There was nothing to be gained in attempting to make Ye Zichen doubt his companions.
But Demon Emperor Kui Lin had just been testing the waters. He naturally didn’t think a few words would be enough to break up Ye Zichen’s alliance, but planting a seed of doubt was good too.
However, Ye Zichen’s relationships with the great emperors of the alliance were beyond the Demon Emperor’s expectations.
He clearly couldn’t disrupt their bonds, so he lost interest in pestering Ye Zichen any further. He simply crossed his arms and walked up to the barrier at the foot of the mountain.
“So, you realized you’re just inviting contempt, and now you’re running away.” Yang Jian glanced at the departing Demon Emperor. From the moment the Demon Emperor attempted psychological warfare, Yang Jian knew it would end like this.
Their alliance wasn’t just about mutual benefit the way the Demon Emperor’s was. Their relationships were far more interwoven and complex than Kui Lin imagined.
If a few words were enough to break their bonds, their alliance would have crumbled a long time ago!
“Did you notice? Kui Lin’s group seems to have lost quite a few members,” said Pu Jingwan, looking over the Demon Emperor’s subordinates.
Xuan Ji smiled indifferently. “They most likely chose to remain in that paradise.”
“He can’t even manage his own subordinates properly, yet he wants to break us apart?” Bi’an snorted.
Kui Lin naturally heard every word clearly, but he already had no interest in getting tangled up with Ye Zichen and his friends, so he didn’t respond.
It was true that a portion of Kui Lin’s subordinates had chosen to remain behind, but their ranks didn’t include any of Kui Lin’s closest confidants. It wouldn’t hurt Kui Lin too badly even if all of them died here.
“Only this many people came?” Suddenly, a transparent wisp of soul drifted into view at the foot of the mountain. When they saw it, everyone present grew solemn.
Barring unexpected circumstances, this soul fragment belonged to the Second Era’s Master of the Stars and God Emperor.
The soul fragment sighed as he looked over the group gathered at the foot of the mountain. Indeed, this was the God Emperor buried here.
From the moment the mausoleum opened its doors, he’d sensed vast numbers of experts pouring in, but less than ten percent had made it this far.
“Did he keep the others back?”
He!
That was clearly referring to the remnant soul in the grassy paradise, the piece of the then Demon Emperor.
The group nodded faintly. They’d learned that the “God Emperor” they’d met in that paradise was actually just a remnant of a former Demon Emperor’s soul. The newest arrivals, that group of imperial kings, were the only ones still in the dark, so when they saw the real God Emperor’s remnant soul, they seemed thrown for a loop.
It took them a moment to realize what was going on. They glanced back at the paradise through the barrier, their hearts palpitating with lingering terror.
“That’s really a shame.” The God Emperor’s soul fragment couldn’t help but sigh. Those who’d entered the mausoleum were all peak experts of the upper Three Realms.
Staying behind with the Demon Emperor’s soul meat their fates were sealed. The era was nearing its end, and each of those titled emperor experts would be enormously useful on the battlefield.
To lose so many such warriors at a time like this? The compassionate God Emperor’s soul couldn’t possibly bear it.
But even if he couldn’t bear it, he had no means of saving those the Demon Emperor’s soul had ensnared. This was the agreement between them, and he couldn’t break it…
Besides, he was now just a wisp of soul. What could he even do?
All he could do was let his heart ache on their behalf!
“Senior, are you the God Emperor?” Even though he already knew the answer, Ye Zichen asked to confirm it.
The remnant soul glanced at Ye Zichen. He seemed to sense that there was something unusual about the youth speaking to him. A hint of a smile appeared on his ethereal face.
“The God Emperor?” said the soul. “I haven’t been that for a long time. Now, I’m just a wisp of soul within this mausoleum, as well as a guide for you members of the younger generation!”
Although he said that, his words only proved that he was the God Emperor of his era.
Those gathered at the foot of the mountain lit up with varying degrees of delight. If they’d met the former God Emperor, it meant they really weren’t far from transcendent fortune.
“Senior, transcendent fortune is on that mountain, right?” asked an immortal king expert.
“It is.” The God Emperor’s remnant soul nodded without any attempt to obscure the truth.
The immortal king’s eyes lit up with increasingly radiant light. When Kui Lin saw this, however, he merely sneered.
He was still dreaming of getting his grubby hands on transcendence? Kui Lin didn’t know whether to call him stupid or just naive.
“However…” The remnant soul’s words took a sharp turn, and the visibility excited imperial kings and lords’ fervent gazes cooled down. They all watched the hovering spirit.
Something unexpected wasn’t about to happen again, right?
The remnant soul had already said that transcendent fortune was waiting in the mountain before them. There was nothing they wanted to hear less than the word “however.”
Saying it meant that there was a problem.
“I can see you’re nervous.” The corners of the remnant soul’s mouth arched upwards, as if he were smiling. “You needn’t be. Actually, what I’m about to tell you is this: yes, there is transcendent fortune here, but it can’t just make your cultivation cross the threshold into transcendence. All its existence can do is make your cultivation, or your comprehension of your dao, deepen. Whether you can take that final step into transcendence is still up to you.”
