Is It Me Beating Myself?

"It is best to choose the Big Dipper. The old site of the Divine Ruins is a rather good place."

This region already gathered spiritual energy of heaven and earth and was rich and abundant; it was a rare and precious cultivation treasure land in the Eastern Wasteland.

Otherwise, the restricted zones would not have settled here. Now that it happened to be vacant, it could be utilized once more.

Upon careful thought, Zhang Huan had not yet created his own Dao Field.

He could indeed make a little use of it, leave behind some things, and place yet another chess piece.

Forge an imperial weapon, entrust it with a special mission, and leave it to be harvested in the future.

He retrieved a few pieces of Divine Mark Purple Gold, melted them with Dao Fire, and after some thought, forged them into a banner the height of a man.

The Divine Mark Purple Gold was crystal-clear like a purple diamond and translucent like agate, emitting a dreamy radiance.

It could capture the formless Great Dao and carve the laws between heaven and earth.

Just this was not enough; the hardness also had to be raised.

Adding a bit more material, a mass of Dao Tribulation Gold and purple gold intertwined together.

The yellow and the purple fused with one another, and Zhang Huan refined the excess purple gold into a shaft.

The Human Emperor Banner!

It would shoulder a heavy responsibility, helping Zhang Huan complete the upcoming relay.

The immortal dharma was not yet perfected, and he had not truly ascended to immortality, ultimately tainted by a pseudo prefix.

If he wanted to remove the false and preserve the true, he needed a smelting furnace of a hundred scriptures, expend a vast amount of time, and climb to the pinnacle of sublimation.

And if he wanted to shorten this process, using the wisdom of geniuses as provisions and constantly perfecting it was the best choice.

Man was the spirit of all things and the closest to the Great Dao; sometimes the sudden flash of inspiration of certain monstrous talents possessed extraordinary significance.

A banner and a shaft—taken apart, they were two imperial weapons.

Separately seeking out monstrous geniuses of various eras, creating chance encounters, and engaging in mutual benefit with them.

Extracting ideas, copying cultivation techniques, guiding the path of cultivation, serving as trial-and-error subjects for him, and filling the flaws of his Dao fruit.

It was destined to be special; it could not slumber frequently like other imperial weapons and needed to remain awake for long periods.

Only thus would there be sufficient time to guide them step by step so that the geniuses of later generations would unknowingly become his experimental subjects.

Over a hundred thousand years, he wondered how many experiments could be conducted by that time, and how many ancient scriptures and secret techniques could be inscribed.

A true genius could not do without some imperial-level fortuitous encounters; after long-term accumulation, the harvest would be sufficient to make Ancient Great Emperors change their expression.

And to achieve all this, only a single imperial artifact was needed.

A profit of ten thousand times with zero loss—there was nothing more worthwhile than this. If the supreme beings of the restricted zones could also do this, they would likely learn from him and split their imperial weapons apart to distribute them.

Imperial weapons were the carriers of one's own Dao and possessed uniqueness; Zhang Huan did not cast it with the Dao of his first lifetime.

He achieved the imperial banner with the Dao of pseudo immortal power that he had researched for more than half a lifetime.

This power surpassed the human realm; the artifact forged from it could not become an immortal artifact, yet it could also be called a semi-immortal artifact.

With the banner and shaft united, even the Undying Heavenly Blade could not take it down.

However, the deity within was still not special enough. It possessed only pseudo immortal essence, yet was no different from an imperial weapon.

He retrieved the souls of four supreme beings, roasted them with Dao Fire, and burned the light of their primordial spirits for the deity to absorb.

Then, utilizing the Dao of carrying the Heavenly Mandate, he forcibly altered the Great Dao Rules, stripping away part of the shackles of being an artifact for the deity and causing it to become special.

It was free from the restriction of lifespan and had no need to slumber, being innately powerful.

Yet after all, it was not a living being; no matter how wicked, it was still an artifact.

Lightning tore through the head, covered with dark clouds. Lightning streaked across the Nine Heavens, churning remote borderlands, surpassing even the Great Emperor Tribulation.

