On Mount Sumeru, Jieyin and Zhunti looked up at the dark red sword light in the sky, then exchanged a glance.
"It's here!"
For the first time in countless ages, a faint smile touched Jieyin's sorrowful face.
Zhunti merely said, "This gate is destined for the West."
Then the two sages looked away.
They had no intention of interfering with the opening of the Heavenly Gate, nor any need to.
That desert in the northwestern corner of the Western Ox-He Continent was hardly important. If the Heavenly Court wanted to put a gate there, it could.
In the void of the Heavenly Realm, Haotian stood before the passageway the Immortal Slaying Sword had just pierced open. Gripping the Haotian Sword in both hands, he drove his authority as Heavenly Emperor to its limit.
The Heavenly Dao's source power poured from the blade and became countless golden runes, spreading layer upon layer across the passageway's walls. Wherever the runes passed, they suppressed the raging Spatial Turbulence and smoothed out the twisted folds of space. The passageway widened steadily, growing from a narrow rift into a broad corridor through the void.
Everything went as smoothly as it had the previous two times, if not more so. The spatial barrier around the Western Ox-He Continent was thinner, so stabilizing the passageway required less of the Heavenly Dao's source power. Haotian expended far less energy than before.
But there was one thing none of them noticed.
The baleful aura of the Immortal Slaying Sword had not dispersed above the Western Ox-He Continent.
When they opened the South Heavenly Gate over the Southern Jambu Continent, the aura had gradually dispersed after the sword light faded. Diluted by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and dissolved by the laws of the Heavenly Dao, it had