Establishing a Daoist Sanctuary, the Great Tribulation Erupts

After taking the Twelfth-Grade World-Cleansing White Lotus and the Three Lights Divine Water, Qing Xuan and Qing Yi headed to Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou.

The three great islands shared a single grand formation. Since they had already opened a gap from Penglai, entering the other two islands no longer required crossing the sea of mist again.

Several thousand years later, at the center of Fangzhang Island.

Five mountain peaks encircled a valley. Crimson, azure, yellow, white, and black clouds gathered without dispersing. Seen from above, they resembled a naturally formed Five Elements Dao Diagram.

At the center of the diagram stood an ancient pine towering thirty thousand meters high.

Its branches did not spread wildly like those of an ordinary pine. Instead, they were distinctly divided into five directions.

The pine needles, each a different color, flowed with the Dao rhythms of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Pinecones roughly a foot in size rested amid the protection of the five-colored clouds.

Qing Xuan landed beneath the tree and looked up at it for a long while.

"Five-Needle Pine."

One of the foremost Innate Spirit Roots in the Primordial World.

For endless years, this ancient pine had silently grown here. Its roots passed through the five Innate Spirit Veins beneath Fangzhang Island, organizing the island's Five Elements essence into perfect order.

Qing Yi approached the ancient pine and unfolded a corner of the Eastern Green Lotus Treasure-Colored Banner in her hand. A wisp of primordial wood energy descended into the valley.

The Five Elements aura that had originally been perfectly unified within the ancient pine immediately tilted slightly toward the east.

The Five Elements clouds circulating among the other four mountain peaks also visibly dimmed.

Qing Yi glanced at it, then swiftly put away the Green Lotus Treasure-Colored Banner.

"With only one banner, the Five Elements can never truly be balanced."

Qing Xuan naturally understood what she meant.

The Five Directional Primordial Flags had originally been a set of spirit treasures born from the same source.

A single flag was already among the finest treasures for protecting one's Dao in the Primordial World. Only when all five flags gathered could the complete Primordial Five Elements truly be restored.

"The Primordial World is so vast. The remaining four flags can't have simply vanished into thin air."

Qing Xuan smiled, then pressed his palm against the ground before the ancient pine.

A vast world unfolded behind him.

Qing Xuan did not forcibly sever the Five-Needle Pine's roots. He merely lifted the Five-Colored Spirit Soil within a radius of tens of thousands of miles, along with the five Innate Spirit Veins connected to it.

Qing Yi's Creation Great Dao descended at the same time, preserving the connection between every root and the spirit veins.

The continuous valley rose from the ground, finally entering Qing Xuan's world intact.

Besides this Five-Needle Pine, the three islands also contained many unnamed Innate Spirit Roots and spirit treasures.

Over several thousand years, aside from a few spirit roots that had yet to mature, the two gathered all ownerless spiritual objects and sorted them by category.

Deep within Yingzhou lay a black lake so heavy that not even the slightest ripple stirred across its surface.

Every drop of water within the lake was Primordial Heavy Water, condensed over long ages from the essence of boundless seawater. It looked tranquil, yet its weight could easily crush mountains.

Qing Yi merely sank a Sea-Calming Divine Pearl into the bottom of the lake. Amid a deep rumble, the entire black lake slowly rose, eventually transforming into a heavy water dragon and entering the inner realm of the pearl.

By the time they had explored all three islands, they had obtained far more than the Pure World White Lotus, the Three Lights Divine Water, and the Five-Needle Pine.

There were also two mid-grade Innate Spirit Treasures, five low-grade Innate Spirit Treasures, and an uncountable number of spirit roots, divine materials, and primordial spiritual objects.

As for the Yellow Central Plum Qing Xuan had once hoped to find, there was still no trace of it.

It seemed the legends he had heard in his previous life could only confirm the rough existence of certain things in the Primordial World. They could not truly be treated as an infallible treasure map.

When the sea of mist outside the three islands closed once more, Qing Xuan and Qing Yi stood side by side amid the clouds.

Qing Yi turned back for one last look at the three immortal islands concealed by the grand formation.

"Not staying here?"

She knew that aside from seeking opportunities, Qing Xuan had intended this journey to find a Daoist sanctuary.

The Three Immortal Islands were no inferior to any supreme blessed land in the Primordial World. With an Innate Grand Formation concealing them from outside, they were indeed more than sufficient to support a Daoist sanctuary.

Yet Qing Xuan shook his head.

"The Three Immortal Islands are indeed excellent. Whether used to cultivate spirit roots or kept as a secondary residence, they are more than enough."

He looked beyond the East Sea.

After several Epoch Cycles, the Dragon Race's Fate Aura over the East Sea had grown countless times denser than when they had first arrived.

Dragon Race aquatic palaces and the territories of water clans spread across the sea. Even in such a remote place as this, Dragon Race banners could occasionally be seen sweeping across the distant ocean surface.

He knew that before long, this sea would truly become one of the starting points of the struggle among the three races.

Moreover, although the Three Immortal Islands were a supreme blessed land, they could not carry his World Dao any further.

"The place truly suited to us is not in the East Sea."

Qing Yi followed his gaze upward.

