As Chen Xuan's words fell, the great hall went abruptly silent.
It was a deathly stillness, so complete it seemed the entire space had been frozen.
The clamor, pleas, and arguments from moments before had all vanished, replaced by a silence heavy enough to crush them.
Every one of the hundreds of Divine Emperors in the hall felt, in that instant, as though an invisible hand had seized their throat.
Many of them were furious. Resentment, fear, rage, despair—a thousand emotions churned within them, their thoughts coiling around their hearts like venomous snakes.
But beneath Chen Xuan's calm, unquestionable gaze, they dared not voice their anger.
The gulf in strength was plain to see, a chasm harder to cross than the heavens themselves.
He had perfected twenty-four Daos. With a single thought, he had moved even those five ancestors, who had lived for countless years while hiding away in the shadows, from their caves to this hall.
What could these Divine Emperors do, no matter how deeply they resented him?
At the same time, many of them realized something—something their fear and shock had buried until now.
What did he mean, he was going to change the Lower Realm's cultivation rules?
What?
Was that something a person could change?
They looked at one another, shock and bewilderment nearly spilling from their eyes.
Every Divine Emperor present had cultivated for ages. They knew better than anyone what rules meant.
Rules were the laws underpinning the world's workings, the manifestation of the Dao's order, the foundation on which all things existed.
Yet this blue-robed cultivator from beyond their world stood in the Twilight Divine Palace's great hall and told them, as casually as could be, that he was going to change the rules.
*We're all in the Emperor Realm. How the hell