Everyone turned their heads to look at Wang Ju with the same questioning look; their faces were basically saying what do you mean that there was a problem? Everything was fine a few days ago.
With a calm look on her face, Wang Ju said: "The incense we have gathered has dispersed?"
"What do you mean by this?"
"Let me show you," she replied before flying away with the group following her. Not long afterward, the group arrived at the largest temple in the capital.
Inside the main room, countless Gods knelt in front of a statue of Wang Wei praying to him. Using the [Qi Watching Technique], the group could feel faint golden energy on top of these Gods' heads.
Although their faith was not pure enough because they were not true believers, however, due to their powerful souls, the incense energy that they provided was still quite large.
Li Jun's group then watched as the golden incense came from these gods' souls and entered the statue which was an artifact refined to contain the power of incense. Unfortunately, after entering inside, the incense energy was slowly dissipating.
The group slowly watched this happening, then Li Jun asked; "What's going? Could something be have been wrong with the refinement process of the statue?"
"Unlikely," replied Wang Ju. "After noticing this problem, I have already contacted my men scatted all over the realm; the problem is prevalent everywhere."
"Did you not find anything from the Death God's memory?" asked Yan Liling.
"His soul is after all equal to a Void Shattering Realm, so it will take me some time to properly search it," replied Wang Ju.
While everyone was frowning, Tie Gang waved his hand to capture a Title God. "Do you know what's going on with the incense?"
"S-Sir, I do not know anything," replied the Disease God. However, Tie Gang could feel that this guy's eyes were suspicious and contained some guilt.
"There are many people here that should know the answer to my question," said Tie Gang with a cold look. "If you are not one of these people, you have no value in living.
"Better yet, I should probably directly search your soul."
The Disease's God then immediately said: "It's because of the Destiny Goddess."
"What do you mean?" asked Li Jun, who already had a guess.
"She controlled the Divinity of Fate and Destiny. As long as she is alive, all the faith regarding this divinity will belong to her; no one can break this rule."
The group frowned as they knew that what these gods called [Divinity] was what their cultivators called [Law]. From this person's words, they knew that the fundamental rules that governed this world did not allow one person to share the same law.
Since the Destiny Goddess has already controlled the [Power of Destiny/Fate], they could not do the same.
"What do we do now?" asked Yan Liling.
"Could we use Death Law to gather incense? After all, death is also a part of fate," commented Tie Gang. Everybody then looked at him. Their eyes seemed to be saying:
"Since when did you become so wise?"
"I resent your insinuations," he said. "Young Master Wang Wei once said to me that the final destination, the final fate of all mortal is death. So, I remember his words."
Everyone nodded their heads. These words were true as they did not only apply to mortals. In the cultivation world, technically speaking, all cultivators under the Emperor Realm is considered mortal and will one day die.
Although Tie Gang's idea was good, Li Jun still shook his head:
"Fate has to be the main Law we used to gather incense. Everything else has to be secondary."
All of them knew that Wang Wei needed the power of incense to break through the Primordial Spirit Realm. If the incense fits best with his Dao, there will be fewer complications and the success rate will also increase.
"Then, what should we do?"
"Let's just see if there is another way from the Death God's memory," replied Li Jun. "In the meantime, we will ask the Formation Masters to create a formation that could retain the incense in some way or form.
"And if that does not work, we have to kill or capture the Destiny Goddess at all cost."
Two weeks quickly passed by. A new formation was installed to solve the current problem, and the results were more than mediocre. The formation was able to gather some incense, however, the amount was pathetically small.
"How is it? Did you find another way from the Death God's soul?" asked Li Jun.
"No. Although I have found a few secrets of this world, there was nothing that could help with the situation."
"It's unfortunate. In that case, let's prepare to kill the Destiny Goddess. I will report to big brother."
After that, he teleported inside his space room which contained a small world. In one of the rooms, Li Jun came in front of a massive formation with so many runes that it made him dizzy just by looking at it.
He injected a token with his origin essence to activate the formation. More than an hour later, the face of a young and handsome man with grey hair and eyes appeared in front of Li Jun.
He could see from the background that that person was also in a small world inside a space ring.
"Big brother."
"Little Jun, how are things going? Did you add another member to your harem?" asked Wang Wei with a cunning smile.
"Since Yan Liling has not killed me yet, the answer is no," replied Li Jun a little speechless. He had long given up his womanizing way.
"Plus, just because I call you big brother, do not forget that I'm still older than you. Respect your elders."
Wang Wei laughed out loud after hearing this, then the two chatted about their lives before going into business. Li Lun explained the current situation and Wang Wei listened attentively.
"You and the others did well," nodded Wang Wei. "As for your current situation, it's best to be careful and use Fate Law as the main gathering of incense. However, you can still gather a small amount of Death Incense along with other ones.
"When I arrive, I can find a way to fuse them."
"Alright. How are things going on your side?"
"Boring and peaceful. All I do every day is refine pill and cultivate."
"That sounds like a haven for Liling. Don't forget to 'borrow' some pill recipe for her."
Wang Wei was once again speechless, wondering when this guy became as shameless as him. Then, they chatted briefly as the Trans-Planar Communication Formation burned too much money–especially after Li Jun discovered that it would cost even more because of this World's Crystal Wall.
After ending the communication, Li Jun went to deal with the Death God and the information gathered from his soul, while Wang Wei began to scheme.
Based on his recent analysis of the current situation, he realized that the fastest way to accomplish his goal is to increase his status in the sect. And the best way to do so is to rapidly increase both his cultivation level and Alchemy Level.
However, all of this rapid progress has to have a logical way to explain it, otherwise, people will become suspicious–especially given the level of talent previously displayed by Lou Cheng.
And what's the fastest and most reasonable way to increase cultivation level and Alchemy Tier?
Secret Realm: A secret realm with enough rare resources. At first, Wang Wei wanted to ask the sect to create such a secret realm and have someone accidentally discover it.
However, he did not want to use the resources of the sect for other people; that was too wasteful.
Plus, he needed a secret realm that was unique and appealing to even Emperor Lineages.
If this plan works, he can use the resources inside to quickly increase Lou Cheng's cultivation realm, while at the same time luring his third senior sister there as well.
Then, he will have a chance to uncover the secrets of the [Flame Controlling Art].
As Wang Wei began to think this through, he realized that there were even more benefits to this plan. For example, he can use this opportunity to lure the people in Fu Caiyun's side and kill them all.
Based on his experience in the sects in the past few months, he could already tell that this talented Alchemist would be a problem for his goal. So, eliminating him or weakening him is in his best interest.
Finally, he could use this opportunity to show Lou Cheng and him in the same place. Although no people would relate these two together, it was best to be careful.
Now, the issue is where will Wang Wei find such a secret realm.
Suddenly, he remembered someone that could solve his problem and strong killing intent flashed across his eyes as he muttered:
"Liu Meixiu."
Northern Black Tortoise Continent, Tiger Sovereign Domain, inside a secret realm:
A beautiful woman with a wild and savage temperament stood in the middle of a mountain accompanied by two men. One person was 3 meters tall with two bull horns on their heads, while the other had the head of an elephant with a human body.
The three of them were surrounded by formations scattered all over the mountain.
Liu Meixiu watched as the two men used all their strength to break the formation in front of them, then the group can take a few steps forward up this mountain.
Then, they will be stopped by another formation and have to take time breaking the formation. Seeing that they were already halfway through the mountain, it's obvious these three have been here for a while and are close to accomplishing their goals.
After destroying another formation, Liu Meixiu said: "Elders, you can rest now."
The two men nodded their heads before stopping, then they turned back into humans. To be precise, they seemed to separate into two: one human and one demonic beast.
The man with the horn was fused with a demonic beast called Tyrant Fist Bull which was a demon with Imperial Bloodline. The other man was also separated from another demon with Imperial Bloodline, the Earth Suppressing Elephant.
Both these demon races had one Great Emperor.
After the Elders separated from their Fusion Form, they put away their contracted demons in their space bags, took out a few pills to heal, and recuperate their strength.
Liu Meixiu followed them and sat cross-legged on the floor to recuperate and cultivate at the same time. The aura surrounding her showed that she was already in the Divine Body Realm.
As she closed her eyes, she pondered: "It has been more than 700 years since I came to this secret realm. In a few hundred years, I should be able to reach the core."
Thinking about the rewards she will receive once she breaks through the core, Liu Meixiu became excited. She has sacrificed so much for this secret realm.
She forfeited attending the Heaven Chosen Trial at the Academy, so she did not have the chance to place her name in the Heavenly Dao Protection Book. This led to the fact that she also did not have a chance to use the Dao Tablets and create her own scripture.
However, Liu Meixiu did not care about these.
When it came to the protection of the book, it only protected her until the Primordial Spirit Realm. With her status, she did not have to worry about death as along she was careful.
As for the tablets and creating a scripture, this only affected her a little. As long as she can create it before reaching the Supreme Realm, she can still become a Quasi-Emperor and fight for the Heaven Will.
