Chapter Twenty-Nine: Divine Realm!

The pagoda trembled lightly, and from the third floor waves of light radiated before quickly settling back into calm.

“What’s happening?”

Outside, the elders of the immortal sects tensed, their faces turning grim as they all looked in the same direction. There, a man in green robes opened his eyes and, gazing through the crystal pagoda, offered Xuantian Master a faint smile.

At that moment, a man in white ascended the stairs below. He paused in surprise upon seeing someone already standing on the third floor.

By rights, each participant in the trial should have been unable to see any of the others. Yet every test was different; this disciple suspected that perhaps this year’s third trial had its own unique rules and promptly closed his eyes in concentration.

Meanwhile, the veteran cultivators outside, seasoned by countless experiences, instantly sensed the anomaly on the third floor.

The illusion array that was meant to test the third trial had vanished.

“Incredible, Chu Tiange has broken through the third trial’s test—utterly unbelievable!”

“Brother Xuantian, this time, shouldn’t all disciples who cleared the second trial qualify for entry into the Azure Profound Secret Realm? After all, even a ‘victory by default’ is a form of fortune, and fulfills the test,” an elder of the Supreme Sect said with a wide grin.

After all, in the past thirty years, the Supreme Sect had recruited plenty of new disciples—six thousand below the age of fifty alone. If they had to compete in the third trial, another third might have been eliminated.

This trial had already shattered all expectations—a truly joyous event!

It was now certain that the Supreme Sect would take first place.

On the Azure Profound Continent, to ensure fairness and allow even the lowest-ranked sects to recruit disciples, the Immortal Education Bureau had set rules: the three great sects could each take in thirty thousand disciples; the nine lesser sects, ten thousand; the second-tier sects, three thousand. As for the lowest-tier sects, they were limited to just a thousand.

As for the noble clans, their lineages were a private matter and not subject to restriction—recruitment depended on how many heirs a family happened to have. For instance, since the founding of the Azure Profound Dynasty, it had produced over three million descendants—an astonishing number.

At this moment, Xuantian Master stood silent, his face deathly pale, motionless, while within his heart a tempest raged.

Within the pagoda, only the events of the first trial were visible to outsiders. The second trial, which tested the heart, and the third, which tested fate, both led contestants into a realm of illusion.

Only the owner of the pagoda, Xuantian Master, could use the pagoda’s power to witness these illusions.

What he saw was an unimaginably terrifying scene.

A dreadful pressure crushed the heavens, enveloping all creation; everything was shattered and annihilated. The sky was filled with eerie shadows, the ground littered with countless corpses and bones. The entire Azure Profound Continent was drenched in blood.

Xuantian Master had never witnessed such a vision.

Skeletons radiated chilling menace, and above all, that final, indescribable phantom seemed to stride across the cosmos, threatening to sweep all before it.

A wave of despair and deathly stillness swept through his heart.

Yet there were still one after another of mighty figures, facing certain death, struggling desperately to uphold their crumbling world.

“Supreme Sect... Li Qingxuan, Heartless Sect, Dongfang Ningmeng... Little Uncle, Cao Xuanqing... Why do I see these divine-level powerhouses in that man’s heart? Who... who is he really?”

The second trial reflected each person’s innermost fears, and only by overcoming them could one pass.

Thus, what Xuantian Master witnessed could not be false, but a reflection of true events!

Who, then, had they been fighting? Why had the Azure Profound Continent become a land soaked in blood? Why had all those mighty ones perished?

“Impossible, this is impossible!” Xuantian Master burst into insane laughter. “Little Uncle is the greatest and most revered legend of the Feathered Immortal Sect—he cannot have fallen! Impossible! All of this is a lie!”

“Brother Xuantian...”

The elder of the Supreme Sect’s face changed; he could see that Xuantian Master was on the verge of madness.

“Cao Xuanqing of the Feathered Immortal Sect has perished?” Many powerful figures turned pale at the news.

This was a divine-level powerhouse, who had reached the God-Traversing Realm a thousand years past. Even when still in the Worry-Free Realm, the Dao Sovereign of Azure Profound had personally commented that he was the reincarnation of the Saint of Letters—his words alone could usher in half an age of prosperity for the continent.

He had written ninety essays on the God-Traversing Realm and three hundred treatises on cultivation from mortal bone to the Worry-Free Realm. Without him, the Feathered Immortal Sect would never have achieved its current glory, with successive leaders serving as imperial advisors.

Yet such a great figure had fallen!

An elder of the Heartless Sect, having cultivated the “Nine Heavens Heartless Sutra” and long since unacquainted with joy or sorrow, grinned and laughed aloud.

