In the center of the Taiyuan Continent, a transcendent peak, nine thousand zhang high, stood amidst a gently rolling forest, enveloped by nine ten-thousand-zhang peaks.
Within the milky white mist, immortal cranes soared, spiritual apes brewed wine, black oxen tilled the soil, and spirit deer carried grass, painting a picture of an immortal realm.
If any cultivator were to ascend this transcendent peak, they would surely gasp in astonishment.
The milky white mist was not mist at all, but a condensation of intensely rich spiritual energy. A single breath of it would be enough for a small cultivator in the Qi Refining stage to train for a year.
Such spiritual mist could only appear in a ninth-tier spiritual land.
At this moment, a female cultivator, clad in purple and possessing a graceful figure, steered her flying sword from the mountainside towards the summit.
Emerging from the mist, the purple-clad female cultivator landed on the mountaintop. Instead of any architectural structures, there was a teleportation array spanning over ten li.
"By order of the Sect Master, disciple Yang Zixuan has come to answer the summons."
As Yang Zixuan finished speaking, an old Daoist priest, dressed in black and white robes, suddenly appeared in the center of the previously empty teleportation array.
"Identification token, Sect Master's decree."
"Both are present. Please, Elder, inspect them."
Yang Zixuan bowed and presented a token and a jade slip. The token had "Tian" written in white on one side and "Ji" written in black on the other.
After examining both items, the old Daoist activated the teleportation array and sent Yang Zixuan away.
After a moment of dizzying disorientation, Yang Zixuan found herself in a valley. The spiritual energy here was even more potent than on the transcendent peak.
In the center of the valley stood nine stone houses built from God-Suppressing Crystal.
Upon seeing the God-Suppressing Crystal, Yang Zixuan's eyes widened involuntarily.
God-Suppressing Crystal, a ninth-tier refining material, was the essence of God-Suppressing Stone. Only God-Suppressing Stone mines of over a thousand zhang in scale could yield a piece the size of a pigeon egg.
The nine stone houses before her, each occupying at least an acre and standing ten feet high, must have required the consumption of how many God-Suppressing Stone veins!
"Little girl, come here."
Just as Yang Zixuan was stunned and bewildered, a gentle and benevolent voice sounded in her ear. Simultaneously, the door of the stone house in the center, two acres wide, opened automatically.
Yang Zixuan then quickened her pace towards it.
But as she walked, her heart grew increasingly alarmed. The seemingly inconspicuous flowers, plants, and trees within this small valley were all at least eighth-grade spiritual plants, and the majority were ninth-grade!
If these spiritual plants were taken outside, they would surely incite a bloody storm!
Yet here, they were casually planted, like weeds by the roadside.
With continuous exclamations of awe in her heart, Yang Zixuan soon entered the God-Suppressing Crystal house.
The moment she stepped inside, she was startled by the scene and quickly bowed repeatedly in greeting.
"Greetings, Sect Master, greetings, all Grand Elders, greetings, all Elders."
The not-so-spacious stone house was filled with the key high-ranking members of the Heavenly Mystery Sect, including the Sect Master, True Man Tianji, the two Deputy Sect Masters, True Man Tianshu and True Man Tianquan, and the two Grand Elders, Yin and Yang, who had always remained in seclusion!
As for the other eighteen Standing Elders, they were far inferior to these five.
The Daoist titles of these five were hereditary. Whoever could compete for these five positions would inherit these five Daoist titles, which were the only eternally unchangeable Daoist titles and eternal glory of the Heavenly Mystery Sect!
"Yang Zixuan, you joined the Heavenly Mystery Sect from the Qimu Sword Sect 200 years ago. In these two centuries, your cultivation has advanced by leaps and bounds. You are the first disciple in ten thousand years of the Heavenly Mystery Sect to reach the eighth-tier Tribulation Crossing realm before the age of 300.
You can truly be called a rare genius."
"The Sect Master's praise is too much. It is all the cultivation of the sect that has enabled this disciple to advance so quickly."
Upon hearing True Man Tianji's praise, Yang Zixuan quickly bowed in thanks. This was her genuine sentiment.
Before joining the Heavenly Mystery Sect, she had cultivated for nearly 70 years in the Qimu Sword Sect, only reaching the Fusion realm. It was only after arriving at the Heavenly Mystery Sect that her cultivation began to advance by leaps and bounds.