The world did not permit such things that defied the rules to exist, and thus the tribulation descended, enveloping him within it as well to carry out an execution.

However, the lightning of an emperor did not befall his body; this universe no longer held tribulations that could threaten him, and in the end, it would return empty-handed.

He refined his artifact within the sea of lightning, turning a deaf ear to the great tribulation. The primordial spirits of the four supreme beings scattered, giving birth to a deity akin to a true emperor descending into the world.

The two immortal golds fused, the purple and yellow colors glowing brilliantly as if forming an integral whole.

Upon the banner, using purple gold as the base and gold as the patterns, dense designs were drawn, concealing profound immortal Dao symbols within.

The flag shaft was crystal-clear and translucent, the purple halo alluring and mesmerizing, concealing infinite divine might.

Wielding the banner to traverse the lightning tribulation, even the most terrifying lightning could not harm him in the least, and Zhang Huan simply treated it as a tool to temper the Human Emperor Banner.

The Great Dao sensed this, knowing it could do nothing to Zhang Huan. The general trend was set, and within a moment, it withdrew the dark clouds.

Zhang Huan stepped into the Big Dipper holding the banner, reopening his Dao Field on the old site of the Divine Ruins.

An emperor who had lived for thirty thousand years—there was no one who did not wish to pay respects and enter his sect.

He turned no one away; the more the merrier. Zhang Huan gladly accepted them all, teaching without discrimination.

Taking advantage of the surging human sentiment, he promulgated his second decree of this lifetime, wishing to gather the nine secrets and comprehend the supreme immortal art of the nine secrets combined.

As long as the value was sufficient, even Emperor Scriptures could be exchanged, and imperial weapons were not entirely impossible.

However, he only wanted imperial-level script secret techniques like the nine secrets, or rare divine materials.

His standards were extremely high, but that was also understandable; ordinary items could not catch the eye of a Great Emperor.

Zhang Huan widely accepted disciples, teaching them a move or a pittance.

Although there was none of his true substance, it was already enough for his disciples to study.

Decades later, a young man came knocking, wishing to exchange for cultivation techniques.

He brought the Formation Character Secret, one of the nine secrets, related to array patterns and Dao talismans, wishing to exchange it for the Emperor Scripture created by Zhang Huan.

The news shocked the entire world; someone had actually brought such a supreme secret technique. Could it be that the Divine Emperor would leave behind true teachings this time?

The scenes of suppressing the turmoil twice were still vivid in their minds.

A flick of the finger shattered the firmament, a gaze penetrated the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, suppressing the restricted zones so they could not lift their heads. Since ancient times, few Great Emperors had been able to accomplish this.

This Great Emperor was far from comparable to ordinary imperial Dao figures, and the cultivation techniques he created were stronger without needing to guess.

Everyone knew that obtaining this Great Emperor's inheritance would make future achievements unimaginable.

Perhaps it could also forge a supreme emperor, continuing to create history and prolonging thirty thousand years of world-shaking brilliance.

People endlessly guessed who this young man was, and there was no lack of disciples trying to extract information, but he refused to say a word.

Upon seeing Zhang Huan, he knelt on one knee, holding a scroll of scriptures upward with both hands—the scroll was none other than the flawless Formation Character Secret.

Zhang Huan opened his mouth to inquire; regardless of whether it was Immortal Medicine or the nine secrets, he could provide them.

"I want nothing, only a glimpse of your Emperor Scripture, and I beg the Great Emperor to grant it!"

His raised gaze was blazing, firm and resolute, determined to exchange for Zhang Huan's Emperor Scripture.

"Have you thought it through? My Emperor Scripture can only elucidate the principles of heaven and earth, and cannot compare to the killing secret techniques of other ancient scriptures; it has no taboo chapters."

"Even so, I accept it."

The young man clenched his teeth, and until the end, he did not change his mind.

The decision he made was very correct; if positions were reversed, Zhang Huan reckoned he would be just like him and make the same choice.

Zhang Huan imparted to him a castrated version of the Emperor Scripture; the all phenomena contained within it were wondrous without end and could fathom the supreme principles of the world.

By the way, he directly sent the young man to a stellar region to prevent him from being hunted down by those coveting the scriptures the moment he stepped out.

