News of the Mirage Palace’s destruction had spread across nearly the entire Chenping Continent, except in the most isolated regions.
It was an extraordinarily shocking and sensational piece of news.
Of course, for low-level rogue cultivators and minor immortal sects, they could not comprehend what the Mirage Palace’s destruction truly represented.
All they knew was that the Mirage Palace was a colossal existence, but just how colossal it had been was beyond the understanding of those rogue cultivators or insignificant sects.
It was like their inability to understand what had nearly happened once in the Fallen Sword Mountain Range.
More than two years had passed since the Great Dao recovered on the Chenping Continent.
Yet the vast majority of cultivation sects in the world still could not grasp what the Great Dao’s recovery truly signified —
What did it mean for Ascenders to reincarnate?
While almost everyone was stunned and confused, it was Kong Yang’s line, “The world has long forgotten the might of Ascenders,” that slapped the cultivation world of Chenping Continent awake and forced them to accept the reality of Ascenders reappearing in the world.
“Could it be that tens of thousands of years ago, Heavenly Summit Mountain had some blood feud with the Mirage Palace?”
“Possible. I heard the Mirage Palace’s history is extremely ancient.”
“How ancient?”
“...That I’m not so sure about.”
Inside a first-rate sect on the Chenping Continent, two veteran cultivators huddled together, sipping tea while they discussed this.
The Five Great Sects had completely sealed off any true information about the real objectives of the two Ascenders from Heavenly Summit Mountain...
No — now it was four great sects.
Even within the internal ranks of those great sects themselves, apart from the Ascender stewards and a handful of Grand Elders, few knew what Gu Jing and Qiu Siruo were actually plotting.
Even the Star Heaven Sect was entirely bewildered at the moment.
Gu Jiancheng, the Supreme Pivot Elder of Star Heaven Sect, remained in seclusion, and the Star Heaven Sect was currently being managed on his behalf by the Supreme Imperial Law Elder Lian Yan.
Lian Yan had tried to pry some information out of the Supreme Elders of the other great sects, but he came away empty-handed.
However, the Star Heaven Sect’s Supreme Elders had reached a conclusion they could confirm: the real reason the two Ascenders of Heavenly Summit Mountain destroyed the Mirage Palace was because of the fragments of the Heavenly Summit Mirror.
They simply did not know what Heavenly Summit Mountain intended to do by assembling the fragments of the Heavenly Summit Mirror.
After all, attempting to overturn all the causality that had accumulated over more than sixty thousand years sounded utterly preposterous.
No wonder when Gu Jing once gathered several Ascenders from the Five Great Sects at Heavenly Summit Mountain and calmly declared he would never restore Heavenly Summit Mountain’s former rule — from his perspective, those sixty thousand-plus years of history were merely illusions to be overturned.
...
Kongshan Sect, Qingchan Peak.
Before Caijun Tower stood all the Supreme Elders of the Four Supreme Courts — the Supreme Pivot Court, the Supreme Imperial Law Court, the Supreme Martial Pacification Court, and the Supreme Surveillance Court — respectfully arranged in two lines. Yun Yichen, the current Sect Leader of Kongshan Sect, also stood among them.
Behind these Supreme Elders stood the Peak Masters and Offering Elders of Kongshan Sect’s seven major peaks.
Such a formation and level of ceremony was for receiving distinguished guests.
A golden-red arc of light and a pale-blue arc of light descended one after the other onto Qingchan Peak.
Afterward, Xu Zhou and Realman Shuangyu appeared on the road toward Caijun Tower.
A significant distance remained between the two Ascenders, and the atmosphere between them was cold, even somewhat tense.
As had been said before, if asked which Ascender Lingxiao Temple hated most among the thirty-one Ascenders on the Chenping Continent, no disciple of Lingxiao Temple would hesitate.
Realman Shuangyu, Yin Xia.
