Within Great Scarlet Heaven.
A golden sun hung overhead, and clear qi drifted in ethereal wisps.
This immortal realm had grown ever more magnificent, ever more real, with no boundary in sight. Everything within it could change according to Xu Xuan's will; he could create towers and palaces, mountains and rivers, plants and trees at any moment.
Only living beings were absent.
Though there were many Heavenly Soldiers, Female Immortals, and the like serving as illusions, they were essentially empty shells, without any independent intelligence, merely acting according to prescribed rules.
The only truly living beings were the Purple Mansion cultivators sent inside.
Xu Xuan stood in the sky, with an Immortal Official in white-and-gold robes beside him. It was Tiantuo.
The Immortal Stele manifested, and the character for calamity shone.
That single character seemed to contain boundless mysteries: the formless ghost gods, sacrificial rites, and the transformations of life and death were all within it. It represented the omens of fortune and misfortune.
Xu Xuan turned his hand over and took out a blue beast hide covered in tattoos, with iron-gray qi flowing ceaselessly across it.
This was the [Spirit-Capturing Cloth], an object used by the Lingsa path to control spirituality, and an exceedingly rare artifact of the Shamanic Dao.
"Sacrifice."
Xu Xuan issued his command.
The beast hide abruptly vanished, becoming formless, as though something had snatched it away.
No ritual was needed. As long as Xu Xuan expressed his desire to make a sacrifice, the exchange between him and the calamity blessing fruit position was established.
A faint revelation emerged, and a formless wind swept past. Xu Xuan quietly watched the character for calamity, waiting for the divination's result to reveal itself.
"What does it say?"
There was anticipation in Tiantuo's voice as well. This was a