Boom-
A wave of air mingled with the breath of chaos rushed straight at her.
The meditation chamber was a shambles, its cushions askew and its ornaments shattered across the floor. Chen Fan sat cross-legged in the center, his eyes tightly shut and his entire body shrouded in gray mist. Blood seeped through his skin, and the Spiritual Qi around him had gone completely out of control. He was like a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.
Jiang Qingyuan spotted the crux of the problem at a glance.
His Spirit Sea had already transformed completely into a state of chaos. The Five Supreme Origins were evolving within it on their own, while the creative power of the Mysterious Female was raising his foundations at a frantic pace.
But his cultivation realm was too low, and his soul too weak. He simply could not control a transformation of this level. If this dragged on, at best, his meridians would rupture inch by inch; at worst, his Spirit Sea would shatter.
"Utter nonsense!"
Jiang Qingyuan rebuked him under her breath, her tone carrying a measure of anger and a measure of helplessness.
She had only just finished explaining the basics, and this brat had turned around and dared to take on the Five Supreme Origins head-on? He was far too bold.
She scolded him, but her hands never stopped.
Jiang Qingyuan stepped forward and lightly pointed a pale fingertip. A ray of cool, lustrous immortal light settled between Chen Fan's brows.
How terrifying was the soul power of a Mahayana cultivator? With the lightest touch, it became a sea-calming divine needle, instantly suppressing the surging waves of chaos in Chen Fan's Spirit Sea.
But this only treated the symptoms.
Once the Five Supreme Evolution began, it could not be forcibly interrupted. Otherwise, the origins would backlash, with even graver consequences.
He needed a vast quantity of the world's primal Qi as a buffer to help him completely stabilize his Chaos Sea.
"With this little cultivation, you dared to touch a fortune of this level."
Jiang Qingyuan shook her head, raised her other hand, and lightly slashed across the void.
Riiip-
The void above the meditation chamber was torn straight open like cloth, leaving an enormous rift.
Beyond the rift lay boundless spatial turbulence, with endless worldly primal Qi and remnant primordial Qi surging and howling within it.
Any ordinary cultivator who approached would instantly be ground to dust by the spatial turbulence.
Yet before Jiang Qingyuan, the raging void was as docile as a stream.
She turned her palm downward and gently closed her hand.
"Come, swallow."
As the words fell, endless pure worldly primal Qi within the spatial rift was drawn by what seemed an invisible hand. It formed a milky-white river of primal Qi that poured down in a mighty torrent, flowing along her palm and streaming ceaselessly into Chen Fan's body.
As vast quantities of primal Qi surged in, the restless Chaos Sea seemed to receive replenishment, and its surging gradually eased.
But this was still not enough.
The transformation of the Diagram of the Five Supreme Dao Evolutions required a terrifying quantity of primal Qi. The ordinary primal Qi drawn through the torn void still could not keep pace with its consumption.
Jiang Qingyuan's gaze sharpened slightly.
Since that was the case, she would add some more.
She raised her head, her gaze seeming to pierce the roof and Han University's formations, reaching straight into the highest heavens beyond Xuzhou.
The next second, a vast, majestic, supreme presence slowly rose from within her.
Boom-
Beyond Xuzhou, high in the heavens.
The previously clear sky abruptly darkened.
An incomparably enormous phantom manifestation slowly emerged beyond Xuzhou.
The manifestation stood immeasurably tall, its presence immense and its entire form shrouded in cool moonlight. Standing at the boundary of heaven and earth, its oppressive might stretched across all of Xuzhou.
The moment the manifestation appeared, all of Xuzhou and the Netherworld border erupted into an uproar.
The overwhelming majority of cultivators could only feel the terrifying pressure bearing down on their souls. They did not dare raise their heads to look directly at it, and were pressed to the ground by its casually emitted might. Without the protection of Xuzhou's great formation, their souls would already have been utterly destroyed.
The moment low-level cultivators glanced up at the sky, stabbing pain pierced their souls and blood streamed from their eyes, as though one more look would be sacrilege.
