The Tianmu Clan's sacred ground lay nestled at the heart of seven crystal-clear lakes, an area saturated with profound spiritual energy. Within colossal statues, numerous shrines dedicated to ancestral worship were situated. These temples were magnificent and towering, serving as cultivation sanctuaries for many of the Tianmu Clan's elders.

The Old Clan Chief of the Tianmu, presiding over the clan's affairs, resided within the largest of these shrines.

Evelyn's master had originally been the Grand Elder of the Tianmu Clan. He perished in a battle against martial practitioners from a nearby domain. Before that time, Evelyn, Mahisha, and Adams had not possessed the requisite status to reside in the sacred grounds, nor were they officially recognized as elders of the clan.

Returning from the Void Sea of Nothingness, Evelyn and the other two brought tidings of goodwill from the Xuantian Clan, successfully establishing contact with them.

Because of this monumental meritorious service, Evelyn, Adams, and Mahisha were all elevated to the rank of Tianmu Clan elders, naturally securing a place for themselves within these very shrines.

Evelyn, as the senior disciple, had rendered the greatest service. After deliberation, the Tianmu elders even commissioned the construction of a personal shrine for him.

Many Tianmu clansmen now regarded Evelyn as a great hero of the clan. Numerous younger members would deliberately seek each other out to come and pay homage at Evelyn’s statue.

Evelyn’s own disciples took immense pride in this. Seeing Shi Yan’s casual teasing, they could not help but step forward to retort.

Shi Yan simply smiled, letting the matter pass, and allowed Evelyn to lead the way towards the shrines.

“Ahead lies the heart of the sacred ground. Without the Old Clan Chief’s consent, outsiders cannot easily enter. Please understand,” Evelyn suddenly halted, speaking with a trace of embarrassment. “Adams and Mahisha are inside their shrines; I will go summon them so they can greet you personally.”

Shi Yan held no particular interest in the Tianmu Clan's sacred ground whatsoever. His presence there was purely for a brief rest. Hearing Evelyn’s explanation, he nodded his assent.

Evelyn instructed his disciples to wait outside and entered the cluster of shrines alone. Half an hour later, he returned, accompanied by Mahisha and Adams.

Upon seeing Shi Yan, Adams and Mahisha were overcome with surprise, shouting from a distance, “On behalf of all the people of the Tianmu Clan, we thank you for coming!”

Xiaoya, Xiaoye, and the other young men and women of the Tianmu Clan, seeing the usually arrogant Adams showing such deference to Shi Yan, were utterly astonished.

Gratitude from the Tianmu people?

They were all baffled, unsure why the Tianmu Clan felt indebted to Shi Yan. In private, they dismissed Adams’s words as mere flattery and didn't dwell on it.

Many Tianmu youths gathered near various statues in the vicinity, who had been chatting cheerfully, paused their conversations, drawn by the strange exchange taking place nearby.

Their eyes instantly fixed on Evelyn, Adams, and Mahisha. After a moment of surprise, they suddenly grew excited and rushed forward.

“Elder Evelyn! You are Elder Evelyn, aren’t you? Please bestow a blessing upon me!”

“Elder Adams. Elder Mahisha, heavens, you’ve actually emerged from the shrines! It is such a joy to see you. Could you perhaps illuminate some obscure point in the profound mysteries for us?”

“Greetings, Elder Evelyn…” A wave of excited clamor suddenly erupted. The youths’ eyes glowed as they pressed forward frantically.

Evelyn saw the situation was deteriorating rapidly. He quickly declared, “Let’s talk somewhere else!”

He extended a hand, grabbing a clump of crystalline light that solidified into a spherical bundle, enveloping his disciples. With Mahisha and Adams, they abruptly vanished.

Shi Yan’s mind stirred. His own silhouette, along with Zi Yao’s, blurred, gradually losing visibility.

When they reappeared, they were in a small valley on the periphery of the sacred shrine grounds. The valley was remarkably tranquil, shielded by intensely powerful barrier fluctuations along its edges. Within the valley stood many neatly arranged courtyards and bamboo residences, exuding elegance and serenity.

This place had once been the solitary retreat of Evelyn’s master. Evelyn and the other two sometimes came here to discuss secret matters. It was separated from the main sacred shrines by a distance, so it wasn't considered particularly remote.

“Why have you graced our Tianmu Clan with your presence?”

Mahisha, having received an Immortal Pill from the Old Ancestor Longxi, had also broken through to the Immortal Realm and was now one of the Tianmu elders. She understood better than anyone that her current achievements were entirely due to Shi Yan’s influence. Therefore, her tone was even more reverent than Adams’s.

“Just passing by, I happened to see Evelyn, so I stopped for a look,” Shi Yan explained with a smile.

“The Old Clan Chief is currently occupied hosting the powerful figures from the Fire Phoenix Clan and has no spare time at the moment. Once their business concludes, we, along with the Old Clan Chief, will properly host the two of you!” Evelyn emphasized.

“The Fire Phoenix Clan?”

Zi Yao’s expression became strange, a flicker of interest crossing her eyes, as if she recognized the lineage.

“The Fire Phoenix Clan is quite famous in the Void Sea of Nothingness. Rumor has it they, like the Longxi Clan, are descendants of the Primal Beings. However, the Fire Phoenix Clan is slightly more formidable; they possess a Domain Ancestor expert. The Fire Phoenix Clan is a vassal to the Xuantian Clan, but they are considerably stronger than our Tianmu Clan,” Evelyn explained to Shi Yan. “The Fire Phoenix Clan’s star domain is very close to ours. After we submitted to the Tianmu Clan, we were instructed to maintain good relations with the Fire Phoenix Clan henceforth. In this region, the Tianmu Clan and many other minor races look to the Fire Phoenix Clan as their leader.”

