Unknown to the Ancestral Families, four of their ancestors were eliminated that day.

Or rather, they lost their bodies and were imprisoned, unable to return.

Somewhere, on some continent, the ancestor of the Shadow Pavilion, Mo Yexuan, appeared alone.

Shoving both hands into the long sleeves of his robes, he pulled out four tiny figures. They struggled fiercely, but his fingers, as firm as steel, held them so tightly that they couldn't move even a single centimeter.

Powerless, they could do nothing but one kind of attack at that moment—verbal.

"Let me go, you bastard!"

"Fool! What you are doing will be your ruin!"

"Everyone you know will pay the price for what you've done!"

"Release me, we can still talk about this!"

Different curses and threats came out at the same time, but as soon as the four small souls became aware of their surroundings, they choked on their words.

Their faces twisted in shock when they saw the others.

"Dong Jun?!"

"Gu Xin?!"

"Tan Jie?!"

"Luo Peng?!"

Upon recognizing the companions who had gone to carry out the same mission, and who had also been intercepted, their hearts raced. Apparently, there was a great conspiracy underway, and those old men began to suspect that the culprits were the other ancestral families.

And that filled them with despair. After all, they had already lost their physical bodies and were now at the mercy of others who likely did not fear their families. So even if the conspiracy were uncovered, their fate would be grim.

As if to prove this, the sinister old man holding them suddenly grabbed three of them in one hand and the last one by the head in the other. Then, with energy flowing violently through that palm, the poor soul became extremely miserable.

"AHHHHHH!!"

A scream of pain began to echo in that place where there was not a single living soul for miles, besides them, of course.

Aotian, controlling Mo Yexuan, maintained a cold and emotionless gaze as he brutally read that person's mind.

Normally, he would not do this to someone of unknown character, even if they were a member of an enemy family. After all, if he were so cruel and later discovered the person was good, he would feel terrible about himself.

But those people were about to unleash a catastrophic chaos upon the four Mid-Continents, so he had no hesitation in doing so.

Of course, this might have been done under orders from others, but that did not change the fact that they would, regardless, cause the deaths of trillions of lives, and that was reason enough for Aotian to make such a decision.

Without hesitation, he read nearly one hundred thousand years of memories at high speed, which were processed at an unprecedented rate by his 1,330 avatars, with 7,699 minds, not counting the five current ones of his main body.

Of these, 72 minds belonged to the Tribulation Transcendence realm, being countless times stronger than the others.

With so many minds, if divided evenly, each only needed to process twelve years of memory, which was easy for such powerful minds, where the weakest was at the Nascent Soul level.

Thus, the three souls watched in horror as their companion screamed continuously for a few minutes, until his voice slowly diminished, eventually no longer sounding.

Sealed, they were not sure what the sinister man had done, but they felt he was probably performing Soul Search on the poor soul, which made them pale, as they would likely be next.

Soon, Mo Yexuan finished and tossed the weak and apathetic soul into the other hand. This confused the other three terrified souls, since a Soul Search normally killed the victim's soul.

Unfortunately, they could not think for long, for they were the next.

Thus, in less than an hour, Aotian processed nearly four hundred thousand years of memory, which, even with so many minds, caused him a slight headache.

Back at the Infinite Dao Sect, Aotian lightly massaged his temple, his brow furrowed.

'Fortunately, such a headache was worth it.'

He sighed, essentially unraveling the plans of the Ancestral Families, which were not very complex.

Aotian was somewhat grateful that those four were ancestors of their respective families, and had no memory seals—a factor that could have severely hindered the mental reading and risked alerting the other side.

'So, besides searching for clues about the missing Void Refiners, they want to open the Shadowfallen Burial Mountains and let the living beings of the continents serve as sacrifices. They really intend to go all out and destroy the world before leaving.'

Letting out a cold snort of mockery, he began to plan.

'The four outer elders of the Shadow Pavilion with the Perfect Acting ability have already been sent to the four mid-continents. Since I cannot completely kill the souls of those four old men, which would extinguish their soul lamps and alert the Ancestral Families, I need to spend some time breaking open their storage rings.'

'Once I do that, I can take the sound transmission jades from inside and communicate with those families, feeding them false information. I also need to seal those souls far from the sect; if anyone tries to locate them using the soul fragment in the Soul Lamp, they could come straight here.'

'Probably the biggest advantage this time is that, with these memories, I finally better understand how those Ancestral Families operate, and Old Liu was right. The Venerables will never leave the Tree of Life. It has been more than ten years since they killed my father-in-law, and except for briefly leaving to set up formations on the tree back then, they have never left that meeting hall again.'

