From afar, it seemed Wang Lin was swallowed by the sanguine mist, and the starfield fell silent. In the distance, the Mosquito Beast and its brood flew about anxiously, their multifaceted eyes darting toward the tribulation clouds, yet daring not approach. The power of this celestial trial was beyond their current endurance.

Time trickled onward. Just as the Mosquito Beast, driven by desperation, was about to hurl itself towards the clouds, a low growl echoed from the crimson haze below! With that, the red mist churned as lightning bolts crashed and a sea of fire blazed. A crimson figure shot forth from the blood-soaked veil – Wang Lin himself! His face was pallid, but his expression held a savage, murderous intent. Bursting from the mist, he lunged toward the tribulation clouds, traversing a thousand fathoms in the blink of an eye, plunging directly into the heavens’ wrath!

The instant he entered the clouds, Wang Lin felt the overwhelming might of the cosmos. With a mighty thrust of both hands, lightning and fire intertwined, unleashing a cataclysmic force.

A cacophony erupted as thunder and fire clashed, causing the boundless tribulation clouds to shrink rapidly, roaring with untamed fury.

Within the maelstrom, lightning danced and flames consumed, forming a colossal shockwave. Gradually, the clouds contracted madly, their roars shaking the very fabric of existence.

Then, with a thunderous roar, the tribulation clouds began to crumble on a massive scale, as if torn asunder by invisible hands. Wang Lin, within the maelstrom, felt the rending power threatening to tear him apart. He recoiled, but his eyes narrowed.

Enshrouded in clouds, Wang Lin spied a fissure, a mere ten fathoms in size, directly ahead! A dense, chaotic energy poured from the rift, as if it were the source of the heavenly trial itself.

After a moment’s hesitation, Wang Lin fixed his gaze upon the fissure and darted forward. Strangely, he felt no tearing sensation, a phenomenon that heightened his caution.

With gritted teeth, Wang Lin cautiously extended a sliver of his divine sense into the fissure, and the moment it pierced the veil, his entire being shuddered violently.

His consciousness was met with a new world! Azure skies met sapphire seas, and the air shimmered with immortal essence. The land stretched endlessly, but Wang Lin’s gaze was immediately drawn to a colossal stone statue.

It was a statue of an ancient god! Eight astral points adorned its brow, yet two were sealed. It stood motionless, appearing lifeless.

However, Wang Lin distinctly felt a surge of life radiating from the ancient deity.

But that was not all. Wang Lin was not seeing one ancient god, but nearly a dozen ancient god statues scattered across the land, along with almost a hundred statues of ancient demons and ancient devils! Upon the head of one ancient devil statue sat a youth in a Daoist robe, his brow furrowed as he manipulated a mirror, constantly calculating.

“This must be the aperture of calamity Master Ma spoke of…”

The youth suddenly looked up, emitting a soft exclamation. His eyes shone with wild delight as he gazed skyward, having clearly detected Wang Lin’s divine sense. With a flicker in his gaze, a bolt of cyan-black light shot from his eyes and hurtled towards the heavens.

Without hesitation, Wang Lin severed the connection to his thread of consciousness. He burst forth, his body engulfed in lightning and fire, and plunged headlong back into the churning tribulation clouds. A crimson streak flashed from within, leaving the cloud and racing toward the Mosquito Beast.

The moment he emerged from the cloud, his expression changed, sensing that his divine sense had been destroyed. Without a second thought, he accelerated and reached the Mosquito Beast. With a wave of his sleeve, he banished the swarm into his spatial rift, seizing the yellow talisman from the back of the beast.

His actions were seamless. Clutching the talisman, Wang Lin affixed it to himself. A whirlwind enveloped his body, and his speed exploded, transforming him into a streak of light hurtling forward.

Moments after Wang Lin departed, the tribulation clouds roared with greater intensity. Finally, the entire maelstrom contracted, seemingly dissipating into nothingness.

But a closer inspection revealed that the clouds had not vanished, but had instead condensed into a cyan-black light.

The instant the cyan-black light appeared, an aura foreign to this realm radiated outward, dissolving the barriers formed by the tribulation.

“…Unwittingly helped him disperse the remnants of his Four States of Power tribulation… Well, I did manage to escape that damnable place. Helping him is the least I can do.” An excited voice echoed from within the cyan-black light before it vanished without a trace.

At that very moment, far to the west of the Alliance Starfield, in a common cultivation star, an old man sat cross-legged in a field of grass. The old man, clad in black, was impassive, as though nothing in all of creation could stir him.

