"The Sacred Heart Lotus is about to mature. This time, it belongs to our Sacred Sect."
"Sacred Sect? What bullshit Sacred Sect? You've got nothing but a half-dead old bastard holding down the fort, and you dare call yourselves a Sacred Sect? Aren't you afraid of knocking your teeth out and becoming a laughingstock?"
"Liu Laosan, what do you mean by that?"
"What else could I mean? Your bullshit Sacred Sect has long since declined. That old bastard in your sect will die sooner or later. You want to use the Sacred Heart Lotus to prolong his life? What a fool's dream."
"You..."
Deep within the Boundary Sea lay a land of nothingness.
Countless figures had gathered here.
Warships as vast as entire universes floated upon the Boundary Sea.
There were humanoid beings, enormous exotic beasts, and all manner of races with bizarre and grotesque appearances.
Their numbers were immense, packed together in a vast, dense expanse.
At their center, a colossal lotus radiating soft white light floated silently in the very heart of it all.
It was not an exact replica of a mortal lotus; its form was closer to an ideal perfection.
Its nine petals spread with elegant grace, arranged in three layers that bloomed outward in turn, concealing the great principles of three giving rise to all things and nine revolutions of reincarnation.
The petals possessed no ordinary texture. Forged from condensed moonlight and the essence of morning dew through countless ages of tempering, they bore a moist, translucent, glass-like sheen.
Its entire body resembled flawless white mutton-fat jade, yet was more translucent than jade; like millennia-old ice, yet gentler and warmer than ice.
No lotus seeds grew within its pod. There was only a warm, non-dazzling platinum-white halo slowly turning there, like a spark of spiritual