Shi Yan was uninterested in the petty disputes of these minor races, and he paid no heed to the Old Clan Chief’s intended hospitality. He waved his hand dismissively, “There is no need to trouble your Clan Chief. We are merely passing through the vicinity. Well, I am pleased to see you all, but we are quite exhausted from our long journey. We were hoping to cultivate quietly here for a while, if that is alright?”

Mahisha was sharp-witted and immediately understood. She nodded quickly. “You two rest first. Once you have regained your energy, we will visit you again.”

With that, she firmly pulled her two senior brothers along with the younger generation and swiftly vacated the area.

“Why were you in such a rush to leave?” After leaving the valley, Evelyn showed slight displeasure, glaring at his junior sister and grumbling, “We had an agreement with him back then; I was afraid he might have forgotten, and I wanted to mention it briefly. What was the rush?”

“He wanted some time alone with him; you absolute fool, you have no perception at all,” Mahisha laughed.

When she said this, Evelyn and Adams realized the truth. Thinking that Shi Yan was still present anyway, there was no urgent need, so they felt relieved.

“Speaking of the Fire Phoenix Clan’s arrival, what is the matter?” Evelyn’s expression sobered, tinged with complexity.

The Tianmu Clan, like the Fire Phoenix Clan, were both subordinate races to the Xuantian Clan, but the Tianmu were significantly weaker. Consequently, within the surrounding sea of stars, the Fire Phoenix Clan acted as the de facto leader. The Fire Phoenix Clan had indeed offered the Tianmu Clan some assistance, helping them to intimidate neighboring races.

But this aid was not without cost.

Many familiar flame ore mines within the Tianmu Clan’s star domain had been claimed by the Fire Phoenix Clan. The Fire Phoenix clansmen cultivated the profound principles of Fire power, and their own domain’s flame mines were nearly depleted. The domains connected to the Fire Phoenix Clan had also mostly been coerced into handing over their flame mines.

Originally, the Fire Phoenix Clan had no direct ties to the Tianmu Clan. However, because both were vassals of the Xuantian Clan, and because the Fire Phoenix Clan helped the Tianmu deter hostile external forces, the Fire Phoenix Clan naturally extended its influence into the Tianmu domain, demanding that the Tianmu yield the mines rich in Flame Crystal Stones.

This time, the Fire Phoenix Clan members arrived bringing many mine slaves, fully prepared to commence extraction operations.

“They don’t have enough mine slaves; they want us to provide a portion of ours to help them excavate the Flame Crystal Stones,” Adams said with a wry smile.

“That is outrageous! We already ceded those Flame Crystal Stone mines to them, and now they demand we provide the slaves too! They haven't helped us that much; they only shouted down a few hostile forces; yet they demand so much from us,” Evelyn scoffed coldly.

“We are all vassals of the Xuantian Clan, and the Xuantian Clan meant well. The Fire Phoenix Clan is the strongest in this region; alas, there’s nothing to be done. They have a Domain Ancestor, and their status within the Xuantian Clan is far higher than ours,” Adams sighed.

“Forget it, forget it.” Evelyn considered it, finding no solution, and could only endure it for the time being.

...

In the valley.

After Evelyn and his group departed, Shi Yan smiled calmly. “Speaking of the Fire Phoenix Clan, your expression was strange just now. Do you know them?”

“After entering the Void Sea of Nothingness, I made some inquiries. That Fire Phoenix Clan—heh—their ancient ancestors were actually refined by me,” Zi Yao replied casually.

Shi Yan understood. Zi Yao was a clone of ‘Hui,’ a fragment of ‘Hui’s’ soul. Now that she had absorbed ‘Hui’s’ soul consciousness, she identified as ‘Hui’ and possessed all the memories of the Primal Age.

“Were the Fire Phoenix Clan’s ancestors also Primal Beings? How did you refine them?” Shi Yan was also curious.

Zi Yao pondered for a long time, then suddenly asked, “How much do you know about the Primal Age? Didn’t you obtain two soul fragments of ‘Huang’?”

“My memories are fragmented and impossible to piece together. What I know are just scraps; I cannot truly grasp the details of that era,” Shi Yan admitted helplessly.

Gazing deeply at him, Zi Yao smiled enchantingly. “Then I shall tell you all about it. That way, you will have a better foundation.”

Shi Yan smiled. He sought a quiet place precisely to converse with Zi Yao, to discuss that perished era and clear the heavy fog in his own heart.

“That was an era of wonders. Beings were massive in stature. In that age, from the moment a creature was born, it was already at the Void God realm. We did not need to cultivate step-by-step from God King to Void God like the current races do. Our starting point, from the very beginning, was the Void God realm. We were uniquely blessed, as the heaven and earth energy was incredibly dense, making cultivation exceedingly easy.”

“In that era, there was no division of domains. Heaven and Earth were simply an endless expanse of starlight; countless stars existed within one unified realm. There were no barriers to the starry sky then; the sea of stars was boundless, stretching to an unknown infinity. Before the end of our era, no one had managed to find the edge of the star sea.”

“In that era, Heaven and Earth could spontaneously nurture divine weapons. Take your Fallen Star River, for example; it was originally an ocean of stars. Those stars possessed conscious life and strong soul fluctuations. It was discovered by ‘Chen,’ who tempered it for tens of thousands of years, transforming it into the divine artifact Fallen Star River. It is a pity that ‘Chen’ also perished in that great war, and the Fallen Star River’s whereabouts became unknown. I never expected you to discover it.”

Zi Yao recounted the magnificent saga of that age, piece by piece.

“Why did you fight? What was that ultimate war truly about?” Shi Yan narrowed his eyes and inquired solemnly.

“Naturally, it was for greater power.”