True Spirit Ancient City, the Six Great Sacred Lands

At those utterly placid words, countless pink misty clouds swayed and surged in the wind, dazzling like the brightest smile in heaven and earth.

Flower petals filled the sky, swept aloft like raging waves rising from a silent sea.

Layers of ripples spread across the river's surface, expanding in every direction. The ripples grew ever larger until they became surging billows, bending and swallowing the reeds along the bank.

Taiyu felt an invisible killing intent spread through this peach-blossom haven. Even the air had turned thin and icy, as though the breath of all living things had been stripped away.

Taiyu's heartbeat slowed as well, becoming sluggish and feeble amid that deathly silence.

He even had the illusion that he stood upon a blood-red battlefield, with countless corpses beneath his feet—yet all of it was only an illusion.

"World-Destroying Old Man..."

He murmured the name again. His voice gave rise to echoes, and the echoes birthed resonance, shrouding heaven and earth beneath a dreadful shadow.

Taiyu did not mock Chen Xun as those mine cultivators had days ago. There was not even a trace of surprise in his eyes. Instead, deep terror rippled across the lake of his heart. Such an honorific carried far too many implications.

Moreover, this Heavenly Venerable Realm cultivator could even summon the might of the heavens' Heavenly Tribulation. To dare call himself by such a title, just how twisted was his mind...

Taiyu slowly raised his head and looked toward the black-haired man on the bamboo raft by the riverbank, who wore a gentle smile. Beads of sweat seeped from his brow, and an inexplicable fear colored his eyes.

This fear did not stem from differences in cultivation. He had roamed the Longevity Mountain Range for years with primordial ferocious beasts at his side, never