“Brother Xuantian, our condolences!”

“Brother Xuantian, don’t let grief consume you...”

“The departed are gone, but you must carry on, Brother Xuantian...” The elders of many immortal sects offered their consolations.

“You, Dongfang Wei! You gloat at my pain!” Xuantian Master, hearing the Heartless Sect elder’s laughter, erupted in rage, his bloodshot eyes fixed on him: “You never expected it, did you? The Grand Elder Dongfang has died too!”

“Dongfang Ningmeng has fallen as well?”

“How could that be?!”

The shock among the assembled powerhouses was overwhelming—a divine-level figure of the Feathered Immortal Sect was gone, and now the Grand Elder of the Heartless Sect had perished too?

The shock on the faces of the immortal sect elders was indescribable.

Meanwhile, more and more people were ascending to the third floor of the pagoda. Looking around suspiciously, they were soon distracted by the commotion outside.

“Impossible, how could the Grand Elder Dongfang have died?” Dongfang was startled, but quickly composed himself and spoke up.

“How do you know this?” The elder of the Supreme Sect hesitated before asking.

“Little Uncle is dead! Dongfang Ningmeng is dead! Li Qingxuan is dead! Hahaha, and two other divine-level powerhouses died alongside Little Uncle! On the road to the underworld, at least he won’t be lonely!” Xuantian Master, hair disheveled, raved and shouted, devoid of any masterly composure.

As he spoke, his voice began to tremble, and tears streamed down his face as he wept with heart-rending grief. His entire body shook, as if bearing an unspeakable pain.

Witnessing Xuantian Master’s devastation, the other powerhouses grew increasingly alarmed and hurriedly tried to contact their own sects.

Alas, they could not reach their ancestors, which only deepened their fear.

But it could not be false—a cultivator as strong and resolute as Xuantian Master would only lose his composure if faced with a cataclysmic upheaval. The death of Cao Xuanqing was indeed a collapse of heaven for the Feathered Immortal Sect!

This was no fiction, but a brutal fact: the mighty figures who had once inspired awe across the Azure Profound Continent were falling, one after another. The blow to the continent was immense.

Why had these divine-level powerhouses perished?

Could it be that they had ventured into the Abyss of the Gods, or encountered some unspeakable taboo?

What had the three divine-level powerhouses faced?

Apart from the Heartless Sect, the elders of the three great sects were overcome with grief, wailing to the heavens.

“What’s gotten into these elders?”

The disciples on the third floor of the pagoda frowned as they watched from afar, confused.

It was like something out of a myth—utterly unbelievable.

“These elders are usually so cold and aloof. Why are they all crying their hearts out now? It makes no sense!” The disciples of the three great sects were baffled.

“Report to headquarters at once: Li Qingxuan, Cao Xuanqing, and Dongfang Ningmeng, all divine-level powerhouses, have fallen.” Members of the Cultivation Alliance recorded the whole scene with a scrying stone.

Soon, the news would spread to every cultivator across the Azure Profound Continent; the world would be shaken, and there would be none who did not mourn!

The death of three God-Traversing powerhouses—the impact on the continent was incalculable!

Very soon, everyone’s arms or sleeves began to chime.

It was the notification of an update from the Cultivation Monthly.

Many of the disciples standing in the pagoda’s third trial, having nothing to do while they waited, took out their copies.

The periodical detailed the latest information.

In an instant, the entire Azure Profound Continent was shaken!

First: Xuantian Master had suddenly broken down in tears during the Immortal Sects’ Joint Examination, with the periodical printing a large close-up of his face.

In the photo, the leader of the Feathered Immortal Sect and imperial advisor to the Azure Profound Dynasty wept uncontrollably, beating his chest and howling.

Next: the deaths of the three divine-level powerhouses were confirmed, with Xuantian Master being the first to receive the news. Further details would be followed up after he finished crying. The Cultivation Alliance expressed deep sorrow over their passing and called on all to memorialize the three predecessors, to remember their great deeds, and to honor their memory. We will never forget.

Below was another announcement, this one about Xiao Yicai, leader of the Morning Immortal Sect.

Three ancient stars had been extinguished, but now a new, radiant star was rising: the leader of the Morning Immortal Sect, Master Xiao, had recently broken through to the God-Traversing Realm, becoming the continent’s newest divine-level powerhouse!

While the fall of the three greats left the Azure Profound Continent in turmoil, Xiao Yicai’s breakthrough was a timely balm, calming the hearts of cultivators everywhere.

