"This is the largest and most central starport of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect, and also one of the eight Star Gates leading directly into its interior—the Eternal Star Gate."
At this moment, a battleship was queued up outside the Eternal Star Gate, which spanned more than thirty thousand li in diameter, waiting for the gate's activation cycle.
Aboard the battleship, an elderly man with the air of an immortal was introducing the magnificent spectacle before them to a dozen or so vibrant young men and women at his side.
"Master, will we be able to join the Yongsheng Immortal Sect this time?"
"We are the finest disciples in the Panghai Star Territory. Across all thirty-six thousand advanced civilizations in our territory, it took ten years of rigorous screening through the Battle of Ten Thousand Nations for the sixteen of us to meet the standard. Surely we won't just enter the Yongsheng Immortal Sect directly, but become core disciples right away!"
"The Yongsheng Immortal Sect is the foremost sect in this world; no power can compare to it. I truly wonder what kinds of peerless geniuses are gathered within. I can hardly wait to contend against those supreme prodigies from across the universe!"
"I've heard that true disciples of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect directly receive an entire star territory as a fiefdom, with full authority to mobilize all the resources within it. I wonder if that's true?"
These young disciples were brimming with vigor, their eyes shining with yearning for the future.
Yet when the leading elder looked at them, his gaze carried a touch of wistful melancholy.
It was as though he, too, had once passed through a time when he knew nothing of the heights of heaven or the depths of the earth.
After sighing softly for a moment, he finally spoke: "As you said, the Yongsheng Immortal Sect is the foremost sect in the universe, occupying the cosmos's center. Wherever its will reaches, across countless civilizations, sects, and factions spanning tens of billions of light-years, all bow in submission. Naturally, then, you should understand how immensely difficult it is to join."
He turned his head to gaze at the towering, colossal Star Gate. "To join the Yongsheng Immortal Sect and become one of its disciples, the first requirement is to achieve Void Piercing within three hundred years. That single step alone shuts virtually everyone out. Excellent though you are—with the finest among you taking a mere century to condense an Azure Golden Core—whether you can achieve Void Piercing within two hundred years remains entirely unknown."
However, these words clearly failed to convince the youths.
None of them were in the Void Piercing Realm yet, but they were still young; the eldest was not even three hundred years old.
Youth meant infinite possibilities.
"As for true disciples... that is even more unimaginable."
The elder continued, "The Yongsheng Immortal Sect has only three hundred and sixty spots for true disciples. Those three hundred and sixty spots are contested among tens of thousands of inner disciples, and the bare minimum requirement to be an inner disciple is stepping into the Void Refining Realm within a thousand years... Yet those who dare to contend for the title of true disciple are, without exception, beings at the Void Shattering level. And every single person who ultimately emerges triumphant is someone fit to be nurtured as the seed of a Dao Lord."
At this point, he paused. "Every true disciple of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect has the hope of reaching the pinnacle of becoming a Dao Lord. Therefore, that three-hundred-and-sixty-man True Disciple Board is also known as the Dao Lord Candidate List!"
"The Dao Lord Candidate List!"
Those words...
Especially the title "Dao Lord," instantly silenced the spirited young geniuses.
The star territory they hailed from could certainly be called prosperous and dazzling, yet its last Dao Lord...
...could only be traced back three hundred thousand years ago!
Three hundred thousand years!
What an ancient, unfathomable span of time!
Even if they managed to attain Void Piercing and enjoy boundless longevity, it would still take a full thirty lifetimes.
When most people's historical memories and heritages extended only two or three times beyond their own lifespans, figures from three hundred thousand years ago were, to them, like ancient legends from the distant past.
No matter how remarkably gifted they believed themselves to be, none dared claim they were guaranteed to step into the realm of Dao Integration.
Seeing that they had calmed down, the elder continued, "What we must do next is first settle down in the Yongsheng Immortal Sect, and then become outer disciples of the sect."
His gaze swept across the sixteen youths. "Although a Radiant Sun Golden Core grants one the qualification to register under the Yongsheng Immortal Sect, in reality, the disciples the sect is truly willing to accept are usually only those who have achieved an Azure Golden Core—and young Azure Golden Cores at that."
"Young Azure Golden Cores? How young is 'young'?"
A cultivator who had cultivated for three hundred years and attained an Azure Golden Core frowned. "After condensing an Azure Golden Core, our chances of reaching Void Piercing on our own are still thirty to forty percent, aren't they? Does a future Void Piercing cultivator not even have the qualification to become an outer disciple of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect?"
"If you truly reached Void Piercing, joining the Yongsheng Immortal Sect as a deacon would be no problem at all. But if you wish to become a disciple of the sect, that is by no means an easy feat—even for an Azure Golden Core cultivator!"
The elder spoke with a solemn expression, "When the Yongsheng Immortal Sect accepts disciples, it has never aimed to merely nurture them into Void Piercing experts. What they seek to cultivate are Dao Lords alone! A Dao Lord of the Dao Integration realm is their true benchmark!"
He looked across the crowd. "As outstanding as you are, who among you dares claim with absolute certainty that you can become a Dao Lord? And those who lack such ambition naturally possess no qualification to join the Yongsheng Immortal Sect."
