God Striking Stone Precious Technique! The Age of Arduous Cultivation Arrives! Darkness Sweeps Across Once More!

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on successfully receiving the offering from the reigning Heavenly Emperor! Henceforth, the Immortal Court Forbidden Zone has completely transcended the greater universe, standing apart from the world, with the first trace of the might of an eternal forbidden zone!]

[Reward: one of the Ten Fiends' techniques, the God Striking Stone Precious Technique!]

A gentle breeze swept past, and celestial music lingered in an unbroken thread.

The system notification rang out.

The next moment.

A vast torrent of information poured in, yet Lu Qingyun could face it with utter calm.

It was unlike when he had first received the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass Precious Technique.

Back then, he had still needed to experience it firsthand and forcibly engrave it into his instincts.

With Lu Qingyun's current realm, coupled with his heaven-defying comprehension.

He merely closed his eyes lightly.

An indestructible, towering, profound presence from the primordial age manifested around him.

If the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass Precious Technique was the ultimate art of attack.

Then what the God Striking Stone Precious Technique bestowed upon Lu Qingyun was supreme defense!

Together with the Immortal Phoenix Precious Technique he had obtained through a fortunate coincidence.

Lu Qingyun now possessed both offense and defense, along with an endless capacity to sustain himself!

Even if a True Immortal stood before him, he was confident he could suppress and slay them!

"Smelting the myriad Daos."

"This path is the right one."

"If the conditions of this world allowed ascension to immortality, I could attain the immortal path with a single thought now."

"But even with the immortal path severed, every time I attain another Great Dao, I can feel my cultivation... advance another measure! One day, even in these conditions, I will transcend..."

Lu Qingyun's gaze was deep.

The Chaos Qi flowing within his eyes seemed to be evolving into a true world!

Immortal mist gathered, shrouding everything.

In the distance, Phoenix Blood Mountain and the lustrous white immortal mountain towered.

Burying everything...

All turmoil was utterly quelled within this forbidden zone named the Immortal Court.

Neither the Heavenly Emperor.

Nor the Dao-attaining Holy Spirit whom all living beings loathed had emerged from this forbidden zone.

Everyone knew.

Whether the two had perished together or one had been fortunate enough to survive.

The victor would still have to face the wrath of the Chaos Heavenly Emperor they had provoked!

Thus, in that final scene before Ye Mingyuan's death.

He had embraced certain death, using his last scrap of strength to ensure that this Dao-attaining Holy Spirit who had poisoned the universe would be eliminated!

Such deeds made the world weep in grief!

A plan laid over a thousand years.

Even reviled by the world, the Heavenly Emperor had still chosen to use his incomparably aged body to cast everything aside and shelter the people.

Such breadth of heart was worthy of the Heavenly Emperor's name!

Across the universe, new statues were erected once more, and his achievements were sung again, resounding throughout the world.

Meanwhile, as the invincible ones passed away one after another.

That incomparably dazzling golden age seemed to pass away with them, buried within the Immortal Court Forbidden Zone.

The entire greater universe became exceptionally calm and peaceful.

Even conflicts gradually grew fewer.

Because the powerful beings in the world... were also gradually growing fewer.

After the dazzling age came a boundless winter!

The fifty-thousandth year of the Immortal Court calendar.

The age of arduous cultivation arrived!

Because the previous great age had been far too glorious.

One invincible being after another had been born.

Moreover, every one of them had been exceptionally powerful: either a perfected Holy Spirit attaining the Dao or a Divine Medicine of Immortality attaining the Dao.

There had also been two fellows who had trodden upon the myriad Daos to become emperors.

On top of that, the greater universe would occasionally experience certain illusions.

As though... someone had attained the Dao right beneath its nose without it noticing.

And this had happened... many times.

All of the above made the suppression of the Great Dao this time... exceptionally fierce!

Never mind beings who could touch the Supreme Dao domain.

Even the barrier to the sage path marked an unreachable realm!

As the powerful beings who had lived through the golden age passed away one after another, the younger generations failed to fill the gap, leaving the Ancient Starry Sky Road all but abandoned.

Even living beings capable of embarking on the path of cultivation were exceedingly rare.

Arduous cultivation-the pursuit of the Dao was fraught with hardship!

Those who opened their Sea of Bitterness possessed boundless divine power and could already call themselves immortal masters.

The leaders of the various major powers could barely enter the Immortal Platform realm, and even that relied on the reserves of Supreme Dao factions, forcibly piling their cultivation up!

Under such circumstances, living beings had short lifespans.

Generation after generation withered and passed away in the flow of time.

So much so that, after merely a few thousand years, the dazzling deeds of the previous golden age were all buried, known to no one.

Only...

The Heavenly Emperor's temples endured, their incense offerings unceasing.

The people did not know just how magnificent an existence the Heavenly Emperor had been.

They merely thought that perhaps it was only an honorific...

Precisely because of this.

During these years, someone of peerless talent barely broke into the Immortal Platform realm.

Yet in the end, he could advance no further.

He lamented that time would not return; given another five hundred years, he would dare strive to become a True Immortal in this lifetime!

At this, everyone sighed with deep emotion.

Only certain factions with Supreme Dao legacies regarded him with disdain.

This stretch of time was exceedingly long.

As though it would never end, several departed Great Daos still pressed down upon this greater universe until it could barely breathe.

Yet the living beings of the world gradually grew accustomed to it.

Legacies were severed, and ancient history was difficult to trace.

They adapted to such calm and tranquil years.

As though the greater universe ought to have been this quiet, forever without war, free of danger.

Everything seemed so natural.

As though it had been this way since ancient times.

Until...

Within a seemingly eternal forbidden zone, a taboo existence finally could hold on no longer.

It extended a wisp of its presence.

Probing, peering, touching...

Then it plunged into wild delight!!

Crack-

Crack-!

The Immortal Source fractured inch by inch, and the last remaining essence within it.

Was entirely drawn into the mouth of the being sealed inside, until the whole piece of Immortal Source crumbled to dust.

A pair of indifferent eyes opened.

He seemed to have crossed countless ages, his presence ancient and powerful.

He did not act immediately.

He merely cast his gaze outward, tentatively surveying this universe.

The suppression of the Great Dao could be called the greatest in all eternity!

There seemed to be no Supreme Dao existence presiding over the world, suppressing the myriad Daos.

Every living being was exceedingly weak.

In his eyes, most cultivators differed little from mortals.

But he did not care about that.

If the blood food was not strong.

Then eating a little more would always make up for it.

The crucial question was...

Whether this world no longer had an invincible being presiding over it.

Whether he could emerge without worry, and then... feast to his heart's content!