Three ten-thousand years ago, Realman Shuangyu had once slapped the Lingxiao Temple’s leader to death, leaving Lingxiao Temple humiliated.
It was a profound disgrace.
Born over twenty-eight thousand years ago and living into the twenty-five thousand–year-old Xu Zhou Lou Ye, he existed entirely under a shadow of hatred toward Realman Shuangyu.
As for Realman Shuangyu Yin Xia herself, she harbored little actual hostility toward Lou Ye.
After she had slapped Lingxiao Temple’s leader to death, Lingxiao Temple had kept quiet afterward.
There was a reason this summit of Ascender cultivators was being held at Kongshan Sect.
It was precisely because of the antagonism between Realman Shuangyu and Xu Zhou that holding the meeting at Lingxiao Temple or Wind Ravine Valley had been completely ruled out.
“Disciple greets Realman Shuangyu!”
“Disciple greets Realman Xu Zhou!”
As Yin Xia and Lou Ye passed before the Supreme Elders of the Four Supreme Courts, the upper-three-realm masters of Kongshan Sect bowed respectfully.
Realman Shuangyu and Xu Zhou ignored the juniors’ salutations and walked straight toward Caijun Tower.
...
Inside Caijun Tower.
Kong Yang sat upright on the central meditation cushion, his eyes gently closed.
He held a small bronze tower in his hands, and the tower’s body slowly rotated within his palms.
The Mirage Palace’s Abyssal Tower.
Yin Xia and Lou Ye both glanced at the slowly spinning bronze tower in Kong Yang’s hands; of course they understood what Kong Yang meant.
Kong Yang was declaring his leading position.
Although Lingxiao Temple also possessed its own immortal artifact, the Great Sun Seal, it was many tiers beneath the Mirage Palace’s Abyssal Tower.
“Two of you.”
Kong Yang spoke slowly:
“Heavenly Summit Mountain has taken another step closer to success. They have already obtained three fragments of the Heavenly Summit Mirror.”
Yin Xia lifted her eyes and looked in Kong Yang’s direction:
“Give me an explanation.”
“...”
Kong Yang fell silent and lowered his gaze.
He knew what Yin Xia was referring to.
Why had a vessel of causality fallen into Heavenly Summit Mountain’s hands?
All along, the Ascenders of the Five Great Sects had maintained an unspoken agreement with the two Ascenders of Heavenly Summit Mountain.
That agreement was to let Chen Yan be freely raised.
After all, who wanted to touch the karmic backlash accumulated over more than sixty thousand years?
“This matter has nothing to do with me.”
Kong Yang shook his head.
“What do you mean nothing to do with you?” Yin Xia demanded.
“Isn’t the fact that the vessel ended up in Heavenly Summit Mountain’s hands the result of your unauthorized interference?”
Indeed, only after True Person Minghua’s Dao Basis fell into Chen Yan’s hands did the situation change.
This could be seen as Kong Yang having been the first to break the tacit agreement, and such behavior was in keeping with Kong Yang’s way of acting.
Heavenly Summit Mountain grew wary and could no longer allow Chen Yan to act freely, so they captured him back to Heavenly Summit Mountain and placed him under control, no longer caring about any possible consequences.
After all, what did it matter if they were tainted by sixty thousand years of karmic backlash?
With three fragments of the Heavenly Summit Mirror already in hand, victory was nearly at their fingertips.
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but if you had some scheme, why didn’t you place the vessel by your side?” Yin Xia continued to accuse.
“Nothing to do with me.”
Kong Yang shook his head, his tone still calm.
Yin Xia could stand it no longer; her eyes blazed with anger.
“Indeed, it had nothing to do with him.”
A clear young man’s voice rang out, accompanied by a relaxed chuckle, coming from a corner to the side of Caijun Tower. A young cultivator wearing plain-colored daoist robes stood there and said:
“Because keeping Kong Yang from interfering with Chen Yan’s actions was my decision.”