Everyone's gaze finally returned to Qing Chen.
A Spirit Transformation Venerable had arrived in person, and a taotie phantom swallowed the sky. The entire Snow Valley was pressed to the brink of suffocation beneath that Devouring Rules Domain.
Yet Qing Chen showed none of the terror the others had imagined.
He merely looked up at the enormous phantom of a taotie's head suspended at the far end of the heavens. There was naturally gravity between his brows, but no intention of retreating, much less panic.
In fact, before entering the Northwestern Circuit, he had already envisioned confronting a Spirit Transformation Venerable.
It simply should not have been now. Events seemed to have developed somewhat beyond his expectations.
According to Qing Chen's original calculations, only when his cultivation reached the Nascent Soul peak, his physical body entered late immortality, his Blood Path and primordial magnetism rules advanced another great step, his divine sense grew substantially, and Xin Bairen and his other trusted retainers could simultaneously control battle formations of a million or even two million Dao Soldiers, would he truly be qualified to clash head-on with a Spirit Venerable-grade figure—using the Northwestern Circuit-Surveying Seal to unite the Military Force of an entire region with the Immortal Dynasty Fortune.
At that point, he would have considerable confidence in meeting a Spirit Transformation Venerable head-on, and even forcing an ordinary one to retreat under certain circumstances.
But he had not expected that day to come so soon.
Still less had he expected the first Spirit Transformation Venerable to truly stand in his way to be Zhu Ritian.
Although this [Spirit Venerable Ritian] had not been at the Spirit Transformation stage for all that long, he had secured his position in the Four Symbols Heavenly Gate with a first-tribulation devouring domain. His combat strength