Chapter 485 - 428: I Have the Final Say in This Profound Yellow!

The Celestial Court has emerged.

The Great Dao is yours for the taking.

These two phrases spread like wildfire, sweeping through every corner of the Profound Yellow Origin Realm in just a few short days. From the icy plains and snow caves of the Far North’s Cold Province to the volcanic molten caves of the extreme south’s Yan Province; from the Overseas Immortal Islands in the far east’s Cang Province to the previously dead and barren shores of the extreme west’s West Sea.

Countless cultivators—whether of the righteous or Demon Dao, regardless of their cultivation level or where they were—heard the news at the exact same moment.

A heaven-sent opportunity!

Immediate ascension to immortality!

The boundless Dharma Light sweeping across the entire Profound Yellow was undeniable, containing an aura of the Great Dao so dense it was practically palpable. It possessed a supreme Dao Rhyme that far surpassed any sect’s secret treasures, ancient ruins, or True Monarch’s inheritance. Even those thousand-year-old monsters, those peak existences accustomed to the world’s wonders, couldn’t help but feel their hearts and spirits tremble violently. An uncontrollable light burst from their eyes as they sensed the vast Daoist Intent within the Dharma Light.

It was real.

The Celestial Court was real.

The opportunity was real.

The chance to reach heaven in a single bound! It was all real!

In an instant, the entire Profound Yellow went mad.

The righteous and demonic battlefields, which had been locked in fierce, blood-soaked slaughter, completely fell silent overnight. The bloodshot eyes of the fighting cultivators, the desperate battle formations, and the mountains of corpses all seemed like relics of the past. No one cared anymore, because there was something far more worthy of their attention.

Above the West Sea, beneath the celestial vault, Escape Lights surged like a tide. The Escape Lights were so dense, so thick, and so numerous that they resembled roaring torrents converging from all directions of the Profound Yellow. They blotted out the sky and covered the sun!

From Low Tier Cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm, to Masters in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and even the elusive loose cultivator old monsters who rarely showed themselves—everyone surged madly in the same direction.

The West Sea. The Celestial Court. The South Heaven Gate!

Some of those Escape Lights raced like meteors chasing the moon, while others darted like swimming fish. Some outright activated secret skills to burn their vital blood, desperate to be even a fraction faster, a moment earlier. No one knew what lay inside the Celestial Court. No one knew if an opportunity or a fatal tribulation awaited them.

But everyone knew one thing: if they arrived late, nothing would be left.

At the very forefront of this sky-covering tide of Escape Lights, hovering above the West Sea at the closest point to the Celestial Court, over a dozen figures had already come to a halt. They were the first to arrive. They were the absolute peak existences of the entire Profound Yellow Origin Realm, second only to True Monarchs.

Great Masters.

Wearing heavy black robes that made him look like an ancient demon mountain was Black Mountain Great Master of the Wuji Holy Sect.

Wearing a cyan shirt, carrying a sword on his back, and surrounded by a condensed but unreleased Sword Intent was San Si Master of the Sword Pavilion.

Adorned in crimson feather garments with light gleaming in her phoenix eyes was Fengduo Lady Jiu Li.

Wearing a profound black scholar’s robe with a gaunt face was Master Revolving Wheel of the Yellow Springs Netherworld.

The three figures radiating mighty dragon auras, each occupying a section of the sky, were the three Crown Princes of the East, North, and South Sea Dragon Palaces.

There was also the Deputy Sect Leader of the Celestial Secret Sect, Yan Ji Great Master from the Vast Sacred Land, a bare-handed burly old man from the Tyrant Sect, Arhat Mola Pill from the Overseas Pure Land, the Talismanic Great Master from Nine Kings Mountain, and a star-robed old man from the Celestial Secret Sect...

The dozen or so figures stood apart in the void. The auras surrounding them were varied—sharp, blazing, frigid, or vast—but without exception, they had all reached the Great Master Peak. It was the absolute limit one could achieve beneath the level of a True Monarch. They were existences merely one step away from the All Marvelous Heaven.

At this moment, they stood quietly in the void, gazing at the supreme Celestial Palace suspended above the West Sea. The towering South Heaven Gate, the overlapping palaces and halls, the endlessly flowing Dao Patterns, and the overwhelming, vast pressure washing over them were enough to make any Great Master’s Dao Heart tremble.

Light surged in everyone’s eyes—an eager urge to try.

No one spoke, but their thoughts were written plainly on their faces. The opportunity was right in front of them. The chance to reach heaven in a single bound lay behind those doors. Whoever stepped in first might seize the initiative. Whoever stepped in first might monopolize the Great Dao.

The silence lasted for a moment. Someone raised a hand, pinching their fingers to divine. Someone closed their eyes, sensing the threads of karma. Someone opened their mouth, inhaling the aura of the Great Dao leaking from the Celestial Court to savor it carefully.

After a short while, all their gazes grew even more fervent. The results of the divination, the feedback from the karmic threads, and the taste of the aura all confirmed the same truth: this Celestial Palace was the legendary Celestial Court! The legendary supreme Divine Court built from the painstaking efforts of countless True Monarchs. The legendary ultimate Daoist lineage bearing endless secrets of the Great Dao.

There could be no mistake.

