In the Saintly Scholar School, a middle-aged man wearing black robes with a white outer coat opened his eyes and gazed into the distance.
"After Pangu, will another almighty existence be born?" Lao Tzu murmured. He looked towards the door and said, "Come in."
Not long after, Headmaster Ren hurriedly rushed in. "Great Founder, please excuse my disturbance.
Lao Tzu waved his hand and said, "No matter. What did you come for?"
"The other headmasters and I sensed the changes in the Heaven Continent. Has the Buzhou Immortal Sect done something to anger the Heavenly Dao? Or have they begun to enact their ambitions?" Headmaster Ren asked.
Lao Tzu shook his head. "It's still too soon. It's nothing more than a cultivator's Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation.
Headmaster Ren's face changed. If Lao Tzu said it was the birth of a divine artifact or an immortal's divine ascension, he would have believed it, but a mere Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation? However, he had absolute trust in Lao Tzu, so he accepted it. "Should we do anything? I don't know how it's possible for a mortal to have such a heaven-defying Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation, but it will spell unneeded trouble for us if they succeed. Should we interfere?"
"No need," Lao Tzu said. "Even without the anomaly, the river's flow cannot be changed. What must come will eventually come. Besides, another Pangu-like existence might not be bad for the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System as a whole."
"Pangu-like existence?" Headmaster Ren asked.
"You don't need to know," Lao Tzu said. "Go prepare for our retreat. This old man will acknowledge that Buzhou Immortal Sect's rise is inevitable, but I have no desire to live under them. The Three Thousand Immortal Realms System will have three immortal rank realms soon."
Headmaster Ren stiffened his back before bowing. "I will deliver your will to the other headmasters."
After Headmaster Ren left, Lao Tzu closed his eyes again and ignored the disturbance but not before uttering some final words. "Will Pangu allow the existence of a similar existence?"
On the Earth Continent inside the Extremity Night Sect, the Eternal Night Emperor smiled as he sensed the changes. "Is this part of His Majesty's plan? His view is much higher than mine. While we're still scheming how to overtake the Earth Continent, he is already planning for the future."
The aged immortal smiled, and then a terrifying light entered his eyes. "It seems that we have to move ahead of schedule."
He used his immortal sense to summon all the leaders of the Anti-Earth Alliance. It was time to tighten the noose around the Eight Pillar Sect.
Monarch Pathway, the sect master of the Eight Pillar Sect, hurriedly rushed towards the grand elder's abode. Any decently powerful immortal monarch could sense the disturbance on the Heaven Continent despite the vast distance.
"Grand Elder," Monarch Pathway said as he waited outside.
Not long later, a voice said, "Enter."
Monarch Pathway entered and was surprised to see two figures. One was the stationary elder of the Eight Pillar Sect, Emperor Infinity. Although she was touted as the number one expert, Monarch Pathway believed a new immortal empress like her was not Emperor Infinity's match, but recent revelations had broken Monarch Pathway's belief.
An immortal emperor could not defeat an immortal sovereign. Before, even if the Buzhou Immortal Sect had three immortal emperors, the Eight Pillar Sects were still on equal ground because the Concealed Emperor never left the sect or took any action unless trouble came to the home base of the Buzhou Immortal Sect, an event that only occurred three times in the sect's history.
However, with the news that the Sword Empress had ascended to the Origin Immortal Realm, the balance had been broken. Luckily, the Buzhou Immortal Sect had their own troubles and would not target the Eight Pillar Sect for now.
As long as an immortal sovereign does not appear in the Eight Pillar Sect, then the current era belonged to the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
It was the second figure that surprised Monarch Pathway, the Eight Pillar Sect's other grand elder that he had seen only a few times, Emperor Soulseek. As the name implied, he was a soul cultivator, so his power ranked among the top of all immortal emperors.
Emperor Soulseek had been absent from the sect since he had been searching for the remaining heritage of the Begonia Tower in order to find inspiration to advance to the next realm.
"Junior greets Grand Elder Infinity and welcomes the return of Grand Elder Soulseek," Monarch Pathway said.
Emperor Infinity and Soulseek nodded.
"Is Grand Elder Soulseek fine?" Monarch Pathway asked. He couldn't help but ask. Even without trying to, he could sense the wildly fluctuating aura on Emperor Soulseek's body.
