“You have the Wushi Scripture?!” Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and Tu Fei all fixed their eyes on the Great Black Dog.
It immediately became a little unnerved, backing up several steps. “Why are your eyes gleaming green like wolves?”
The great holy lands of the Eastern Wasteland and the hundred schools of the Central Continent had racked their brains and nearly gone bald trying to open the Purple Mountain and obtain the inheritance of the Great Emperor Wushi — yet the Great Black Dog had just blurted out something like this, enough to shock anyone.
“This dead dog is just blowing hot air. If he had the Wushi Scripture, sows could fly through the sky,” Tu Fei said.
The Great Black Dog spat out a curse, then declared without the least bit of shame, “Who does This Emperor think he is? What could possibly be beyond me? As long as a Congenital Sacred Body Dao Embryo exists in this world, I would stake my old life to produce a Wushi Scripture.”
“You say you can just get one, just like that?” Tu Fei was contemptuous.
But Ye Fan’s expression shifted. He fixed his gaze on the Great Black Dog, eyes burning with eager intent. Others might not know — but he knew full well that this dead dog had absolutely escaped from inside the Purple Mountain.
“Damn it, boy, don’t stare at This Emperor like that.” The Great Black Dog seemed to recall the past incident with the Western Emperor Scripture and wore a deeply displeased expression. “If you want the Wushi Scripture, it’s simple — produce a Congenital Sacred Body Dao Embryo and send it into the Purple Mountain. Satisfaction is guaranteed.”
“I would love to produce a Congenital Sacred Body Dao Embryo — but who can open the Rivers and Mountains Painting…”
They had taken turns hammering away with the Vajra Ring, the divine lotus, the Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Jar, and the great golden bell — yet the painting simply could not be opened. Since even the great enemy of the former Holy Lord of the Purple Mansion had been unable to break through it, they knew perfectly well there was no way for them to do so either, and wasted no more effort on it.
“Holy Maiden of the Violet Mist, if you don’t come out, I’ll take this painting to the Palace of Heavenly Demons and put it up for auction.”
The Great Black Dog called out even more shamelessly, “For the rise and flourishing of the human race, you had better come out quickly. A Congenital Sacred Body Dao Embryo truly ought to come into the world.”
“If you don’t come out, I’ll throw the painting into the Primordial Ancient Mine or the Undying Mountain. No matter how powerful the Rivers and Mountains Painting is, it won’t be able to protect you.”
“I think it would be more fitting to paste this painting on the front gate of the Temple of Wondrous Desire.”
They taunted and threatened one after another, taking turns with their provocations.
“You four bastards!” A voice came from within the scroll — the voice of the Holy Maiden of the Purple Mansion. Faced with all manner of underhanded provocations, she seemed to feel a trace of frustration, though her voice remained relatively calm.
“Since you can perceive everything outside, this makes things easier. From now on, I’ll just treat you as an ordinary painting and hang you in my bedchamber.”
……
The four of them employed one underhanded trick after another, but the Holy Maiden of the Purple Mansion gave no further response at all.
Keeping the Rivers and Mountains Painting on their persons was a truly troublesome burden. What was sealed inside was a Congenital Dao Embryo — capable of wielding the power of the Great Dao. If she caught them off guard with a surprise attack, they would suffer grave injuries even if they did not die.
“Seal it first and worry about the rest later!”
With the help of the Great Black Dog — a supreme master of Dao patterns — the Rivers and Mountains Painting was completely sealed. Afterward, Ye Fan stored the scroll inside the Vajra Ring and suppressed it further with the nine mysterious ancient characters from the Dao Sutra.
“Little Ye, you’ve sealed quite a few people away — and they’re all quite remarkable figures,” Tu Fei said with some astonishment.
Everyone counted off the figures that had been sealed away, and they all exchanged glances with some disbelief. It truly was a luxurious roster — if organized into a mining squad, the lineup would drop jaws across the land.
First, within the Sovereign Fire Divine Furnace were sealed the finest talents of the Eastern Wasteland: the Holy Son Yao Guang, the Golden-Winged Little Peng King, and Yao Xi — all figures who could look down upon the younger generation with disdain.
