It took eleven Yuanhui to ascend Buzhou, reach Taiyin, and seek the Dao of Time.
In just over a dozen Yuanhui, he achieved cultivation that would normally take fifty to sixty, or even a hundred.
Qing Ling was never one to forget the greater good for the minor; he was a master of meticulous calculation.
His mental arithmetic was already on par with the most powerful beings, and no lesser entity could scheme against him.
Of course, against those above the peak, like future Sages, even if a Sage calculated his doom, he would never know.
The terror of Sages was not merely in their might, but in the ultimate peak of their boundless wisdom, a calculation that instilled only fear and despair, with all beings within its grasp.
Qing Ling rose and gazed afar, the Ten Directional Heavenly Lantern illuminating the phenomena of fortune and destiny in all directions.
In the east of the sky, a colossal golden dragon was faintly visible, its resurgence majestic and powerful.
However, beneath the scales of the dragon, "dark spots" were already apparent.
This was the image of the Dragon Clan's fortune.
To the south, a divine phoenix flew, standing tall on the Undying Volcano, its radiant feathers already showing signs of rust.
Looking west, the fur beneath the divine radiance of the Qilin had also turned blackish-grey, and this phenomenon was more pronounced than that of the Dragon and Phoenix clans.
The fortunes of the three clans were beginning to devour each other again; the Sacred Sacrifice was restarting.
Qing Ling had lived for over twelve million nine hundred thousand years, and no one in the world dared to call him a "little fellow" anymore.
...
In the ancestral land of the Serpent Clan, on Xi Mountain.
Chi respectfully said, "Clan Leader, the Saintess is ready. Accompanied by twelve Grand Unity cultivators and a hundred Golden Immortal venerables, even a powerful being would find it difficult to capture her."
Granny Hua Geng nodded, "This is excellent. Among the eight great royal clans, our Xi Mountain has been promoted for the shortest time and lacks deep foundations. It's best to keep a low profile for now and not compete with the other seven royal clans."
Chi asked, "Then, Clan Leader, when shall we depart? According to the custom of past Sacred Sacrifices, some remote smaller clans would have already set off by now."
Granny Hua Geng smiled and said, "We are naturally not in a hurry. We'll depart in a few hundred years. I will lead you. The East Sea Dragon Palace is only half a day's journey from Xi Mountain."
Chi expressed some concern, "Clan Leader, won't this be too late?"
"It is not too late!" Granny Hua Geng shook her head. "This is the intention of the Ancestor. Do you understand?"
Chi's heart settled, and he immediately replied, "Yes, I will inform everyone now to await orders."
...
Seven hundred years later, on the summit of Mount Taichong, Xi Mountain.
Granny Hua Geng looked at Saintess Yao Xi, whose cultivation at the late stage of Golden Immortal was on the verge of Grand Unity, and said with satisfaction, "Not bad. Coupled with that spiritual treasure and the clan's secret techniques and divine abilities, it should be enough for you to maintain our clan's ranking from the last Sacred Sacrifice."
Yao Xi smiled, "Thank you, Clan Leader, for this opportunity. Yao Xi will surely not fail your trust!"
Granny Hua Geng nodded and said, "Let's go."
A golden cloud rose from nowhere, carrying over a hundred Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators into the sky.
However, as the golden cloud had just ascended, it stopped moving forward.
Chi, on the golden cloud, asked in confusion, "Clan Leader, what is it?"
Granny Hua Geng remained silent, only gazing to the west.
The Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators also followed her gaze.
At the edge of the chaotic lands beyond the Eastern Wilderness, over twenty Golden Immortals were fleeing in panic, their escape lights traveling a thousand miles in an instant towards the east. Their clothes were disheveled, and their expressions were panicked.
Among the three leading Grand Unity cultivators, an old man glanced at the increasingly gigantic Jianmu in the sky and exclaimed, "Quick! Ahead is Xi Mountain Serpent Clan, one of the eight great royal clans. We'll be saved once we reach there!"
Upon hearing this, everyone's spirits soared, and their escape speed increased by another notch.
