"When the sound of the palace gates rings out, all disciples belonging to Piaoxue Palace who hear it must rush to Piaoxue Peak within a quarter hour!"
Below Celestial Waterfall Cliff, Lu Han had already walked out of the waterfall. His voice drifted over from a distance, reminding Lin Huang.
Lin Huang raised an eyebrow and immediately followed.
By the time the two arrived at Piaoxue Peak, the plaza outside Piaoxue Hall was already packed with disciples. There were fully three to five thousand of them, and more were still rushing over in succession. At the very front of the plaza, the Inner Sect Disciples stood facing the wind, their faces completely stern. Behind them, the Outer Disciples were mostly anxious and uneasy. Eight chimes of the bell was no good omen. Just what kind of event required assembling everyone from top to bottom in the entire Sect?
"I heard that Fengyu Tower and the Celestial Thunder Sect have long had designs on our Piaoxue Palace. Could they be attacking us?!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I’ve heard about that too. Word is that the Array Masters of these two Sects once even ambushed Elder Shen Diexin in the Great Xia Dynasty."
"Impossible. Senior Cangfeng is still alive. If those two Sects want to shake our Piaoxue Palace, it’s nothing but an idiot’s daydream!"
"Ten chimes signal a war that would wipe out our Sect and exterminate our clan. It only rang eight times today, so it definitely isn’t that."
"It’s just that in the history of Piaoxue Palace, eight chimes haven’t occurred in over forty years!"
The Outer Disciples conversed nervously, keeping their voices extremely low. Their tones were clearly filled with fear and worry. Lin Huang listened carefully to the surrounding chatter but did not speak.
Before long, several figures flashed across the plaza. Their tyrannical auras stifled the breathing of the Inner Sect Disciples and Outer Disciples, who hurriedly cleared a path. Those figures landed at the elevated front of the plaza, standing shoulder to shoulder. These people were all Elders of Piaoxue Palace, individuals of extraordinary status. Even Elders who rarely showed their faces on ordinary days had appeared here now, their expressions utterly solemn.
Following that, a figure as deep as an abyss and steady as a mountain slowly walked out of Piaoxue Hall. He wore a snow-white, tiger-striped vest. Atop his bound hair sat an ice-lion crown with its massive maw open, looking rather ferocious.
Yann Nangui!
Except at this moment, an intense look of confusion was hidden within the eyes of this incomparably majestic Palace Master of Piaoxue Palace. Because even he had no idea what had actually happened.
Thus, Yann Nangui’s expression was somewhat ugly. As the exalted master of Piaoxue Palace, the Ancient Bell had chimed eight times, and thousands of people below were staring eagerly at him. And yet, he himself didn’t know what had happened? Was this really not a joke?
However, the moment he saw an incredibly aged figure hobbling over from outside the plaza, all the pent-up frustration in Yann Nangui’s heart vanished into thin air, replaced by a flash of shock. They wondered what exactly had happened to make the High Priest come down from the top floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
Not only did Yann Nangui notice, but the Elders behind him also saw it. They gazed at the stumbling old man, their shocked eyes carrying a deep sense of respect.
The disciples present were initially curious. It was truly bizarre that there was an old man in Piaoxue Palace who even struggled to walk. He was so old; even if the bell rang a hundred times, what did it have to do with this decrepit old man? However, when the crowd realized that Yann Nangui had personally stepped down to welcome this old man, the Inner Sect Disciples and Outer Disciples had a massive change in expression. They respectfully cleared a path for the hunched elder.
"Who is this senior?" Lin Huang asked Lu Han.
Lu Han merely shook his head. Since entering Piaoxue Palace, he had never heard of such a person.
Lin Huang looked puzzled as he carefully observed the old man walking past him. The old man was hunched and hobbling. He was draped in a dark blue Profound Patterned Robe, painted with images of mountains, rivers, and stars. His hands rested on an incredibly smooth walking stick engraved with the patterns of the Beidou Seven Stars. The old man also had snow-white hair, and his face was as wrinkled as dead tree bark. He looked aged to the absolute extreme.
