The Path to Immortality is Sealed, The Celestial Court of the Heavenly Realm

After seeing off Dugu Shiling, only Gu Changyuan, Bai Ling'er, and Gu Xing'er remained in the courtyard.

Gu Changyuan glanced at the sky and said lightly, "Let's go see the Fifth Disciple and the others first. Since they are cultivating in seclusion, I'll give them a hand and speed up their progress."

His ten disciples had two locations for secluded cultivation.

One was on the respective mountain peaks they managed, and the other was here at the summit of Tianyuan Mountain, built around his former residence so they could look out for one another.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Gu Changyuan detected the auras of Xiao Yi, Yun Tianhe, and Han Feng, who were currently occupying the seclusion chambers on Tianyuan Mountain.

Outside their quiet rooms, powerful barriers stood guard.

Gu Changyuan did not break the barriers; he merely formed hand seals with a single hand. His movements were so fast that even Bai Ling'er, with her Exquisite Dao Heart, could only catch a blurry trajectory.

Three miniature formations, each with distinct colors and auras, were flicked out by his fingers, silently sinking into the surroundings of the three quiet rooms.

These three formations were custom-made by Gu Changyuan based on their respective physiques and cultivation paths, designed to accelerate their comprehension speeds.

Bai Ling'er watched, dazzled. With her attainment in formations and her Exquisite Dao Heart, she could instantly understand the general effects of these arrays.

They were all supreme auxiliary formations tailored for the three, directly targeting the core bottlenecks of their cultivation. However, the profound and unpredictable law runes contained within far exceeded her current understanding.

It made her feel that even if she spent months, she might not be able to fully grasp their essence.

Having done this, Gu Changyuan led Bai Ling'er and Gu Xing'er back to the main room of the courtyard at the mountain's peak.

The furnishings inside were almost identical to a thousand years ago. The tables and chairs gleamed, clearly having been meticulously cleaned year-round.

Gu Changyuan and Bai Ling'er sat facing each other. Gu Xing'er initially wanted to break free from Bai Ling'er's embrace and run to Gu Changyuan's side, but Bai Ling'er gently held her back, continuing to cradle her.

Bai Ling'er looked up at Gu Changyuan and asked cautiously, "Master... where exactly have you been these past thousand years?"

Gu Changyuan had no intention of hiding anything. He picked up the spiritual tea that had been prepared on the table at some unknown point, and in a calm tone, he explained how he was swept into a spatial rift.

He briefly recounted his exile to a chaotic death zone known as the Ruins of Disorder, and the thousand years of bloody slaughter he endured there just to survive and find a way back.

Despite his plain narration, Bai Ling'er could imagine what a desperate and cruel environment it must have been—no spiritual energy, only chaos and slaughter. Her master, all alone, had struggled to survive starting from the Void Refinement Realm, until he carved out a fierce reputation.

As she listened, her eyes reddened once more. The tiny bit of resentment in her heart born from the long wait—which she had been unwilling to even admit to herself—now vanished completely, leaving only endless heartache.

Compared to her master's thousand-year struggle on the edge of life and death, their time in the Holy Land, though taxing on the mind and body, was at least stable and accompanied by fellow disciples. It was a world of difference.

Gu Changyuan naturally sensed Bai Ling'er's fluctuating emotions. He set down his teacup and gently comforted her, "There's no need to be sad. Look on the bright side, hasn't your master returned completely unharmed? Furthermore, I will never leave without saying goodbye again."

These words acted as the most effective reassurance.

Bai Ling'er sniffled hard, a tearful yet incredibly radiant and relieved smile blooming on her face as she nodded heavily. "Mm!"

Afterwards, Gu Changyuan learned in detail about the current overall landscape of the Jiuxiao Realm from Bai Ling'er.

Nowadays, once cultivators in the Jiuxiao Realm reached the pinnacle of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, their greatest obsession was to find a way to break through to a higher level.

In truth, a thousand years ago, there was a clear path of cultivation beyond the Tribulation Transcendence Realm in the Jiuxiao Realm—the Immortal Realm.

That was the true, smooth path of immortal cultivation. The spiritual energy was purer, the laws were more manifest, immortality was possible, and the Dao was boundless.

But exactly one thousand, one hundred, and eleven years ago, the immortal path connecting the Jiuxiao Realm to the Wanluo Immortal Realm was suddenly and forcibly sealed, cutting it off completely.

