Wang Yu
Chapter 1359: The Banquet Begins
Upon her head grew two tender pink dragon horns, and her long, black hair was styled into countless tiny braids. Her round eyes sparkled with vitality, and delicate blue rings adorned her arms and ankles, each ring hung with several small bells.
With such an innocent and harmless appearance, she seemed like a charming young girl. However, in reality, this woman was none other than Chen Ruyan, the Water-attribute Dao Ancestor among the Heavenly Court's Seven Sovereigns, who had cultivated the laws of water to their utmost.
She and Chi Rong possessed completely opposite auras, vaguely giving off a sense of conflicting Daos. It wasn't the kind of friction on the same Great Dao, but rather two different Great Daos that naturally loathed each other, leading to opposition and conflict upon meeting.
The girl didn't look at Chi Rong, and Chi Rong didn't look at the girl, as they were mutually repulsive, like water and fire being incompatible.
Beside Chi Rong stood a short, thin-faced old man. Today, he wasn't wearing his usual coarse linen clothes but had donned a dazzling purple-gold Daoist robe, with every warp and weft thread shimmering with extraordinary light, clearly indicating it was a Celestial Artifact-level robe.
The old man's shoulders and back were still somewhat hunched, but his eyes were bright and sharp. He was none other than Li Yuanjiu, the master of Nine Yuan Temple.
On the other side, beside Chen Ruyan, stood a tall figure completely enveloped in a black robe, even the face was concealed, revealing only a pair of deep purple eyes, with pupils that seemed to contain myriad stars, sparkling with crystalline light.
This person was named Yin Ming, the most mysterious among the Seven Sovereigns of the Heavenly Dao, and also the least known to the world, a Supreme Dao Ancestor.
If Chen Tuan was an old ancestor who had long ceased walking in the world, gradually fading from memory, yet his prestige and legends still survived, this Yin Ming Dao Ancestor didn't even have legends, and even many high-ranking cultivators in the Heavenly Court were unclear about his background.
In fact, Chen Tuan had been devoured by the Heavenly Dao and was now a cripple, while Xuan Yuanjie had been jointly killed by Han Li and Jin Tong. Besides these five, there were no other members of the Heavenly Court's Seven Sovereigns.
In the past Bodhi Banquets, apart from Gu Huo Jin who always appeared, the other Heavenly Court Seven Sovereigns rarely showed themselves. Especially the black-robed man. The appearance of five at once, as today, was already a lot.
Seeing these people appear, almost all the participating cultivators present stood up to pay their respects.
The direct descendants of the Heavenly Court even shouted, "Greetings, Sovereigns."
Gu Huo Jin smiled and nodded, saying, "Fellow Daoist Cangwu, the Lord of Reincarnation Hall is a guest today, do not violate etiquette."
His words didn't carry much of a warning, but rather sounded like gentle persuasion.
However, after this seemingly insignificant sentence, True Immortal Cangwu indeed withdrew his hand and returned to sit behind his table, only his expression appearing more weathered and weary.
The Lord of Reincarnation Hall raised his eyebrows, looking towards Gu Huo Jin and the others, his gaze calm and his expression composed.
Qingqiu Zhenren breathed a sigh of relief, leading him forward to the front row where True Immortal Cangwu and other Dao Ancestors were seated, to a position near the right edge.
"Lord, this is the seat arranged for you, please take it," Qingqiu Zhenren said.
The Lord of Reincarnation Hall glanced at the seat, laughed loudly, and stepped directly over the table, arriving at the space between this row of seats and the seats of the Heavenly Dao Seven Sovereigns.
He suddenly slightly bent his five fingers and grabbed one of the seven tables, pulling it back casually.
The table, along with the cushion behind it, was wrapped by a force and flew backward, landing in front of the Lord of Reincarnation Hall.
"Since the person is no longer here, isn't it too ominous to have a seat still set out?" The Lord of Reincarnation Hall said with a hearty laugh.
Having said that, the Lord of Reincarnation Hall sat down on his own, casually picked up a pot of celestial wine from the table, poured it into a glass, and gently swirled it.
Seeing this scene, the entire venue erupted in an uproar.
The cold sweat that Qingqiu Zhenren had just suppressed now couldn't help but flow down again.
However, in his heart, he admired this Lord of Reincarnation Hall. To be able to display such domineering behavior in this environment, there was probably no one else who could do so at this time.
However, admiration aside, his duty was to persuade him, so he had to grit his teeth and say, "Lord, this... is not in accordance with etiquette."
The Lord of Reincarnation Hall turned a deaf ear and drained the glass in one gulp.
"It doesn't matter, I'm troubling the Lord," Gu Huo Jin said with a smile.
Since the Sovereign had said so, no one else would have any objections. Qingqiu Zhenren bid farewell and turned to leave the venue, returning to the East Victory Continent.
Gu Huo Jin and the others took their seats, but not sitting close to each other.
As the leader of the Heavenly Dao Seven Sovereigns, Gu Huo Jin naturally sat in the central position, and his table was also slightly higher than the others.
Next to him on the left was the black-robed Dao Ancestor named Yin Ming, and his right side was empty, originally the seat of Chen Tuan.
Further to the left, next to Yin Ming, sat the young Dao Ancestor Chen Ruyan, and not only was the seat to her left empty, but even the table had been taken away by the Lord of Reincarnation Hall, which was originally Xuan Yuanjie's.
