Patriarch Xuanqing whipped his head around and stared at Luo Changqing in shock. "You really can travel through time?"

"Mhm." Luo Changqing nodded heavily.

Patriarch Xuanqing's eyes went wide. After a long silence, he nodded and said, "Changqing, answer me this. Three thousand years from now... how is the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect?"

Luo Changqing shook his head. "Reporting to Founding Patriarch, three thousand years from now... it is not well."

"The Xuanqing Heavenly Sect declines with each passing day. It's already nothing like it once was."

Patriarch Xuanqing fell silent again for a long while. A yearning glimmer appeared in his cloudy eyes as he asked, "Changqing, may I ask another question? Do I ever reach the apex of the Heavenly Dao and ascend as an immortal?"

A trace of reluctance flashed through Luo Changqing's eyes. "Reporting to Founding Patriarch, you..."

Boom!

The instant Luo Changqing began to speak, black clouds blotted out the sky above the entire Xuanqing Dao Arena. Lightning raged, the void split apart, and heaven and earth plunged into endless darkness, as though the end of the world were at hand.

Luo Changqing immediately shut his mouth.

At that moment, everyone understood clearly: if Luo Changqing revealed the secrets of heaven, not only would he die, everyone in the Dao Arena would perish beneath heavenly tribulation as well.

And at the same time, Luo Changqing's figure in the void was growing fainter and fainter, as though he could vanish from the world at any moment.

"Founding Patriarch, this disciple doesn't have much time left."

Luo Changqing hurriedly bowed. "This disciple came here to ask you to bestow something upon me."

"Speak." Patriarch Xuanqing looked at Luo Changqing, his expression gradually turning gentle.

To converse across time with a disciple from thirty thousand years in the future—what fortune this was.

Hope shone in Luo Changqing's eyes. "Founding Patriarch, just like you once were, this disciple is unable to awaken spiritually. I ask you to grant me the Grand Desolate Lingdong Art!"

"Very well. No problem." Patriarch Xuanqing seemed to ponder something, then said, "But you must agree to one condition."

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"Please say it."

Patriarch Xuanqing took a deep breath. "If one day you achieve greatness, I hope you will protect my descendants."

"Preserve my Xuanqing Heavenly Sect. Do not let it vanish into the long river of cultivation history."

"Alright. This disciple agrees." Though Luo Changqing answered without hesitation, he had no confidence in his heart.

He was just trash. On the ruthless Heavenly Punishment Continent, where the strong devoured the weak, surviving was already difficult enough. How could he possibly have the ability to protect the Xuan family's descendants and the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect?

"Good. Then I leave it to you." Patriarch Xuanqing rose to his feet. After giving Luo Changqing a solemn, deep bow, he swept out his right arm. A beam of light shot forth and entered Luo Changqing's mind. In the next instant, the inheritance memories of the Grand Desolate Lingdong Art appeared in his consciousness.

The next moment, Luo Changqing's figure rapidly blurred and faded. Thinking of how Patriarch Xuanqing would die in tribulation less than a hundred years from now, his nose stung with bitterness. He bowed deeply and said,

"Take care, Founding Patriarch. This disciple takes his leave."

As soon as the words fell, Luo Changqing disappeared from heaven and earth, as though he had never appeared in this world at all...

Three breaths later, Luo Changqing fell out of the Gate of Time and Space into the Demon Realm.

After leaving the Demon Realm, he returned to the thatched hut.

Suppressing the wild excitement in his heart, he sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, focused his mind, formed seals before his chest with both hands, and began to circulate the Grand Desolate Lingdong Art.

At once, the vast spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the night sky surged down like a roaring flood, pouring endlessly into Luo Changqing's glabella.

The art worked the instant it was used.

Luo Changqing was so excited he nearly screamed out loud...

After the ceaseless torrent of spiritual energy poured into his glabella, it began to batter against his Hidden Sea...

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Night. A bright moon hung high in the sky.

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night for the hundreds of thousands of disciples of the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect.

Because tomorrow was the day the Saintess of the Ethereal Immortal Sect of the Southern Sea Dao Domain would personally arrive at the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect.

All the disciples wanted to catch a glimpse of Saintess Mu Qingxuan's beauty.

Because the Saintess was famed throughout the Southern Sea Dao Domain as a stunning beauty, and even more so as a universally acknowledged heaven's favored daughter.