These words caused several previously unconvinced Azure Golden Core cultivators to part their lips, completely at a loss for words to counter him.
Seeing that his point had struck home, the elder said, "All right. After all, you are elites meticulously selected from tens of thousands of civilizations back home. Becoming outer disciples will not be overly difficult for you. The only reason I have told you all this is to let you understand the kind of challenges you will be facing!"
As he said this, his tone filled with heartfelt awe: "After all, what you are about to join is the universe's foremost sect, backed by over a hundred Dao Lords and presided over by Dao Venerables—the overlord of the cosmos that no Dao Lord or power dares challenge: the Yongsheng Immortal Sect!"
Over a hundred Dao Lords!
Presided over by Dao Venerables!
Overlord of the universe!
The fervor and yearning returned to the eyes of the prodigies whose arrogance had just been tempered.
Although their star territory had not produced a Dao Lord in three hundred thousand years, if they could join the Yongsheng Immortal Sect, become official disciples, and be nurtured by the sect as future Dao Lords, perhaps...
...they could become their star territory's first new Dao Lord in three hundred thousand years!
When that time came, the entire star territory would chant their names!
They would open a brand-new chapter in their star territory!
For a time, everyone looked toward the Star Gate, their eyes filled with passion and anticipation. Once the gate was fully charged, they would be able to pass through it, officially entering the territory of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect, and after several more gate transits, arrive directly at the Yongsheng Immortal Sect to embark on their path toward becoming Dao Lords.
Right at this moment, a figure abruptly appeared before the Star Gate.
It seemed...
...he intended to forcibly activate the Star Gate and step inside.
One disciple opened his mouth to ask, "Why doesn't he have to queue—"
Yet before the words were fully out, sheer horror surfaced in the leading elder's eyes.
Immediately following that, an enraged roar that shook everyone's mind and Awareness erupted from the Star Gate, instantly washing outward across the surrounding cosmos centered on the gate.
"Insolence! Who dares come run wild in my Yongsheng Immortal Sect?!"
Right after, a figure who appeared to be a Void Dao Lord manifested.
The figure who had originally intended to forcibly activate the Star Gate and depart seemed to sense something.
"A Void Dao Lord?"
In the next second, that Dao Lord who had suddenly appeared before the Star Gate to cut in line clenched his hand through empty space.
Every True Monarch with even the slightest grasp of the power of the void realized they had seemingly lost control over it.
Immediately after, before the hurriedly arriving Void Dao Lord of the Yongsheng Sect could even display his boundless might, uncontrollable terror surged in his eyes. "This power... No—!"
Rumble!
The void shuddered!
Without even managing to put up a decent resistance, this suddenly appearing Void Dao Lord was obliterated on the spot by the mysterious Dao Lord.
Violent void energy rippled outward incessantly in all directions, as if threatening to slam into the Star Gate and destabilize the structure known as the Eternal Gate.
Aboard the battleships closest to the front of the queue, despair flashed in the eyes of numerous cultivators.
To these cultivators, whose strongest were only in the Void Shattering Realm, the aftershocks generated by the fall of a Dao Lord meant certain death at a graze and grievous injury at a mere brush.
Yet against such a raging torrent of void energy, that mysterious Dao Lord simply gave a casual wave of his hand, and the wildly surging void energy dispersed entirely, restoring tranquility.
It was as though it had never happened at all.
Along with it...
...even the death of the Yongsheng Sect's Void Dao Lord guarding the Eternal Gate seemed like an illusion that had never occurred.
To that suddenly appearing mysterious Dao Lord, killing a Dao Lord...
...was as easy as crushing an ant.
It did not cause the slightest disruption to the surroundings.
And in truth, that was indeed the case.
After obliterating the Yongsheng Sect's Dao Lord, the mysterious Dao Lord restarted the Star Gate, causing the gate—which ordinarily required waiting nearly half a month for its cycle—to light up at a speed visible to the naked eye, exuding tremendous void energy.
The entire process took only a dozen or so breaths.
Once this Star Gate known as the Eternal Gate was fully activated, the mysterious Dao Lord flickered and stepped into the gate, vanishing without a trace.
He left behind only the terrified, deathly silent guards of the Eternal Gate and countless dumbfounded factions queuing outside.
"M-Master..."
The Azure Golden Core disciple who had spoken first asked with a trembling voice, terrified: "D-Didn't you say the Yongsheng Immortal Sect is the foremost sect in the universe, an overlord-tier power that no Dao Lord or faction dares challenge... J-Just now, a mysterious being killed the guardian stationed at the Eternal Gate by the Yongsheng Immortal Sect... Does that count as a challenge to them?"
The otherworldly elder stood struck dumb where he was. Feeling the tremors in the Great Dao triggered by the fall of a Dao Lord, he could not process what had happened for a long time.
After a long silence, just as the disciple was about to speak again, the elder suddenly shuddered violently: "Quick! Retreat from this star territory at once!"
A Dao Lord!
A Dao Lord of the Yongsheng Immortal Sect had fallen?!
And what was more, killed with such overwhelming, crushing ease!
The Yongsheng Immortal Sect...
...was about to face a tempest!
Chapter 542