The ancient Temple of the Vermillion Bird had faded into legend. Its name was but a whisper in the minds of the cultivators dwelling there.

The Four Sacred Sects, once paragons of power, had long since retreated from prominence. Their former glory was now a distant echo, a memory fading with each passing year.

Only a few masters of great arcane ability retained a memory of the Four Sacred Sects, holding both respect and a deep-seated unease born of their past power.

In its prime, the Four Sacred Sects were mightier and more enigmatic than even the current Cultivation Alliance. Even the Kun Xu realm within these very stars, held the Sects in great respect, even fear.

This fear was the seed that blossomed into an alliance with the Cultivation Alliance, and through insidious schemes, the Four Sacred Sects were brought to the brink of collapse.

The strongest, the Azure Dragon Sovereign, vanished without a trace. The dread Vermillion Bird Sovereign was known to be afflicted by the Three Calamities of Mortality, a secret that was betrayed, plunging the Sects into unprecedented peril.

Despite these misfortunes, the Four Sacred Sects still possessed the strength to challenge the Cultivation Alliance, and to stand defiant against the Kun Xu realm. But, bound by ancient pacts, the Kun Xu could only offer clandestine support. Yet, even with such limitations, the Sects, empowered by the Four Sacred Relics of Old, could still hold their own in open war.

However, as the Four Sacred Sects clashed with the Cultivation Alliance in a battle that would shape the very stars, an event of catastrophic proportions shook the foundations of the Sects, leading to their ultimate downfall.

The Black Tortoise Sovereign, along with his three most esteemed disciples and a great host of his clan, turned traitor! This treachery was compounded by a vile act: an attempt to assassinate the Vermillion Bird Sovereign, which, though failing, unleashed the full force of the suppressed Three Calamities of Mortality upon her.

Such a betrayal was unthinkable for the bloodline-bound Four Sacred Sects. The Black Tortoise Sovereign’s defection triggered a horrifying reversal in the tides of war.

The Ancient Sacred Relics, already weakened by the absence of the Azure Dragon Sovereign, suffered further diminishment by the perfidy of the Black Tortoise Sovereign.

To this day, no one knows why the Black Tortoise Sovereign, once a pillar of the Sects, turned against his brethren. The reasons remain shrouded in mystery. This act of treason emboldened the Cultivation Alliance, and the war that followed engulfed the star realm in a sea of blood and mountains of corpses.

Yet, the Cultivation Alliance underestimated the power of the Four Sacred Sects. Defying her mortal afflictions, the Vermillion Bird Sovereign unleashed a tempest of celestial fire that swept across the star realm, manifesting ten incandescent avatars to strike back at the Alliance.

The war was one of utter devastation, so dreadful that even the few surviving cultivators shuddered at the memory.

In the end, the Four Sacred Sects were defeated. The Kun Xu realm, breaking ancient vows of non-interference, openly intervened, seeking to uproot the Sects entirely.

But even they underestimated the Four Sacred Sects’ reserves of power. The Vermillion Bird Ancestor, though seeing eight of her ten avatars destroyed, and her true form near annihilation, left behind a fragment of her consciousness.

The Azure Dragon Sect was decimated, with only a tenth of its members surviving! The remnants of the Black Tortoise Sect scattered to the four winds.

The White Tiger Sovereign slaughtered countless core elders of the Alliance and hosts of Kun Xu warriors before finally falling. Yet, even in death, his corpse stood defiant, blocking the advance of the Alliance armies. Emitting an aura of pure slaughter, it filled the hearts of all with such dread that none dared approach.

Thus ended the terrible war, with both sides grievously wounded. The Four Sacred Sects fell, but the Cultivation Alliance suffered crippling losses. The Kun Xu realm ceased its extermination, not out of mercy, but because further conflict would have brought ruin that neither they nor the Alliance could bear.

For within the Four Sacred Sects lay the Ancient Sacred Relics, instruments capable of rending the very fabric of creation. Had the Sects been pushed to the brink, they might have unleashed their full power in a final, suicidal act.

From that day forward, the Four Sacred Sects vanished from the forefront of power. Over countless millennia, they emerged only in small pockets, claiming isolated cultivation stars and merging into the Alliance under false names. The Vermillion Bird Star, for example, was one such place.

But now, the sudden reappearance of the Vermillion Bird, a celestial beast of immense power, heralded a clear signal: The Four Sacred Sects would rise again!

