Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

The location for their second meeting was changed to a teahouse outside the east gate of Baidi City.

The young celestial being from the Primordial Divine Sect was dressed in a blue robe today and was much more amiable than the day before. He even took the initiative to pour a cup of tea for Dongfang Weiwo.

The two sat facing each other, with continuous autumn rain outside the tea pavilion, and the distant Fulong Mountain only a blurry outline in the rain.

"You asked yesterday what was being suppressed beneath the formation,"

Shen Jinglan cut to the chase, "I went back and asked my martial uncle. He only said one sentence:"

"If the heir of the Demon-Sealing Bloodline wants to know, he should ask again after he has crossed the threshold of the Celestial Realm."

Dongfang Weiwo's hand, holding the teacup, didn't pause: "So that means you're willing to wait."

"I'm willing. This formation has been waiting for a hundred years; a little more time for your breakthrough won't make a difference."

Shen Jinglan looked at him, her gaze carrying a rare frankness, "But there's a condition—while we wait for you, you cannot die at the hands of others. The Primordial Divine Sect can provide you with protection."

"Protection?" Dongfang Weiwo raised an eyebrow. "What's the price?"

"The price is simple—on the day you break through to the Celestial Realm, the Primordial Divine Sect must be present."

Dongfang Weiwo put down his teacup. He looked directly into Shen Jinglan's eyes, remained silent for a few breaths, and then nodded.

"Can."

Shen Jinglan visibly relaxed, but didn't show it on his face, only nodding slightly. As he stood up, he added:

"Furthermore, White Emperor City won't remain peaceful forever. You'd better break through as soon as possible. Once heaven and earth are completely integrated, the spiritual energy tide will rise again, and the bottlenecks across the entire continent will loosen once more, making the threshold for becoming a Celestial Being half as low as it is now. That will be your opportunity."

He stepped out of the teahouse and into the rain, his figure quickly disappearing at the end of the street.

Dongfang Weiwo sat alone in the tea pavilion, his fingers stroking the warm cup.

The threshold for becoming a Celestial Being will be half its current level—Shen Jinglan understood perfectly what those words meant. The moment when heaven and earth completely merged would be the window for all those trapped at the peak to collectively break through.

But the window is so short that if you are at war with someone at the time, you will miss that door forever.

He must live to see that day.

When I returned to the courtyard in the west of the city, the rain had stopped. The old locust tree in the courtyard was washed a deep green, and the air was filled with the smell of earth and moss.

Ximen Chuixue was sitting on the veranda polishing his sword, while Ye Gucheng was sitting cross-legged inside, practicing his internal energy. Dongfang Weiwo entered the room, sat down on the couch, and slowly closed his eyes.

He hadn't actively touched the summoning system for a long time.

Two of the three orbs have been activated, with Guan Yutian and Xiong Ba each taking charge of one side.

The third luminous pearl has been dormant for a long time, as deep and mysterious as an abyss.

But at this moment, a storm is brewing in Baidi City. Although the Taichu Divine Sect has offered protection, it is ultimately an outsider. Shen Jinglan's frankness hides the Taichu Divine Sect's own calculations.

He needs a trump card that is absolutely his own.

Consciousness sank into the depths. In the chaotic sea of ​​stars, the abyss-like pearl of light continued to spin silently.

This time, Dongfang Wei did not hesitate and touched it with his spiritual sense.

The moment the light orb shattered, a violent, almost insane aura erupted from its depths.

The aura was wild and unrestrained, as if a ferocious beast that had been suppressed for thousands of years had finally overturned its cage.

Dongfang Weiwu's consciousness was almost crushed in the face of this aura. He groaned and forcibly steadied his mind, bringing the raging tide under his control.

The light solidified.

A person stood in front of him.

The man was around fifty years old, tall but not burly, with a thin, chiseled face, thick eyebrows that slanted upwards towards his temples, and a pair of eyes that shone brightly, full of unruliness and arrogance.

