Power at the Peak of the Nine Provinces!

In an instant, the Nine-Layer Heavenly Palace, which had been silent for hundreds or even thousands of years, was completely in an uproar.

Powerful Divine Sense emerged from various Heavenly Gate, intertwining above the sea of clouds, conveying their shock and confusion.

"Has Qingyuan gone mad? How dare he so blatantly barge into the First Heavenly Palace!"

He possessed an extremely subtle yet incredibly powerful aura that even my Divine Sense couldn't penetrate!

"Something terrible has happened! Something absolutely terrible has happened!"

These old monsters, who usually remained in seclusion and never emerged unless their sects were in imminent danger of destruction, were all alarmed at this moment.

Meanwhile, Daoist Qingyuan and Daoist Wuzhen, who were at the center of the storm, were completely unaware of it.

Or perhaps, Daoist Qingyuan simply didn't care.

He carried Daoist Wuzhen at an extreme speed, almost tearing through space, and landed directly in front of what appeared to be the oldest and simplest Heavenly Gate.

This is the first of the Nine-Layer Heavenly Palaces, the First Heavenly Palace.

There are no magnificent palaces or Immortal Qi.

There is only one enormous stone palace that seems to have existed here since the Heaven-Opening Earth-Splitting.

The surface of the stone hall is covered with traces of weathering, as if it has been eroded by endless years.

An aura of desolation, antiquity, and seemingly transcendence emanated from the stone hall, causing even Daoist Wuzhen, Tribulation Immortal First Stage, to feel his Primordial Spirit tremble.

This is the residence of the First Ancestor.

It is also the strongest trump card of the Mount Shu.

Daoist Qingyuan stopped a hundred feet away from the stone hall gate.

He released Daoist Wuzhen, took a deep breath, and suppressed his aura as Tribulation Immortal Seventh Stage to the extreme. Then, facing the tightly closed stone door, he respectfully bowed and performed a junior's greeting.

The Daoist Wuzhen behind him didn't even dare to breathe loudly, and bowed deeply in imitation of his master.

"Disciple Qingyuan, along with disciple Wu Zhen, have urgent business to discuss and request an audience with the First Ancestor!"

The voice of Daoist Qingyuan was filled with unprecedented solemnity and respect.

Inside the stone hall, there was an eerie silence.

It was as if his voice had been swallowed up by the endless years, without stirring up even the slightest ripple.

Daoist Qingyuan and Daoist Wuzhen remained bowed and motionless, waiting, their foreheads even beaded with sweat.

Even Tribulation Immortal Seventh Stage is still a junior in front of the First Ancestor.

I don't know how much time passed; it felt like an instant, yet also like a century.

A voice, so ancient it seemed to belong to another era, slowly emanated from within the stone hall.

The sound wasn't loud, but it resonated clearly deep within their souls.

"Come in."

The stone hall's door, which had been tightly closed for countless millennia, slowly opened a crack with a teeth-grinding creak.

No light shone through the crack in the door; only a deep darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

Daoist Qingyuan straightened up, gave Daoist Wuzhen a wink, and stepped inside first.

Daoist Wuzhen followed closely behind, stepping over the threshold in one stride.

The scene before him shook him to his core.

The interior of the hall was not as he had imagined.

This is a void, without heaven and earth, without directions, only endless stars slowly revolving.

They seemed to be at the center of the universe.

In the very center of that sea of stars floated a figure so emaciated that it was nothing but skin and bones.

The figure sat cross-legged with eyes closed, wearing a tattered Daoist robe whose original color was no longer discernible.

His hair had completely fallen out, his skin was withered and stuck to his bones, and deep purple lines covered his entire body—signs that his lifespan was nearing its end and his life force was about to cease.

He was like a dried-up corpse that had been drifting in the universe for billions of years, without a trace of life.

If one did not see it with their own eyes, even the Daoist Wuzhen would not be able to perceive his presence with his Divine Sense.

He was the First Ancestor.

The true Pillar of Stability of Mount Shu, a living fossil that has survived eight heavenly Heavenly Tribulations and remained at the Tribulation Immortal Eighth Stage Peak for nearly ten thousand years.

"Ancestor."

Daoist Qingyuan bowed respectfully once again to the "mummified corpse".

The figure didn't move, nor did it open its eyes, but its voice rang out again.

"Qingyuan, what has caused you to lose your composure like this?"

Daoist Qingyuan dared not delay, and stepped forward, raising the jade box in his hand high.

"This disciple has by chance encountered an extraordinary fortuitous opportunity, and dares not act on my own initiative, so I have come to ask the Ancestor for his decision!"

He opened the jade box, and inside lay the dark golden Tribulation Immortal Pill.

The moment the fragrance dissipated, this desolate sea of stars suddenly changed.

Countless stars that were originally dim suddenly shone brightly again at this moment.

Some fragments of stars that had been completely dead and turned into cosmic dust miraculously reformed.

The First Ancestor, who was sitting cross-legged in the center of the starry sea, suddenly trembled, his body as withered as a dead tree.

For the first time, his eyelids, which had been tightly closed for thousands of years, slowly parted a crack.

A gaze beyond words shot out from those slits of eyes and landed on the Tribulation Immortal Pill.

In that gaze, there was no greed, no excitement, only endless vicissitudes, and a trace of longing that even he himself hadn't noticed...

"Where did this elixir come from?"

For the first time, the First Ancestor's voice carried a hint of fluctuation.

"Reporting to the Ancestor, this pill is called the Tribulation Immortal Pill. It was obtained by Chen Changqing, the newly First Sequence Holy Son of Mount Shu, in the Heavenly Void Secret Realm."

Daoist Qingyuan recounted the origin and effects of the elixir in detail.

When they heard that "if Tribulation Immortal consumes this, he can advance to a higher level without needing to Tribulation Transcendence," the entire starry sea seemed to come to a standstill.

The First Ancestor's withered body trembled violently once more.

His eyes, which had only been slightly open, finally opened fully.

What eyes they were!

It seems to contain endless scenes of the birth and death of the universe and the changing of eras.

He slowly raised a hand, thinner than a withered branch, and tremblingly reached for the Tribulation Immortal Pill.

His movements were slow, as if he had used up the last of his strength.

Daoist Qingyuan and Daoist Wuzhen held their breath.

They knew that the First Ancestor was interested.

With this elixir, the First Ancestor will not only be able to extend his nearly exhausted lifespan, but may also break through the bottleneck that has trapped him for ten thousand years and step into the legendary ninth level of the Ninth Layer Tribulation Immortal realm!

That would be the pinnacle of power in the Nine Provinces!

The First Ancestor's withered hand stopped an inch away from the jade box.

The stars stopped turning, and all was silent.

Daoist Qingyuan and Daoist Wuzhen could even hear their own hearts pounding wildly.

This hand bears witness to the rise and fall of Mount Shu over ten thousand years, and also sustains the last breath of a powerful Tribulation Immortal Eighth Stage.

An inch forward marks the beginning of new life.

One inch back lies Nirvana.

The First Ancestor's eyelids trembled slightly; in those eyes, which held the weight of epochal changes...