Creating a scripture before entering the Divine Body Realm is only the best time to do so to establish a firm foundation. However, as long as someone does it before entering the Supreme Realm, they will be fine. Just have to spend more time re-establish the foundation.
After taking a deep breath to calm her mind, Liu Meixiu began to run the [Beast Lord Map] to use her Good Fortune Flame to temper her organs. With the resources she acquired from this secret realm, she was almost finished with the Humans Stage.
However, before she could cultivate for long, she received a Communication Talisman.
With a frown on her face, she took the talisman as she muttered: "I thought I told them not to contact me unless something important happened."
She used her Divine Sense to check the message, then she abruptly stood up, alerting the other two Elders.
"Young Beast Lord, what happened?" asked one of them.
"The news about the secret realm has been leaked and spread," replied Liu Meixiu with gritted teeth.
"What?" shouted the two elders at the same time.
"How is that possible?"
Liu Meixiu did not respond to them as she was communicating with someone else to find the answer to this question.
"Do you think the Ji family discovered us?" asked the Bull Elder.
"Unlikely. I made sure to cover my trail when coming here. I even faked being seriously injured and recuperating," she replied while shaking her head.
The Herd Raising Valley is an Emperor Lineage with only one Great Emperor, however, because of their ability to raise and tame beasts, they have a unique position in the world. There are rumors that the Beast Emperor of their sect had more than 5 demon beasts who reached Tier 10 or Great Emperor Realm as his follower after proving the Dao.
And he left all of them or some of them to the Herd Raising Valley before leaving the world. So, despite having only one Great Emperor, the status of their sect is quite high in this world
Then, she remembered that there were a few other people secretly following her. She thought that she had lost them, but apparently not.
So, Liu Meixiu began to remember carefully all the people who were secretly following her but could not remember anything.
"Could the Ji family really have discovered me?" muttered Liu Meixiu.
The political situation in the Herd Raising Valley is very messy. The sect used to be nothing but a Supreme Land until the Beast Emperor managed to prove the Dao and proclaimed himself as Emperor.
With his guidance, he opened a large business selling beasts all over the Myriad Emperor World, thus establishing a firm foundation for the sect. Then, he left.
After his departure, his family, the Ji family, began to rapidly gain power in the Herd Raising Valley. Using some secret method that the Beast Emperor gave then, the Ji family had a way to both create a pseudo-Myriad Beast Body and track the real one once it appears.
Because this physique was perfect to cultivate their Emperor Scripture, [Beast Lord Map], many powerful Heaven Chosens have appeared in their family, this solidifying their status as the most powerful faction in the sect.
Of course, the other factions were not happy with the sudden rise of the Ji family. After a few generations, the Herd Raising Valley had turned into the Ji family's property because of how much power they held.
The other people did not accept such a fact, so infighting began amongst the same sect. Unfortunately, the Ji family was too powerful, so the other factions were forced to band together to barely fight against them.
Luckily for them, in this generation, they discovered the Myriad Beast Body before the Ji family. They took Liu Meixiu in and trained her with all their resources and efforts; they placed all their hopes on her.
And she did not disappoint them. She fought and easily slaughtered the Pseudo-Myriad Beast Body of the Ji family, absorbed his blood essence, and became the Young Beast Lord of the Herd Raising Valley in this generation.
Despite this, Liu Meixiu's life was not easy. The Ji family did anything to reduce the number of resources that she would receive. After all, they knew that if she became a Great Emperor, not only would their family lose their position, they might even be killed.
The Ji family went as far as sending many assassins to eliminate Liu Meixiu and prevent her from growing up. Although angered, the other factor practiced forbearance as they had a plan to ensure their rise and the rise of their Heaven Chosen.
A secret realm that Liu Meixiu learned about when she was young.
As long as she could get the benefit inside this secret realm, she will be able to recreate the glory of the Heavenly Phoenix Emperor. She was an Emperor with the same physique as Liu Meixiu but got a fortunate encounter to absorb the blood essence of a True Phoenix.
With that blood essence, the Myriad Beast Physique displayed powers beyond many people's imagination.
...
While Liu Meixiu was trying to think how she was discovered, she suddenly remembered sensing a strange power following; that power was very weak and well-controlled. If it was not for her beast-like instinct, she might not have detected it.
"That was the power of Shadow, and it was a power that I felt familiar with. Where have I felt it before...The Dao Opening Sect's [Shadow Monarch Book]."
Immediately, she remembered her encounter during the Luck Trial.
"Wang Wei, it must be him," muttered Liu Meixiu with gritted teeth. She guessed that Wang Wei must have been paying attention to her since the trial and had people monitor her.
However, she was still confused as to why he released the news about the secret realm. The best course of action in this situation would be to wait once she entered the core and act as an oriole to catch the cicada.
However, he did not do so.
"Unless, it was not his intention to release the news," muttered Liu Meixiu. She pondered for a moment, sneered, and said to the Elders:
"Immediately go restore the formation we have already destroyed.. We can let others take advantage of all our hard work."
Southern Continent, Origin Pill Dao Sect:
Wang Wei flew from his cave towards his master. After entering, he saw old man Ye Lao sitting cross-legged waiting for him.
"Master, you summoned me?"
"Have you heard of the Secret Realm that was discovered in the Northern Continent three months ago?"
"I've heard rumors from the disciples, but I do not know much about it," replied Wang Wei.
"Well, a few sects have discussed and decided that only disciples in the Void Shattering Realm and below can enter. So, I'm asking if you are interested in entering?"
Wang Wei pretended to ponder about this issue for a while. Ye Lao–who wanted his disciple to participate–said: "Originally, many people only wanted Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators and below to enter, however, the Dao Opening Sect insisted that Void Shattering Realm be allowed.
"I do not understand their purposes in doing so. However, this is not bad news for us as your senior brothers and sisters can also participate."
"Master, which senior brother is going as well?"
"You first senior brother and third senior sister will be attending. If you encounter a problem, they can help you."
"What about second senior brother?"
"He's going into seclusion, so he will not be attending. So, what's your decision?"
"No problem, master. I have a feeling that this Secret Realm is my chance to rise," replied Wang Wei with a smile on his face.
"You're probably just happy to have a chance to spend time with your third senior sister."
"Master, don't tease me."
"Alright, I won't intervene in you youngster's things," said Ye Lao. "Do you have any other questions or concerns?"
"Yes, master. Do you have any information regarding this Secret Realm?"
"So far, aside from knowing that it contains a large number of resources, we do not know much yet. The core of the Secret Realm is protected by many formations that even Supreme Realms cannot easily go through."
"Master, does that mean that True Monarchs will also enter the Secret Realm?
"Yes."
"I'm confused. I thought only people in the Void Shattering Realm and below could enter.:
"This is referring to the outer area," replied Ye Lao. "The True Monarchs will only stay in the core area, and are prevented from interfering with the disciple's fights."
Wang Wei nodded his head, then Ye Lao gave him a space ring.
"Inside contains a Heaven Grade Artifact. This should protect you against Void Shattering Realm powerhouses. Additionally, there are a few Escaping Talismans that can save your life in case of danger."
Wang Wei's Divine Sense checked inside the space ring and a shield floating inside along with many talismans. On the corner was a small pile of pills–mostly healing ones.
"Thank you, master."
A few days later, Wang Wei flew to the entrance of the sect where a group of people was waiting. At the head of the group were two people: Lou Cheng's first senior brother, Wan Luo, and his third senior sister, Lan Ling.
After meeting them, Wang Wei said with a smile," Third Senior Sister, First Senior Brother." However, while his tone was warm and cheerful for the first one, he was more neutral and even cold when referring to his senior brother.
Apparently, Lou Cheng's relationship with his senior brother has not been very good because he is considered his love rival for his third senior sister. Although Wang Wei was complaining inside, he still had to act the part.
While Lan Ling smiled and chatted with Lou Cheng, Wan Luo just nodded his head at him before ignoring him. Meanwhile, Wang Wei was checking the other people participating in this secret realm.
He quickly realized that the majority of these disciples belong to Fu Caiyun's faction in the sect. And when it came to the direct disciples of his master, only the three of them came while the remaining four stayed in the sect.
Considering that his 6th junior sister and 7th junior brother had quite a low cultivation level, he understood why they did not come. His second senior brother was in retreat, however, he did not know why 4th senior brother did not come.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Wang Wei.
"Fu Caiyun's third disciple is also coming with us," replied Lan Ling. Not long after asking this question, the space not far from the group was suddenly broken and a young man dressed in all black with clouds pattern came from it.
His appearance was quite noticeable as he had heavy bad under his eyes like he had spent millennia without sleep. A gloomy aura surrounded his body, preventing anyone from approaching him.
"Ji Yulou, you're late," said Wan Luo with a cold voice. Unfortunately, the latter just ignored him. After taking out a small boat from his space ring, it enlarged itself until it was large enough to hold a few thousand people.
