Chapter 1359: Commencement of the Banquet

Seated on Gu Huojin's right was a beautiful young woman in a short, blue dress, presenting a stark contrast with Chi Rong on Gu Huojin's left. There was a sweet smile on her face, and her long, black hair had been arranged into countless little braids around the pair of delicate dragon horns on her head.

Her appearance and attire both struck the beholder with the impression that she was just a harmless young woman, but in reality, she was the Essential Water Dao Ancestor, Chen Ruyan.

Her aura was the polar opposite to Chi Rong's, and it felt as if their Great Daos were conflicting with one another. As a result, both of them held an innate distaste for each other, and they were stoically looking away from one another, clearly not on very good terms.

Seated to the other side of Chi Rong was Patriarch Li Yuanjiu of the Nine Origins Temple. For this occasion, he had put on a striking, purple and golden daoist robe as opposed to his usual coarse linen robe, and it was very apparent that the robe was a powerful immortal treasure.

On the other side, seated next to Chen Ruyan, was a tall figure dressed in a long, black robe. The figure's entire body was covered from head to toe, leaving only a pair of purple eyes exposed, and there seemed to have been countless stars flashing within their pupils.

Their name was Yin Ming, and they were the most mysterious and enigmatic of the Seven Heavenly Dao Lords.

Over the countless years that Chen Tuan had spent in seclusion, he had been gradually forgotten, but there were still legends of his feats being told. However, there weren't even any legends surrounding Dao Ancestor Yin Ming, and even the high-ranking cultivators of the Heavenly Court knew next to nothing about them.

At this point, Chen Tuan had already been assimilated by the Heavenly Dao to such a degree that he was almost no different from a mortal, while Xuanyuan Jie had been recently slain, so all that remained of the Seven Heavenly Dao Lords were these five.

Gu Huojin would always make an appearance during the past editions of the Bodhi Banquet, but that was not the case for the other Seven Heavenly Dao Lords, particularly Yin Ming, so it was already quite a rare sight to see five of them at once.

All of the banquet attendees immediately rose to their feet to extend a welcome toward the five supreme lords, while Gu Huojin smiled as he said, "The Reincarnation Palace Master is a guest today, so please observe the proper etiquette, Fellow Daoist Cang Wu."

It sounded more like he was serving as a friendly mediator rather than issuing a warning, but True Lord Cang Wu knew better than to challenge Gu Huojin's authority, and he returned to his seat with a defeated and weary look on his face.

The Reincarnation Palace Master turned his gaze to the five supreme lords with a calm expression, while Daoist Master Qing Qiu heaved an internal sigh of relief before leading him to the front row of the venue, where all of the Dao Ancestors were seated.

"Please take a seat, Palace Master," Daoist Master Qing Qiu said.

The Reincarnation Palace Master took a glance at the seat that he had been led to, then stepped over the table to arrive before the tables designated for the Seven Heavenly Dao Lords.

He then made a beckoning motion to one of the seven tables, and the table was instantly drawn to him along with the cushion behind it.

"He's already dead, so what's the point in leaving a table out for him?" the Reincarnation Palace Master chuckled as he sat down onto the cushion, then poured himself a cup of wine from the flagon on the table.

The entire venue erupted into a frenzy upon seeing this, and Daoist Master Qing Qiu began sweating profusely once again.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a hint of admiration toward the Reincarnation Palace Master. He couldn't think of anyone else that would be able to put on such a bold display in a setting like this.

However, he still had a job to do, so he had no choice but to muster up his courage and approach the Reincarnation Palace Master as he said, "Please return to your assigned seat, Palace Master."

The Reincarnation Palace Master completely ignored him as he downed the wine in his cup in one go.

"It's fine, he can sit where he likes," Gu Huojin said with a smile.

Daoist Master Qing Qiu was very relieved to hear this, and he quickly bade farewell to the Seven Heavenly Dao Lords before setting off on a return journey to the Eastern Victory Continent.

As the head of the Seven Heavenly Dao Lords, Gu Huojin was naturally seated in the center, and his table was slightly taller than the others.

There was one vacant table reserved for Chen Tuan, while the deceased Xuanyuan Jie's table had been claimed by the Reincarnation Palace Master.

With the Reincarnation Palace Master's new seating arrangement approved by Gu Huojin, the tense atmosphere gradually subsided, and the heavenly music played by the celestial maidens resumed.

Right at this moment, a figure enshrouded in a dense layer of cloud and mist appeared before everyone.

