Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

But at the very moment he broke through—the first generation of grandmasters truly revealed their fangs, or rather, this was the moment they had been waiting for.

More than a dozen first-generation grandmasters joined forces and used the Return to Emptiness and Reverse Attack to defeat the Nine Nether Demon Lord in one fell swoop.

When it advanced to the Dao Integration stage, the demonic world that it had created, spanning over 100,000 miles, was forcibly shattered by the first generation of patriarchs and merged into the Cangyuan Immortal Cultivation World.

The remains of that demonic world are today's Western Demon Abyss.

"The Western Flame Continent is the territory of the human race, ruled by the Nine Nether Demon Sect. Underground is the Western Demon Abyss, where countless demons are essentially the demonic essence and shattered divine consciousness of the Nine Nether Demon Lord."

The Western Demon Abyss has long been connected to the origin of the Cangyuan Realm, making the demon race inexhaustible.

The Nine Nether Demon Lord himself had long since lost his own will, becoming a unique being—absorbing dark forces for the Cangyuan cultivation world to purify it.

As she said this, her tone was filled with obvious disdain and helplessness: "Anyway, if there's anything dirty that can't be dealt with, just throw it into the Western Demon Abyss. After all, the demonic path is born with the ability to devour and digest all abnormal power."

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhao vaguely understood.

The three most dangerous places in the Cangyuan cultivation world—the Western Demon Abyss, the Northern Ice Plains, and the Endless Demon Sea—each have their own uses.

The Western Demon Abyss is essentially a dumping ground for the Cangyuan cultivation world, devouring all negative factors that are detrimental to the world.

No wonder the Nine Nether Demon Sect is always rebellious and goes against all the major overlords. No one would be happy to be treated as a dumping ground every day.

No wonder the Nine Nether Demon Sect is always being kicked out of the ranks of overlords and then pulled back in—you can temporarily not use the trash can, but you can't be without it.

As for the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace.

Lin Zhao continued thinking along this line of thought, regarding this unpopular and unique hegemonic force...

It's more like a disease, a malignant tumor, in the cultivation world. The Heavenly Law Divine Sect has always wanted to eradicate it, but malignant tumors are not easy to remove and can even harm themselves.

Therefore, the Heavenly Law Divine Sect launched expeditions every year but failed to conquer the city, while the Cangming Sect rarely participated in expeditions against the Myriad Beast Spirit Venerable's Mansion. There are several reasons for these events.

Lin Zhao gradually began to make guesses about the location of the far northern ice plains and the endless demon sea.

The far north ice plains are likely the "air conditioner" of the cultivation world, responsible for regulating the ecological state of the entire world and making the environment more suitable for human cultivators to live in.

The fact that the Endless Demon Sea can incubate such a huge number of demonic beasts is very likely the driving force of the entire Cangyuan Immortal Cultivation World. It is responsible for absorbing the violent spiritual energy from the outside void and purifying it into gentle spiritual energy that can be absorbed by cultivators.

Logically speaking, the Endless Demon Sea should be the place with the most abundant spiritual energy in the Cangyuan cultivation world.

However, the spiritual energy here must have been forcibly extracted by the various overlords using sixth-tier spiritual treasures that possessed the authority over heaven and earth.

What remains is all turbid spiritual energy, which is why it continuously gives birth to demonic beasts.

As these conjectures came to fruition, Lin Zhao gained a completely new and transformative understanding of the situation in the Cangyuan cultivation world, no longer feeling like a blind man touching an elephant.

It's true that you still need to go out and gain experience. If you don't go out, there are many things you'll never know in the sect.

For example, the Eight Trigrams of the Transformation God, and the methods of the first generation of masters.

When they talked about their first master, the three of them could only marvel at his achievements.

Although 50,000 years have passed, the first generation of masters have all ascended to the Spirit Realm, the Cangyuan Immortal Cultivation World has undergone tremendous changes, and the landscape of the major powers has also changed.

But in general, the world still operates according to the plan they set back then.

