Resonant melodies, as if from the highest heavens, echoed through the entire realm, and a magnificent, ten-thousand-zhang ancient zither erupted with a cascade of ethereal light, bathing the world in a kaleidoscope of color, indescribably beautiful.
Countless women with exquisite jade-like visages stood upon colossal zither strings, radiating astonishing brilliance and captivating beauty, exuding a charm far surpassing that of celestial maidens!
The Nine Profound Heavenly Qin Sect, an ancient lineage that cultivated through sound.
One of the ten righteous sects, the Nine Profound Heavenly Qin Sect, had arrived!
...
Suspended mid-air, the ten-thousand-zhang Myriad Law Azure Lotus began to spin, circle after circle. Upon the azure lotus, flowers formed from myriad incantations bloomed, petal by petal, like the most sacred and beautiful celestial flowers in existence.
Countless petals detached and drifted down, scattering softly like snowflakes in all directions. These dazzling, fantastical petals, like dancing spirits, soon permeated the entire firmament.
One of the ten righteous sects, the True Unity Immortal Sect, had arrived!
...
A colossal puppet, tens of thousands of feet tall, constructed entirely from Refined Divine Crystal – the Ancestor of Puppets, the "Sacred Azure Dragon." This was the ultimate puppet painstakingly crafted by Mozi's lineage from the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Primordial Era, a process that took many years.
Centuries later, it fell into the hands of the Puppet Divine Crystal Sect, becoming one of their most treasured artifacts.
One of the ten righteous sects, the Puppet Divine Crystal Sect, had arrived!
...
Amidst vast divine radiance, the heavens violently vibrated as a ten-thousand-zhang Celestial Spirit Divine Sword emerged. Countless sword energies flickered upon this Celestial Spirit Immortal Sword, constantly devouring the surrounding primordial energy to generate infinite sword energies and forming layers of Sword Guard soldiers to protect it.
One of the ten righteous sects, the Heavenly Sword Immortal Sect, had arrived!
...
Roar! Roar! Roar!
"The Celestial Sphere Star Chart, manifesting thousands of stars, countless stars continuously evolving, further condensing into the Great Star Constellation Array, filling the sky with a vast star river."
One of the ten righteous sects, the Great Celestial Sphere Star Gate, had arrived!
A ten-thousand-zhang talisman suppressed the heavens and earth, shimmering with various mystical forbidden characters, a heavenly forbidden storm continuously sweeping outwards in all directions.
One of the ten righteous sects, the Talisman Divine Sect, had arrived!
A ten-thousand-zhang Boat of Suffering, navigating the sea of the mortal world, radiated intense Buddha light all over. Continuous Sanskrit chants echoed from its entirety, and dense Buddha light accompanied the Boat of Suffering.
As the Boat of Suffering moved, ancient characters and Buddhist script flew from its deck, each transforming into the illusory form of a Bodhisattva or Buddha...
Bodhisattva and Buddha effigies emerged one after another, their grand chants spreading like real Buddhas and Bodhisattvas reciting scriptures, truly a radiant Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
One of the ten righteous sects, the Great Bright Temple, had arrived!
...
One of the ten righteous sects, the Five Elements Sect, had arrived!
Instantly, the Five Elements Immortal Pagoda, tens of thousands of feet tall, appeared, embodying the colors of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth – dazzling white, emerald green, azure blue, crimson red, and earthy yellow.
The Five Elements united, the Great Samsara of the Five Elements, embodying the sharpness of metal, the vitality of wood, the gentleness of water, the ferocity of fire, and the robustness of earth. At this moment, heaven and earth trembled.
As the Five Elements turned, the world's brilliance shifted, as if time flowed backward, or as if the world itself had been transformed.
...
Within the myriad cities and palaces, ordinary rogue cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage, cultivators from minor factions, and even powerful figures at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages, shed their astonished expressions. One by one, they identified the nineteen terrifying auras and whispered their names.
The ten most powerful forces of the Nine Provinces Continent – the Nineteen Great Sects and Factions. Each sect possessed tens of thousands of disciples and held inheritances from the Primordial, Ancient, and Antiquity eras. In terms of depth and foundation, no cultivators in the Nine Provinces could compare, especially in their respective domains where no sect or cultivator in the entire cultivation world could rival them.
For countless years, dating back over ten thousand years, the Nine Provinces Continent had only had twenty rulers.
And now, the other nineteen ruling forces had appeared before everyone's eyes within the span of a single breath.
The nineteen ruling forces, seemingly harboring grudges against each other, were unwilling to lose face or their imposing aura.
Before even entering the mountain gate of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, these nineteen ruling forces had already begun to contend for dominance. The nineteen soaring auras threatened to overturn the very heavens and earth, manifesting even more astonishing phenomena.
...
While everyone was still reeling from the shock, a majestic, noble, powerful, vast, and benevolent voice echoed from the depths of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's encampment.