Emperor Soulseek sighed. "I found traces of that little fellow. Oh, right, he shouldn't be called little fellow anymore. I found traces of Emperor Soulfish and fought him to obtain the Soul Pagoda and the legacy of Begonia Tower."
"How could a newly emerged Immortal Emperor hurt Grand Elder to this point?" Monarch Pathway asked. Emperor Soulseek was even older than Emperor Infinity, and among Immortal Emperors, he lived a long life. Such is the benefit of soul cultivation.
Emperor Soulseek shook his head. "It wasn't him. A third party interfered and took Emperor Soulfish away."
"Who?"
"I don't know, but he calls himself the Great Detacher of Emotions. Luckily, I was not without gains." Emperor Soulseek pulled out a silvery-white lotus petal.
"Could this be the legendary Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus?" Monarch Pathway asked.
Emperor Soulseek nodded. "With it, I should be able to recover fast enough that the Anti-Earth Alliance won't be able to discover my injury or take advantage of it."
Hearing this, Monarch Pathway sighed in relief but then brought up the main issue he came for. "Grand Elders, do you have any clue as to what is causing the disturbance in the Heaven Continent? The Tripartite Alliance and Anti-Heaven Alliance shouldn't have begun their attack so soon, right?"
"No, it has nothing to do with those two factions," Emperor Infinity said. "If they had taken action, the Concealed Emperor would not have sat idly by, not to mention the Sword Empress."
Upon mentioning her, Emperor Infinity had a complicated expression. He had thought that Mengfei ascending to the Extremity Immortal Realm in less than a thousand years had already been impressive, but it took her even less time to reach the Origin Immortal Realm.
"It's not a calamity but something else," Emperor Soulseek said. "I can sense the aura of tribulation contained within the anomalous event over the Heaven Continent."
Monarch Pathway frowned. "Is it possible the Buzhou Immortal Sect is refining some great artifact, possibly even a divine artifact?"
"Unlikely. According to the records, apotheosis and the birth of a divine artifact should not incur heavenly tribulation. Perhaps it's a pill tribulation or an Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation," Emperor Infinity said as he began calculating the origin with his fingers.
"No matter the reason, this means that the Buzhou Immortal Sect will rise to another level. I hope the Cloud Goddess will have some methods. I don't know what shortcut she used to become a divinity, but she better have enough strength to battle an immortal sovereign if she doesn't want the Anti-Heaven Alliance to fall." Emperor Soulseek said.
Monarch Pathway left after a few more reassurances from the two grand elders. When he returned to his mansion, he summoned his disciple, Duan Muli and Yang Linyin, the two most likely inheritors of the sect master position.
Duan Muli had already entered the Unity Realm. Ever since he learned that Tianyi had reached the Nascent Soul Realm under the age of twenty, he had asked Monarch Pathway to keep tabs. Now, aside from Yang Linyin, he also considered Tianyi his rival.
Compared to Yang Linyin, Duan Muli saw Tianyi as a more significant rival due to both of them representing hegemonic sects. As for Xia Yushan, Duan Muli wanted another rematch but crossed him off the list of potential rivals after he heard Xia Yushan lost to Tianyi.
Yang Linyin had also entered the Unity Realm, but just recently, so Duan Muli was still ahead by a good margin.
Monarch Pathway nodded in satisfaction upon seeing the two. He hadn't seen them for a year, but he still felt the two's improvements. However, that didn't mean he couldn't give them a good push, so he explained that an abnormally large heavenly tribulation had appeared above the Heaven Continent.
Duan Muli frowned. "Master, it couldn’t be Xi Tianyi's heavenly tribulation, could it?"
Upon hearing this, Monarch Pathway froze. He had never considered the notion. Xi Tianyi was simply too young. How much accumulation could he have? Not even his mother had caused such a large commotion when she became a true immortal. "Perhaps."
Tianyi's eyes twitched as he saw the abnormally large tribulation cloud. 'The Heavenly Dao is really going all out.'
He didn't do anything and allowed the first strike of lightning to fall onto his body. Tianyi instantly frowned. He could sense that the lightning barely reached the threshold of an immortal's attack.
In his current state, Tianyi could only use his body to defend against the tribulation of lightning. Well, that and absorbing the energy.
Tianyi closed his eyes and began to focus on absorbing the lightning. He had compressed his inner cosmos to the maximum. Now, he had to surpass the peak and cause so much compression that the primordial egg in his dantian would explode and form a nascent universe, the big bang.