Second, Xu Yuan was the most pampered youngest grandson of Xu Tianxiong, the Third Great Bandit, and Jiang Yichen was the apple of the eye of a great power within the Jiang Family — both possessed astonishing backgrounds.
And now, they had moreover suppressed a Congenital Dao Embryo. The Holy Maiden of the Purple Mansion’s power had been personally experienced by all of them — body and Dao merged as one, innately undefeatable, with almost no peer of the same generation capable of opposing her.
Tu Fei sighed. The Eastern Wasteland had entered a period of extraordinary vitality. There were simply too many outstanding talents among the younger generation — in the past, having even two such figures would have been remarkable.
Yet now, there were not only two Divine King Bodies, but also a Congenital Dao Body, and moreover prodigies of exceptional genius such as the Holy Son Yao Guang and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King.
“Figures like these — one per age is more than sufficient. Any more, and it can only be a tragedy.”
The Divine King Body of the Eastern Wasteland — as the name implied, this was the king among all peers. No matter how brilliantly talented others might be, to be born in the same age as such a figure was a sorrow. The future Eastern Wasteland was destined to be his world.
The Congenital Dao Embryo — across the boundless earth, it was nearly beyond surpassing. Once she became a Holy Lord-level figure, body and Dao merging as one, no matter how vast another’s magical power, she would be suppressed without exception.
The Holy Son Yao Guang and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King, too, were of heaven-bestowed and unparalleled genius. Some speculated that they could walk the path of a Great Emperor — they already carried the bearing of youthful Great Emperors-to-be.
In ages past, any one of these individuals would have been sufficient to stand at the pinnacle of their era. Yet here they all appeared at once.
“Congenital Dao Embryo, Sacred Body, Divine Body, youthful Great Emperors… all supreme figures, each the sole sovereign of their generation — and yet never before have they met and clashed within the same age.”
Now, with so many born in the same era, it seemed like a time of great flourishing — yet it was also a kind of tragedy. In the future, there would inevitably be great wars, to determine a winner. After all, only a single Great Emperor could emerge.
The Great Black Dog scoffed, “What is this? Who says these constitutions cannot appear in the same era? It’s simply that you have never witnessed it before, never heard of it.”
“When did this happen? How do we know nothing of it?”
“There is still much you know nothing of.”
“Dead dog, stop being coy — quickly tell us which era this was.”
The Great Black Dog said, “Think back some hundred-some thousand years ago — in that age, brilliant stars filled the sky. Both Divine King Bodies and Heavenly Demon Bodies emerged into the world, and many kings arose together in a spectacle that surpassed all of ancient and modern times.”
“How could all of this have appeared in a single era…” Tu Fei did not believe it.
“It happened, naturally — you simply were not there to experience it. In that era, virtually every constitution recorded in ancient texts had nearly all appeared.”
“All manner of ancient king bodies emerging into the world, alongside a handful of heaven-bestowed prodigies — wouldn’t they have overturned the heavens? The entire land would have had no peace.”
The Great Black Dog’s thoughts drifted far away. He sighed and said, “When many kings arise and brilliant stars fill the sky, and outstanding talents emerge in abundance — that is what allows the strength of one among them to truly shine.”
“These people, had any one of them been born alone in their era, would have stood supreme over that entire age. To be born in the same generation — how cruel.”
“Indeed, this is a cruel yet glorious age — treading a path of blood, even stepping upon the corpses of kings as one advances to become the supreme sovereign,” the Great Black Dog seemed moved as well.
“You speak of it so dramatically — what earth-shaking figures did that era actually produce? I imagine their names must surely have been left in the ancient records.”
“The Great Emperor Wushi!” The Black Emperor spoke only those four words.
Everyone drew a sharp, cold breath. It was no wonder then — indeed, only such a figure could have emerged triumphant from all that.
Just how powerful was the Great Emperor Wushi? No one could fully articulate it. Before he had even become a Great Emperor, he had withstood an extreme-Dao weapon of the Central Continent with his bare hands — and the one wielding it had already nearly reached the level of a Great Emperor.
That had been withstanding the divine might of a Great Emperor with bare hands!
“No wonder the Great Emperor Wushi looks down upon all ages — the era he was born into produced far too many figures of breathtaking brilliance!”
