Zixiao Palace

The doors opened.

Without a sound, the two weathered wooden doors slid inward, revealing a bluestone passage beyond. There was no radiant glow, no celestial music, and even the creak of the doors was so faint it seemed an illusion.

For a moment, none of the hundred or so people at the entrance moved.

Everyone looked at one another, and the atmosphere became subtly awkward. It was not that they were being polite—at their level, if it came to tearing all pretenses apart over a treasure, none of them would hold back. The problem was that the doors had only just opened, and no one knew what lay inside. Whoever went in first would become the stone tossed ahead to test the path.

Taiyi stood beside Di Jun, his gaze sweeping across the crowd.

Among the Three Pure Ones, Laozi's eyelids drooped as though he were dozing off. Yuanshi stood with his hands behind his back, chin slightly raised, his eyes passing over the crowd with an air of disdain for "these common folk." Tongtian, on the other hand, looked keenly interested. He tilted his head as he studied the passage beyond the doors, a faint smile still at his lips.

Jieyin and Zhunti stood closest to the entrance. Zhunti's eyes spun like tops, darting into the doorway one moment and around the crowd the next. His feet were itching to move, yet he stubbornly refused to take that first step. Jieyin stood half a pace behind him, palms pressed together as he muttered under his breath, his sorrowful face looking as though someone owed him eight hundred strings of cash.

Hongyun and Zhen Yuanzi stood a little farther back. Hongyun's kindly face was full of hesitation as he looked from the doors to the people around them. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say, "Should we go in first?" But Zhen Yuanzi lightly tugged at his sleeve, and he swallowed the words.

Styx still stood in that corner, his blood-red Daoist robe utterly motionless amid the chaotic currents. His eyelids were lowered as though he were asleep, yet Taiyi could sense that this old monster's divine sense had silently spread out like a spiderweb, carefully combing over the area before the doors.

"Heh."

A soft chuckle broke the deadlock.

Tongtian moved.

This Shangqing Daoist walked with utter ease, his sleeves fluttering and his steps unhurried, as though he were strolling through his own backyard. He passed through the crowd and stepped onto the bluestone path without even looking back.

Only then did Laozi and Yuanshi follow. Laozi walked neither quickly nor slowly, every step as measured as if by a ruler, steady and precise. Yuanshi carried himself with lofty dignity, his back ramrod straight, his gaze inspecting both sides with an air of superiority.

Once the Three Pure Ones moved, everyone else immediately came alive.

Jieyin and Zhunti stepped forward almost at the same time. The two had put on a show of not daring to enter first, but now they rushed ahead faster than anyone. Zhen Yuanzi gently pushed Hongyun, who then walked forward in a daze. At some point, Styx had also changed positions and blended into the crowd without drawing attention.

"Let's go," Di Jun said quietly.

Taiyi nodded and followed his elder brother into Zixiao Palace.

The instant his foot landed on the bluestone passage, everything felt different.

Outside was chaos: disorderly and lawless, with the laws of the world scattered about like shards of a shattered mirror. But inside, it was as though they had entered another world. The spiritual energy flowing through the air was terrifyingly pure. One breath made every pore in his body feel at ease. The light came from nowhere he could see. It was neither dazzling nor brilliant, merely soft in exactly the right way, bathing the entire passage as though it were submerged in warm water.

Taiyi took a deep breath and felt the True Sun Fire within him circulate more smoothly. It was not that the spiritual energy here was denser, but that the laws of heaven and earth were more orderly, more aligned with Dao.

As he walked, he observed his surroundings.

The walls on either side of the passage were plain white stone, smooth and bare, without carvings or inscriptions. But on closer inspection, fine patterns could be seen flowing slowly deep within the stone, like aquatic grass swaying beneath water. They were the manifestation of the laws of heaven and earth here, the natural flow of Dao Rhyme.

The farther inward they went, the more obvious that feeling of being watched became.

It was not that any particular person was watching them. Rather, the entire palace, this space, and even the vast source of Heavenly Dao deeper within were silently observing every living being who entered. Taiyi could feel the Karma Threads around him becoming especially clear here, extending outward like a web and tangling with those of others.

His gaze instinctively flicked toward Nuwa.

Nuwa walked beside Fuxi with light steps. She did not look at the stone walls on either side. Her eyes were fixed on the depths of the great hall ahead, her focused gaze carrying a trace of... understanding. Taiyi noticed that the void around her seemed especially settled here. Those minute ripples of law perfectly matched the palace's own Dao Rhyme, like ink dripping into clear water and naturally spreading through it.

The signs of impending sainthood were even more obvious here.

As he thought this, the passage came to an end.

The view suddenly opened up.