Behind them, a white-robed youth approached lightly on the snow. His sleeves fluttered, and the extreme cold of the Great Dao of Ice swept for ten thousand miles, instantly engulfing the last five Golden Immortal venerables. They were instantly frozen, turning into ice sculptures.
Then, with a gust of wind, the ice sculptures shattered. The five Golden Immortal venerables' physical bodies and souls turned into ice fragments, falling from the sky.
The white-haired youth in white sneered, "Hand over the Holy Son, and I will spare your lives. Otherwise, you will not reach the borders of Xi Mountain alive."
As his words fell, an ice blade appeared in the youth's hand, two feet and one inch long, made of pure ice. An extremely strong chill locked onto the three Grand Unity cultivators and the remaining thirteen Golden Immortal venerables.
With a single swing of this blade, all thirteen Golden Immortals would be utterly annihilated!
The twelve Golden Immortal venerables felt a chilling dread. The terrifying extreme cold forced their fear to overcome their kinship, and they looked towards a maiden in red in unison.
The three Grand Unity cultivators cursed angrily, "You cowards!"
The three of them stepped forward to protect the maiden in red, not taking a single step back.
The white-haired youth smiled, "That's more like it! Saintess of the Floating Water Dragonfly Clan, if you come with me, you and your clansmen can live. Otherwise, all of you will die!"
The maiden in red's face showed hesitation. She looked at her clansmen and finally took a step forward.
But at this moment, a cold voice echoed from the horizon, "What mighty being dares to act so presumptuously in the territory of my Xi Mountain?"
As this sound rang out, the Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators rejoiced. The mighty beings of the Xi Mountain Serpent Clan had arrived, and they had a chance to survive.
The white-haired youth's expression changed. Without hesitation, he raised his hand and swung, a vast ice blade splitting the sky and earth, slashing towards the Golden Immortals of the Floating Water Dragonfly Clan.
But a golden rainbow shot through the sky. Granny Hua Geng's body erupted with golden light, and a massive golden shield protected the Golden Immortals, blocking the strike.
Granny Hua Geng's eyes lit up, and she smiled, "It turns out to be a powerful being of the Ice Dao. You won't be leaving today."
The white-haired youth let out a scoff and, without speaking, instantly retreated, his figure disappearing into the void. Since the mission had failed, he would leave. To think that a fellow mighty being would try to keep him was simply wishful thinking.
But he had greatly underestimated the divine abilities of the world's mighty beings.
A silvery-white light shone in the void, and a long bridge was cast upon him, its other end connected to the tall Jianmu.
Across the bridge, Qing Ling's One Glance Seed instantly devoured half of the youth's dao power and soul under the reversal of time.
The white-haired youth was greatly alarmed. In his panic, he could no longer hide his identity.
"Chirp—"
A high-pitched phoenix cry resounded through the sky. A giant, pure white, and beautiful ice phoenix spread its wings in the void, and a sky full of ice and snow descended.
The giant phoenix flapped its wings, igniting ice flames, trying to soar into the sky.
But Qing Ling pointed a finger, and three thousand red threads bound the divine phoenix. The red threads were like chains, locking the heavens and earth.
Though the divine phoenix was powerful, it could not pull the Jianmu.
Though the divine phoenix's ice flames were potent, they could not burn through a top-grade spiritual treasure.
Qing Ling glanced at Hua Geng. Their eyes met, and they understood each other's thoughts.
He let out a soft cry, "收!" (Collect!)
The Luosheng Flower instantly transformed into a giant of a million sizes, like a blood-red carnivorous plant, devouring the ice phoenix bound by the red threads.
Hao, beneath the Jianmu, felt a strange sense of schadenfreude. He knew he would have company from now on.
The phenomena in the heavens and earth disappeared, as if nothing had happened, except for the addition of a Luosheng Flower beneath the Jianmu.
The Luosheng Flower, under which Hao was suppressed, trembled. A flower's sound transmitted into the terrified and uneasy ice phoenix's ears.
"Fellow Daoist, you've also come in? Old Dao has company now."
In the other Luosheng Flower, the ice phoenix was filled with fear and anger. Its divine sense could only be transformed into flower sounds.
