The instant the Pangu Banner pressed down, a speck of incense ash landed between Yunxiao's brows.
Boom!
Above Jiepai Pass, the stretch of heaven and earth locked down by the Pangu Banner abruptly froze.
The gray, hazy Chaos Sword Qi stopped a hundred zhang above Yunxiao's head.
The sword qi still surged.
The Heaven-Opening Vision still unfolded upon the Pangu Banner.
Yet that edge, powerful enough to shatter a Quasi-Saint Dao Fruit, could not descend another half inch.
On the Nine Dragon Agarwood Carriage, Yuanshi Tianzun's raised hand paused slightly.
He lowered his gaze.
Between Yunxiao's brows, the Beginningless Bell Mark that had already dimmed was lit anew by the incense ash.
Purple-gray divine radiance spread from the depths of the bell mark.
One inch.
Ten zhang.
Ten thousand zhang!
The palm-sized phantom of an ancient bell swelled in the wind, instantly becoming a divine bell that blotted out the sky, suspended above the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation.
Upon its walls, universes arose and perished, epochs succeeded one another, All Spirits passed through reincarnation, each vision appearing in turn.
That aura had no place in the Mystic Gate's Dao Register and lay beyond the dominion of the Primordial World's Heavenly Dao.
Yet it was so heavy that all of Jiepai Pass fell silent.
"Dong-"
The bell rang.
Three phantoms of time-past, present, and future-shuddered at once.
This toll did not spread across the Primordial World. Instead, it surged upstream along the Pangu Banner's killing intent, crashing into Yuanshi Tianzun's Primordial Spirit and into that thread of Dao resonance linking him to the Heavenly Dao.
Yuanshi Tianzun's gaze abruptly chilled.
His Sage position remained.
But the Heavenly Dao's blessing faltered at that instant.
He seemed to stand where he was, yet had been forcibly separated from it by half a step.