Autumn, the thirty-seven-thousandth year of the Heavenly South calendar.
Cultivators of the Righteous Path Alliance had barely wiped the blood from the broken stele at the Seven Mysteries Sect Ruins when a scarlet rift spanning a thousand miles suddenly tore open across the heavens! Like the maw of a colossal beast, its edges streamed with molten spacetime turbulence. Occasional bursts of chaotic light could annihilate mountains a hundred miles away in an instant.
More unsettling still, echoes of countless living beings' wails rose from deep within the rift, mingled with the lingering clash of metal from an ancient battlefield. The entire Southern Heaven Cultivation World trembled.
"The Burial God Abyss... has opened!"
"The 'Land of Eternal Annihilation' that opens once every three thousand years has opened!"
Cries woven from panic and greed resounded through the great sects.
The Star-Gazing Platform, Star Palace Heavenly South Headquarters.
Nangong Wan's delicate hand swept across the star chart. At its center, a vortex emblem spun madly, while gold and blood-red markings flashed alternately along its rim. "The Burial God Abyss formed from fragments of an ancient battlefield of gods and demons. It contains 'spacetime turbulence,' 'Ancient Cultivator remnant souls,' and 'law traps.' Anyone below the Nascent Soul stage dies upon contact. It opens once every sixty years, but this time..." Her fingertip touched the top of the vortex. "'Ceasefire Dao Resonance' is spilling out of the rift-a warning from the Heavenly Dao. This secret realm has appeared alongside a 'Spacetime Tide.' If Nascent Soul cultivators force a battle, their divine souls can easily be swept into the rift and lost for eternity."
Lu Yun sprang to his feet, the Ten-Thousand-Sword Token humming in his palm. "Even the Heavenly Dao is urging us to cease fighting? Then won't the five demonic sects monopolize all the