After Tang Xiaoqi took over the position of Qingxu Temple's Temple Master, the entire sect took on a new atmosphere. They were busy sorting out affairs, calming the hearts of the people unsettled by True Lord Xuan Chen's impending meditation passing, and preparing for a grand Temple Master succession ceremony, inviting righteous cultivators from across the realm. The whole Qingxu Temple was immersed in busy preparations and hopeful expectations for the future.
However, this brief tranquility and hope did not last long.
On this particular day, it was noon, with the scorching sun high overhead. Inside Qingxu Temple, Xiao Qi was in the side hall of Lingxiao Palace, discussing the ceremony details and the sect's future development plans with Eldest Senior Brother Mu Qingfeng and Third Senior Sister Liu Yun. Though he had suppressed his aura, the natural dignity of a Nascent Soul True Lord still filled the hall with a solemn yet reassuring atmosphere.
Suddenly—
Without any warning, Xiao Qi's fingers, which had been flipping through documents, suddenly froze. He looked up sharply, his gaze like lightning, instantly piercing through the hall's obstruction toward the southern horizon! The calm on his face was instantly replaced by unprecedented gravity, even carrying a trace of disbelief and shocked anger!
Almost at the same moment, Mu Qingfeng and Liu Yun inside the hall also had their expressions change drastically as they stood up abruptly!
"This aura...!" Mu Qingfeng exclaimed. Though he had not yet reached Nascent Soul, his Golden Core peak cultivation and his sensitivity to the sect's fortune allowed him to perceive that terrifying fluctuation coming from an extremely distant place, yet powerful enough to shake their hearts.
Liu Yun directly gripped her sword hilt, sword qi uncontrollably bursting forth around her, cutting fine sword marks into the jade table beside her.
It wasn't just them.
Far away in the East Sea Dragon Palace, Crown Prince Ao Qin, who was reviewing documents, suddenly threw down the jade slip in his hand. His dragon eyes went wide as he looked toward the western continent, all color draining from his face.
In the Southern Border Witch Village, the old village chief presiding over the sacred ritual at the holy ground dropped his bone staff to the ground. Looking toward the north, his whole body trembled, his lips quivering: "The Holy Master... great calamity..."
In the Western Desert's Vajra Gate, the Northern Plains' Snow Wolf Tribe, the Central State's Imperial City... all cultivators who had reached a certain level, no matter where they were or what they were doing, at this moment felt something in their hearts—an instinctive fear and trembling from the depths of life, groundlessly gripping their hearts!
Immediately after, that perception became tangible!
"RUMBLE—!!!"
A sound as if from the deepest depths of the Nine Hells, or as if originating from the world's source, a thunderous crack of collapse, ignoring spatial distance, clearly, heavily, with endless destructive meaning, resounded in the depths of every living being's soul throughout the entire cultivation world!
The source of the sound pointed directly to the southwest of the continent—to that place listed as a forbidden zone—the Ten Thousand Poison Marsh!
...
Ten Thousand Poison Marsh, deep within.
The core area that Tang Xiaoqi had previously resealed using the power of the Green Lotus combined with the Nine Heavens Demon-Sealing Array was now unrecognizable!
That ancient altar, originally covered by purification power with flowing runes, was now covered with spiderweb-like, bottomless huge cracks! Within the cracks was not rock or soil, but roiling, boiling, extremely concentrated pitch-black demonic energy! In the center of the altar, the Green Lotus mark that Xiao Qi had left as the array core was now extremely dim, its surface covered with cracks, as if it would completely shatter in the next second!
"Crack... crack-crack..."
Tooth-aching cracking sounds were endless. The earth around the altar shattered inch by inch like fragile glass, collapsing downward to form a bottomless, enormous abyss. Countless resentful souls and demon remnants that had been sealed and purified for hundreds or thousands of years spewed out from the cracks and abyss like a geyser, emitting piercing wails and roars, instantly dyeing the sky into a ghostly domain!
And the most terrifying thing was that pillar of demonic energy light that shot up from the very bottom of the abyss!
