Qitian Continent, Butian Sect.

Dragon Rise Peak, shrouded in dense clouds, obscuring the summit.

Atop the peak, within a black stone altar, a swirling vortex of black mist churned slowly, seemingly possessing infinite attraction.

Within the vortex, a twisted, ancient head floated helplessly, its forehead nearly bald, the remaining gray hair disheveled and still, like a sculpture.

After an unknown duration, the head’s slightly closed eyelids twitched, lifting to reveal one black and one white pupil. The white one resembled a fish belly, clearly blind.

Its eyebrows struggled upward, the lone remaining eye straining to gaze upward.

There, a branch of a lush peach tree, extending far out, suddenly trembled. A dense, spiraling cloud of energy descended from above, swirling down and landing beside the peach tree outside the altar.

As the cloud dispersed, the figure of a middle-aged man with jade-like complexion, narrow eyes, and a long beard materialized. He still wore a loose, white robe and remained seated in a wheelchair that seemed carved from white jade.

"Daoist Gu, you have already divined once. Why do you return?" the ancient head croaked, its voice extremely hoarse.

The man in the wheelchair was none other than Gu Huo Jin, the Time Dao Ancestor.

"Chen Tuan, the Bodhi Feast is imminent, and my heart is uneasy. I must ask for another divination," Gu Huo Jin smoothed the golden tassel hanging from his waist, placing it at his side, and spoke slowly.

"I am only separated from merging with the Heavenly Dao by this one divination. If I divine, I will surely be devoured by the Heavenly Dao, and what you promised me will be meaningless," Chen Tuan said, his tone unhurried.

"This matter concerns not only you and me. Once accomplished, it will be equivalent to raising the Heavenly Dao three feet higher, so that it no longer oppresses those of us standing atop the mountain. Are you not afraid that without this one divination, our efforts will be for naught?" Gu Huo Jin asked calmly, his expression unchanged.

Chen Tuan, hearing this, the ancient, twisted face became even more contorted, a hint of hesitation flashing in his eyes.

"This divination involves too many Dao Ancestor cultivators and too much Heavenly Dao fortune. It is already an act of celestial inquiry transcending heavenly divination. I cannot claim it all, but can only divine half of it. Whatever result is obtained, let it be the will of Heaven," Chen Tuan said after a moment.

"Agreed," Gu Huo Jin nodded without much thought.

Chen Tuan Ancestor said no more, and the sound of chanting arose from his mouth.

Lacking hands to perform hand seals, it took twice as long as last time. Only then did a crystalline light slowly ignite in his sole remaining eye, surging forward and striking into a void.

...

After a long while, the crystalline light suddenly retracted, and the void gradually returned to normal.

The void vortex behind Chen Tuan Ancestor suddenly surged violently, from which extended wisps of black crystalline lines, like crawling insects, probing onto his cheeks, engulfing the intact half of his face.

In an instant, black light churned on that half of his face, dissolving like dust, transforming into the vortex mist. A generation of prophetic Dao Ancestor was now left with only this blind half-face and half a head behind it.

"How is it?" Gu Huo Jin, watching this scene, merely frowned slightly before asking.

"In this half-divination, the situation is safe, but at the watershed, there is a change… an anomaly," Chen Tuan's remaining half-face opened its lips, its voice somewhat ethereal.

"An anomaly?" Gu Huo Jin's eyes narrowed slightly as he asked.

Chen Tuan Ancestor did not speak, but the hair behind his head suddenly danced, and a wisp of breeze blew from behind his ear, curling past the ancient peach tree of unknown age, sweeping down hundreds of pink petals from it.

All the petals landed, coalescing on the ground into a tall figure, shimmering with water-like light, from which even emanated a faint ripple of the Law of Time.

Gu Huo Jin's wheelchair slowly moved forward, stopping near the petal phantom.

"Han Li," he scrutinized it for a moment, then leaned back in his chair, softly uttering the two words.

"The Lord of the Reincarnation Palace cannot escape destiny either. This anomaly at the Bodhi Feast is only this one person," Chen Tuan Ancestor's hoarse and ethereal voice echoed slowly in the void.

"Heh, since you have divined it, then it is no longer an anomaly. I will handle it personally, and it will also be the end of a Grand Dao dispute," Gu Huo Jin placed his hands on the armrests of his wheelchair, smiled self-deprecatingly, and said.

In his view, Han Li had already reached the pinnacle of Time Law cultivation, only a step away from himself. His exploration of the "Dao" was far from comparable to his own, and the struggle between them was not a Grand Dao dispute at all.

"Very well, then it will be peaceful..." Chen Tuan Ancestor said slowly.

Gu Huo Jin waved his hand casually, dispersing the figure of petals in front of him, and clouds began to condense beneath him.

Just then, his expression changed slightly, a hint of a smile appearing on his face for no apparent reason.

"A distinguished guest has arrived at the Heavenly Court. It seems I must return to greet them. The matter of eliminating this anomaly must be left to others," Gu Huo Jin said.

"It is best that you personally attend to the matter of this anomaly," Chen Tuan Ancestor advised.

"Is a Ten Direction Myriad Immortal Formation enough?"

