The Triple Omen Breakthrough

Within the Violet Palace, the boundless sea of Yuan power stretched endlessly. As Ji Ning willed it, the surface of the entire Yuan sea began to descend, falling steadily with a continuous roar.

Deep within the Yuan sea.

Vast amounts of Yuan essence frantically condensed. One massive star after another began to take form and coalesce. How long passed was unknown.

“Rumble…” The Yuan sea, whose surface had already sunk considerably, suddenly began to churn. One enormous star after another slowly rose, breaking through the surface and continuing upward. Dense clusters of colossal stars emerged from the water, soaring toward the high heavens, each faintly radiating light.

Rising, rising.

At last, the countless stars hung high in the endless void.

In that moment, the Violet Palace space truly possessed a night sky, filled with the first omen of breaking through to the Wanxiang stage—Stars Filling the Sky.

“Splash…” The Yuan sea continued to sink.

At the center of the sea, a vast amount of Yuan essence gathered, striving to form an even more astonishingly colossal star. After an unknown time, this star—many times larger than all the others—began slowly ascending. Gradually, it broke through the waves and flew into the sky.

Unlike the ascent of the countless stars before, this single enormous star now dominated the entire night sky. It emitted a gentle radiance, illuminating the whole firmament and the Yuan sea below.

At this moment, it was the most dazzling object in the Violet Palace.

This was the second omen of breaking through to Wanxiang—The Moon Rising from the Sea.

Finally, this great moon rose to the highest heavens. Thousands of stars hung high, clustering around it.

“Splash…” The Yuan sea continued to fall.

If the Yuan sea were too small, it would be impossible to condense thousands of stars. Failure to do so would mean an inability to break through to the Wanxiang stage. Experts like Daoist Muxiao and Xu Li had only practiced mediocre techniques, and when they broke through, they only manifested the second omen.

But Ji Ning’s Yuan sea was exceptionally vast and majestic. Although it had descended for so long, it had not yet reached three-tenths of its total volume.

At this moment—

Another star of equally unimaginable size was condensing in the depths of the sea. Before it even emerged, it began to emit a dazzling light, causing the entire Yuan sea to glow. Finally, it, too, began to ascend. This enormous star rose steadily until it broke through the water’s surface.

The instant it emerged, the star’s blazing, yang-radiance instantly spread, engulfing the entire Violet Palace space. In a single breath, the palace transitioned from night to day.

This sun slowly rose, flying deep into the sky.

This was the third omen of breaking through to Wanxiang—The Sun Rising in the East.

Stars Filling the Sky, The Moon Rising from the Sea, and The Sun Rising in the East—when these three omens appeared simultaneously, it represented the most perfect breakthrough to the Wanxiang stage.

When the sun flew to the deepest part of the sky, surrounded by thousands of stars, it stood opposite the moon. One yin, one yang. Because it had risen to the highest point, the sun’s brilliance was no longer as fierce. The moon’s gentle light and the sun’s blazing radiance together shone down upon the entire sea below.

“Condense!” Ji Ning willed it.

The Yuan sea, which had only descended by a small fraction, now began to drop frantically.

Countless motes of light floated up from the violently descending Yuan sea, breaking through the surface and flying into the sky. As the sea continued to fall, more and more motes emerged—countless, uncountable, hundreds or thousands of times more numerous than the stars themselves. All of them flew toward the stars, the moon, and the sun, merging into them.

The moon, the sun, and the countless stars all began to grow larger. Absorbing these motes, they underwent a transformation.

When the Yuan sea had descended to less than ten percent of its original volume, everything finally stopped.

The moon, the sun, and the stars in the high sky had all doubled in size.

“It’s done.” Ji Ning’s heart relaxed.

The stars in the sky began to move slowly, at first sluggish and halting, but soon growing natural. With the Taiyin and Sunstars at their core, they began to revolve. The movements of the thousands of stars were entirely spontaneous. These stars, the moon, and the sun naturally resonated with the countless true stars of the outside world, and so began their celestial motion.

Inside a deep, secluded cave.

Mu Northson turned to look at Ji Ning, who was still sitting cross-legged but had stopped refining the Primordial Liquid. “Senior apprentice-brother should be about to break through,” he thought.

Suddenly, a vast amount of natural elemental energy frantically surged toward Ji Ning at an astonishing speed. After a few moments, the fluctuation ceased, and Ji Ning opened his eyes, laughing heartily.

“Congratulations, senior apprentice-brother, on stepping into the Wanxiang stage!” Mu Northson said joyfully.

“I just tested it—exactly as you said, junior apprentice-brother. Once you break through to Wanxiang, the stars in your Violet Palace resonate with the countless true stars outside. Absorbing elemental energy from the world becomes dozens of times faster.” Ji Ning smiled, but inwardly he knew that creating Primordial Liquid was far more difficult. If one wanted to deliberately produce it, one would need to set up a grand formation like the Fire Dragon Immortal’s, converting elemental energy over years into pure Primordial Liquid. Thus, Primordial Liquid was naturally extremely precious.

