The footsteps crossing the two worlds from within the Fengdu Passage continued to sound.
Each beat was like a drum, striking the taut heartstrings of the countless cultivators.
His figure had yet to appear.
But as the Sumeru Storm surged upward, carrying turbid nether qi,
a voice, aged and sinister, grating like metal scraping against stone,
burst across heaven and earth ahead of him!
"Cult Leader Liu has always been fond of turning black into white."
"And he's led the leaders of the Five Regions' sects into confusing right and wrong along with him."
"For the Spirit Race's finest cultivation talents to enter the sacred sects is indeed a good thing."
"It would strengthen their lineages and make this Golden Great Era of competition for the Dao shine brighter still."
"But."
"How does that make the Spirit Race a branch of the Human Race?"
"That's wrong!"
"If having a human shape is all it takes to count as human,"
"then the tribes of my Holy Race should count as a branch of the Human Race too."
"Why don't we see Cult Leader Liu welcoming us?"
"So at its root, the very claim that the Spirit Race belongs to the Human Race is flawed!"
"Where did all this race's wondrous gifts and heaven-blessed spirituality come from?"
"Not from their human outlines."
"But from the bloodlines of our Holy Race tribes that they inherited, which gave rise to their many Innate Spirit Bodies!"
"Seen from this point,"
"no matter how you look at it,"
"the Spirit Race should be a branch of my Holy Race!"
"What you are doing today should all be part of my race's great undertaking of Sacred-Mystic Confluence!"
"I'm simply—"
"I'm simply setting the record straight and clearing up the truth."
"Cult Leader Liu, what do you say?"