Gu Huo Jin left behind a question that was not really a question, and his figure had already ascended into the sky on the support of swirling clouds, disappearing from sight.

Chen Tuan Ancestor sighed softly, habitually closing his blind eye.

The ancient peach tree, four thousand years old, swayed gently, a shower of petals falling like a rain of flowers.

...

Central Earth Immortal Domain, Eastern Victory Continent.

Above a vast and boundless sea, countless large and small verdant islands were scattered like stars, separated by only a few hundred miles from the easternmost coastline of Eastern Victory Continent.

The coastline of Eastern Victory Continent was different from the jagged, rocky coastline of Northern Subcontinent. It was mainly sandy beaches, with smoother lines, looking like the spine of a woman, winding and soft.

The two islands closest to the coastline were the largest of all the islands. On each of them stood a white jade pillar tens of thousands of feet high, densely carved with auspicious cloud patterns, extending all the way into the clouds in the high sky.

Through the thick white mist reflected by the azure sky, one could see the top of a three-tiered, eave-style paifang. In the center of it hung a huge vermilion plaque, with the three large characters "Antian Gate" written in gold lacquer seal script.

This place was the Eastern Heaven Gate of the Central Earth Immortal Domain.

At this moment, inside and outside this majestic Eastern Heaven Gate, nearly a million troops were garrisoned, all Heavenly Soldiers clad in gold and silver armor.

Behind these Heavenly Soldiers, every hundred miles or so, stood a Giant Spirit Immortal General tens of thousands of feet tall, bare-chested and wielding a heaven-splitting giant axe, each glaring angrily ahead.

Separated by thousands of miles in the void and on the islands below, stood hundreds of thousands of armored warriors wielding weapons.

However, compared to the Heavenly Court's side, the armor on these warriors was not uniform, appearing somewhat chaotic.

On the sea outside these armored warriors, stood many different kinds of alien races, their figures rising and falling with the waves of the sea. In the depths of the seabed beneath them, faint, huge shadows could be seen, slowly swimming.

Behind these armored army, spirit boats of different sizes and shapes did not hover in the air, but floated on the water surface. Complex runes engraved all over the hulls lit up, constantly drawing spiritual energy from the surrounding world, accumulating spiritual power for the spirit boats.

In the center of these spirit boats lined up in a row, there was a huge dark red spirit boat, on which was built a huge three-story palace. The square in front of the palace was densely packed with people.

Among these people, the leader was a tall man wearing a bamboo hat and black robes. He was none other than the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace.

"Lord..."

The people following behind the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace bowed their fists at the same time, as if they were bidding him farewell.

"Act according to the plan," the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace turned his head slightly and instructed everyone.

"Yes," everyone responded in unison.

Then, the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace no longer looked at the others. His escape light rose, and his figure swept out of the army, heading straight for the Eastern Heaven Gate.

The Heavenly Court army stationed outside the Eastern Heaven Gate saw this figure flying closer, and there was a surge. Everyone held their weapons in readiness, as if facing a great enemy.

However, the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace came to the outside of the Eastern Heaven Gate, but did not intend to force his way in. Instead, he stopped voluntarily, suspended in mid-air.

Several immortal generals in the Heavenly Court garrison looked at each other, not knowing what he wanted to do.

"What? Didn't Gu Huo Jin invite me to attend the banquet? I'm here. Is this how you welcome guests?" the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace asked with a smile.

His voice was not loud, but it carried an unspeakable penetrative power, like a loud bell ringing deep in the sea of ​​consciousness of every Heavenly Court soldier, causing their hearts to sway and their spirits to vibrate.

However, the Lord of the Reincarnation Palace did not intend to severely damage the army through this method. He just wanted to ensure that these words could be heard by those who should hear them.

In the middle of the Eastern Victory Continent, in a continuous mountain range, there was an inconspicuous white Taoist temple, hidden in a dense and lush forest.

In a three-story pavilion in the Taoist temple, a middle-aged man wearing a black and white Taoist robe was reading a blue book, frowning from time to time, looking like he was studying it in great detail.

The man had a thin face, bright eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a long beard under his jaw. He did not look particularly elegant and handsome, but he also had some of the style of a Taoist.

After turning a page, he could not help but gently stroke his long beard. When he saw something he liked, he would nod repeatedly.

"Such an encounter is unexpected... It's a pity that these worldly people's wild guesses about the path to immortality are always so easy. Falling off a cliff will lead to the discovery of ancient immortal techniques, entering a deep mountain will lead to the acquisition of divine weapons, exploring deep valleys will lead to enlightenment from experts, and staying in ancient temples late at night will lead to encounters with beautiful ghosts. After all, it's... too beautiful to imagine." The thin Taoist muttered to himself, delivering a final verdict.

After saying that, he put down the page in his hand, and it automatically closed, revealing the title page, which read "Mortal's Journey to Immortality". It was not a secret manual of cultivation techniques, but merely a work of fantasy written by a vulgar commoner named Wang Yu from the mountains outside of town, based on urban legends.

Just then, the thin Taoist suddenly raised his eyebrows and said to himself, "They're here..."

(Fellow Daoists, Happy Spring Festival, and may the Year of the Rat bring you good luck ^^)