Transmigrating over ten thousand years late, I was forced to become a mighty presence

And with a small portion of his scattered attention, he pondered the matter of the Tao Test participants from the myriad heavens.

The attitudes of the forces outside the courtyard and the performance of Ji Zhaoyang were all intentionally guided by Shen Yuan.

Becoming Taoism's Great Disciple was not only a compensation Shen Yuan owed to Ji Zhaoyang but also contained a bit of his intent to cast a long line to catch a big fish.

Shen Yuan was well aware that the participants of the myriad heavens were not willing to part with their precious top-tier Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures unless they saw the rabbit—they would not gamble on an ephemeral possibility like "likely to become a Taoist disciple."

And as a Taoist, Shen Yuan had to maintain his persona and could not openly promise to the outside world that he would exchange top-tier Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures for the identity of a Taoist disciple.

In such a situation, it became especially important to set a precedent.

And Ji Zhaoyang was just such a precedent.

After the Luotian Convention blocked the information regarding Shen Yuan, Ji Zhaoyang, the Great Yin 3rd Prince who was at the Return-to-Void and Spirit Refining Stage, held a weak position among the various forces.

With the suppression from Ji Xuanyi added, Ji Zhaoyang fell to the very bottom.

As a figure from the lowest echelon, Ji Zhaoyang ascended to heaven in one step by offering the Root of Heaven and Earth, becoming the widely venerated Taoism's Great Disciple, which undoubtedly sparked envy among the various forces.

After Ji Zhaoyang intentionally revealed that Shen Yuan chose him because he hailed from outside the Luotian Realm, the envy of many participants intensified, making everyone realize that Ji Zhaoyang's fortune was replicable.

Accordingly, more forces would be willing to bring out their top-tier Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures seeking the chance to enter Taoism.

Even without the status of Taoism's Great Disciple, merely the identity of an ordinary disciple from the Taoist school would suffice for them to gain something from this All-Worlds Luotian Convention.

To even elevate their position in one fell swoop like Ji Zhaoyang was not out of the question.

Utilizing the envy and greed of the human heart, Shen Yuan had laid out a trap for the myriad heavens' participants—a scheme in plain sight—all to have these ancient Tao lineages voluntarily deplete their resources and hand them over to Shen Yuan.

Looking toward the tense atmosphere outside the city gates, Shen Yuan let out a soft chuckle.

"It seems the effect is not too bad," he said.

"But it still needs time."

As he spoke, Shen Yuan slowly closed his eyes and began deducing within the Nine Breaths Qi Absorption Great Divine Power.

...

"The future has uncertainties!"

In the Yin-Yang Grotto Heavens, within a grand hall, a handsome and scholarly middle-aged man sat cross-legged in the center, whispering to himself.

This grand hall occupied nearly half of the Yin-Yang Grotto Heavens, crafted with an entire continent as its foundation, carved with innate trigrams to suppress the grotto heavens.

From the center of these trigrams, this grand hall rose from the ground, with its array patterns nested to form a trigram plate, using the power of this heaven and earth to divine all things.

Outside the grand hall, Yin-Yang School scholars sat atop the trigram patterns, their eyes piercing yin and yang to deduce endless futures.

This place was the gathering spot of the Yin-Yang School in the Luotian Realm, known to divine the past and future of the Luotian Realm through the He-diagram and Luo-script.

The man in charge of the He-diagram and Luo-script was Xi Zi, who established the Yin-Yang School and left behind the innate trigrams for the world.

At this moment, Xi Zi was sitting in the center of the hall, his gaze seemingly able to traverse the myriad worlds, seeing through the vast universe.

But even he, one of the most senior among the Hundred Schools scholars, was now staring at the courtyard in Linzi City that had opened the Procreative Nature Gate, with suspicion arising for the first time in his wise eyes.

"He... seems not to belong to this world, this realm of time and space; he is an anomaly."

"Could this be the chess piece left behind by the Supreme Tao Ancestor?" Xi Zi pondered, recalling the central Land of Taoism Impartation occupied by nine Tao Achievement's Great Seats.

Historic mysteries enveloped everything, and even he could not see the truth behind the veil.

Even those who had revealed their identities might not be genuine, and the Taoist, previously unheard of, was particularly suspicious.

