The Great Beginning had walked the path for nearly fifty thousand years. Compared with some short-lived emperors, he was no longer young. In recent years, rumors had circulated that his end was near and that he was preparing to choose his successor.
The Great Beginning's life was steeped in legend. He had risen from humble beginnings, carved his way across the Shenzhou Vast Land, and defeated every peerless genius on the road to imperial ascension. Even after becoming emperor, he had never ceased his campaigns. The human race's historical records had not seen such a figure in nearly a million years.
The only thing the world could not understand was that the Great Beginning had never married or had children. In his youth, he had enjoyed several romantic affairs with the holy maidens of great sects, but that was all they had amounted to—flowers that bloomed but bore no fruit.
This was very different from emperors of the past. Even now, Central Heaven Domain still had many imperial clans that had passed down through the generations. Sheltered by their ancestral emperors' legacies, they wielded extraordinary influence.
In the eyes of the world, anyone chosen as an emperor's successor had to be a peerless genius.
The geniuses of the Shenzhou Vast Land were all ranked in the Record of Geniuses. People assumed that the higher one's rank, the greater the chance of attracting the Great Beginning's attention and earning his favor.
The Great Beginning had opened the Yellow Springs Road the day before yesterday, making quite a stir. In his "advanced years," he had gone to war beyond the stars and risked venturing along the boundary between yin and yang. Many had sensed that something was amiss.
Although many heroes had died in the battle in Chengtian Domain, the human race