Break Through the Barrier, Explore the Sea of Books Together [Begging for Flower Rewards]

At last, Jiang Chen took Houtu to the summit of Shouyang Mountain and sat cross-legged on the roots of the Primordial Enlightenment Dao Tree.

"I hope you gain something from this."

After saying that, Jiang Chen stopped paying attention to Houtu's enlightenment.

Human Race Calendar... Year 753!

Jiang Chen withdrew many Heavenly Treasures from his books.

He was going to activate the Nine Seals of Forbidden Immortals from the Origin Heavenly Dao Law!

He would free the entire Human Race Forbidden Zone from Heavenly Dao's suppression!

He would carve out a domain within the Primordial Wilderness—a separate Immortal Domain that was not suppressed by Heavenly Dao!

A separate Human Race Immortal Domain under the Human Dao Rule Order!

Human Race Calendar... Year 782...

The Nine Seals of Forbidden Immortals were complete. The Human Race Forbidden Zone had entirely escaped Heavenly Dao's suppression and successfully joined the Human Dao Rule Order.

From that moment on, the Human Race's rise would enter an explosive new era!

Human Race Calendar, Year 821!

Jiang Chen watched as one Golden Immortal after another emerged among the Human Race. There were already a hundred thousand of them.

Even at the Grand Unity Golden Immortal level, there were more than a dozen. But at this point, the Human Race had nearly exhausted all the reserves it had accumulated. To advance further would likely take ten thousand or even a hundred thousand years.

Meanwhile, the great karma within him still hadn't been completely purged!

That day, Jiang Chen went to see Houtu beneath the Enlightenment Tree again.

He discovered that she still hadn't gained insight into the lingering obsession in her heart.

More than two hundred years had passed, and the problem remained unsolved.

"We can't keep going like this. This time, I'll explore the sea of books with you. We'll look for the key together..." Jiang Chen said.

"Mm..." Houtu nodded firmly, her delicate brows and lovely features composed.

Chapter 48: Break Through the Barrier, Explore the Sea of Books Together [Begging for Flower Rewards]

After several hundred years apart, Jiang Chen and Houtu were about to walk side by side again!

Only this time, they wouldn't be traveling across the Human Race's lands. What they saw and heard wouldn't be the Human Race's bones, blood, and calamities.

Instead, they would enter another world from the books Jiang Chen had created!

[A Leaf Covers the Sky]

"Houtu, is there anywhere in particular you'd like to visit, anyone you'd like to meet, or anything you'd like to do?"

After entering the Bronze Coffin Slumber Ground, Jiang Chen asked the young woman beside him.

But as Houtu took in her surroundings, her expression finally showed that she understood.

"I see now. The Bronze Coffin really does contain the mark left by my elder brother."

"Hmm? What is it?" Jiang Chen asked uncertainly. He didn't know what Houtu had experienced or seen in the Book World, or what insights she had gained.

But a Quasi-Saint could see through the essence of many things. There were few things in a book that could give her insight, but those things were always the most powerful, mysterious, and profound.

Jiang Chen even thought that if Houtu had the chance to read Invincible Brat, she might gain insight into something even more mysterious—such as the Black Blood Power, or the Three-Life Bronze Coffin...

"Elder brother, I feel as though there's a layer of Chaos in my mind. It's clear yet bewildering, as if I could reach out and touch it, yet separated from it by a Heavenly Chasm Great Abyss..."

Houtu seemed distracted. That wisp of mist in her mind had never dispersed.

It was difficult! So difficult!

"There are a few people in the book who left a particularly vivid impression on me."

"Tell me about them."

Houtu tried to recall those people, her emotions stirring. "One was a remarkable woman, gifted and courageous, who dared to stake her future. But she died young. When someone just like her returned, she heard these words: 'Our mortal bond has ended. I'll see you on the road to immortality.'"

"Another woman was even more peerless, so brilliant and gifted. She waited hundreds of thousands of years, not to become an immortal, but to wait for you to return to the Mortal World."