Only those above Golden Core could barely sense a towering figure of light in the sky; only those at Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation could vaguely make out a blurred outline. As for truly gazing upon the manifestation and discerning a few details, that required at least the Body Integration Realm.
"Mahayana! It's a Mahayana Heavenly Venerable!"
Within Xuzhou's thirteen cities, countless cultivators bowed low, their souls trembling, not even daring to breathe loudly.
The heads of the various academies stepped out of their halls and bowed toward the sky beyond the region, their expressions solemn.
Under the Immortal Palace's rule, a Mahayana Heavenly Venerable was heaven itself. No one dared speculate about why the Heavenly Venerable had revealed a manifestation. They could only feel secretly alarmed-had some earth-shattering event occurred, prompting a Mahayana Heavenly Venerable to act in person?
Panic spread among the cultivators, but even more panicked than they were was the Netherworld Ghost Domain beyond Xuzhou's border.
The Netherworld Ghost Domain was the Immortal Palace's sworn enemy. Before the Immortal Palace was established, for some unspeakable reason, the Netherworld Ghost Domain had conquered half the land. But under the leadership of the first generation of directors, the Immortal Palace had successfully turned the tables, using the Nine Provinces as its base to stand once more upon the Eastern Victorious Divine Land.
Ten thousand years ago, while sweeping away evil and exterminating demons, the Immortal Palace had even used the Netherworld Ghost Domain's enemy secrets to force a war, battering half of the Netherworld's territory into ruin and driving them into the Savage Wilderness. Only with the backing of the Freedom Divine Domain behind them had they barely managed to cling to survival.
Over the years, the Netherworld had always feigned compliance while defying them in secret, carrying out plenty of underhanded schemes, yet never daring to truly tear away the facade.
Now, sensing that Mahayana pressure beyond the border, alarms instantly blared throughout the Netherworld Ghost Domain.
Piercing ghostly howls resounded across a million miles of territory. White-bone war drums thundered, the mountain-protecting formations activated at full strength, and sinister Ghost Qi churned to its utmost, as though a formidable enemy had arrived.
Deep within the Netherworld, inside the Tianzhao Lineage's elders' hall.
An old man in a pitch-black haori, his face pallid, abruptly opened his eyes, which were filled with shock and fury.
"A Mahayana from the Immortal Palace?!"
Tianzhao Mingyin, a member of the Tianzhao Lineage, possessed Ghost Venerable Realm cultivation, equivalent to the human Body Integration Realm. He was the strongest combatant stationed at the Netherworld border.
He stepped out of the Netherworld Ghost Domain and looked toward the sky beyond Xuzhou, his expression turning as ugly as could be.
Only someone at his level of cultivation could barely make out the immortal figure shrouded in moonlight deep within the clouds-he could not see the face or discern the figure's form, yet a single glance chilled his soul.
"What does the Immortal Palace want?! Openly revealing a Mahayana manifestation at the border-are they planning to tear up the agreement and invade in force?!"
A ghost general beside him asked in a trembling voice, "Elder, should we immediately send word to the exalted envoy from the Freedom Divine Domain?"
"What are you panicking for!"
Tianzhao Mingyin barked, but his clenched fingers betrayed his tension.
The Freedom Divine Domain's True Immortals were ten thousand miles away. If fighting truly broke out, distant water could not quench an immediate thirst.
If the Immortal Palace truly set its mind on exterminating them, a single Mahayana cultivator could act, and the entire Netherworld Ghost Domain would not last half an hour.
But simply cowering like this would be far too humiliating for the Netherworld.
Besides, the Immortal Palace's Mahayana had revealed a manifestation at the border without cause, which was already a breach of the rules.
If the matter truly reached the Freedom Divine Domain, the Immortal Palace would be in the wrong, and the Freedom Divine Domain would intervene to mediate. The situation was perfectly clear-the advantage was theirs!
"Let's go. Come up with me and see what's going on!"
Tianzhao Minghe drew a deep breath and, leading the senior figures under his command, transformed into streaks of Ghost Qi that shot into the sky above the border between the Netherworld and Xuzhou.