Chapter 480: Spirit Cultivation Purification: Cleansing Heaven and Earth!

Inside the Sword Sect's inner sect, at the arena.

As the winners of all three groups were decided, the images on the projection screens vanished entirely.

Various strange phenomena reappeared, and two beams of light descended, forming two golden heavenly stairways that slowly extended from the sky.

【Golden Core Champion — You Qihong (Longxiang Qingtianzong)】

【Spirit Transformation Champion — Chang Xiao (Taishang Daozong)】

Not bad—though Chang Xiao was killed by Xu Xing's control over the sect's protective array, he still claimed first place in the Spirit Transformation group with an absolute twelve-point lead.

The others who followed, even counting ranking points, still fell significantly behind him.

The same applied to You Qihong of Longxiang Qingtianzong.

Though he was eliminated early, his total score still ranked first.

'No wonder Old Chang wasn't sent to the spectator seats like the other eliminated contestants…'

Lin Changsheng looked up at Chang Xiao, surrounded by magnificent phenomena atop the golden stairway, and felt a faint tinge of complexity in his heart.

Among peers of the Xian Sect, who wouldn't want to stand on that very spot…

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Zhang Yunlu was gazing up at the two, when a murmuring sound suddenly came from beside her.

'This guy isn't even as good as Brother Dog—he actually got first place…'

She turned to see Chi Jiuyu muttering under his breath.

'Do you know him, Ye Shijie?'

'Yep!' Chi Jiuyu nodded. 'He was in last year's grand competition too.'

'Did he lose to you?'

'Exactly right!'

He was a body cultivator who also practiced martial arts—moderately skilled, the kind who left an impression on her.

But…

Unless he made tremendous progress during this period, logically, his level couldn't possibly have secured first place.

It's also very likely that the overall level of this year's Golden Core group was average…

After all, without someone like me—unrivaled, peerless, the number one prodigy of the Ten Thousand Realms—to raise the average, a drop in overall level was inevitable.

'So… Ye Shijie, do you regret it?'

'Huh?'

'If you hadn't been granted special permission to enter the Spirit Transformation group, the person standing up there would be you,' Zhang Yunlu said seriously.

Knowing her Ye Shijie as she did, Zhang Yunlu expected this line to work perfectly.

'Pfft! Just empty honors—we're already Spirit Transformation. What's the point competing against these Golden Core kids?'

To make her words more convincing and show she truly didn't care, she added:

'Besides, look at this championship effect—it's the same old tricks, zero novelty. We don't care at all!'

Zhang Yunlu: '…'

If not for your earlier performance, I'd actually believe you now!

While the eliminated contestants in the spectator seats focused on the champions of this grand competition,

the Void-Refining team leaders of all the major Xian Sects were more interested in the Xuanxiang Realm itself, each rubbing their hands in anticipation.

Since the competition was over, it was now their turn to act.

After all, these are just mediocre Void-Refiners—if even the Sect Masters or Ancestral Masters had to step in, wouldn't that be overestimating them?

Yet, things did not unfold as they had expected.

Hum~!

The Xuanxiang Realm, which had filled the entire arena and swirled with countless lights and shadows, suddenly shuddered, then rapidly shrank.

In an instant, it returned to its original size—a tiny speck.

After spinning once, it rose into the sky and vanished.

The Void-Refining team leaders of each Xian Sect froze, puzzled.

Was this world just being abandoned like this?

Hmm…

Probably not.

Could it be that the Ancestral Masters had other plans?

As they pondered, they saw the cloud terrace above shift sideways.

Du Ruoheng stepped out from the cloud terrace, preparing to announce the end of the Xian Sect Grand Competition.

…

…

Inside the Xuanxiang Realm.

At the highest point of the world, Xu Xing and the others' incarnations gazed down upon the entire realm.

What they saw encompassed every detail of the Xuanxiang Realm.

At this moment, the first-time branch where the Golden Core group competed, like the second-time branch before it, dissolved with the end of the competition, and countless semi-phantom Xian Network threads slowly retracted.

These were the threads previously linked to the contestants, forming their panels and auxiliary modules.

They also had a certain ability to stabilize the timeline.

Now that the competition was over, they were no longer needed.

In contrast, the true main timeline itself did not withdraw any Xian Network threads—instead, countless new threads descended from the unknowable depths, sinking into every corner of the Xuanxiang Realm.

Between Xu Xing and the others, strands of the Immortal Net descended, weaving into a semi-transparent pale blue panel remarkably similar to each contestant's personal interface.

Visualized operation.

After all, these will be used by the younger generation—they must be intuitive.

Consider this a test for now.