"I asked you before, elder brother, whether there really were two similar flowers in this Book World. You told me that if you believe in a next life, there is one; if you don't, there isn't..."

"I don't know how to choose. My brothers and I were born from Father God Pangu. There have never been two similar flowers. Under Heavenly Dao, life and death are predetermined..."

Jiang Chen listened carefully as Houtu explained her insights, pondering from time to time.

In the Primordial World, there was no next life, no reincarnation.

For immortals, Mana and the rules of Immortal Dao meant that death was annihilation.

Except for those whose bodies and Dao were destroyed and whose souls were extinguished,

the powerful didn't have such a thing as wandering ghosts. They could be reborn from a drop of blood, and even a fragment of a soul could be restored.

As for the weak, they either wandered the world for ages, gradually fading into nothingness and returning to Heavenly Dao, or else no trace of them could be captured without a Sage's Means.

That was why it was so difficult for Houtu to understand.

Because she was born from Chaos and belonged under Heavenly Dao.

A next life and reincarnation were utterly foreign to her.

The feelings she'd gained from the book had come only from a vague intuition in her heart.

"Come on! I'll take you through their lives!"

Jiang Chen suddenly spoke, his tone exceptionally serious.

He felt that if Houtu could reach enlightenment, it would surely be the greatest reward he had ever received!

"Mm-hmm!"

A smile bloomed across the young woman's face. It was the purest smile in the world, utterly clean and kind. In an instant, even heaven and earth seemed to lose their color, and Chaos surged.

Nine true dragon corpses carried Jiang Chen and Houtu along that path.

In this life, Jiang Chen became the invincible Heavenly Emperor, while Houtu became a woman unmatched in talent and courage.

When he was young, Jiang Chen ventured into the starry sky and met Houtu for the first time.

Back then, Jiang Chen was nothing but a discarded Desolate Ancient Sacred Body. Everyone knew he couldn't break the curse and was doomed to fall short. He had shown promise, but no one believed in him.

The two had exchanged a few words, but their conversation had remained superficial...

The Four Extremes breakthrough!

That night, the White-Clad Divine King would defy fate and mend the broken path of Jiang Chen's Sacred Body.

Everyone knew that after that night, the legend of the Sacred Body would end and gradually fade away.

And yet the two met again.

Houtu staked her future on him, even though no one else believed in him.

Their night of intimacy came as Jiang Chen and Houtu's souls intertwined. They both felt something. It almost jolted them from their profound state of enlightenment!

Fortunately, they hadn't fallen short at the last moment. They sank fully into enlightenment, undisturbed by the outside world and unembarrassed by what had happened.

They exchanged few words.

"Once I transcend, I'll protect your path!"

That was what the young Jiang Chen had told Houtu.

After that day, everything changed. The broken path was mended, and the young man soared into the heavens with invincible force!

He crushed every enemy in his path!

But the young woman couldn't keep up with him. She chose to risk everything in a desperate bid for rebirth.

Sadly, she failed...

Houtu experienced death once in the book.

When she awoke again, she remembered only their last meeting. The young man had already become invincible, ruling over the age with confidence and pride.

"Our mortal bond has ended. I'll see you on the road to immortality..."

As she reached this point in her insight, Houtu couldn't help reflecting on herself.

"Was... that me in the past?"

"The same appearance, memories of the past... but I clearly died. Under Heavenly Dao's decree, I was destined to vanish."

She kept murmuring to herself, her thoughts tangled into a complicated knot.

"Have you gained anything?" Jiang Chen asked, his own feelings complicated as he gazed at the girl whose eyes were clouded with thought.

Houtu had lived through the young woman's life. Hadn't he lived through the young man's life as well?

Houtu fell silent, then lifted her head and met Jiang Chen's gaze.

A faint blush touched her cheeks, but it was soon concealed by the mists of Chaos.

Her voice came from within the mist. "It's much clearer now, but... there's still a wisp of mist sealing my mind. I can't see through it..."