White Emperor didn’t immediately answer the Great Shaman’s question, maintaining its own pace:
“I visited the Poison God, and the Poison God told me that the Dao Sovereign may have perished.
“I felt this didn’t match the Dao Sovereign’s methods and abilities, so I visited the Heavenly Sect. After seeing their cultivation methods, I suddenly realized that the Dao Sovereign might truly have perished.
“Like the ancient divine demons, He fell at the final step.”
The Great Shaman’s expression remained bland, silently lacking curiosity.
White Emperor’s azure vertical pupils examined him, suddenly saying:
“You indeed know many secrets.”
After a pause, White Emperor finally answered the earlier question:
“The Nine Provinces are about to undergo upheaval. This world is about to change. Since ancient times, this is the second great change.
“During the last upheaval, the age of divine demons ended. Besides the Poison God, no naturally born divine demon survived.
“Upheaval brings both catastrophe and opportunity – a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. But to become the final victor in this catastrophe, we must find the Gatekeeper.”
Salun Agu frowned:
“The Gatekeeper?”
He was very unfamiliar with this term, not understanding its meaning.
White Emperor nodded:
“Correct, the Gatekeeper!
“In ancient times, when I traveled the Nine Provinces with my father, we met a divine demon whose form was both turtle and snake combined. The snake could see through hearts, and the turtle could divine heaven’s mysteries. Heh, your Shamanic God Religion’s divination techniques likely originated from It.”
Of course, this didn’t mean the Shamanic God was a divine demon descendant.
In ancient times, humans were originally lowly insects who, through relentless research and effort, gradually mastered heaven and earth’s great powers, creating the martial artist and Dao sect systems.
In this process, divine demons who naturally possessed terrifying powers became objects of reference and study.
For instance, legend says that when the ancient Human Emperor was managing great floods, he saw a divine turtle surface, its shell patterns profound and mysterious.
The Human Emperor was divinely inspired and created divination techniques for fortune-telling.
This was how humans progressed, learning bit by bit, researching step by step, until today’s various systems coexisted.
The Shamanic God established the shamanic system, but not all the magic they controlled was created by the Shamanic God. Rather, the Shamanic God made breakthroughs and extensions based on predecessors’ experience and magic to establish the shamanic system.
Just like the Dao Sovereign – later generations called him the founder of the Dao system, but the Dao techniques existed before him. There just hadn’t been anyone who had mastered it all or reached Supreme rank.
“It was already the end of the divine demon era then. That divine demon said if this upheaval had no result, then the next ‘upheaval’ would have a Gatekeeper.”
White Emperor slowly said:
“Finding the Gatekeeper and killing the Gatekeeper is the only way to become the victor in this catastrophe.”
At this point, the White Emperor stopped, silently watching Salun Agu.
After pondering for a moment, the latter sighed and said:
“I’ve never heard of the Gatekeeper’s existence. However, you’ve miscalculated – the actual time of the ‘upheaval’ was twelve hundred years ago.”
The pupils in White Emperor’s azure eyes contracted suddenly like a cat’s in strong light:
“You mean…”
Salun Agu nodded:
“The Confucian Saint sealed all Supreme Beings, delaying the ‘upheaval’ time by twelve hundred years. Surely your so-called Gatekeeper can’t be a Supreme Being who’s already dead?”
White Emperor showed sudden understanding:
“After returning to the continent, what I understood least was why the Confucian Saint sealed the Supreme Beings. Now I understand, and I also understand why the Poison God said he once thought the Confucian Saint was the Gatekeeper.”
After a pause, White Emperor continued:
“I’ve already ruled out the Confucian Saint and Dao Sovereign. Among the remaining powerful figures in the Nine Provinces, I have a judgment about who’s most likely to be the Gatekeeper. But I lack evidence – that’s why I came here to find you and tell you so much.”
Salun Agu’s white eyebrows furrowed slightly:
“Speak plainly.”
White Emperor got straight to the point:
“I suspect the Gatekeeper is the First Director, your disciple.”
Salun Agu shook his head:
“Like the Confucian Saint, he too is already deceased.”
“That’s exactly what confuses me. I tried to investigate the First Director but found all information about him had been erased by the current Director. To resolve this confusion, I could only come to you.”
