But now that Heaven’s avatar was dead, everything had gone up in smoke. He didn’t even know where Essence Supreme and the others had run off to, let alone where Heaven’s original body was.
The Sage Emperor had already spent several decades doing the same, trying everything in his power to find out where Heaven was sealed, but he had failed.
The Sage Emperor had spent several decades in fruitless effort, so how could Wang Chong do much better?
After leaving the Imperial Palace, Wang Chong grew more and more depressed and melancholy. It was like there was a large stone on his chest, squashing his lungs.
Whoosh!
Finally, after traveling several hundred feet, Wang Chong began to sprint for all his worth in a single direction.
After a long, long while, when he felt like his Stellar Energy was beginning to flow less evenly, he stopped.
Around him were mountains and lush forests. Wang Chong had no idea where he was, but there was no doubt that he was far away from the capital.
At Wang Chong’s level of cultivation, it was no easy task to consume all his Stellar Energy, and exhausting himself like an ordinary person was simply impossible. But he had managed to release some of the pain and pressure on his heart.
Qiqin, no matter what, I will save you!
Wang Chong looked up at the sky, clenching his fists as he mentally swore an oath.
After a long while, once his heart had calmed down, Wang Chong prepared to head back to the capital. There were many things he needed to take care of.
“Wang Chong, do you have time? I have something to discuss with you!” A voice rang out in Wang Chong’s ears.
Wang Chong was taken aback by this voice, but he quickly realized that it was Master Guangcheng.
“Senior?”
He was more than one thousand li from the capital, and Master Guangcheng had lost his physical body a long time ago. Wang Chong had never imagined that he would be able to sense his location over such a long distance.
Wang Chong immediately spread out his Psychic Energy, but he found no sign of Master Guangcheng’s energy signal in the surrounding several dozen li.
This was simply unbelievable!
Despite his confusion, Wang Chong quickly responded.
“Okay!”
A golden Halo of Spacetime appeared, and Wang Chong stepped through this spacetime passage and vanished.
Four hours later, beneath the Western Mausoleum, Wang Chong met with Master Guangcheng once more. This time, Master Guangcheng seemed to have an even more solemn expression than at their first meeting.
“Senior, you wanted to see me?” Wang Chong asked.
“I don’t have much time left.”
Master Guangcheng’s first words scared Wang Chong out of his wits.
“Senior, you…”
Wang Chong instantly turned nervous.
“Don’t misunderstand. In my current state, I’m not easy to kill, even if countless epochs pass. But this sort of immortality comes with a price. In helping you enter the Celestial Palace, I exhausted my soul. I will probably have to enter a state of hibernation soon,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.
Chapter 2374 - A Story
Chapter 2374: A Story
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“This…”
Wang Chong was hesitant. He had never imagined that all of this would be due to him. He wanted to say some comforting words, but he didn’t know what to say.
“Heh, this doesn’t have that much to do with you. Even without this matter, I would have fallen into hibernation. In one year, I am only able to be awake for that very brief period. This is the curse Heaven placed on me. When something is gained, something must be lost,” Master Guangcheng indifferently said, apparently having comprehended everything.
“Is there nothing that can be done to change it?” Wang Chong said.
Master Guangcheng merely shook his head and smiled, and Wang Chong instantly fell silent.
“There’s not much time left. Before then, do you have the time to hear an old man’s story? It’s a story from a very long time ago,” Master Guangcheng said.
Wang Chong was rather surprised, but he still nodded.
Master Guangcheng had called it a story, but Wang Chong knew that it couldn’t be that simple.
“When someone has been sealed for too long, they start to want to talk to someone. Perhaps this is just what happens when one gets old.”
Master Guangcheng mocked himself, but very quickly, a look of recollection appeared in his eyes, his mind drifting far, far away.
“I’ve basically forgotten about my origins and background, as that was truly too, too long ago, and there wasn’t anything very special about it. But there is one thing that I am sure you already know. A very long time ago, I truly was a member of the Celestial God Organization, and I followed Heaven for a very long time. Although I wasn’t a member of the Supremes, my status was even higher. At that time, my relations with him were not as tense as they are now.
“One day, Heaven suddenly came to find me, saying that a crisis was coming, that in a short while, a soul from another world would arrive. He would bring disaster upon this world that would affect everyone.”
Wang Chong was slightly shaken by this news, and he suddenly understood something.
In the Celestial Palace, Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan had left three psychic brands. One had been for him, one had been for Little Nightmare, and the other had been for Master Guangcheng. But Master Guangcheng had never mentioned what was in his psychic brand.
It was clear that what he was saying was linked to that set of memories.
“Heaven told me that he needed me to do something. Before that seed had fully developed, he wanted me to find that soul, become his teacher, and control him from the shadows.
“I quickly found the person that Heaven spoke of. I had imagined many scenarios, but what I had not imagined was that the person Heaven spoke of was only a child of eleven or twelve years old.
“He knew nothing at all and could use no abilities. Even his martial arts were taught by me.
