I, the Human Emperor, Madly Writing Books to Create Emperors

Finally, Jiang Chen brought Houtu to the summit of Shouyang Mountain, where they sat cross-legged on the roots of the Primordial Enlightenment Dao Tree.

"May you find what you seek," Jiang Chen said, then turned his attention away from Houtu's enlightenment.

Human Race Calendar... Year Seven Hundred and Fifty-Three!

Jiang Chen withdrew countless rare treasures from the Book World.

He was about to activate the Nine Seals of Forbidden Immortals within the Origin Heavenly Dao Law!

He would sever the entire Human Race Forbidden Zone from the suppression of the Heavenly Dao!

To carve out a domain within the Primordial World—an independent Immortal Domain free from the Heavenly Dao's yoke!

A separate Human Race Immortal Domain, governed by the order of the Human Dao!

Human Race Calendar... Year Seven Hundred and Eighty-Two...

The Nine Seals of Forbidden Immortals were complete. The Human Race Forbidden Zone had fully shaken off the Heavenly Dao's suppression and was successfully incorporated into the order of the Human Dao.

From this point onward, the rise of the Human Race would usher in an era of explosive growth!

Human Race Calendar, Year Eight Hundred and Twenty-One!

Jiang Chen watched as one Golden Immortal after another emerged among the Human Race, their numbers already reaching a full hundred thousand.

Even at the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal level, over a dozen had appeared. Yet at this stage, it seemed the Human Race had exhausted all the accumulated momentum from their long period of quiet preparation. To advance further might require ten thousand, even a hundred thousand years, just to take one more step forward.

And the great karmic burden within his body had still not been completely purged!

On this day, Jiang Chen once again sought out Houtu beneath the Enlightenment Dao Tree.

He found that she had still not grasped the lingering obsession in her heart.

Over two hundred years, and that question remained unresolved.

"We can't go on like this. This time, I'll journey through the Book Sea with you! Let's search for the key together," Jiang Chen said.

"Mmm..." Houtu nodded heavily, her brow furrowed in thought.

Chapter 48: To Break the Wall, Journeying the Book Sea [Kneeling for Flowers and Tips]

Jiang Chen and Houtu, after centuries apart, were about to walk side by side once more!

Only this time, their path did not tread upon the lands of the Human Race, nor did their eyes behold human bones, blood, and calamity.

Instead, it was another world within the books Jiang Chen had created!

[A Leaf Covers the Sky]

"Houtu, is there any place you particularly wish to visit? Or a specific person, or some event?"

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

Yet Houtu, taking in her surroundings, finally wore an expression of understanding.

"I see it now. Within this bronze coffin, there truly are traces left by Elder Brother."

"Oh? What is it?" Jiang Chen hesitated. He didn't know what Houtu had experienced, seen, or understood in the Book World.

But a Quasi-Saint could perceive the essence of many things. Few things in the book could stir her insight, but those that did were the most profound, the most mysterious and arcane.

Jiang Chen even felt that if Houtu had the chance to read the book Invincible Brat, she might grasp something even more hidden—such as the Black Blood Power, or the Three-Life Bronze Coffin...

"Elder Brother, I feel like there's a layer of Chaos in my mind. It's clear yet hazy, as if I could reach out and touch it, yet also as if a Heavenly Chasm Great Abyss separates us..."

Houtu seemed dazed, unable to dispel that wisp of mist from her thoughts.

It was so difficult! So difficult!

"There are a few people in the book whose impressions are especially vivid to me."

"Tell me about them?"

Houtu struggled to recall those figures, her emotions stirred: "There was a remarkable woman, one of talent and courage, who dared to stake her future. Yet she perished, and when another like her returned, all she received was: 'The ties of the Mortal World are severed; we shall meet on the path to immortality.'"

"And another, even more peerless in grace and brilliance, waited for hundreds of thousands of years—not to become an immortal, but to wait for you to return from the Mortal World."

"I asked Elder Brother before: in this Book World, do two similar flowers truly exist? Elder Brother told me: believe in the next life, and it exists; do not believe, and it does not..."

"I don't know how to choose. My brothers and I were born from Father Pangu; there have never been two similar flowers. Under the Heavenly Dao, life and death are all fated..."

Jiang Chen listened carefully as Houtu recounted her insights, occasionally lost in thought.

The next life, reincarnation—these did not exist in the Primordial World.

Immortal mana, the rules of the Immortal Dao—death meant annihilation.

Except for those who had perished in body and soul, their spirits utterly destroyed.

For other powerful beings, there was no such thing as a wandering soul. A drop of blood could revive them; a remnant soul could be restored.

As for the weak, they either drifted through the world for untold ages, gradually fading into nothingness, returning to the Heavenly Dao—beyond the reach of even a Sage's means to trace.

Thus, this was exceedingly difficult for Houtu to comprehend.

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

In the next life, reincarnation was far too foreign to her.

What she could sense in the book was merely a vague stirring deep within her heart.

"Come—I'll take you to walk their path with me!"

Jiang Chen suddenly spoke, his tone extremely solemn.

He felt that if Houtu could achieve enlightenment, it would be the greatest reward he had ever obtained so far!

"Mhm mhm!!"

A smile bloomed on the girl's face—the purest smile in the world, utterly clean and good, causing heaven and earth to pale and even Chaos to surge.

Nine true dragon corpses bore Jiang Chen and Houtu onto that path.

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

In their youth, Jiang Chen set foot among the stars and met Houtu for the first time.

Back then, Jiang Chen was merely the discarded Desolate Ancient Sacred Body—everyone knew he could never break the curse and was doomed to go nowhere. Though he had shown some promise, no one held out hope for him.

The two did exchange words, but only superficially, never delving deep...

Breaking through to the Four Extremes!

That night, the White-Clad Divine King would reverse the Sacred Body's severed path for Jiang Chen.

The whole world knew that after tonight, the legend of the Sacred Body would be no more, gradually withering away.

Yet the two met again.

Houtu gambled her own future—when no one else dared to believe in him, she bet on herself.

One night of grace—their souls merged, and both felt something that nearly jolted them awake from their deep state of enlightenment!

Fortunately, they did not fail at the last step; they sank completely into enlightenment, undisturbed by the outside world, and unembarrassed by what had transpired.

No excessive words were exchanged.

"When I achieve transcendence, I will guard your path!"

Those were the words young Jiang Chen spoke to Houtu.

From that day on, everything changed. The severed path was reconnected, and the youth soared upward with an invincible bearing!

He slaughtered every enemy along the way!

But the girl could not keep pace with his steps, and chose to seek life through death.

Unfortunately, she failed...

Houtu experienced a death within the book.

When she awoke again, she only remembered that the last time they met, the youth had already become the invincible one suppressing the age, brimming with pride.

"The ties of the Mortal World are severed; we shall meet on the path to immortality..."

Having grasped this much, Houtu could not help but reflect on herself.

"Is this... who I once was?"

"Same appearance, with memories of the past... yet I have clearly died, destined to vanish under the Heavenly Dao's decree."

She murmured incessantly, her thoughts tangled together in profound complexity.

"Did you gain anything?" Jiang Chen asked, his own heart complicated as he gazed at the girl with her deeply locked eyes.

Houtu had lived through a girl's life—and had he not also lived through a youth's?

Houtu was silent, then lifted her head to meet Jiang Chen's gaze.

A faint blush crept onto her cheeks, quickly veiled by the mist of Chaos.

Her voice emerged from the Chaos: "Much clearer, but... there is still a wisp of hazy mist locked in my mind, preventing me from seeing..."