White Emperor said in a deep voice:
“The artificer system emerged from shamanism and in some ways even counters shamans. The First was your disciple – what’s your assessment of him?”
Salun Agu gazed into the distance, his expression somewhat rueful:
“A heaven-sent genius, but his creation of the artificer system was truly beyond my expectations. I was puzzled for many years.”
White Emperor listened and nodded:
“In your view, his talent wasn’t enough to establish a sect and create the artificer system. Of course, talent isn’t everything – a person’s achievements are greatly related to their later experiences.
“Xu Pingfeng said he once led Shamanic God Religion’s shamans alongside the founding emperor of Great Feng in competing for the Central Plains.”
Salun Agu nodded:
“Back then, that rebellious disciple met that youngster in the Central Plains and became good friends. Later, when that youngster wanted to compete for the realm but suffered defeat and nearly couldn’t recover, he came seeking help through my disciple, saying if the Shamanic God Religion helped him overthrow Great Zhou and dominate the Central Plains, he would establish the Shamanic God Religion as the state religion.
“Letting the Shamanic God Religion exclusively enjoy the Central Plains’ fate – Nalan Yushi and I indeed had such thoughts then, so we granted his wish.
“When he won the realm and established the Great Feng Dynasty, I wanted him to fulfill his promise and establish the Shamanic God Religion as the state religion. He firmly refused and even wrote three letters to me, cursing me as shameless.
“He said that as a dignified man of the Central Plains, how could he make such an ancestor-shaming deal with foreigners? I flew into a rage and wrote back reprimanding the young man for lacking martial virtue. He replied telling me to take care of myself.”
White Emperor asked, “What happened then?”
“Then I led two hundred thousand elite troops, stationed at the border, planning to push to Great Feng’s capital, but was blocked by that rebellious disciple. By then, he had already entered First Rank and created the artificer system. Within the Central Plains, even I wasn’t his match.”
Salun Agu looked back on past events – after six hundred years, the anger had long faded, leaving only rueful amusement:
“The situation was already decided. The Shamanic God Religion took a silent loss, and that was that.”
White Emperor pondered for a moment and said:
“Before this, you had no idea he had created the artificer system? When he was fighting for the realm with Great Feng’s founding emperor, did he show any unusual traits?”
Salun Agu fell into long remembrance. Six hundred years had passed swiftly – without deliberately trying to remember such details, even a First Rank would struggle to recall them immediately.
“In the third year of the campaign, he once wrote me asking some strange questions. One question particularly surprised me at the time. He asked if any emperor throughout Central Plains history had not just received fate’s blessing but had incorporated national fate into themselves?”
Salun Agu continued in a deep voice:
“The Shamanic God Religion’s cultivation has nothing to do with fate – he shouldn’t have had such questions. I wrote back asking where this came from, and he said he’d had a deep discussion with a Confucian great scholar and was inspired. To this day, I don’t know if he spoke truth or lies. However, that should have been his first contact with fate-related matters.
“Later, I heard he had created artifact forging techniques. I didn’t think much of it at the time – with his talent, making some innovative achievements wasn’t difficult.”
White Emperor said:
“That artifact forging technique became today’s alchemists. Even then, he was already creating the artificer system.”
Salun Agu silently nodded:
“This is what puzzled me for many years – his changes were too fast, unreasonably fast.”
White Emperor grew more certain:
“That’s why I suspect he’s the Gatekeeper, blessed by heaven, which is how he could create the artificer system and reach First Rank in just over ten years. With each territory Great Feng’s founding emperor conquered, his power grew.
“If he’s the Gatekeeper, everything can be explained. Since the Dao Sovereign’s disappearance, heroes have emerged in every generation, supernatural experts replacing each other, but only the First Director was most unusual.”
Understanding flashed in Salun Agu’s gray-brown eyes, but he then shook his head:
“But you can’t explain why his body died and his dao perished. He died – I can confirm this.”
White Emperor stared at him and said:
“I think you already have the answer.”
Salun Agu sighed:
“You’ve resolved doubts that troubled me for many years.”
White Emperor’s voice was deep: “The same for me.”