He was clearly an old man without any Cultivation whatsoever. Yet, the old man gave Lin Huang an extremely bizarre feeling—as if with just one glance from him, all his secrets would be ruthlessly exposed. He had only ever experienced this feeling in his past life from Qin Xuance.
Gazing at the old man’s departing back, Lin Huang’s expression shifted as he finally guessed the elder’s identity...
A Fortune Teller!
Calculating human destiny, peering into the Celestial Secret, seizing good fortune, and divining the ages—such was a Fortune Teller. Lin Huang did not know how strong a Fortune Teller was, but he knew there was one on the Azure Sky Continent who was the greatest Fortune Teller of the current era. It was the Pavilion Master of the Celestial Secret Pavilion, known as the Celestial Secret Elder.
This person had once usurped the Celestial Secret and achieved Heaven-Defying Fate for dozens of powerful experts. Among them was the master of the Eastern Celestial Divine Sect, Liu Chuandao, Liu Cangsheng’s father—a peerless expert who had stepped into the Saint Realm.
Undoubtedly, this withered old man in front of Lin Huang was exactly a Fortune Teller—one who could predict fortune and disaster, and help others fully monopolize the Celestial Secret.
"High Priest... what matter is worthy of you personally coming downstairs? If you had any instructions, just notifying Nangui would have sufficed!" Yann Nangui spoke softly while supporting the High Priest, showing absolutely none of the airs of a Palace Master.
"This matter concerns the fate of our Piaoxue Palace, and even the entire East Spirit Realm. It must be taken seriously," the High Priest said in an extremely hoarse voice while grabbing Yann Nangui’s hand. Yet that hoarseness was filled with excitement as he chuckled, "This old man has been stargazing atop the Scripture Pavilion for over several decades without ever discovering any anomalies. That was until not long ago, when the astrological signs suddenly fell into chaos. After my seventeen calculations, I finally dare to confirm one thing!"
Speaking up to here, the High Priest had already turned around. Looking at the people all over the plaza, his hoarse voice spread in all directions:
"Yin Yang Valley is going to appear in the world ahead of schedule!"
"Yin Yang Valley?"
When the three words spilled from the High Priest’s mouth, the numerous disciples below were full of confusion, while those Elders of Piaoxue Palace experienced a massive change in expression.
"Yin Yang Valley? What kind of place is that?"
"How come we’ve never heard of it before?"
"For it to make the High Priest personally ring the bell and walk out of the Scripture Pavilion, acting so exaggeratedly, it seems this Yin Yang Valley has quite the background."
In the crowd, Lin Huang gradually furrowed his brow. He had heard the name ’Yin Yang Valley’ before. According to Lin Beichen, sixteen years ago, after Lin Changtian sent him and his sister back to the Great Xia Dynasty, he went to Yin Yang Valley and subsequently disappeared without a trace. In other words, Lin Changtian had vanished in Yin Yang Valley.
Lin Huang did not know what kind of place it was, but he was certain that he might be able to find information regarding his father there. Even if Lin Huang currently had absolutely no feelings toward Lin Changtian, the man was still his father by blood. The man who, ever since he was born, had been shrouded in a layer of mystery.
In contrast to the disciples’ confusion, the Elders on the platform were currently quite shocked. Those three words echoed in their ears like a magic spell.
Yin Yang Valley?!
This was a place capable of changing the landscape of the East Spirit and shattering its balance.
"So it’s Yin Yang Valley that has appeared. No wonder even the High Priest walked out of the Scripture Pavilion," Lu Han beside him furrowed his brow calmly.
"You know this place?" Lin Huang asked, looking at Lu Han with suspicion. This Yin Yang Valley was a place that left all the disciples completely baffled, yet he actually knew about it?
Lu Han spread his palm toward Lin Huang and said greedily, "One hundred taels, and I’ll tell you!"
"Get lost!" Lin Huang turned his head and ignored Lu Han. He believed that since the High Priest had thrown out the three words ’Yin Yang Valley’, he would definitely explain the reasoning behind it.
