At the head of the group was a handsome young man with features as sharp as if carved by a master sculptor, dressed in a robe that shimmered with starlight.
He stood in the void with his hands clasped behind his back. His gaze, like starlight descending from the heavens, slowly swept over the surging crowds below the Ascension Stairway, while a calm smile curved his lips.
“The Central Continent truly lives up to its reputation as a land blessed with outstanding people. So many exceptional talents have gathered here. Our journey across the sea of stars was not in vain.
“My name is Mo Xingyun. This Dao Treasury Stairway should be the perfect place to test the depth of our foundations.”
His voice was clear and resonant, yet possessed a strange penetrating quality. It echoed distinctly in everyone’s ears, like a river of stars flowing through the heavens.
Beside him stood a burly man whose bulging muscles looked as though they had been cast from ancient divine bronze. His vital energy surged like a blazing furnace. He grinned, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth, and his voice boomed like a great bell, sending the surrounding clouds roiling.
“Enough talk. I, Shi Potian, have been waiting for this!”
A goddess in an ice-blue flowing dress, her bearing as cold and aloof as an eternal wintry moon, gave a slight nod. Moonlight seemed to rise and fall within her eyes.
Several other young prodigies from different star regions stood alongside them, their auras soaring into the heavens.
Though they maintained a semblance of courtesy in their words, the absolute confidence rooted in their very bones—and their undisguised desire to contend—were like peerless divine weapons freshly drawn from their sheaths. Their sharpness was so intense that it seemed to pierce the skin!
Their arrival instantly stirred even greater waves beneath Dao Origin Mountain.
Countless gazes focused on them, filled with shock, scrutiny, curiosity, and an even greater pressure.
“That’s the Heavenly Pivot Star, from that legendary ancient star region!”
“And that woman’s aura is so cold. It feels as though she could freeze the soul itself!”
“That man’s vital energy is practically that of an ancient primordial beast in human form!”
“This is going to be a clash of dragons and tigers, with stars contending for glory! The prodigies of the Xuanhuang Continent are under serious pressure now!”
The top prodigies native to the Xuanhuang Continent reacted in different ways, but every one of them wore a solemn expression. They could all feel the tangible pressure bearing down on them.
Golden qi and blood instinctively began to rise around the Jiang Family's Divine King Physique. Divine radiance shone brilliantly in his eyes as he looked toward Mo Xingyun, a hint of battle intent emerging in his gaze.
The Golden Lion, who followed the same path of physical strength and divine power, was even more blatant. It threw back its head and let out a roar that shook the mountains.
Its golden mane seemed to ignite, its battle intent boiling like a volcano, as it glared fiercely at Shi Potian, whose vital energy surged like a blazing furnace.
Chu Daolin continued to lead the way, his footsteps steady and measured. Yet when he took his next step, the Dao patterns beneath his feet seemed to flare for an instant.
His pace subtly quickened, as though the starlight pursuing him from behind had stirred a long-dormant interest.
Not far away, Qin Wuye’s eyes erupted with startling brilliance. He licked his lips, and the battle intent around him nearly transformed into a plume of blood-colored smoke. What he loved most was facing powerful opponents!
Xuanming, the mysterious powerhouse from the Northern Region who had previously defeated Leng Qianqiu with overwhelming force, stood with silver hair drifting weightlessly in the air.
The crystalline mark between his brows radiated an even more bone-chilling cold, as though it intended to freeze everything around him—including the aura that had descended from the starry sky.
Ji Xuanye took a deep breath, suppressing the shock and faint gloom in his heart. The imperial dragon aura around him grew increasingly solid and vast, faint dragon roars rumbling within it, while his speed did not slow in the slightest. Instead, it increased.
“Hahaha! How could such a grand event take place without us?”
Mo Xingyun let out a long laugh and said no more. His form suddenly blurred, transforming into a resplendent and boundless river of stars that streaked across the sky before charging boldly onto the Ascension Stairway.
His momentum was magnificent. He went straight after Chu Daolin at the very front, instantly drawing level with Ji Xuanye, the Jiang Family's Divine King Physique, and the others at the rear of the leading group!
