285: A gift from the heavens? They've all gone mad for immortality!

Amplified by the warship, that voice carried a supreme will, bearing a pressure that would make even a Great Emperor feel humble.

Within a few short breaths, it spread frantically!

In an instant, across the entire Xuanyuan Continent, the Souls of countless Cultivators who had reached the Saint Realm trembled violently!

Whether they were in death seclusion within deep underground palaces, traveling through the Mortal World, or fighting on bloody battlefields, they all looked up in shock toward the distant Heavenly Pillar Mountain in the Central State!

"We are the Reception Envoys of the 'Tiannan Immortal Domain' and the 'Xuantian Immortal Sect' of the Upper Realm!"

"The Old Ancestors of our Immortal Sect are merciful and cannot bear to see you trapped in a land of fragmented Laws and turbid Spiritual Qi, your paths to the Dao severed, your Lifespans exhausted, eventually turning into yellow earth."

"Therefore, we have specially opened the Heavenly Gate and descended this unique, eternal Ascension Decree!"

"All those on the Xuanyuan Continent whose cultivation has reached the Great Saint Realm or above may come to Heavenly Pillar Mountain in the Central State and board the 'Ascension Immortal Ship'!"

"Within the Immortal Realm, Immortal Qi falls like rain and Laws are woven like silk; the path to becoming an Immortal is no longer a legend! You shall follow us to the vast Immortal Realm, enjoy the Great Dao of immortality, and attain your true, carefree self!"

Every word was like a precise key, unlocking the deepest and darkest shackles of desire within the hearts of the Lower Realm Cultivators!

Ascension!

Longevity!

Immortal Realm!

For the Xuanyuan Continent, where the path to immortality had been severed for tens of thousands of years, this was more lethal than the most poisonous potion in the world!

As soon as the news broke, the world was shocked!

After a brief, dead silence, the entire continent instantly boiled over, falling into an unprecedented frenzy!

In the deepest part of an immortal Holy Land in the Eastern Wasteland.

Boom—!

An ancient stone coffin, sealed for thirty thousand years and covered in Emperor Runes, had its lid violently blown open by a burst of wild power!

A shriveled old man with white hair and skin like old tree bark sat up abruptly from the coffin.

His cloudy old eyes suddenly erupted with a piercing light like two newborn suns, burning through the darkness of the underground palace!

"Ascension... the path to immortality... has been reconnected?!"

"Haha... Hahahaha! Heaven has not forsaken me!"

"I sealed myself for thirty thousand years, burning ninety-nine percent of my Origin, and finally, I have waited long enough!"

He laughed maniacally, and his shriveled body began to fill out at a speed visible to the naked eye.

His aura, which had been at death's door, surged upward as he burned his few remaining years of Lifespan regardless of the cost, forcibly pushing his cultivation back to the Quasi-Emperor realm in an instant!

The next second, he transformed into a streak of light burning with the fire of life, tearing through the Void Realm and rushing desperately toward Heavenly Pillar Mountain in the Central State!

In the Southern Border, deep within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, lay an ancient Witch Village shrouded in poisonous miasma year-round.

On an altar, a Witch Grand Priest, whose body was almost fused with an ancient tree, suddenly snapped his eyes open.

Guarding the Seal here was his innate destiny.

"People from the Upper Realm... have come?"

He muttered to himself, a trace of struggle flashing through his cloudy eyes, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the fear of death.

"The Great Dao of Longevity... Hahaha, what bullshit ancestral teachings! What bullshit guardianship!"

"I have only three years of Lifespan left. If I don't take this gamble, I'll become fertilizer for this ancient tree!"

He tore off the animal bone pendant that symbolized his responsibility, allowing the Seal he had suppressed for thousands of years to emit an ominous tremor, while his figure instantly vanished from the spot.

In the Ancient Buddhist Temple of the Western Desert.

An old monk who was chanting sutras unconsciously crushed the sandalwood fish mallet in his hand into powder with a 'snap'.

He slowly stood up and looked toward the Central State, his expression—usually as calm as a still well—showing violent fluctuations for the first time.

It was a fierce battle between desire and faith.

Finally, he pressed his palms together and bowed deeply to the ten-thousand-year-old Buddha statue before him, his voice hoarse.

"amitabha..."

"If Buddha will not deliver me, I shall deliver myself by becoming a demon!"

As his voice fell, the Buddha's light behind him suddenly dimmed... Similar scenes were playing out frantically in every forgotten corner of the Xuanyuan Continent!

Countless hidden old monsters, countless Quasi-Emperors and Great Saints with one foot in the grave, crawled out from their coffins and seclusion spots, driven by an endless fear of death and a pathological craving for longevity!

They were so moved that tears filled their eyes, acting as if they were possessed!

They abandoned their Sects and forgot their families; only one obsession remained in their hearts—to live!

For a time, the sky over the entire continent was filled with brilliant colors and divine rainbows!

One after another, powerful auras that could normally suppress an entire region rose into the sky without concealment, tearing through the heavens as they converged toward Heavenly Pillar Mountain in the Central State from all directions!

The scene was like thousands of hungry ghosts smelling the scent of flesh and blood.

A grand, chaotic dance of demons!

Greed overwhelmed all reason.

Of course, a very few individuals maintained a sliver of clarity.

Two Quasi-Emperor Ancestors from different Immortal Families briefly exchanged Divine Thoughts in the Void Realm.

"Brother, this matter... is too suspicious. Why would the Upper Realm be so kind?" One of them was full of doubt.

The other's Divine Thought was filled with determination and self-deprecation.

"Kind?"

"Brother, both your Lifespan and mine are less than a hundred years. Staying here is a dead end."

"Going to Heavenly Pillar Mountain, even if there is only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, that is life!"

"Do you still want to stay in this cold coffin and watch yourself rot?"

"I don't!"

That sliver of doubt was instantly shattered.

Indeed, for those about to die, any straw was a life-saving Immortal Pill.

Almost no one went deeper to investigate whether there was a conspiracy capable of swallowing everything behind this "pie in the sky" stroke of luck.

In their view, this was the greatest Opportunity the Xuanyuan Continent had seen in eons!

It was their only chance to escape death and reach the heavens in a single bound!

Whoever dared to stand in their way was their irreconcilable mortal enemy!

A massive storm, triggered by the desire for "Longevity" and sweeping across the entire continent, had already begun.