Chapter 552: Primordial Daluo Golden Heaven!

News of the trip to the Pure Land spread as if it had sprouted wings, reaching every corner of the Profound Yellow Origin Realm in just a few days.

Qi Yun’s feats—cleaving apart the Wish Power Golden Light with a single sword strike, severely injuring four Bodhisattvas, and destroying the Guiding Grand Array—circulated far and wide, heavily embellished by storytellers. Some claimed his sword had split the Celestial Vault. Others said he had suppressed dozens of Bodhisattvas with a single hand. There were even rumors that he had slain an avatar of the World Honored One on the spot.

The rumors grew more outrageous by the day, yet no one stepped forward to dispel them, and no one dared to verify them. Everyone knew that the true strength of that Primordial True Monarch was even more terrifying than the legends suggested.

At Cyan Mountain Daoist Temple, beneath the withered tree.

Qi Yun sat cross-legged, multicolored light swirling in his eyes. Floating before him was the Token gifted by True Monarch Shen Yi. The Chaos Multicolored Light on its surface flickered at an incredibly slow, faint frequency—like a heartbeat, or a countdown.

“A little over a month…” Qi Yun murmured to himself.

He lifted his gaze to the Celestial Vault. The cloud layer there seemed a fraction thinner than yesterday. It was not the work of the wind. Rather, the barrier between the Profound Yellow Origin Realm and the Outer Realm void was thinning at an imperceptible yet undeniably real pace—slow, yet irreversible.

The Great Tide of Time was truly coming.

“Qi the Kid,” Cai Shen’s voice rang out from the Mountain and River Cauldron, carrying a heavy tone. “I sense it.”

“Sense what?”

“The Profound Yellow boundary… something is approaching.”

Qi Yun frowned slightly. He didn’t ask further, because he could feel it too. It was the aura of Dao Kings. Not just one, but many.

They hadn’t drawn close, but their “gazes” had already pierced through layers of barriers, fixing upon Profound Yellow like Hunters staring at their prey, or butchers sizing up lambs meant for slaughter.

“Soon,” Qi Yun said faintly, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather.

“Are you… not worried?” Cai Shen couldn’t help but ask.

“Worried about what?” he replied nonchalantly. “What must come, will come.”

Seven days later, anomalies began to appear across the Profound Yellow Origin Realm.

First were the celestial phenomena. Skies across various regions were no longer an unchanging azure or leaden gray. Instead, they began to display bizarre, ever-shifting colors. Sometimes they were dark red, like dried blood; sometimes pale gray, like the faces of the dying; and sometimes pitch-black, like an all-consuming abyss. These colors were not clouds or tricks of light. They were the result of the barrier thinning, allowing Outer Realm qi to seep in to collide, interweave with, and pollute the Spiritual Mechanism of the Profound Yellow Origin Realm.

Second was the Spiritual Mechanism. The Spiritual Qi in the Profound Yellow Origin Realm grew unstable—at times suffocatingly dense, and at others as thin as in the mortal realm. Grand Arrays, Magical Treasures, and Elixirs that relied on Spiritual Qi to function were affected to varying degrees. Some minor Sects even sealed their mountain gates because of this, suspending all external activities.

Last were the hearts of the people. News of the Great Tide of Time had spread. Although Qi Yun had pacified the various factions at the Dao Discussion Assembly, the lower-level Cultivators and mortals remained in the dark. All they knew was that the sky had changed, the earth shook, and the end of the world was likely approaching. Panic spread like a plague throughout the Profound Yellow Origin Realm.

On the fifteenth day, Qi Yun left Cyan Mountain Daoist Temple.

This time, he brought the Mountain and River Cauldron, and along with it, Cai Shen. An Auspicious Cloud carried him and the cauldron, shooting out of Profound Yellow.

“Where to?” Cai Shen asked.

“To take a look,” Qi Yun replied lightly. “To see just how far those Dao Kings have reached in.”

The Auspicious Cloud tore through the firmament at extreme speeds. The Mountain and River Cauldron hovered by his side, the nine divine dragons swimming rapidly along its surface. Brilliant light flickered in their dragon eyes, radiating a supreme majesty capable of suppressing Ten Thousand Laws.

Cai Shen didn’t speak, but his fluctuating spiritual nature trembled slightly, betraying his inner unrest. The place they were heading was exactly where the Dao Kings would strike first when the Great Tide of Time arrived.

At the Outer Realm boundary.

There were no stars here, no celestial realms. There was only a stretch of eternal, heart-stopping darkness. This was the weakest node in the barrier at the Outer Realm boundary.

Qi Yun’s Auspicious Cloud slowly came to a halt.

He stood at the head of the cloud with his hands behind his back, multicolored light swirling in his eyes. Circulating his Primordial Dao to its absolute limit, he peered into the void beyond the boundary.

He saw it.

In the deepest depths of that nothingness, there was light. Not just a single beam, but many. Some were golden-yellow, like a Buddha’s kasaya; some were cyan-gray, like the cold glint of a sword edge; some were dark red, like dried blood; and some were pitch-black, like the stare of the abyss.

Those were the gazes of the Dao Kings.

Qi Yun’s pupils contracted slightly. He could feel them “looking” at him, much like looking at a lamb that had wandered into a tiger’s den.

“Interesting,” Qi Yun muttered to himself, offering a faint smile.

Instead of retreating, he took a step forward. This step landed squarely on the intersection line of the Outer Realm.

“Qi the Kid!” Cai Shen’s voice was laced with panic. “What are you doing?!”

Those were Dao Kings!

“Saying hello,” Qi Yun said calmly.

He raised his right hand, bringing his fingers together like a sword. Aiming at the golden-yellow gaze beyond the Outer Realm, he slashed lightly.

SWISH!

A pale gray sword beam, condensed to the absolute limit, erupted from his fingertips, stabbing straight toward that golden-yellow gaze! Wherever the sword beam passed, the twisted, collapsing space was forcefully cleaved open, revealing a straight path leading into the depths of nothingness!

Deep within the vortex, the golden-yellow gaze trembled violently. Immediately after, a magnificent, booming voice exploded directly in the depths of Qi Yun’s Heart and Spirit:

“Amitabha!”