Aside from the unexpected turn of events—the Ten Thousand Beasts Spirit Lord's Mansion degenerating into a cancer in the cultivation world—everything else is proceeding according to their planned direction.

Compared to the actions of the first generation of masters, who attracted external forces as nourishment, shattered the demon realm of Dao-merging power and merged it into their own world, and joined forces to shatter the will of heaven and let the overlord take their place.

Their current hunting of a young Hou is nothing compared to the great ones; they don't even qualify to be compared.

Bai Jing rarely sighed: "It's a pity that the higher the cultivation realm, the harder it is to break through."

After the first generation masters of each sect ascended to the spirit world, some fragmented news also passed down.

Some perished, some met with accidents, but most of the survivors have advanced to the Dao Integration stage, but none have yet broken through to the Great Ascension Celestial Venerable level.

If any grandmaster were to break through to the Mahayana stage, the Cangyuan cultivation world might face a new upheaval.

She didn't hide her thoughts—she was dissatisfied with the Nine Nether Demon Sect's position in the Cangyuan cultivation world.

She hoped that the two first-generation demon lords of the Nine Nether Demon Sect would break through to the Mahayana stage as soon as possible, and then the voices coming from the spirit world might be different.

The status of the Nine Nether Demon Sect in the Cangyuan cultivation world may be reshuffled.

Lin Zhao and Tian Hao exchanged a glance but neither responded.

The Mahayana Celestial Venerable is too far removed from them.

In the entire Cangyuan cultivation world, spanning fifty thousand years, not a single Mahayana Celestial Venerable has been born.

Although the Celestial Venerable is not invincible in the Spirit Realm, he is still considered to be at the pinnacle.

They had no doubt that those exceptionally talented first-generation masters possessed the potential to break through to the Mahayana level.

But when and who will break through first is hard to say.

They are only Core Formation cultivators now, not even Nascent Soul cultivators yet. Let's set a small goal first: to capture that young Hou.

-----

Three months later, the three were ready.

The Azure Feather Clan has a total of thirty-seven clan territories in the Endless Demon Sea, distributed across different sea areas.

What they had to do was very simple: sweep them away one by one, confiscate their property, and exterminate their entire families.

The Nascent Soul cultivators of the Azure Feather Clan will be dealt with by their Nascent Soul elders; what they need to deal with are the Core Formation cultivators of the Azure Feather Clan.

Of course, it's possible that a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Misty Sky Alliance might appear, but those in their true Nascent Soul form value their lives and are unlikely to personally intervene. However, it's hard to say about those in their Nascent Soul Dharma Body form.

However, with the three of them working together, they were not afraid of a Nascent Soul Dharma Body.

The young Hou will definitely be handed over to the sect, but all the resources plundered from the thirty-seven clan territories will belong to the three of them.

Thirty-seven clan territories, accumulated over thousands of years, have provided them with enough spiritual stones, spiritual materials, cultivation techniques, elixirs, and magical treasures to ensure that the three of them would no longer have to worry about resources before advancing to the Nascent Soul stage.

This harvest of resources would make even a Nascent Soul True Monarch envious.

This operation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because of the special nature of hunting Hou, there are at least a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators backing them up.

The three selected their first target territory, and with a burst of light, they sped off towards the target sea area.

Lin Zhao flew silently, his hand already on the hilt of the Starry Sky Rift Sword. This kind of action required no reservations, nor did it need to.

Tianhao's expression was calm as still water. Nine fist-sized white orbs surrounded him. These nine Haoyang Orbs were a set, and their power was comparable to that of a fourth-tier magic weapon.

Three Core Formation cultivators, more than a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators in command, and thirty-seven clan territories awaiting plunder.

Such a display of power is a once-in-a-millennium event.

In the distance, where the sky meets the sea, the outline of the first Qingyu Clan island gradually becomes clear.

The island has steep peaks, with layers of blue stone buildings stacked one on top of the other. The protective array's protective shield is upside down, gleaming with a pale blue light in the sunlight.