“The matter proceeded more smoothly than I expected. That child trusted me enormously, never once suspecting me. Moreover, as I interacted with him, I found that he was truthfully just an ordinary child, little different from other people. Moreover, he had ideas that were sometimes so childish and naive that you could laugh.”
Master Guangcheng suddenly paused, a gentle smile appearing on his face. He appeared to be immersed in those beautiful memories.
Wang Chong didn’t rush him, only emotionally sighed as he looked at Master Guangcheng.
He had already guessed at the relationship between Master Guangcheng and the Yellow Emperor back in the Celestial Palace. A story that had begun with deception would not have a very good end.
Heaven and Master Guangcheng had both been outstanding talents of the world. To countless people, they were legendary existences.
Heaven had designed a plan which Master Guangcheng had executed. But Heaven had underestimated one thing: human emotion. Master Guangcheng’s current expression said everything.
As the two interacted every day, and with Xuanyuan holding nothing back from Master Guangcheng, Master Guangcheng had unwittingly begun to truly treat Xuanyuan as his disciple, casting the initial plan to the back of his mind.
And Master Guangcheng’s next words verified Wang Chong’s theory.
“I… I was with him for ten-some years, guiding him and teaching him everything I knew.
“I watched him mature from a naive boy to a steady youth of some fame. With every step he took, I felt pride and joy. At some point, I forgot what my initial goal had been.”
Master Guangcheng sighed before continuing.
“But there are some things that can never be changed. No matter how unwilling I was, once those otherworldly invaders crossed through space and came to this place, nothing could be changed… Wa
r erupted—the Battle of Zhuolu that you are familiar with.”
“What?”
Wang Chong trembled in shock, his eyes flying open.
“The Battle of Zhuolu? Wasn’t that… the war between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou?”
The Battle of Zhuolu was an ancient war that everyone was familiar with, a struggle for power in the Central Plains, a war between humans. But Master Guangcheng had just said that Chiyou’s side was actually the otherworldly invaders. This overturned everything he knew.
“Of course not!”
Master Guangcheng shook his head, but he was not at all surprised by Wang Chong’s reaction.
“Everything you know is just the result of our modifications of history. There are some things that ordinary people should not know. The true war was much more intense than you could imagine, on a much vaster scale than you know. Even though we controlled all the books and documents, we were still unable to completely cover up the matter.
“Moreover, many of the people who had taken part in this war were displeased by our efforts, and they attempted to use various special methods to record that war. Even within the Celestial God Organization, there were people who secretly recorded the matter. This is why you can still read a little about the war of that time,” Master Guangcheng calmly said.
“!!!”
Wang Chong’s mind was thrown into disarray by Master Guangcheng’s words. He had never imagined the truth to be this.
He had truly believed that the otherworldly invaders had not appeared in the last several thousand years. Wang Chong had never imagined that they had actually invaded more than one thousand years ago, during the era of the Yellow Emperor.
Though he felt shocked, Wang Chong knew that as an eyewitness to all of it, Master Guangcheng would not deceive him on this point.
Wang Chong also thought about many other things: Hanba, Bifang, Yinglong, Kuiniu… Chiyou’s eighty-one brothers, with bronze heads and iron bodies, who feasted on stone… Perhaps they were a reference to the otherworldly invaders?
The ‘bronze heads and iron bodies’ most likely referred to their armor, and as for eating stone, the otherworldly invaders consumed the world’s foundational energy. In areas they occupied, the earth would collapse. To the ancients, the otherworldly invaders must have seemed like they “ate stone”.
All of this had been expressed in very vague detail.
Still, Wang Chong was deeply shaken by this news.
Wang Chong also thought of something else.
Was this where the Yeluohe the Celestial God Organization used to support An Lushan came from? Wang Chong said to himself.
In the war of the northeast, An Lushan had commanded thirty thousand powerful Yeluohe. These Yeluohe had clearly been modified from the otherworldly invaders, and their bodies carried the special attributes of living otherworldly invaders.
This army had given Wang Chong a great shock, as Wang Chong had previously interacted with civilizations connected to the otherworldly invaders: the Landeshunger and Kegang. These were civilizations separated by more than ten thousand years, and the bodies of otherworldly invaders could not have remained so well-preserved for so long. But if they had been from the Yellow Emperor’s era, everything could be understood.
Master Guangcheng’s voice pulled Wang Chong’s mind back. “In that war, I accompanied him on the campaign trail, persuading one faction after another to join him. In the end, we formed a united army and defeated the otherworldly invaders. That child grew happier and happier, but I grew more and more worried.
“I knew that we wouldn’t have much time left together. One day, just when Little Grass had been revered by all the people of the world and was made Emperor, Heaven came to find me.”
A pained look appeared on Master Guangcheng’s face.
Wang Chong was silent. There was no need to speak about what had happened after this. After ten-some years of interaction, Master Guangcheng had long since begun to feel sentimental toward his would-be objective, treating him as his real disciple. He would have been incapable of executing Heaven’s plan.
