Shrouding the Heavens: The Years as the Empress's Strictest Master

A batch of these honey dates could be harvested every five hundred years. Even so, the mysteries contained within rivaled those of some ordinary ten-thousand-year spiritual medicines, and demand far exceeded supply.

Yet the red dates Gu Qingying had thrown out were of the former kind.

Ahead, Cang Yuhang, the son of the current Tyrant Body, had been holding in a stifling resentment with nowhere to vent it. He subconsciously caught the red date and followed the voice to look toward that figure. At that moment, he felt as though his heartbeat had skipped half a beat.

Even while training in another star field these past years, he had heard of the renowned beauty of this goddess who oversaw the maps of Spring Autumn Pavilion.

Now that he saw her in person, he secretly thought the rumors had not been exaggerated. She truly was an exquisite immortal maiden capable of turning a man's hardened steel into tender softness.

"Senior Gu is too courteous. The warship can still be used, so this matter is of no consequence. Besides, such slight turbulence is nothing to Immortal Platform cultivators like us..."

The resentment in his heart seemed to vanish into thin air beneath her apology and that sweet date. A smile spread across his face, and the domineering aura around him receded, making him seem almost approachable.

Even the Cloud Leopard, the culprit behind all this, somehow looked a little more pleasing to the eye.

As he spoke, he made a show of offering the honey date in his hand back to her.

A female Saint King who could stand shoulder to shoulder with his father's generation had personally stepped forward and lowered herself to apologize. No matter how furious he had been before, what could he possibly still be dissatisfied with now?

"After all, it was my spirit pet that erred first. Young friend, do not refuse..."

Goddess Gu reached out and stroked the Half-Saint Cloud Leopard, which was currently as docile as a kitten, and smiled lightly.

"This... then I shall respectfully accept."

Cang Yuhang first feigned reluctance, then accepted it openly.

During this, he only exchanged one glance with Gu Qingying before not daring to look at her any longer.

Her eyes were like ancient pools reflecting stars, faintly gleaming with scattered deep-blue light. Looking into them for too long felt as if they could devour one's mind and seize one's soul.

"Since that is the case, make yourself at home, young friend. I shall go catch up with several fellow Daoists from Human Emperor Hall."

Gu Qingying's jade-like face beneath her thin veil wore a captivating smile that stirred the heart.

With that, she took the Cloud Leopard and drifted toward one corner of the mountain range.

She naturally would not take a Tyrant Body cultivator in the Immortal Third Realm with impure Tyrant Blood seriously. She had only acted this way to give the Tyrant Body clan behind him some face.

Thus, a conflict was dissolved without so much as a ripple.

Yet the ripples this incident had already stirred could naturally not be restored to their original state. That, however, was Human Emperor Hall's problem to worry about.

Cang Yuhang remained where he was, watching her alluring figure depart until she disappeared from sight.

On the warship, his Dao companion Xin'er was sensitive by nature. Seeing this, her gaze settled darkly on his back.

"That woman is not simple..."

Not far away, a Purple Feather cultivator from the Feathered Immortal Dynasty sighed.

Had his cultivation not been comparable to Gu Qingying's, he might have unknowingly fallen under the spell of her every smile and frown as well.

It was hard to imagine whether she could truly turn all living beings upside down if she removed her veil.

His thoughts stirred as his gaze swept around. How many cultivators nearby had lost themselves after Gu Qingying vanished?

"But Human Emperor Hall, what exactly are you plotting?"

After a long while, seeing that Goddess Gu had been negotiating with Human Emperor Hall for so long without returning, the Purple Feather cultivator's face darkened.

"Hehe, why bother with that? After today, Human Emperor Hall will be like meat roasting over a fire. The situation will no longer be theirs to control."

Beside him, an old man in a black-gold robe embroidered with birds, fish, and insects narrowed his eyes and said:

"They spread word of the Human Emperor's Legacy everywhere. It cannot really be false news, can it? If they make us put on this show with them and fail to produce anything worthwhile in the end, Human Emperor Hall can wait to incur everyone's wrath..."

