Cloudbanks gathered over Qing Yu’s head—not tribulation clouds, but something ineffable and undefinable. While born of the rules of heavenly tribulations, they bore no relation to punishment or judgment. Pure and flawless, the clouds exuded a hallowed energy that wrapped around Qing Yu in a protective sphere.
Higher still in the sky, the inky tribulation clouds looming over the Central World faded in color until they were pure white puffiness. The terrible Diabolical Tribulation of World Refinement remained, but its lightning was replaced by white splendor that rained down onto the ground as droplets of milky white liquid.
Thus irrigated, the dim, cracked land of the Central World awoke with great vitality.
……
The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign dropped to the ground, his skeletal body scattered and the bones comprising it ground to small pieces. They plopped to the ground, leaving only a skull beholding a small ember of Hadal Bonefire intact. The Sugato Sword and Skyturning Seal clattered to the ground beside the skull, trembling ever so slightly.
The great fur seal roared a challenge to the skies. Its body was a blinding red, signifying that it’d taken its true form again after using the Ichor Bog for a while. It was now so much more powerful than before, exceeding the dao immortal realm and reaching the ingress realm.
The egg of the demon god had cracked and peeled away to admit a naked young man in the air above the abyss. He was beautiful—all fair porcelain skin and lean, chiseled muscles. His new form cut a flawless figure.
“I’ve finally ascended to immortality and entered the immortal dao,” muttered the demon god. “But where is my tribulation? My phenomenon of ascension?”
His fine brows furrowed, the demon god looked up at the gentle shower from the sky.
“No!” he blurted out with a start. “That girl is going to refine the Central World! Too many secrets lie hidden here. She mustn’t be allowed to succeed!”
He was now a true immortal, but his actual strength was far in excess of his actual cultivation level. After all, his true spirit had once belonged to a great emperor, and he’d built this body with countless precious materials sourced from around the world.
“Prior to his passing, the immortal emperor shaped the Emperor Sunflower into his coffin so that it would become this world’s sun, turning the Central World into a world of the immortal dao.
“In the era of human dao, there were only nine connate spirit roots. The Emperor Sunflower wasn’t among them. Someone nurtured this flower with the power of the Fusang Purewood, then labeled it the tenth spirit root to conceal its true nature!” The demon god waved a hand, transfiguring a long black robe with a flash of light to cover up his flawless physique.
“So this is the Sword Pagoda from the Green Firmament...” he tutted at the inanimate Sugato Sword on the ground. “The pagoda is hardly what it used to be after its fall from grace. The greatest man-made treasure in the world? Tsk, how ludicrous.”
Dismissively turning away from the treasures, he looked instead at the great fur seal. The beast barked in understanding and rolled beneath the demon god’s feet, becoming his flying carpet and bearing its master to the heart of the Central World.
……
“Someone’s refining the core of the Central World!” Within the world of the Emperor Sunflower, the representatives from the Crimson and Purple Firmaments simultaneously looked up in shock. They immediately gave up on the kidneys and darted back out into the outside world.
“The kidneys of heaven and earth were born in the Central World. If someone refines the world, no one else will be able to get their hands on the organs!” muttered the demon god’s Ichor Bog replica, quickly following those from the two Firmaments out of the spirit root’s world.
Outside the Emperor Sunflower, the Spiriteater Demon Snake tipped its head up and hissed loudly, rushing toward the core of the world in a flash of blue.
……
All of the world of immortals stirred with shock; countless immortals looked up and scanned the skies. Their missing facet had manifested above each of the nine majors, ten lands, four immortal seas, and four great oceans.
Qing Yu emerged as well, an inviolate, peak existence above the Central World. Sol Truefire blazed on her palm, slowly absorbing the facet.
Boom!
She clapped her hands together, transforming the Sol Truefire into an enormous blazing sun that gradually overlapped with the Central World. Trembling and shaking, all living souls—with Lu Yun the sole exception—were ejected from the facet by a great power.
“What’s going on?!” Within Destiny City, Qi Hai shot to his feet and looked up with wide eyes. He shrieked from the mind-boggling sight, “The heavenly facets are connected as a whole. No one should be able to refine the Central World unless they control all of the heavenly mandates!”
“Nothing is impossible.” Silverlight had returned to Destiny City after the battle in the North Sea. She, too, looked up at the mysterious twenty-fourth facet. “She is the sovereign of the immortal dao to which the Central World belongs… of course it is possible for her to refine it.
“Once she does, she will be far more than a celestial emperor. We need to stop her!”
Silverlight’s eyes flashed as she reverted to her scarlet ape form and leapt into the sky, manifesting a giant iron rod and swinging it at the Central World.
Bam!
Silver light blasted out of the Central World and knocked awry the Path of Ingress connecting it to Nephrite Major. It continued along its path to Dao City at the center of Dusk Province, and was met in turn by a similar ray of light erupting from the city. The two rays interwove and blended in the sky, becoming a single entity.
A restriction against immortals!
The restrictions of Dusk and the Central World merged together, then rushed back to swirl around Qing Yu as a complete whole. With this step complete, the Central World slowly drifted toward Dusk Province.
“It is indeed the two of them behind this! They can’t be allowed to succeed!” roared Qi Hai. “The Central World is the heart of the world of immortals. Lu Yun and Qing Yu mustn’t become its rulers without the consent of all lives in this world!”
He shot into the air and rushed toward the Central World.
“That’s right, the Central World belongs to us all. You must seek our permission first before doing anything with it!” Silverlight, Goldenlight, Yin Jiuying, and the celestial emperors of the various facets could no longer stay on the sidelines. Not even the head of the Dark North Sword Sect and elites of Ingress Island could remain still. They all made their way to the fringes of the twenty-fourth facet in an attempt to stop Qing Yu from refining it.
……
“How long do you need?” Lu Yun and Xing Chen asked quietly by Qing Yu’s side.
“Six hours,” Qing Yu responded in a soft voice, giving Lu Yun a composed look.
Lu Yun nodded. “Understood.”
Hum.
Violet light flickered over him as his power grew exponentially, until finally, he reached peak origin dao realm. Nine pieces of origin dao fruit glittered in his consciousness.
This was the strength of peak origin dao immortal—the strength of a celestial emperor.