A month later, in Golden Dawn Valley behind the Righteous Path's Taizhen Sect, a Daoist in his forties with a face as lustrous as jade held an invitation in his hand. His expression shifted uncertainly for a while before he let out a long sigh.
"Ah... a late-stage Grand Cultivator! He finally reached that step. It seems I'll have to bring lavish gifts in person this time and strengthen our ties further!"
On one of the Seven Spirit Islands, an ordinary-looking elderly man in blue robes stood atop a coastal cliff. Holding a green jade slip between the fingers of one hand raised before his chest, he gazed toward a faintly visible island hundreds of miles away. His face was calm, his thoughts unreadable.
Heavenly Sun Pool was forbidden ground within the Joyful Union Sect. Only a few hundred yards across, it remained shrouded in thick gray mist year-round. It had originally been Old Demon Hehuan's secluded cultivation retreat, but after his death, Old Demon Yunlu had moved in.
At that moment, several cultivators in assorted attire, both men and women, stood shoulder to shoulder a dozen yards from the mist, staring into it without a word.
"Ah... impossible! In just a few decades, he advanced again and became Heavenly South's third Grand Cultivator! With him so young, won't our sect be kept under his heel for the next thousand years? Where is heaven's justice?" A furious roar erupted from within the mist.
The cultivators outside stood with their hands lowered, silent as cicadas in winter. None dared make the slightest sound for fear of being caught in the storm.
Heavenly City, formerly the headquarters of the Nine Nations Alliance, had now become the headquarters of the Mulan People.
Inside a magnificent gilded hall in the city, a gaunt old