He wore a faded long gown with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing two lean yet muscular arms.

His entire being stood there like a poisoned knife, its sharpness exposed yet no one dared to touch it.

He glanced at the walls of the secret room, then at Dongfang Weiwo sitting cross-legged, and then laughed. The laughter was hoarse and unrestrained, as if he hadn't laughed properly in a long time.

"Summoned?"

He spoke, his voice like sandpaper scraping against an iron plate, "Interesting. I am Yan Kuangtu, the founder of the Power Gang. What's your name?"

"I am the only one in the East."

"I am the only one in the East."

Yan Kuangtu repeated the name, swirling it on his tongue a few times, "A name certainly domineering. You are the one who summoned me?"

He took two steps forward, squatted down, and looked directly at Dongfang Weiwo, who was sitting cross-legged. His piercing eyes studied Dongfang Weiwo closely for a moment, then he solemnly clasped his hands in a fist salute, bowed his head, and said:

"Yan the Madman greets Your Excellency."

The wildness in his voice remained undiminished, but a clear sense of belonging had emerged. He came in a frenzy, but his recognition of his master was clean and decisive.

Dongfang Weiwo reached out a hand to help:

"Please rise, senior. There is an ancient formation beneath White Emperor City, watched by forces from all sides. The gray-robed man could make his move at any moment. With the merging of heaven and earth imminent, I need someone to keep things under control."

Yan Kuangtu stood up, stretched his shoulders, his bones cracking, and a smile spread across his face.

"Rest assured, young master. I may not be good at much else, but I've never lost a fight. Leave that area in the south of the city to me."

He pushed open the door and stepped out. Ye Gucheng and Ximen Chuixue in the courtyard felt an extremely arrogant aura sweep past, and then a thin figure had already leaped over the courtyard wall, so fast that even their sword hearts could not lock on in time.

"Young master, that person—" Ye Gucheng pointed in the direction he had gone.

"The Madman Yan."

Dongfang Weiwo walked to the corridor, gazing in the direction the figure had disappeared. "Our men. He's keeping an eye on the south of the city. No matter what happens tonight, at least someone can handle it."

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled slightly. The tremor came from the deepest part of the earth, deep and muffled, like a huge door being pushed open a crack. The three of them simultaneously leaped onto the roof ridge.

From the south of the city, a dark golden pillar of light shot into the sky once again.

This time it was thicker and brighter than last night, its diameter had increased several times, and even the outer edge of the pillar of light began to condense into tangible spiritual energy crystals. Fist-sized pieces of dark gold crystals peeled off from the pillar of light and fell to the ground with a crackling sound, creating countless small pits.

The barrier of the Primordial Divine Sect shook violently. The Dao patterns on the twenty banners flickered desperately at the same time, but they could not stop the beam of light from rising.

The beam of light rose higher and higher, surpassing the clouds and the peaks of all the mountains in Zhongzhou, before finally exploding in the sky and transforming into a dark golden halo that stretched across the heavens.

The halo radiated outwards from Baidi City in all directions.

At that moment, the entire Tianxuan Continent saw that halo.

At the same moment, all the living beings on the four fragments—Eastern Continent, Western Continent, Southern Frontier, and Northern Desert—looked up at the sky and saw the dark golden halo sweep across their heads, carrying an ancient and powerful pulse that struck the gaps between the fragments of heaven and earth.

boom!

The first rift closed. The rift between the Eastern Continent and the Central Continent suddenly contracted, healed, and disappeared under the impact of the dark golden halo. The crustal edges of the two continents collided and compressed, causing the earth to shake and mountains to rise from the ground for thousands of miles, filling the original rift valley into a continuous plateau.

Then came the second, the third, and the fourth fragment. The entire continent trembled violently for the duration of an incense stick burning; mountains shifted, rivers changed course, and the concentration of spiritual energy surged once more. A curtain of light rose above the sky, and the boundaries of the four fragments converged and stitched together from above the Central Continent.

