Close behind came the prodigies among the rogue cultivators.
They had no sect fleets, no splendid robes or immortal artifacts. Figures simply tore through the void from every direction and landed on the outskirts of the Myriad Mountain Domain, gathering in twos and threes, each keeping to their own camp.
Though less ostentatious than the sect disciples, their gazes were deeper and sharper, carrying the vigilance and ambition forged by clawing their way through the myriad realms.
After them came the minor sects and schools, visitors from obscure little realms, and fringe cultivators who had slipped in on the coattails of the sects-
Crowds surged, and waves of voices rolled.
In an astonishingly short time, countless cultivators had gathered on the outskirts of the Myriad Mountain Domain.
As far as the eye could see, robes, emblems, and Dao arts of every kind mingled, stirring the energies of almost the entire Star Sea into chaos.
Prodigies from different factions sized one another up and tested each other, hidden barbs lurking in their words. Whenever friction arose and spiritual energy surged, cheers and uproar erupted around them.
At that moment, the entire outer fringe of the Myriad Mountain Domain bustled like a grand banquet of the Immortal Dao.
Yet that very bustle was already a kind of rupture.
The cultivators of this era saw the Myriad Mountain Domain as a land of opportunity, a place to make their names, a perfect stage on which to temper themselves.
They scrambled ahead, jostling shoulder to shoulder, their eyes burning with hunger for opportunity, ambition for their futures, and the desire to defeat their peers.
Those emotions were vivid, blazing, real.
Yet they were utterly out of place upon this land.
The mountain paths beneath their feet had once been where the disciples of the