The great hall was far more spacious than Taiyi remembered. Thirty-six coiling-dragon pillars supported the lofty dome. The pillars themselves were pitch-black, while the carved dragon patterns on their surfaces glimmered with faint dark-gold light. Unknown gemstones were embedded in the dragons' eyes, occasionally flashing with a glint of spiritual radiance. The floor was paved with white jade tiles patterned like clouds, fitted so tightly together that not even a strand of hair could slip between them.

At the very front was a raised platform with a Dao seat, currently empty. The seat had been carved from a single block of green jade. Its design was so simple it was almost shabby, yet placed there, it became the center of the entire hall, drawing everyone's eyes to it without effort.

Below the Dao seat, six cushions were arranged in an arc.

They were the most ordinary woven grass cushions, even somewhat rough-looking, utterly out of place in this magnificent hall. But Taiyi knew just how immense the karma tied to those six positions was.

Quite a few people were already standing in the hall.

The Three Pure Ones, who had entered first, stood near the front on the left. Laozi had his eyes closed in quiet repose, Yuanshi stood with his hands behind his back, and Tongtian looked up at the dome of the hall. A phantom Star Chart hung there, its stars slowly revolving along trajectories too profound to fathom.

Jieyin and Zhunti stood on the right, very close to the cushions. Zhunti's eyes seemed glued to the fifth cushion, drifting toward it every so often. Jieyin kept his palms together and muttered under his breath, but though his eyelids drooped, his peripheral vision was also sweeping over those seats.

Hongyun and Zhen Yuanzi stood a little farther back. Hongyun was clearly restless now, glancing at the cushions and then around the hall, his hands not knowing where to rest. Zhen Yuanzi stood behind him, one hand hovering over his shoulder, seeming both to comfort and restrain him.

At some point, Styx had slipped into a corner of the hall. His blood-red Daoist robe stood out sharply against the pale surroundings. He leaned against a coiling-dragon pillar with lowered eyelids, as if napping, but Taiyi could sense that this old monster's divine sense had spread out soundlessly like a spiderweb, carefully scanning everyone present.

Di Jun led the four others to a position on the middle left side—neither too close nor too far from the cushions, with a broad field of view while remaining unobtrusive.

After taking his place, Taiyi began silently adjusting his condition.

He suppressed the faint weakness caused by his injuries to the deepest depths. The True Sun Fire circulated slowly within him, maintaining an impressive outward presence without being overly ostentatious. At the same time, following the method recorded in that ancient secret art, he began vibrating his Primordial Spirit at a specific frequency.

The moment he did, his perception changed at once.

The Karma Threads that had been blurry within the hall now became visible down to the finest detail. He could "see" the karma extending from each person. The Three Pure Ones' Karma Threads were solid as iron chains, tightly linked to some vast existence deep within the void. Jieyin and Zhunti's threads were much thinner, but tightly entwined with each other and faintly resonating with a ley line somewhere in the west.

Hongyun's Karma Threads... Taiyi's gaze narrowed.

Among the Karma Threads extending from Hongyun's body, one was especially thick and bright, connecting directly to the second cushion. But that thread was trembling violently now, like a taut string that could snap at any moment.

Was this the manifestation of the karma tied to the cushions?

Taiyi's heart stirred. He continued observing and saw the Karma Threads extending from himself. Most were closely entangled with Di Jun and the Demon Race, but several thin, nearly invisible threads were quietly reaching toward the area of the cushions.

They were traces left behind by his deductions and schemes of recent days, possibilities that had yet to occur.

He quickly steadied his mind and forced those threads back. It was not yet time.

More and more people entered the hall.

Dozens more arrived one after another, all renowned great powers of the Great Wilderness. Some radiated killing intent and clearly had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Some concealed their auras and looked like ordinary old farmers, yet a sweep of their eyes sent chills through the heart. There were even a few Taiyi did not recognize at all, old monsters who had likely just emerged from secluded cultivation in some remote mountain ravine.

A rough count put the number in the hall at two or three hundred.

So many beings at or above the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm gathered in one place should have made their auras soar to the heavens and their pressure terrifying. Yet the hall was actually strangely quiet, so quiet that even breathing could barely be heard. Everyone was restraining themselves, holding back. In a place like Zixiao Palace, no one dared act recklessly.

The atmosphere grew heavier and heavier.

Taiyi could feel the Dao Rhyme in the air gradually strengthening, rolling in waves like a rising tide and weighing heavily upon everyone's hearts. Heavenly Dao's pressure was gathering, waiting for the one who would sit upon the Dao seat to descend.

His gaze swept across the hall before finally settling on Nuwa.