“No matter how radiant and glorious the others were, they were destined only to serve as backdrop — only to set off the one and only Great Emperor Wushi as all the more invincible.”
“I somehow feel that the present age is not far behind — the Central Continent, the Western Desert, and the Southern Range must surely also have world-shaking prodigies. Perhaps another Wushi era is coming!”
“The glory of one person is the sorrow of every other genius of that age. The brilliance of a sky full of stars only makes the sun and moon shine all the more radiant and without bound.”
The group was moved with deep feeling. They departed from this stretch of ice plain and flew off into the distance.
In the days that followed, they sought opportunities to strike against holy sons and holy maidens who had strayed from their groups. But unfortunately, those individuals — though they were pursuing Ye Fan’s whereabouts — did not move alone, and there was almost no opening to be seized.
In the days afterward, they moved in and out of deep mountains and ancient mines, seeking only dragon veins and divine sources. Ye Fan was urgent — he needed vast quantities of source to break the curse, and he hoped to charge into the Four Extremes mysteries as soon as possible.
His source arts had now matured, and he wished to uncover a great dragon vein — yet after traversing countless territories, he had not encountered even a single large mining region.
That the Northern Region produced source was known throughout the world. Over these endless ages, the great powers had swarmed in, and virtually every source-producing region had been claimed and divided among them without remainder.
Of course, there were certainly still peerless dragon veins upon this earth — but most were deeply concealed, to be encountered only by chance, not sought out by will.
After seven or eight days, Ye Fan had discovered only one mining region, from which they extracted some unusual varieties of source — amounting in value to no more than four thousand catties of pure source.
When they finally climbed out from the mine shaft, the group was covered in dust and grime, looking thoroughly bedraggled.
“This won’t do — let’s quickly get the people we have sealed and disciplined, and have them go mining.”
“Golden-Winged Little Peng King as captain of the first mining squad, Holy Son Yao Guang as captain of the second squad, Yao Xi and the Holy Maiden of the Purple Mansion…” The group laughed amid their hardship, clearly knowing these figures could never be let out, yet still going through the motions of organizing them.
“I’m always a bit worried — Little Ye, can that broken furnace of yours really keep the Holy Son Yao Guang and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King sealed? If they break out, it would be a catastrophe of overwhelming proportions.”
“And then there’s the Congenital Dao Embryo — if she ever got out later on, we’d surely be in tremendous trouble.”
“Temporarily, there’s no problem. They cannot escape.”
Just then, the Great Black Dog swallowed two large pieces of unusual source in a single gulp.
“I— what the—…! We worked ourselves to exhaustion, and this dead dog just gulped down half our source in one bite!” Tu Fei erupted in fury.
“This Emperor has never once mined before — two thousand catties of source is nowhere near enough to compensate me for breaking precedent like this!”
A thousand or more catties of source was already an astonishing figure to ordinary people. But for a Desolate Holy Body that required tens of millions of catties of source, it was truly nothing at all.
Ye Fan had only to think of that astronomical number and felt a pounding headache and deep helplessness. Outside of the holy lands, only the Ten Thousand Dragons’ Nest and the Purple Mountain possessed peerless divine source blocks of that caliber. Unfortunately, these were all places he had no way to enter — forcing his way inside would only mean his death.
“It would be wonderful to have a supreme expert who could go dig up fire dragon tombs and crimson moon caverns in the Primordial Forbidden Zone.”
“I think, Little Ye, you should go to the Divine City after all. There are ready-cut stones available there, and with your source arts as they are now, perhaps in a single day you could cut out tens of thousands of catties — or even hundreds of thousands of catties — of source,” Tu Fei suggested.
Not long ago, Ye Fan had stunned the Divine City with his extraordinary gambling, sweeping through like a tempest and rapidly acquiring vast quantities of source.
But he had also become the center of attention because of it. Since leaving, he had not returned — fearing unexpected complications.
Ye Fan nodded and said, “It seems I need to take a risk once more. Black Emperor, carve me out a supreme Mystic Jade Platform — to be prepared for any contingency.”
Pang Bo said, “I will accompany you into the Divine City. With the demon clan forces I can mobilize, we can ensure your safety.”
