Qing Ling, fleeing at full speed, felt an unending sense of impending doom.
Though uneasy, Qing Ling harbored no fear. He flew directly towards the edge of the chaotic lands, towards the Eastern Wasteland.
However, his destination was not Xi Mountain, but the ancestral lands of the Tian Jun Salamander tribe.
Qing Ling sped onward, daring not to stop until he saw the salamander tribe’s aquatic forest, at which point his heart relaxed.
He vanished into the forest, landing within its depths. With a wave of his hand, hundreds of miniature puppet figures appeared.
The Purple Nether Lotus spun slowly, infusing hundreds of soul-bound energies into the puppets.
Qing Ling waved his hand and said, "Go!"
As the words fell, the hundreds of puppet figures scattered, rushing towards various parts of the salamander tribe.
The Tian Jun Salamander tribe was known for its mystery and unfathomable strength. This was a good opportunity for them to showcase their power, rather than constantly hiding and developing in secret.
Afterward, Qing Ling gathered all the spiritual items' energies into the Withered Prosperity Dao Realm, then transformed into a small green snake, emitting no aura whatsoever, and swiftly slithered towards the border between the Tian Jun Salamander tribe and the Spirit Toad tribe.
Even as he crawled in his ordinary snake form, with the aid of the technique "Shrinking the Ground to an Inch," he could travel a million li a day without issue.
Since he had sensed danger, why would he lead it back to his doorstep?
More than a month after Qing Ling's departure, Black Nether Supreme revealed himself above the aquatic forest. To deduce the ethereal whereabouts of a congenital deity, even for a Great Luo Supreme, in this era where the Heavenly Dao was not yet manifest and its rules incomplete, no amount of sophisticated calculation could yield an accurate answer.
Thus, Black Nether Supreme, after taking a lengthy detour, finally arrived in the Eastern Wasteland!
His face contorted with rage, but with nowhere to vent it, he gazed at the aquatic forest. His ghostly eyes closed, and on his brow, flesh split open to reveal another eye. A faint black light swept across the entire forest.
"Good, the brat lingered here. It seems I've found the right place!"
At the same moment, atop the highest peak of the Tian Jun Salamander tribe, Tian Jun Divine Mountain, the Twelve Cave Lords sat in a circle.
On the divine altar in the center of the twelve people, a light flashed, revealing the figure of Black Nether Supreme above the aquatic forest.
The Great Cave Lord, seated at the upper end of the circle, raised his head and proclaimed, "I suspect some tribesman returning from the chaotic lands has provoked this Supreme."
An aged voice emanated from a Cave Lord beside him, clad entirely in white robes, "Truly a cause for worry. Our tribe has exposed too much of its strength in recent years, drawing the attention of the major tribes of the Eastern Wasteland. If we expose ourselves further, it might even arouse suspicion from the Dragon Palace."
"The seeds of turmoil among the three tribes have already been sown; we need only to subtly push them. When the great war erupts, our tribe will simply retreat and remain in seclusion. Why bother with so many concerns?" a cold, clear female voice chimed in.
"That may not be the case. The Dragon race's power far surpasses our imagination. Even our ancestors treated them with great caution and would not openly intervene. We still need to be discreet."
"Enough!" The Great Cave Lord at the head commanded, "Third Cave Lord, Sixth Cave Lord, Ninth Cave Lord, the three of you go and drive away that Great Luo.
Remember, your identities are as elders of the Tian Jun Salamander tribe, three cultivators at the Grand Unity realm!"
Three figures immediately rose and replied in unison, "Yes."
Black Nether Supreme probed an area spanning tens of thousands of li and discovered the presence of several suspected Purple Nether Lotus energies. He immediately took to the sky, searching from one place to another.
Even when he encountered several Golden Immortals of the salamander tribe, he dispatched them with a single palm strike, or two if one was not enough.
The entire western region of the salamander tribe was thrown into panic, with tribesmen scattering in all directions.
Black Nether Supreme searched for nearly a hundred million li, discovering nearly a hundred locations with the aura of the Purple Nether Lotus. However, each time he found one, it was merely a puppet! Enraged and frustrated, he acted with even less restraint, crushing anything alive he encountered.
He was stuck at the tenth level of Great Luo Golden Immortal, only a sliver away from the eleventh, but this sliver was as vast as a chasm. For countless eons, he had toiled without finding a method.
But now, with the Purple Nether Lotus, he believed he could absolutely unravel the secret of the Great Beings!
In this era where the Dao Ancestor had not yet passed down his teachings, and the method of severing three corpses had not yet emerged, the Great Luo Golden Immortals in the entire Primordial World were, at most, at the tenth level. Only the Great Luo of the three tribes could ascend to the realm of Great Beings or even Supreme Great Beings. There were also ancient existences, like the Ten Great Supremes of the primeval era, old relics from the dawn of creation.
Besides them, the number of beings in the Primordial World who could reach the Great Being realm did not exceed the count of fingers on one hand, and there was not a single Supreme Great Being.
Therefore, the yearning for higher realms compelled even those Great Luo who had attained逍遥 (free and unfettered) to serve the three tribes, seeking methods to break through.
This was why Black Nether pursued this lotus for countless li, refusing to let go.
The entire salamander tribe was in a state of terror and chaos, with countless salamanders fleeing in all directions. The western tribal region descended into utter disarray.
Innumerable tribesmen cursed the one who had provoked the Great Luo, causing them to suffer undeserved calamity.
And the culprit, cursed by countless salamanders, Qing Ling, was at this moment coiled in the hollow of a large tree, watching the salamanders flying wildly in the sky outside, silently praying for their good fortune.
The entire salamander tribe was on high alert, and moving around now carried some danger. Thus, he rested for a few days in a tree within the central region of the salamander tribe, not far from Tian Jun Sacred Mountain.
Beneath his coiled body lay five small white eggs. This was the tree hollow he had occupied after devouring a large bird that had been nesting there.
That's right, he was a snake incubating bird eggs.
Since he had eaten their parents, he had to bear the responsibility for their offspring. When the young hatched, he would reunite the bird family.
Qing Ling was currently indistinguishable from an ordinary snake, with no divine powers or cultivation. He watched the sky above Tian Jun Divine Mountain with unhurried focus.
He dared not go there. There was something that filled him with dread, and the Great Luo ancestor of the Tian Jun tribe was also within the Divine Mountain.
Soon, he saw three streams of light soaring from the Divine Mountain, each containing a cultivator at the Grand Unity realm.
Legend had it that the Tian Jun Salamander tribe had twelve Cave Lords, each mysterious and unfathomably powerful.
So, he would see how they compared to a Great Luo Supreme.
Qing Ling had sealed all his divine abilities, even disabling the shared vision from his puppet figures. Thus, he could see nothing else, only a patch of sky above Tian Jun Divine Mountain from his tree hollow.
Bored, he watched until he eventually fell asleep.
He did not know how long he slept until a deafening roar, like thunder from the nine heavens, startled him. Qing Ling's serpentine body trembled, and he abruptly raised his head, slowly extending it out of the tree hollow to look at the sky.
He saw that on Tian Jun Divine Mountain, three streams of light were being brutally smashed down by a palm larger than Tian Jun Mountain itself, crashing onto Tian Jun Mountain.
A black light flashed, and Black Nether Supreme stood amidst the clouds. Though in his youthful form, his powerful Great Luo aura inspired awe and dread in all living beings.
"Tian Jun Salamander tribe, hand over the Purple Nether Lotus, and I shall let this matter rest today. Otherwise, I will raze your Tian Jun Mountain!"