With a thunderous boom, boundless divine light erupted from the depths of the universe, illuminating the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and plunging the world into a sea of white.
That day, countless trillions of living beings witnessed a radiance more dazzling than any sun they had seen in their lives. Even night turned into day.
Only light remained between heaven and earth, dispelling all darkness. Like a guiding lamp, it seemed to illuminate every road ahead, leaving people no longer so lost and uncertain.
After a long while, the world fell silent again, as though nothing had happened. The stars continued their courses, and life went on.
In one cold stretch of the starry expanse, nothing remained-not even stars. There was only boundless darkness and a deathly stillness.
"Ooo..."
The next moment, strange phenomena arose throughout heaven and earth. Blood-red light surged into the sky, staining the entire firmament. Heaven wept, shedding a rain of blood, while the earth wailed, its tremors shaking every direction.
"These phenomena only appear when a peerless expert dies!" someone said, sorrow in their voice.
Such tales had always circulated in the world: when a Supreme or someone beyond that level fell, certain strange phenomena would occur. But endless ages had passed, and figures of that caliber rarely died, so people had forgotten.
"Sage Emperor..."
After a brief silence, everyone realized who had fallen. Especially in the territory surrounding the Sacred Emperor Palace, countless people wailed and sobbed, calling out to one man in the hope that he would return to the world.
Meng Tianzheng arrived at the starry region where Lin Tianfan had undergone his tribulation. His expression was grave, tinged with loneliness and sorrow, for an unparalleled hero had departed just like that.
"He... succeeded, and yet... he failed!" Meng Tianzheng let out a soft sigh, his weathered face heavy with grief, as he looked toward a cracked cauldron nearby.
It had not been destroyed alongside its master in that great tribulation. It had survived, proof that an extraordinary expert had once existed.
Although the Golden Cauldron was riddled with cracks, it still breathed out Chaos Energy and radiated the light of the immortal path. All of this confirmed that the Sage Emperor had stepped into the realm of immortality, only to fall within the black mist.
People from the Sacred Emperor Palace arrived as well. They were the Eight Great War Generals, each brimming with towering blood energy, each youthful in appearance, powerful and imposing.
"Lord Sage Emperor... you should not have left us like this. You were unmatched. You should have gazed down upon the world from on high and endured for eternity..."
All Eight Great War Generals under the Sage Emperor wept bitterly. At that moment, it was as though the pillar of their faith had collapsed, leaving them utterly desolate.
Whoosh!
Many more experts arrived then. They were among the very finest cultivators in the Nine Heavens, hailing from long-lived families, cultivation lineages, and dynasties. Every one of them could sway the course of the world.
"Alas, for our fellow Daoist, the Sage Emperor, to depart so young is truly a terrible pity!" said Xu Mingxuan, ruler of the Xu Family Dynasty. His was one of the few powers that had never clashed with the Sacred Emperor Palace.
Back then, Lin Tianfan had been enemies with many powers, and some remained his enemies even now. It was only his rise to prominence that had kept them from making any moves.
"Is becoming an immortal truly impossible?" asked a youth who appeared sixteen or seventeen, his voice puzzled.
This was Wang Changsheng of the Wang Family. Though he looked young, he was actually an old monster who had lived for over a million years. His strength was astonishing, placing him among the top five. Across the entire Nine Heavens, only Lin Tianfan and Meng Tianzheng could keep him in check.
Every Supreme who had reached the pinnacle of the mortal path longed to take that next step and become an immortal.
Yet it seemed like a curse no one could break. Seeing even someone as powerful as the Sage Emperor fall, they felt as though a mountain pressed down upon their heads, filling them with despair.
Some grieved the Sage Emperor's fall, while others rejoiced. The Jin Family and Feng Family were the happiest of all. With their great enemy gone, they no longer had to worry about being called to account.
Both families had gravely offended the Sage Emperor back then and had paid a tremendous price merely to quell Lin Tianfan's anger for the time being.
