All living beings had nothing to do with me

Tu Shan?

His name was Tu Shan!

Some of the Foundation Establishment cultivators nearby were bewildered and angry, feeling they had been toyed with.

Many others began to tremble, remembering the events of nearly a century.

From lowly Qi Refining cultivators to Foundation Establishment cultivators, they had spent most of their lives beneath Patriarch Tu Shan's imposing reputation.

Back then, they had even thought that from birth to death, and from their children's and grandchildren's births to their deaths, they would all grow accustomed to Patriarch Tu Shan's imposing reputation, and that this would remain true far into a future too distant for them to fathom.

Back then, they had grown accustomed to the order within Tushan Immortal City. Everything was orderly, demonic cultivators were forbidden, and they could spend their lives honestly being decent cultivators.

Then, suddenly...

The Hei Clan's immortal-seed cultivators had arrived. Many people died, and a new order emerged, more chaotic, bloodier, and more brutal.

Diligence and craftsmanship were no longer standards by which a cultivator's strength was judged. Only the cruelest, bloodiest cultivators, those best able to squeeze profit out of other cultivators and mortals, were needed in the immortal city.

The path to the Golden Core had become a delusion they scarcely dared voice, one that would invite terrible calamity.

But what could they do?

The Hei Clan would kill every cultivator of another surname who might form a Golden Core. Even exceptionally talented Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivators were on that terrifying blood list, liable to vanish without a trace at any moment.

Only mediocre, loyal Foundation Establishment cultivators were permitted to live in the refuge the Hei Clan had painstakingly prepared.

Now, the instant the name Tu Shan appeared,

Every cultivator's gaze fell upon the azure-robed youth before the city gate.

Azure