The exact reason for the severing of the immortal path was something the Celestial Holy Land had learned from the Zhuge Family of the Central Continent.

Beneath the Wanluo Immortal Realm, the Jiuxiao Realm was not the only lower realm; it governed hundreds, if not thousands, of lower worlds of various sizes.

The ultimate ascension destination for cultivators from all these worlds was the Wanluo Immortal Realm.

And the Jiuxiao Realm was considered one of the top existences in terms of strength among all the lower worlds.

In the Central Continent of the Immortal Realm stood five great immortal families: Zhuge, Shangguan, Dugu, Xuanyuan, and Gongsun.

These five families were top-tier clans ranked throughout the entire Wanluo Immortal Realm, possessing profound foundations and countless experts.

Coincidentally, their bloodlines in the lower realms were all located in the Jiuxiao Realm, and also happened to be gathered in the Central Continent.

The Zhuge, Shangguan, and Xuanyuan families occupied the central region of the Central Continent, while the Dugu and Gongsun families dominated the southern region.

The upheaval stemmed from a faction that suddenly rose to power in the Immortal Realm—the Imperial Court.

This faction acted with unparalleled tyranny and monstrous ambition.

Furthermore, their strength was immense, with experts as common as clouds under their command. In just a few short centuries, they swept across many domains of the Wanluo Immortal Realm, expanding their influence rapidly.

Over a thousand years ago, they chose to strike at the five immortal families. The very first thing they did was join forces to lay down a grand array, sealing the immortal path leading from the Jiuxiao Realm to the Wanluo Immortal Realm.

Severing the path of ascension was equivalent to cutting off the direct connection between the lower realm bloodlines and the Immortal Realm, weakening their foundations.

The moment the immortal path was sealed, the Imperial Court launched a war against the five immortal families.

That battle... had a tragic outcome.

The Dugu Immortal Family... was entirely wiped out, their legacy severed.

The Shangguan Immortal Family suffered heavy casualties, their foundations shaken.

Even the Zhuge, Xuanyuan, and Gongsun families suffered significant losses under the Imperial Court's thunderous offensive. Ultimately, they were forced to join hands and retreat from the core domains of the Central Continent they had managed for tens of thousands of years, temporarily avoiding the enemy's edge to plan for the future.

Since then, the landscape of the Wanluo Immortal Realm underwent a drastic change. The name of the Imperial Court intimidated all directions, seemingly becoming a supreme pole of the Immortal Realm.

Because their main branches in the Immortal Realm suffered such a disaster, the five families in the Jiuxiao Realm were also heavily damaged.

Especially the Dugu family. Because their main branch in the Immortal Realm was annihilated, they lost their greatest backing. Their situation in the southern region of the Central Continent had become increasingly difficult over the years, and the other four families were similarly severely weakened.

The reason the Imperial Court chose to seal the immortal path rather than directly dispatching an Immortal Realm army to exterminate them in the lower realm was not out of mercy, but because they were constrained by the most fundamental rules of heaven and earth.

If Immortal Realm cultivators forcibly descended to a lower plane like the Jiuxiao Realm, their heaven-defying cultivation would be forcibly suppressed by the laws of heaven and earth to the absolute limit that the realm could accommodate—the pinnacle of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, or a Half-Immortal.

And it wasn't just their cultivation that was suppressed, but their weapons as well.

As a result, their advantages would be vastly reduced. If they were besieged by lower realm cultivators relying on numbers and geographical advantages, they might even perish. The cost was too high, and the gains would not make up for the losses.

If they directly attacked the lower realm with great divine abilities from the Immortal Realm, it would trigger a backlash from the Heavenly Dao. At best, their cultivation would be damaged; at worst, their Dao foundation would be shaken, requiring a long period of quiet recuperation to recover.

Furthermore, the various immortal families also had protective contingencies for their lower realm branches and would not sit idly by.

Of course, nothing is absolute.

If it truly reached a critical point where the lower realm branches faced an apocalyptic disaster that could shake the destiny of the main family, the main branch in the Immortal Realm might just endure the backlash and forcefully intervene.

The Imperial Court chose to seal the Immortal Path and sever all connections before launching a war in the Immortal Realm. Though slower, this approach was far more secure and came at a much lower cost.