Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“The Nine Realms used to be a complete great world, called the Black Yellow Great World.” The first thing the Divine Tree of Creatures said was a secret that no one knew. Jiang Chen had read a lot of books, but he had never read anything about the Black Yellow Great World. However, he knew the Divine Tree of Creatures was not lying to him. Living through so many years, the divine tree had become the most intelligent thing among all creatures. It knew all kinds of secrets in the universe by instinct.
“The Black Yellow Great World was what people usually call preliterate times. The first age after the split of the worlds is called ancient times. There was a gap between preliterate times and ancient times. The Black Yellow Great World used to be strong in an unparalleled way. All those legendary Heavenly Gods did exist in history. However, it wasn’t the only complete world.”
Jiang Chen thought of the world where the Goddess of Empyrean had gone. Although there was no way to know what kind of world it was, or even whether she really went there, for all kinds of reasons people tended to believe such a world did exist. Jiang Chen believed it too.
“The Black Yellow Great World was targeted by some evil existence. They were sowing discord in the dark. Then a big war broke out. The world ended up completely broken.” The Divine Tree of Creatures went on with its narration.
Jiang Chen was enchanted, but he was more curious about the things that had happened in the Sacred Zone.
“Ever since then, the broken Black Yellow Great World has been the backyard of the evil existence. They are kind of rearing creatures in pens.”
Jiang Chen could hardly believe what he had heard. He simply did not think it possible. He knew ancient and contemporary history well. If there were really such an evil force, he would not have been ignorant of it.
“The Nine Realms can be compared to a fruit tree, whose fruits will ripen at different intervals to benefit the whole world. However, the evil force will beat us to it before we can enjoy the fruit. They’ll pick up the fruits before we can.” The Divine Tree of Creatures stayed silent for a while. Then it used a metaphor to explain the situation. “We are the fruits!”
Shocked, Jiang Chen shouted, “Is that why Martial Sovereigns are almost extinct?”
“Exactly. That evil force is called the Blood Race. They feed on the blood of other races. The stronger a creature is, the more they will crave its blood. The Blood Race will invade the Nine Realms every 5,000 years to suck the blood of the creatures here. The real reason that the Dragon retreated to the Dragon Realm is that they wanted to escape from the Blood Race. The dreadful thing is, those whose blood is sucked will forget what happened to them. That’s why no one knows about the Blood Race.”
Jiang Chen was very shocked, but everything sounded reasonable. “Did those races reappear in the world to fight with the Blood Race? Are they coming again?” he asked.
This time, the Divine Tree of Creatures stayed silent for a long time. When Jiang Chen was going to repeat the question, the divine tree told him, “The Blood Race came here at least 500 years ago.”
“What?!” Jiang Chen was scared out of his wits. Meanwhile, he was smart enough to associate it with something else.
“The Blood Race want to guarantee that the fruits are perfectly ripe, but they don’t want others to grab the fruits from them. So, the timing is very important for them. Someone knew about the Blood Race and was determined to change the situation. So, he did something that went against nature. He tried to look for spirits of the Great Sovereign to realize the reincarnation of the Great Sovereign.”
Jiang Chen thought of the man right away—Long Xing from the Sovereign Spirit Palace.
“Was the Sacred Zone closed for the same reason?” asked Jiang Chen.
“Yes, it was. The entrance to the Nine Realms is top-down. Since the Sacred Zone was closed, the eight lower realms have gotten 500 extra years to live in peace. These 500 years were for us to pick up the fruits in person.”
Jiang Chen turned black. Closing his fists tightly and gritting his teeth, he said, “What about the folks of the Sacred Zone?”
“It’s just impossible for everyone to be pleased.” The Divine Tree of Creatures seemed to have anticipated his question.
“Aaah!” Jiang Chen screamed in pain. If everything was true, the folks of the Sacred Zone had been living an extremely hard life. He was afraid all of his relatives and friends had become the food of the Blood Race.
