When three voices descended from the high heavens, Huang Tian's mind stirred. He chose one and looked toward it. In an instant, his gaze crossed the Secret Realm and pierced layer upon layer of empty space. Above the firmament, within a Grotto-Heaven as vast as a star, a towering figure sat upon a jade throne.
The man wore a black jade crown and a crimson ceremonial robe. Hazy flames drifted around him, turning now into flowing clouds, now into fire phoenixes, and sometimes into red deer. The faint cries of deer rang through the air.
This was the Red Tail Returning to Ashes Dao Lord—High Saint King Ling himself!
Red light flashed in his eyes and fell from the heavens. Across the vast distance, he watched Huang Tian's every move. His fingers tapped lightly on the jade throne. "Huang Tian, a Rogue Cultivator from Heaven's South..."
He murmured the words, then raised his fingers to calculate. He had been watching the Dashing Sky Secret Realm in the Chu Kingdom all along. No, more precisely, he was the one who had opened it. His purpose was clear: to see whether he could lure out that "unknown presence." Whenever anything unusual appeared inside or outside the Secret Realm, he would divine it. Huang Tian was merely a cultivator at Foundation Establishment Perfection, yet he had dared to provoke a True Person of the Gilded Metal Sect in public. Naturally, that drew his attention.
Mysterious light flowed between his fingers, and fragments of information entered his mind. "He is indeed a cultivator from the Yue Kingdom. Born to a mortal family, he possessed three spiritual apertures. His aptitude was unremarkable, but his comprehension was excellent. As a child, he chanced upon a cultivation method and stepped onto the path of cultivation. In just