"The Human Race Great Emperor long knew that demonic Saint Spirits would cause chaos, and he came specifically to suppress them, protecting all beings on our ancient path."
Having a Great Emperor who suppressed turmoil and actively eradicated disasters like this was truly the fortune of the human race.
Not a single sage on the ancient path could hold back their stirring emotions; today, they had witnessed history with their own eyes.
Someone immediately swung a brush, adding another stroke to a biography.
The Divine Emperor was not dead; in his twilight years, he feigned death to lure several Supreme Beings out into the open to annihilate them in one fell swoop, deterring the forbidden areas.
Afterward, he personally stooped to shoulder burdens for the future of the human race, suppressing disasters across the universe, and achieved great merit.
Zhang Huan filled in the demonic well, and from then on, there would be no more Yin Gods here; he had eradicated their root.
He went to other places as well, opening seven demonic wells in a row. Some contained the heads and souls of Saint Spirits that attempted to ambush and kill Zhang Huan, only to be shattered instead.
Others buried half of a torso, inside of which was hidden an ancient scripture—the supreme technique practiced by this Saint Spirit.
Similar to the Heaven Mending Secret Art on that stone token, it could mend one's foundational background, allowing Saint Spirits with innate deficiencies to undergo a perfect transformation and gain the possibility of making the ultimate leap to become an emperor.
He took away this Saint Spirit and the immortal liquid that had been ground out of it completely.
Returning to the Big Dipper, he went to the Ji Family.
He brought the mysterious bird back, infusing her with his power to elevate her cultivation, and raised her to a quasi-emperor within nearly a hundred years.
Her innate divine ability underwent a qualitative change, shifting in an abstruse and unfathomable manner within her origin, and Zhang Huan recorded everything he saw.
From then on, he set her free, and with her quasi-emperor cultivation, she could remain carefree in the future.
The mysterious bird shook her head with a desolate air, wishing only to continue living alongside Zhang Huan; over a thousand years of shared existence had long since caused her to view Zhang Huan as family.
Zhang Huan did not soften his heart; he tore open a rift to transport her to the other shore of the starry sea, sending her away.
In that realm where they gazed at each other across the void, she would live a better life, unburdened until her demise.
Afterward, he invited the imperial weapons of the Big Dipper's supreme dao forces to the Jade Pond for a discussion to settle some matters.
Jade Pond fairies lined the path to welcome him.
In the past, they had a covenant, forged by Zhang Huan when he was a quasi-emperor, to jointly resist the Supreme Beings.
At the time, almost none of the supreme dao forces possessed imperial weapons.
With Supreme Beings stirring restlessly on the outside and unsteady morale on the inside, the higher-ups of the sacred grounds could not even sleep.
Every clan urgently pursued stability, maintaining an equilibrium among the leading powers.
If someone could step onto the stage, then everything would be fine.
Zhang Huan proactively stepped forward, nearly hollowing out the strategic resources of the major powers.
Later, when he became an emperor, he broke open the Underworld's seal to allow the imperial weapons to return, and after that, he never mentioned the covenant again.
Now, he brought up the old matter again, hoping to continue the covenant.
What he had to deal with included not only Supreme Beings, but also encompassed the Undying Heavenly Emperor.
Whether they wanted to continue it in the future depended entirely on what the weapons themselves said, though he reckoned they would not refuse.
The news of the Undying Heavenly Emperor single-handedly destroying Taihuang would likely be enough to make the Supreme Emperor Sword swear to be irreconcilable enemies with the Undying Heavenly Emperor until death.
He planted a thunderbolt first, and once the major imperial weapons took the bait later, Zhang Huan could play endless tricks with them.
He refined some more divine source liquid and sent it out; this thing was not worth mentioning to Great Emperors, but to others, it could be called a priceless treasure.
Not only could it be used to self-seal and extend one's lifespan, but it could also be refined to rapidly advance and improve one's cultivation, bringing many benefits.
After the discussion concluded, he looked around in a daze and unconsciously walked back to the Immortal Mountain.
Since he had come to the Big Dipper, he naturally could not omit the forbidden areas.
The ancient emperors refused to speak, and the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree wept bitterly once more.
He had opened his lion's mouth wide with every single clan, and even the Primordial Ancient Mine had paid a heavy price.