After the mist faded away, a tall figure dressed in an azure robe with clouds embroidered upon it was revealed, and it was another one of the Heavenly Court's Dao Ancestors, Dao Ancestor Bai Yun.

Dao Ancestor Bai Yun extended a salute toward Gu Huojin and the others, then turned to the other banquet attendees with a wide smile as he greeted, "Welcome one and all to the Bodhi Banquet!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, a blanket of rainbow clouds appeared above everyone, within which dozens of stunning celestial maidens broke into an elegant dance with flower petals raining down from their gorgeous dresses, presenting a marvelous spectacle to behold.

Everyone was finally able to relax a little upon seeing this, and they began sampling the wine and spirit fruits on their tables.

......

Deep within a boundless expanse of space was a gargantuan, silver mountain that was hovering in mid-air, with a summit so tall that it was completely out of sight.

The silver mountain was entirely crafted from a type of translucent, silver ore, and it was giving off formidable spatial law power fluctuations. This type of silver ore was a type of powerful spatial material known as Void Crystals, and the collective spatial law powers emanating from this vast mountain of Void Crystals was enough to cause the entire surrounding space to tremble incessantly.

As soon as the nearby bursts of chaotic spatial turbulence drew close to the silver mountain, they immediately turned submissive and docile before flowing past it.

Beneath the mountain was an unfathomably enormous black turtle that resembled a vast continent, carrying the silver mountain on its back as it slowly swam through the spatial turbulence.

The silver mountain was riddled with countless small holes that ran all the way from the foot of the mountain to the summit, giving it the appearance of a beehive.

Upon closer inspection, one would discover that these holes were all entrances to caves that formed a complex system of tunnels, and it seemed that the entire silver mountain had been hollowed out.

The tunnels were lined with stone chambers that were separated by rather short intervals, and each tunnel contained countless chambers, amounting to an astronomical number when the entire mountain was taken into consideration.

The stone chambers were connected by thick, silver lines, forming a dense and complex silver net that connected all of the stone chambers in the mountain together, and there were also many silver lines that vanished into the space, making it unclear where they ultimately extended to.

These silver lines were all flashing incessantly, as if they were transmitting something, and within each stone chamber were several arrays.

In contrast with normal teleportation arrays, these only facilitated the teleportation of objects, and occasionally, items of all descriptions would appear in the arrays.

There were Reincarnation Palace cultivators stationed beside each array, putting those items into other teleportation arrays or handing them off to the puppets off to the side.

After receiving said items, the puppets would immediately exit the chamber before delivering them to other parts of the silver mountain.

The interior of the silver mountain was like a gargantuan nation that was extremely busy, but also functioning in a very orderly manner.

On the summit of the silver mountain sat a palace with an internal space that was tens of thousands of feet in size.

The palace was completely empty with the exception of four massive tool refinement cauldrons situated at the very center.

These cauldrons were hundreds of feet tall, reaching almost all the way up to the ceiling of the palace, and they were identical in style, but were blue, azure, crimson, and black in color.

The undersides of the four cauldrons were enveloped by silver flames, and seated around them were dozens of cultivators, most of whom were wearing Reincarnation Palace mask, while the rest were dressed in the purple robes of the Devil Realm's Night Sun Empire.

All of these cultivators were making strings of hand seals, casting precious materials into the four cauldrons.

Bursts of dull, thunderous rumbling could be heard ringing out from within the cauldrons, and all of a sudden, the lid of the blue cauldron flew up on its own, following which a ball of blue light shot out from within.

A tall man from the Reincarnation Palace near the cauldron raised his hand, and the ball of blue light was drawn into his grasp, revealing a blue rabbit Reincarnation Palace mask.

The man examined the mask momentarily, then made his way into a side hall at the back of the palace.

There were three stone platforms in the side hall, with one cultivator seated atop each of them. The three of them were each holding a white jade slab, upon which lines of text were flashing incessantly.

The three of them were constantly keeping an eye on the text flashing over the jade slabs while making strings of hand seals, looking very busy.

The one on the left was a gray-robed, middle-aged man with a gaunt face and a pair of sunken eyes.

The one in the center was a purple-robed elderly man who seemed to have come from the Night Sun Empire. He was slightly hunch-backed, and his skin was heavily wrinkled, but his eyes were very bright and energetic.

To his right was a white-robed woman with fair and delicate skin, but her beautiful features were marred by her cold expression.

All three of them were at the Great Encompassment Stage, with the purple-robed elderly man possessing the loftiest cultivation base of the three, having already reached the pinnacle of the mid-Great Encompassment Stage.