In an unknown land, a towering palace rose into the clouds, like the ethereal, elusive celestial palaces of legend.
Inside the celestial palace, the murals depicted one extraordinary event after another: giants as tall as mountains guiding divine oxen as they plowed the earth, sages splashing ink to paint stars across the night sky, and gods vanquishing demons to bring peace to the world... Three hundred thousand years had passed, yet the murals remained vivid, as if they had just been painted and the artist had only recently left.
Had any subject of Great Qian been here, they would easily have recognized these events as legends passed down from mouth to mouth. The protagonists of those legends were the divine immortals of the Great Qian Dynasty, renowned for their great virtue.
The most striking mural of all showed the Heavenly Sovereign of the Central Heaven standing above the nine heavens, holding up the sun in one hand and the moon in the other, worshipped by the divine immortals.
And the real Heavenly Sovereign of the Central Heaven was still within this magnificent celestial palace.
He propped his head on one hand, lounging on a celestial throne forged from immortal gold.
This was an ancient book passed down from the primordial age, written in ancient script. Few people in the world could understand it; only cultivators like the Heavenly Sovereign of the Central Heaven, born in the final years of that age and closer to it than anyone else, could read ancient books in their entirety.
The Heavenly Sovereign of the Central Heaven closed the book and swept a cold gaze over the ministers gathered below to report to him. "So you still haven't found out who's using the Dao Fruit of Time to rewind time?"
The ministers trembled with fear.