'They only communicate with the outside world through their subordinates. If it weren't for the security measures—using Soul Lamps to detect the soul frequency of anyone who enters, the same mechanism used in other sects but far more effective here—I could try to slowly infiltrate my own people there.'

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and stored the idea for later, when he would be stronger. Perhaps there would be a chance in the future.

Then his focus shifted to the four outer elders positioned in each of the four mid-continents.

But strangely, the view each of them saw was quite similar.

An enormous dome that stretched beyond sight due to its size. Its interior was darkened by a sinister black mist that sent chills down anyone who saw it.

In front of the dome, enormous red gates stood like solemn and silent guardians, as if that were the very entrance to the underworld.

'Shadowfallen Burial Mountains… perhaps it's time to take advantage and do some cleaning.'

A malicious smile grew on his lips.

…

While the Central Continent was in crisis, unknown to all, the Infinite Dao Sect, with its own power, maintained basic order throughout the rest of the world.

The ancestral families occasionally received reports about the scale of the disaster from the forced opening of the Shadowfallen Burial Mountains, and estimates of how many people had died, and merely nodded calmly and with control.

What they did not know was that those red gates had not been opened, nor had they caused chaos, but were instead being controlled by a mysterious force unknown to them, which was actually busy cleaning the area inside and opening space for mysterious formations that balanced the Feng Shui of the place.

Under the powerful balance of Feng Shui, impurities could only be forcefully purified, and those that had not entered the area of its influence did not dare to run toward it.

Aotian watched with fascination as those impurities somehow possessed certain basic instincts and avoided Feng Shui locations. Although this was indeed bad, as it made eliminating them more difficult.

Fortunately, running was useless, as they were confined within those mountains. And when the Feng Shui spread throughout all of them, there would be nowhere left to escape.

And with the excess materials that the sect's treasury now possessed, it would only be a matter of time until those four mountains, with perfect-grade sixth-level veins, were cleansed of impurities, transforming into subsidiaries and bases of the Infinite Dao Sect.

With all the chaos happening in the Central Continent, which only seemed to grow with each passing day, the control of the Ancestral Families had greatly weakened, and the chance of them discovering something wrong in the Mid-Continents, now taken over by Aotian, was much lower.

Thus, Aotian began to loosen his restraints, allowing himself to act more freely there.

Silently, he began to control all the Soul Formation sects and families of those continents.

The disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect also did not act slowly in the desert continents, completing various missions while taking control and preparing the foundations for the Infinite Dao Empire to begin operating in those places.

Thus, without anyone knowing, or even Aotian himself being able to process it, he had already taken control of 8 of the 9 continents of the world.

Although, in terms of actual size, the Central Continent, with its countless small worlds, was much larger than those eight continents combined, that did not change the fact that the Infinite Dao Sect, in just over three years, had become one of the undisputed rulers of the Lingxi world.

Tian Zhu, the sect leader, seated on his throne, looked forward toward the doors of the great hall, but seemed to see through them. It was as if he could perceive all the countless lands and lives whose fate now rested in his hands.

Aotian took a deep breath internally at that thought.

Clenching his fist, Tian Zhu slowly closed his eyes.

'I have completely cut off contact between the other continents and the Central Continent. No one can communicate anymore without passing through me first.'

'Now, I need to use this time that the chaos in the Central Continent has bought for me and silently develop the sect for one or two years.'

Opening his eyes slightly, with a confident glint shimmering within them, Tian Zhu slowly disappeared from the hall.

There was much work to be done in the sect.

…

While the Infinite Dao Sect was in relative peace, in the Alchemy Pavilion, a rather amusing scene was taking place.

"Master, master! So you're saying the world is made of something extremely tiny called atoms, and that these atoms have types?"

An old man with red hair asked excitedly to a middle-aged man with the same hair color, but with an irritated expression.

"I already told you, I'm not your master. And yes, I don't know what others call them, but we in the sect call these particles atoms. Atoms have protons and neutrons, which are made of quarks."

Dan Hong, sitting cross-legged and refining pills in his cauldron, explained in a brusque and superficial manner to Liu Taixuan, who listened in fascination and curiosity.

It had already been a month since he began asking the elder Dan Hong for guidance and, with his Dao comprehension finally growing, he began to respect and even accept the grumpy elder as his master.

Cang Song was also there, witnessing the scene, looking strangely at this newly arrived elder, who was now also becoming his… junior brother?

But he did not dwell on that. For someone who was not far from calling an outer disciple an ancestor, it was clear he would never truly treat a powerful elder as a junior brother.

