The Alternation of Sun and Moon, Enlightenment

Strokes of ink swirled and diffused with an unparalleled divine charm.

The painting of the Phoenix Heaven Empress ascending to immortality and transforming into the Dao was extraordinarily intricate.

The first to emerge was a full moon, vast enough to blot out the heavens. Coincidentally, just as this image was sketched, the sky outside darkened.

A solar eclipse had begun.

The moon, which should have already descended beyond the horizon, seemed reluctant to fade, its radiance intensifying instead.

The heavens shifted, the moon replaced the sun!

Li Mo: "!"

He too witnessed the spectacle outside the window, his gaze frozen in shock.

Were these celestial anomalies caused by the unfinished painting before him?

With every additional stroke of ink on the canvas,

The wonders of the world deepened further.

Within the painting,

A figure of transcendent grace materialized before the luminous moon.

Her presence suffused the air with profound mysteries, resonating with heaven and earth.

She seemed the sovereign of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, the sole existence in the cosmos, before whom all else paled into insignificance.

She was the one and only.

Li Mo focused his gaze, only to find the icy beauty on the canvas unchanged from the day before.

Time appeared meaningless to her.

Who by the riverside first beheld this moon?

When did the moon over the river first shine upon mankind?

She was gazing back at him... through the painting?

Her eyes held unfathomable complexity, as if brimming with unspoken words, all condensed into a soft sigh.

Her vermilion lips parted slightly.

No sound reached him.

For at that moment, the sky outside erupted into chaos once more.

Boom—

Three divine rays pierced the darkness, the scorching sunlight churning the firmament like an apocalyptic omen.

It was the three great suns.

In the unseen depths,

Even the heavens seemed to roar in fury.

......

Ancestral Hall of Qingyuan's Main Peak.

Ying Bing, who had been meditating before a fragment of the Bronze Divine Tree, visualizing the forms of a hundred birds, suddenly pursed her lips.

An inexplicable surge of emotion gripped her heart.

Having embarked on the Path of Divine Observation, her intuition had grown razor-sharp.

It felt as though...

Something momentous was unfolding.

Hum—

At that very instant,

The Bronze Divine Tree fragment radiated an enigmatic glow, enveloping the entire hall.

Countless avian forms, imprinted upon it by the wills of Great Shang's mighty cultivators, retreated warily onto the tree's branches.

"What's happening outside?" Shangguan Wencang asked with a frown.

Qian Bufan, who had just returned, wore a grave expression:

"A solar eclipse has occurred inexplicably. All three suns have been eclipsed by the moon's dominance."

"A solar eclipse..."

Shangguan Wencang took a deep drag from his pipe.

He too was at a loss, turning his questioning gaze toward the elderly man dozing at the hall's entrance.

The old man murmured, half-asleep:

"It's been millennia since the last eclipse. How strange..."

"For the Bronze Divine Tree to react like this, it must be no ordinary event."

"Little Bing'er won't be able to train today, it seems."

"Her dual Profound Pills aren't yet perfected—it's too early for her anyway."

"We were just hoping she'd reach Divine Observation sooner, to bring glory to our sect at the Hengyun Sword City."

The elders debated fervently.

Then, a disciple from Ruyi Peak rushed in, panic etched across his face:

"The traitor Yin Huaxuan has escaped! He shed his shell like a cicada, taking advantage of the celestial disturbance!"

"What?"

The elders shot to their feet, faces aghast.

Allowing an Inner Landscape Realm traitor to flee spelled endless trouble—this was no small matter.

The celestial anomalies were beyond their concern; let the mighty deal with the heavens' wrath.

But Yin Huaxuan's escape...

"He's still gravely injured. He can't have gone far," Shangguan Wencang declared, rapping his pipe sharply.

"Send all Divine Observation disciples to hunt in pairs. Tear the earth apart if you must, but bring him back!"

........

Yantian Sect.

Upon the towering Star-Gazing Platform.

"Chaos... utter chaos..."

The Old Woman, who had sat motionless as a statue, muttered under her breath.

She retrieved her mystical jade compass once more, sliding its pieces in intricate divination.

The movements grew increasingly arcane, faster and faster,

Until even a glance at its patterns induced nausea.

Even the Old Woman couldn't withstand it.

As if beholding something unspeakable, her spirit quaked violently.

A trickle of golden blood escaped the corner of her lips, silently dripping onto the jade disk.

"Master!"

The Girl with her hair tied in a Daoist knot, who had dared not interrupt, now rushed to support the ashen-faced elder.

She produced a small vial containing a luminous, jade-like liquid—

A full bottle of Divine Nectar.

"Master, what did you see?"

The Old Woman shook her head, whispering only:

"It concerns the Hidden Dragon Ranking."

"You... must go to Yunzhou."

.....

Within the Autumn Water Pavilion.

Li Mo's mind reeled, thoughts blank.

Only after a long moment did clarity return, and he recalled the events.

He had refined the painting of the icy beauty into the Phoenix Heaven Empress's Ascension, a Divine Form of the Great Dao—and the heavens had responded with anomalies.

"This... is undoubtedly tied to that painting."

Li Mo turned to search for it again,

Only to find the Divine Form painting had vanished from the table.

What?

Where's my painting?

Then he noticed something amiss in his inner world.

The sun was gone.

In its place, a luminous moon hung in the sky.

Now, with both sun and moon, his inner world had day and night—the flow of time itself.

This also meant he now possessed dual Profound Pills—one of the sun, one of the moon!

How did I gain an extra Profound Pill out of nowhere?

"If I'm not mistaken,"

"That moon is the very one from the painting?"

Li Mo was stunned.

Had the Divine Form imprinted itself upon his inner world?

As if sensing his thoughts,

The painting unfurled before him.

Yet it wasn't quite the same as before.

Ying Bing was gone.

But Li Mo felt, in some inexplicable way...

She was still there.

The transcendent, timeless aura washed over him again...

He could now use the Divine Form within his inner world for Divine Observation!

Li Mo felt like a speck of dust, a lone boat adrift on the river of time.

In his daze,

He glimpsed countless figures lining the riverbanks—

Humans, beasts, some ordinary, others towering like abysses, some vivid, others blurred—an endless multitude.

All living beings.

In that moment, he understood the true boon of his immortal physique.

Any existence not of this world...

He could bear them all!

As this realization dawned,

A single aperture within his soul began to shed its impurities, transforming into crystalline jade.

He had unlocked an aperture.