Ji Yulou flew inside one of the rooms on the boat, followed by his master's followers. Meanwhile, Wan Luo was furious for a few seconds before following.
In the meantime, Wang Wei was secretly observing that Ji Yulou.
'If I remember correctly, this guy belonged to the Ji family, which had paid a high price for him to become Fu Caiyun's apprentice. His presence in this secret realm showed that his master might be aligning himself with the Ji family to deal with Liu Meixiu.'
Many aristocratic families will send their juniors into other powerful sects as either a form of alliance, using the sect's resources to raise them, or even as asylum against rival factions in their clan. There are many of them in the Dao Opening Sect.
Those sects would accept these people since they will never truly enter the core power. Additionally, if they can be turned into spies, they are the perfect double agent.
...
Thinking of Liu Meixiu, Wang Wei's killing intent flash. Back on the Luck Trial, he suffered a loss because of her' she broke the rules of the trial and tried to destroy the world in an attempt to acquire merit to increase her Qi Luck.
Millions of his citizens died because of the beast tide she created. If the trial took place in a Middle Thousand World, he would have paid for this great Karma as a ruler.
So, Wang Wei remembered that debt and he would pay it with blood.
'Although I want Liu Meixiu's head, I still need her to reach the core of this secret realm first as she has an overwhelming advantage over other people. So, if necessary, I have to block both Fu Caiyun and the Ji family's people.'
Three days later, the group arrived at the Northern Black Tortoise Continent. The first thing that flashed across Wang Wei's mind was:
'How thin the spiritual energy is.'
He finally understood the reason that the Demon Race's hatred for humans is increasing with each passing generation. Living in this environment makes cultivation at least 10 times harder than usual.
However, from the human race's point of view, this is the best choice besides exterminating their race. The Demon race's cultivation is different from other people.
They relied heavily on their bloodline. Although this determined the height low-level bloodline demons will reach, high-level bloodlines only require enough resources to reach the Supreme Realm; they do not have bottlenecks.
Additionally, the Demon race does not have to worry about things like having their own Dao to become Great Emperor. Although that would help, it's just the cherry on top, nothing more.
As long as they acquire the Heaven Will, their bloodline will evolve and mutate. They do not have to worry about things like Dao Heart and so on. The downside to this is that it's really difficult for the Demon Race to give birth to Eternal Emperors.
So far, throughout their history, not a single one has appeared.
After arriving at Tiger Sovereign Domain, the group headed to a small town habited by humans called "Hope Town" located in the north. Although it was rare, there were still humans living in the north.
The majority of them were descendants of fugitives who tried to hide from their enemies in the demon's race territory. While the rest are probably people who do not want to or do not have the means to relocate.
Luckily for these people, because of the demon race's fear of the human race, they were not brutally slaughtered or used as food. At least on the surface, it looks that way.
Once the people of the Origin Pill Dao arrived at their destination, they saw many flying boats floating in the air, waiting for the appropriate time to enter the secret realm.
With a glance, Wang Wei could tell that only a few Emperor Lineages were interested in this secret realm, while the majority of other people were from Supreme Lands and Holy Land.
After pondering for a moment, he realized the reason. The core of this secret realm has not been opened, so not many people knew of its true value. So, many people were just waiting for the right time to act.
However, given that Liu Meixiu spent a few hundred years trying to reach the core, Wang Wei bet that she knew more about it than everyone else, and there might be something very valuable inside.
While thinking to himself, Wang Wei's vision was locked on one of the flying boats as he watched a handsome man with grey hair and eyes: it was himself.
To be precise, it was his clone. Although it only had 60% of his true body strength, it could still fight a True Monarch.
"Fifth brother, do you know Sacred Son Wang Wei?"
Wang Wei turned his head to see Lan Ling and Wan Luo standing behind him and looking in the direction of the Dao Opening Sect.
"Senior brother, you must be joking. How could I know such a powerful Heaven Chosen as Sacred Son Wang Wei?" replied Wang Wei calmly, without a hint of shame after complimenting himself.
True. A person like that which has a great chance of becoming a Great Emperor lives in a completely different world from us," said Wan Luo, his voice containing a little melancholy.
"There is no need to belittle yourself, senior brother. I'm sure you have your own advantage; you should be proud of that," said Lan Ling in a soft voice.
"You're right, junior sister. So what if this Wang Wei is powerful. When it comes to Alchemy, I, Wan Luo, am not afraid of anyone."
"It is common knowledge that Sacred Son Wang Wei has a powerful and unique soul. If he ever decided to learn alchemy, his achievements would be unimaginable," suddenly added Wang Wei.
Wan Luo's mouth twisted after hearing this before giving his junior brother a harsh stare. He had just regained his confidence, but now...
"Plus, he's very handsome. Probably more handsome than you, senior brother. Wouldn't you agree, senior sister?" said Wang Wei, further adding salt to Wan Luo's injury.
Lan Ling internally sighed. Although he agreed with Lou Cheng, she would not admit this out loud in front of her senior brother.
"You," said Wan Luo as he pointed his finger at Lou Cheng. "What about you? Can you compare to him in both appearance and ability?"
"You're right, senior brother, I cannot and I accept this fact."
Wan Luo instantly felt like something was stuck in his throat after hearing this answer. In the end, he just snorted coldly before ignoring Lou Cheng.
After all, the latter was right. Wan Luo knew that even if he managed to acquire the position of Young Pill Sage and become the Heaven Chosen of the Origin Pill Dao Sect, he could not compete with someone like Wang Wei.
So, even if he was indignant, angry, ashamed, all he could do was swallow this breath. It's not like he could do anything to Wang Wei. In terms of status, strength, and potential, he was completely outmatched.
So, the only thing he could do is pretend that things did not bother him or that it had nothing to do with him. As he said before, they belong to two different worlds.
Lan Ling gave his junior brother a slight look, 'My junior brother seemed to have changed a lot recently.'
Meanwhile, on the boat of the Dao Opening Sect, Wang Wei's clone was observing the people around. Not many Emperor Lineages showed up, and amongst the ones that did, only a few people were worth paying attention to.
He looked in the direction of the Sword Casting Villa where a young handsome man with sword eyebrows, white clothes, and a sword on his waist: it was Jian Wushuang.
Despite his calm and peaceful demeanor, Wang Wei could feel a deep arrogance hidden from his exterior appearance.
Wang Wei had noticed that Jian Wushuang experienced a change in personality during the Dao Tablets Secret Realm after his Infinity Sword Will managed to subdue his father's Absolute Cut Sword Will.
From what Wang Wei knew, the upper echelons of the Sword Casting Villa also noticed this change in temperament, so they ordered him to travel around the world to temper himself.
Sudden change in temperament is a normal thing if a person's state of mind or Dao Heart is not firm enough. Logically speaking, Jian Wushuang should have awakened after he experienced defeat at Lin Fan's hand more than 500 years ago. However, it seems not.
Wang Wei guessed that Su Ya used some method to influence Jian Wushuang. After all, from what he knows, she has been scheming against him for quite some time now.
If her plans work, Wang Wei guessed that Jian Wushuang will either end up dead or in terrible shape. Either way, Wang Wei does not care.
After all, Jian Wushuang is his enemy/competitor. His death is advantageous to him.
Additionally, his demise is actually quite inconsequential. From what he learned from his father and grandfather, not all the Heaven Chosen currently active on the world stage will make it to the Heaven Will Battle.
Some will die halfway through, some will have their Dao Heart shattered and no longer wish to pursue the Emperor Path. Many other people will suddenly grow up and replace the current people.
More importantly, there are many hidden seats, families, or factions that will not show themselves until the appropriate time.
In conclusion, the Heaven Will Battle will not be simple. Not even a tenth of the participants have shown up yet.
After thinking about this, Wang Wei's clone eyes moved to another boat. This one belongs to the Loose Cultivator Alliance, and their current Heaven Chosen, Huang Yuan.
From the information currently known about him, he is from the Lower Realm and was discovered by a member of the Loose Cultivator Alliance. So, they pooled a lot of their resources together to exchange for an Identity Token for him from an Emperor Lineage so that he can participate in this generation's battle. freēwēbnovel.com
After meeting this guy, Wang Wei instantly felt that something was wrong. He felt a particular breath from Huan Yuan; the breath of Heavenly Dao. And he knew that all of the people who placed their names on the Heavenly Dao Protection Book and attained immortality had that same breath.
However, it was very faint on Huang Yuan; it was so faint to the point of being unnoticeable. In fact, the clone did not detect the breath, but the real body who was posing as Lou Cheng did.
Immediately afterward, Wang Wei's brain began to think; he knew that there must be some secret here. His first instinct was to use his Fate Reading Technique to find the Truth. Unfortunately, a dark aura seemed to be protecting Huang Yuan.
So, he used his brain instead. He suddenly remembered one of the Top 30 Heaven Chosens from the Academy's Trial. It was the ranked 23rd whose name was also Huang Yuan.
