The first formal clash between the Immortal Court and the Demon Court ended in the Immortal Court's defeat.
Qing Xuan was not surprised.
The Eastern King had only just retreated in defeat from Chaos when he returned to the Primordial World and ran straight into Taiyi.
Had he refused to yield this time, he could still have barely maintained the Immortal Court's prestige.
But the gods who had accompanied him might no longer have had the spirit to confront the Chaos Bell head-on.
The moment the bell rang, the outcome had already been decided.
Behind them, the turmoil sweeping across the east continued to spread. The lingering resonance of the Chaos Bell crossed mountains and rivers, passed over the Four Seas, and finally struck the Primordial World Fetal Membrane, dissolving into countless tiny ripples.
Beyond those ripples lay boundless Chaos.
And deeper still, where no living being in the Primordial World could perceive it, a pitch-black realm hung amid the turbulent currents of Chaos.
There was neither sun nor moon there, nor mountains and rivers in any ordinary sense.
Twelve layers of black firmament overlapped, countless shadows slowly roaming across each layer.
Some resembled gods and demons; others were nothing more than a wisp of thought.
Still others had no fixed form at all, sometimes becoming kindly Daoists, sometimes hideous, terrifying monsters.
Countless whispers interwove in the darkness.
Greed, murderous intent, resentment, hatred, delusion-everything born in the hearts of the Primordial World's living beings could find an echo here.
This was the Outer-Domain Demon Realm.
Above the highest of those twelve layers of firmament, a Twelfth-Rank Black Lotus bloomed in silence.
With every opening and closing of its petals, the entire Demon Realm breathed along with it.
Vast demonic qi poured from the lotus's heart, evolving into palaces, demonic lands,