“I strongly argued for Heaven to give up on his plan, but Heaven was deaf to my reasoning. According to Heaven, each Child of Destruction from another world would carry a special object. This was the first time in countless epochs that Heaven had an opportunity to seize this object for himself, so Heaven had been extremely cautious and careful. He could not allow failure, and he naturally would not permit anyone to stop him.
“By then, Heaven had already become completely obsessed.
“I finally understood that I would not be able to change his mind. After a great deal of hesitation, I finally decided to find Little Grass and tell him everything. Alas, I was too late.
“Heaven knew what I would be doing, and he was waiting for me midway.
“Heaven destroyed my physical body and sealed my soul into the mountains as a punishment for betraying him. As for Little Grass, not long afterward, he was tricked into the Celestial Palace, after which there was no longer any hope of salvaging the situation!”
Master Guangcheng painfully closed his eyes and fell silent.
Wang Chong fell silent. Even though he had already been to the Celestial Palace and knew about all that had happened, he was still greatly moved after hearing the story from Master Guangcheng’s mouth.
“In truth, Little Grass had already realized something, right?” Wang Chong suddenly said.
Chapter 2375 - Master Guangcheng's Secret!
Chapter 2375: Master Guangcheng’s Secret!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Mm.”
Master Guangcheng nodded.
In the Celestial Palace, the psychic brand that Xuanyuan had left had also mentioned this. Before the incident, Xuanyuan had managed to develop a few theories from the clues around him. Even so, Xuanyuan felt no hatred for Master Guangcheng. On the contrary, he was grateful to Master Guangcheng for keeping him company for countless days and nights. However, this was exactly why Master Guangcheng felt so ashamed and overcome with grief.
“Wang Chong, thank you for listening to all this,” Master Guangcheng said, his expression softening.
“Xuanyuan is the best disciple I’ve ever had, and the one that I cared about the most. I poured a great deal of blood and sweat into him, and there perhaps will be no one else with such outstanding talent and brilliant qualities. I will also not take any other disciple. Xuanyuan’s death was the greatest pain in my life, and it is precisely why I do not wish for you to retread his unfortunate path.
“In the Celestial Palace, while you managed to defeat Heaven and destroy his personal ritual tool, that was far from enough to kill him. So long as he lives, you are still far away from talking about victory.
“Heaven has far greater abilities than you can imagine. Even if his soul is heavily injured, so long as he is given enough time, he can still come back, and the Purification plan and Celestial Palace will repeat themselves.
“Moreover, Heaven has at least three Doomsday Insignias under his control. Essence Supreme, Grand Supreme, and Radiance Supreme are gathering the rest. Heaven’s reemergence is inevitable,” Master Guangcheng said.
Wang Chong fell silent, his heart heavy.
At that moment, Wang Chong thought about Xu Qiqin. Whether it was for saving Xu Qiqin or saving this world, Heaven was a barrier that had to be overcome. Only by killing him could everything be brought to an end.
“Wang Chong, you’ve never seen Heaven’s original body, so you don’t understand how powerful he is. With your current ability, even with Little Grass’s legacy, you’re still no match for Heaven. This is a power that is far beyond your ken. Only the Divine Martial realm can deal with the Divine Martial realm. If you cannot break through that threshold, then once Heaven truly emerges into the world, everything will come to an end, and everything you have done before this will be meaningless,” Master Guangcheng solemnly said.
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br /> “But… how can I reach the Divine Martial realm?” Wang Chong finally asked.
The Divine Martial realm!
This realm was far too distant. Even though Wang Chong had a cultivation that placed him far above other mortals, he still had no idea about how to reach the Divine Martial realm.
The Sage Emperor had tried to reach the Divine Martial realm, but he had ultimately failed.
Since ancient times, only Heaven had ever managed to reach the Divine Martial realm.
“This is the main reason I sought you out. Reaching the Divine Martial realm requires a long time and astonishing talent, as well as various lucky encounters. Truly, it can only be run into, not sought after. But there is one important thing to reach the Divine Martial realm that one cannot go without, and it is also one of the reasons no one except Heaven has ever succeeded.”
Wang Chong straightened up as he hastily asked, “What is it?”
“Dragon Qi!” Master Guangcheng firmly said.
“Ah?”
Wang Chong was struck dumb. He had never imagined that this would be the necessary item for advancing to the Divine Martial realm.
“‘Dragon Qi’ is just one name for it. You can also consider it as the acknowledgement of the heavens and earth,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.
“In the Subtle realm and Grotto Heaven realm, one understands how to control the laws of the world. At the Divine Martial realm, one requires the law of the world to submit to you. You must become the master of laws, the master of the world.
“Only by obtaining the acknowledgment of the heavens and earth can you surpass the Grotto Heaven realm, and observe and control an even higher level of energy. It is similar to how one deep in the mountains cannot see the entirety of the mountain. Only by escaping this situation and placing oneself high in the sky can one see everything,” Master Guangcheng said.
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