The Celestial Court

The old man grinned, revealing a somewhat comical gap between his teeth.

"Father knows, it's all thanks to you."

"Life and death are determined by fate. If Heaven wants to take me, that's my destiny. But being able to watch you grow up, to see you become invincible, even if I close my eyes now and go to the underworld, I can still point at the noses of those ancestors and boast for tens of thousands of years."

Don't bother... just listen to me.

Chen Changqing's grip on Chen Fan's hand gradually weakened.

Chen Fan remained silent.

But deep within his Dantian, the long-dormant Taiji Life-and-Death Millstone began to spin violently and uncontrollably.

The black, desolate sea surged with towering waves.

A sense of malice pervades the air.

Niwan Palace, the golden light of the "Myriad Realms Red Dust Scripture" trembled wildly, and the pure white light of the Life Formation Core shook violently, even showing illusory cracks.

Chen Changqing is his anchor point in this world of cultivation.

It was this unreserved humanitarian warmth over eight hundred years that enabled his Miniature Divine Kingdom to complete the perfect transition Life and Death and death.

If this anchor point is broken, the vitality of the Divine Kingdom will inevitably collapse, the Mortal World Karma will reverse into boundless slaughter, and his true form on the other side of the starry sky will also face the danger of backlash.

Even if we take a step back and say that I've been protecting my own for eight hundred years, if the King of Hell dares to ask for someone's life, he'll have to ask his blade first!

"Father, lie down."

Chen Fan tucked the blanket around the old man, his tone gentle, but his eyes were icy cold.

"If I don't agree, Heaven won't dare to take you in."

After saying that, he suddenly turned around and strode out of the bamboo house.

Outside the Bamboo Grove.

Mo Wendao, in the Early Great Vehicle, was wearing a blue immortal robe and already holding a yellowed Beast-Skin Classic, kneeling anxiously at the foot of the stone steps.

The oppressive, suffocating aura of True Immortal immortals deep within the Imperial Palace forced the prime minister of the Divine Dynasty to press himself firmly against the ground, his back soaked in cold sweat.

"Your subject, Mo Wendao, pays respects to the Sword Master!"

"Explain."

Chen Fan stood on the steps, looking down at the viewpoint, his black hair dancing wildly in the wind.

"Reporting to the Sword Master!"

Mo Wendao raised the ancient scrolls in his hands and spoke urgently.

"As the Supreme Imperial Lord's lifespan is nearing its end, your subject searched through all the ancient books of the former Immortal Feather Divine Dynasty and found this book, 'The Record of Nine Heavens Secrets,' left behind by the First Ancestor, in the Primordial Forbidden Ground of the Myriad Swords Immortal Sect!"

Chen Fan raised his hand and made a grasping motion, and the ancient scroll fell into his palm.

With a sweep of his Divine Thought, the text and seals in the ancient scroll instantly deconstructed in his eyes.

Mo Wendao swallowed hard and said in a low voice:

"The book states that the Cangwu Realm... is not the true Great Thousand World at all."

"This Star Domain, and even the hundreds of surrounding cultivation Lower Realms, have been kept under the control of the Celestial Court of the Supreme Sovereign above the Nine Heavens since the Primordial Era!"

"The laws of the Lower Realm are flawed, and all the top-tier Creation that can break through the lifespan limit have been drained of more than 90% by the Zhou Tian Life-Extinguishing Formation set up by the Heavenly Court."

"To break the Heavenly Five Declines, only the Heavenly Court's unique Innate Peaches of Immortality Divine Dew or the Fortune Ninth-Turn Immortal Pill can reshape the mortal body's meridians and forcibly add 30,000 years to one's lifespan!"

At this point, Mo Wendao's voice began to tremble.

"However... to obtain the Divine Dew, cultivators from the Lower Realms must, upon breaking through to the next realm Ascension, voluntarily offer up 80% of their entire realm's Ancestral Veins Fortune, kneel Southern Heaven Star Gate for three thousand years, sign the Divine Soul Slave Mark, and demote themselves to servants of the Heavenly Court for one hundred thousand years, only then will they have a slight chance... to beg a celestial official for a single drop of leftovers at the Peach Banquet."

"If anyone dares to trespass into this realm, the Nine Heavens Nine Heavens Immortal-Execution Thunder Pool, jointly laid down by the thirty-six Supreme True Immortals of the Heavenly Court, will instantly reduce Lower Realm madman to ashes, and may even unleash heavenly punishment to completely wipe out the entire ancient planet of life in the Lower Realm!"