On the right side, next to Chen Tuan's empty seat sat the Dao Ancestor Chi Rong, and next to Chi Rong sat the master of the Nine Yuan Temple.
After these people took their seats, the people who had just stood up to pay their respects then sat down one after another, and the entire venue was filled with celestial music, and the atmosphere was truly calmed down a little.
At this time, a figure wrapped in layers of dense white clouds appeared in front of everyone.
When the clouds dissipated, a slender figure was revealed, wearing a cyan robe embroidered with clusters of snow-white cloud patterns, who was none other than Baiyun Daozu, currently in charge of the Heavenly Court's operations.
"Today is the Bodhi Banquet, sincerely inviting all guests to share the celestial blessings, hoping everyone enjoys themselves." Baiyun Daozu first bowed to Gu Huo Jin and others, then turned to others and laughed loudly.
As soon as his voice fell, a colorful mist suddenly appeared above everyone's heads, and dozens of celestial maidens in rainbow feather robes danced gracefully, and countless flower rains fell between the fluttering ribbons, making it a beautiful sight.
The crowd watched with relish, temporarily relaxing, toasting and drinking, and tasting celestial wine and spiritual fruits.
...
In the depths of the endless void turbulence, there floated a huge silver mountain, so tall that it was invisible, like a silver giant standing in the void turbulence.
The entire silver mountain was formed of a translucent silver ore, and each silver ore emitted spatial law fluctuations. If there were knowledgeable people here, they would surely recognize at a glance that this silver ore was the legendary Void Crystal Stone, containing the power of spatial laws.
Countless spatial law fluctuations emanated from all parts of the giant peak and converged together, forming a powerful and unmatched spatial law fluctuation that seemed to shake the entire void turbulence.
The extremely chaotic void turbulence nearby, as soon as it approached the silver mountain, immediately became docile and automatically flowed past the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, there was a huge black tortoise, its massive body resembling a continent, carrying the silver mountain on its back.
With the giant tortoise's limbs moving, it carried the silver mountain and slowly moved forward in the void turbulence.
On the silver mountain were countless small holes, distributed from the foot of the mountain all the way to the peak, densely packed, with an unknown number of them, like a honeycomb.
Upon closer inspection, behind those small holes were caves, with interconnected passages extending far away, seemingly emptying out the silver giant peak.
On both sides of each passage, not far apart, a stone chamber was built. Each passage contained an unknown number of stone chambers, and the number of stone chambers throughout the entire mountain was even more countless.
Between the stone chambers, there were thick silver patterns connecting them, like a dense and intricate silver web, connecting all the stone chambers throughout the mountain.
Even more silver patterns directly disappeared into the void, not knowing where they extended to.
These silver patterns flickered constantly, seemingly transmitting something.
Each stone chamber contained several arrays, which were different from ordinary teleportation arrays, but rather material transmission arrays.
These arrays all buzzed and vibrated, constantly spitting out various items.
Countless members of the Reincarnation Hall guarded next to each array, placing these items into other material transmission arrays to be transmitted away, or handing them over to puppets on the side.
These puppets collected the items and immediately transported them out quickly, running around all over the silver mountain.
The silver mountain was like a huge country, extremely busy, but operating in an orderly manner.
At the top of the silver mountain, there stood a great hall.
The space inside the hall was very large, as large as several thousand feet. The hall was quite empty, without too many other things. In the very center of the hall, there were four huge alchemy furnaces.
These alchemy furnaces were several dozen feet tall, almost reaching the roof of the hall, with the same style, but presented in four different colors: blue, green, red, and black.
The bottoms of the four alchemy furnaces were wrapped in a layer of silver flames, and around the alchemy furnaces, there sat dozens of cultivators, most of them wearing masks of the Reincarnation Hall, which were members of the Reincarnation Hall.
There were also some people wearing purple robes, which were the costumes of the Night Sun Dynasty in the Demon Realm.
These people were constantly making hand seals, and pieces of rare materials flew into the four furnaces.
The flames flickered, and the alchemy furnaces slowly rotated, with muffled thunder-like rumbling sounds coming from inside.
The blue alchemy furnace flashed with light, and the lid of the cauldron suddenly shook and flew off automatically. A ball of blue light shot out from inside.
A tall man from the Reincarnation Hall near this furnace raised his hand and took the ball of blue light into his hand, which was a blue rabbit-headed mask, which was a Reincarnation Hall mask, but it looked a bit dull.
This person looked at the mask a few times, nodded slowly, and turned to come to a side hall behind the main hall.
Here, there were three stone platforms, each with a cultivator sitting on it, each holding a white jade tablet in their hands, with lines of text flashing on it, constantly flickering.
The three of them were browsing the text on the jade tablet while constantly making hand seals on it, looking very busy.
The person on the left was a middle-aged man in gray clothes, with a gaunt face and sunken eyes, looking a bit gloomy.
The person in the middle was an old man in a purple robe, and judging from his clothes, he was also from the Night Sun Dynasty. This person was slightly hunched, with sparse hair on the top of his head, and his face was full of wrinkles, but he was very energetic.
The person on the right was a woman in a white robe, with fair skin, bright eyes, and beautiful features, but her expression was very cold.
The auras of the three people were very powerful, reaching the Grand Luo Realm. Especially the purple-robed old man had the highest cultivation level, reaching the peak of the middle stage of the Grand Luo Realm, only one step away from the late stage of the Grand Luo Realm.