Origin of the Profound Heaven Sect

It was as though he had laid eyes on a higher order of life, suppressed by its innate majesty. The moment the figure appeared, Li Fan's heart violently pounded. The fine hairs across his entire body stood on end, and cold sweat even dripped from his forehead. The images recorded by the Medicine King Cauldron seemed to have been affected as well, growing warped and indistinct. Subconsciously taking a step back, Li Fan finally snapped to his senses, his face somewhat pale. "Even a mere recorded scene possesses such overwhelming power." "Was that..." "A True Immortal?" Before Liu Ruchen perished, he had recounted many things. Among them was the horrifying entity looming above the Xuanhuang Realm, seemingly poised to devour everything. In ancient times, once a cultivator broke through to the Dao Integration realm and overcame the heavenly tribulation, they would be received and guided into the upper realm. Yet starting from a certain day, an unprecedented upheaval occurred. A cultivator who had successfully braved the lightning tribulation and ascended to the Immortal Realm returned shortly afterward, an expression of grim horror on his face. Only then did the world learn that the path to the Immortal Realm was severed. The former passage to the Immortal Realm had been reduced to an expanse of ruins. Back then, however, the vast majority of cultivators in the world only knew of the existence of the "Immortal Ruins." As for what it actually looked like and what state it was in, none could tell. With the immortal path severed, more and more Dao Integration cultivators lingered in the mortal realm. Yet for the Dao Integration realm, a lifespan of a few thousand years was the absolute limit. Those capable of attaining such a realm were without exception peerless geniuses of heaven. How could they simply sit and await their doom? Thus, the Longevity realm came to be. Heaven and earth possessed marvelous wonders, and obtaining them granted longevity. In this world, long-lived wonders had always existed; that was a special authority endowed upon them by heaven and earth. When a cultivator's lifespan drew to its end and they sought to defy heaven and alter fate, they had to usurp that authority. This was known as the Longevity fruit status. This was how the earliest Longevity realm had come about. Yet Longevity fruit statuses were limited after all, while there were far too many Dao Integration cultivators in the world. Inevitably, conflict erupted. Amidst the great wars, a faction named the Profound Heaven Sect swiftly rose to power. The leader of the Profound Heaven Sect was none other than that cultivator who had ascended to immortality and then returned. He was also the sole being in the Xuanhuang Realm at the time whose body had been infused with immortal spiritual qi; he was a mere half-step away from becoming a True Immortal. Compared to immortal cultivators, a True Immortal represented a qualitative transformation. Consequently, his strength far exceeded that of any other Dao Integration or Longevity cultivator. Under his leadership, the Profound Heaven Sect swept across the Xuanhuang Realm of that era in near-absolute crushing fashion. Beyond his formidable power, this person was exceedingly calculating. Using Longevity fruit statuses as bait, he won over a dozen of the top Dao Integration cultivators in the cultivation world of that era. With their joining, the Profound Heaven Sect became truly unstoppable. From then on, the Profound Heaven Sect held sway over the entire realm, and rarely did anyone dare defy them. That half-immortal called himself the King of Profound Heaven. The sect's twelve greatest combatants were named the Profound Dharma Kings. After nearly unifying the cultivation world, the Profound Heaven Sect sought to tighten its rule. Inspired by the concept of "usurping the authority of longevity," they began setting their sights on the other authorities of heaven and earth. In ancient times, cultivators held deep reverence for heaven and earth. Though capable of moving mountains, filling oceans, splitting rivers, and severing currents, they all believed that their immense power ultimately originated from heaven and earth. Yet following the Profound Heaven Sect... the rules were broken. The Profound Heaven Sect sought to usurp Heaven and take its place. With nothing more than an edict from the King of Profound Heaven, they could bestow upon a mere mortal power sufficient to contend with cultivators. It was not that no cultivators thought to resist. However, from sources unknown, the King of Profound Heaven had obtained an extraordinary treasure named the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror, which could survey all things in the world. Several secret gatherings were wiped out in a single stroke by the Profound Heaven Sect before they could even gain traction. Countless cultivators were implicated, and rivers of blood flowed. The sects under heaven had already been considerably weaker; after this, they completely abandoned all thought of resistance. Yet no dynasty could last forever. In the latter period of its reign, the Profound Heaven Sect grew increasingly arrogant. Its members subjected cultivators to wanton humiliation and oppression. In the end, when everyone in the world could endure it no longer, the Ten Great Sects issued a rallying call, and the cultivators united to overthrow the rule of the Profound Heaven Sect. "Heh, looking back now, the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao and the Profound Heaven Sect are birds of a feather." "The Immortal Ruins forcibly drains all matter and energy from the outside world." "The Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao call themselves leaders of the world's sects. Yet in a matter concerning the very life and death of our world, they never mentioned a word to us." In his final testament, Liu Ruchen spoke in a tone laced with deep resentment. Liu Ruchen speculated that an unbelievable catastrophe must have occurred in the Immortal Realm back then, which led to the complete severance of the immortal path. And the corpse upon the Immortal Ruins was likely an immortal who had fled from the Immortal Realm. When even a True Immortal could not escape the terrifying suction of the Immortal Ruins, one could easily imagine the consequences should the Xuanhuang Realm crash into it. Presumably, not a single living being in the world could survive such a calamity. Back then, when the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao led the masses to overthrow the Profound Heaven Sect and inherited its legacy, they could not possibly have been unaware of this. Yet they kept it entirely secret. Even when the Medicine King Sect sought to breach the realm and escape, they offered no warning at all, sitting by as their entire sect went to their deaths. Utterly detestable. ... The images continued to play. Amidst violent tremors, the Medicine King Cauldron ultimately escaped disaster. Circling past the threshold of the horrifying Immortal Ruins, it returned to the Xuanhuang Realm. The images faded, restoring the scene at the bottom of Cangwu Abyss. Li Fan, however, remained lost in thought for a long time. In fact, Liu Ruchen's decision to steer the Medicine King Cauldron and escape the Xuanhuang Realm had not been an unrealistic delusion. After all, with the lives of every cultivator in the sect at stake, Liu Ruchen was by no means reckless. The elders of the Medicine King Sect had ultimately agreed to his plan as well. There was a fundamental reason behind all of this. The founding ancestor of the Medicine King Sect, Medicine King Sun Piaomiao, had once traveled to nearby cultivation worlds when the immortal path was first severed, searching for a method to ascend to immortality. Yet to his horror, he discovered that, just like the Xuanhuang Realm, those worlds had also lost their connection to the Immortal Realm. Venturing deeper into the void was beyond his capabilities. Thus, he could only return in defeat. The beacon within the Medicine King Sect pointed to a cultivation world named Xiaoyao that Medicine King Sun Piaomiao had once visited. In Liu Ruchen's eyes, since the ancestor had encountered no danger while traversing the void back then, as long as he followed in his footsteps and took extra care along the way, nothing should have gone awry. Who could have imagined that before even leaving the Xuanhuang Realm, they would encounter such an upheaval? "In the beginning, Sun Piaomiao was still able to ignore the pull of the Immortal Ruins and freely travel to and from the Xuanhuang Realm." "Yet now, trying to escape has become exceedingly difficult." "The Profound Heaven Sect and the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao continuously captured the surrounding grotto-heavens and pocket worlds to resist the attraction of the Immortal Ruins." "By now, even the 'weight' of cultivators has become vital to the survival of the Xuanhuang Realm." ... "Does that mean the suction of the Immortal Ruins is continuously growing stronger with the passage of time?" Li Fan felt a slight shock in his heart. Piecing together numerous clues, he could not help but reach this conclusion.