[Forty years passed like flowing water, and the Celestial Fiend Assembly was finally drawing near.]
[On this day, Daoist Wuke gathered the three hundred greater fiends in the ancestral grounds, including you, into the Heaven and Earth Pouch, a spatial magic treasure.]
[Then, in the time it took to drink a cup of tea, you were brought to an oasis.]
[A dilapidated stone stele stood in the center of the oasis, bearing the two characters "Wind-Calming." Nearby, a silver-haired middle-aged man in feathered robes was speaking with Immortal Wusui.]
[You made a bold guess: this man was probably the renowned Immortal Duohe of the Wujiang Immortal Mansion.]
[He was no ordinary figure. More than a hundred thousand years ago, the Wujiang Clan had held undisputed supremacy in the Wujiang Immortal Mansion, while the other members of the Demon Race were merely their slaves.]
[It was only because Immortal Duohe had risen like a sudden new force, uniting the Demon Race opposed to the Wujiang Clan's rule and repeatedly waging war against them, that the clan had gradually declined, losing the might it once possessed.]
[Even the Celestial Fiend Assembly had grown more and more grand thanks to Immortal Duohe's support. It had once been nothing more than a ceremonial celebration, but after he transformed it, it became a grand gathering where the Demon Race tribes of the Wujiang Immortal Mansion divided up resources.]
[Immortal Duohe had proposed that the higher a tribe ranked in the Celestial Fiend Assembly, the more territory it would receive. As soon as he made the proposal, the other tribes welcomed it enthusiastically, and after the Wujiang Clan saw that opposing it several times had accomplished nothing, they simply joined the new order.]
[Thus, because of this blatant, out-in-the-open scheme, the Wujiang Clan completely lost its dominance over the other tribes and could only keep emphasizing their status as Immortal Witchriver's descendants to salvage their dignity.]
[Although you came from the Wujiang Clan, you greatly admired this figure who could turn his hand to summon clouds and flip it to bring rain.]
[As time passed, all the prominent tribes of the Wujiang Immortal Mansion arrived at the oasis one after another.]
[The two fiend immortals then announced the rules before joining forces to open the secret realm.]
[After the two immortals cast their spells, ripples slowly spread through the space behind the Wind-Calming Stele at the center of the oasis, and a gateway appeared.]
[The many greater fiends taking part in the Celestial Fiend Assembly poured through it. Keeping a low profile, you followed the crowd inside.]
[As you passed through the gateway, you suddenly felt a sensation of distortion, and then you found yourself in a world full of greenery.]
[This world was brimming with life, filled with birdsong and the scent of flowers. It stood in stark contrast to the skies full of yellow sand in the Wujiang Immortal Mansion outside, and was a veritable immortal paradise.]
[But you were in no mood to admire the beautiful scenery, because the moment you entered the secret realm, you had suddenly caught a flash of insight into the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.]
[You tried to turn that flash of insight into comprehension of the Dao, but regrettably failed.]
[Recalling the stirring you had felt when passing through the secret realm's gateway, you realized that perhaps you should pass through it once more.]
[Faced with an opportunity that might allow you to break through, you chose: one, abandon the trial and pass through the secret realm's gateway to comprehend the Great Dao; two, undertake the trial first, then head to the gateway after earning a place among the top thirty-six and qualifying for the arena battles.]
"This..." Zhou Qing found himself in a dilemma for a moment.
The Celestial Fiend Assembly was not something he could easily give up. The tribe's honor and interests were at stake.
If he abandoned the trial, he reckoned the entire Wujiang Clan would point fingers at his back and curse him.
"One." In the end, after weighing the pros and cons, Zhou Qing chose to give it up.
As the saying went, "Hear the Dao in the morning, and one may die content in the evening."
This was the closest he had ever come to taking the first steps on the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. If he didn't seize the chance now and the flash of insight vanished in an instant, where could he go to make his case?
