In Zixiao Palace, Dao Ancestor Hongjun's cold snort still echoed through the empty main hall.
His eyes, deep as an abyss, stared fixedly toward Golden Ao Island through layer upon layer of void.
In that instant, he had finally understood.
He had understood precisely what scheme lay behind Gu Changqing's earth-shaking series of actions.
"Gu Changqing... what a Wine Sword Immortal..."
Hongjun murmured in a low voice, laden with a tangled emotion he could neither explain nor name.
There was anger, shock, helplessness, and even a trace of... apprehension that he himself refused to admit.
He saw it all clearly.
First, Gu Changqing had set foot on Kunlun and forcibly seized its ancestral vein.
Then he had descended upon Vulture Peak and cunningly taken the Buddhist School's spirit vein.
On the surface, the fellow had seemed to be acting out in a drunken frenzy, making trouble, throwing his weight around on the strength of his cultivation.
But in reality?
Every step had been meticulously calculated.
Every link had fitted neatly into the next.
He had used Kunlun's ancestral vein as his foundation, drawing upon its deep, enduring earth origin, undiminished since time immemorial.
He had used the Buddhist School's spirit vein as a supplement, drawing upon its serenity and purity, the crystallized fruit of countless epochs of painstaking effort.
The two great spirit veins, one hard and one soft, one yang and one yin, had been a perfect match to begin with.
But that had not been enough.
Not nearly enough.
And so Gu Changqing had stirred the nine great spirit springs into motion.
The sun spirit spring, the taiyin spirit spring, Yellow Springs, the seven-star spirit spring, the flat peach spirit spring...
Each of the nine great spirit springs was a supreme treasure rarely seen between heaven and earth,