Lightning continuously descended without stopping. It was as if the heavenly tribulation was having a blowout sale with no end in sight, sending strike after strike like they were worth nothing.
"How many lightning bolts have descended?" Elder Shan asked as he rubbed his eyes. His scalp already started to tingle on the first strike, and it had only gotten worse.
"It's already nine-hundred and ninety-seven strikes." Sect Master Xia said.
"It should end soon. The heavenly tribulation has already lasted for a month." Immortal Monarch Elder Jadeflame said.
"But it doesn't look like the heavenly tribulation is going to stop. The limit for the number of strikes is nine-hundred and ninety-nine strikes. If it goes past, it can no longer be considered an Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation." Immortal Monarch Elder Violetice said.
Sect Master Xia didn't say anything. He was both surprised and not surprised. How could the only mortal valued by the Concealed Emperor be so simple?
After a new month began, the number of lightning strikes had already superseded a thousand with no end in sight. The tribulation cloud cast a heavy shadow above all of the Heaven Continent, and the denizens no longer paid as much attention.
Although the tribulation cloud covered the entire continent, it was slowly shrinking with each passing day, and sunlight could finally reach the land, so there were no cases of famine due to the tribulation.
In fact, many disciples and elders had hunkered down outside Jade Peak to study the heavenly tribulation. They didn't comprehend tribulation essence as Tianyi did, but the Law of Lightning. Even some loose cultivators had appeared outside the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
During this time, Mengfei suddenly opened her eyes and grasped the Kunlun Mirror in hand. In the next instant, she appeared in the air above the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
"Why are you here?" Mengfei asked.
Standing in the air across from Mengfei was a woman wearing white robes embroidered with clouds. The Cloud Goddess smiled and said, "You guys made such a large commotion, causing great unrest. I'm simply here to confirm the origin."
Mengfei stayed expressionless and dipped her hand into the Kunlun Mirror, and pulled out a white crystalline sword. "Leave."
Without waiting for the Cloud Goddess to react, Mengfei attacked. The Cloud Goddess, in response, waved her hands, and countless clouds appeared to block Mengfei.
When Mengfei sliced through the clouds, the Cloud Goddess had already retreated a fair distance, but her eye couldn't help but twitch. She seemed to murmur something under her breath and formed numerous hand seals.
Under her control, more clouds appeared, and even the dissipating tribulation clouds were affected. These clouds formed into numerous shapes. Some resembled a peacock, another a wolf, and there was even a dragon-shaped one.
The Cloud Goddess ordered them to attack Mengfei. Like this, the battle that lasted for over a month and irrevocably changed the landscape started.
Mengfei and the Cloud Goddess only stopped when both realized they couldn't do anything to the other, so the Cloud Goddess left. She had already accomplished her goal, after all.
When she returned to the Cloud Goddess Cult, the leaders of the Drifting Feather Sect and Five Element Sect anxiously asked, "How is it? Do you have confidence in defeating the Sword Sovereign?"
The Cloud Goddess shook her head. "Her strength is above mine. Escaping and preserving my life isn't a problem, but if I want to contend with her, I have to burn up my reserves of faith. If I want to have any chance of defeating her, I need to spread my religion."
Hearing this, the two elders had ugly expressions. The Cloud Goddess Cult already possessed equal territory to both the Drifting Feather and Five Element Sect. If they agreed to the Cloud Goddess's suggestion, this was akin to leading the wolf into their den.
At first, it may seem that allowing the Cloud Goddess to preach her religion to the mortals was nothing. After all, cultivator or immortal, it didn't matter to divinity; belief was belief. But the problem was that it would affect the Drifting Feather and Five Element Sect's potential.
Most of their disciples came from these mortals. If nearly all the mortals believed in the Cloud Goddess, then it meant that their sects would lose a pool of talents since they would all be biased towards the Cloud Goddess Cult.
The two excused themselves to deliberate. It was not an easy decision to make, but seventh months later, they unanimously agreed to let the Cloud Goddess Cult gather more believers because the heavenly tribulation that lasted for ten months had ended.
When the heavenly tribulation ended, a vision that spanned the whole Heaven Continent appeared. They saw a night sky filled with myriad stars, and at the center was a golden sun surrounded by eight planets.
