Do you remember the void realm?
Minute changes filtered through various expressions when this question was posed. No one felt that Lu Yun was crowing about past accomplishments in an attempt to distract from the Dao Tree being sealed off. Rather, those in the know quickly grasped his meaning.
Damn it, no wonder that Qi Hai wasn’t willing to get involved. He knew already what Lu Yun was going to do! Zi Hengxiao cursed inwardly.
They’d paid a visit to the South Sea beforehand to invite Qi Hai and the Destiny city lord to join them, but the group had searched high and low over the waters without finding a trace of the city or pill dao sacred land.
That was when they understood that Qi Hai wasn’t willing to provoke Lu Yun anymore, but no one had fathomed that the young man would commit such a daring act!
Based on his personality, he should’ve met them in a frontal assault as soon as they came knocking. In fact, he would’ve obliterated them on the spot to teach a sharp lesson to all those who would act against him.
However, he no longer acted only on his behalf these days. He represented the Dao Academy and the will of the immortal dao residing in Mount Xuanhuang. Lu Yun was absolutely certain that someone was behind all these peak factions gathering so swiftly, and that the same mastermind was hoping he’d make a mistake somewhere.
Once Lu Yun erupted in a slaughter, he’d set foot into certain traps and the academy would be isolated. All the effort he’d put in thus far would be wasted.
In a chaotic world, one’s fist was one’s right. But in a civilized, orderly world, a rational system of morals and ethics underpinned its structure. This was what he was working toward.
……
“Qing Yu and I have indeed sealed off the Dao Tree to prevent current immortals from reaching dao immortality.” Lu Yun looked at the peak peerless immortal with a supercilious smile. “This is actually for your own good as well. Otherwise, you’ll probably hate us again when you reach aether dao immortal realm. Have you already forgotten when you were almost discarded by the march of time?”
Color draining from his face, the peerless immortal thought of the formation of heaven and earth etched in his body. Its creation method originated from Dusk Province, and he knew full well what Lu Yun meant.
The path of immortality was severed at the dao immortal realm, and Lu Yun aimed to repair the immortal dao by fixing that realm!
“Honestly, I’m a very selfish person,” Lu Yun continued without looking at the immortal. “When Qing Yu restored the void realm and almost eliminated hundreds of millions of immortals, the ensuing resentment was so awful that I had to create the formation of heaven and earth to save all of you.
“But how many dao immortals are there in the entire world and the multiverse at large? A hundred thousand? A million? Or ten million? That little bit of potential backlash from you is absolutely nothing in my eyes.
“If I wanted to, I could destroy the tree right now and connect the new cultivation system with the immortal dao. But here I am, wasting half a year of my time and effort for you ungrateful bastards. I’m doing all this so you dao immortals won’t be eliminated and can be integrated into the new dao immortal realm!
“You want to threaten me with connate treasures? Fine then, I’ll release the seal on the Dao Tree right now and let you pluck your fruits to your heart’s content. You can ascend to dao immortality or even further!
“This seat can then refrain from wasting so much time and energy on hypothesizing things that don’t matter at all. Besides, it’s not like there isn’t a complete system for dao immortals as it is right now,” Lu Yun sniffed coldly.
Zi Hengxiao and the other dao immortals present were all as pale as a sheet, and the peerless immortal was frightened out of his wits. They didn’t doubt Lu Yun’s words in the slightest; the return of the void realm had been something witnessed by all living beings in the entire multiverse, and the young man bore the greatest credit for that miracle.
Now that he was headmaster of the vaunted Dao Academy and established his own dao, even the will of the immortal dao resided in Mount Xuanhuang. They had no doubt that he could do what he said and complete the immortal dao.
“And I’ll tell you something else, an enormous calamity will descend in ninety-nine years. Previous generations of celestial emperors died not in search of a breakthrough to the ingress realm, but to prevent the arrival of that cataclysm.
“The previous nine celestial emperors are at the end of their rope, and they’ll be unable to do anything more after ninety-nine years. That survival of the world of immortals and your own continued existence will be determined then.” Lu Yun couldn’t be bothered dealing with these buffoons anymore and returned to Dusk Province, leaving a stunned and gaping crowd of immortals in his wake.
They looked at each other with shock, grappling with the enormity of these revelations. No one knew what to say.
“The previous celestial emperors… died to prevent disaster?” Zi Hengxiao looked around blankly.
“All of you should know the truth. The last generation of celestial emperors possessed great vision and immense talents. Their hearts lay with the people, so they’d fully absorbed the heritage within their heavenly mandates. They’d long broken through origin dao realm and reached ingress realm.” Zhao Shenguang suddenly appeared in a black imperial robe hemmed with golden embroidery.
“The realm of a celestial emperor has always been hidden within the mandates, and these mandates were refined by a divine expert after the end of the great war. He snipped off the presence of a complete immortal dao to preserve this bit of legacy for the world of immortals.
“However, he also left behind a bit of a contingency. Only those with a benevolent heart and truly care for the world can obtain this inheritance.
“What a pity that my two brethren who grasped this heart of an emperor have both died.”
The celestial emperors of Truespirit and Exalted Major had gone to their deaths the moment they understood what it meant to be a celestial emperor, going up in a blaze of mutual destruction with Mount Exalted.
The faces of the remaining celestial emperors didn’t look too happy, while the monster emperors of the ten lands didn’t really care. There might be a legacy stored in the heavenly mandates of the nine majors, but there didn’t seem to be anything similar with the ten lands and four immortal seas.
“There is such an inheritance in all twenty-four mandates.” Zhao Shenguang smiled brilliantly. “What a pity that the monster emperors of the ten lands and four immortal seas have never obtained theirs. Otherwise, the world of immortals now should be similar to the world eighty thousand years ago, with twenty-four celestial emperors like the divine kings of old, rather than nine celestial emperors and ten monster emperors.
“I was lucky enough to find the true heritage of an emperor in the Ancient Tree of Life and win the approval of the Nephrite mandate that way. I still don’t have that sort of benevolence in me, but at least I’ve found the proper path.
“The rest of you… well. Good luck.” With that, he vanished, but his voice still echoed in the air. “Remember, if you lot are still like this after ninety-nine years, then all you can do then is wait for your deaths. Enjoy this last little bit of tranquility while it lasts.”
