"Tick-tock, tick-tock."
A woman in a green dress walked barefoot across the water's surface, each step creating gentle ripples.
She spoke with a light laugh as she reached the other end of the water and smiled again.
"Why are you looking for me?"
A stiff voice came from beneath the water, "Ninth Mountain inheritor, when will you become a Grand Emperor?"
"Grand Emperor?" Huang Qingyue crossed her arms, looking somewhat plump, and shook her head in distress: "That's hard to say. Why don't you give me more magical treasures? After all, you're the biggest treasure box in all the realms."
"I already gave each of you Nine Mountain inheritors a magical treasure last time. Why do you want more?" the stiff voice questioned.
"Fine, forget it if you won't give any. No need to be so rude about it, it's not like I'm desperate," Huang Qingyue rolled her eyes.
The stiff voice fell silent for a moment, then continued: "The battles between the Divine Realm and the Immortal Realm are becoming more intense. The Nine Mountains' Supreme Lord is still in slumber. We need the Grand Emperors of the Nine Mountains to resist. As the Ninth Mountain inheritor, you should become a Grand Emperor soon."
"The problem is I can't, and I'm troubled by it too," Huang Qingyue scratched her head.
The stiff voice didn't know what to say to that, and instead asked, "You've been in contact with Xu Zhen from the Fuyao Immortal Sect recently. What's your relationship with her?"
"Love rivals," Huang Qingyue answered quickly.
This response startled even the stiff voice, which replied confusedly, "Though I'm just a magical treasure and don't understand matters of the heart, you shouldn't deceive me."
"Believe it or not," Huang Qingyue rolled her eyes again.
"Then who do you both like?" the stiff voice asked.
Huang Qingyue frowned, "Questions, questions, why do you like asking so many questions? Instead of hiding in this pond, why don't you move to the foot of the mountain and gossip with passing cultivators?"
The stiff voice was speechless, remaining silent for a long while before speaking again.
"Though I don't understand matters of the heart, I have a question: after thousands of years of separation, can true feelings still exist?"
This question was so pointed that Huang Qingyue couldn't answer immediately. Instead, she lowered her head, beginning to worry.
After thousands of years without seeing each other, could feelings truly remain?
Though cultivators were known for their steadfast hearts and cherished ordinary memories, with youthful emotions lasting forever, she could only guarantee her own unchanging feelings.
But what about Chen Xia's?
She couldn't be sure, and this made her worry.
The stiff voice asked again: "When people don't see each other for a long time, feelings become distant. Though I'm just a magical treasure, I understand this principle. What do you think?"
Huang Qingyue didn't respond immediately, then raised her eyebrows and replied irritably.
"None of your business!"
She turned and quickly walked away from the pond, soon disappearing from sight.
Though the stiff voice knew it had said something wrong, it didn't know exactly what the mistake was. It could only sigh like a cultivator would and make one final comment.
"What a devoted soul."
In the following years of the Immortal Realm, the main focus was on the battles with the Divine Realm.
The Divine Realm and the Immortal Realm were two equally matched major realms with long-standing grudges. If one were to count back, these grudges would span dozens of great eras.
That's why during this chaos, the Divine Realm chose to attack the Immortal Realm.
However, the Immortal Realm wasn't easy to deal with. The Nine Mountains alone had nine Grand Emperors, and the four great states below had six Grand Emperors. Adding the Nine Mountains' Supreme Lord who was in transmission, there were sixteen Grand Emperors in total.
In terms of the number of Grand Emperors, the Immortal Realm should be the greatest among all major realms.
The only shortcoming was that while the quantity was high, the quality wasn't particularly impressive. More than half were first-level Grand Emperors, only four were second-level, and just one was third-level.
The legendary Nine Mountains' Supreme Lord was fifth-level, which was the Immortal Realm's final trump card.
The battles between the Divine Realm and the Immortal Realm weren't limited to Grand Emperors; cultivators of all levels, from Yuan Ying to quasi-emperors, had their own battlefields.
Among the new generation of quasi-emperors, Xu Zhen was particularly brilliant. She was already one of the top prodigies across all realms, and after becoming a quasi-emperor, her killing power increased even further. She was considered on par with the Divine Realm's Divine Prince.
Their battles were indeed intense, having fought several times one-on-one, displaying power close to that of Grand Emperors, though neither suffered casualties.
This was what battles between top-tier prodigies looked like.
The Grand Emperors' battles took place outside the realms, in the void, where brilliant lights of their divine techniques would often flash.
The Divine Realm and Immortal Realm had been entangled in battle for thousands of years, and it seemed there would be no clear victor.
Until the eight thousandth year.
An ancient aura emerged from within the Divine Realm as an old monster who had been sleeping for an unknown time awakened and pointed a single finger at the Immortal Realm.
This one finger pierced through the Immortal Realm's barriers like heavenly tribulation, instantly severely wounding two Grand Emperors and breaking through the realm's defensive barriers.
The Divine Realm's Grand Emperors invaded afterward, descending upon East Jia State and instantly occupying thirty percent of its territory, using it as a base for further battles against the Immortal Realm.
This was the first time the Immortal Realm had been breached.
The ancient figure from the Divine Realm looked at the Immortal Realm and softly said: "Old Heaven Patroller, you continue your slumber. Don't blame me for awakening first and making my move."
There was no response from the Immortal Realm; the Nine Mountains' Supreme Lord remained in slumber.
In the Great Death Realm, Chen Xia was also in slumber. Beside him stood his heart demon, frowning with a gloomy expression, now angry.
The old being from the Divine Realm had crushed ten percent of the territory of the Ten Thousand Mountains in East Jia State, effectively destroying his dao techniques.
The heart demon's crimson eyes kept flashing as rationality held back his impulse to act, reminding him it wasn't time yet.
"Old monster, I'll kill you sooner or later and hang your head on the mountain peak!"
The heart demon exhaled again and looked out from the Ten Thousand Mountains to observe the several Divine Realm Grand Emperors stationed in the Immortal Realm.
His eyes suddenly lit up, and a smile appeared on his lips.
There really was such a thing as karma in this world.
His figure shifted as he emerged from the heart lake of the Ten Thousand Mountains, adjusted his sleeves, and headed toward where the Divine Realm Grand Emperors were.
If he couldn't fight the old one, he'd fight the young ones first, mainly to vent his anger.
By the way, here's a recommendation for a new book by an author in our group, also about immortality. Interested readers can check it out.
"Starting with Immortality Through the Ages, Watching the World's Rise and Fall"
Good night.

e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"

【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”

. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"