From what he remembered, this guy was from a Supreme Land called Soaring Lantern Valley.
'Now, the question is, what is the relationship or connection between these two Huang Yuan?' thought Wang Wei. He did not think that this was merely a coincidence of two people having the same name–especially after sensing that breath.
Immediately, he contacted the current acting leader of the Fate Shadow Guard in Wang Ju's absence. He ordered him to find the whereabouts of Huang Yuan from Soaring Lantern Valley.
While Wang Wei was staring at the Huang Yuan from afar, the latter noticed his gaze and looked at him back. Immediately, Wang Wei knew that he was right to assume that this guy had a secret.
This was because of his eyes. They displayed a level of vicissitudes, a wisdom that could only be possible through time. He had seen such eyes from his grandfather and grandmother.
There is no way for a young person to have such eyes. Truth be told, the only young person he knows who has such eyes is Di Tian, however, he also knew that it was because the latter was an old monster that has lived for who knows how long and experienced too many things.
So, after seeing Huang Yuan's eyes, two thoughts came to his mind: "Reincarnation or Body Possession."
Of course, there is also the possibility that this guy had a fortunate encounter that allowed him to experience Samsara, to experience myriad lives, thus explaining why he has such eyes.
Whatever the truth is, it does not change the fact that Huang Yuan has become an unknown factor in this generation's battle for the throne. As such, he must be investigated and his secrets must be known.
That way, it will be easier for Wang Wei to deal with him.
After coming to this conclusion, Wang Wei removed his eyes from Huang Yuan, meanwhile, the latter frowned as he pondered to himself:
'Did he discover something? Probably not, but based on his reaction, he might be suspicious of me. *Sigh* Heaven Chosens of such a powerful world is nothing compared to the Lower Realm.'
If his body possession is discovered, it will only be a minor inconvenience for him when it comes to consequences. However, he will lose the ability to use this knowledge in a beneficial way.
So, actions must be taken to cover his tracks.
'Luckily for me, I could not destroy the other guy's body and soul. However, I have to find a way to erase his memories.'
Huang Yuan quickly thought of ways to cover his track and prevent his secrets from being leaked.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei's eyes looked in another direction as someone else's caught his attention.
"Who is that?" he asked one of the Supreme Elders that were accompanying him.
Wang Wei gazed at a girl dressed in a blue hanfu with golden threads; her clothes were perfectly fitted, displaying her feminine curves. She had an exquisite face that seemed to be perfectly sculpted.
Her eyes resembled the purest of jewels that could reflect the sun or any other surface. Her long hair–which reached her all the way to her posterior–floated with the wind.
She had a flame mark in the middle of her forehead which further embellished her beauty. As she stood there, she exuded a very noble temperament like she was divine.
Unlike Fang Lijuan of the Divine Dao League, her noble temperament did not come out as arrogance, but more natural; it was as if Heaven and Earth accepted the fact that she was noble.
In terms of beauty or temperament, this woman did not lose to either Su Ya, Wu Hong, or even Xi Shi.
Of course, the reason that Wang Wei paid attention to her was not because of her beauty, but because he felt a very powerful bloodline inside her body. Moreover, her aura seemed very strange and weird, like she was incompatible with her surroundings.
It's unfortunate that she seemed to have a way to block any observation abilities that try to pry her secret, so his eyes could not see anything more.
After hearing Wang Wei's question, Yan Chen pondered for a while before saying: "She might be from the Huo Family."
"Huo Family? I've never heard about them."
"That's because they are an Ancient Aristocratic Clan."
"Another term that I've never heard about. Supreme Elder, can you please explain?" said Wang Wei.
"Ancient Aristocratic Clans are families that survived the Null Era. Essentially, any clan that existed since the Beginning Emperor Era. For example, the Huo family is very prestigious amongst the ancient clan.
"They claimed that their ancestor was the first Acquired Human that discovered fire. Because of their discovery, humans were no longer afraid of the dark, did not die from the cold, and so on.
"Because of this discovery, their clan received a great number of merit and Qi Luck.
"Of course, these are just rumors with no substantial proof. However, according to records from our sect, those claims are most likely true. Unfortunately, most factions just refused to acknowledge it to prevent the Huo family and other ancient aristocratic clans from gathering too much merit and Luck."
Wang Wei became intrigued; he knew that the water of this world was deep and there were many things or secrets that he did not know yet. So, he was not that surprised that some ancient clan suddenly popped out.
"Since they could survive for so long, they should be quite powerful, right?" he asked.
"You would think so, but no," replied Yan Chen who was caressing his beard.
"The majority of them suffered terrible losses during the Null Era. However, this is not the main reason for their decline. These ancient clans are very stubborn when it comes to tradition and rules.
"During the Ancient Emperor Era, the majority of them refused to adapt to the changing world and were slowly eliminated by the times."
"Oh, what exactly do you mean?"
"For example, these clans refuse to cultivate the Origin System and instead, continue to cultivate the system of ancient times. Unfortunately, the current environment is way too inferior to ancient times, as such, it is not suitable to the ancient cultivation system." fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
After hearing this, Wang Wei understood why these ancient clans declined. Heaven and Earth will change to nurture the most prosperous cultivation system in any world.
An excellent example of this fact is origin stones or origin source that is used as currency and to cultivate in the Myriad Emperor World. Origin Qi is not an energy that existed between heaven and earth but one that was created by the Qiyuan Emperor.
Despite this, the entire world is full of mines that contain origin stones and sources, which cultivators can directly absorb. Logically speaking, the world should only have mines that contained spiritual stones since spiritual qi is prevalent between Heaven and Earth.
The reason for this anomaly is that Heavenly Dao acknowledged the fact that the Origin System is the orthodox cultivation system of this world, so it changed the world to benefit this system.
Over the years, resources unique only to this system were developed to help it prosper and flourish. This is one of the reasons that most worlds do not have multiple cultivation systems.
"Since there are ancient aristocratic clans, are there any ancient sects too?" asked Wang Wei.
"As far as my knowledge goes, there isn't," replied Yan Chen. "The Beginning Emperor Era was occupied by clans, families, and ethnic groups. The concept of 'sect' did not appear until the Ancient Emperor Era."
After a brief pause, he continued:
"I'm surprised that these clans show up so early. Usually, they will only appear when the Heaven Will Battle is near. This secret realm should contain something valuable, and they must know some secret about it."
Wang Wei's clone nodded his head before removing his eyes from her. He then checked out the other people present. Besides that girl and Jian Wushuang, he did not care about anyone else from the younger generation.
When it came to other factions, he noticed the Ji family from the Herd Raising Valley. With a single glance, people could tell that they were anxious to enter the secret realm, and Wang Wei knew why.
These people knew that Liu Meixiu was inside and wanted to intercept her at all costs to prevent her from gaining any benefit. And if possible, secret kill her.
Unfortunately, Wang Wei has been using the sect to delay the time that people enter. He wanted to give Liu Meixiu enough time to gather the people from her factions, then use her years of headstarts to quickly reach the core of the secret realm.
That way, she will do all the hard work and he will benefit from it.
While everybody was waiting for the agreed-upon time to enter, Huo Fenghuang felt Wang Wei's gaze so she looked in his direction.
'The Wang Clan's heir? The Elders have mentioned him and warned me to pay attention to him. He is indeed powerful. However, why do I feel like something is off.'
Her jewel-like eyes rapidly shone, then a look of surprise appeared on her face.
'That's just a clone? And he's that powerful?'
For a moment, she thought her Heavenly Eye Technique was malfunctioning.
'It seems that this generation's battle for the throne will be an interesting one.'
Nevertheless, Huo Fenghuang did not care as she had the utmost confidence in herself. As the most talented Heaven Chosens in the Huo Clan for countless generations, she believed in her potential and growth.
Even if she is not currently the opponent of the Wang Clan's heir, this will not be the same in the future–especially after she acquires the opportunity inside this Secret Realm.
...
At the appropriate time, many of the Emperor Lineages came together to open the entrance to the Secret Realm. A vortex appeared in front of everybody, then all the floating boats entered it.
The Loose cultivators who did not have any factions to support them placed a barrier around themselves, and after waiting for all the big guys to enter, they also rushed in.
Soon after entering, the Majority of factions let their disciples in the periphery of the secret realm, while they rushed to the entrance of the core area.
A tall mountain that seemed to support Heaven stood in front of everybody, full of formations. In the middle of the mountain, everybody could see a group of people: it was Liu Meixiu and the people from her factions in the Herd Raising Valley.
The Ji family along with a few other people wanted to use the same path as Liu Meixiu to quickly catch up to them. However, they soon discovered that these formations were restored, and even slightly strengthen.
As such, they had to start over like everybody else.
As soon as Wang Wei arrived at the foot of the mountain, his gaze looked directly at Liu Meixiu; he did not hide his killing intent.