More importantly, the annual Grand Tournament jointly held by the three hundred sects under the Ethereal Immortal Sect's jurisdiction was about to begin.

The Saintess and the envoy had come to the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect—surely it had something to do with the Grand Tournament.

Rumor had it that Empress Tantai of the Ethereal Immortal Sect would personally attend the Grand Tournament to take disciples.

All the disciples desperately hoped that rumor was true...

The next morning.

Boom!

Suddenly, a world-splitting roar exploded inside Luo Changqing's mind!

If one could see inside his body, one would be shocked to discover that the chaotic Hidden Sea at his glabella, after enduring three full days of spiritual energy impact, was slowly cracking open like a narrow abyss cleaving the sky.

And when the Hidden Sea was fully opened, one could clearly see that deep within it, an ancient, majestic palace had appeared.

This was precisely the spirit palace a cultivator condensed after opening the Hidden Sea!

At once, the surging spiritual energy of heaven and earth flooded into the spirit palace and transformed into thread after thread of spiritual power!

At the same time, condensing a spirit palace meant he had stepped into the first level of the Spirit Palace Realm and become a true cultivator!

"I finally broke through to the first level of the Spirit Palace Realm. I can become an official disciple of the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect now!"

"I won't be expelled from the sect today!"

Luo Changqing opened his eyes. His whole body trembled with excitement, and his eyes slowly reddened.

No one could understand how he felt.

In the five years since transmigrating to the Heavenly Punishment Continent, he had been driven out of sects sixteen times. He had had enough of that drifting, homeless life—enough of living every day in fear.

But now, he had opened his Hidden Sea, condensed a spirit palace, and become a cultivator. Not only could he finally stay in the sect, more importantly, after waiting bitterly for five years, he could at last realize the immortal cultivation dream he had cherished since childhood!

Rumble, rumble—

Just as Luo Changqing was lost in excitement, he suddenly sensed peals of thunderous noise coming from the Demon Realm inside the "Punishment" birthmark on his chest!

With a single thought, Luo Changqing appeared inside the Demon Realm.

What he saw left him stunned!

As he advanced to the first level of the Spirit Palace Realm and became a cultivator, the long-sealed first-floor gates of the sacred golden tower and the jet-black demonic tower slowly began to open.

"What's going on?"

While Luo Changqing was still baffled, a beam of golden light filled with holy aura flew out from the first level of the golden tower...

And a beam of black light radiating pure evil shot out from the jet-black demonic tower...

One gold, one black—both beams drilled into Luo Changqing's glabella and went straight to the depths of his Hidden Sea, where they transformed inside his spirit palace into a radiant golden sphere and a pitch-black sphere!

"What is this..."

As Luo Changqing stood there in confusion, a vast will, as though descending from beyond the nine heavens, thundered throughout the entire Demon Realm:

"The Nine Heavens Divine Godhead returns to its place!"

"The Nine Nether Demonic Godhead returns to its place!"

"Ten million long years have passed—welcome back, my lord!"

Luo Changqing suddenly threw back his head toward the sky and shouted, "Who? Who's speaking?!"

But no one answered for a long time.

What shocked him even more was that as he advanced to the first level of the Spirit Palace Realm, the line of writing on the Gate of Time above the taiji diagram over the twin towers changed. It now read:

"Defy time and space, disorder yin and yang, return eighty thousand years!"

A monstrous wave rose in Luo Changqing's heart. Could it be that as his cultivation realm kept rising, the point in time to which he could return would stretch farther and farther into the past?

"Lad Luo, are you insane? The Saintess has already arrived—why haven't you left the sect yet?!"

At that moment, Lu Anshan's voice rang out from outside the hut, frantic with anxiety.

With another thought, Luo Changqing left the Demon Realm, and the instant he did, Lu Anshan rushed into the hut in a panic.

The moment he saw Luo Changqing, his old body jolted violently and the words burst from his mouth:

"First level of the Spirit Palace Realm? How is that possible?!"

Luo Changqing revealed a confident smile. "Elder Lu, I'm qualified to stay in the sect now."

Lu Anshan said anxiously, "Lad Luo, do you still not understand? Even if you stay, it's useless!"

"The Saintess's status is far too exalted. If she wants to kill you, even our Sect Master won't be able to protect you!"

Luo Changqing was utterly unconcerned. "Elder Lu, I'm completely certain. I am absolutely not the person the Saintess is looking for."