Heaven and earth merged. The Tianxuan Continent became one, with no more divisions between continents.

The power of the ancient array beneath White Emperor City, after driving the fusion of heaven and earth, quickly dimmed. The dark golden pillar of light dissipated, the crystals shattered into dust, and most of the Primordial Divine Sect's barrier collapsed.

But the moment the fusion was completed, the ground in the center of the wasteland in the south of the city cracked open.

A bottomless crack spreads outwards from the ruins of the dry well to both sides.

The light emanating from the crack was no longer dark gold, but a purplish-black aura that was more ancient and denser than dark gold.

The aura rose three feet above the ground before condensing into mist, like a thin veil floating on the surface of a deep pool. Beneath the purple mist, something was slowly rising.

When Yan Kuangtu arrived at the south of the city, he saw the purple mist rising from the ground.

He paused, a hint of seriousness flashing across his wildly unrestrained eyes.

With his cultivation at the half-step threshold of the Creation Realm, very few things could make him feel solemn. But the aura emanating from that purple mist was incredibly ancient, like a bone buried for millions of years being dug out of the ground, still carrying the stench of antiquity.

"This is what the young master wanted me to see."

He whispered something, stood at the edge of the ruins, crossed his arms, and stopped moving forward.

Shen Jinglan and the gray-robed elder from the Taichu Divine Sect had arrived, their faces ashen.

The defenders from the Eternal Sect and the Shen family also rushed in from both sides, each occupying one side.

From the darkness to the north, the gray-clad figure silently emerged, his gaze fixed intently on the center of the purple mist beneath his hood. Within the purple mist, the object finally revealed its full form.

A severed arm. Its entire body was dark purple, with exposed bones and withered muscles like tree roots, but a wisp of extremely fine purplish-black light thread was wrapped around the finger bone. The pressure emanating from that light thread made all the martial artists below the Celestial Realm level present suffocate at the same time.

Several disciples beside Shen Jinglan turned pale and immediately knelt down.

"The remains of gods and demons," the gray-robed elder spoke, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible. "Beneath White Emperor City lie the remains of gods and demons."

Before the words were even finished, the purple mist surged.

The severed arm's finger bones suddenly bent and straightened, and a purplish-black wave of energy exploded from between the fingers, blasting everyone around back several feet.

Shen Jinglan and the gray-robed elder worked together to create a spiritual energy shield to stabilize themselves, while the nine-foot-tall giant from the Eternal Sect was sent flying backward, crashing into a wall.

Yan Kuangtu stood still. When the purplish-black shockwave rushed towards him, he raised his hand and slapped it away.

He took a step forward, stared at the severed arm for a moment, and smirked, "Still has such a temper after being dead for millions of years."

Just as he was about to reach out, a gray shadow swept in from the north, striking him in the back with a palm—a full-force attack from a mid-stage Celestial Realm cultivator. Yan Kuangtu didn't even turn his head, throwing a punch backhand. The instant fist and palm collided, the air exploded like thunder, and another crack, over ten feet wide, appeared in the ground.

The man in gray was forced back seven steps, his hood falling to reveal an excessively young face. His expression was cold and stern, with a black lotus mark between his brows flickering like a lamp. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, yet he stared intently at Yan Kuangtu.

"Half-step into the Creation Realm...who are you?"

"Yan the Madman." He withdrew his fist, stood with his hands behind his back, his tone casual yet stern, "He's here to keep watch for my young master. Before you touch that bone, you'd better ask me for permission first."

The gray-clad man's pupils contracted slightly, his gaze passing over Yan Kuangtu's shoulder and looking towards the west of the city.

He saw the young man in black standing on the rooftop, his eyes gleaming with a dark gold light, gazing at them from afar.

"The Demon-Sealing Bloodline... You work for the Demon-Sealing Bloodline?"