136: All efforts were in vain, and the dream was shattered.

Several hours passed.

The sky had already darkened, and the spiritual essence vortex above the Qingyuan Sect grew even more immense, with multicolored spiritual light illuminating hundreds of miles of the firmament.

However, the nearly twenty Dao Foundation Elders of the Qingyuan Sect all noticed that the phenomenon was gradually stalling.

The thousand-zhang swirling storm, which seemed to connect heaven and earth, was choked at its Foundation by an invisible hand, beginning to tremble slowly. Jagged, broken fissures appeared along its edges, as if the heavenly curtain was being violently ripped apart.

The overwhelming spiritual essence no longer followed its predetermined trajectory; instead, it began colliding and eroding without pattern, continuously exploding in the night sky.

“The nascent pressure... is fading.”

“The Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence is insufficient!”

“What should we do?”

The sudden turn of events sent a chill through the blood of all the Elders and Disciples gazing up at the sky.

“The Sect Master's spiritual essence is insufficient!”

“Open the Sect treasury! Send all Spirit Stones and Resources immediately to the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation hub!”

“All Disciples must contribute their Spirit Stones.”

Venerable Weiyun's roar drowned out the shrieks of the rampaging spiritual essence, and the entire Qingyuan Sect immediately descended into chaos, but at least they had a pillar of strength.

The Scripture Pavilion, the Pill Refining Room, the Artifact Refining Valley, the Spiritual Herb Garden... hundreds of Disciples divided their tasks and, under the command of the Elders, intended to exhaust all the Qingyuan Sect's Resources to increase the Sect Master's chances of Breakthrough.

“Get out of the way! This is Jade Marrow cultivated for three hundred years!”

An Elder, clutching a jade green gourd nearly as tall as himself, stumbled as he flew toward the main peak.

“My Spirit Stones...”

Some Disciples painfully took out the hundred Spirit Stones they had earned through years of hard work and threw them into the Spirit Gathering Formation.

“Don't be stingy, if the Sect Master succeeds, we can earn it all back!”

There were even many Spirit Medicines, Spirit Pills, and Spiritual Ores that were deliberately crushed completely, extracting the spiritual essence from all sentient objects and releasing it into the Heaven And Earth.

All for that tiny sliver of possibility.

Tens of thousands of Spirit Stones piled up into small mountains in the center of the Formation, only to turn into pale ashes in the span of a breath.

Massive amounts of spiritual essence converged into streams, pouring into the gigantic, dying vortex in the sky, yet the speed of the vortex's disintegration did not slow.

“It's not enough... still far from enough!”

At the Formation hub, an Elder let out a roar of unwillingness.

A brief silence fell over the crowd.

“Dig up the Spiritual Veins!”

Suddenly, three words rang out among the Elders.

The silent air instantly ignited, and chaotic clamor boiled up.

“Absolutely not!”

Someone instantly jumped up in opposition.

“If the Spiritual Veins are dug up, what will happen to us in the future?”

“Exactly, without the Spiritual Veins, how can we cultivate in the future? Digging up the Spiritual Veins is absolutely forbidden!”

“Nonsense! If the Sect Master fails, then everything will truly be for naught.”

“That's right, if the Sect Master succeeds, won't the Qingyuan Realm be ours to take whatever we want? A few Spiritual Veins? We can just steal others'!”

“No, no, no, digging up Spiritual Veins is an outrageous act that harms Karma. Our Qingyuan Sect is the leader of the Righteous Path in the world, how can we act like this?”

“Pedantic! Idiot!”

Someone yelled angrily in rebuke.

“If we dig up the Spiritual Veins, and the Sect Master still fails, what then?”

Someone said, filled with worry.

“That's simple, we just go out and steal them anyway!”

“The Spiritual Veins of our Qingyuan Sect are already the best in the world. If we dig up this vein, where else can we find other Spiritual Veins capable of sustaining us???”

At this moment, someone with ulterior motives suddenly spoke:

“If the Sect Master truly succeeds, how many Resources will be needed to support the Xuantai True Person's centuries of Lifespan? If we lose the Spiritual Vein beneath our feet, I'm afraid even our own cultivation will...”