Meanwhile, Liu Meixiu–who was also looking at him–bit the lower parts of her lips while wondering why this guy held such a deep grudge. She was angry that he broke all her plans.
Then, a ruthless light flashed across her eyes. She looked at the 5 new True Monarchs next to her and said: "Whatever the price, we have to reach the core of this secret realm as soon as possible."
After glancing at Liu Meixiu for a brief moment, Wang Wei looked at the mountains and formations in front of him. Although he noticed that the girl from the Huo clan did not come to this area, he did not pay that much attention to her besides sending someone to try to follow.
His attention was on the formation as he muttered: "Natural Formation?"
An idea suddenly came to his mind.
Chapter
"It's indeed a natural formation," said Yan Chen. "Young Master, do you have some ideas?"
Wang Wei nodded his head as he continued to ponder. As the name implied, natural formations are formations formed naturally by nature; they are usually found in landscapes like mountains, rivers, and forests.
From what he knows, natural formations were more common during the Ancient Emperor Era; to be specific, after the Null Era and before the Ancient Emperor Era began.
In an attempt to rebuild the civilization of the Myriad Emperor World, many of the early cultivators studied natural formation; this was how the profession of Formation Master began.
Heaven and Earth was the teacher of these cultivations.
Moreover, there are rumors that natural formations are Innate Formations whose Innate laws have been removed by either someone else or because of the passage of time.
After seeing the natural formation, Wang Wei immediately changed his plans to use brute force to rush up this mountain. Anyway, the Dao Opening Sect was just going to put on a charade waiting for Liu Meixiu.
Now, he discovered a perfect excuse, while still benefiting from it.
So, he sat cross-legged in front of one of the formations, looked at it closely, and began to understand it. A few minutes later, he finished his calculations and took a few formation flags.
He looked at the circles with countless runes inside of them before placing the flags in very specific places of the formation circle, then he used his origin essence to activate them.
The places he placed the flags shined for a moment before cracks started to appear in the runes inside the circle. A few seconds later, the formation broke into thousands of motes of lights; Wang Wei managed to break it without using brute force.
Finally, Wang Wei's clone along with the other Supreme Elders took a few steps up the mountain before encountering another formation circle made of completely different runes. He did the same thing again; understood the formation before finding its flaws to break it.
In the process, Wang Wei's understanding of runes and formations began to rapidly increase.
Ever since he infiltrated the Origin Pill Dao Sect, he has taken a new interest in Professions like Alchemy and Formation. He decided to take this time to increase his ability in these professions–especially when it comes to studying divine runes.
Wu Hong once gave him the [Empress Wu Sealing Sutra]. The early and middle stages of this technique require a deep foundation for the understanding of runes.
And even in the late stages, some powerful sealing techniques require deep knowledge of the subject. Because of this, Wu Hong has very high attainment in all professions, especially in Formation and Talisman Making.
After seeing what Wang Wei was doing, Supreme Elder Li Fen–who cultivated the Dao of Formation–also began to learn from this formation. The process of finding the flaws and breaking through these formations was even faster than him.
After all, she is a Supreme Realm powerhouse that spent most of her life studying formations.
A few other people also wanted to try this method after seeing this. However, they soon realized that it would be faster to use brute force to break these formations.
Since they were in a hurry and wanted to reach the core before Liu Meixiu and reaped the benefit, these people went for the faster way. Some clever people immediately took notice of the nonchalant attitude regarding the core of this Secret Realm.
"Young master, what do you think?" asked the True Monarch from the Sword Casting Villa.
"The behavior of the people from the Dao Opening Sect has been weird ever since news of the secret realm was released. Knowing Wang Wei, he must be planning something," replied Jian Wushuang.
"Then, what should we do?"
After thinking for a few seconds, he replied: "At this stage, we do not have much information, so there is little we can do. Plus, we cannot diverge our strength to follow their example.
"So, ask the Villa Master to send a group of Saints and below who specialized in formations to come to the secret realm. They can benefit from this natural formation and keep an eye on the Dao Opening Sect's people."
...
In the outer area of this Secret Realm, Wang Wei's real body descended the boat with his senior sister and brother. All of them found themselves on a small hill full of luscious grass.
"Junior brother, do you want to travel with us or go on your own? If you go with us, it would be safer," asked Lan Ling.
"Thanks for the offer, senior sister. But I want to find my own fortunate encounter," replied Wang Wei. "Plus, as a man, how can I rely on a woman."
As he said this, his eyes were directly staring at Wan Luo, an act which made the latter's mouth twitch slightly.
He understood his junior brother's implication. Since a weak Supernatural Realm like himself dare to venture alone in this secret realm alone, why can't he, the senior brother, dare not?
This way, Wan Luo cannot be shameless and use some excuses to be with Lan Ling throughout the secret realm.
'Since when is Lou Cheng so cunning?' thought Wan Luo.
Meanwhile, as Lan Ling watched Lou Cheng leave, a small and unnoticeable smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"Lou Cheng, Lou Cheng, don't say that I've wronged you. With me here, you can be relieved that your senior brother will never have his chance at your crush.
"As for whether the two of you can be together, let's look at your fate."
While muttering these words, Wang Wei rushed in a few kilometers away from the group before stopping.
"The issue of reading Lan Ling's Fate Line and discovering the secret of the [Flame Controlling Art can be left for later. Right now, I need to find enough resources or fortunate encounters to rapidly increase my strength and status in front of my cheap master.
"That way, my chances of getting the [Origin Pill Flame Scripture]."
Wang Wei's eyes suddenly changed and he saw an orange Dragon on top of his head: Lou Cheng's Qi Luck Dragon. He then used a secret technique created by him, making him connected to the dragon.
Through its eyes, he saw 15 purple lights scattered in different directions of the secret realm. Immediately, a frown appeared on Wang Wei's face.
"15 Fortunate Encounters? That's it?"
He immediately changed to his Qi Luck Dragon and saw more than a hundred purple lights, with a few one who flickers on and off.
In this secret realm, Lou Cheng has 15 opportunities that belong to him. He does not need to do anything, he will eventually find these encounters and benefit from them.
As for Wang Wei, he has more than a hundred of them' more than a hundred opportunities are waiting for him, and without much effort, just by randomly walking in this secret realm, he can discover them.
As for the flickering ones, they are fortunate encounters that require him to compete and use his own strength to acquire them.
After seeing the vast difference between him and Lou Cheng, he understood the reason.
As a Heaven Chosen born in the most powerful sect of this world, he is naturally blessed by luck. And with the Qi Luck Trial, his luck has reached an unimaginable height, probably slightly inferior to a Child of Destiny.
With Wang Wei's luck, as long as he leaves the sect, he will have countless fortunate encounters. Unfortunately, most of these encounters are at the level of Supreme Realm and have no great significance to him.
They are just slight embellishment to his wealth, and cannot greatly contribute to increasing in strength.
Because of this, Heaven Chosens with high status like him with high status use secret techniques to condense their luck and keep it from overflowing. After all, every encounter will slightly decrease their luck.
It's better to keep the luck for fortunate encounters at the level of Great Emperor, Innate, or Unique encounters that are rare. Plus, another advantage of condensing their luck is that their cultivation will be faster and it becomes easier to break through cultivation bottlenecks.
Compare with people with high luck and who do not know how to condense it, these Heaven Chosens have the advantage.
After seeing how weak Lou Cheng's luck was compared to his, Wang Wei sighed deeply:
"Many people say that Heaven is fair, but is that truly the case? Some people are destined to be extraordinary the moment they are born. Some people's starting point is the end of many. So, where is the fairness?
"Fate determines a lot about people from the moment they are born. Cultivating is a process of defying the heavens and slowly taking control of their own fates. But, is that truly the case? Could fate be so easily be defied?
"With how encompassing Fate is, how would one know that if our so-called 'defying fate' is not part of its machination? How would we know that our so-called 'free will' is nothing but an illusion?"
Wang Wei sighed out loud after asking himself these questions. He knew that his path to be free and unfettered, to control his fate would not be an easy one.
Although he looked all-powerful on the outside, compared to what he wanted to achieve, he was nowhere close to accomplishing his goals.
So, he controlled his thoughts and focused on his current predicament. With Lou Cheng's Qi Luck, the few fortunate encounters may not be enough to accomplish goals this time,
So, he needed to do something else.
One option was to use his fortunate encounter to help Lou Cheng since he would not use most of them. Unfortunately, he did not want to use his luck to nourish Lou Cheng's.
Additionally, with his current strength, many opportunities that belong to him could not be acquired unless he used his own power in Lou Cheng's body.
With how many people entering the secret realm and how complex the forces here are, he did not want to take any risk by showing any odd behaviors. So, unless absolutely necessary, he will not use his power in Lou Cheng's body.
So, there was only one option left for him: steal other's people luck.
So, Wang Wei's eyes changed again and he began to look at the other Qi Luck Dragon of other people. With his expertise, he was able to distinguish the strength or cultivation realm of many people based on their Luck Dragon.
