Everyone in the hall stared at the image hanging in midair, unable to recover for a long time.
The rumble of the war chariot crushing through the void, and the Upper Realm cultivators' attitude of treating human lives like grass, had shaken them to their core.
Ning Fengzhi sat in the front row. His brows knitted together as he pondered for a moment, then rose to his feet.
"Mr. Su."
Ning Fengzhi cupped his hands toward the high platform.
"Since the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm are so cruel, where the strong prey on the weak..."
"Then may I ask, sir, what sort of figures stand at the very peak of this vast Upper Realm?"
"Are they the Heavenly Gods you mentioned before? Or the True Gods?"
Ning Fengzhi's question was one everyone present wanted answered.
They were desperate to learn just how high the ceiling of power in that world reached.
Su Chen sat in his grand chair and took a sip of tea.
He set down his teacup and shook his head at Ning Fengzhi.
"Heavenly Gods?"
"In the eyes of those truly in power, Heavenly Gods are merely a little stronger than most."
Su Chen's tone was calm.
"Those who currently rule the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm are the leaders of the Great Sects—in other words, mighty beings of the Dunyī Realm."
"Above the sect leaders are the Supremes."
"When a Supreme flies into a rage, a million corpses fall. They are the masters of these Three Thousand Provinces, at least on the surface."
At the word "Supreme," everyone in the hall held their breath.
A power that could leave a million corpses behind had already surpassed anything they could comprehend.
Yet Su Chen suddenly changed tack.
"But above the Supremes, deep within the Upper Realm's unknowable Life Forbidden Zones..."
"A few old monsters still cling to life."
"They are the true foundation of these Three Thousand Provinces."
"The world calls them Remnant Immortals."
Remnant Immortals?
The moment those two words left his mouth, a quiet murmur swept through the hall.
Prince Xue Xing sat beside Emperor Xue Ye. He frowned and couldn't help speaking up.
"Mr. Su, Remnant Immortal... does that mean a crippled immortal?"
Prince Xue Xing shook his head, his tone unconsciously laced with disdain.
"The Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm sound boundless and perilous."
"After all that, the figures at the very top are just a few cripples?"
"That's rather disappointing."
A sect elder chimed in as well. "Exactly. Their bodies are incomplete, and they have to cling to life just to survive. How strong could they possibly be?"
"I thought they'd be indestructible gods who could reach the heavens and command the earth."
Listening to the laughter and skepticism filling the hall,
Gu Yuena frowned slightly in the corner.
She watched Su Chen, whose expression on the high platform hadn't changed in the slightest. Her instincts told her that things were absolutely not so simple.
On the high platform,
Su Chen wasn't angry. He merely gave a deeply mocking laugh.
"Disappointing?"
Su Chen rose to his feet and cast a glance at Prince Xue Xing, who had just spoken.
It was only a mild look, but Prince Xue Xing went cold all over and abruptly shut his mouth.
"Do you know why they became Remnant Immortals?"
Su Chen picked up the folding fan on the table and snapped it open.
"Long, long ago, this land wasn't called the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm."
"It had a name of unparalleled splendor."
"The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths."
Su Chen's voice gradually deepened, imbued with the vast weight of countless bygone ages.
"In the era known as Immortal Ancient..."
"Heaven and earth's laws were flawless, and Longevity Substance was abundant."
"It was a truly glorious age, with countless races standing side by side and stars shining brilliantly."
"In that era, True Immortals were undying. They could live as long as heaven and earth, and shine alongside the Sun and Moon."
"And above the True Immortals stood supreme beings who ruled over all the worlds and realms, whose words became law."
Su Chen uttered four words, one by one.
"Immortal Dao Kings."
The hall fell silent in an instant.
"In the Immortal Ancient Era, Immortal Kings rose up everywhere."
Su Chen waved his fan. Though no image appeared in midair, his voice painted a grand and magnificent scene in everyone's minds.
"There was Immortal King Wuzhong, who held an Immortal Bell."
"When its chime rang, it could suppress the river of time and send the ages flowing backward."
"There was Immortal King Samsara, who commanded the Six Paths and sought to hold the cycle of life and death for the entire universe in his palm."
Emperor Xue Ye gripped the back of his chair with both hands.
Suppressing the river of time? Commanding the cycle of life and death?
Such powers were beyond the reach of words!
"Besides these Immortal Kings..."
Su Chen looked toward Di Tian and Gu Yuena in the corner.
"There were also the unrivaled Ten Primordial Evils."
At the words "Ten Primordial Evils," Di Tian and Gu Yuena both raised their heads.
"They weren't Immortal Kings, but their bloodlines were powerful to the extreme."
"A pureblooded Fiend needed only to reach adulthood. With its physical strength and innate precious arts, it could tear a true Immortal King apart with its bare hands!"
Su Chen's speech gradually quickened.
"There was the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass."
"It was merely a blade of grass growing in the starry sky."
