Above the Nine Heavens.
The Changsheng Wang Family Ancestral Land.
This was a vast, boundless pure land of immortals.
Floating divine islands dotted the expanse like stars across a chessboard, each draped in dense spiritual energy that cascaded like waterfalls.
Immortal birds and auspicious beasts flitted through the sea of clouds.
Deep within the leylines lay several supreme immortal veins left over from the Immortal Ancient Era, breathing in and out the essence of the sun and moon.
As one of the foremost ancient Immortal Families of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, the Wang family possessed unfathomable foundations.
Even the Celestial God Academy had to regard the Wang family with considerable wariness.
At this moment, however, the atmosphere inside the Wang family's central main hall was oppressively tense.
Wang Changsheng sat upright on a meditation cushion at the highest seat.
He looked like a handsome boy in his teens, his skin crystalline and translucent, yet terrifying visions of universes being born and destroyed swirled within his deep eyes.
Just a short while earlier.
He had severed his Divine Sense communication with Meng Tianzheng and immediately issued an absolute order to seal off the family.
Below him in the main hall.
Nine figures stood respectfully, their auras as profound as abysses and vast as oceans.
They were none other than the Wang Family’s Nine Dragons, whose might shook the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.
The eldest, Wang Da, stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute.
"Father."
"The clan-protecting formation has been fully activated, and all core disciples traveling outside have been recalled."
"It's just..."
Wang Da paused, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes.
"Our family's formation could withstand even the arrival of a True Immortal for a while. What sort of formidable enemy warrants us acting as though a great foe is at our gates?"
The other eight dragons also raised their heads.
The Wang family had always acted domineeringly. When had they ever suffered such humiliation, having to retreat into their shells of their own accord?
Wang Changsheng did not answer immediately.
Meng Tianzheng's horrified tone during their communication still lingered in his mind.
That dark gold scale stretching across the chaos was like a world-destroying sword suspended above the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't."
Wang Changsheng's voice was cold.
"A great upheaval has occurred beyond our realm. An indescribable, taboo existence is lingering in the chaos."
"Pass down my order. The Wang family will seal its gates for a hundred years."
"No matter what happens outside, no one is to wade into these muddy waters. So long as we hold the ancestral land's formation, supported by the underground immortal veins, we will remain invincible."
Wang Changsheng had absolute confidence in his ancestral land.
An intact remnant formation passed down from the Immortal Ancient Era had been laid here. So long as they did not provoke that monster beyond the realm, the Wang family would stand as firm as Mount Tai.
Hearing this, all of the Wang Family’s Nine Dragons felt their hearts tighten.
Just what sort of monster had come from beyond the realm, to make even their father, a half-step Supreme, so wary?
Just as Wang Da was about to acknowledge the order and withdraw.
"Rumble!!!"
An exceedingly muffled boom suddenly came from the deepest reaches of the Wang family's ancestral land.
The sound was not shrill, yet it carried an indescribable weight.
The entire main hall shook violently.
Several ancient stellar core fragments hanging from the vaulted ceiling for illumination were shattered outright, raining down as stone dust.
Wang Changsheng's expression changed drastically.
He sprang to his feet, unconcealable astonishment appearing on his previously unruffled, youthful face.
"What happened?"
"Is the clan-protecting formation under attack?" Wang Er cried out in alarm.
But they soon realized something was wrong.
The light barrier of the clan-protecting formation was perfectly intact and had suffered no external bombardment.
The tremors were coming from beneath their feet.
They came from the forbidden rear mountain, the core of the ancestral land in which the Wang family took the greatest pride!
A clan elder guarding the formation's nexus stumbled into the hall.
His face was deathly pale as he scrambled and crawled forward.
"Patriarch! Disaster!"
"The immortal vein in the forbidden rear mountain... its flow has stopped!"
At these words.
All of the Wang Family’s Nine Dragons sucked in a breath of cold air.
The immortal vein's flow had stopped?
That was the Wang family's lifeblood, the source of power sustaining the entire clan-protecting formation!
How could its flow possibly stop for no reason?
Cold light blazed in Wang Changsheng's eyes, and with a flicker, he vanished from where he stood.
"Follow me!"
The Wang Family’s Nine Dragons followed close behind, turning into nine streaks of rainbow light as they raced toward the forbidden rear mountain.
The forbidden rear mountain.
This had originally been a supreme treasure land where the Wang family cultivated supreme divine medicines and nurtured nascent immortal artifacts.
Usually, immortal energy wreathed the place, and auspicious radiance streamed in a thousand rays.
But now, the sight before them made Wang Changsheng's and the others' hearts stop beating for an instant.
The sky had been pierced.
An immense hole had appeared in the realm barrier above the Nine Heavens.
Violent currents of chaos surged madly through the hole, only to be held firmly outside by something enormous.
It was a "dark gold pillar" that spanned heaven and earth.
It slanted down from the chaos beyond the realm, piercing straight through the ancestral land's many layers of spatial formations.
The bottom of the "pillar" had plunged deep into the forbidden rear mountain.
It had forcibly severed the supreme immortal vein lying beneath the earth!