His attention was more focused on his master's words, which made his heart tremble and his eyes widen. He already thought the world was complex, but upon hearing those words, he felt reality expanding before him.

Liu Taixuan felt exactly the same. Even with his immense control over spiritual energy, he could see the world as if through a microscope at will, even spotting the germs mortals breathed in the air. Yet even he had never imagined that something as small as atoms, protons, and quarks could exist.

"Master, is there anything smaller than a quark?" Liu Taixuan asked, curious.

Dan Hong's mouth twitched, and he felt like cursing.

"I don't know, I don't remember, don't ask me," he said sharply.

Aotian really wanted to shout that no, but how could he possibly know that for sure?

Unfortunately, old Liu was already used to elder Dan's personality and was not bothered by the harsh response. So he changed the question.

"Master, but what about the five elements of creation? Isn't everything in the world said to be formed by them?" he asked, curious.

Dan Hong rolled his eyes.

"What part of my memories being sealed did you not understand?" He ground his teeth at the difficult question. "I don't know the answer. I only know that the world is made of atoms, and there are laws of nature, from which the Dao is born. With spiritual energy, we can control the Dao, and with the Dao, control these laws. So, probably, using the five elements, which are cyclical, makes it easier to manipulate these laws and reality, allowing the creation of things, especially since most other elements originate from these five."

At this point, Aotian was no longer pretending to be irritated; it was genuine irritation. Old Liu simply asked too many questions, and not even the excuse of sealed memories stopped his constant inquiries.

The irritation was so great that Aotian unconsciously revealed his knowledge of physics and chemistry from when he was on Earth, even mentioning theories he had both confirmed and not confirmed regarding the logic of the cultivation world.

Of course, he did not say anything absurd, but things he truly believed should be real, even without proof.

Hearing Dan Hong's words, Liu Taixuan began stroking his beard thoughtfully, with a gleam in his eyes.

His mouth murmured unconsciously, allowing Aotian and Cang Song to hear everything.

"I see… the five elements give rise to all elements. Water, fire, earth, wood, and metal can generate various other elements, such as lightning, light, ice, mist, mud, gold, iron, life. These countless elements, combined, can generate innumerable things that, in the end, are manipulations, or even creations, of these quarks, generating atoms such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, copper… and the others the master mentioned, thus achieving the effect of creating all things."

Deep in thought, Liu Taixuan had a growing gleam of realization in his eyes, and Aotian, through the system's feedback, felt his Dao comprehension deepen slightly.

When Dan Hong saw the bright gaze of old Liu turning toward him, he paled and, releasing one hand from the cauldron, immediately raised it, interrupting the man mid-question.

"You… can you give me some peace, please?" Elder Dan ground his teeth, almost pleading, which amused his disciple Cang Song nearby, who had never seen his master in such trouble.

Old Liu closed his mouth, blushing slightly, scratching his head in embarrassment.

He realized he was being a bit excessive.

"Ahem!" He coughed into his fist, composing himself. "Master, don't misunderstand, I just wanted to express my gratitude for your guidance."

Without even blinking, he lied shamelessly, with a peaceful smile.

"Hmph! Of course you did."

Dan Hong rolled his eyes once more, letting out a cold snort, and continued:

"Alright, don't bother me anymore. You've already learned a lot and should meditate on it before wanting to know more. Besides, your focus right now should not be the origin of things and how everything truly works, that is putting the cart before the horse."

"Your focus now should be to observe the world and learn. No one seeks to solve a mystery never seen or heard; what is sought is to study something that has been seen or identified. If you want to understand flames, you must first feel them burn, their heat, how they affect the world, and only then seek to understand what composes the flame."

"In the same way, the vitality of the phoenix: you must observe life, how it is born, grows, and dies. How death nourishes life, and life gives rise to death. How death gives purpose to life, and how life gives purpose to death. Only after understanding what it does and what it affects should you try to master its origin."

Elder Dan spoke firmly, and Liu Taixuan fell into thought after hearing those words.

What he did not know was that this was merely an excuse from Aotian.

Since he did not want the old man asking overly complex questions he had no answers to, nor spending millennia studying something without results, he said that. But it was also what he genuinely believed.

At the moment, it was better to scratch the surface of things and obtain concrete results than to dig directly toward the core before studying anything else.

Of course, the foundation had already been established with the knowledge of atoms, and while exploring the surface, he might end up obtaining occasional insights to understand the core of the problem.

'Ugh… mixing science with cultivation gives me a headache. I think I'd rather stick to the exoteric side.'

Aotian lamented inwardly.

Thus, within the sect, amidst many discoveries and problems, the days slowly passed.