She was also truly grateful to the Heavenly Mystery Sect.
"Do not be so humble. The Heavenly Mystery Sect is an immortal sect with tens of thousands of disciples, yet in the past ten thousand years, there has been no one with cultivation potential like yours."
True Man Tianji interrupted Yang Zixuan's modesty and then got straight to the point:
"We have summoned you here to divine the location of your elder brother, Yang Hong, and we require your cooperation."
Hearing True Man Tianji's words, Yang Zixuan couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, interrupting, "You're looking for my Sixth Brother? Isn't my Sixth Brother in the Great Sui Dynasty?"
"Perhaps he is, perhaps he isn't.
Therefore, we need to confirm. We, the entire immortal world, need his help."
True Man Tianji did not conceal his purpose, stating it directly.
"Not in the Great Sui Dynasty? Then where is my Sixth Brother?"
After joining the Heavenly Mystery Sect, Yang Zixuan had always kept track of Yang Hong's news and paid attention to him.
The information she received was that Yang Hong, due to having assisted too many cultivators of the immortal and Buddhist worlds in transcending their ascension tribulations and thus accumulating too much karma, had sealed himself away in Qingfeng Villa in the Great Sui Dynasty.
"He should be in the Great Sui Dynasty. We divined before that he should be in the Great Sui Dynasty, but when we went to Qingfeng Villa to call upon him, no one answered, which made us suspicious.
This is why we have summoned you."
"Sect Master, whatever this disciple can do to help, please command me."
"It's very simple. Stand in the center of this array, and we will use your bloodline for divination."
"No problem."
Yang Zixuan did not hesitate and directly stepped into the Taiji position of an Eight Trigram formation in the center of the stone house. The 23 high-level cultivators of the Heavenly Mystery Sect jointly employed the Heavenly Mystery Deduction Art, using Yang Zixuan's bloodline to divine Yang Hong's location.
In just over an hour, an image of a large snow-capped mountain in the southeast of the Great Sui Dynasty appeared on the ceiling of the stone house. Simultaneously, a massive sphere, over five li wide, appeared on the mountaintop, with a floating island above it.
This image remained frozen. No matter how the Heavenly Mystery Deduction Art was performed, it could not move forward.
After another three hours, True Man Tianji finally spoke, ending the divination.
"Li Chengfu, you will personally escort Yang Zixuan to the Great Sui Dynasty. This snow-capped mountain is located in the southeast of the Great Sui.
If those bald donkeys from the Budong Temple obstruct you, tell them you have discovered a method to enter that seal. Given the greed of those bald donkeys, they will definitely accompany you to explore.
Your task is only to first assess the strength of that seal and its type."
"As you command."
A handsome and distinguished scholar walked out from the group of elders.
Before Yang Zixuan could fully comprehend the situation, she was led away from the valley by this elder and then quickly traveled to the Great Sui Dynasty via a teleportation array.
In the secluded valley, the elders of the Heavenly Mystery Sect soon departed, leaving only the five true high-ranking members.
True Man Tianji looked at the empty stone house and remained silent for a while before asking:
"Elder Yang, Elder Yin, you previously divined the fate of the Taiyuan Continent and said it would be destroyed in a thousand years. This divination indeed indicates that the Taiyuan Continent will fall into a long period of warfare.
Could it be that the war will continue for a thousand years, leading to the destruction of the Taiyuan Continent?"
"No, the prophecy of the Taiyuan Continent's destruction has existed for over ten thousand years. The Yin and Yang Elders of several generations of the Heavenly Mystery Sect would perform divinations several times in their prime. Previous divinations all pointed to the destruction of the Taiyuan Continent, but this time there are no signs of destruction, only perpetual dark warfare!"
"Then what does this have to do with Yang Hong?"
"It's hard to say, but in our joint divination, Yang Hong represents food!"
"Yang Hong is equivalent to food? That's strange."
On the Taiyuan Continent, mortals might lack food, but for cultivators who could fly and traverse the earth, capture Kun Peng in the sky, and seize true dragons from the sea, food was the least lacking of things!
Moreover, cultivators who reached the Golden Core stage could go hundreds of years without eating or drinking if there was spiritual energy, and they would not die!
How could there be a shortage of food?