This "pillar" was too immense.
The section exposed aboveground alone measured more than a hundred thousand li in diameter.
Its surface bore a cold, mysterious dark gold luster and was covered in natural patterns of utmost intricacy.
Those patterns belonged to no known Great Dao.
Yet they emanated a pure pressure that made even Wang Changsheng's soul tremble.
Unable to bear the mass of this "pillar," the surrounding space continuously collapsed and reformed, creating ring after ring of black spatial faults.
Wang Da swallowed.
As he gazed at the dark gold pillar that had pierced the heavens, a feverish greed gradually surfaced in his eyes.
"Father."
"Could... could this be some kind of supreme immortal gold that fell from beyond the realm?"
"With such an enormous deposit of raw immortal gold, if we could refine it, our Wang family could surely forge a true Immortal King weapon!"
The other dragons' breathing also quickened.
As far as they knew, no living creature in this world could possibly look like this.
It could only be a piece of rare divine material of staggeringly exaggerated size that had happened to smash through the realm barrier and land on Wang family territory.
This was a great fortune fallen from heaven!
Yet Wang Changsheng said nothing.
His expression had now darkened so much it seemed water might drip from it.
He was not as optimistic as Wang Da.
The instant he saw that dark gold luster, an exceedingly terrifying conjecture had flashed through his mind.
Meng Tianzheng had mentioned that the indescribable monster beyond the realm had dark gold scales on its body!
"Stand back."
Wang Changsheng barked in a low voice.
He did not rashly approach.
As the patriarch of an ancient Immortal Family, he was more cautious than anyone.
Wang Changsheng formed sword seals with both hands.
The supreme primordial spirit sword art renowned throughout the ages-the Calming Chaos Art!
This sword art focused exclusively on cultivating the primordial spirit. It was said to cut through anything and had slain countless peerless powerhouses.
"Shing!"
A clear sword cry rang through heaven and earth.
A transparent sword embryo formed entirely from primordial spirit power shot out from between Wang Changsheng's brows.
The sword embryo was crystalline and translucent, radiating a keen aura that could sever and annihilate all things.
"Go!"
Wang Changsheng swept his sword fingers.
The Calming Chaos sword embryo transformed into a streak of light. Rather than attacking the "dark gold pillar," it skimmed along its surface, climbing upward along the mountain.
He intended to use the primordial spirit sword embryo to investigate this thing's full appearance.
The sword embryo soared straight upward.
A hundred thousand li.
A million li.
Ten million li.
The Calming Chaos sword embryo was exceedingly fast. In the blink of an eye, it passed through the torn realm barrier and entered the gray Chaos Void.
Wang Changsheng closed his eyes, sharing the primordial spirit sword embryo's sight.
As the sword embryo continued to rise.
Wang Changsheng's breathing began to quicken.
He saw the top of that "dark gold pillar."
It was not flat.
It curved into an exceedingly sharp point, like a hook.
He looked farther up.
That sharp tip connected to an even larger joint covered in dark gold scales.
And beside this "pillar," in the distant Chaos Void.
Three more identical "dark gold pillars" stood in a row!
These four "pillars" converged deep within the chaos, connected to a dark gold "palm" as vast as an entire Star Domain.
At this point in the vision.
The taut string in Wang Changsheng's mind snapped completely.
That was no raw immortal gold deposit at all.
It was not a heavenly pillar.
It was a nail!
It was the tip of the nail on the outermost toe of a claw belonging to some terrifying colossal beast!
And the Wang family's ancestral land, this forbidden immortal-vein sanctuary hailed as indestructible, had merely been stepped on accidentally by the tip of one of that being's toes!
"Pfft!"
Wang Changsheng's eyes snapped open, and he spewed a mouthful of blood.
In the chaos, the Calming Chaos sword embryo had merely sensed the natural aura of the enormous claw itself, yet it could not withstand that dimensional suppression and disintegrated outright.
The injury to his primordial spirit sent Wang Changsheng staggering backward, nearly falling from high in the sky.
"Father!"
Wang Da and the others paled in alarm and hurried forward to support him.
They had never seen their father lose his composure like this; even the Calming Chaos Art he took such pride in had suffered a backlash.
"Shut up..."
Wang Changsheng pushed everyone away.
He stared fixedly at the dark gold nail embedded in the ground before him, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
He finally understood Meng Tianzheng's terror.
They had thought they would be safe hiding in the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, sheltering in the Wang family's ancestral land with its formation activated.
How utterly laughable.
That monster did not need to attack them at all.
He was merely lying asleep in the chaos, and one foot dangling unconsciously from his body had already stepped onto the Wang family's heads!
Their Immortal Family, in which they took such pride, might not even count as a stepping stone that felt slightly uncomfortable beneath his foot.
Just as Wang Changsheng was about to order the entire clan to evacuate.
Deep within the chaos beyond the realm.
The soundly sleeping Gu Xian's enormous body completed an exceedingly slight adaptive adjustment.
He felt as though the toes of his left foot had stepped on a somewhat hard little pebble.