Nuwa's state at this moment was quite intriguing. She stood in a relaxed manner, her pale hands folded before her as she calmly looked toward the empty Dao seat. Yet the minute ripples of law in the void around her were producing a certain kind of... resonance with the Dao Rhyme permeating the hall itself.

It was neither resistance nor compliance, but resonance.

Like two water ripples of the same frequency meeting and creating a more harmonious rhythm. Taiyi could even "see" faint Creation Dao Rhyme spontaneously condensing in the void around Nuwa, forming illusory azure lotuses that bloomed and withered in an instant.

Fuxi stood beside her, holding an Eight Trigrams disk in his hand. The yin-yang fish upon it slowly rotated, faintly echoing the Dao Rhyme around his younger sister. Standing together, the siblings' auras blended with a harmony that seemed wholly natural.

Di Jun suddenly nudged Taiyi's arm.

Taiyi turned and saw his elder brother signal with his eyes toward the right side—toward Jieyin and Zhunti.

At some point, Zhunti had moved forward half a step. He was now only three steps away from the fifth cushion. Although Jieyin remained where he was, the position of his palms had subtly shifted, and his center of gravity leaned forward like a fully drawn bow.

"The wind is about to rise," Di Jun's voice sounded beside Taiyi's ear, so soft it was nearly inaudible.

Taiyi nodded without speaking.

He silently watched Jieyin and Zhunti, watched the undisguised desire in the eyes of those two great powers of the Western Religion. Then he looked at Hongyun. Fine beads of sweat had already appeared on that good man's forehead, while Zhen Yuanzi's hand pressed more heavily upon his shoulder.

Then he looked toward the Three Pure Ones. Laozi remained with his eyes closed in quiet repose. A faint, indistinct sneer rested at Yuanshi's lips. Tongtian had his arms folded, wearing the expression of someone waiting to enjoy a show.

Styx still leaned against that coiling-dragon pillar, his blood-red Daoist robe completely still. Yet Taiyi could sense that this old monster's attention was now entirely fixed on the area around the cushions.

Among the others in the hall, some stared at their noses and then their hearts, assuming meditative poses. Others had flickering eyes, repeatedly watching several key figures. A few standing at the back were quietly communicating through divine sense, plotting something unknown.

This was the highest circle of the Great Wilderness.

Usually, these great powers were scattered across the Great Wilderness, either presiding over their own territories or cultivating in seclusion, rarely meeting one another. But once the bell of Zixiao Palace rang, everyone would put aside what they were doing and cross chaos to come here. Here, one could see nearly all the foremost existences of the Great Wilderness—the Three Pure Ones, the two Western Saints, the Demon Emperors, the Ancestral Witches, though the Witch Race had not come this time, Styx, Zhen Yuanzi, Hongyun...

On the surface, everyone was courteous. They would nod in greeting and exchange words such as, "Fellow Daoist, I trust you have been well." But beneath that, each person carried their own calculations. Everyone was assessing the depths of the others, preparing for the coming struggle over the cushions—and even for the calamities further ahead.

Taiyi took a deep breath and suppressed his distracting thoughts.

He adjusted his stance, making himself appear more relaxed. The True Sun Fire circulated slowly within him, maintaining the bearing expected of the Eastern Emperor without being overly ostentatious. His eyes calmly settled on the empty Dao seat ahead, waiting for the Dao Ancestor's arrival like everyone else.

The calm before the storm was the hardest to endure.

Time in the hall seemed frozen. Every breath stretched unbearably long, long enough for one to hear the sound of one's own heartbeat. The Dao Rhyme in the air grew denser and denser, making it difficult to breathe. Those Karma Threads shook violently through the void, intertwining into a web of ultimate complexity.

Everyone was waiting.

Waiting for Hongjun to appear, waiting for the sermon to begin, waiting for... the inevitable struggle over the cushions.

Just then—

A figure silently appeared upon the Dao seat atop the platform.

There were no spatial fluctuations, no ripples of spiritual power. It was as though he had always been there, only unseen before.

Hongjun.

The Dao Ancestor wore a plain gray Daoist robe, his hair casually tied back, his face expressionless. He sat upon the green jade Dao seat with lowered eyelids, as though he had not yet fully awakened.

But in that instant, everyone in the hall held their breath.

A vast Heavenly Dao pressure, deep as an abyss, spread from the Dao seat and enveloped the entire hall. It was not oppression, nor intimidation, but pure presence—like standing at the edge of a ten-thousand-foot cliff and looking down into a bottomless abyss, naturally feeling one's own insignificance.

Hongjun slowly raised his eyelids.

His gaze swept over the crowd below, calm and indifferent, as though he were looking upon a swarm of ants.

At that moment, the atmosphere in the hall tightened to its limit.