Chapter 1279: Layers of Phenomena

At this moment in the Cultivation Realm, whether mortal or cultivator, whether from any continent, all living beings set down what they were doing, craned their necks, and gazed eagerly at the ancient four immortals transformed into four-colored streams of light, flying away and vanishing without a trace.

Even cultivators with the keenest eyesight could not stand on one continent and see another.

"Did the ancient four immortals go to break the seal?"

"Probably."

Although there had been speculation when the ancient four immortals appeared, after all it was only speculation, and without seeing it firsthand, no one dared to draw a conclusion.

As everyone was doubtful, muffled thunder rumbled from above, and dark clouds covered the sky.

"Why did it suddenly start thundering?"

"At such a crucial moment, why is it thundering? Someone disperse it!" The body-integration cultivator frowned; even if he could not see what the ancient four immortals were doing, he could not block his view, and wanted to cast a spell to sweep away the clouds and lightning.

"No, this is not ordinary lightning!" A sharp-eyed cultivator stopped his companion, "Look closely, these lightning bolts are changing!"

Silver lightning pierced the clouds, rolling in the air, and the thickness of the lightning was astonishingly uniform, like lines, forming one picture after another.

"The pictures are of the ancient four immortals!"

Against the dark clouds as background, with lightning as pigment, silver snakes danced, sketching the scene of the ancient four immortals joining hands to open heaven!

At this moment, if someone stood at the sun's position, they could see that the skies above all five continents were covered by heavy leaden clouds, impenetrable.

This meant that all living beings were fortunate enough to witness the process of opening heaven!

Ordinary people and low-to-mid level cultivators merely felt fortunate to continue watching the process of opening heaven, but those great cultivators were stirred up by stormy waves in their hearts, having never heard before that lightning could undergo such changes!

"Could it be because this moment holds extraordinary significance in history, carries an uncommon meaning for heaven and earth, and thus the heavens wish to record this instant with lightning!?"

"Yes, that must be it!"

……

"Back then, if I and the Heavenly Emperor had not lived in the Immortal Palace, but remained in the Great Qian, the Great Qian would certainly not have fallen!"

Guan Shanhai snorted at such remarks: "The fall of your Great Qian is a historical inevitability, unrelated to whether you live in the Immortal Palace or not. The number of god positions is fixed; each of your god kings occupies one god position, and it is absolutely impossible to just hand them over."

"This leads to the people below losing room to rise, the entire dynasty becoming a stagnant pool, your god kings are all mere occupants of their posts, and the cultivators below will eventually rebel; there will always be cultivators who secretly become half-immortals or immortals, overthrowing your Great Qian."

"By contrast, our Great Yu, from its very founding, abandoned the god position system and established the State Preceptor system. If not for Wu Yao's obstruction, I would still be in Great Yu, and the State Preceptors of all generations would surely loyally assist the emperor, making Great Yu impossible to fall."

The Heavenly Emperor of Zhongtian snorted coldly, extremely disdainful: "Just your delusion. Your Great Yu's aristocratic clans stand thick; with each generation of emperor, countless clans rise, competing with previous clans for resources, clan struggles, internal turmoil in the state—how could the State Preceptor system solve that?"

"If you ask me, it's as Ming said: I and Ming stayed in Great Qian, solved the god king problem, and Great Qian will surely endure for thousands of generations..."

"Before founding the state, I and Wu Yao had already studied this; your god king problem cannot be solved, it is wrong from the root..."

The leaders of both factions argued endlessly about why their own factions were heading toward decline and collapse, and no one would yield to another.

The half-immortals and Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivators of both sides dared not speak, after all they were the "god kings" and "clan patriarchs."

"Look, the sky is changing!"

Someone shouted, drawing the attention of all the prisoners.

The prisoners saw the clouds thick above their heads, lightning sketching the diagram of opening heaven, and thus the two leaders temporarily ceased hostilities.

"Is opening heaven about to happen?"

"What a magnificent method—using the Tribulation-response Dao fruit to provoke the heavenly tribulation; surely not only above our heads, but the entire Cultivation Realm can see this scene."

The Heavenly Emperor of Zhongtian clicked his tongue in admiration: "I thought our Great Qian's Investiture of the Gods ceremony was already extravagant enough, but truly worthy of the ancient four immortals—their hand is even grander."

Ming slapped his thigh, regretting deeply: "How could I not have thought of using the Dao fruit this way? If I had used the Awakening Spirit Dao fruit to enlighten the Investiture platform, I could have disguised it as heavenly will bestowing godhood!"

At this moment, Guan Shanhai and Ming shared the same thought, equally regretting: "Our Great Yu's founding ceremony was still too conservative; back then I should have used the Expansion Dao fruit to print a pile of top-grade spirit stones, letting them burst like fireworks!"

……

The Demon Realm.

Qing He lifted her treasure bag, as if obtaining a treasure, inside which were stored seeds now extinct; if planted on Heaven's Gate Peak, my lord would surely reward her upon seeing it.

"Why has the sky turned dark?"

Qing He looked up, dark clouds covered the sky, and lo and behold, four towering figures were unsealing the seal.

Plop.

Qing He stared blankly at the sky, her treasure bag falling to the ground.

At this moment, the four elder brothers unsealed the seal, meaning my lord had left seclusion for the imperial capital—not only my lord, but everyone she knew should be present.

Please... you.... collect 6... 9... books.... please....!

And she didn't even catch up to my lord leaving seclusion?!

……

Above the Spiritless Continent, the ancient four immortals displayed the law of heaven manifesting as earth, incarnating as giants of opening heaven.

Beneath the feet of the four giants appeared golden lotuses, earth giving rise to golden lotuses, each step producing lotuses.

Illusory shadows of myriad demon beasts appeared, among them the now-extinct demon beast species; these demon beasts bowed in unison before the Qilin Immortal, all beasts paying homage.

Yin and yang energies converged, inscribing the Taiji diagram upon the entire Spiritless earth, giving rise to the four symbols from the two primal forces, and the eight trigrams from the four symbols, endlessly.

Besides this, the great yellow-lü bell rang, announcing to the world; temporal turbulences flickered in and out of sight, and the year beast leapt and bounded upon the turbulences...

All this appeared simultaneously across the world; people saw these endless phenomena, and were shocked beyond measure.

These phenomena had never appeared before; now they all surged forth at once, and whoever saw this scene would feel that the ancient four immortals breaking the seal and opening heaven was a mighty deed, and the heavens recorded it with phenomena.

Moreover, countless cultivators felt inspired to emulate the heroic deeds of great men of the present, vowing to cultivate rigorously and chase after the backs of the ancient four immortals.

Lu Yang and the others were then observing from not far away, trying their best to avoid the recording crystals.

Ao Ling, Jiang Lianyi, and Jin Caiwei each held a recording crystal, recording this scene from different angles.

"Fairy, won't you go show your face before the recording crystal?" Lu Yang asked.

The Immortal of Non-decay floated beside Lu Yang, without phenomena, without aura, without divine powers, like an ordinary soul.

"No, showing off is too troublesome."

Compared to the four immortals, the Immortal of Non-decay keeps a low profile; this is evident from the ancient four immortals often opening altars to discuss the Dao, speaking of how to maintain immortal dignity, while the Immortal of Non-decay merely listening in can already see one or two things.

If it were just a matter of breaking the seal, there would be no need for such a complex process and means; as the Immortal Maiden did, simply activating it silently from the side would suffice, and others would not even notice her activating the Dao Fruit.

However, the Four Ancient Immortals clearly have their own ideas.

(End of Chapter)