That price, however, had cut them to the bone. They had surrendered more than half their clans' vast stores of immortal treasures and divine materials, along with hundreds of millions of li of territory suited to cultivation.
It was the resources of those families that had allowed Lin Tianfan to establish the Sacred Emperor Palace and expand it rapidly.
Of course, Meng Tianzheng had also intervened to dissuade him. Otherwise, given his temper, anyone who dared oppose him would have been wiped out long ago.
"We must build a divine temple for the Sage Emperor and bring our lord back into the world!" proposed the Eight Great War Generals of the Sacred Emperor Palace. They refused to believe he had simply departed like this.
Although the Sacred Emperor Palace had not existed as long as the other long-lived powers, it still had a history of over a hundred thousand years and had uncovered many secrets during that time.
By building temples and sculpting golden statues, they could gather the power of faith to summon his soul and bring him back into the world. Though the chances were slim, it was worth trying.
"Heh heh heh, why waste effort on a dead man? What a pointless exercise!" said a richly dressed old woman in the crowd, her voice brimming with mockery and contempt.
She was Jin Taijun of the Jin Family, a Supreme who had lived longer than a tortoise. Lin Tianfan had once suppressed her and slapped her across the face in public, stripping her of all dignity throughout the Nine Heavens. She had hated him bitterly ever since.
Now that Lin Tianfan had fallen, Jin Taijun was happier than anyone. She felt she was back in the game and intended to reclaim everything she had lost.
"You old hag Jin! You dare insult the Sage Emperor? You're courting death!" Every one of the Eight Great War Generals of the Sacred Emperor Palace erupted in fury, murderous intent rolling off them.
"Heh, a pack of juniors dares show me disrespect?" Jin Taijun sneered, unleashing her Supreme pressure. It surged like a vast ocean, causing even the void to collapse.
In her eyes, apart from Lin Tianfan, no one in the Sacred Emperor Palace was worth worrying about.
The Sage Emperor had only just departed, yet this old hag was already showing him disrespect. If they could swallow this, what could they not swallow?
With a thunderous boom, the Eight Great War Generals attacked. Their divine might overshadowed the world as they surrounded Jin Taijun, unleashing equally unparalleled pressure. All eight were Supremes.
"This... how is this possible?!"
Jin Taijun panicked, unable to believe it. Had her old eyes grown dim? When had the Sacred Emperor Palace become so powerful? Since when did it have eight more Supremes?
She was not the only one stunned. Everyone present was shaken, scarcely able to believe it. Eight Supremes in a single sect-and they were not some pseudo-Supremes of the mortal path, but genuine Supremes, transcendent beings who stood at the pinnacle of the mortal world.
"Hiss!"
Many turned to look, their expressions strange. Faced with the terrifying strength of the Sacred Emperor Palace, quite a few long-lived lineages felt a crushing pressure. The atmosphere grew oppressive.
What lineage in the Nine Heavens possessed such strength? Aside from its leader, it had actually managed to raise so many powerful beings.
Supremes were not Escape One Realm cultivators who could be readily nurtured with resources. This was no longer merely a matter of accumulating magical power; it also demanded insight and innate talent. It was far too difficult.
The Supremes of the entire Nine Heavens and Ten Earths could be counted. How many had there been since ancient times? Most had fallen along the way. The road to becoming a Supreme was strewn with bones-that was no idle saying.
Supremes looked down upon heaven and the mortal world and could live for over a million years. With absolute strength, they suppressed all cultivators beneath them. Theirs was the realm closest to immortality, unmatched in power, allowing them to roam the world unchallenged.
They were beings capable of founding sects, establishing undying lineages, and elevating their clans into imperial or royal clans. In this age when no immortals appeared, they stood at the very summit.
The experts all hurried to distance themselves from Jin Taijun, afraid of getting caught in the fallout, and gave her looks that said, You're incredibly brave!