“This Emperor wants to go too!”
Tu Fei scoffed, “What are you going there to join in for? If you show up, the whole city will want to beat the dog!”
“Woof!”
“Damn it, who hits who — nobody dares hit This Emperor!”
……
“Aoooo…”
The Great Black Dog let out a long, drawn-out howl at the moon — deeply agitated and exhilarated. He had finally obtained the Demon Emperor’s ancient scripture from Pang Bo, and at the same time, Ye Fan gave him the green jade mysterious turtle he had brought out from the divine temple in the Primordial Forbidden Zone.
“Don’t worry — this time, This Emperor will definitely cause utter chaos on the outside, turning all those hunting you into pets, drawing every eye to believe you’re out there frantically looting source.”
In the end, Ye Fan and Pang Bo set out on the road toward the Divine City, heading once more into that place of turbulent opportunity and encounter.
Snow fell in swirling flurries. The land was covered in a vast expanse of white. The Northern Region had entered the most bitter and frigid season of the year.
When they were not yet far from the Divine City, both Ye Fan and Pang Bo sensed something amiss — someone was following them from behind, having nearly slipped past their spiritual perception.
“It’s it!”
In the end, Ye Fan spotted the one trailing them: a small golden sprite, shifty and furtive, quietly shadowing him through the snowy landscape.
“It is the Divine Silkworm you cut out of that strange stone?” Pang Bo asked in surprise.
“That’s right — this little fellow. If I hadn’t crossed the void to get away last time, I absolutely could not have shaken it off.” Ye Fan could not help but smile.
But the little golden sprite trailing behind was furiously indignant, extending a tiny claw and pointing at him in silent accusation, its large eyes wide and round — as though it felt deeply wronged.
“Ha ha ha… This is really amusing. Strange stones are truly incredible — anything can be nurtured inside. This time I must see for myself what else you can cut out,” Pang Bo laughed as well.
Ye Fan made a move as if to give chase. The result was that the little golden sprite was frightened into stumbling headlong into a snowbank, sputtered out a mouthful of snow in indignation, and vanished in a streak, nowhere to be seen.
“Worry not about thieves who steal — worry about thieves who are fixated on you. It seems if I cut out something world-shaking next time, I’ll need to be a bit more careful about this little fellow.”
Drawing near to the Divine City, the snow-white expanse of frost and ice disappeared, replaced by boundless green and verdant life. In such a bitter cold season, finding oneself amid lush greenery was extraordinarily refreshing — bathed in spring breezes, one felt utterly at ease throughout.
In the depths of winter, a hundred flowers competed in full bloom, a riot of purple and red. The fragrance of flowers mingled with the scent of earth and wafted toward them. Spiritual springs gurgled. Ancient trees thrived in abundance, with vines and tendrils twisting and coiling around them. To wander through it all was truly a most pleasant experience.
In the end, Ye Fan and Pang Bo separated, entering the Divine City one after another, pretending to be strangers to each other — this way, there was much more room to maneuver.
The moment Ye Fan entered the Divine City, he received a piece of astonishing news: the great holy lands of the Eastern Wasteland and the hundred schools of the Central Continent were about to launch an assault on the Purple Mountain.
At the latest, it would be no more than ten days from now. At the earliest, perhaps within the next two days — a world-shaking event of staggering proportions was about to unfold!
Definitive intelligence had emerged: the Central Continent and the Eastern Wasteland would deploy at the very minimum four extreme-Dao weapons!
Without question, a great storm of enormous scale was approaching. The Purple Mountain would shake all beneath the heavens. The inheritance of the Great Emperor Wushi held the hearts and minds of everyone in its grip.
Many believed that regardless of whether the inheritance of Wushi could be obtained, astonishing things would come to light — what force could possibly obstruct the extreme-Dao holy weapons?
It was very likely that matters touching upon the life and death of a Great Emperor would be involved — his final whereabouts, and what he had done in his final moments.
Perhaps the greatest secret of an ancient Great Emperor was about to emerge into the world!
And moreover, the mystery of the life and death of the Divine King Jiang Taixu would be revealed — perhaps only a pile of dry bones remained, or perhaps a living legend was about to walk out from within.