Lu Fuzi inhaled sharply, his eyes widening with shock. Though he had long suspected, to witness it with his own eyes sent a chill through his very bones.

Yet, the chill soon dissipated, replaced by a flicker of dark amusement. A cold smile crept onto Lu Fuzi’s lips. “Fortunate, then, that he has yet to reach the Third Step! Unless he crosses that threshold, I refuse to believe he dares challenge me! So what if he possesses two sources of Origin power! He is but a brute. If he does not provoke me, well and good. But should he dare to stir the ire of Lu Fuzi, I shall enlighten him to the true meaning of a nascent Void Nirvana mighty one!” With a disdainful snort, Lu Fuzi strode away, never once glancing at Xie Qing below. In his eyes, all living beings were but insects, undeserving of even a moment’s attention.

…,,

East Veridian Star, the most enigmatic place within the Starfield of Luo Tian! Even in his younger years, Wang Lin had heard whispered tales of this star.

It held no fixed position, drifting slowly within the eastern reaches of Luo Tian. Even a cultivator who had achieved the perfection of Shattered Nirvana would find it a near-impossible task to locate this wandering star amidst the vast expanse of space, were it not for a guiding jade slip.

Even the most potent divine sense would be rendered useless by the star’s peculiar construction. For most cultivators, finding East Veridian Star relied solely on the naked eye.

But Wang Lin was not most cultivators.

At this very moment, within the expansive eastern reaches of Luo Tian, a cultivator star, a sight to inspire both awe and terror, drifted languidly. From afar, pockmarks and craters of a dull ochre hue were visible upon its surface. A potent aura of pressure emanated from it, spreading throughout the void.

East Veridian Star!

The star was not alone. Orbiting it were dozens of smaller cultivator stars, circling in slow, synchronized dances. They moved with East Veridian Star, inseparable.

Arrays of light flickered about them, connecting the smaller stars to the main one. From a distance, they resembled a colossal star-woven net!

At this moment, every array upon East Veridian Star was activated, causing the star-net to emit thunderous booms that reverberated across the cosmos.

Faintly, one could discern the glint of swords upon the outer stars, where countless cultivators were arraying themselves in formation, reinforcing the defenses of East Veridian Star with layers upon layers of restrictions.

A palpable tension hung in the air, etched upon the grim faces of the thousands of cultivators.

Not a single word was spoken. All were meticulously arranging themselves, positioning themselves within the complex array, unleashing the full might of the combined formations.

And within each of the smaller stars, three ancient elders sat cross-legged at the heart of the array. There were nearly a hundred of these wizened beings, their bodies radiating the aura of countless years. They were beings who rarely ventured forth.

But now, they had no choice. For Xiang Yun-dong, a representative of the Xiang clan, had returned with news that had sent shockwaves throughout the entire Xiang lineage!

Wang Lin, whose life force had been stolen by the Ancestor years ago, had returned with cultivation so profound that even Lu Fuzi showed him trepidation.

This news sent the Xiang clan into an immediate uproar. After a moment of stunned silence, the current head of the Xiang clan, along with their Grand Elder, immediately issued the Blood Edict of East Veridian!

The Xiang clan was the hidden ruler of East Veridian Star, rarely making its presence known. Many cultivators of Luo Tian were even unaware of its existence, knowing only that East Veridian Star was governed by the Three Great Sects.

Xu, Lu, and Liu!

The Xu clan, in particular, was known for producing slayers of men, their reputation for ruthlessness inspiring terror throughout the Starfield of Luo Tian!

The Lu clan, though lacking the notorious fame of the Xu, excelled in the art of restrictions and formations. Though they did not possess the inherited, ancient restriction techniques of the Li Yuan family, they boasted generations of gifted artisans who achieved profound mastery over the art.

Indeed, all the formations and restrictions upon East Veridian Star were crafted by the Lu clan!

Finally, the Liu clan was renowned for its creation of wondrous treasures and divine abilities, most notably the Nine Lives Blood Infant Technique – a fusion of divine abilities and powerful artifacts. Legend said that this technique had only been used once since its creation.

But that single instance had brought devastation upon the eastern reaches of Luo Tian, a cataclysm akin to the end of days.

These three clans were locked in a constant struggle against each other, maintaining their vitality and growing stronger through a brutal, cutthroat rivalry! But in truth, only a handful of the most ancient figures in Luo Tian knew the truth: the Xu, Lu, and Liu clans were nothing more than branches of the Xiang clan!

The Xiang clan was, without question, the most powerful lineage of cultivators in the entire Starfield of Luo Tian, tracing its origins back to the ancient era! A single Xiang clan was a match for even the Thunder Celestial Hall. Of course, this did not count the presence of Lu Fuzi.

The Xiang clan was like a slumbering behemoth – silent, still, but capable of shaking the very foundations of Luo Tian if ever roused!

Thus, a representative of the Xiang clan, Xiang Yun-dong, despite his lacking cultivation, was chosen by Lu Fuzi as one of his four disciples!