"It's perfect that she's here. As long as she sees me, this misunderstanding can be cleared up on the spot."

Lu Anshan eyed Luo Changqing suspiciously. Seeing how serious he was, he did not seem to be lying.

"You really aren't the person the Saintess wants dead?"

Luo Changqing smiled and shook his head. "Elder Lu, could I not know my own identity?"

"Besides, I'm not foolish enough to joke around with my own life."

Lu Anshan thought it over and found Luo Changqing's words reasonable.

If Luo Changqing really were the person the Saintess was after, he would have fled long ago. How could he possibly dare to go meet her?

Only then did Lu Anshan let out a breath and nod. "Since it's a misunderstanding, then it's best to clear it up early, before things drag on and get worse."

"Come. I'll take you there."

...

The Xuanqing Dao Arena was packed solid, a sea of people.

At the top of a towering Jade Tower stood three lofty figures.

One of them was a cold and stunning young girl in a snow-white dress, poised and graceful like a lotus blooming atop an icy mountain. She was none other than Mu Qingxuan, Saintess of the Ethereal Immortal Sect.

Only seventeen years old, she was already at the seventh level of the Soul Palace Realm—a true heaven's favored daughter without question!

Cultivation realms: Spirit Palace Realm, Soul Palace Realm, Divine Palace Realm, God Refining Realm...

Standing to her left and right were the two Ethereal Immortal Sect elders accompanying her: Mu Ye and Mu Zhou.

"We greet the Saintess!"

As the cries rolled out like a tidal wave, the hundreds of thousands of Xuanqing Heavenly Sect disciples all knelt and prostrated themselves in the Saintess's direction.

But Mu Qingxuan, high above them all, did not even spare the sea of people a glance. Her exquisite face was filled with nothing but arrogance.

Whether she was deliberately trying to put the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect in its place, or whether she truly regarded all these disciples as ants, no one knew.

Without her response, not a single disciple dared straighten up. They could only remain kneeling, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Mu Qingxuan simply let them kneel there. From beginning to end, she never once said, "Rise."

The difference in status between the two sides was simply too great.

At most, the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect was only one of the three hundred sects under the Ethereal Immortal Sect's rule.

The atmosphere at the scene was stifling.

And Mu Qingxuan's lofty attitude made Sect Master Xuan Zheng and the elders deeply uneasy.

Forcing out a stiff smile, Xuan Zheng stepped forward and said, "Saintess, your honored visit this time—"

Mu Qingxuan merely flicked him a glance from the corner of her eye and cut him off with a wave. "No need for nonsense."

"This Saintess came today only to inform you of one thing."

"For the Grand Tournament of the three hundred sects under my Ethereal Immortal Sect, your Xuanqing Heavenly Sect is disqualified. There is no need for you to attend."

What?!

Despair swept through the entire sect!

Xuan Zheng's pupils contracted. In a nearly pleading voice, he hurriedly said, "But Saintess—"

Mu Qingxuan let out a cold laugh and cut him off again. "But what? Don't tell me you people have no idea how your Xuanqing Heavenly Sect has performed these past years."

"For a hundred consecutive years, your Xuanqing Heavenly Sect has ranked dead last in the Grand Tournament. The fact that this Saintess came personally to inform you already gives you more than enough face."

"This Saintess now declares that the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect is demoted to the Xuanqing Earth Sect!"

"There is no need for further words. Accept the decree and give thanks."

In a tone that permitted no refusal, Mu Qingxuan pronounced the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect's miserable fate.

Then, just as she finished speaking, her beautiful eyes suddenly narrowed. From the corner of her eye, she glanced toward a Spirit Ship hurrying toward the Dao Arena.

And when her gaze focused on the menial disciple aboard that Spirit Ship—

those beautiful eyes turned instantly ice-cold!

"Luo Changqing, you shameless piece of filth who defiled my younger sister—you're still alive?!"

Murderous light filled Mu Qingxuan's eyes. She took out a marriage contract from her Spirit Ring and flung it toward Luo Changqing. Her icy voice, brooking no doubt, resounded across the entire Dao Arena:

"Luo Changqing, sign it. Dissolve the marriage contract between you and me!"

"And then kill yourself to atone!"

"I'll give you three breaths. If you refuse, this Saintess will exterminate your entire sect!"