The altar measured eighty-one zhang across at its base. In all, it had nine tiers; by the ninth and highest tier, it was only nine zhang across.
To Liu Guangzheng, the number nine was exceptionally special. Nine was the number of the ultimate—not an endpoint, but boundlessness, infinite possibilities.
As for ten, which stood above nine, it was not some so-called perfection, but a transcendence: breaking through infinity to reach a higher infinity. It could be called "ascending dimensions"!
Of course, this world and this age had never developed the concept of dimensions. Yet Liu Guangzheng had still combined certain things from both his lives to form his own understanding.
The altar's double-nine configuration was undoubtedly an extraordinarily lofty standard. Even the Dao and Fan lineages would not dare employ it lightly.
As for mortal emperors, apart from a dynasty-founding Grand Ancestor offering sacrifices to Heaven and proclaiming his reign to Heaven, Earth, mountains, and rivers with the double-nine standard, later emperors had to strip away the four virtues and could use only the nine-five standard.
Double-nine belonged to the Holy Emperor, the supreme sovereign; nine-five belonged only to the Son of Heaven.
This was a ritual code that could not be overstepped.
Even the Dao and Fan lineages only dared use such specifications when worshipping the two progenitors of Dao and Fan.
Of course, the altar now worshipped more than merely the two progenitors of Dao and Fan. It also worshipped the dynasty-founding Grand Ancestors of every age—the Heaven's Will of each respective realm.
In worlds without the supernatural, even a dynasty-founding Grand Ancestor became nothing more than a handful of yellow earth after death. But in this world, they truly opened up heavenly realms and became the Heaven of one domain.
At this moment, the names and titles