He focused on people in the Supernatural Realm and below whose dragon was active, meaning that they would soon encounter a fortunate encounter.
Wang Wei then swallowed a Top Earth Grade Face Changing Pill that he refined to change his appearance, along with an Invisible Pill of the same rank.
Once his preparations were finished, he began to secretly follow the people he selected, then at the right opportunity, he would sneak attack them and take their opportunity.
However, he did not kill all the people whom he stole luck from. Wang Wei knew that with how weak Lou Cheng was, stealing other people's luck would result in great Karma and he would eventually suffer from some form of backlash.
And killing these people would intensify this Karma Backlash.
According to Wang Wei's divination, this backlash would come in the form of his identity being "accidentally" revealed and countless people who he stole from starting to hunt him down.
Luckily for Lou Cheng, he was still blessed by the Origin Pill Dao Sect's luck which could withstand this backlash. As long as he quickly finds his Third Senior Sister and her group, the backlash will be dealt with.
Plus, with Wang Wei's current means, he can still suppress and delay the backlash until it is no longer a problem–at least for now.
As Wang Wei continued to steal other people's luck, he could see that Lou Cheng's Qi Luck Dragon was slowly transforming from orange to golden, but he did not care about it.
He can use this as an excuse to explain all the fortunate encounters he has if there need be.
While Wang Wei turned into a Luck Thief, Huo Fenghuang and the people following her did not go to the core area. Instead, they headed in their separate directions.
Holding a weird compass in her hand, Huo Fenghuang headed in the eastern direction of the secret realm. Soon, the group finds themselves traversing a vast frozen plain with nothing in sight.
At least, on the surface, it appeared as so.
The ground was as blue as the sky, stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles long. There were no animals and only a few trees that looked like well-made ice statues.
As soon as the group arrived in that area, they discovered that it was a No-Fly Zone with a powerful formation that could prevent any Supreme Realm True Monarchs from flying.
"Young Lady, do you want us to break the formation?" asked a middle-aged man with a robe; he was one of the four True Monarchs that followed Huo Fenghuang in the secret realm.
"How long will it take?" she asked back.
"With the four of us, quite some time."
"In that case, let's go on foot; it would be faster that way." She paused for a moment before continuing: "Go deal with the little rat following us."
One of the people following here then disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later.
"Done?"
"Yes, Young Lady."
Then the group of five ignored the little trouble and began their journey on this frozen tundra. The temperature was so low that even Void Shattering Cultivators would have a hard time in this environment–even with the protection of their laws.
However, Huo Fwnghuag was perfectly fine; she did not use any energy for spells to protect herself.
While using the compass for direction, the ground near her suddenly cracked open and a large white ant came from the ground; it was more than 50 meters in height and 70 meters in width.
And despite its large size, it was incredibly fast as it rushed towards Huo Fenghuang with the intent to kill, leaving countless shadows behind it.
Unfortunately, what the ant saw was not the fear and despair of seeing death approaching and being powerless to do anything about it. What he saw was a calm woman who looked at him with indifference like God looked at weak mortals.
Then, she gently flicked her finger, generating enough force to create a tornado. The force of the flick destroyed half of the ant's body, while the tornado blew it away a few dozen meters.
As the large ant laid in a pool of purple blood, all it could think about was why was this human more fiendish than it, a demonic beast. For a moment, he wondered whether he was the demon or she was.
Then, the ant breathed its last breath.
Huo Fenghuang looked at the ant and muttered: "If I remember correctly, isn't that an Earth Tundra Ant?"
"That's indeed so, young lady. Those things have been extinct since the Incense Era."
She nodded her head, not surprised by this fact. Finally, she ignored the corpse of this Tier 6 demonic beast as the group continued their trek. A few days later, after nonstop walking, they finally stopped.
In front of them was still the blue nothingness, however, the compass had dictated that they had arrived at their destination.
After finding the specific place, the four True Monarchs began to use their powers together. The power of law rippled from their bodies and it echoed in the void.
With time, a space channel slowly started to appear, so the four of them worked together to stabilize it. After everything was done, the four of them entered another small dimension inside the Secret Realm.
What they saw inside was nothing but a small lake with purple liquid inside. Huo Fenghuang's eyes lit up after seeing the liquid as she rushed in front of it and took a small sip.
A refreshing feeling overcame her body as she closed her eyes to feel the effect on her body.
"With all of this Innate Qi, I can make a breakthrough from the Bloodline Awakened Realm to the True Spirit Realm and cast a perfect foundation for the future."
As the heir to the Huo Ancient Aristocratic Clan, she did not cultivate the Origin System of Qiyuan Emperor, but the ancient cultivation technique created by the first Emperor of the Myriad Emperor World, the Heaven Opening Emperor.
The True Spirit Realm that she spoke of is the same as the Primordial Spirit Realm of the current system. Instead of creating a Primordial Spirit, the ancient cultivators created True Spirits.
As for the difference?
The ancient cultivating system was created after observing the bodies of Primordial Gods and Innate Demons. As such, it focused heavily on refining and tempering the body.
When it comes to the difference between True Spirit and Primordial Spirit, they served the same purpose of allowing cultivators to sense the law between Heaven and Earth to understand and eventually control them.
However, the Primordial Spirit is a separate entity from the body; it can exist without it. Even if a cultivator's body was destroyed, as long as their Primordial Spirit existed, they are still alive.
They can take over the body of someone else, or, if they have enough resources, they can recast their fleshly body.
When it comes to the True Spirit, it is fused with the cultivator's fleshly body and cannot be separated. As a result of this, the cultivators in that realm are hard to kill since as long as a drop of their blood still exists, they can revive themselves.
It is essentially the realm of Rebirth With A Single Drop Of Blood that Wang Wei will enter after refining his blood.
Of course, there is still a large difference. Most people in the True Spirit Realm require a tremendous amount of energy and resources to revive themselves, while Wang Wei could do so with the spiritual qi in the surrounding.
Additionally, ancient cultivators still have a specific number of times that they can die and revive, with the maximum being nine.. And only geniuses like Fenghuang can reach that level
Heavenly Abode World, Death Realm:
After ending the conversation with Wang Wei, Li Jun decided to deal with the issue of the Death God, so he contacted Wang Ju to get answers from her. However, she did not reveal anything immediately, but took him and Yan Liling to the Heavenly Abode of the Death God.
The Heavenly Abode of the Death God was the size of a small world. It had forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, cities, and so on. Civilization existed and was prosperous.
All the people living inside worshipped the Death God and only the Death God.
After investigation, the group discovered that this abode was divided into two continents. In one of them, the Death God placed his believers from the outside world.
As long as they are his believers–Gods or mortals–they would be placed there. To be exact, the mortal's soul existed in this continent. After their death, based on their level of faith, their soul can achieve some form of eternal life in this continent.
Meanwhile, on the other one, the Death God only allowed living mortals. What was special about these mortals was the fact that they believed that the Death God was not only their creators but also the creator of their worlds.
Every single one of them– from children to women, from animals to insects–the moment that they are born to their natural deaths, they only learned about the powers and benevolence of the Death God. And to them, he is the only God in existence.
Because of this, the amount of faith that these people provided to the Death God is tremendous. All the 100 billion mortals in this continent can be considered Fanatic Believers, and would not betray the Death God for anything
As the group of three floating in the sky, looking at this continent, they all had a deep look on their faces.
"What do you think?" asked Wang Ju.
"With the level of faith these people have on the Death God, they would never change their beliefs to us. In fact, if they knew the truth, they might even commit suicide."
"And it's most likely to be all of them," added Yan Liling. She imagined more than a billion mortals committing suicide at the same time and she shivered slightly.
"So, what do we do? We can't eliminate all of them as that would cause too much Karma Backlash. However, it seemed to be a shame to leave it alone."
"There might be another way," said Wang Ju.
"The people worship the Death God, as such, we can slowly replace his face with the young master. These mortals have a short lifespan, with the passage of time, we can slowly replace their memories of the Death God's face."
"That's indeed a good method," nodded Li Jun. "We can begin by replacing the face of the Death God in all the temples with a blank one, then tell these mortals that the Death God is in the process of transcendence, hence the reason that his face cannot be seen,
"After a short few hundred years, we can replace his face with big brother."
"Not just this. We can also slowly change his Divinity to Fate and Death to perfectly fit big brother," added Yan Liling.
Li Jun paused for a moment, then said: "The plan is good, if only it could be faster. Although a few hundred years is nothing to us, it would be much better if we could finish things faster."
"Don't be too greedy," reprimanded Yan Liling.
"True,"
"There might be a way," suddenly said Wang Ju, after seeing the gaze of the other two, she explained. freёweɓnovel.com
"The Death God has the ability to speed up the Time Flow of this world after paying a certain price. We could use this to our advantage."
"What price?"
"Mostly the incense he has gathered. However, if those run-out, he has to burn his soul and Law as a price."
