Li Daoyuan suppressed the trace of unease in his heart and returned his gaze to the Netherland Heavenly Dao. He had suppressed this Heavenly Dao for thousands of years, and it was already an arrow at the end of its flight.
Had he not feared that forceful methods would damage the root origin, he would have resorted to more extreme measures long ago. After all, unlike the Source-Wielding Dao Lords of Bandit Heaven, Qi Refiners had not created their Fifth Realm methods expressly to seize the generative power of heaven and earth.
"Fine. Slow it is."
Muttering to himself, he activated the Azure Jade Ruyi again. The closer anything drew to its final stage, the more carefully it needed to be handled, especially when dealing with something as uncanny as the Heavenly Dao.
Yet just as he continued wearing down the Heavenly Dao's will, a faint glimmer quietly flickered within that formless consciousness, then immediately fell still.
The Present World, Anyang Subprefecture.
Chu Mo sat upon the high platform, looking down at Han Qing prostrated on the ground as he pondered.
Four Ghost Immortals... appearing in the same period... with divine abilities that bear an upright, radiant aspect.
As the pieces of information linked together, the situation became perfectly clear.
The Ghost Immortals were definitely cultivators from the Outer Domain.
One Ghost Immortal appearing could still be explained as an exceptionally gifted individual. But four appearing together, their methods unlike those of yin cultivators or the Ghost Dao... the Netherland Heavenly Dao could not have been so blind as to raise these "scourges" for itself. *What practitioner of the Netherworld doesn't summon ten thousand times ten thousand miles of dark clouds and nether mist when they strike, but instead fills the sky with rosy light and bathes everything in auspicious