【《Ten Thousand Manifestations Purifying Spirit and Shedding Divinity True Art》loaded!】

【Embedded into world rules…】

【Beginning operation of《Ten Thousand Manifestations Purifying Spirit and Shedding Divinity True Art》—Heaven and Earth Cleansing Chapter, Ten Thousand Manifestations Commanding Divinity Chapter】

As lines of simplified Chinese characters continuously surfaced on the semi-transparent panel, the Immortal Net strands activated the world's rules, driving the Ten Thousand Manifestations Purifying Spirit and Shedding Divinity True Art with the world itself at its core!

The "Divine Path information" carried by the Immortal Net strands merged with the world's rules, causing the entire world to undergo a strange transformation of its principles.

Instantly, the world's will, emerging from the world's depths, radiated a sense of bewilderment and confusion.

To It, everything happening was utterly inexplicable.

As the world's will, It could sense the world itself undergoing an extremely bizarre change.

And It had no idea whether this change was good or bad, nor any clue where it originated!

Confused, It sought to activate the world's rules themselves to investigate the cause of the anomaly.

But what puzzled It even more was that the world's rules, once as obedient as limbs to the mind, now felt completely severed—It could sense not a single trace.

It was as if a healthy person had suddenly become a vegetable, losing all control over their body—hands, feet, torso, all motionless.

"What do you all think should be done with this world's will?"

Hong Zun gazed at the Xuanxiang Realm's world will, which kept trying to sense the world's rules.

To be honest, it was a very "proper" world will.

Aside from using its own permissions to create a "Savior Reborn" when the heavens and earth were about to be fully harvested, it spent all other time diligently organizing the world's rules, striving to absorb more chaotic qi to strengthen the world itself.

It rarely interfered with worldly evolution.

Nothing like the turncoat Hun Tian Yi of Tai Xuan Realm!

"Judging by its actions, it's not evil," Dan Zu said.

Whether it is evil or not, here we judge from the human race's standpoint.

"Indeed," Ba Zun also nodded slightly.

"Then let us keep it alive, to assist the Divine Path system?" Xu Xing also said.

"With the world's will assisting the Divine Path system, the sect masters can have an easier time," Xiang Yuanjun said coolly. "If anything goes wrong, we can erase it later."

Bie Xuening said nothing, only nodded.

"I have no objections," Ning Ruo said.

"I have no objections either," Master Mei Zu added.

In a few words, they reached consensus and decided to keep it for now.

emm…

But something seems missing.

…………

At the highest point of Tianling Sect.

The Xuanxiang Realm's Fan Xu cultivators watched the final contestant vanish into thin air, all looking bewildered.

They had originally planned to offer congratulations…

Just like that, it's over?!

Then what? What happens next?

Does it just end like this?

They looked up at the clear, unblemished sky, a faint unease stirring in their hearts.

Having witnessed the supreme power behind the name "Ba Zun," their greatest hope now was simply that the transcendent beyond the heavens would no longer pay attention to this world.

Only then would they, the Fan Xu cultivators, remain the highest beings in the world!

But… would it really be like that?

Crack~

A faint, brittle sound seemed to echo beside their ears—as if something had "shattered," as quiet as the buzz of a mosquito or fly, yet audible to every living being in the Xuanxiang Realm.

For the Xuanxiang Fan Xu cultivators, this sound was no different from thunder exploding beside their ears!

Crack!

Xuan Xing and other Xuanxiang Fan Xu cultivators suddenly wore expressions of utter terror, leaving Mu Yong beside them utterly confused.

He looked up too—but saw nothing unusual…

No!

The sky seemed to warp, as if an invisible yet immensely heavy force, like the Tianhe River, had crashed down.

What was it?

He was only a Qian Qi cultivator—he couldn't see what was happening.

But the Fan Xu cultivators like Xuan Xing saw it clearly!

Just now, a colossal hand—its origin unknown—had seized the Xuanxiang Celestial Track, the core of the "Celestial Track Absorbing Spirit System," located at the highest point of the world.

With a mere gentle squeeze, it crushed one of the six-layer bronze armillary spheres within.

The "primordial essence," or "spiritual essence," accumulated over centuries by the Celestial Track through harvesting heaven and earth and herding all life, poured out without restraint!

The Celestial Track—shattered!

The shackles that had bound them for so long were gone—but they felt no joy. Instead, their limbs turned icy cold, their unease reaching its peak.

Indeed!

Then a voice rang out—high, distant, cold, and utterly calm!

Just like that shattering sound moments ago, it echoed in the ears of every living being in the Xuanxiang Realm.

"I now bestow upon all beings the *Tui Shen Zhen Fa* — the *Zhuo Ming Su Zhen* chapter: to wash away the tangled and impure, to straighten the source and clarify the heart. May all beings cultivate diligently, accumulate merit, and ascend to the divine seat of eternal life."