As soon as these words were spoken, the surroundings first fell into a dead silence.

Immediately afterward, an even greater dispute began.

“Are you hoping the Sect Master fails, you bastard?”

“I am not!”

“Yes, you are! You traitor!!”

“I warn you, don't slander me! Everything I just said came from the bottom of my heart. If you really have the ability, tell me how to solve this! Is an Advanced Spiritual Vein just going to pop out of the ground?”

“You—”

Neither side could convince the other.

They had no objection to taking out the Sect's Spirit Stones and Resources, or even contributing their own possessions.

But digging up the Spiritual Veins meant digging up the Qingyuan Sect's Foundation!

Some people disagreed.

And they were not few in number.

The Second Rank High Grade Spiritual Vein beneath their feet was very likely the highest grade and the last remaining Second Rank High Grade Spiritual Vein in this Realm!

Once it was dug up... without this Foundation, regardless of whether the Qingyuan Sect Master succeeded in his Breakthrough or not, the Qingyuan Sect was bound to fall apart!!!

Because the remaining Spiritual Veins of the Qingyuan Sect could not support these hundreds of Disciples and twenty Dao Foundation Cultivators, let alone a potential Immortal Master.

Once everyone scattered, what kind of Sect would it be?

If this continued, it would be considered fortunate if they didn't turn their weapons on each other for Resources.

Time flowed away amidst such arguments.

Half an hour later.

The phenomenon in the sky was about to completely dissipate, and the spiritual essence vortex began shrinking inward from the center, like a punctured bubble.

They finally reached a conclusion.

“The Spiritual Veins of the main peak cannot be dug up!”

“We'll dig up the remaining First Rank Spiritual Veins on the Secondary Peaks; it's better than nothing, and should provide extra—”

Before they could act.

“Rumble!!!”

A deafening roar shook the heavens, and brilliant spiritual light instantly exploded high in the sky, transforming into multicolored ribbons of light that drifted down.

The phenomenon in the sky completely vanished.

The night sky reappeared.

The starlight remained, but it was cold, like candlelight in a graveyard.

The Qingyuan Sect Master failed.

He didn't even make it to the most difficult hurdle after forming the Profound Fetus, the “Heart Demon Tribulation.” Due to insufficient Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence, he failed at the very beginning, during the stage of Condensing the Profound Fetus.

Moreover, after realizing he was powerless to reverse the situation, he proactively stopped struggling and faced death calmly.

Of course, he knew what was happening outside.

Therefore, he did not want the Sect to end up losing its Spiritual Veins as well.

“Everyone... stop... stop now, cough, cough.”

Venerable Weiyun's voice finally sounded from Qingyuan Mountain, accompanied by the gasping breaths of someone reaching their limit.

“The Spiritual Veins are the Foundation... they cannot... be dug up!”

The stone door of the Immortal Cave at the mountain peak slowly opened.

A frail figure leaned on the door frame and stumbled out.

It was none other than the Qingyuan Sect Master, Venerable Weiyun.

But at this moment, his hair was completely white, his skin deeply wrinkled, resembling an eighty or ninety-year-old Mortal Elder.

Every time he breathed, a trickle of dark silver blood, speckled with fine light, oozed from the corner of his mouth—a sign that his Dao Foundation Origin was dissipating.

Having failed his Breakthrough, he was severely injured.

Furthermore, since he already had little Lifespan remaining, it could be said that he was a dying man with only a few days left to live.

He raised his eyes, looked at the Disciples collapsed all over the mountain, and looked at the Dao Foundation Elders whose expressions varied greatly, and he couldn't help but let out a mournful sigh in his heart.

“A grand dream ends up being nothing but emptiness.”

“Grandmaster, I have failed you, failed the Sect, and failed our ancestors.”

Tears slowly dripped from the corners of his eyes.

He naturally saw the crisis facing the Qingyuan Sect and foresaw the end of its ten-thousand-year Legacy.

When there are no external enemies, internal strife arises naturally.

“Qingyuan Sect... I can no longer protect it...”