It was the first time a forbidden area had been so harmonious with a Great Emperor of the current era, without a single dispute, taking harmony as the supreme principle.
In the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body struggled to rise, but Zhang Huan patted his shoulder, signaling him to sit down.
With Zhang Huan's cultivation and his understanding of the curse, helping him banish it was not difficult.
Since he himself was nominally an emperor of the Underworld, it would be too inexcusable if he could not handle the Underworld's methods.
The golden fur gradually receded, burning away as steam, revealing the true face of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body.
He looked to be about middle-aged, with a resolute expression that gave one a sense of cordial safety.
Once suppressed this time, the curse would never act up again; it had been plucked out from the root.
The Great Accomplishment Sacred Body offered solemn thanks; the curse that had plagued him for many years was finally eliminated, and he felt a long-lost clarity of spiritual sense, able to draw a deep breath.
"Fellow Daoist, we shall meet again on the Path to Immortality. Take care."
Zhang Huan cupped his fists, tossing him a pill refined from the vital blood of an imperial dao figure; a sacred body consuming it could briefly restore peak vital blood.
He did not go to see the Ruthless Emperor in the deeper parts, knowing her state was not right.
When leaving, he plucked the saint medicines and some buds from a few mountains; the sacred body kept silent, and the Ruthless Emperor agreed just the same.
Returning to the Divine Ruins, Zhang Huan tossed the Heaven-Piercing Nether Treasure into the air, walked forward at a leisurely pace, and sat back down beside the Archaic Tower.
Time flew; he quietly deduced the immortal dao, occasionally rising to search for the regions where the Supreme Beings hid, locking gazes with them across the immortal origins.
The two Perfection Saint Spirits were objects of special care, startled awake dozens of times in the span of a dozen or so years—comparable to the total number of times they had self-sealed from the past until Zhang Huan's arrival.
The moment they opened their eyes, it was an old man in his twilight years, smiling benignly as he looked them up and down, making even the Saint Spirits shudder with cold dread.
Some Supreme Beings truly could not bear it any longer, immediately proposing to defect to other forbidden areas.
Every time they woke up, it consumed vital blood, and if this continued, they would be tortured to death before they even waited for the Path to Immortality.
They could also see that this Great Emperor was deliberately acting this way to deplete their state.
Judging by his actions and past record, he mostly still had designs on them and harbored malicious intentions.
With the wolf and sheep sharing a room, if they stayed any longer, who knew when they might fall asleep and never wake up again.
One Supreme Being took the initiative to emerge, bringing his remaining immortal origin, empty-handed, and walked toward the Sea of Reincarnation.
Another did the same, contacting the Immortal Mausoleum, also intending to leave this right-and-wrong place.
He was the Lord of the Divine Ruins, yet he was forced to abandon even the Divine Ruins, leaving with empty hands rather than brush against the Demonic Emperor's whiskers, seeking another place of refuge.
However, the divine sense he sent out was like mud sinking into the sea, disappearing cleanly.
On the other side, the emerging Supreme Being also sensed abnormality; the Divine Ruins had somehow been set up with a heaven-and-earth grand array that isolated everything.
Even he could not break through, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Countless immortal dao symbols intertwined together, forming an immortal array that wrapped the Divine Ruins tightly.
In an instant, he understood why the Demonic Emperor had so tiresomely disturbed them.
It turned out he had laid down his methods long ago, treating them as dishes on a platter to appraise one by one.
"I regret not knowing this sooner. Why did I let this killing god in?"
He let out a long, wistful sigh, while behind him, Zhang Huan held a Years Blade, a half-smile playing on his lips.
This blade specialized in severing lifespan, serving as the carrier of his own Dao.
As his fingertips grazed it, the blade of laws emitted a crisp chime, appearing in the eyes of the Supreme Being like a fatal weapon fleeing for life.
In the outside world, the weather was fine and the sun bright, a scene of peace, no different from yesterday.
The various forbidden areas still stood aloof, floating above the Eastern Wasteland, completely unaware that the Supreme Beings within the Divine Ruins had already met a poisoned fate.
Two Supreme Beings were beaten to pieces, imperial blood staining mountains and rivers, shattered bones shocking the eye, looking tragic and miserable.
Two souls were dangled like little chicks; Zhang Huan broke open the restrictions, thoroughly studied them, and perused their imperial scriptures and secret arts at a glance.