Lu Fuzi’s selections for his disciples each held a deeper significance. The Blood God Child, Lie Yunzi, Yan Leizi – all were chosen with purpose!

Furthermore, within the minds of some of Luo Tian’s ancient oddities, there was a legend linked to the Xiang clan, though its truth remained unverified. Perhaps only Lu Fuzi knew its validity!

According to legend, the most mysterious cultivator family in Luo Tian, the only one to have survived from the earliest antiquity, was connected to the Xiang clan, and some even whispered that the Xiang family was but an offshoot branch of that ancient clan, charged with guarding its gates!

This ancient cultivator family had existed long before the collapse of the Immortal Realm, enduring throughout the entirety of the ancient epoch and continuing unbroken for countless millennia. The wealth and power accumulated by this family were beyond comprehension.

They were shrouded in mystery, rarely appearing in Luo Tian. Even during Wang Lin’s time in Luo Tian, even during the war between Luo Tian and the Alliance that Lu Fuzi had orchestrated, this mysterious ancient family had only issued a single decree and sent forth a single individual.

By decree, the Jade Emperor sought to bestow upon him the title of True Immortal. But the emissary dispatched for this sacred task was none other than Yi Muzi, the Ninth Elder, a craven sorcerer known for his insidious plot to steal the moon’s essence from Wang Yue’s very core.

Under the crimson edict of the Xiang Clan, all three great houses of Donglin Star stirred. Layers of wards and protections were woven across the planet, most heavily concentrated in the far-western reaches of the main star.

There, the land lay steeped in an eternal twilight of crimson, as if countless ages of spilled blood had soaked into the very soil. A cloying, metallic stench hung heavy in the air, carried by mournful winds that whispered tales of ancient atrocities. Such intense reek of carnage imbued all things with a palpable sense of violence and dread.

The extreme west was naught but a vast and desolate graveyard, a chaotic jumble of shattered remains. Bones, bleached white and adorned with tattered remnants of flesh, littered the ground, drawing carrion birds from the heavens. Vultures perched upon the skeletal thrones, feasting upon decay.

Death held dominion over this region, swirling like an invisible vortex. An unwary traveler found their very soul reeling, assaulted by the palpable gloom. And upon the winds, the wails of tormented spirits echoed, a silent chorus of unending agony.

This was the very place Wang Lin had once visited, the isolated sanctum where the last surviving ancestor of the Xiang Clan dwelt in eternal seclusion!

Deeper one ventured, the darker the earth grew, an obsidian void where life itself dared not tread. Even members of the Xiang Clan hesitated to set foot here unless driven by dire necessity, for the land devoured their vitality. Only through immediate meditation could they hope to recover from such an enervating ordeal.

Now, two wizened figures cloaked in black robes approached. Their faces were grim, etched with worry. They paused within the deepest reaches of the cursed land.

One of the elders bowed respectfully toward the blackened earth. “Ancestor,” he intoned, his voice heavy with reverence, “all is prepared as you commanded. We await only the arrival of Wang Lin.”

His words pierced the soil, reverberating through the earth and settling into a vast, hollow space far below.

This subterranean realm stretched beyond the grasp of mortal eyes. It was a sea of countless severed heads! Their lifeless visages rose like grotesque islands from a fetid ocean of death, multiplying the oppressive atmosphere of the world above.

At the center of this macabre expanse rose a towering monument, a pyramid constructed entirely of human skulls. Upon its apex lay a single sarcophagus, its surface stained a sickly, yellow hue, eaten away by some virulent decay. From the festering wounds in the wood, a viscous fluid seeped, dripping onto the skulls below with a sizzling hiss.

The black-robed elder’s message reached the sarcophagus, a faint echo struggling against the stifling pall. After a moment of profound silence, a voice rasped from within, the sound like the grinding of bones.

“That child’s lifeforce…was exquisite… I savored it for an age… He is blessed indeed, to have survived such utter annihilation…”

“Withdraw,” the voice commanded. “Lu Fuzi exaggerates. The boy has not yet reached such heights. Lu Fuzi seeks only to use Wang Lin to test a long-held suspicion… the matter is of no consequence.”

The earth trembled, a symphony of decay accompanying the ancient and hollow words. Hearing the words of their patriarch, the two elders felt a wave of relief wash over them. The news brought back by Xiang Yunhui had filled them with dread. But with the patriarch’s decree, their fears subsided. The ancestor was, after all, the very sky of the Xiang Clan.

If their patriarch deemed the matter inconsequential, then no harm could possibly befall them!

Yet, as the two elders departed, neither they nor the ancient one within the sarcophagus noticed the white-clad figure approaching Donglin Star from the void between worlds.

Wang Lin had arrived!

Gazing upon Donglin Star, wreathed in shimmering array of celestial guardians and the surrounding ring of small sister stars, Wang Lin was transported back to another time. He recalled the first time he and Qing Shui, accompanied by Xiang Yundong, had traveled to this distant world with such high hopes.

A storm of frigid resolve now coalesced in Wang Lin’s eyes.