“So fast!”
Someone cried out in alarm.
The Frostmoon Fairy lightly waved her delicate hand. Without anyone seeing how she had moved, her graceful figure was already enveloped in endless moonlight. Her speed, however, was astonishingly strange and swift. Leaving behind a hazy trail of moon shadows, she followed tightly behind Mo Xingyun without falling behind in the slightest.
“Roar!”
Shi Potian was the most direct and savage of them all. He let out an excited growl as the ancient-bronze radiance covering his body blazed brightly, making him appear as though he had been cast from divine metal.
He neither dodged nor hesitated. He simply brought his foot down heavily upon the Ascension Stairway!
Boom!
The Dao patterns beneath his foot flashed violently and released a deep, muffled thunderclap, as if the entire stairway were trembling.
Relying purely on the vital energy of his physical body to force a path forward, he surged upward at a furious pace. His momentum was astonishing, and he overtook countless people in an instant, provoking an uproar from the crowd!
The powerful entry of the starry-sky prodigies instantly drove the already fierce competition into a white-hot climax!
The countless cultivators below were dazzled by the spectacle, their blood surging with excitement.
The scene before them—prodigies gathered like clouds, each vying to shine—was precisely what a true golden age ought to look like!
Yet just as nearly everyone’s attention had been firmly captured by the dazzling figures at the very front of the stairway, who had suddenly accelerated and begun clashing fiercely, a mighty and majestic qilin cry suddenly rang out from the far end of the sky, piercing through the clouds!
“Roar—!”
The cry boomed like thunder, containing immense sacred might and an aura of auspiciousness. In an instant, it drew everyone’s gaze toward the horizon.
Far away, the clouds churned as a streak of crimson-gold divine light tore through the sea of clouds and sped toward them.
Within that divine radiance, a magnificent qilin rode upon auspicious clouds. Its scales glimmered brilliantly, and sacred might radiated from its imposing form.
It was none other than Qilinzi Mo Yu!
Standing atop Mo Yu’s broad back were four figures!
At the front stood a tall, handsome man. Though he released no powerful aura, he possessed an innate air of stability and solemn majesty, as if he had been born to be a war god.
He was Battle Asura!
To his left stood a man dressed in white, his figure straight as a sword. His expression was calm, yet his eyes seemed to contain an edge capable of severing all things.
To his right stood a woman in a simple, elegant dress. Her beauty was peerless, and her expression cold. The aura around her was restrained to the utmost, yet she gave off an unfathomable sensation, like a void capable of devouring all light.
At the very back was a round-faced young man who looked around curiously, an innocent and harmless smile on his face.
“It’s them! Battle Asura, Sword in White, Cyan Rakshasa—and that fatty! They’ve arrived!”
“And that qilin! It’s the qilin who once followed Battle Asura! That’s Qilinzi, isn’t it? It has already become a Saint?!”
In an instant, a chorus of uncontrollable exclamations arose beneath Dao Origin Mountain. The waves of sound even drowned out the uproar from before!
Countless gazes, filled with awe, wariness, fear, and curiosity, swept toward this group that had suddenly appeared.
When Qilinzi carried the four of them over the starting area of the Ascension Stairway, the densely packed crowd below suddenly parted like a receding tide, opening up a vast stretch of empty ground for them.
No one dared to stand in their way!
There was only one reason: over the past several years, every faction that had made enemies of these few—whether the former Glazed Sacred Land or the Xumi Ancient Temple that had dominated the Western Region for ten thousand years—had vanished without a trace. Their legacies had been extinguished, and their inheritances destroyed.
Their fearsome reputations had been forged through the actual destruction of sacred lands!
It was a deterrence powerful enough to make any prodigy or great orthodox lineage feel a chill run down their spine!
Qilinzi Mo Yu slowly descended. Xiao Ruobai and the other three drifted lightly to the ground before stepping onto the starting point of the stairway.
The group calmly swept their gazes over the long and crowded stairway ahead. Not a ripple stirred in their eyes, as though they were looking at nothing more than an ordinary road.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