"Who are you? Who wants company with you?"
"Oh! You've got quite a temper!" Hao chuckled. "As expected of a direct descendant of the Phoenix Clan, arrogant. Let's see how much arrogance you have left after a dozen Yuanhui!"
On the other side, all the Golden Immortals were shocked. The invincible mighty being who had pursued them had been suppressed in the blink of an eye, without any resistance. The being above the Jianmu was too terrifying.
It was the three Grand Unity cultivators whose minds reacted the fastest. They immediately led everyone in a bow, "Thank you, Senior, for saving our lives. We, the Floating Water Dragonfly Clan, are deeply grateful!"
Granny Hua Geng smiled and said, "Arise. What dragon lineage do you belong to?"
The old Grand Unity cultivator said, "Reporting to Senior, we, the Floating Water Dragonfly Clan, are one of the few remaining dragon subordinates in the Southern Sea. This time, I led our Saintess to the East Sea Dragon Palace for the Sacred Sacrifice. However, halfway there, we suddenly discovered that the Holy Son and Saintess of other dragon subordinates were being pursued. We hid and dodged along the way, and it was only a day ago that we encountered this white-haired Grand Unity cultivator. They threatened us to hand over the Saintess, and they would spare our lives.
We know well that the Dragon Clan is always cruel and exterminates clans that lose their Holy Sons and Saintesses, so we dared not hand her over. We could only flee desperately. Fortunately, we encountered you, Senior, and were thus saved."
Granny Hua Geng frowned deeply and asked, "Was it all the work of the Phoenix Clan?"
"Junior does not know. Most of these people are experts, and they all conceal their races. We truly do not know if they are all from the Phoenix Clan!"
Granny Hua Geng nodded, turned to Chi and the other Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators who had just arrived, and said, "First, take these young friends to be temporarily settled at Xi Mountain."
As soon as she finished speaking, torrential divine fire swept across the southern sky towards the east. Molten lava erupted, and countless beings in the entire eastern chaotic lands were burned to death by this divine fire. Even some Golden Immortals reacted a beat too late and were engulfed in the sea of flames.
At the same time, along the coast of the Western Sea, the earth cracked, mountains trembled, and even ten thousand-foot high mountains collapsed in the shaking.
In an instant, an unknown number of beings died or were injured.
The earthquake spread to the deep waters of the Western Sea, the ocean trenches vibrated, and magma erupted from the earth's core. The scorching heat vaporized countless amounts of seawater. In the inner sea of the Western Sea, tsunamis surged ten thousand feet high, and the erupting magma caused the seawater to boil, cooking countless sea creatures.
To the north, in the Eastern Forest secret realm, ten thousand beasts stampeded, and enormous boulders descended from the sky. Each boulder could no longer be called a stone, but a mountain.
Mountains fell from the sky, and under the terrifying gravity, the overwhelming impact force shattered the water wall formation constructed by the sea race. Tens of thousands of mountains fell, directly causing the Grand Unity cultivator in charge of the formation to be backlashed and severely injured.
Within the East Sea, except for the area within a hundred billion li of the East Sea Dragon Palace, which remained stable, other sea areas and the seabed experienced similar terrifying earthquakes. The seabed rose tens of thousands of feet, and giant tsunamis on the sea surface turned the entire East Sea into a world of water.
The earth's crust squeezed at the bottom of the sea, and magma erupted from countless fault lines. Even terrifying divine fire, such as the Sky Phoenix True Flame which even ten thousand hectares of seawater could not extinguish, spread through the seawater and began to burn.
In all four directions of heaven and earth, endless terrifying roars could be heard. All beings fled in panic, but there was nowhere to escape.
The earth continued to shake, the magma and divine fire in the sea never ceased, and volcanic ash and miasma in the air and underground obscured the sun and sky.
There was no refuge on land, at sea, or in the air.
Qing Ling stood at the peak of Jianmu, looking at the flames below, sensing the earth's tremors, listening to the roars and the wails of all beings. He raised his head to look higher into the sky and said indifferently, "Everything is about to begin!"