Gou Zai Fei Men made up myths

The Tianyuan Conference, the Jiazi year, begins.

These five words, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirred up a tidal wave in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of cultivators. On the high platform, the ancient yet majestic voice of Daoist Xinghe still resonated, its vastness like a starry sea and its profundity like the night sky weighing heavily on everyone's hearts.

However, just when everyone thought the opening ceremony was over and they were preparing to disperse and head to their respective competition venues, another unexpected event occurred on the high platform.

"Wait a minute."

The one who spoke was not Xinghe Daoren, but the middle-aged deacon of the Xuntian Pavilion who had been standing silently behind him. He stepped forward, holding a strange crystal the size of a fist, completely black, with starlight flowing on its surface.

"This year's conference has added three new events, and the rules are now clear. However, the final trial is not only related to the rankings, but also to the future trajectory of the Eastern Wilderness's fortunes over the next few decades, so it cannot be ignored."

His voice was steady, yet possessed a strange penetrating power, clearly reaching everyone's ears. At the same time, the black crystal in his hand suddenly burst forth with a dazzling light!

"Buzz—!"

The light was not dazzling, but it carried a heart-palpitating fluctuation that seemed to distort space, instantly projecting a huge, bizarre, three-dimensional image above the high platform.

It was a...broken canyon.

The sky was perpetually dark, devoid of sun, moon, and stars, only countless illusory "meteorite" phantoms burning with illusory flames and trailing long, luminous tails, like dying stars, silently streaking across the distorted sky, leaving behind lingering, destructive traces.

The earth was shattered, with jagged rocks and crisscrossing, bottomless cracks. A viscous, dark purple mist, like congealed blood, slowly seeped and flowed from the cracks.

Further away, deep within the canyon, space seemed to have been violently kneaded by an invisible giant hand, presenting a strange fold and fault, where light twisted and refracted, forming a dizzying and mesmerizing illusion.

The entire canyon was shrouded in a thick aura, filled with deathly silence, chaos, and evil, yet also faintly mixed with an ancient, desolate, and unsettling atmosphere.

That aura was different from ordinary demonic energy, malevolent energy, and death energy; it was more... essential, and closer to the source of some kind of "destruction" and "chaos".

The images slowly flowed, passing over a dilapidated temple that had collapsed halfway and was so ancient that it was unrecognizable. In the center of the temple, there seemed to be a strange statue that was broken and covered with cracks.

It swept past a bizarre "vortex" of countless metal fragments that floated in mid-air and slowly rotated; it swept past several enormous, strangely shaped skeletons that had long since weathered away but still maintained a struggling posture...

Finally, the focus of the image is fixed on the deepest part of the canyon, an area shrouded in an impenetrable darkness.

In the darkness, something seemed to be slowly pulsating. A faint, yet chillingly cold, ghostly light flashed and disappeared within it.

In the instant that eerie light flashed, an indescribable wave, filled with extreme evil, chaos, and an aura that devoured everything, suddenly spread out like an invisible ripple in the image!

Despite being just an image, despite being at a great distance, and despite being isolated by the array on the high platform, the fluctuation seemed to still pierce through the void and directly impact the minds of hundreds of thousands of cultivators below!

"Well!"

"hiss--!"

Countless muffled groans and gasps of shock echoed across the deathly silent plaza. Many cultivators with weaker cultivation levels turned deathly pale instantly, staggered backward, and felt their souls tremble violently, as if they had been struck hard by an invisible hammer.

Even the Golden Core cultivators mostly had solemn expressions and horrified eyes.

What is that?!

The moment the eerie light flashed and the evil aura spread, Shen Mo's heart skipped a beat! A faint yet incredibly clear tremor and chill, originating from the depths of his soul, instantly spread throughout his entire body!

The feeling wasn't fear, but more like... a sense of rejection and wariness from something "of the same origin"? It was as if a sleeping beast had caught the scent of another ferocious beast intruding into its territory!

Deep within the storage ring in his bosom, the jade slip of Qingyunzi, which he had sealed layer by layer with the secret technique of the "Source Sea Dao Scripture," also emitted a faint, almost imperceptible, icy tremor!

Although it was fleeting, Shen Mo was certain that it was no illusion!

The being lurking in the darkness deep within the "Starfall Gorge" is somehow connected to Qingyunzi's jade slip, or rather, to the "cause and effect" or "power" it represents! Is it enemy? Friend? Or...?

Shen Mo forcibly suppressed his turbulent emotions, staring intently at the gradually dimming image, trying to glean more information from the fleeting glimmer of light.

But the image quickly blurred and disappeared, as if the chilling scene just now was merely an illusion.

On the high platform, the middle-aged deacon put away the black crystal, his face still expressionless, as if what he had just shown was not some extremely dangerous place, but just an ordinary landscape.

"This is the 'Starfall Gorge'," he introduced calmly, as if stating a fact unrelated to himself. "An ancient ruin, its formation unknown, containing both danger and opportunity. The spatial structure is extremely unstable, filled with 'Star-Eating Phantom Energy' and various unknown anomalies. This place will serve as the final team trial location for this tournament."

"The final rankings will largely depend on each team's performance in 'Starfall Canyon.' This includes exploration depth, resource gathering, completion of specific tasks, and even... survival. Detailed information, entry methods, and security measures will be announced later in the team battles."

"There is only one thing I must tell you all." The middle-aged deacon's gaze slowly swept over the countless faces below, still in shock, and his tone became more serious, "The Starfall Gorge is no ordinary trial ground. Its dangers far exceed imagination. Even Nascent Soul cultivators who enter cannot guarantee a safe return. Those who participate must be prepared to perish. It is not too late to withdraw now."

quit?

What a joke! Having come this far, witnessed such generous rewards, and felt the suffocating pressure and the coexistence of opportunity, how many people would truly be willing to give up now?

The plaza fell silent for a moment, then a fiercer, more frenzied, and more uneasy fighting spirit and greed, like a suppressed volcano, ignited in the eyes of countless cultivators.

Opportunity always comes with risk. The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward!

The ancient temple, strange fragments, and huge skeleton that flashed by in the image... which one of them didn't foreshadow the possible existence of ancient heritage and earth-shattering treasures?

As for danger? Where on the path of cultivation is there no danger?

Looking at the crowd below, which was stirring again but no one was leaving, a barely perceptible, cold indifference flashed in the middle-aged deacon's eyes. He said nothing more and retreated behind Xinghe Daoist.

Xinghe Daoist stepped forward, took one last look at the dense crowd below, and uttered only two words:

"Let's call it a day."

As soon as the words were spoken, the clouds and mist rose again above the platform, quickly engulfing the five figures. Then, the platform and the space in that area distorted slightly and vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed.

Only hundreds of thousands of cultivators remained in the square, their hearts surging with emotion and unable to calm down for a long time.

The opening ceremony has now truly come to an end.