All four Supreme Beings of the Divine Ruins fell into his hands.
Within their memories, he acquired two more of the nine secrets: the Fighting Secret representing the ultimate combat strength, and the Forward Secret for cultivating the soul.
He sealed the four of their souls together, saving them for future use.
Zhang Huan glanced sideways; the two Perfection Saint Spirits trembled with fear.
They had seen with their own eyes how the person before them had blasted apart sublimated Supreme Beings with just a few strokes of his blade.
The cruelty was the likes of which they had never seen in their lives, and the shock was beyond description, leaving them unable to muster even a shred of hostility.
"One fire-attribute Saint Spirit, one wood-attribute Saint Spirit, perfection without flaws, enough to rival ancient emperor blood."
Zhang Huan smiled amiably at them.
Before long, the Divine Ruins rose from the ground amid flying dust, startling the Eastern Wasteland as it transformed into a streak of light and fled, soaring into the depths of the universe.
Sand swept the heavens, and dust billowed in a turbid haze.
Amidst the gray earth and mists, immortal light was faintly visible, and the Archaic Tower appeared in the world, standing lonely in the center of tens of millions of miles of gravel and rubble.
In an instant, it attracted countless gazes; the crowd swarmed forward like a tide, their eyes turning red upon seeing the Archaic Tower, all wishing to claim this supreme treasure as their own.
Although they did not know why the forbidden Divine Ruins had left behind this immortal artifact alone when it departed, that did not hinder them from taking it.
If one possessed the Archaic Tower, they might even be able to cross swords with Ancient Great Emperors in the future; this was truly a great opportunity.
Certain Supreme Beings also made a move to plunder it, imperial aura sweeping across thirty thousand miles of magnificent mountains and rivers to transform into a heaven-propping giant palm, intending to seize it away.
Seeing this, the Archaic Tower flashed with immortal light, undulating endlessly, and released immortal patterns toward the giant palm, smashing a portion of the intervening forbidden area to powder as well.
It bloomed with dazzling brilliance, so dazzling that people could not open their eyes, and the next moment it vanished without a trace.
Immortal artifacts possessed spirits; no one knew where it had gone or which person it would benefit.
The cultivators beat their chests and stamped their feet in grief, having lost the supreme treasure of the Eastern Wasteland—who could accept such a thing?
"The Divine Ruins went into seclusion, leaving behind the Archaic Tower."
"The Archaic Tower... a supreme treasure that had even suppressed and killed immortals, just vanished like that."
The cultivators of the Big Dipper all wanted to hoe the earth over; the temptation of the Archaic Tower was simply too great.
In the starry sky, the Demonic Court headquarters.
Without the Archaic Tower, Zhang Huan felt at ease placing the Divine Ruins right here.
Above the heavenly palaces was the Southern Heavenly Gate, and the Divine Ruins sat amidst the boundless clouds, occasionally revealing its true trace, magnificent and grand, with dense dao marks filling the sky.
Now that there were no dormant Supreme Beings, this treasured land would sooner or later be invaded and carved up; it was better for him to take it away first, lest he give other Supreme Beings an opportunity to exploit.
The two Saint Spirits along with the one from the ancient path were boiled and refined into immortal liquid.
Zhang Huan inspected the group guarding the heavenly palace, nodded with satisfaction, and sat atop the Southern Heavenly Gate, gazing up at the myriad realms.
"I have a little over three thousand years of lifespan remaining; long it is not, so I must make some arrangements."
Zhang Huan murmured; he prepared to plan early while he still had some time.
He still had some thoughts in his heart that he wanted to put into practice.
Once he reached his twilight years, it would not be very good to continue wandering outside, with supreme black hands staring at him.
By then, with only a few hundred or a thousand years of lifespan remaining, his vital blood would truly have withered, and his combat strength would be far inferior to his peak.
Not to mention that some Supreme Beings would target him, even that old fox Undying was enough to make him cautious.
He did not want to drag things out with Undying forever; he could not kill the fellow anyway, and whether he could even find him was another matter.
To standoff like that would simply be a waste of time, and when it came to draining lifespan, who could outlast an immortal phoenix?
When that time came, he would hunker down peacefully to prevent any side branches from sprouting until the end of this era.
Once again masking the heavenly secrets of the Demonic Court, Zhang Huan descended to a barren frontier and released the Nether Treasure.
