The crowds in the Ninth Mountain and Sea were watching on the vortex screens, and could see everything that Ling Yunzi and the others encountered.
That included the decomposing, half-headed man, as well as all the other things lurking in the mists.
Many gasps could be heard from the cultivators in the Ninth Mountain and Sea. For most of them, this was their first time ever seeing the Ruins of Immortality. In previous trials by fire, outsiders were not permitted to see these things, but this time was different. Not only were the prizes astonishing, but for the first time, everyone was able to catch a glimpse of the Ruins of Immortality.
Although it was only a tiny portion, it was still enough to capture the attention of innumerable cultivators.
When they saw the gigantic corpse, cries of shock echoed out in all directions. Then the ancient Dao Tree appeared, and even greater shouts of astonishment could be heard.
“It’s actually… growing on the top of the giant’s corpse!”
“That’s the ancient Dao Tree? What exactly is it? Why is it called a Dao Tree?!”
“That corpse… Heavens! I never imagined that things that huge existed! How is this possible?! If that thing wasn’t dead… who could possibly fight it? It’s… actually a real corpse!”
The faces of the Patriarchs up in the starry sky palace were calm; all of them were familiar with the Ruins of Immortality.
However, they were all wondering what motive the Three Great Daoist Societies had to allow all the crowds on the outside to see.
A huge corpse. An ancient tree.
“The tree leaves are the arenas,” said Ling Yunzi. “The leaves on the left side will be the Nascent Soul battleground. The leaves on the right are for Spirit Severing. As for the central main trunk… that is where the Dao Seeking fights will take place!” As his words echoed out, Meng Hao stood there on one of the leaves on the main trunk, at the bottom level.
All of the other Dao Seeking cultivators were also located on bottom-level leaves. When they looked up, they could see that the branches sticking out from it were arranged in layers, the highest of which was ten levels away.
The higher the level, the fewer the leaves. In fact, at the apex, there was only one golden leaf, which was completely eye catching.
As for the battlegrounds on the left and right, they were also arranged in levels, although instead of climbing straight up, they moved out to the side. Similarly, though, as they reached their ends, the leaves grew sparser, until at the very end of each, was a golden leaf!
Three golden leaves. Those were the limits of the ancient Dao Tree, and the locations where the final matches would be fought.
Even as Ling Yunzi provided his explanation, he and the other two old men performed incantation gestures and produced magical materials which they used to begin to set up teleportation portals on the giant’s corpse beneath the tree.
After the teleportation portals took shape, the three old men performed incantation gestures and pointed out, causing boundless light to shine up. Out in the sects of the Ninth Mountain and Sea, as soon as the light from the teleportation portals rose up, Zhao Yifan, Taiyang Zi, Fan Dong’er, and other Chosen all stepped forward onto the teleportation portals at their locations. Light flashed, and they vanished.
When they reappeared, they were standing atop the giant’s corpse in the Ruins of Immortality.
It only took the space of about ten breaths of time for roughly a hundred people from all the sects to arrive. Then, cracking sounds could be heard as the teleportation portals shattered and faded away.