"Heh heh."
Ke Zixiao's faint laugh came from the void, and then his voice vanished completely.
It had once been a bright, breezy afternoon.
Ke Zixiao stood beneath a tree, his expression cold, his eyes large and utterly devoid of any living emotion.
"Peak Master Yu."
Suddenly, he slowly looked ahead. A thousand feathers drifted through the air, immortal light descended from the nine heavens, and from within it came the phantom of a woman with an air of noble grace.
"Dao Ancestor has returned." Yu Hua Qian's voice was cold and clear. "The Longevity Immortal Clan has been slaughtered into extinction. The Upper Sequence Clan has nearly been wiped out on the Nine Provinces Celestial Continent. That old man appears even stronger than before."
"The calmness of that return may be even more chilling."
Ke Zixiao's voice lowered somewhat. "But I believe Dao Ancestor will not spare us. Nor have I ever seen any sign that he intended to spare anyone. From beginning to end, we were merely a ripple in Dao Ancestor's time."
His gaze deepened as he looked toward a distant mountain.
It was a towering Immortal Mountain, resplendent with countless auspicious hues and overflowing rosy clouds.
That Immortal Mountain had no name.
Or rather, it once had one, but no one dared mention it again.
The mountain was unimaginably tall. Above its waist, it disappeared into the void, invisible to the naked eye. Even Divine Sense, upon probing into it, would be gently but utterly pushed back by an invisible force the instant it touched a certain boundary, leaving no room whatsoever.
And atop the mountain stood an enormous cauldron.
It rested there upon the summit as though it had been there since the dawn of Heaven-Opening, as though the mountain itself had been born solely