Wanxiang Adepts and Primal Daoists generally preferred to spend time cultivating rather than relying heavily on Primordial Liquid for rapid advancement.

“Now that you’ve broken through to Wanxiang, you should be lacking a suitable set of Earth-ranked treasures,” Mu Northson said with a grin. “That set of flying swords we just got from Beihe Zhou should suit you perfectly. Let me give them to you as a congratulatory gift for your breakthrough.”

Ji Ning was startled. “No!”

That set of flying swords from Beihe Zhou was indeed a set of nine Earth-ranked flying swords, clearly of excellent quality—likely top-grade Earth-ranked. While his current Lesser Thousand Sword Formation core, the Nine Yang Sword Formation, consisted of top-grade Human-ranked swords, for a Wanxiang Adept, these were far inferior to those nine superb Earth-ranked swords. The price difference told the tale: a top-grade Human-ranked flying sword was worth about a hundred liang of Primordial Liquid, roughly ten jin. But each of Beihe Zhou’s Earth-ranked swords was likely worth a hundred jin of Primordial Liquid, and the set of nine would be around a thousand jin.

“Senior apprentice-brother, these flying swords are useless to me,” Mu Northson said, shaking his head. “As a congratulatory gift… are you going to refuse?”

Ji Ning looked at Mu Northson, then laughed. “Fine, I’ll accept this set of flying swords.”

They were fellow disciples who had braved life and death together. Ji Ning no longer stood on ceremony, but kept the debt in his heart.

Time flowed. Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Amid drifting clouds and mist, a dragon-headed warship sailed forward leisurely. In the distance, space was distorted, faint cracks visible, beyond which lay a gray, formless void. Even though they had seen this sight many times, Ji Ning and Mu Northson still felt a chill in their hearts.

The dragon-headed warship naturally gave such distortions a wide berth. Once sucked into such spatial turbulence, Ji Ning knew that with their current strength, they would surely die.

“This set of flying swords is truly sharp and murderous,” Ji Ning said, standing at the bow. He extended his right hand, around which nine finger-sized flying swords swirled, constantly rotating, occasionally spitting out sword-light. He was familiarizing himself with these nine Earth-ranked flying swords.

Since the set had no name, Ji Ning dubbed it the “Beihe Sword Formation,” both in memory of Beihe Zhou and as a constant reminder to beware of other cultivators.

“Senior apprentice-brother, look.” Mu Northson pointed into the distance.

Ji Ning looked carefully.

In the hazy distance, another warship was flying toward them. The moment he saw its design, Ji Ning said directly, “That’s Wanxiang Adept Wuxiang, one of the hundred candidates trying to join the Yinglong Guard.”

“Wuxiang?” Mu Northson looked as well. “It won’t be like when we met Beihe Zhou, will it? Are there other Wanxiang Adepts hiding inside the warship?”

“Let me see.”

Ji Ning willed it, and his divine sense swept out, enveloping the distant warship completely. He probed every movement inside. After a moment, he relaxed and said, “It’s fine. There are only two people on that warship—Wuxiang and one other.”

“Hmm?” Ji Ning’s expression changed.

On the other warship.

The white-robed cultivator, Dongxu, and the gray-robed Wuxiang were also watching Ji Ning’s dragon-headed warship.

“That dragon-headed warship belongs to Mu Northson of the Black-White College,” Wuxiang said.

“Look at them, drifting along so slowly. They’ve probably already gathered enough Wanxiang demon heads,” Dongxu said.

“They’re from the Black-White College after all,” Wuxiang frowned, shaking his head. “Pity. When we first entered Mount Yujue Wasteland, our luck was decent. We even killed one Wanxiang demon. But later, when we dealt with that Skygreen Serpent… our luck ran out. We failed several times. Three days ago, that Skygreen Serpent toyed with us and nearly got us killed.”

Dongxu clenched his teeth. “The first time, we let her escape. The second time, she found us and toyed with us, putting us in danger. If I meet her again, I’ll kill her.”

“Skygreen Serpent?” Ji Ning’s heart stirred.

Back when he first left his parents’ protection and roamed the wilds around the Western Prefecture city, he had clashed with a Skygreen Serpent several times. Later, Tie Muzhan had been killed by him, but Ji Ning never found the serpent’s corpse. At the time, he suspected it had used its “Void Shuttle” technique to escape.

“Skygreen Serpents are quite rare. Because of their innate talent, they usually grow very fast,” Ji Ning mused. “I wonder if the one they encountered is the same one from Yan Mountain.”

“Junior apprentice-brother, steer closer,” Ji Ning said.

“Closer?” Mu Northson looked at him.

Ji Ning nodded.

Mu Northson didn’t ask further and immediately maneuvered the dragon-headed warship over.

Ji Ning gazed into the distance. He wanted to learn some information about the Skygreen Serpent from these two. Since they still had over two months left in Mount Yujue Wasteland with nothing much to do, he might as well investigate and see if that serpent was the one he knew.

Back then in Yan Mountain, a mere Houtian youth and a Xiantian Skygreen Serpent… Now, after so many years, they might meet again.

Even Tomato himself felt a thrill of excitement.