The little pebble was pointed and prickled a little.
It felt like brushing the sole of his foot against a grain of sand on the bedsheet while sleeping.
Very uncomfortable.
And so.
In the Deep Sleep State, Gu Xian relied on instinct and gently shifted his toes.
He merely wanted to kick that "little pebble" away.
For Gu Xian's body, which stretched tens of millions of li, the movement was so slight it could almost be ignored.
But for the Wang Family Ancestral Land below.
It was a true catastrophe.
"Hum!"
The Dark Gold toenail that pierced the heavens moved without warning.
It merely shifted sideways by less than a hundred li.
No divine ability erupted, and no Laws fluctuated.
It was crushing physical mass in its purest form.
"Crack!!!"
The clan-protecting formation the Wang Family took such pride in, said to be capable of holding back even True Immortals.
Under a light brush from that Dark Gold toenail.
Like a punctured soap bubble, it failed to impede it for even half a breath before instantly bursting into a sky full of raining light.
The shock wave from the shattered formation swept across the entire ancestral land.
Tens of thousands of Wang Family disciples had not even registered what had happened before the shock wave shook them until blood poured from all seven orifices and they passed out.
And that was not the end.
As the Dark Gold toenail shifted sideways, it plowed straight through the Wang Family's forbidden grounds in the rear mountains.
The supreme-grade immortal vein that had survived since the Immortal Ancient Era snapped into several sections on the spot, like an earthworm crushed underfoot.
Vast quantities of immortal spiritual energy poured out wildly, turning into a destructive storm that swept away every tomb where generations of Wang Family ancestors slumbered.
Swathes of floating divine islands fell like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
The ancestral land of an Immortal Family that had stood for countless eras.
Had half its foundations destroyed by that single brush.
"No!!!"
Wang Da's eyes nearly split at the corners as he let out a despairing roar.
He watched helplessly as the painstaking work of his lineage became ruins beneath that utterly unreasonable physical sweep, yet he did not even have the courage to strike.
Wang Changsheng stood in midair.
Fierce winds tossed his waterfall of black hair into disarray.
This ruthless overlord, who had lived for long ages and whose heart was cold to the extreme, now wore a face ashen as death.
He did not try to stop it.
Nor could he.
He merely stared blankly at the Dark Gold toenail, which had gone still again, as an unprecedented sense of helplessness rose in his heart.
The formation had shattered.
The immortal vein had snapped.
The ancestral graves had been overturned.
And the culprit behind it all had merely felt in his sleep that their Wang Family was a little uncomfortable underfoot and shifted his position slightly.
Wang Changsheng slowly closed his eyes.
He knew.
From this day forth, the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands would never know peace again.
For as long as that monster kept his foot planted here.
The Changsheng Wang Family could only survive on its knees.
The Changsheng Wang Family Ancestral Land.
Dust and shattered formation runes danced through the air.
After destroying half the Wang Family Ancestral Land, the Dark Gold toenail piercing heaven and earth had returned to deathly stillness.
It simply jutted diagonally into the ruins.
The Dark Gold luster flowing across its surface reflected the paper-white faces of the Wang Family members.
Wang Da's eyes were bloodshot, and his whole body trembled.
As he looked at the immortal vein below, plowed completely flat, and the clansmen buried beneath the ruins, a surge of blood rushed up his throat.
"This is going too far!"
Wang Da let out a roar of grief and fury, and the magical power within him erupted.
He wanted to unleash his magic artifact and bombard that Dark Gold toenail.
Even if he died, the dignity of his Changsheng Wang Family could not be trampled like this!
Just as his magic artifact was about to leave his hand.
A hand clamped around his throat without warning.
Wang Changsheng appeared before Wang Da.
The family head, whose delicate features resembled a youth's, now had not a trace of warmth in his eyes.
His five fingers abruptly tightened, forcibly dispersing the magical power that had just gathered within Wang Da.
"Father..." Wang Da choked out the word, his face full of disbelief.
Wang Changsheng did not look at him, but instead swept his gaze over the surrounding Wang Family members, who were equally consumed by outrage.
"If anyone dares use even a trace of magical power to touch that thing, I will personally exterminate his entire household."
Wang Changsheng's voice was not loud.
But in everyone's ears, it was more bone-chilling than the cold winds of the Nine Nether Hells.
A clan elder of very senior standing stepped forward, tears streaming down his aged face.
"Family head! Those are our Wang Family's foundations!"
"Our ancestral graves have been destroyed, and our immortal vein has snapped. Are we supposed to just stand here and watch?"
Wang Changsheng released his grip on Wang Da's throat and turned to look at the clan elder.
"What do you think we amount to in his eyes?"
The question stunned the clan elder.
Wang Changsheng pointed at the enormous Dark Gold toenail ahead, his tone carrying a rationality that drove one to despair.
"Just now, he merely shifted sideways by a hundred li."
"He used no divine abilities and activated no Laws."
"Nothing but simple movement crushed the clan-protecting formation we were so proud of."
"If you attack him now, are you trying to remind him that there are still a few annoying bugs biting him beneath his foot?"