"Since it is the Celestial Court..." San Si Master slowly spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed clearly in the ears of every Great Master. "Then let us—"

He didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood his intent.

Before his voice faded, the dozen or so figures moved simultaneously. Their violent, turbulent, and majestic auras erupted, nearly turning an area of ten thousand miles into fine dust! Their target was pointed straight at the Celestial Court!

Before the South Heaven Gate.

The void rippled like water. Incredibly domineering auras evolved into boundless, majestic phenomena spanning ten thousand miles across the celestial vault, causing heaven and earth to change color. The dozen or so figures descended at almost the exact same time, in no particular order!

They stood before the towering gate that reached tens of thousands of feet high, beneath the words "South Heaven" that seemed engraved by the Great Dao itself. The pressure rushing against their faces was heavier, vaster, and far more suffocating than what they had felt from afar.

But so what? The opportunity was right in front of them. The doors were right there. As long as they crossed that threshold...

But right at this moment, someone noticed something.

Directly beneath the towering South Heaven Gate, upon the white jade steps, a figure was standing. It was unknown when he had arrived. He just stood there quietly with his back to everyone, as if he had been waiting for a long time.

As if sensing the commotion of the arriving Great Masters, the figure slowly turned around.

His Deep Blue Daoist Robe was completely spotless. His ink-black hair was tied up with a simple wooden hairpin. His face was calm, and his brow bore the profound detachment of someone who had experienced ten thousand tribulations. His Cyan Gold eyes were as deep as the abyss.

"Fellow Daoists, you must be tired from your long journey," he said. His voice wasn’t loud; in fact, it was quite flat. Yet, before this towering South Heaven Gate, under the watchful eyes of over a dozen Great Masters, that flat voice rang as clearly as if he were whispering into everyone’s ears.

"This Celestial Palace harbors hidden dangers. It cannot be entered for now."

He paused. Those Cyan Gold eyes calmly swept across every Great Master present before he slowly enunciated each word.

"I ask all fellow Daoists to wait for sixty years."

As his voice fell, a dead silence descended before the South Heaven Gate.

The dozen or so Great Masters and their peak auras froze simultaneously. They stared at the deep blue figure, at his young yet boundlessly composed face, and at those Cyan Gold eyes that were so calm they bordered on indifference. The fervor in their eyes was replaced by an indescribable complexity.

"Wait sixty years?" A cold voice shattered the dead silence.

It was a black-robed Great Master whose body surged with Evil Qi. His face was sinister, and his gaze was like a knife. He was a Demon Dao loose cultivator with no ties to most of the Great Masters present. But to reach the Great Master Realm step by step as a loose cultivator was proof enough that his talent, aptitude, and luck were all top-tier.

He stared at Qi Yun with a sneer on his lips. "Heh, who do you think you are? A True Monarch? Why should we listen to you?"

Qi Yun looked at the questioning black-robed Great Master. He looked at the coldness and disdain in the man’s eyes, the Evil Qi churning around his body, and his arrogant demeanor of *who do you think you are*.

He smiled.

The smile was faint, so faint it was almost imperceptible. Yet it made every Great Master present feel an inexplicable chill.

The next instant, Qi Yun moved. He didn’t even raise his hand. He didn’t make a single superfluous movement. It was just that deep within those Cyan Gold eyes, a bright yellow light suddenly flared.

[Execution]

The light flashed and vanished, so fast it seemed like a hallucination. It was so fast that the sneer on the black-robed Great Master’s face hadn’t even had time to shift.

Then—

POP.

A soft sound. It was as faint as a bursting bubble.

The black-robed Great Master’s sneer froze on his face. He looked down at his own chest. It was completely empty. A perfectly straight, through-and-through wound with edges as smooth as a mirror ran from his chest to his back. No blood flowed from the wound. There was only an indescribable aura of dead silence slowly pervading from it.

He opened his mouth to say something, but only let out a very soft sound resembling a sigh. Then, starting from the top of his head, his entire body silently turned to ash. The ash drifted like dust, swept up by the eternal astral winds flowing before the South Heaven Gate, completely disappearing.

It was as if he had never existed.

Before the South Heaven Gate.

Dead silence.

It was a silence even thicker, heavier, and more suffocating than before.

The dozen or so Great Masters—the dozen peak auras of this realm—were now collectively frozen in place as if they had been struck by an immobilizing Curse. Their gazes fell upon the spot where the black-robed Great Master had disappeared. They fell on the drifting ash that had not yet fully settled. Then, slowly, they all turned toward the deep blue figure standing with his hands behind his back.

The figure continued to stand there quietly. His Deep Blue Daoist Robe did not shift in the slightest, his ink-black hair cascaded like a waterfall, and his face was as calm as an ancient well. His Cyan Gold eyes were looking at them indifferently.

It was as if the existence that had been reduced to ashes in an instant wasn’t a Great Master Peak cultivator, but merely an insignificant speck of dust.

Qi Yun looked at the dozen frozen figures. He looked at the shock, wariness, and fear that finally surfaced in their eyes—along with the deep-seated, forcefully suppressed unwillingness.

Then, he spoke.

His voice was not loud, but it exploded like a thunderclap before this towering South Heaven Gate and in the depths of the dozen Great Masters’ hearts and spirits!

"Without True Monarchs present...

"I am the one who has the final say in the Profound Yellow!"