The voice, engraved in the depths of the world, fused with the world itself, and from that moment became one of the world's root rules.

In other words, every living being of the Xuanxiang Realm, from birth onward, would carry the *Tui Shen Zhen Fa* — the *Zhuo Ming Su Zhen* chapter within their hearts.

Feeling the mysterious method circulating in their hearts, along with the information that came with it, Xuan Xing and the others all fell into a daze.

The founding patriarch Xuan Qi, who had created the "Heavenly Orbit Spirit-Drawing System," had actually come from beyond the heavens.

The "Spirit-Herding" lineage he left behind to harvest heaven and earth was nothing more than preparation—using all beings as sacrifices so that the one who initiated the ritual could transmute his true spirit and replace it with another race.

Though it was only an extremely brief description, the amount of information contained within left these Return-to-Void cultivators unable to collect themselves.

But it did not give them much time to think.

Almost the instant the *Zhuo Ming Su Zhen* chapter circulated in their hearts, it was as if something existing between heaven and earth had been "drawn out."

The scope of its influence encompassed virtually the entire Xuanxiang Cultivation World.

From Return-to-Void at the top, down to Qi Refining at the bottom!

Anyone who had ever drawn upon the cultivation contained within the Xuanxiang Script, or who had arranged ritual tracks to request a breakthrough in realm, now felt their One's Own Realm beginning to totter, as if it had lost the "foundation" of its existence.

It was the threads of the Immortal Net, slowly exorcising the "Spirit-Herding" lineage left by Xuan from the world.

Today's Xuanxiang Realm cultivators all built their cultivation upon the "Spirit-Herding" lineage as their foundation, climbing realms like stacking bricks for a tall tower—and even "snatching" the bricks (magic power) of others to pile up their own realm.

Therefore, the moment the anomaly occurred, Xuan Xing and the others' expressions changed drastically, and they hurriedly took out their stored Xuanxiang Scripts to stabilize their realms.

But no matter how many Xuanxiang Scripts they refined and consumed, no matter how many spiritual materials, their collapsing realms showed not the slightest sign of stopping.

Gradually, their expressions grew hideously savage.

In an instant, the entire Xuanxiang Cultivation World became a scene of wailing and misery; the higher one's cultivation, the more one seemed maddened.

Yet every attempt at remedy was already in vain.

Without the foundation, how can the tower stand?

……

……

Just as the Xuanxiang Realm's cultivators were frantically trying to preserve their collapsing realms—

changes were quietly taking place between heaven and earth.

As the "origin" flowing out from the six-layered bronze armillary sphere merged back into heaven and earth, the hollows left by years of harvesting were filled, and the entire Xuanxiang Realm grew richer and more profound.

Though the world's will did not understand why, it instinctively felt joy, and leaped with delight.

It no longer stubbornly kept trying to sense the world's rules.

After all… this seemed to be a good thing?

And under the Immortal Net's control, the world's changes continued.

A peculiar rhythm swept across every river and lake in the Xuanxiang Realm, every marsh and sea, every forest brook, even frost and snow, rain and dew, thin mist and flowing clouds.

Within the Xuanxiang Realm, every existence belonging to the concept of "water" resonated in that very moment.

Layered mountains and returning waters, marshes steaming, ocean waves surging, gusting wind and driving rain… every flow of "water" took on a different meaning under the Immortal Net's control.

Just as "magic power" circulates through a cultivator's meridians, the entire Xuanxiang Realm was, in its own way, running the Heaven-and-Earth Washing Chapter of the *Tui Shen Zhen Fa*!

The other influences Xuan had left behind were also, under the operation of the Heaven-and-Earth Washing Chapter, being washed and exorcised bit by bit…

This is the Heaven-and-Earth Washing Chapter — Water-Mirror Dust-Cleansing!

Crack—!

Another six-layered bronze armillary sphere was crushed.

This time, it was the governing concept of "fire"—every fire among mankind, the fire of the earth's veins and lava…

Burning away filth, refining into pure and true essence.

Heaven-and-Earth Washing Chapter — Fire-Refining Marrow-Purifying!

And after that came the kindred concept of "wind."

The howling wind that exists everywhere, eroding away the polluted and rotten, letting the world be renewed!

Wind-Eroding Rotten-Shed!

After that came the governing concept of "earth."

Earth-Bearing Return-to-True!

"Wood," "Primordial Qi," "Yin and Yang," "Life and Death"…

Under the effect of the Heaven-and-Earth Washing Chapter, every phenomenon within the Xuanxiang Realm now became a link in exorcising the influence left by "Xuan."

Like a cultivator practicing a technique, it exorcised the pollution Xuan had left behind.

As the saying goes—

All things stained with grime, within them a clear stream; heaven and earth serve as the cauldron, refining the realm back to the true! (End of Chapter)