"In that case, let's make last use of his value," said Li Jun. "We can also use this time acceleration to increase our cultivation level." He then looked at Yan Liling and said:
"Before you say anything, I also know that overusing Time Acceleration will cause great damage to the body and soul, so, we will be careful."
Many powerful Emperor Lineages have Time Acceleration Secret Realm; they used it mainly when they need one of their newly discovered Heaven Chosen to quickly catch up to the current generation.
An example of that would be Lou Cheng's sixth and seventh senior brothers. If the Origin Pill Dao Sect decided that these two were talented enough to represent the sect in the Heaven Will Battle, they would need to rapidly cultivate them to catch up to the current Heaven Chosen's cultivation realm like Su Ya and Jian Wushuang.
This kind of problem would be even more severe if a Heaven Chosen was discovered while the current generation was in the Saint Realm or even Supreme Realm.
In that case, these Emperor Lineages would use the secret realm to accelerate the progress of their chosen individuals. Otherwise, by the time the Heaven Will Battle arrived, if these chosen individuals are not up to par in cultivation realms, then they will miss the chance to participate.
Whether it is Su Yan, Lin Fan, Ji Song, or Wang Wei, they are all born at the perfect time, right at the beginning of this new generation. So, Heavenly Dao will follow their growth and decide based on their cultivation realm when to begin the battle of the throne.
When it comes to people born before them, based on the exact time, they might be considered part of the older generation, thus affected by karma and unable to fight for the Heaven Will.
If they are born right the cutting line for the older generation, then even if they reach the Supreme Realm before people like Wang Wei, they still have to wait for these guys to grow up before they can participate in the fight.
Although unfair, this is the law and regulation of Heavenly Dao.
Although the Emperor Lineages have Time Acceleration to deal with this issue, over the years, it has been discovered many side-effects of over-using this method.
These side-effects include instant rapid aging, soul and body not synchronized, losing the ability to distinguish the passage of time, and many others.
Because of this, the Emperor Lineages rarely use this method to provide their Heaven Chosens a time advantage. Unless really necessary or needed, most geniuses like Wang Wei will not mess with time lightly.
...
Yan Liling nodded her head in response, then asked Wang Ju: "Is this the reason you brought us? For this strange continent?"
"No, this is a small stop in our way."
After saying, she led the group to a small island a few hundred thousand kilometers from the continent. When the group landed, they did not see much on the island except for a small wooden cottage that looked ordinary.
However, the group would not think that Wang Ju will bring them to an ordinary cottage, so they used their Divine Sense to scan it. Immediately, Yan Liling said in surprise:
"Enlightening Place?"
"No, the Emperor Dao Rhymes are too weak; it should be just a place a Great Emperor stayed for a while," commented Li Jun.
Great Emperors are extraordinary entities, so the place that they cultivate for a long time will be bathed by their Dao and leaves rhymes that are referred to as [Emperor Dao Rhyme]--which allowed cultivators to rapidly enter a state of enlightenment and understand the law.
These places are called Enlightening Place, which referred to the place a Great Emperor attains enlightenment. They are usually most easily formed after a Great Emperor absorbs the Heaven Will and began to comprehend their Grand Dao Source.
These Enlightening Places are left to their descendants to factions as a foundation for their prosperity.
After seeing the cottage with Emperor Dao Rhymes, Li Jun said:
"We always suspected that this world was related to a Great Emperor since the crystal wall can easily block the attack of Quasi-Emperors, but now we have iron-clad proof of this."
"The real question is who was this Emperor and what was their motives for coming to this small Middle Thousand World?" added Yan Liling.
Then, Wang Ju explained some information she gathered from the Death God's soul.
"There is a legend that the first God to appear in this world came from the stars. The Gods referred to him as [God King] and he is credited for spreading the current cultivation system."
"If that's true, then there is a high chance that this Emperor is not from the Myriad Emperor World," nodded Li Jun. "If I remember correctly, the closest World Community to us mainly cultivate a Martial Art System.
"If this Great Emperor spread the cultivation system of his homeworld to this world, he might be from a faraway World Community."
After observing the cottage for a brief moment, the group of three entered it. To their surprise, there was nothing much inside besides a cultivation mat along with a small table.
However, all of them could feel the [Emperor Dao Rhymes] enveloping the entire room, which meant that whichever Great Emperor stayed there was there for quite some time.
"I finally understand why the Death God could use the Armor Law Secret Technique; he must have become enlightened of it in this room," said Li Jun.
"This could be the reason for his title as the strongest God."
The group looked around for a few minutes but did not find much. The only benefit of discovering this room is that it is a good place to cultivate. However, they also knew that using an Enlightening Place, it was best to use it during the Void Shattering Realm to understand the law.
Once their cultivation reaches a certain level, the sect will also grant them access to their own Enlightening Place. And with the Dao Opening Sect having nine Great Emperors, they have more options or choices than others.
"Did you learn anything else from the Death God's memories?" asked Yan Liling.
"No, he seemed to have erased a lot of them before his capture," replied Wang Ju.
Li Jun nodded his head before saying: "We already knew that the water of this world was deep, now we have proof of this. Although with our strength, it should be quite easy to conquer a Middle Thousand World.
"However, this one is obviously special, so we have to be more cautious in our actions."
After not finding any other information in this cottage, they decided to establish a schedule to allow each of the four of them different times to come to cultivate here.
Then, they left the Death God's Heavenly Abode.
A month passed by. Li Jun was in the Imperial Palace of the former Death Kingdom writing on a paper. Wang Wei told him to summarize some steps in the process of conquering a world to establish a standard or some sort of reference guide for the future.
Although there has not been enough information yet to write the entire thing, Li Jun still had some ideas.
While he was deep in concentration, he heard footsteps approaching him at a regular pace. A few minutes later, Tie Gang came to see him.
"How are the social reforms?" asked Li Jun without raising his head. "By now, the livelihood of ordinary people should have improved, making it easier for us to gather incense."
Tie Gand paused for a moment, then took a deep and loud sigh.
"You would think so, right? Unfortunately, the progress has been remarkably slow."
"Oh?" asked Li Jun as he raised his head to look at him. "What's the problem?"
"These mortals are too used on relying on the Gods for so many things that many of them are resisting our reforms; it seems as if the concept of 'self-sufficient, self-reliance and self-improvement are completely unknown to them.
"After so many years of being enslaved by these Gods, their minds and ways of thinking have been shackled."
Tie Gang took another sigh, "In the eastern plain, there are vast fertile lands, so we tried teaching them about agriculture and so on. However, many of them complained that they did not need to learn all of these since the Harvest Goddes would just bloom their harvest for them.
"They refused to build homes and shelters because the Wood God and Earth God could instantly do it for them.
"The concept of smithing is basically nonexistent in this world. Although these mortals rarely need things like weapons or iron products, when they do, they will pray to the Metal God will do it for them."
Li Jun frowned after hearing this, "These Gods not only occupied all the knowledge of this world but also made sure that mortals relied solely on them.
"Without them, not only do mortals have no purpose, they lost their basic abilities to function normally as a society."
Tie Gang agreed with Li Jun's conclusion. As a person from a Lowe Thousand World, he always assumed that higher worlds were more advance than lower ones.
And in many ways they were. However, when he compares the mortals of this world to his own, he felt a slight sense of superiority. Although he knew this was because these Gods treated mortals as lambs to be raised in a barn, this did change how he felt. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"What do you think we should do?" he asked. "Do you think we should spread education in this world? That way, we can gather merit and deal with the current problem."
Once the people are educated and learn the concept of "self-reliance", it would be easier for them to gather incense. However, Li Jun shook his head at this idea.
"Just like all the Gods, what we need is incense. So, keeping the mortals ignorant is beneficial to us. Once we open their wisdom, it is possible for them to realize that the so-called Gods are just powerful individuals.
"And if they know about the concept of cultivation, we will have no choice but to use force to control them; this will make it harder to achieve our goals."
"In that case, what's the plan?" asked Tie Gang.
"Simple, we begin a smear campaign against these Gods. We tell them that their beloved Lords are in fact Devils that treat them as nothing but food and playthings.
"Once they die, they will not really go the Heavenly Abode as the Gods claimed, but their souls will be swallowed to increase their strength."
"What about young master? He's supposed to also be a God in this world."
"We will proclaim him as the one and only True God. We will glorify him as the savior fighting for the mortal's salvation. On top of that, we can weaponize their fears of death."
"Oh?" exclaimed Tie Gang slightly while wondering since when was this guy Li Jun so insidious and cunning.
"The mortals in this world have no concept of Samsara and believe that after death, they will ascend to their Gods' Heavenly Abode and live a life full of bliss and happiness.
"As long we make them believe that by only believing in big brother Wang Wei they can reach the [True Holy Land], they will not hesitate to change their faith to us."
After pondering for a moment, Tie Gang knew that this plan was feasible. After the events at the Emperor Enlightening Academy, he understood the power that rumors and gossips have on not only cultivators but also mortals.
