However, there was one difference.
Chen Yan remembered that the goddess statue which had destroyed Heavenly Summit Mountain back then, and the one that had appeared from a crack in the space-time rift when he was about to die after being ambushed by demonic beasts on Shengyuan Mountain—those statues were far larger than the two goddess statues he had seen today.
The goddess statue that had annihilated Heavenly Summit Mountain back then was thousands of zhang tall.
But the two goddess statues Chen Yan had seen today were less than a hundred zhang in height.
Nevertheless, Chen Yan hadn’t developed any suspicion, because the overwhelming pressure radiating from those two Seven-Colored Flowing Gold goddess statues, and that single bronze bell sound that had echoed across the sky, could not be deceiving.
So then, was the person who had targeted Mr. You across time and space, and who had intervened from the future through his own karmic interference to annihilate Heavenly Summit Palace, a Sage of the Uncarved Simplicity Realm?
In that case, could it be the Sage who had visited Qingxuan Immortal Sect today?
Chen Yan couldn’t be certain, but if it were, then this person was the greatest hidden enemy of Chenping Continent. Whether it was the forged cause and effect of over sixty thousand years that he bore, or the destruction of Heavenly Summit Mountain, or even the severance of the Path to Immortality on Chenping Continent—all of it might have been orchestrated by him.
But why would he do such a thing?
After bidding farewell to his master from Qingxuan Immortal Sect, Chen Yan left Lang Feng’s cave dwelling.
There was less than two months left before Qingxuan Immortal Sect would open its gates to recruit disciples.
Chen Yan had to prepare to return to Nanfeng.
He didn’t go directly back to his own courtyard but instead walked toward the summit of Qingxuan Mountain.
Cangji Hall was located there. This place was the highest symbol of power within Qingxuan Immortal Sect. Not everyone could casually step into Cangji Hall, but the open-air platform outside the hall was accessible.
Chen Yan had come to this open-air platform mainly to use his spiritual sense and see if he could detect any traces of immortal resonance or demonic energy left behind by those goddess statues or the Golden-Feathered Demon Steeds.
The other reason was that Chen Yan wanted to use the subtle connection between the Emptiness Annihilation Art and cause and effect to try to find out whether that Uncarved Simplicity Realm cultivator, or those goddess statues, possessed any threads of cause and effect that could cross time and space.
If he could discover such a link, it would confirm that this Uncarved Simplicity Realm cultivator was definitely related to Chenping Continent’s plight.
But he found nothing.
He didn’t know whether it was because Chen Yan’s current cultivation level was too low, or because his current proficiency with the Emptiness Annihilation Art was insufficient.
In the end, Chen Yan had to give up.
He stood before Cangji Hall, at the edge of the open-air platform, overlooking the sea of clouds before him. His spiritual sense and his gaze could penetrate through the clouds and numerous plants, reaching directly to the foot of Qingxuan Mountain.
There was no denying that Qingxuan Mountain was a truly towering and majestic mountain range.
Chen Yan, sighing inwardly at this thought, raised his head. The clear sky, with not a single cloud in ten thousand miles, was utterly empty.
…
Everything went smoothly.
Under Lang Feng’s arrangements, Chen Yan personally traveled to Nanfeng twice within ten years to conduct disciple recruitment examinations.
On the first trip to Nanfeng for the examination, there was one companion whom Chen Yan found utterly unexpected.
Li Er Niu.
Or rather, the impostor who had replaced “Li Er Niu.”
But by now, Li Er Niu no longer called himself Li Er Niu.
He had given himself a name more fitting for a cultivator: Li Changsheng.
When Li Changsheng first met Chen Yan, Chen Yan could clearly detect confusion and panic in his eyes.
Li Changsheng had long heard that among the younger generation of Inner Court disciples, there was a cultivator from the same Nanfeng Li Family Village who was quite renowned—Chen Yan.
He had only joined the sect for five years yet had already reached the late-stage Martial Spring Realm.
But Li Changsheng knew very well that he wasn’t “Li Er Niu.”
This was his fatal weakness.
And in front of Chen Yan, all his disguises would vanish into thin air. If the truth were exposed, he would probably be in for serious trouble.
Chen Yan, reading everything Li Changsheng was thinking from his eyes, understood it all perfectly.
So he precisely seized upon this fatal weakness of Li Changsheng’s. While speaking with Li Changsheng, Chen Yan hinted to him that he knew the truth about the other’s real identity.
At that moment, Li Changsheng’s face turned paler than paper.
But Chen Yan only hinted and didn’t expose him.
From that point on, Li Changsheng was completely brought under Chen Yan’s control.
Now, twenty years had passed since Chen Yan had entered Qingxuan Immortal Sect.
At forty years old, he still appeared to be in his twenties. His cultivation had even reached the early-stage Spirit Connection Realm.
Within Qingxuan Immortal Sect, he had also taken up the position of an Inner Court Protector.
And in recent times, some subtle rumors seemed to have started circulating within Qingxuan Immortal Sect.
That was that no one had seen the sect’s youngest Ascended Steward in the last ten years.
The Pine Silence True Person, who had only ascended to immortality for a mere fifteen hundred years.
Even many Upper Three Realms cultivators hadn’t seen him.
This had given rise to some unpleasant speculations within Qingxuan Immortal Sect.
That was that Pine Silence True Person might have already reached the end of his life, and was now just barely holding on by a thread.
No one knew how long an Immortal Ascension Realm cultivator, with their formidable and tenacious life force, could hold on once they began to fall into a deathly state.
Some said a thousand years, others said a hundred years, and some even said within a single year.
Another one hundred and seventy years passed.
Chen Yan was now two hundred and ten years old. His publicly known cultivation level was on the verge of entering the Upper Three Realms.
It was in this year that three death knells rang out over Qingxuan Mountain, announcing the fall of Pine Silence True Person.
This meant that among the total of forty-nine Great Daos in this world, one Dao had been vacated.
According to the rules of this world, when one ascended to immortality, they should follow the established queue.
Therefore, after Pine Silence True Person’s fall, it should have been a Unity Realm great power from Zhaoyuan Immortal Sect who ascended.
But a Unity Realm cultivator from Xiaori Immortal Sect, who could no longer restrain himself, jumped the queue and seized the vacated Dao first.
This naturally infuriated Zhaoyuan Immortal Sect, who reported the matter to the Sage.
Such a disruption of order was something the Sage could not tolerate.
Thus, that young man in dark black daoist robes descended from the heavens in a carriage pulled by eleven Ninth-Realm great demons, personally arriving at Xiaori Immortal Sect.
He then personally slew that newly ascended immortal of Xiaori Immortal Sect, returning the Dao to the Unity Realm great power of Zhaoyuan Immortal Sect.
Xiaori Immortal Sect naturally knew they were in the wrong, so they had no choice but to swallow their anger.
But this laid the foundation for a conflict between Zhaoyuan Immortal Sect and Xiaori Immortal Sect.
This world had taken on an air of impending storm.
Everyone understood one principle.
If you wanted an Immortal Ascension Realm cultivator to fall, there was a more efficient method than waiting for their dao resonance erosion to run its course.
That method was slaying immortals.