"But when its nine leaves turned, the sword qi it unleashed could cut down the stars and cleave through the chaos of the universe."
"There was the Heavenly Horned Ant."
"It was said to possess the ultimate strength in all creation. One punch could shatter all the worlds and realms."
"There was Kunpeng."
"It commanded Yin-Yang Fortune. In the sea, it was a Kun; in the heavens, a Peng—and it fed on True Dragons!"
At the words "fed on True Dragons," Di Tian's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
As the Black Dragon King, merely hearing of such a being made him tremble instinctively, deep in his soul.
"And the foremost of the Ten Fiends..."
Su Chen looked at Gu Yuena.
"Was called the True Dragon."
"That was the true ancestor of the Dragon Race. A single dragon's roar could shatter three thousand worlds."
"A single drop of its blood could crush the eternal starry sky."
Gu Yuena sat in her chair, her breathing utterly unsteady.
She had always believed that the Dragon God of the Douluo God Realm was the pinnacle of the Dragon Race.
But now, after hearing of the True Dragon from Perfect World,
she suddenly realized that the power the Dragon God had been so proud of didn't even qualify to carry the true Fiends' shoes.
Everyone in the hall was completely dumbstruck by now.
Their minds couldn't process such vast, such terrifying information.
Any one of these beings could have blown Douluo Continent away ten thousand times over with a single breath.
"But..."
Su Chen snapped his folding fan shut.
"An age so prosperous that it stood at the height of its glory, with Immortal Kings rising everywhere and Ten Fiends running rampant..."
"Was shattered to pieces."
Gasps rang through the hall, one after another.
Such a terrifying age had actually been shattered?!
"The Foreign Realm attacked. Undying Kings crossed the Heavenly Abyss."
Su Chen's voice carried a brutally martial weight.
"That battle shattered the myriad heavens and ground the Great Dao to dust."
"Immortal King Wuzhong died in battle, his bell shattered."
"Immortal King Samsara bled, and the Six Paths collapsed."
"The Ten Primordial Evils charged at the very front. The Nine-Leaf Sword Grass fought four Undying Kings alone, only to be ripped out by the roots."
"The True Dragon's soul was torn apart, and the Ten Fiends were nearly wiped out."
"Even Willow Deity, the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit worshiped by countless races, was left gravely wounded. She entered nirvana and became a charred, withered stump."
Su Chen looked at the people below, all of them utterly stunned.
"The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were shattered, and the laws became incomplete."
"That was how the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm came to be."
Su Chen returned to the table and picked up the Gavel.
He looked at Prince Xue Xing, who had just spoken out of turn.
"As for those Remnant Immortals you mocked..."
"They are the Immortal Dao beings who survived that apocalyptic battle that destroyed heaven and earth."
"Some were veterans who had their foundations grievously wounded by the laws of the Foreign Realm and could never recover."
"Others were cowards who fled the battlefield back then, hiding in the shadows and scraping by."
Su Chen's gaze turned icy.
"But whether they were veterans or cowards..."
"No matter how incomplete they became..."
"They are still Immortals."
"Even if only a single breath remains in them, even if they can do nothing but lie in a forbidden zone and cling to life..."
"As long as they open their eyes..."
"Even the faintest wisp of their aura would be enough to crush every supreme sect leader in the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm into blood mist in an instant."
At those words, Prince Xue Xing's legs went limp, and he slid right off his chair onto the floor.
Cold sweat had soaked through his back.
He had just mocked terrifying beings who could destroy the Three Thousand Provinces with a mere wisp of their aura!
The entire hall was weighed down by an unbearable tension.
Everyone felt as though an invisible hand had clamped tight around their hearts.
"And the most tragic part is..."
Su Chen's voice struck every heart like a heavy hammer.
"The seven Kings of the Border Wasteland who once shed their last drop of blood to protect the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths..."
"To conceal the truth and seize their Fortune, the Remnant Immortals who survived branded their descendants as sinners."
"That is how the Sinful Bloodline came to be."
Su Chen tightened his grip on the Gavel.
"These lofty Remnant Immortals are the true masterminds behind the herding of Shi Hao's clansmen like livestock."
"They are also the most terrifying, most insurmountable wall of despair in the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm."
Su Chen slammed the Gavel down on the table.
Smack!
"Now, tell me."
"When that young man who walked out of the Great Wilderness..."
"Sets foot alone in the Upper Realm, where Remnant Immortals hold power and Sinful Blood is treated like grass..."
"Faced with these Immortal Dao monsters who have lived through countless eras, before whom even the Heavenly Dao must bow..."
Su Chen's gaze swept across the hall, bright as lightning.
"How is he supposed to survive?"
"How is he supposed to wash away the humiliation of his ancestors?"
"And how is he supposed to..."
"Defy heaven—and slay immortals?"
With that, Su Chen turned and strode toward the back without hesitation.
"If you want to know what happens next..."
"I'll continue tomorrow."
As Su Chen's figure disappeared behind the curtain leading backstage,
a wave of extremely suppressed panting finally rose from the hall.
