings atop the pine stood even above the realm itself, truly resembling an upper realm in the heavens.

At the very crown of the Evergreen Ageless Pine stood a massive palace wreathed in immortal clouds—magnificent yet mysterious, vast and boundless, its affiliation impossible to discern.

Below the Ageless Pine, mountain ranges overlapped one another, and the land stretched broad and far.

The entire star realm had expanded dozens of times over; it could no longer be compared to what it once was.

If not for the several Heavenly Dao Steles still standing there, and if not for the Evergreen Ageless Pine, Ning Ye would almost have been unable to confirm that he was in the Evergreen Realm.

There were still seven Heavenly Dao Steles. Those that had been lost had not reappeared; only the world of five realms had returned to seven. The mystery presumably lay in this Ageless Pine.

Ning Ye spread out his divine sense, extending it across the entire star realm as he attempted to