As long something spread far enough and is heard or believed to be true by enough people, then the real fact does not matter. The general population would automatically assume it to be true–especially in a world with such a low level of wisdom.
Even if one day someone were to tell these mortals the truth, they will not believe. Even if irrefutable proof was shown to them, the vast majority of them will refuse to accept the so-called 'truth" as it challenged their cognitive views.
To them, living in a false world is better than the truth; it is more comforting; it is what they know or has known for countless years.
Tie Gang sighed after coming to this conclusion. As a cultivator, his life was not so different from mortals. Who knows what truth he believes in all his life and was nothing but lies by a powerful cultivator. Or maybe, even Heaven and Earth.
If one day his worldview was shattered and he learns these truths, would he react any different?
The answer is most likely negative. Only a few individuals have the heart and mind to accept the truth of this world and face it head-on. Tie Gang does not think that he is one of those people.
However, his young master may be one of these people. And by following him, he does not have to face these truths heads on. And maybe, one day, these truths will be dictated by his young master.
After figuring this out, Tie Gang suddenly felt his mind sublimated, his spirit cleared of any dust: he knew his path forwards.
"Congratulations, brother Tie Gang," said Li Jun who guessed that his friend was enlightened based on his sudden change in aura and temperament.
"Thank you," replied Tie Gang with a smile on his face. With this sudden enlightenment, his Dao Heart has sublimated a little, and with his spirit cleared, it will be easier for him to enter the Heaven Stage of the Divine Body Realm and control the Power of Heaven and Earth.
When it comes to talent, Tie Gang knew that he could not compete with the members of this group. Only with hard work, strong will, and the support of a lot of resources that he could keep up with these people.
So, he greatly values any form of progress.
After his small breakthrough, Tie Gang discussed for a while how to further proceed on developing the Death Realm before going to execute this plan.
Meanwhile, after watching him leave, Li Jun took a Communication Talisman to talk with Wang Ju.
"It's time to activate your mole.. Tell him it's time to expand."
closed to him, they would see a strange rune flashed deep inside his eyes before disappearing. He looked in one direction as if he received some kind of signal.
"Is it time?"
He then smiled cunningly. Armored God Liu's previous arrogance was long gone, replaced by a calm and treacherous demeanor; it was like he was a completely different person from a year ago.
He proceeded to leave his temple and walked around the Heavenly Abode. Whenever he went, he would see many Gods either cultivating or training. And as soon as these Gods saw him, their eyes will momentarily turn into a blood-red rune before saluting him.
As he overviewed everything in the abode, Armor God Liu–who was now the Shadow–thought to himself:
'Over the past year, I have infiltrated most of the Fire Realm using the Blood Possession Curse. The only place left untouched is the Heavenly Abode of the Fire God.
"It would be very difficult to secretly control so many Gods under the eyes of a Being of Law. Plus, the risk is not worth it.
"Now that everybody has drawn their attention to the Death Realm, it is time to begin expansion."
After that, the Shadow sent an invitation to many of his friends in the other realms. Meeting with different gods from different pantheons is a common thing–especially if their leaders are close friends or allies.
In some cases, one God might change his allegiance and decided to serve another Supreme God. Although this situation is rare, it is not uncommon. However, this usually leads to fighting between two Supreme Gods.
After all, any God is a powerful source of incense, how could the Supreme Gods allow them to serve someone else. Especially if that God is a Void God with an abode full of worshippers of its own. That would be a terrible loss for any of them.
More than a week later, many gods from other realms came to see the hidden Shadow and celebrate with them. Because of the tense relationship of different Supreme Gods, entering another pantheon's realm requires proper etiquette and documentation.
The Supreme God must be able to know the location of any foreign Gods entering his realm; this is a way to prevent people from sneaking into their domains and starting to secretly spread other gods' faith.
Because of these tedious regulations, it took more than a month for the shadow's meeting to begin. Another reason for the delay was the fact he could receive so many foreign gods at once because of the rules.
So, he had to break his banquet into smaller ones.
Once the banquet began, the Shadow displayed his charm as he talked to everybody present. He took out his recently very famous wine [Forgotten Sorrow] which made all the attending guests very happy,
This newly created Divine Wine not only had a sublime taste but also could temporarily place people into illusion to see their innermost desires; it allowed them to escape reality and forget their sorrows, hence the name.
This wine has become so famous lately that there are rumors that even the Wine God–a Title God under the Wood God–admitted that his best wine could barely compare to this.
In addition to wine, there was also music, dancing, theater, and battle for the more aggressive Gods.
While everybody was having fun, one of the Void Gods in attendance was secretly observing everyone–especially Armored God Liu. While drinking his win, his eyes seemed to be scanning everything and everyone.
From the people's conversation to their actions, to their facial features, and many more. While he was doing so, the Shadow approached him with a smile on his face.
"Han God, are you enjoying the party?" asked the Shadow.
"Yes, Liu God," he replied after taking a sip of the wine. "This is truly a divine invention. I wonder how you came up with such a thing? Liu God must be truly talented."
Although Han God had a smile on his face, his mind was thinking of something else.
'Over the past year, this Liu God has changed drastically. His personality changed and he began to make friends all over the world. That alone made him suspicious–especially during the current times–but then there was this [Forgotten Sorrow Wine].
'How could some random god make a wine that is better than the Wine God that has been studying wine his entire life, and even his Divinity is based on wine. This is illogical.
'Unless this Liu God had outside help, for example, the Outsiders that have invaded our world.'
"This has nothing to do with talent, but everything to do with luck. As you know, after my failure with the Outsiders a year ago, I wanted to drink my pain away. Unfortunately, the wine of the Wine God is too expensive, and could not do help me achieve my goals,
"So, I tried brewing it myself, and by sheer luck, created this one."
The Shadow had a look of reminiscing on his face as he remembered the pain he suffered after his last failure. frёewebnoѵēl.com
'Have these Supreme Gods begun to suspect me?' thought the Shadow. 'However, it does not matter now as my plans are already set in motion.'
"There is no need to blame yourself, Liu God. Who amongst us has not suffered from failure. The important thing is to rise above it."
'Could it be that the Destiny Goddes was wrong? That there is nothing wrong with this Liu God? No, I should not doubt the Goddess. My job is to do what I was told to do. So, let's continue observing.'
After a brief chat, the Shadow went to talk to other people, while Han God continued to observe everybody. Unfortunately, even after the banquet ended, he did not discover anything.
So, after leaving and returning to the Destiny Realm and reporting back to his leader. After hearing what happened, the Destiny Goddess had a deep frown on her face.
She then proceeded to use her powerful soul to scan the body of Han God, but she did not find anything, so she dismissed him.
The Destiny Goddess then said: "What do you guys think? Did you find anything?"
"No," replied the Life Goddess. "All the other Supreme Gods have checked but there is nothing abnormal."
"With these people's method, it would be weird if we could actually discover something." The Destiny Goddess paused for a moment.
"I will personally catch this Liu God and interrogate him."
"You know the Fire God would never allow this."
"It does not matter. If he gets in my way, I will slaughter him as well," replied the Destiny Goddess with a calm tone.
"Mingyun, is everything alright?" asked the Life Goddess.
"I can feel that my time is rapidly approaching. If I do not do something, I will most likely be the next casualty in this catastrophe. So, it is time for extreme measures."
After saying that, she broke the space and headed straight for the Fire Realm. As soon as she arrived, the Fire God felt her presence and appeared in front of her.
"Destiny Goddess, what are you doing in my realm?"
"Hand over the Liu God."
"Impossible. There is no evidence to prove that he has betrayed us. Until then, he is under my protection."
"Fire God, I've always admired the way you protect your one people. Unfortunately, I am not here to ask for your permission."
A silver sword appeared in the Destiny Goddess' hand, gleaming with the power of fate. She looked at the Fire God with intense killing intent.
"Either move or be forcefully moved by me."
The Fire God's face twisted after hearing this, so he roared: "Are you going to break the [Divine Harmony Accord]?"
She sneered after hearing this, "The accord was negotiated by me to prevent all of us from fighting one another and causing too much damage to our God Civilization.
"However, over the years, how many of you have ignored the accord and fought between yourself. 200,000 years ago, you yourself broke it and fought with the Thunder God."
She raised her sword, looked at him deeply, then said: "Are you going to move or not?"
"You!"
The Fire God became enraged, however, he quickly remembered who his opponent was. This was the Destiny Goddes. Although she is known for her peaceful nature, all the Supreme Gods knew how powerful she is.
The only reason she does not hold the title of the most powerful God was because the Death God has the strange secret technique to turn his law into armor, and the Destruction God has some weird weapon that drastically increases his strength.
Despite knowing this, the Fire God refused to back down; his pride would not allow it. So, he began to fight with the Destiny Goddess.
Meanwhile, in the Fire Realm, the Shadow was in his temple, with countless images in front of him.. These images showed the situation of the other realms and were from the perspective of the people who attended the party.