In this world, there were plenty of people who would risk their lives for an Emperor Scripture.

After presenting the treasure, Zhang Huan occasionally gave lectures, exploring the potential of the Five Great Realms, causing many people's hearts to yearn and plunge into it.

The Dao Field was full of vigor, its development momentum was good, and it gradually coalesced into the most influential force in the Big Dipper and even the starry sky.

Not long after, the first disciple he took in the Big Dipper returned.

Solely cultivating the Immortal Platform Realm had reached the Saint King realm, his whole-body aura solid and substantive, completely a heavenly talent with a promising future.

His cultivation technique had already been changed; it was not the one Zhang Huan had given him back then, so he must have encountered another fortuitous opportunity on other ancient stars.

Zhang Huan followed behind him, and in a desolate mountain wilderness, before the disciple could even react, he knocked him out, his movements so fast they were indistinguishable.

Zhang Huan observed his Immortal Platform to see what kind of potential he had developed, and how he differed from ordinary people.

Before leaving, he erased this memory, leaving him standing alone on the spot as if nothing had happened.

This nominal disciple was stunned after waking up.

Was it an illusion? I actually thought I was ambushed.

Also, I am already a Saint King, and even Great Sages cannot easily ambush me; it must simply have been much ado about nothing.

He looked around and could not figure anything out. Scratching his head in bewilderment, he flew away once more.

Over the next few hundred years, a few more disciples who had succeeded in single-realm cultivation returned one after another, and Zhang Huan personally greeted them one by one.

These people were all cultivators he had focused on cultivating back then; if they could take another step forward and develop more deep-seated potential of the realms, he would not begrudge giving them covert assistance.

Not long after, some news came from the Starry Sky Ancient Road.

The seven sworn brothers dominating the ancient road, known as the Seven Heroes, jointly issued a wanted poster to hunt down an unknown cultivator.

Recently, the Seven Heroes went against the norm, acting like madmen as they all came out just to find that person's tracks.

However, some said he had already escaped the Human Ancient Road, hiding in the starry sky, and most likely could not be found.

Seeing the Seven Heroes in such a rush for the first time, some were curious about the relationship between them, and upon inquiring, they learned that a grievance had long existed between the two sides.

However, the Seven Heroes forbade its spread, and many matters were unknown to outsiders, save for the fact that some enmity existed between them.

Seeing that person could not be found, the Seven Heroes broke the jar as it fell, directly leaking his background.

Origin, name and appearance, what fortuitous encounters he had obtained, and most crucially—he had obtained imperial dharma.

The Seven Heroes were pushing him toward death, leaving not a single path of survival, even blurting out matters such as the Emperor Scripture.

The starry sky trembled; countless cultivators, upon learning of this, began actively searching for his tracks and participated, determined to obtain the Emperor Scripture.

Treasures stirred people's hearts, and a storm swept through the starry sky.

Zhang Huan deduced regarding that person, viewing him with the Qi of Fortune—a dormant dragon in the abyss, his fortuitous encounter difficult to discern.

If one day he could take flight, he would ascend the Nine Heavens, soar into the sky, and completely alter the development of the future.

Perhaps even quasi-emperors could not restrict him, and his achievements would be extraordinary.

"A dormant dragon in the abyss, the Chaos Ancient Seven Heroes—how does this script look so much like Chaos Ancient?"

Zhang Huan muttered inwardly. If so, then once Chaos Ancient obtained his Emperor Scripture, would he still grow all the way through defeats just as in his memories?

Even if he finally attained the Dao, he would fight a hundred battles and suffer a hundred defeats holding his own Emperor Scripture.

What Divine Emperor? Propagandize the Great Emperor instead! Great achievements blown to the heavens—look at Chaos Ancient, universally acknowledged to have obtained his inheritance, and see how badly he's been beaten.

Battling all the way and losing all the way; if it were anyone else, they would have been screwed long ago. What Emperor Scripture—it's practically a scripture for screwing people over!

Exhaling a breath, Zhang Huan swept these thoughts from his mind.

Let the people of later generations say what they would; he did not care about these. What mattered was what he gained and comprehended.