It nodded slightly to Salun Agu, transformed into white light shooting skyward, and vanished into the sea of clouds.
…
Several hours later, in Qing Province, at the rebel army camp.
Xu Pingfeng, who was examining a map of the Central Plains with Qi Guangbo, seemed to sense something and took out a white scale from his sleeve.
The scale was shield-shaped with a metallic luster, indestructibly firm. It was emitting a faint white light that flickered.
Xu Pingfeng laid the scale in his palm and said:
“What is it?”
The scale’s white light fluctuated, transmitting White Emperor’s deep voice:
“I agree to your request.”
After speaking, the scale’s light receded, becoming plain and ordinary.
Xu Pingfeng carefully put away this scale he had obtained years ago from White Emperor’s temple in Cloud Province, turned to look at Qi Guangbo, and smiled:
“The time has come!”
Qi Guangbo smiled, showing neither joy nor surprise, as if everything was under control.
…
Xu Qi An steered the small boat across the ocean. Mu Nanzhi sat at the bow, her skirts blooming like flowers.
Propping her cheeks with both hands, she frowned:
“I’m a bit bored.”
One couldn’t keep fishing forever – it would eventually become tedious.
“Then play chess with Bai Ji.”
Xu Qi An held the Earth Book fragment, simultaneously flirting with Li Miaozhen while placating Mu Nanzhi.
Mu Nanzhi said angrily:
“I mean, can’t you hurry up? You can fly, so why aren’t we flying?”
Xu Qi An glanced at her side, where the wooden boat had sprouted several tender shoots:
“So bored you’re sprouting?”
The Flower Goddess rolled her eyes impatiently, her coquettish manner surpassing any worldly beauty.
“The mortal world is so chaotic. Now that we finally have some peace, I want to think carefully about whether we should live in the capital or find some paradise away from the world, living a simple life.”
Mu Nanzhi’s face reddened slightly, and she quickly spat “Pah!” pretending to be angry:
“Who wants to live a simple life with you?”
Just then, Xu Qi An suddenly sat up, his expression turning unpleasant.
Mu Nanzhi was startled: “What, what are you doing~?”
Xu Qi An waved his hand:
“Don’t speak for a moment.”
He wrote seriously:
[Miaozhen, you really can’t understand those patterns I described to you?]
Xu Qi An had been describing the map from the Chai family.
[Two: Why should I understand? It’s nonsensical. Li Lingsu number two, where are you? Why haven’t you returned to the capital to marry Princess Lin’an?]
Xu Qi An ignored her, immediately ending the private chat.
He then initiated a private chat with Li Lingsu, who hemmed and hawed, initially unwilling, but presumably after his head was knocked dizzy, reluctantly connected.
[Seven: What is it!]
The Holy Son appeared like an aggrieved wife, unhappy to private chat with him.
[Three: Do you understand earth veins?]
[Seven: Somewhat. The Heavenly Sect has relevant records in its texts, but when it comes to earth veins, the Earth Sect understands them best.]
Li Lingsu’s knowledge was slightly better than Li Miaozhen’s. When Xu Qi An had collected dragon veins before, the Holy Son had been very surprised because he knew what dragon veins were.
[Three: That cat Golden Lotus has been in seclusion for so long without movement, I can only ask you…]
Saying this, he carefully described the appearance of the Chai family’s map to Li Lingsu, even drawing a few strokes in the Earth Book.
[Seven: These are mountain and earth veins? Uh… if you hadn’t explained, this Holy Son really wouldn’t have understood.]
Xu Qi An silently ended the private chat.
If the Heavenly Sect’s Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix couldn’t recognize it, how did the former leader of the Corpse Poison Division guess these lines represented mountain and earth veins… Xu Qi An pinched his brow.
Xu Pingfeng had visited the Poison Tribe and seen the half scroll of the map in the Corpse Poison Division’s possession.
Xu Qi An immediately deduced that this was based on the friendship between Elder Sky Poison and Xu Pingfeng.
Given his friendship with Elder Sky Poison, would the former leader of the Corpse Poison Division refuse a request to view the map?
If so, following the timeline, Xu Pingfeng had seen the Corpse Poison Division’s map before going to the Chai family to look for that scroll.
Damn! This half-scroll map was now worthless.