Controlling the Five Thunders and the Two Worlds

Chapter 324 The Second New Year's Grand Ceremony

"With utmost sincerity, I pledge my allegiance to the Primordial General, the Divine Lord of the Primordial Qi!"

"The Grand Inspector of Heaven, a valiant and impartial general of the Three Realms. With golden eyes and crimson hair, he is known as the Thunder God of the Three-Five Fire Chariots. With a phoenix beak and silver teeth, he commands a million Pixiu divine generals..."

Master Qingyuan concentrated on chanting, and the yin and yang energies within his body interacted, forming a tai chi symbol.

Master Jinghong is on the left, and Master Jingfa is on the right. The true Qi of Longmen, which shares the same origin, merges into Yin and Yang.

The three occupy three places, yet they merge into one. Everyone standing in the Lingguan Hall is infected by this cyclical, repetitive, and seemingly direct path of Taiji Yin-Yang.

What they heard was the sacred edict of Wang Lingguan, the first guardian deity of the Taoist sect, and what they felt was the Taoist charm of Taiji Yin and Yang. Everyone's mind and body were affected for a moment, and they were filled with awe for the Daluo Palace.

True Monarch Tianchen, Ancestor Mieyang, and Lord Bailing Mountain were naturally not as easily influenced as those people, but that did not mean that their shock was no less than that of those people.

On the contrary, they were all masters with thousands of years of cultivation, and they could clearly sense the unfathomable Taiji Dao and inner alchemy Qi of Master Qingyuan and his companions.

That elusive and mysterious quality was something even they couldn't fully comprehend, yet they could tell that the theoretical level of the cultivation methods practiced by Daoist Qingyuan and the others was even higher than theirs!
This is very scary.

The Lord of Bailing Mountain and the Chief of Lingfa Temple are friends. Ancestor Mieyang founded a sect and became famous throughout the world. True Lord Tianchen is the current lord of Chaoyang Island. The methods they practice are already the top methods in this world, but they are not sure about the depth of the roots of these three Taoists in front of them.

Bai Lingshan Master remained calm and composed, Ancestor Mieyang smiled warmly, and True Lord Tianchen remained dignified and unmoved. They listened quietly as Daoist Qingyuan and the other two recited the sacred edict, but they memorized the edict in their hearts.

After the recitation, incense was offered and prayers were performed, and the ceremony concluded.

After the three Taoist priests, Qingyuan and his companions, withdrew their magical power, everyone recovered from the state of mind they had just been in, and their eyes flashed with shock as they looked at the three of them.

The three old Taoist priests, after changing into their robes, walked past the statue of Wang Lingguan and arrived at the first courtyard. The crowd followed them, and then they saw four old Taoist priests in front of the Four Imperial Hall, dressed in purple cloud robes, holding whisks, standing solemnly.

When Xu Yan from Chaoyang Island saw the four people, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, I know them all."

If he were to encounter another stranger, he would begin to doubt just how deep the foundation of the Great Luo Palace truly was, and whether it surpassed that of Chaoyang Island.

Daoist Shenhao, Daoist Jingfeng, Daoist Yuzhang, and Daoist Yanling.

They came from the Shangqing School, Fengyue School, Beidi School, and Gu Qingcheng, respectively. In the hall behind them, the Great Emperor of the North Pole of the Central Heaven, the Great Emperor of the Longevity of the South Pole, the Great Emperor of the Upper Palace of Gouchen, and the Earth Goddess Houtu were enshrined.

When the appointed time arrived, the ritual began. The four old Taoist priests opened their eyes simultaneously, their magical power surging within them. Their souls communicated with the statues, and they chanted incantations. Incense smoke swirled before the spectators, and they felt as if the statues in the hall had opened their eyes, their oppressive aura enveloping heaven and earth.

Tianchen Zhenjun's eyes were sharp as torches. He saw that Daoist Shenhao's five qi were condensed and his soul was transcendent, Daoist Jingfeng's northern yin true qi was extremely yin and pure, Daoist Yuzhang seemed to be integrated into the universe, and Daoist Yanling's body was filled with pure and natural divine light.

Although their outward appearances differ, their core techniques clearly share the same origin, and their methods are obviously no less advanced than those of the three old Taoist priests who performed the sacrifice at the Lingguan Hall earlier.

"Where exactly did this Great Luo Palace come from?"

Bai Lingshan Master remained unmoved, but the smile on Ancestor Mieyang's face had faded by a third. His gaze was not on Daoist Shenhao and the other three, but rather looked past them at the four divine statues in the Four Imperial Halls.