He placed the Human Emperor Banner in the Dao Field and went out alone.

"The Dao Field has been established for decades and is already sufficient; I can begin the next step."

Closely following the news in the starry sky, Zhang Huan also intended to stir up a commotion.

It was time to retreat behind the scenes; mature leeks should learn to be self-sufficient.

The Dao Field was prosperous, accommodating tens of thousands of cultivators for living and studying. With people coming and going, it was one of the liveliest places in the Big Dipper.

On this day, a masked quasi-emperor came from the starry sky, charging straight into the Dao Field without diminishing his pressure in the slightest, causing countless people to change expression.

With a palm covering the boundless earth, even the firmament collapsed, and he directly attacked into the interior of the Dao Field.

After a while, imperial might erupted fiercely, striking toward the sky. The masked man quickly retreated, far from being alarmed, he laughed instead.

"Hahaha, Divine Emperor, I knew you were dead! You can fool the world, but you cannot fool the Undying Mountain!"

The fluctuations penetrated the firmament, and his triumphant laughter permeated the entire Big Dipper.

"Undying Mountain? How dare the restricted zone?"

"How is this possible? The Divine Emperor manifested divine traces a mere hundred years ago."

The cultivators in the Dao Field forgot even to run; upon hearing these words, they muttered as if having lost their souls, looking dazedly toward the depths of the Dao Field.

That was the dwelling place of the Divine Emperor, usually overflowing with imperial aura, unmatched by anyone, and dared be approached by no one—a sacred place in the hearts of the disciples.

And now, it had exploded apart. There was no figure inside, only a banner, its flag fluttering in the wind, rippling with a purple halo that was mesmerizing to the soul.

"An imperial artifact—it's the imperial artifact left by the Divine Emperor."

"Where is the Divine Emperor? Why is his figure not seen?"

Someone was loudly questioning, wishing to seek an answer. People had bullied their way to their door, yet the Divine Emperor did not appear; this was far too abnormal.

"Alas."

A sigh emanated from the imperial banner, spoken in accordance with the script.

"After all, a paper wall cannot contain fire; it was exposed far too quickly."

As soon as these words came out, not a single disciple present failed to have their heart sink to the bottom.

"The Divine Emperor is indeed dead. After establishing the Dao Field, he wished to return in later generations using the Power of Faith, and passed away not long after.

The Divine Emperors manifested afterward—they were all played by me."

A flat ground gave rise to a clap of thunder, exploding silently in people's hearts.

These words were far too shocking; the imperial weapon directly admitted the death of the Divine Emperor, sealing the verdict.

The restricted zones had arrogantly beaten their way to the door; even if they wanted to deny it, they could find no excuse.

"Ah... So that's why the restricted zone dared to be so arrogant and make a move against the Great Emperor's Dao Field."

Some could hardly conceal the grief and indignation in their hearts; no wonder the Divine Emperor had never imparted true teachings—it turned out he had already quietly passed away.

Learning the ins and outs of the whole matter, they immediately scrutinized their own status within the Dao Field. Some immediately abandoned the Dao Field and fled outward.

The restricted zones were eyeing them covetously, intending to settle accounts with the Divine Emperor at this moment. The Divine Emperor was left with only a single imperial weapon, and the outcome could be imagined.

"The Divine Emperor harmed us in the restricted zones quite heavily back then.

Now the wheel of fortune turns; I wonder what thoughts you will have when you know the scene of things shifting at this moment.

Jiejiejie..."

The quasi-emperor played by Zhang Huan sneered gloomily.

A lifetime as a Great Emperor was merely drifting smoke that would ultimately dissipate; only the restricted zones would endure forever!

When the day of passing away arrived, no matter how heaven-shying your divine arts, you could only repay this cause and effect—retribution was indeed swift.

The disciples scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in all directions under the dark clouds, no longer caring for any external possessions. Being able to preserve their lives this time was already fortunate enough.

"Remember the mighty name of the Undying Mountain!

Regardless of whether it is the Divine Emperor or the emperors of later generations, provoking the Undying Mountain has only one end, and that is... death!"