That light pillar was a hundred zhang wide, pitch-black as ink, condensed into substance! It shot up to the heavens, easily tearing through the miasma and clouds that had accumulated over the Ten Thousand Poison Marsh for years, penetrating straight to the highest heavens! Within the light pillar was contained the world's most extreme evil, chaos, slaughter, despair... all kinds of negative emotions and destructive energy. Just the aftershocks it radiated caused space within a thousand li to distort, light to dim, grass and trees to instantly wither and rot, and living beings to dissolve into pus and blood!
The demonic energy pillar connected heaven and earth, like a giant pillar supporting the destruction of the world, or like a world-destroying beast that had broken free from its cage, announcing its return to heaven and earth, baring its fangs!
It covered the sky and blocked out the sun!
The originally clear sky, centered on the Ten Thousand Poison Marsh, saw darkness spread rapidly in all directions like a tide! This was not the darkness of night, but absolute darkness brought by demonic energy erosion and law chaos—even light could be swallowed!
Throughout the entire cultivation world, no matter east or west, north or south, no matter day or night, as long as one looked up, one could see at the horizon that hideous pitch-black light pillar radiating despair-inducing aura, and the constantly expanding darkness that was swallowing the light!
The brilliant sun was, in an instant, as if entering doomsday!
"Argh—!"
In some areas closer to the Ten Thousand Poison Marsh, low-level cultivators or even mortals, just by seeing that demonic energy pillar or being grazed by the edge of that darkness, would have blood stream from their eyes as they clutched their heads and screamed. Their minds were swallowed by endless fear and madness, instantly falling into the demonic path, or their souls directly scattering!
"The seal... is broken?" In the Central State Imperial City, an imperial ancestor staggered out of his closed-door cultivation place, looking at that doomsday scene, his old face deathly pale, his soul lost.
"The Nine Heavens Demon-Sealing Array... ultimately couldn't trap it?" Overseas on a celestial island, a reclusive loose immortal let out a long sigh filled with powerlessness.
"The demonic lord... is coming out!" In the hearts of countless cultivators, this despair-inducing thought arose simultaneously.
Qingxu Temple, Lingxiao Palace side hall.
Tang Xiaoqi had already stood up. With one step, his figure appeared in the sky outside the hall. Looking at that demonic energy pillar connecting heaven and earth in the south, feeling that familiar yet even more violent, more terrifying evil aura, his face was so dark it seemed water could drip from it.
He clearly sensed that the Green Lotus mark he had left was rapidly becoming weaker, and the connection with that demonic lord's origin was also becoming clearer and... more dangerous!
"It's... stronger than before!" Xiao Qi's voice was low, carrying a hoarseness even he hadn't noticed. This was no simple breaking of the seal—the power level contained within that demonic energy pillar far exceeded their previous encounter!
Eldest Senior Brother Mu Qingfeng and Third Senior Sister Liu Yun followed closely behind, looking at that doomsday scene, their faces equally extremely grim.
"Temple Master, we..." Mu Qingfeng forcefully suppressed the shock in his heart, looking toward Xiao Qi.
Xiao Qi closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, all shock and anger had been suppressed, leaving only ice-cold calm and determination.
"Sound the Warning Bell! Highest specification, twelve consecutive tolls!"
"Transmit my Temple Master's command: Qingxu Temple is, from this moment, entering highest combat readiness status! All disciples outside, at any cost, immediately return to provide support!"
"At the same time, in the name of Qingxu Temple, announce to all members of the Three Realms Alliance, and all righteous cultivators—"
His voice suddenly rose, carrying the supreme authority of a Nascent Soul True Lord and unquestionable determination, like rolling thunder across Qingxu Temple's seventy-two peaks, and as if through invisible channels, transmitting to those forces currently falling into panic and despair:
"The demonic lord is breaking free, the world-destroying calamity has arrived!"
"The survival of the Three Realms hangs on this one battle!"
"Qingxu Temple will stand or fall with the righteous cultivators of the world!"