“Once the 500 sovereigns appear in the world, they’ll be able to fight with the Blood Race, and the Nine Realms will become complete again. In this way, the Black Yellow Great World will be restored.” The Divine Tree of Creatures was insinuating about the story of the bronze cauldron. As long as he found all of the fragments of the bronze cauldron, the Nine Realms would be complete again.
“The thing is, the passage of the Sacred Zone can’t hold on for much longer. The Blood Race is coming.”
It was ridiculous that people from all realms were still so curious about the Sacred Zone that they even wanted to open the passage to travel there to see it with their own eyes. Jiang Chen could not keep listening anymore. All he could think of was people he knew from 500 years ago. He abruptly lifted his head. His eyes lit up. He recalled that in his last rebirth in the fire, he had gone back to 500 years ago, although he had thought it was only an illusion.
In that illusion, Xiao Nuo told him to save people.
Was that only a coincidence? Or…
Why was Yueru afraid that my whereabouts would be exposed? Why did Long Xing from the Sovereign Spirit Palace treat me that way?
One and another questions came into Jiang Chen’s head.
“There are other Sacred Spirits like me across the Nine Realms. It’s our responsibility to resist the Blood Race. We Sacred Spirits will make our own choices. And I’ve chosen you. So, you should at least be a Martial Arts Saint before the Blood Race’s arrival,” the Divine Tree of Creatures said.
“I will.” Jiang Chen calmed down. It was useless to be anxious. He felt a strong hatred for the Blood Race, although he did not even know what they looked like. “I won’t let you down.”
During the next few days, Jiang Chen started to design the defending formation for the Heavenly Palace in person. Since he had the help of the Divine Tree of Creatures, he could make full use of his skills. He was confident of working out the strongest formation, one which could resist an army formed by Martial Emperors.
Claiming that he needed to refine elixirs and build Doctrine Artifacts, Master Luo Cheng had purchased a great amount of precious materials and strategic resources before his identity was disclosed. However, these were just some initial investments. If he wanted to develop the Heavenly Palace, he would have to rely on the spiritual land, the Divine Prison Continent.
He could not recruit people to carry out the reclaiming project for the moment, since the Jiangs and the Gaos were still not strong enough to deal with danger. Fortunately, the Divine Tree of Creatures saved him a lot of trouble.
This day, someone came to visit him. It was his master Wu Ming. Wu Ming came with good news. The Sword Tower had finally recognized the Immortal Sword Doctrine, the paramount sword spirit that could turn everything immortal. The elders of the Sword Tower visited him one after another, asking him to go back to be the headmaster again, but Wu Ming seemed to have rejected them.
“I’m wondering whether the Heavenly Palace needs more people,” Wu Ming said, smiling. Jiang Chen was more than delighted to hear that. In this way, the Heavenly Palace would have a Martial Arts Saint.
“Jiang Chen, you must keep focusing on practicing. Level your state up and become a Martial Emperor. The Heavenly Palace has been just founded. It will consume lots of time and energy to maintain it. Just leave it to me,” said Wu Ming.
“Okay.” Jiang Chen was used to leaving such things to others. He certainly agreed. After discussing with his master, he decided to focus on elixirs and weapons. After all, they were in an unusual time. They could bring themselves great risk if they recruited people blindly.
“We don’t have enough people. The Divine Prison Continent is spacious. It’s almost as big as the entire Red Blood Field. I can’t manage the whole place alone.” Wu Ming brought up the first tricky problem. “My clansmen are not strong enough for the Realm of Heaven Martial Arts. And they are close to me. It’s inevitable for them to form groups. That won’t be good for the Heavenly Palace.”
Jiang Chen, a perfectionist, also felt it a dilemma.
“Ha, ha, ha, Jiang Chen, you are still too inexperienced for this. Wherever there are people, there will be groups. This is humanity. You can’t change that. That’s where politics comes into play.”
Wu Ming laughed, saying that he was still not sophisticated enough.