As the Vermillion Bird traversed the heavens, even asteroids melted to dust in its wake. The cultivators of the Alliance watched in fear and speculation.

In the celestial domain of Luo Tian, news of the Vermillion Bird’s return sparked renewed conflict. Yan Leizi, upon reading the message, roared with laughter.

The war, temporarily paused in Luo Tian, erupted once more across the northern Alliance territories.

More and more cultivators poured from Luo Tian, emptying the celestial domain of its strength. The entire domain poured its resources into assaulting the Alliance! Wang Lin knew none of this. He sat cross-legged in his cave, meditating, consuming a nascent soul at regular intervals. His storage bag was still filled with the captured souls, enough to fuel his ascension.

The arcane power within him grew, releasing a formidable aura that manifested as a tempestuous wind.

The small cave began to crumble under this force. Yet, Wang Lin remained oblivious, lost in the throes of his breakthrough.

Before the dislodged stones could strike him, a flash of silver light shattered them. The silver-clad female corpse, with a wave of her hand, pulverized each one.

Infinite arcane power poured from the consumed nascent souls, fusing with Wang Lin’s spirit and accumulating within. Had Wang Lin’s Vermillion Bird blood not awakened, and his arcane power not contained the essence of flame, he would have already completed his breakthrough.

But now, Wang Lin’s arcane power thrummed with fire. He had to refine the absorbed power within his very spirit.

It was a laborious process, but the potential rewards were great.

As the arcane power transformed, infused with the might of flame, it coursed through Wang Lin’s being. Intense heat radiated from him. The cave walls, crumbling, began to glow with a crimson heat as though they had been buried within a volcano.

Even the silver-clad corpse frowned slightly, yet she remained by Wang Lin’s side.

As his power grew, the storm of arcane force surrounding Wang Lin intensified, tearing apart the cave.

The ground beneath Wang Lin cracked and collapsed. His body sank downwards. The whirlwind around him acted like a spinning drill, forcing him deeper into the earth.

The silver-clad corpse flickered, transforming into a streak of silver light and following Wang Lin. The intense heat washed over her, painting a faint blush on her pale face. Her eyes, however, remained fixed on Wang Lin.

As Wang Lin descended, he suddenly opened his eyes, unleashing two searing beams of flame. At that instant, the storm surrounding him reached its peak, unleashing a pulse of power. A wave of force, characteristic of the peak of the Insightful Void stage, erupted outward.

This overwhelming feeling, as if he possessed the power of heaven and earth, the ability to shatter worlds with a single spell, filled Wang Lin. Before his eyes, the world shimmered with interwoven lines of energy.

This was the face of the laws of the universe.

The second step of cultivation, the Insightful Void, was the observation of these rules. The deeper one cultivated, the more rules one perceived. When one grasped a certain number of these cosmic principles, one could attain the Great Perfection of the Insightful Void!

“A breakthrough!” Wang Lin breathed. Merely reaching the late stage of Insightful Void was not enough. The expansion of his understanding granted him a sense of control, as though with enough power, he could even attain the Great Perfection of the Insightful Void!

With a glint in his eyes, Wang Lin immediately consumed all the remaining nascent souls from his storage bag. His cultivation, now at the late stage of Insightful Void, grew more furiously as the arcane energy transformed, imbued with the essence of flame.

As the arcane power transformed within his spirit, the heat radiating from Wang Lin grew. The Vermillion Bird tattoo upon his body erupted outwards, coalescing into a majestic Vermillion Bird that circled above him.

A resounding cry echoed from the Vermillion Bird as Wang Lin frowned within his meditation.

“Still, I am lacking…”

After a pause, Wang Lin’s body shimmered and his spirit avatar stepped out of his body. Now there were two of him. The original self sat and cultivated, while the separate body of the celestial spirit immediately released the aura of pure slaughter!

With an expression of utter calm, the avatar moved out of the cave, and appeared above the depths of the pit. As it appeared, the image of the Vermillion Bird followed and circled above the split being. Drawing a deep breath, the avatar’s power rushed to its peak and in the left eye of the avatar, an unquenchable fire sparked and blazed. In the right eye, a storming ball of electricity shone with incredible light.

From between his eyebrows, the celestial spirit rushed forth and with a heavenly roar that echoed the power that governs all lightening. In the dark depth of the pit, the spirit was unleashed.

In that instant, the heaven, the earth and all that lay between them changed. A new world of creation was released.