Above the heavens, the stars of the cosmos silently continued their course.

The vastness of the Primordial World's starry sky was entirely different from the boundless earth below.

After Qing Xuan and Qing Yi entered the starry sky, each star whose light could once only be seen from the ground had become an enormous celestial body with boundaries beyond sight.

Qing Xuan merely continued adjusting the stellar trajectories of the cosmos.

The closer they drew to the center of the northern heavens, the clearer the paths of the surrounding stars became.

They appeared to travel their separate ways, yet all of them faintly revolved around the same center.

Qing Xuan continuously traced the countless stellar paths backward, and the center encircled by all the stars of the cosmos gradually became clearer.

They traveled through the starry sky for several thousand years before an ancient star shrouded entirely in vast purple aura finally appeared at the end of the heavens.

It rested silently at the center of the northern heavens. It did not burn with boundless solar true fire like the Sun Star, nor was it as cold and secluded as the Taiyin Star.

It possessed a tranquil, ancient majesty.

Countless rays of starlight gathered from the cosmos, then flowed outward in all directions through this star.

From afar, it resembled a violet continent suppressing the center of the Primordial World's starry sky.

The Purple Emperor Star.

The true hub of all stars in the Primordial World's cosmos.

As Qing Yi gazed upon that ancient star, she quickly understood Qing Xuan's choice.

For his world, no matter how blessed a sanctuary might be, it could only support a corner of the entire Primordial World.

But the Purple Emperor Star connected the stars of the cosmos.

As long as he established himself here, he could observe the movements of the Primordial World's starry sky day and night, using the evolution of the celestial stars to nourish his own world.

The two crossed the purple starry sea and finally landed atop the highest divine mountain on the Purple Emperor Star.

Qing Xuan unfolded his world, and the Five-Needle Pine, together with that five-colored valley, descended once more, spreading its branches and leaves amid the vast starlight.

Qing Yi also took out some of the Three Lights Divine Water and transformed it into a Lotus Pond at the other end of the valley.

The Twelfth-Grade World-Cleansing White Lotus stood within the pool, its golden, silver, and violet waters reflecting one another with the starlight filling the sky.

The spirit roots and divine materials acquired from the three islands were also placed within the valley. The Eastern Green Lotus Treasure-Colored Banner unfurled, and the phenomenon of ten thousand green lotuses vanished into the Purple Tenuity Starry Sea.

The two did not spend much time constructing palaces.

An ancient, simple palace built from Purple Tenuity Starstone quickly condensed atop the divine mountain.

Qing Xuan stood before the palace and turned back to look across the vast Purple Emperor Star.

"Buzhou Mountain is our ancestral court, and the Three Immortal Islands can remain as a secondary residence."

Qing Xuan looked at the myriad streams of starlight flowing in from the end of the starry sky, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

"From this day onward, this is our true Daoist sanctuary."

Qing Yi stood beside him. She looked toward Buzhou Mountain, then glanced back at the distant East Sea, smiling as she said, "You really can't bear to give up a single place."

Qing Xuan nodded frankly. "Of course. After searching for so many years, how could I just throw them away after finding them?"

A trace of amusement appeared in Qing Yi's eyes, but she said nothing further.

At that very moment, the entire Purple Tenuity Starry Sea suddenly trembled faintly.

It was not a phenomenon caused by the completion of their Daoist sanctuary.

Qing Xuan and Qing Yi raised their heads at the same time and looked toward the Primordial World below.

In the eastern lands, the vast Fate Aura of the Dragon Race spread toward the Primordial World's continent like a rising tide.

In the south, boundless fire clouds surged into the heavens. Meanwhile, in the center of the Primordial World, countless Qilin Race auras simultaneously awakened across the heavy earth.

The Clan Fortunes of the three sides pressed against one another. At their borders, the balance that had barely been maintained began to shatter one after another.

A thread of black-red Calamity Aura, nearly impossible for anyone to detect, silently spread among the countless living beings at the lowest levels of the three races.

The three powerful wills standing at the peaks of their Clan Fortunes remained clear-minded. Unable to directly shake Ancestor Dragon, Yuanfeng, and the First Qilin, the black-red Calamity Aura quietly sank into the deepest layers of the three races' immense Clan Fortunes.

A single dispute at the borders might mean little to the three races.

But when the same hatred and slaughter erupted simultaneously in tens of thousands of places across the Primordial World, and every concession meant clansmen dying violent deaths, vassals turning away, and Fate Aura declining, then even those three powerful figures at the pinnacle of their races would find it difficult to retreat, no matter how clear-headed they remained.

Qing Xuan was no stranger to this black-red aura.

The demonic seal beneath the North Sea Sea Eye, the Blood Fiend Aura continually drawn away from the Ancient Battlefield, and the hidden thread spreading all the way into the western Primordial World all shared the same origin as the Calamity Aura before him.

"Luohou has begun to act." Qing Yi recognized that aura as well.

"He has probably waited for this day for a very long time."

Qing Xuan watched the Calamity Aura continuously spread, and the smile on his face gradually vanished.

The Daoist sanctuary on the Purple Emperor Star had only just been established.

The Dragon-Han Tribulation had finally reached the moment when it would truly sweep across the Primordial World.