True Lord Tianchen quietly watched the four old Taoists offer incense and worship, paying special attention to the names of the four deities in the Four Imperial Palaces. His eyes gleamed with divine light as he silently memorized them.

A moment later, the ritual at the Four Imperial Palaces concluded. Daoist Shenhao and his three companions joined Daoist Qingyuan and his two companions, and together they circled the Four Imperial Palaces again before arriving at the Jade Emperor Palace. Three people presided over the ritual at the Jade Emperor Palace, wearing crane-feathered ceremonial crowns and azure cloud-patterned robes, with white hair and youthful faces, exuding a composed and dignified air.

One of them was Master Yansong, who had followed Gu Zhao the longest and was a practitioner of both the Quanzhen Longmen and Shangqing Ancient Methods.

One of them is Master Yihong, who is highly respected and holds a prominent position at Baiyun Temple, the ancestral home of the Quanzhen Longmen sect.

One of them was Master Mingyu, a True Man from the Celestial Master's Mansion of Longhu Tianshan, who held a leading position in the Southern Taoist sect.

Tianchen Zhenjun looked at the plaque in the main hall, then at the statues of the gods in the hall, and finally at the names of the gods. He couldn't help but swallow hard. "What a boastful tone."

Ancestor Mieyang's eyes darted around, looking at an even taller building behind the Jade Emperor Palace. He felt a pang of unease, "Is there something even more powerful behind that?"

While most demons and monsters, unaware of the inside story, simply regarded these deities as fabricated names created by the Daluo Palace to collect incense offerings, Tianchen Zhenjun and Mieyang Zushi, who knew that the Daluo Palace was no ordinary place and had some inside information, thought a little too much about it.

Ancestor Mieyang looked at the Lord of Bailing Mountain, "Lord of the Mountain, have you never met the Lord of the Great Luo Palace before?"

Master Bai Lingshan shook his head slightly, "No."

Ancestor Mieyang narrowed his eyes slightly, neither confirming nor denying, but simply asked, "In the Spiritual Court, is there any legend of this Jade Emperor of the Azure Heaven?"

The Lord of Bailing Mountain said calmly, "Never heard of it."

Master Mieyang carefully examined the three old Taoists who were presiding over the ritual, then glanced at the other seven old Taoists, and said nothing more.

The Lord of Bailing Mountain naturally calmed down as well. He saw the three Taoist priests worship the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother, and then they joined the previous seven people. In total, there were ten old Taoist priests dressed in magnificent robes. They turned around the Jade Emperor Hall and came to the final Sanqing Hall.

In front of the Sanqing Hall, Gu Zhao, dressed in a golden robe, was waiting for them. He saw ten old Taoist priests walking in two rows, then standing on his left and right, bowing to him in unison, "We respectfully invite the sect leader to preside over the Sanqing Ritual!"

Gu Zhao's gaze swept over True Lord Tianchen, Ancestor Mieyang, and Lord Bailing Mountain without any expression. Instead, he turned around to carry out the final ceremony of the New Year's Grand Ritual.

Pay homage to the Three Pure Ones!

Light lamps, worship, chant scriptures, recite mantras, and submit petitions!
Inside the Daluo Temple, bells and drums resounded in unison, and the auspicious seven-colored clouds that had been shrouding the temple shone even brighter, from which the sounds of chanting and mantra recitation could be faintly heard.

As everyone looked up, they saw seven-colored flowers emerge from the clouds, slowly descending, and then transforming into a misty drizzle shimmering with seven-colored light as they fell to the ground.

The misty drizzle, imbued with spiritual energy, was gentle and soothing. Even for cultivators like them, it was quite beneficial, not to mention the ordinary people who let the drizzle fall on them. They felt their souls clear and their bodies refreshed, as if their entire being had been cleansed by spiritual energy. Even their chronic illnesses seemed to have been cured.

However, the attention of the three True Monarchs Tianchen was not on the drizzling rain, but on the final incantation recited by the ten old Taoists, led by Gu Zhao.

"The Way is learned through the heart, and the heart transmits through incense. The incense burner is fragrant, and the heart is present before the Emperor. The true spirits look down, and the immortal banners descend upon the hall. The ministers report directly to the Nine Heavens."

Under the watchful eyes of the three, a wisp of incense smoke appeared out of thin air, carrying their divine thoughts as it soared into the sky. It paused briefly in the heavens before disappearing into the darkness.

True Monarch Tianchen's expression changed drastically, "They actually have the means to contact the upper realm!"

(End of this chapter)