Gateway of Immortality

The omnipresent Spirit Tide carried the power to destroy heaven and earth.

The world lay shrouded in a vast and desolate haze.

Amid the Spirit Tide, the four-colored cloud cluster appeared minuscule, yet it advanced steadily without faltering.

No one knew how deep into the Ancient Immortal Battlefield they had already traveled, when suddenly, from the front-left of the four-colored cloud, a streak of violet light shot through the Spirit Tide at astonishing speed, rapidly approaching.

A closer look revealed that the violet rainbow was actually a warship!

If Qin Sang could see it, he would have recognized it instantly. This was one of the Tianxing Alliance's unique flying artifacts, known as the Tianxing Warship.

The Tianxing Alliance's artifacts all seemed to follow a unified design. They all had identical functions, differing only in strength.

However, this particular warship was more than ten times larger than any Qin Sang had seen before.

"Old Bastard, dragging your feet until now... I thought you were too scared to come to Ziwei Palace!"

The four-colored cloud halted in place, waiting for the warship to approach, when the mocking voice of the red-haired grandmaster echoed out from within.

From inside the crimson cloud, where Qin Sang was quietly resting, he realized cultivators from the Tianxing Alliance had arrived. He opened his eyes wide and peered out, but could only make out the long streak of violet light.

A cold snort came from the warship, the response sharp and immediate. "Red-haired Geezer, it's you whose courage withers with age. The older you get, the more spineless you become! I just hope you don't end up dying in Ziwei Palace this time!"

The red-haired grandmaster sneered. "I'm still waiting to collect your corpse. At the very least, I need you to live a few more days. I heard you failed in your attempt to break through to the late stage of Spiritual Infant Realm. That is truly a cause for celebration! Don't go adding insult to injury now. If the Sin Abyss takes advantage of your condition, you might just lose the chance to pass on your bloodline!"

The man on the warship roared, "If the Tianxing Alliance falls, do you think your Small Cold Domain can remain unscathed? You'd better reconsider our agreement from the other day. If you act without conscience, don't blame me for doing the same!"

After a pause, the red-haired grandmaster stopped shouting and instead transmitted his voice coldly. "Old Bastard, don't tell me you really plan to surrender to the Sin Abyss and become someone else's lapdog?"

This time, it was the man on the warship who spoke with composure. "If things become impossible to salvage, and circumstances force my hand, I won't let the lives of the Tianxing Alliance's disciples be buried with me. Becoming a subordinate is still better than losing everything. I'd like to see how long your Small Cold Domain can keep living in delusion."

The red-haired grandmaster flew into a rage. "You dare threaten me—!"

"You think I'm joking?" the man on the warship snapped, "Red-haired Geezer come with me and see for yourself how aggressive the Sin Abyss has become! If it weren't for the fact that the Sin God Palace and Ziwei Palace opened on the same day, those old bastards from the Sin Abyss wouldn't have missed the chance to hunt for treasures. Frankly, I might not have even shown up here today."

The red-haired grandmaster's tone paused awkwardly.

Finally, someone stepped in to mediate.

A voice came from the demonic qi. It was Demon Lord Tongyou. "All right, both of you. Now is not the time for petty arguments. Though the Sin Abyss is powerful, it's not to the extent that we need to cower in fear. Ziwei Palace should remain our focus for now. We can discuss the rest after we return. Daoist Zhenyi, are the array materials for the Small Polaris Array ready?"

With Demon Lord Tongyou playing peacemaker, the red-haired grandmaster and Daoist Zhenyi fell silent.

Daoist Zhenyi replied somewhat bitterly, "A bet is a bet! I spent more than ten years just barely collecting everything. Make sure your side doesn't mess things up."

Before his words had even faded, a thunderous voice boomed out from the multicolored demonic mist of Heavenly Demon Hill. "Rest assured, fellow Daoists. I've brought our clan's supreme treasure. There will be no mistakes."

"Good," Demon Lord Tongyou said with calm authority， "Everything is in place. The road ahead is riddled with spatial rifts. Even for us, it's a perilous journey. I ask everyone here to set aside past grievances and work together in earnest."

As they spoke, the Tianxing Warship had flown close to the four-colored cloud and began descending at a steady pace.

Eventually, the two formations aligned side by side and moved forward together.

Sure enough, they hadn't gone far when they encountered a spatial rift.

This spatial rift glowed with a milky white light. It looked extremely thin and floated in midair. Even when battered by the violent Spirit Tide, it remained completely motionless.

Ironically, it was the Spirit Tide that suffered damage.

No matter how powerful the tide, the moment it touched a spatial rift, it would be effortlessly sliced in half. Whether this meant the Spirit Tide wasn't strong enough or that the rift was simply too terrifying, none could say.

Even with both regions' Spiritual Infant cultivators working together, they dared not provoke the spatial rift and immediately chose to detour around it.

At first, the rifts were few and far between. But the deeper they ventured, the more densely packed they became. Some were so well hidden they were nearly undetectable.

The danger here was in no way inferior to the inner valley of Endless Valley.

They now had to brace against the Spirit Tide's assault and avoid the spatial rifts. Their speed dropped sharply as a result.

Silence filled the crimson cloud.

Only the thunderous roar of the Spirit Tide echoed through the air.

Their lives were now in the hands of the Spiritual Infant cultivators. Qin Sang could only resign himself to fate, feeling the cloud sometimes veer left, then right, at times even making large detours. There was no telling when this journey would end.

He could clearly feel their pace slowing. Qin Sang was inwardly astonished at the terrors of the Ancient Immortal Battlefield's core. Even with so many powerful Spiritual Infant cultivators, they could only proceed with the utmost caution.

Along the way, they even encountered several sudden dangers that forced sharp retreats, causing great unease among the passengers.

Time crept by.

Though the Tianxing Warship and the four-colored cloud appeared to stagger through the chaos, they had in truth advanced safely all along, without incident.

They flew for more than half a day.

Then suddenly, Qin Sang sensed the crimson cloud had come to a halt. Just as he was wondering whether something unexpected had occurred, he heard soft exclamations around him. "Ziwei Palace is in sight!"

Qin Sang's heart stirred. He sprang to his feet and stared ahead with wide eyes.

But the sight before him took his breath away. He gasped sharply, stunned by the grand, otherworldly phenomenon unlike anything he had ever seen.

Directly ahead stretched a barren desert. The ground was riddled with deep craters—clearly the scars left behind by the Spirit Tide. Any former sand dunes must have long since been swept flat. The view extended unbroken to the distant horizon.

A vast expanse ahead lay remarkably free of spatial rifts.

And deep within the desert, above the skies.

There was no longer the ubiquitous, raging Spirit Tide. Instead, hovering in the sky was a white, cloud-filled vortex—shaped like the eye of a typhoon, vast beyond measure, its edge invisible to the naked eye.

No, it wasn't that the Spirit Tide was gone.

The world's spiritual qi had all been drawn into that vortex, caught in its currents and unable to escape!

Within the vortex, everything appeared strangely still. The white clouds seemed completely motionless, exhibiting none of the surging violence of the usual Spirit Tide.

The vortex blanketed the heavens, hanging oppressively low. Even from such a great distance, it weighed heavily on Qin Sang's chest, evoking a profound sense of insignificance and helplessness.

It wasn't just him. The expressions of the others had grown visibly solemn, all of them staring blankly toward that place.

At the center of the vortex lay Ziwei Palace!