On the pagoda, more and more disciples reached the third floor, and each was left frozen in shock upon reading the news.

Chu Tiange rubbed his brow, his gaze fixed on Xuantian Master.

Cao Xuanqing, Li Qingxuan, Dongfang Ningmeng—all dead?

Had the fate of this world been altered?

Yet... before that indescribable, uncanny being emerged, who in this world could possibly have killed them?

...

At that very moment, on a distant island millions of miles from the Azure Profound Continent, a secret cave abode sat in silence, its master a mysterious woman.

She wore a blue gown, her breathtaking beauty as cold as ancient ice.

She sat serenely in her cave, eyes half-closed, like a meditating bodhisattva, utterly unperturbed.

She was none other than the Heartless Grand Elder, Dongfang Ningmeng!

But in the next instant, Dongfang Ningyu’s eyes snapped open as she picked up the periodical, a terrifying glint shooting from her gaze.

“So, I am said to have perished.” Dongfang Ningmeng’s voice was devoid of emotion, her aura vast and unfathomable.

“Who dares curse me? And what right have those two to be named as my companions in death?”

A fearsome energy erupted skyward, sweeping across the seas and spreading outward, sending waves rolling for thousands of miles.

In a flash, Dongfang Ningmeng shot from her cave, transforming into a white arc that tore across the sky, vanishing into the raging waves.

At the same time, in the Eastern Extremes.

On the glacial plain, endless snow stretched to the horizon.

Suddenly, the earth trembled, glaciers cracked, mountains collapsed, and a wild energy exploded from the depths below.

Crackling and grinding sounds echoed to the heavens.

A man in white floated into the air.

He was handsome, with sword-like brows and star-bright eyes; his white robe hung loose, a single lock of silver hair brushing his shoulder, like an immortal exiled from the heavens, untouched by mortal dust.

He looked down at the jade slip in his hand, his deep black eyes flashing with brilliance.

It was as though boundless power was contained within those eyes.

Standing atop the clouds, he gazed down upon the world, imperious, as if surveying all living things from on high.

After a moment, the young man let out a quiet laugh.

“I, Li Qingxuan, am the greatest sword immortal of this world, undefeated in this life. I am genuinely curious—which mighty figure is said to have killed me?” Reading the news in the Cultivation Monthly, Li Qingxuan was not angered, but rather intrigued.

“If I recall, today should be the Immortal Sects’ Joint Examination. I suppose I’ll go and see for myself.” He spoke softly.

With a single stride, he turned into a streak of light and vanished from the spot.

In the wilds of the Northern Desolation, inside a small schoolhouse.

A group of children were gathered. The Northern Desolation was a barbarous land, ninety-nine percent of it still uncultivated, where even basic sustenance was a struggle, let alone education.

This was the only school for a hundred miles.

At that moment, the middle-aged teacher was instructing his students, his voice gentle as jade, expounding upon the classics of the sages, teaching the children about courtesy, integrity, and the difference between good and evil.

Suddenly, the teacher paused, took a periodical from his robe, and, upon reading, smiled wryly.

“That rascal Xuantian—he must miss me dearly. But the fields three hundred miles away have yet to be tilled, the waters of Barbarian Mountain still need to be diverted, and so many children are yet to be taught. These children are all excellent material for learning.” The teacher smiled at the children. “Now, listen closely as I continue...”

Meanwhile, within the Morning Immortal Sect, the sect leader gazed in bewilderment at the periodical.

“When did I ascend to the divine realm?”

...

The elders of the three great sects were too grief-stricken to remember the trial at hand. The elders of the second-tier sects and noble clans kept silent, not daring to speak. But the elders of the nine major sects could not remain silent.

“Brother Xuantian, are we still proceeding into the Azure Profound Secret Realm this time?” Xie Miaomiao was the first to speak.

The hour of You had arrived.

Suddenly, winds swept wildly through the gorge.

In an instant, the earth trembled and the sky shook!

Heaven and earth changed color, dark clouds rolling in, as a terrifying pressure descended upon the ancient domain.

“Is it beginning?” All looked up at the sky.

Then, in a flash, a dazzling golden light tore through the darkness, illuminating the world, scattering the gloom—a flood of sunlight poured down.

Across the sky, countless motes of golden light floated upwards, drifting toward the gorge.

In the air above, a massive vortex appeared.

At its center, a heavy, ancient “Cloud Gate” slowly opened.

On the gate were engraved countless intricate, mysterious patterns, forming a pair of “giant eyes” filled with the weight of ages, as if they had crossed the eons to gaze upon every soul present from the river of time itself.