The autumn wind had yet to stir, but the cicada sensed it first

The instant Liu Dongqing killed the ancient elder of the Myriad Phenomena Sword Sect, he went after the turtle demon of the Celestial Phenomena Dao.

This was the conclusion Liu Dongqing had reached after careful thought.

Of the three remaining Nascent Soul Peak Dao Lords, only the Celestial Phenomena Dao turtle demon cultivated both the Black Tortoise lineage and the Heavenly River Dao Sect's modern methods. There were even clear signs that he was using the Black Tortoise lineage as fuel to drive his Daoist foundations through a fundamental transformation toward the Heavenly River Dao Sect's modern methods.

Had he cultivated Taiyin Divine Sense and Yin Spirit Path techniques like Zheng Yubing and Lu Biwu, he might have been harder to sense.

But the Celestial Phenomena Dao turtle demon had refined his demonic nature into the Heavenly River Dao Sect's modern methods.

The Heavenly River Dao Sect's path of mind and spirit was inherently balanced and tranquil, following the way of the Primordial Unity Method. Now, tainted by every manner of demonic nature, it displayed not only its primordial-unity character but also greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt—the five poisons in full, with every desire blazing fiercely.

That meant one thing.

The more violently the fiend unleashed his Heavenly River Divine Sense, the more it surged and boiled,

the more effortlessly Liu Dongqing could sense his passions and desires and use them to summon the Heavenly Fate Mystic Bird.

That was his judgment, and that was what he did.

Sure enough,

almost the instant the Heaven's Mandate Dark Bird Descends Diagram unfurled, the Heavenly Fate Mystic Bird answered the call from within that ocean of dark flame and burst forth, bathed in fire!

Between shifts of illusion and reality,

Liu Dongqing also manifested the Nine-Bend Heavenly River Loop Diagram. In