A gentle breeze swept through the Bamboo Grove, swirling up a flurry of fallen leaves.

The entire Imperial Palace was completely silent.

Captive medicinal herb garden?

Having been enslaved for ten thousand years, I'd rather beg for a single drop of dew?

Chen Fan closed the ancient scroll, a chilling smile spreading across his lips.

Having served as a celestial official for hundreds of years, he truly considered himself a deity who controlled the fate of all living beings.

They plunder the life force and lifespan of the Lower Realms, and in return, they expect all beings in those Lower Realms to kowtow and express their gratitude.

The bandits stole the grain and then forced the victims to kneel on the ground and praise the bandits for their mercy.

That's quite the display of official power.

"Old Mo."

Chen Fan spoke, his voice flat and devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Your subject is here!" Mo Wendao bowed.

"Mobilize the Nine Dao Integration Dragon Veins of the Divine Dynasty, activate the Primordial Heaven-Covering Formation, and seal the entire Rear Garden."

Chen Fan looked down at the tightly closed bamboo house door.

"Seal off my father's last shred of life, and wait for me to return."

Mo Wendao's body trembled violently, and he suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief and terror.

"Sword Master! You... you intend to force your way through the Southern Heavenly Gate?!"

"Thirty-six Supreme True Immortals, possessing the foundation of the Nine Heavens Dao, are the Ancestral Progenitor Dao Lineage that created this great world! They have ruled the Heavenly Laws for ten thousand years, and no cultivator from the Lower Realms has ever dared to disobey them even a step!"

"If I do not return within one hundred days, the Divine Dynasty will dissolve itself."

Chen Fan did not respond to his advice, but calmly issued the order.

He gripped the rusty, broken Broken Saber at his waist with his other hand.

This Broken Saber accompanied him for eight hundred years.

Now, all the rust on the blade has fallen off, revealing a grayish-red blade that is neither gold nor wood.

He walked back to the door and gently pushed it open a crack.

The old man had fallen into a deep sleep, his breathing so weak it was almost stopped.

Chen Fan bent down and gently touched the old man's withered and cold forehead.

"Dad, wait for me forever."

He said something softly, straightened up, and his eyes instantly turned indifferent.

Boom!

With his white robes fluttering in the wind, Chen Fan stomped his foot, transforming into a streak of gray-white light that pierced the Firmament, instantly tearing apart the gravity of the Imperial Star and crashing into the Void Star Sea.

Mo Wendao knelt on the ground, staring blankly at the terrifying rainbow that pierced through the Milky Way, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

Beyond the outer starry sky, beyond the Ninefold Heavenly Firmament.

The laws here are as viscous as mercury; any ordinary Dao Integration who enters this place will be instantly crushed into a pulp by the violent spatial reverse flow.

Chen Fan stood suspended at the edge of the Cangwu Realm's World Barrier.

Above, there was a layer of heaven and earth seal, tens of thousands of miles thick, radiating a dazzling golden light.

Above the seal, a huge golden Bagua diagram was faintly rotating, frantically drawing life force and spiritual essence from the Star Domain below and continuously sending it to the highest point in the Void.

It was the Zhou Tian Life-Extinguishing Formation, used by the Celestial Court of the Supreme Sovereign to suppress the mortal realm.

Chen Fan raised his right hand expressionlessly and made a knife shape with his fingers.

The gray-red Chaos True Essence spewed out from his fingertips, transforming into a terrifying Blade Aura that spanned ten thousand miles.

"Open."

Sizzle--!

A crisp tearing sound echoed throughout the entire Star Domain.

That absolute chasm that had protected the Heavenly Court for 100,000 years and separated the mortal and immortal realms was as fragile as a sheet of water-soaked Xuan paper in front of this Blade Aura.

The golden light shattered with a deafening roar, and a violent, chaotic gale poured out from the crack.

Chen Fan took a step forward, his figure shattering the turbulent currents, and boldly ascended to the Beyond the Heavens!

Heaven Beyond Heavens, at the summit of the Milky Way.

There are no cold meteorites or deathly silence here, but instead, tens of thousands of Immortal Spirit Isles float, with magnificent palaces and pavilions appearing and disappearing amidst the celestial glow.

The world is filled with top-grade liquid spiritual energy; even a pig that breathes here for hundreds of years can transform into Golden Core beast.

At the very front of the Immortal Island, a Giant Gate, entirely cast from Nine Heavens Fallen Star Divine Iron, stands majestically.

Above the lintel, three ancient Immortal Might of immortals, gleamed brightly— Southern Heavenly Gate.