Looking at the crowd’s eager expressions, the wrinkles on the High Priest’s face bunched together as his hoarse voice revealed his excitement. "Yin Yang Valley is the greatest variable in the East Spirit Realm! There are countless inheritances within the valley; obtaining its inheritance is enough to allow one to run rampant across the East Spirit Realm!"
"Countless inheritances?" Lin Huang raised an eyebrow. The word ’inheritance’ alone had piqued his interest. On the Azure Sky Continent, a Martial Arts inheritance was an extremely high-tier matter. If the bequeather had not reached the Martial King Realm, the things they left behind before death could not be called an inheritance; at most, they were merely relics. And for something to be worthy of being called an inheritance, it meant that at the very least, an expert in the Martial King Realm had once appeared on this land. They were even more terrifying than the current Human World Myth, Xuanyuan Tibing.
"Not only that," the High Priest’s hoarse voice interrupted the crowd’s discussion. "During this old man’s sixth deduction of the Celestial Secret, I discovered that among the numerous inheritances, a top-tier inheritance has also appeared. Such a top-tier inheritance has been extremely rare throughout the previous appearances of Yin Yang Valley."
"Dare I ask the High Priest, just how much of an effect do these inheritances have on a Martial Artist’s Cultivation?" an Outer Disciple asked, unable to hold back.
"How much of an effect? Hehe..." The High Priest shook his head as if he had heard a very funny question. He did not say much; instead, he held up three fingers before slowly saying, "Over twenty years ago, there were once three youths who obtained inheritances in Yin Yang Valley!"
At this point, quite a few middle-aged Elders behind the High Priest shook their heads with looks of envy. They had also entered Yin Yang Valley once, but unfortunately, their luck was poor. They were unlike those three individuals who had managed to obtain inheritances from Yin Yang Valley.
"The first person is Xiao Yiren, currently ranked fourth on the Martial Arts leaderboard in the East Spirit Realm!"
Before the High Priest’s words even faded, the plaza below was already filled with exclamations. "Xiao Yiren, the fourth on the Martial Arts leaderboard? That Xiao Yiren whose strength is approaching the Martial King Realm?!"
"The second person is Xuanyuan Tibing, who is now praised as the Human World Myth!"
While the crowd was still marveling, the High Priest’s next words caused everyone’s expressions to change, plunging them into shock.
"Xuanyuan Tibing, the Human World Myth!"
"That Xuanyuan Tibing who went about Commanding a Million Soldiers to destroy Dongxuan, and became invincible the moment he reached the Martial Marquis level?!"
"So he actually had such a fortuitous encounter! No wonder he’s called the Human World Myth. Looking at it this way, the inheritances within Yin Yang Valley must definitely be exceptionally terrifying!"
Amidst the chorus of discussions, Lin Huang also furrowed his brow. He didn’t care about how powerful Xuanyuan Tibing was; what he cared about was the evaluation of ’invincible the moment he reached the Martial Marquis level’. Lin Huang asked himself and realized he had never met anyone with such a stellar battle record. He had seen people fight above their Realm. Even he himself was capable of fighting above his Realm after practicing the Godslaying One Slash. However, compared to being invincible the moment one reached the Martial Marquis level, it was completely out of reach. One had to know that the higher the Realm, the more difficult it was to fight across Realms. For Xuanyuan Tibing to accomplish this was undoubtedly an extremely terrifying feat.
"Perhaps there really is an expert’s inheritance in Yin Yang Valley!" Lin Huang mused secretly.
Meanwhile, Lu Han beside Lin Huang didn’t share the crowd’s shock upon hearing the name ’Xuanyuan Tibing’. Instead, his wooden little face showed disdain and even a trace of disgust. From his tightly clenched fists, one could see that he was currently in a very bad mood.
"I wonder who that third person is?"
At the very front of the crowd, a woman dressed in a light cyan, flowing-sleeved long dress suddenly spoke up. Her cold and glamorous face carried a hint of pride. Though she also stood in the crowd, she was like a gorgeous peacock, making her seem completely unattainable.