Void Year 7,999.
The Star Realm where Lingxiao Grotto-heaven—the foremost of the Thirty-Six Grotto-heavens—was situated lifted its ban on entry. Countless warriors who had been waiting outside the Star Realm surged in, spreading to every corner of the realm.
The warriors who had gathered from all directions were numerous and varied, a mixed bag of good and bad. Yet once they entered the Star Realm, regardless of their true nature, they all became well-behaved and docile.
This was not only because the Star Realm was territory belonging to the number-one Grotto-heaven, but also because every other major Grotto-heaven and Blessed Land maintained a dojo here.
Across the entire Star Realm, one could say that Seventh-Order cultivators walked the streets like commoners, Eighth-Order ones were as plentiful as dogs, and only those legendary Ninth-Order powerhouses—rare as dragons that show their heads but not their tails—had the standing to make a stir.
Dare to cause trouble here, and forget about seeing tomorrow's sun—you wouldn't even see tonight's moon.
The reason the Star Realm was so bustling was that the Void Grand Ceremony, held once every thousand years, was about to take place. Many of the younger generation didn't know the origins of this ceremony—they only knew that since the beginning of the Void Era, seven had already been held, and counting the one about to begin, this would be the eighth.
Legend had it that eight thousand years ago, the human race had lived in extremely harsh conditions. At that time, a race known as the Mo Race existed across the myriad realms, nearly driving humanity to extinction and dominating the heavens. Humanity had been on the brink of annihilation.
However, through the efforts and tenacious resistance of human sages, humanity gradually stabilized its footing. In the end, it mobilized the full strength of the entire race for a great expedition, completely exterminating the Mo Race. From then on, humanity became the true masters of the myriad realms.
The Void Grand Ceremony was held to commemorate those human sages who had fallen in the war against the Mo Race. It could be called the grandest event for all of humanity.
The ceremony lasted for an entire year. During that year, anyone could freely enter the Star Realm. As territory belonging to the number-one Grotto-heaven, the Star Realm was normally off-limits to idle outsiders.
This wasn't because Lingxiao Grotto-heaven was domineering—it was simply a necessity.
After the great war eight thousand years ago, although humanity had quelled the Mo Plague that had persisted for a million years, it had paid an extremely heavy price.
Countless human sages had fallen, to say nothing of the fact that the Three Thousand Worlds had been ravaged beyond recognition by the Mo Race. The realms suitable for human survival and reproduction now were limited to the Star Realm within the Lingxiao Domain, the Demon Domain—these two great realms—and some of the realms within the Myriad Demon Domain.
Living and survival conditions had been severely constrained. Cultivation resources, while not exactly scarce, were far from abundant.
Under these circumstances, if too many warriors were born, it would inevitably lead to chaos. So cultivation could no longer proceed as recklessly as it had eight thousand years ago—it had to be planned and regulated.
Eight thousand years ago, numerous human Ninth-Order masters had jointly deliberated and established a policy: anyone with cultivation aptitude who wished to cultivate had to report to the nearest Grotto-heaven or Blessed Land, which would then arrange their cultivation affairs.
This policy was strictly enforced through the collective efforts of all human factions. As a result, every cultivator in the human race today—regardless of background or cultivation level—had a recorded file.
This policy made the already-special Star Realm even more special.
The Star Realm contained a sub-tree of the World Tree—the first cradle of the Open Heaven Realm!
The second cradle was the Myriad Demon World.
During the years of humanity's struggle against the Mo Race, these two cradles—the Star Realm and the Myriad Demon World—had produced a vast number of high-order warriors for the human race. One could say that humanity's victory in that final decisive battle owed an enormous debt to these two cradles of the Open Heaven Realm.
But after the war ended, because living conditions had been suppressed, the human race could not currently bear the birth of too many new-generation warriors. The existence of the Star Realm and the Myriad Demon World became extremely awkward.
Thus, after the great expedition returned and the leadership recognized this problem, the human elders made another resolution: aside from essential personnel who had to remain, everyone was to withdraw from the Star Realm and the Myriad Demon World—especially the vast numbers of ordinary people.
These ordinary people truly could not cultivate, but their numbers were enormous, and their offspring would inevitably produce some with cultivation aptitude. If left unchecked, it wouldn't take many years before more new-generation warriors emerged, inevitably triggering unnecessary turmoil.
Even the personnel who remained in the Star Realm and the Myriad Demon World were prohibited from having children. If they insisted on having offspring, they had to leave these two cradles.
Of course, the human leadership also knew that such matters could never be completely prevented, so they left a thread of hope.
That hope lay in the Void Grand Ceremony, held once every thousand years.
During the year the ceremony lasted, everyone could freely enter and leave the Star Realm. If one had the ability to be accepted into the dojos set up by the various Grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands here, one naturally earned the right to remain in the Star Realm permanently.
But over these eight thousand years, every time the ceremony began, the number of people entering the Star Realm was beyond count—yet those who actually managed to be accepted into the various dojos were relatively few.
This led to a peculiar phenomenon: many pregnant women near their due date or young couples would enter the Star Realm at this time. The pregnant women, accompanied by their families, would seek out a place rich in spiritual energy to peacefully carry out their pregnancies, allowing the unborn child to benefit from the sub-tree's nourishing influence.
As for those young couples... they arrived as two people, but by the time they left, the wife's belly might well have grown round.
Yushan Market—a thoroughly ordinary marketplace within the Star Realm.
Because of the policy enacted years ago, the vast majority of humans had withdrawn from the Star Realm, leaving it sparsely populated. A place like Yushan Market would normally see no sign of human activity.
It was only now, with the Grand Ceremony approaching and countless people flooding into the Star Realm, that it had gathered any significant crowd.