Wu Chang gazed at the altar, and under the guidance of inspiration, he seemed to glimpse the dungeon plane from thousands of years ago.
At that time, Gourd Mountain, where the altar was built, did not resemble a toppled gourd, nor was the altar within the mountain’s belly.
Back then, Gourd Mountain was a towering peak that soared into the clouds, with the altar constructed at its summit.
He was observing the dungeon plane from thousands of years ago from the perspective of a priest; standing on the altar, bolstered by the array, he could overlook the entire land.
He saw a black storm sweeping across the ground, with the golden crops withering and the green vegetation decaying wherever the storm passed. The blue lake waters were swept into the sky, revealing the riverbed below as if it had been scoured by knives.
People hid inside their homes to survive the disaster, yet after the black wind passed, faced with a devastated land, they could only slowly march towards death.
The black wind not only ravaged ordinary people, but the spiritual qi also became turbulent and violent wherever the storm swept.
Among the spiritual qi was a faint black aura, which bore a three to four-part resemblance to today’s Demon Qi.
Cultivators who inhaled the faint black spiritual qi during their cultivation would suffer from a deviation and have their cultivation ruined, or even die abruptly if their cultivation was weak.
Those cultivators with profound cultivation could maintain their cultivation cycles under the faint black spiritual qi, but their bodies and minds were subtly affected, becoming irritable, bloodthirsty, and filled with destructive desires, leading to mutual slaughter.
Under the influence of the black wind, the entire land was descending into chaos, with bloodshed and death visible everywhere.
The priest sighed and unwillingly retracted his gaze. Turning around, he saw behind him a crowd of worshippers lined up in two rows, extending from the mountaintop to the mountain’s base.
The people prostrated with their bodies closely to the ground, their heads facing the altar.
The priest glanced around, seeing three enormous command flags planted at the altar’s edge.
Wu Chang’s attention was instantly drawn to the command flags. From the outside, the command flags around the altar bore some resemblance to the Soul Cleansing Banner in his hand.
Yet from the aura, the command flags on the altar were merely extensions of the altar, their essence being commonplace magical artifacts, fundamentally different from the Soul Cleansing Banner.
Accompanied by the priest’s chant, which was like a song or a curse, a massive amount of Power of Faith poured into the altar, causing the three command flags to move without wind.
As the command flags swayed, the rampaging black wind on the ground seemed to be drawn by some force, converging toward the altar.
The black wind spiraled above the altar, resembling a curtain of night, instantly causing day and night to invert within the altar’s range.
The priest lit three sticks of incense, inserting them into the large cauldron before him.
The three command flags floated up, as if grasped by an invisible hand, and began to wave.
The first command flag waved, making the black within the black wind sink and merge with the Power of Faith, with the black fading into gray.
The second command flag waved, causing the gray wind to spread and form a special formation, circulating in correspondence with the configuration around the altar.
The third command flag waved, causing the gray airstream to slowly transform into white, being gilded with gold in the priest’s chant, with the original cataclysmic wind carrying a hint of auspiciousness.
The three command flags waved simultaneously, the airflow scattering. Thirty percent of it surged into several high mountains, another thirty percent fell into the grand cities on the ground, another thirty percent merged into the altar, and the remaining ten percent dispersed worldwide, healing the earth ravaged by the black wind.
In the priest’s chant, the scene before Wu Chang gradually faded away.
He looked at the other people, discovering that they, like him, all had eyes flashing with uncertainty, presumably having seen something through the altar.
Sword Star couldn’t hold back first. He blinked hard and said:
"Did you all just see that?"
Wu Chang True Self asked, "What did you see?"
Sword Star said:
"I seemed to see a dungeon, I saw the past, I saw a black wind. Cultivators blown by the black wind appeared to be possessed, with their eyes emanating black aura, leading to mutual slaughter."
"The black aura within them had a resemblance to the current Demon Qi."
"Then I saw several cultivators appear, calling those affected by the wind disaster as having wind disaster enter their minds, becoming mentally unstable and irredeemable. So they killed the frenzied cultivators and transported them here to suppress their remains with the altar."
Wu Chang’s eyes slightly narrowed. The scene Sword Star saw was entirely different from what he saw.
Could it be that each person saw different scenes?
Leng Shan spoke second, saying:
"What I saw was different from Sword Star. I saw a black wind rise between heaven and earth, and wherever it swept, people had no means to live."
"People gathered together, holding rituals and praying to the heavens for the storm to be calmed."
"Under people’s prayers, auspicious clouds appeared above the altar, with the black wind representing catastrophe dissipating, turning into a warm breeze. Wherever the breeze passed, there were favorable weather, plentiful harvests, and cultivators seemed enlightened, breaking through their cultivation bottlenecks."
After Leng Shan came Erin, who said:
"What I saw was different from both of them and wasn’t even something that actually happened."
"I saw that as the storm ravaged, the heavens and earth showed ruptures, and the world’s rules appeared damaged. Mortal dynasties continued to have disputes, ceremonies fell into disarray, and cultivators’ cultivation stalled, unable to progress any further."
"To repair the rules, cultivators comprehended fate and discovered the method of heavenly rituals. After the heavenly ritual, the cracks in the heavens and earth and the world rules were somewhat restored."
Upon hearing this, Wu Chang’s eyebrow slightly raised. Indeed, everyone saw different things from the altar.
This difference seemed to stem from each person’s opportunity.
Sword Star raided the Shaking Light Immortal Mansion, Shaking Light being the seventh star of the Big Dipper, also known as Po Jun.