Were Wang Lin present, he would recognize the old man as the black-clad figure from the Luo Tian Starfield who had stopped Qing Shui’s battle with the Yao family ancestor! His gaze was tranquil as he regarded the grass, and under his gaze, the grass grew in an unnatural manner. It sprouted from a shoot into a dry husk, then reversed into a shoot once more, endlessly repeating.

He reached out to pluck the grass, but his hand trembled, and he abruptly looked up, his eyes wide with disbelief.

If Yan Leizi had seen the black-clad man’s expression, his heart would have been struck with awe. The man he revered, the figure who had always been so calm, now wore a look that was unprecedented in countless years! The old man waved his sleeve, his figure turning transparent and vanishing. What cultivation base he possessed, what magic he employed, none could know. He reappeared at the site of Wang Lin’s tribulation! The distance he had traversed was too vast; even the art of shrinking the earth could not accomplish it in a single step!

To the old man, it was clearly effortless. He furrowed his brow and scanned his surroundings, his gaze finally resting upon the void a hundred fathoms ahead.

It was the spot where the cyan-black energy had appeared. “A hint of ancient Immortal Domain aura…” The old man murmured, turning and departing.

Meanwhile, Wang Lin had raced back to the Four Divine Sects region of the Alliance’s eastern region. He slowed his pace, his mind still replaying the scene he had witnessed, especially the Daoist youth. The youth’s presence troubled him greatly.

“Who is he…” Unease filled Wang Lin’s eyes. He glanced back at the dark starfield behind him, then took a step forward. Ripples echoed as his figure disappeared, reappearing outside the Vermilion Bird Divine Sect.

He did not enter the burning starfield, instead selecting a desolate star nearby. Wang Lin entered the planet and chose a mountain peak upon which to sit.

Once seated, he took a deep breath. The more he contemplated, the more unsettled he became. He suppressed his emotions and with a grasp of his right hand, a rift appeared before him. He plunged his hand within and retrieved the purple-robed elder’s nascent divinity.

Without hesitation, Wang Lin unleashed his divine sense, surrounding the head of the unconscious divinity and forcing his way inside, ripping out vast fragments of memory.

“Wind Immortal Realm, Cloud Sea Starfield!!!” Light flashed in Wang Lin’s eyes. He pondered, then a flash of joy flickered across his face. “Cloud Sea Starfield…” After a moment’s contemplation, Wang Lin searched the divinity’s memory again, seeking a path to the Cloud Sea.

After a time, Wang Lin withdrew his divine sense, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“The structure of the Cloud Sea Starfield is unlike Luo Tian and the Alliance. It is suited for me… And the Wind Immortal Realm is filled with Mosquito Beasts… Of the four Immortal Domain subordinate starfields, only the Cloud Sea has a weak spatial barrier, allowing for passage with a special formation and guide.” Wang Lin’s eyes flickered as he looked at the divinity in his hand. He cautiously sealed the nascent divinity and stored it within his storage rift. “This divinity, using the immortal art Qing Shui has imparted to me, can be made into a guide. Now, all that remains is the formation. Fortunately, the materials required are not too difficult to find. After studying the matter thoroughly, I can set about constructing it. If everything I prepared for Tuo Sen fails, then the Cloud Sea will be my final choice!”

Wang Lin was silent for a moment, then rose, took a deep breath, and looked towards the Vermilion Bird Divine Sect. He muttered to himself, “Now, I must await the Old Emperor’s Rain Immortal Realm preparation… Luo Tian, Corpse Yin, the various forces of the Alliance… You surmise that my sending out the jade slip has a purpose, and you think I will fish in troubled waters…”

“In truth, you are only half right. My other goal is to draw you all to the Ancient God Lands, so you will have no energy to disrupt the Four Divine Sects’ plan to use the Rain Immortal Realm to rescue the Azure Dragon Divine Emperor! I wonder, how many of you can see through this scheme within a scheme!” A hint of arrogance appeared on Wang Lin’s face. He took a step and headed directly toward the Vermilion Bird Divine Sect.

He would visit Wang Wei and Hu Juan, as well as the Ancient Demon Taga, sealed by the blood of an ancient divine artifact! At this moment, within the center of the Alliance Starfield, in the headquarters of the Cultivation Alliance, a cataclysmic event was brewing. The very array sealing the headquarters trembled violently, as if on the verge of collapse! At the same time, deep within the burning starfield of the Vermilion Bird Divine Sect, the Old Emperor’s eyes flew open on the white stone block that held his physical body, but his eyes exploded into a slurry of blood!

“Wang Lin, come to me at once!! Quickly!!”