[As you stepped through the secret realm's gateway, you once again felt that stirring sensation.]
[The next moment, your mind went blank for an instant. When you looked at the world again, you found that it had changed entirely.]
[With that, you had officially taken your first steps on the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.]
[When you emerged from the secret realm's gateway and returned to the Wujiang Immortal Mansion, the entire oasis erupted in an uproar.]
[The fiends led by the Duohe Tribe mocked you for being eliminated as soon as you entered, while the Wujiang Clan's greater fiends, knowing your strength, found your elimination all the more unbelievable.]
[Only the two fiend immortals and the many Primal fiend kings noticed that something was different about you. They observed the subtle spatial fluctuations around you.]
[Immortal Wusui, in particular, was shaken, for he knew that you had been engrossed in the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth in recent years.]
[He realized that, after Immortal Witchriver, another heaven's chosen had emerged from the Wujiang Clan.]
[He immediately silenced the fiends pointing and gossiping about you, creating a good environment for you to comprehend the Dao.]
[A short while later, after you had absorbed the gains from this moment of enlightenment, Immortal Wusui left the affairs of the Celestial Fiend Assembly to Daoist Wuke and took you straight back to the ancestral grounds.]
[Upon reaching the ancestral grounds, Immortal Wusui questioned you and confirmed that you had indeed taken your first steps on the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.]
[To ensure your safety, he immediately assigned a squad of Yaksha Dao-Soldiers capable of fighting Primals to protect you.]
[And, seemingly realizing that a genius like you could not be judged by the same standards as ordinary fiends, Immortal Wusui promised only to offer suggestions about your cultivation, without forcibly interfering.]
[With Immortal Wusui offering such lenient terms, it was as though something had clicked, and your cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.]
[Within a few years, both your Dao of the Gale and Dao of Rainwater broke through to the Domain Realm of the Dao.]
[Moreover, thanks to Immortal Wusui's attentive instruction, your comprehension of the Dao of Heaven and Earth progressed a thousand miles a day.]
[It could be said that, compared to when you took part in the Celestial Fiend Assembly, you had now undergone a heaven-and-earth-shaking transformation.]
[To test your strength, you decided to brave the Fiend Prison again.]
[This time, you swept through the twenty-seventh level of the Fiend Prison as easily as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.]
[Then, on the twenty-eighth level, you unleashed a massacre with your newly created ultimate moves, the Blackwater Claw and the Space-Rending Claw.]
[The Space-Rending Claw in particular was a move you had created from your own comprehension of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. A single swipe would leave even a Wanxiang-level Fiendgod Body Refining greater fiend either dead or crippled.]
[Before long, you slaughtered every last Wanxiang fiend king on the twenty-eighth level.]
[Then you came to the entrance to the twenty-ninth level of the Fiend Prison. You knew that beyond it lay the area where Primal fiend kings were imprisoned.]
[Challenge a Primal fiend king? A crazy thought arose in your mind.]
[Thus, you decided: one, enter the twenty-ninth level and challenge a Primal fiend king; two, abandon this crazy idea.]
"Two." Zhou Qing made his choice at once.
His simulated self had gotten far too full of himself...
After all, neither his simulated self's Qi Refining nor his Body Refining had broken through to Wanxiang yet.
In other words, his simulated self wanted to fight a Primal as a Zifu cultivator!
Although his simulated self's level of comprehension was somewhat higher, in Zhou Qing's eyes as a first-class Empyrean God and True Immortal, that so-called superior comprehension wasn't much. It was nowhere near enough to cross two major realms and lock horns with a Primal.
At the mortal level, comprehension of the Dao was indeed important, but the gap in elemental ki and divine power was even less something one could ignore.
[After calming down, you realized how impulsive you had been. You left the Fiend Prison and returned to the Wujiang Clan's ancestral grounds.]
[But just then, you suddenly heard a piece of surprising news-the Wujiang Clan had begun fighting an alliance led by the Duohe Tribe!]