Li Fan, who had once shared intimate contact with Senior Sister Zhao within taboo reading materials, instantly recognized her voice.
*Heavenly Venerable Yixin... is that her title? Or does it represent the principle of heaven and earth that she inverted?*
*Why would she appear in person?*
Several thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind in an instant.
Just as Li Fan was unsettled with shock and suspicion, Heavenly Venerable Yixin's voice rang out once more.
"The agreement back then was made with Dharma Transmission.
"Now that I am here, where is Dharma Transmission?"
Her voice was clear and melodious, ringing across heaven and earth.
All the cultivators in Tianling Province looked at one another in dismay.
Most members of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals knew that the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable had long transcended worldly affairs, paying no heed to mortal matters.
Yet everyone had merely assumed that the venerated elder was living carefree and untrammeled, simply disinclined to bother with mundane mortal concerns.
That was why he had not shown himself for countless years.
He himself undoubtedly still existed in this world.
Yet today, what did Heavenly Venerable Yixin mean by those words?
Where was Dharma Transmission?
A dreadful thought could not help but surface in everyone's minds.
"No, that's impossible. Impossible..."
Uncontrollable terror filled everyone's eyes.
"Where is Dharma Transmission?" Heavenly Venerable Yixin asked again.
Her voice boomed like thunder, echoing throughout Tianling Province.
Furthermore, it carried momentum that threatened to cross the White Mist Barrier and spread toward the surrounding provinces.
In the sky, strands of green radiance surfaced like an immense web, intercepting the sound.
Heavenly Venerable Yixin's voice gradually faded.
"Heavenly Venerable Yixin, please withdraw," Ji Hongdao said once more.
His face was cold as frost, devoid of any expression.
"And if I do not withdraw, what will you do?" Senior Sister Zhao's intrigued voice rang out.
Below, the thousands of Five Elders Association cultivators took a step forward in unison.
Ji Hongdao took a deep breath. "After a Heavenly Venerable fixes principles, they should no longer take part in worldly disputes.
"This was the agreement between the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable and the Heavenly Venerables of the Five Elders Association back then.
"Do you truly intend to violate it now?"
*Boom!*
Arrayed in formation, the thousands of Five Elders Association cultivators stepped forward together once more, demonstrating Heavenly Venerable Yixin's resolve.
"Very well.
"Since that is the case..."
A flicker of hesitation crossed Ji Hongdao's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it, replaced by boundless coldness and resolve.
Ji Hongdao looked up at the sky, bent his waist, and bowed.
Across the firmament, thin green threads emerged one after another.
Spreading rapidly outward from the center, they formed a colossal web blanketing the entirety of Tianling Province within moments.
Ji Hongdao straightened and bowed a second time.
The green light grew more and more brilliant, dyeing the entire sky an eerie shade of green.
Ji Hongdao then bowed a third time.
A moment later...
Countless dense green threads descended from the colossal web, darting swiftly toward targets across the ground.
In an instant, all of Tianling Province seemed to have fallen into a horrific green spider's nest.
"Wait, how is this possible?!"
The cultivators aboard the Dust-Crossing Boat who witnessed this finally saw the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation unleash its true might.
Yet not one of them showed the excitement they ought to have felt.
Instead, they turned overwhelmingly terrified—far more terrified even than when they had heard that Heavenly Venerable Yixin had personally taken the field.
All because the targets of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation's attack were not the Longevity Heavenly Venerable barring the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' path, nor were they even the thousands of invading Five Elders Association cultivators.
Rather...
They were every single Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals cultivator present within Tianling Province!
With every green thread that fell, a cultivator perished.
High in the heavens, distorted anomalies formed an abstract painting of chaotic, mottled hues.
*Ret-ret-ret-return...*
*Da-da-dao...*
*To Hea-hea-heaven...*
Countless voices converged, overlapping and interweaving until their meaning could no longer be discerned.
Only myriad bizarre sounds echoed endlessly, forming a grand, disordered, twisted movement of celebration.
Whether the young array masters aboard the Dust-Crossing Boat or Li Fan several provinces away, all were frozen in a stupor.
For this scene had already exceeded the boundaries of their comprehension.
The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, originally meant to deter the Five Elders Association, was now unleashing an indiscriminate slaughter upon the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' own cultivators.
Looking at the dense green threads pervading Tianling Province between heaven and earth, no one doubted that every cultivator in this province below the Dao Integration realm had likely perished under the Spirit-Locking Formation's assault just now.
*Why?*
Boundless bewilderment surged in Li Fan's heart.
He had thought the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals would ruthlessly silence the array masters who built it to ensure the formation's structure would not leak.
Yet he had never anticipated that the Spirit-Locking Formation's target would actually be all the cultivators within Tianling Province.
*It makes no sense at all.*
*Has the Alliance gone mad?*
He analyzed possibility after possibility in his mind, yet could find no motive whatsoever for the Alliance to do this.
Just as he was racked with incomprehension, heaven and earth suddenly began to shake.
Tianling Province, as well as Tianpan Province where he currently resided, were both trembling violently.
His heart leaped into frantic pounding, as if confronting some mortal threat.
Li Fan stood up abruptly, looking up at the vault of heaven with a grim expression.
"This is..."
From the sky came a faint, indecipherable rumbling.
The entire world trembled faintly.
At this moment, all living beings in the Xuanhuang Realm subconsciously raised their heads and looked up at the sky.
Great terror was born from their hearts.
The sensation of doomsday arriving, with nowhere to run, welled up within every creature.
The tremors lasted for a long time before finally subsiding.
Living beings one after another revealed expressions of relief at surviving a calamity, yet none understood what had actually transpired.
In Tianling Province, before the survivors could recover, Ji Hongdao spoke once more:
"Heavenly Venerable Yixin, please withdraw."
After a long silence, laughter rang out.
"Hahaha..."
"Haha..."
"Fascinating. Whose idea was this?
"Remaining in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is truly a waste of such talent. Why not join me instead?"
Senior Sister Zhao chuckled as she revealed her form, asking with keen interest.
She looked exactly as she had in the forbidden book Li Fan had seen, and she matched perfectly the image passed down across the world.
Clad in white robes, her figure was enchanting and seductive.
Ji Hongdao closed his eyes, not daring to look directly at her.
"I still ask Heavenly Venerable to withdraw!"
Cold sweat poured from his forehead, yet he remained resolute as he spoke.
Senior Sister Zhao stared at him for a moment, then glanced up at the sky.
"You certainly have nerve."
Before her voice had even faded, her figure had already vanished.
The instant Heavenly Venerable Yixin vanished, the thousands of golden beams originally blocked by her and suspended in midair plummeted down.
They slaughtered every one of the invading Five Elders Association cultivators.
Curiously, in the face of death, these cultivators showed not the slightest fear on their faces, nor did any anomalies of cultivator demises appear high in the sky.
"Heavenly Venerable Yixin..."
Ji Hongdao stared in the direction where Senior Sister Zhao had departed, muttering under his breath for a moment.
Then he turned around, looking expressionlessly at the group of array masters aboard the Dust-Crossing Boat.
"Let us go.
"Now that you have finished observing the grand feast, it is time for us to have a proper talk."
Chapter 405