No one dared speak loudly, much less complain as they had the day before about why the session had ended so early.
Remnant Immortal.
Immortal King.
Ten Fiends.
These weighty words were like towering, impassable mountains, pressing heavily down on everyone's hearts.
Prince Xue Xing was still sprawled limply on the floor.
Xue Ye glanced at him and let out an extremely disdainful snort, then gestured for two royal guards to help him up.
Bibi Dong rose to her feet. Without looking at anyone, she led Golden Crocodile Douluo and the others from Spirit Hall out of Listening Rain Pavilion.
She needed to go back and properly digest everything she had heard today, especially that so-called "Divine Fire Realm" and "True God."
At the Green-Clad Attendant's polite urging, the listeners in the hall also began to disperse.
Only Gu Yuena and Di Tian, seated in the corner, remained where they were.
Not until most of the people had left the hall and the attendant slowly closed the doors of Listening Rain Pavilion did Gu Yuena finally rise to her feet.
She glanced at the stairs leading to the second floor, said nothing, and strode toward them.
Di Tian warily swept his gaze around, then followed closely behind her.
On the second floor, in the lounge,
Su Chen sat in a grand armchair, idly turning over the jade bottle containing the Willow Deity Nirvana Liquid.
An almost imperceptible knock came from outside the door.
"Come in."
Su Chen spoke calmly.
The wooden door swung open.
Dressed in a white gown, Gu Yuena entered with a composed expression.
Di Tian, understanding the situation perfectly, stayed outside and closed the door behind her, standing guard in the corridor like a door god.
Su Chen raised his eyes and glanced at Gu Yuena as she approached.
Her exquisite face was touched by a sickly pallor. The violent, chaotic aura of laws inside her body could not escape the perception of his Unique Cave Heaven.
"Sit."
Su Chen casually pointed to the chair opposite him.
Gu Yuena didn't hesitate. She walked over and sat down.
"You came sooner than I expected."
Su Chen set the jade bottle in his hand on the table.
The moment the bottle touched the tabletop,
Gu Yuena's gaze was instantly drawn to it.
Even through the jade, the Dragon God Core inside her, weakened to the extreme, stirred with an intense yearning.
It was a frenzied craving born of the instinct to survive.
"Since Mr. Su knows who I am and has seen through my injuries,"
Gu Yuena raised her head and met Su Chen's eyes.
"I won't beat around the bush."
"Can what's in this bottle heal me?"
Su Chen gave a casual laugh.
"Willow Deity Nirvana Liquid."
"Forget the insignificant fragments of law inside you."
"Even if all you had left was a single drop of blood and your soul had been annihilated,"
"it could still pull you back from the River of Time, instantly rebuild your true body, and even transform your bloodline anew."
At those words, Gu Yuena's breath caught.
Her hands clenched the hem of her skirt.
"What does Mr. Su want?"
Gu Yuena knew full well that a divine treasure capable of defying heaven and changing one's fate would never be given away for nothing.
As a person of authority, she understood the principle of an equal exchange.
Leaning back in his chair, Su Chen gave Gu Yuena an indifferent once-over.
"My Listening Rain Pavilion could use a maid to serve tea and water, sweep the floors, and wipe down the tables."
"You seem suitable."
At those words, Di Tian trembled outside the door. An immensely terrifying aura of the Black Dragon nearly burst from him.
The dignified Master of Soul Beasts, the Silver Dragon King, reduced to a maid?!
Gu Yuena was stunned as well.
She had thought Su Chen might demand the resources of the entire Star Dou Forest, or ask her to kill someone.
She hadn't expected him to ask her to stay and serve tea and water!
But when she saw Su Chen's cold expression, devoid of even a trace of jest, she gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and agreed.
"All right."
"As long as you can heal my injuries,"
"Gu Yuena is willing to serve as a maid at Listening Rain Pavilion."
Seeing how readily she agreed, Su Chen gave a slight nod.
He held out two fingers and pushed the jade bottle across the table toward Gu Yuena.
"Take it."
"Drink it here. I'll ensure that not a trace of your aura leaks out when you break through. The Divine Realm won't sense a thing."
With trembling hands, Gu Yuena carefully picked up the jade bottle.
But she didn't pull out the stopper right away. She looked at Su Chen, curiosity flickering in her eyes.
As a former split-off incarnation of the Dragon God, she possessed the supreme pride of the dragon race.
"Mr. Su."
Gu Yuena set down the bottle and looked at Su Chen with utmost seriousness.
"Back in the hall, I heard you speak of the Ten Primordial Evils of the Immortal Ancient Era."
"You mentioned the True Dragon, the foremost of the ten."
Gu Yuena swallowed.
"I am the Dragon God's split incarnation, and I command the ultimate forms of the elements in this world."
"May I ask, Mr. Su—"
"If my bloodline were placed in that Perfect World, how would it compare to a pureblood True Dragon?"
Before you continue