“Senior, back when we were in that grassy paradise, the other remnant soul said that only the Emperor Star had a chance of transcendence. Was that true?” pressed an imperial king.
Don’t be fooled; although imperial kings’ cultivation seemed weak in here, and although some of their questions seemed stupid, this particular question was what just about all of them wanted to hear the answer to.
None of them were the Emperor Star, but they still longed for transcendence.
“You could say that, but it’s not an absolute truth.”
No matter whose question he answered, the spirit’s response was friendly.
But his answer prompted Ye Zichen and Gu Li to look at each other. The great emperors of the alliance looked at each other too.
Not an absolute truth!
Didn’t that mean that, even if they weren’t the Emperor Star, they still had a chance at transcendence?
Then why was it that, back in the Outside, Han Nan had told him only one person could transcend, and that only one chosen by the Emperor Star could succeed. Could it be that the First Era, which successfully transcended, was mistaken?
Ye Zichen couldn’t remember Han Nan, but he could remember that conversation.
As the crowd was shaken, the God Emperor’s remnant continued tirelessly, “The true meaning of transcendence is transcending the world, and no longer being subject to its Laws. Given your cultivations, I imagine you ought to understand what I’m getting at, especially those of you who’ve mastered your domains.”
The group nodded, and the remnant continued, as if he were a school teacher giving them a lecture. “The Emperor Star is the.heavens’ chosen master. Everything, from living beings to the Laws themselves, is inclined towards him. This is heavenly fate. Whatever the Emperor Star does will flow as smoothly as water, and as he cultivates, he will encounter no shackles. This is the grand fortune inherent to the Emperor Star. That’s why, when the Emperor Star attempts transcendence, he has an advantage. His odds of success are far higher than those of an ordinary person.”
“If you really want to get technical, transcendence isn’t really a cultivation level; it transcends all that. A transcendent can look down upon all of creation, as if he were its creator. If you can take that final step and break through your restrictions, anyone can transcend.”
When they heard this, the crowd gnashed their teeth hatefully.
Everyone present was a chosen of heaven, a rare talent, yet even so, when they encountered the shackles restricting their cultivation like that, they couldn’t just bust through them.
But the Emperor Star didn’t even run into shackles, and the Laws were slanted in his favor.
This was blatantly unfair.
But then, “absolute fairness” had never existed to begin with. The God Emperor’s remnant had said it himself: this was fate.
This was the Emperor Star’s destiny!
But the God Emperor’s remnant had just said that the Emperor Star’s transcendence wasn’t absolute. That meant that ordinary folks like them were starting from the same place as the Emperor Star. At most, success would be far more difficult for them, but it wouldn’t be impossible.
“Senior, might I ask on what basis you say that?” Gu Li suddenly stepped forward. He normally wasn’t that type of person, but the remnant’s words overturned everything he knew.
Only the First Era had successfully transcended!
Why would this remnant soul, someone who’d failed to transcend, know something that the Outsider Gu Li didn’t?
“On what basis?” The remnant glanced at Gu Li. He could naturally tell that Gu Li carried imperial celestial fate.
He instantly understood that the Third Era had twin emperors, but what really surprised him was that the two of them stood here together, peacefully coexisting in one place.
Choosing two emperors was naturally to make them compete for the throne, then choose the better of the two.
But then, he was just a remnant spirit. He had no desire to ponder Ye Zichen and Gu Li’s relationship, nor did he particularly care. His mission, his reason for lingering within the mausoleum, was answering the trial-takers’ questions, as well as opening the mausoleum’s final barrier.
“The Second Era’s failure to transcend is the best possible proof!” said the remnant.
They’d failed to transcend, yet this was supposed to be “the best possible proof”?
These seemingly nonsensical words threw everyone for a loop. Even the loli and her stalwart companion frowned as they looked at the floating wisp of soul.
The God Emperor’s remnant was clearly responding to Gu Li’s question, which was essentially asking if any non-Emperor Star transcendent existed.
But now he was saying someone had, and yet, the Second Era failed to transcend…
“Ye-zi, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Do you know what he’s trying to say?” Yang Jian didn’t understand at all, so he couldn’t help but reach out to Ye Zichen through a divine sense transmission.
“I don’t get it either!” Ye Zichen looked completely baffled. The Second Era’s failure to transcend was the best possible proof? He had no idea what that meant!
When he saw that the great emperors were conversing with one another, and that all of them seem confused, the wisp of soul let out a very human-like laugh.
“The Second Era could have transcended, except that I snuffed out that hope personally.” These words were still unclear, but it made everyone visibly start. Ye Zichen, who’d been pondering the God Emperor’s remnant soul’s words, seemed to recall something.
These words were just as confusing and impenetrable to most, but a few people’s expressions visibly changed. Ye Zichen, who’d just been pondering the remnant’s words, suddenly recalled something. He then turned and looked at the paradise they’d left behind, then back at the God Emperor’s remnant soul.
Snuffed out!
In life, this God Emperor had only “snuffed out”….
“That’s right. The Second Era’s Demon Emperor transcended. He wasn’t even an ordinary star bearer. He was just an ordinary demon who’d never so much as condensed a godhead. I saw it with my own eyes. He’s the very proof I’m referring to!”