Over the years, it had dutifully fulfilled its promise, never crossing the line by even a step.
"I am sending you back to the Underworld; in the future, if I return, I shall summon you to go to war with me once again."
He could be considered half a master to the Nether Treasure, and with the restrictions in his hands, certain matters were not up to it—it had to obey even if it was unwilling.
The Nether Treasure left his hand, and amidst a silent flash of immortal light, it flew off into the pitch-black starry sea.
"Among immortal artifacts, I have already studied the Immortal Ascension Cauldron, the Nether Treasure, the Archaic Tower, and the Immortal Palace."
"There remains the Immortal Bell of the Kunlun Remnant Tribe, though it is a pity I cannot observe its mysteries."
The Immortal Bell had emerged very few times.
Its most recent appearance before this era was during the Primeval Divine War, when it suppressed the eye of the Blazing Demon Sea.
That was at least a million years ago, and its tracks were untraceable, with no one knowing where it had gone.
Zhang Huan used the mandate of heaven to perform a divination, attempting to discern the location of the Immortal Bell.
Time reversed, scenes flashed past, and he arrived at the Mythological Era, the period when the Immortal Bell was still in Kunlun.
Records rumored it to be an immortal treasure nurtured by Kunlun, related to a group of powerful living beings in Kunlun.
The truth was hard to distinguish, and some claimed it had simply happened to land in Kunlun.
Zhang Huan did not see the truth; the heavenly secrets were in disarray, and that segment of years had been obscured.
He followed the long river of time further down, witnessing the rise and fall of Kunlun.
In the final years of the Mythological Era, Imperial Venerable wished to lead his entire teaching to ascend to immortality, taking a fancy to this place and wanting to use Kunlun's treasured land to forge an Immortal Ascension Cauldron.
Several supreme-level beings emerged together carrying the Immortal Bell, clashing with Imperial Venerable. In the end, they were utterly slaughtered, and the Immortal Bell flew away on its own, its whereabouts unknown.
Being able to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the Immortal Bell proved that their relationship was exceptionally close.
If he could find this group of people, there might be a way to connect with the Immortal Bell.
Pity that ever since they were beaten down from the peak of the clouds into the mortal dust by Imperial Venerable, this group of living beings had lost all their spirit, and their remaining factions had been exiled to various places.
Later, Undying used it to ambush Imperial Venerable, and the Kunlun remnant factions avenged their great grudge; it was said that without some method of connecting to the Immortal Bell, they could not have maintained their footing.
"Alas, human strength ultimately has its limits. Since I have not caught a glimpse of the Immortal Bell's whereabouts, I'll leave it to future generations."
Zhang Huan sighed softly; this era was probably destined to have no affinity with the Immortal Bell.
The heavenly secrets were hazy, and major events were all obscured, making it hard to glean any information, that ancient era having long since been buried in the sands of time.
Perhaps it required someone truly related to it to stand here and deduce, relying on their own karma to trace and find a trace or two.
"Still, the artifacts I have for studying immortal dao symbols are enough, so it is no big deal."
Zhang Huan did not fret over gains and losses regarding the Immortal Bell; he could well wait until later to make contact or even subdue it.
He did not have only this single lifetime to study the immortal dao.
"The dao of fortune should also be put on the agenda; there is no need to create it as an imperial scripture, just melt it directly into spells and techniques."
"Moreover, I have already acquired five of the nine secrets, and I have myself created the Secret of Filthy Weapons."
"As for the remaining secrets, I can proclaim them to the universe and search for them, offering heavy rewards."
He had ready-made immortal medicine and immortal gold, and could also use the nine secrets in his hands to trade.
What was even more attractive was his own Dao; the Dao possessed by an emperor even more powerful and unfathomable than the ancient emperors must surely be of interest to quite a few talented monsters and orthodoxies.
As long as the value was sufficient, even the Dao could be passed down.
It was just castrated, with the parts that provoked heavenly jealousy removed, no longer able to replace the mandate of heaven with oneself and intercept the origin of heaven and earth.
Yet even so, it was not the slightest bit inferior to other imperial scriptures, expounding abstruse principles that pointed straight to the boundless Great Dao, enough to keep most ancient emperors studying for a lifetime.
"Now that I lack an imperial palace, location is a problem."
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