"Esteemed Daoist brothers, since you have come to witness the ceremonies at the Taiyi Immortal Sect, why do you not hasten to enter our grounds?"
The Sect Master of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, Zhu Shenzi, a cultivator at the peak of Nascent Soul cultivation, stood high in the sky. His imposing physique was like an insurmountable monument, forever standing above all others.
With his hands behind his back, Zhu Shenzi gazed calmly at the firmament, seemingly unconcerned by the nineteen ruling forces beside him. He appeared as the embodiment of the grand Dao, the center of the universe, around whom all things revolved.
...
This voice echoed through the vast sky, as if whispering in everyone's ear, as if speaking directly beside them. While their hearts were filled with awe, no sense of discomfort arose.
Strangely, as soon as this majestic voice fell, the nineteen earth-shattering, space-distorting auras at the periphery of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's encampment vanished simultaneously.
And the nineteen terrifying, all-suppressing auras in the high heavens also disappeared in an instant.
...
"Huff!"
The perimeter of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's encampment regained its previous tranquil atmosphere in the next moment.
But in the air, within the cities and palaces, cultivators of all levels, from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core and Nascent Soul, were the same.
As if plucked from water, they were thoroughly drenched in sweat, from shock and fear, not a single person excepted.
After those overwhelmingly terrifying ruling giants had vanished, all cultivators, regardless of their realm, breathed a deep sigh of relief. While it was an opportunity to witness so many ruling giants they would normally never see, the pressure emanating from these forces was something they, even at Foundation Establishment, let alone Golden Core or Nascent Soul, could not withstand. Even though these ruling giants had not deliberately targeted them.
However, these were the true rulers of the Nine Provinces Continent, the nineteen great inherited ruling forces!
Each of their names represented a super force that dominated a province.
These names – the Iron Blood Battle Heaven Gate, Myriad Corpse Desolate Heaven Gate, Demonic Heaven Gate, Beast Taming Gate, Curse God Cursed Immortal Sect, Blood God Transfiguration Heaven Gate, Demonic Prince Gate, Poison God Ultimate Land Gate, Evil Buddha Sect, Earth Blade Evil Emperor Gate, Pill Emperor Immortal Sect, Nine Profound Heavenly Qin Sect, True Unity Immortal Sect, Puppet Divine Crystal Sect, Heavenly Sword Divine Gate, Great Celestial Sphere Star Gate, Talisman Divine Sect, Great Bright Temple – and the host, the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
To all cultivators in the Nine Provinces cultivation world, they were beings of unattainable heights, living in entirely different realms.
Yet, in this very moment, the beings represented by these twenty names had all appeared before them at once.
Although they only glimpsed the appearance of one Sect Master, this alone would be enough material for the best discussions for hundreds of years to come.
...
Upon a floating city, an elder at the peak of late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, extremely ancient, with white hair and wrinkled, flabby skin, clearly a cultivator nearing the end of his lifespan, with one foot in the grave.
This elder's eyes, once somewhat cloudy and dim, were now filled with excitement. He murmured to himself, "To have witnessed this scene, this old man has no regrets in dying."
Within the floating cities and palaces, many echoed his sentiment. Numerous cultivators, due to lack of resources, inferior spiritual roots, or inadequate cultivation techniques and divine abilities, could only halt at a certain realm for their entire lives.
From Qi Cultivation onwards, the subsequent realms of Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul were all insurmountable chasms that brought despair to many cultivators. Foundation Establishment was one, Golden Core was another, and Nascent Soul even more so.
Those invited to attend the five-hundredth anniversary celebration of the Taiyi Immortal Sect were all at least at the Foundation Establishment stage.
However, it was likely that ninety-nine percent of them would remain trapped in their current realm, unable to break through in their lifetime.
For them, living out the remainder of their lifespan with dignity and helping their descendants was already their greatest aspiration.
To witness a scene so rarely seen in the cultivation world over five hundred years was, for them, to fulfill some of the regrets in their hearts, desires they had harbored but could never achieve in their lifetimes.
However, these lingering thoughts and regrets would only last for the duration of an incense stick.
For one must always look forward.
...
"I, the Taiyi Immortal Sect, upholding the legacy of Taiyi Immortal from the Jade Void Palace of the Primordial Era, am one of the orthodox lineages of the Nine Provinces. We have stood for a long time, with a session every five hundred years. This is the three hundred and ninety-eighth session. We are based in Qingzhou and have not tarnished our reputation or disappointed our predecessors. Today, we invite all fellow immortals and demons to celebrate this three hundred and ninety-eighth session with us."
As this voice resounded, the Qiongcang Mountain Range came alive...
The Taiyi Immortal Sect's protective formation, the "Taiyi Illusionary Destruction Ten Absolute Array," began to activate, followed by countless other restrictions. Spiritual mist rose, light flickered, and auras surged, evoking a sense of profound change akin to the shifting of mountains and seas.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect, indeed a dominant force, possessed such world-altering divine abilities and profoundly shocking techniques.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" ...