Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

The two strolled through the city. With the city's protective formation broken, the city was quiet, with no guards or wandering civilians.

Deep within the royal palace, the ancestral hall stands majestically.

The ten-zhang-tall immortal statue stood silently in the hall, its Taoist robe trailing to the ground, its face blurred, only its eyes faintly shimmering with golden light.

As Ye Xuan led Chen Qinghe through the palace gates, the candles inside flickered without wind, and dozens of ever-burning lamps cast eerie shadows.

Even though he had peeked into the ancestral hall several times before, he still felt a sense of awe when he was actually there.

Chen Qinghe followed behind, and as soon as he stepped across the threshold, he felt an invisible pressure envelop him, making it hard to even breathe.

Both of them felt like they were being watched, which immediately reminded Ye Xuan of the feeling he had when he was spying on the Immortal Realm in the real world.

"So it was you."

Gazing at the enormous immortal statue before him, Ye Xuan's thoughts raced.

After spying on Liu Xian's Dongting, he originally thought that it was Liu Xian who was watching him in the Realm of Immortality, but now it seems that it was someone else.

"Wait outside."

Ye Xuan glanced back at the boy, raised his hand and brushed it on his shoulder. The blue and white energy transformed into a light shield to protect his body, and the oppressive feeling gradually subsided.

Chen Qinghe nodded and stepped outside the palace gate, but his eyes remained fixed on the inside of the palace.

Ye Xuan stepped into the hall, his footsteps echoing in the empty ancestral hall, each step firm and steady.

Inside the hall, on both sides, stand the memorial tablets of past high priests, densely packed together, numbering in the hundreds. Each tablet is inscribed with the name and the length of their reign, the earliest dating back a thousand years.

Ye Xuan's gaze swept over the memorial tablets, his perception spreading out like a tide.

He could sense that each memorial tablet contained a remnant soul, fragments of which were absorbed by the celestial statues after the deaths of the high priests of past generations.

These people worshipped immortals in life, yet even in death they cannot find release; their souls are trapped here, becoming nourishment to maintain the connection between the statue and the realm of immortality. Of course, he didn't know if these people did so willingly, nor could he speculate; he could only sigh—

"Good tactic."

He walked to a spot three zhang directly in front of the statue, stopped, and looked up at the pair of golden eyes.

"Having been watching for so long, why not show yourself?"

The sound echoed in the hall, and most of the candles suddenly went out, leaving only the three eternal lamps in front of the statue still burning, but the statue never responded.

Ye Xuan knew that someone in the Realm of Immortality was spying on him through that tiny passage, but he also knew that it was impossible for a person to go down to the lower realm from that point.

"If I can't get down, then I'll destroy this passage."

After saying that, Ye Xuan's body was naturally surrounded by a mixture of blue and white energy. He raised his hand, and white light condensed at his fingertips.

The point of light slowly drifted toward the statue, hovering a foot away. The white light quickly transformed into a phantom willow sapling, its roots reaching out to the statue like tentacles, attempting to take hold...

"presumptuous!"

An old man's angry roar came from the statue. It was not a sound, but a mental impact that directly affected the soul, and it resounded like thunder throughout the entire ancestral hall.

Ye Xuan's expression remained unchanged, but the blue and white energy in his eyes circulated even more intensely, completely dissolving the impact of the mental force. With a light tap of his fingertips, the roots of the illusory willow seedlings touched the surface of the statue.

The statue seemed to be driven to desperation, its golden eyes suddenly lit up, and two solid golden beams shot out, piercing straight at Ye Xuan's brow!

However, he remained calm, simply raising his right hand with his five fingers spread.

In the palm of his hand, the blue and white energies intertwined to form a Tai Chi pattern. Golden light surged left and right within the Tai Chi pattern, but could not break through. In the end, it was worn away by the Yin and Yang energies and dissipated into specks of starlight.

Ye Xuan raised the corners of his mouth slightly, took a step forward, and at the same time, his senses extended along the narrow passage.

A glimpse of the world of immortality instantly appeared in my consciousness—

The misty fog gradually dissipated, revealing a huge bronze cauldron, and in front of the cauldron stood a middle-aged man with slightly graying temples.

However, the middle-aged man dressed in Taoist robes, who was staring intently at the cauldron, seemed completely unaware of Ye Xuan's presence. His gaze did not move an inch, remaining fixed on the empty cauldron.

"It seems only a powerhouse of Liu Xian's caliber could easily detect my presence..."

He manipulated the origin of his consciousness, constantly shifting to the side of the middle-aged man, but he could not sense any aura similar to that of Liu Xian on him.

Ye Xuan was not clear about cultivation levels above Foundation Establishment, but if he were to make a rough judgment, the cultivation level of the middle-aged man in front of him should not be much higher than his own.

He didn't linger in the Realm of Immortality for long. He withdrew his senses and looked at the immortal statue in front of him. Suddenly, the phantom of the immortal willow appeared behind Ye Xuan.

This time it's not just a microcosm, but a complete presentation of the willow trees rooted in Shuitian Village. The huge willow trees are over thirty meters tall, with their roots firmly embedded in the ancestral hall's floor tiles, and countless willow branches swaying in the wind.

On a thick willow branch, a blooming white flower contains both blue and white energies.

As the willow branches swayed, a surge of vitality flowed into Ye Xuan's body, causing his aura to rise continuously. The cyan-white energy in his dantian spun wildly, faintly condensing into a pill shape.

The statue seemed to sense the danger. A dazzling golden light burst through the bricks and tiles above the ancestral hall, and a cloud of light spread across the sky above the capital, truly blotting out the sun.

Chen Qinghe, standing outside the hall, looked up in horror and saw a huge vortex of spiritual energy forming in the sky. The center of the vortex was directly in the direction of the ancestral hall, and the clouds within a hundred miles were stirred up, turning into tornadoes that hung down from above.

"To use such magical power in such a narrow passage, aren't you afraid of breaking it?"

A glint flashed in Ye Xuan's eyes, and he slowly raised the tip of his right hand, pointing it towards the center of the statue's brow.

"Break!"

The white light at his fingertips transformed into sword energy, but instead of attacking the statue, it slashed at a straight line from which the statue emitted golden light—the invisible passage between it and the Realm of Immortality.

Wherever the sword energy passed, space tore apart, revealing the chaotic void behind it.

The statue trembled violently, its aura flickering erratically, showing signs of collapse...

"You dare..."

Before he could finish speaking, the sword energy had already struck the passage.

There was no earth-shattering noise, only a faint "hiss" sound, as if some taut thread had been cut.

The golden light in the statue's eyes suddenly dimmed, and the halo around it quickly dissipated, leaving only an ordinary stone statue, devoid of any divine power.

The hall returned to calm, the eternal lamps were lit again, and the towering pillar of light outside the hall quickly disappeared as well.

"The passage is blocked, what else can you do?"

Ye Xuan withdrew his finger and looked at the statue.

The statue's eyes were now empty, showing no other signs of life, except for a barely perceptible crack on its stone face.

As Ye Xuan stepped out of the palace, the sun shone brightly in the capital.