Futures flickered in Xi Zi's eyes, and even though the Tao Achievement's Great Seat was obscured by historical mystery, he still sought to deduce something from the remaining information.

```

"Since he entered the city as one of the Hundred Schools scholars, he must be one of those in possession of a Tao Achievement's Great Seat."

"Yet the rest of us arrived in the Luotian Realm earlier, having laid out our plans and established vast Tao lineages over thousands of years."

"For him to be alone without the support of any Tao lineage power is absolutely abnormal!"

The color of caution gradually rose in Xi Zi's eyes.

"The Supreme Tao Ancestor is always fair and impartial, and he values fairness above all else.

This Taoist, being at a disadvantage from the start, with his cultivation limited to the Spirit Refining Stage Peak, hardly seems fair."

"The only explanation is that this Taoist possesses advantages incomparable by other holders of the Tao Achievement's Great Seat, which is why the Supreme Tao Ancestor deliberately suppressed him!"

Having reached this thought, Xi Zi was suddenly taken aback.

"The Three Pure Ones must not intervene, the Heavenly Emperor is still undergoing his trials, and the Heavenly Court has not reached its peak with the four commanding positions still vacant, not having taken that half step, when did such a variable arise among the heavens?

Could it be that the Supreme Tao Ancestor, whose teachings span the past, present and eternal future, implies this variable comes from the future?"

Realizing this, Xi Zi's complexion became extremely unsightly.

After all, he was just a split soul of his main body, not the Highest Heaven who sits above the long river of history overlooking all beings, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of unrest.

However, after a brief moment of unrest, Xi Zi forcefully suppressed his emotions and calmly pondered his next moves.

"Were we in the outside world, even my main body might not be able to confront this variable.

But within the Luotian Realm, everything is suppressed below the Immortal Realm, and Tao Harmony is the pinnacle of this realm.

Even the Highest Heaven Realm that my main body and others possess, along with the occupied origin of the Great Tao, cannot be brought into the Luotian Realm, hence only a split soul can reenact the Great Tao within this realm."

"With the innate Bagua, I have deduced the He-diagram and Luo-script for thousands of years, and with the Yin-Yang School as the foundation, I have integrated the art of deduction into this world.

Fearing nothing in the same realm, I should have the power to turn the tides."

"I shall have a place in the future, and even variables cannot reverse it!"

A mighty aura erupted from Xi Zi, and the vast sounds of the Great Tao resounded in the grand hall.

Behind Xi Zi, one could vaguely see an ancient figure of a deity with a human head and a serpent body, holding scrolls, swallowing and transforming the endless Turmoil into order.

After a while, series of decrees were sent from the Yin-Yang Grotto Heavens to the other hundred Grotto Heavens factions.

Subsequently, several Grotto Heavens trembled, and from within Jixia Academy, a decree spread rapidly throughout Linzi City.

"The grand ceremony of Tao discourse is postponed for three months. At the ceremony, scholars from Jixia Academy and students from the Hundred Schools of Thought will participate in the Tao discourse.

The scholars' discourse will take place after the ceremonial discourse!"

The alteration of the centuries-old discourse ceremony's rules, preventing the scholars from participating, inevitably caused those with vested interests to associate it with the Taoist scholar who had just returned.

Everyone in Linzi knew that currently, the Taoism school had only the Taoist, his servant Green Ox, and Ji Zhaoyang, who was just bestowed the position of Taoism's Great Disciple due to the Taoist's favor.

The changed rules seemed tailor-made for the Taoism school, completely excluding Taoism—which only had the Taoist as its pillar—from the discourse ceremony.

Some scholars who saw through the secrecy cursed the Hundred Schools for breaking the rules.

However, many others saw something else in it, that the Taoism school, with only the Taoist alone, could invoke such dread in the Hundred Schools scholars.

Especially the Tao Test participants from the heavens, upon hearing this news, were overjoyed, resolutely deciding to search for clues to the top Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures left by their senior Tao lineage predecessors.

In this process, bloody conflicts and struggles were inevitable, and it even involved several grand worlds outside the Primal Chaos Realm.

As for Shen Yuan, the source of all these disturbances, he was unaware of Xi Zi's apprehension, the changes to the discourse ceremony, and the aspirations of the Tao Test participants from the heavens.

He remained immersed in the deliberations of the Tao Achievement's Great Seat.

The Nine Breaths Qi Absorption Great Divine Power had entered the first realm.

```