If the legacy did not emerge, it would mean they had toyed with everyone in the Big Dipper.

By late autumn, deep within the once desolate vast mountains along the northern border of Ancient Yan Kingdom, the area had already become the center of gathering storms.

The days passed one by one.

The rumored Human Emperor's Legacy still showed no sign of movement, making more and more cultivators and factions increasingly restless.

Bloodshed occurred every moment in every corner of the mountain range.

Yet strangely, aside from the small and medium-sized factions, not a single top-tier lineage that had entered this place left, even after wasting five or six months here.

Invisibly, they seemed to possess some sort of information, or perhaps had something backing them.

In the Central Plains, within the grand and vast territory of Human Emperor Hall.

Divine rainbows streaked across the sky, profound auras intertwined, and countless palaces stood amid majestic spiritual pressure.

At this moment, several Saint Realm leaders who had been dispatched to handle the affairs of the Southern Region of Eastern Wasteland over the past several months were sprawled on the floor of a core hall like beaten dogs.

The hall was silent as death. The few of them trembled in silence, waiting for the response of the figure seated upon the Dao platform deep within the hall.

And that wait lasted several days.

During that time, several more people returned from the Eastern Wasteland and entered this place with unease in their hearts.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the figure hidden behind the screen on the Dao platform finished cultivating and slowly rose.

If anyone could enter the inner chamber sealed off by that screen, they would surely sense the immense Lunar and Solar power flowing beneath the Dao platform, allowing that figure to comprehend profound mysteries.

Only, no one knew where its source lay.

"You cannot even withstand this little pressure. What use was there in nurturing you for so many years?"

The figure's voice slowly drifted out from behind the screen.

Before the words had faded, a bone-piercing wind seemed to sweep through the hall.

"Hall Master, it is not that we are incompetent. There truly were reasons behind this!"

Perhaps someone had sensed their fate. Their body trembled like a sieve, and their desire to live surged as they suddenly cried out for mercy.

The figure paid no heed, muttering under his breath as his hands continuously formed seals.

"Run!!"

The wind in the hall grew fiercer, accompanied by an eerie aura. Someone stopped prostrating himself, and the Saint might he had previously restrained erupted as he suddenly shot toward the hall's exit.

"Where do you think you can run? You colluded in secret to release that Human Demon. Did you truly think I did not know?"

The figure chuckled, yet did not immediately pursue him. Instead, he bowed deeply toward the depths of the inner chamber's restrictions, then said in a solemn voice:

"I respectfully invite the Human Emperor Banner!!!"

Boom!!!

In an instant, the bone-eroding gale within the hall, dense with traces of the Dao, completely erupted. Blowing over those leaders, it directly dissolved their Saintly bodies and flesh, leaving only their Primordial Spirits struggling to survive.

"Hall Master... spare us!!"

"Hall Master, we merely failed in our duties. Why must it come to this?!"

"Releasing the Human Demon was all Tao Jingyu's idea. It had nothing to do with us... Aah!!!"

"No..."

Boom...

The layers of restrictions in the rear hall collapsed, and the wind within suddenly changed again, sometimes chillingly yin, sometimes as mighty and blazing as a divine sun.

The remaining golden bones of the seven Saints beneath the Dao platform shattered, scattering across the ground like fragments of glass.

The imperial gale swept blood foam across the hall's four profound jade pillars, splashing scarlet runes over them. The Saints' wails abruptly ceased, and even the words they had already uttered were shredded by the wind.

Chapter 14: Old Matters (3.3K)

Clang!

Clang... clang...

The figure behind the Dao platform's screen changed his hand seals one after another. The gale in the hall instantly subsided, condensing instead into visible blue-gold chains.

Almost simultaneously, one chain's runes pierced through the void without warning. After sinking into it, it emerged from somewhere outside the hall.

"Hah!! Hah..."

The Immortal Platform within the head of the Saint who had previously escaped the hall was instantly pierced by the chain. His Primordial Spirit was bound by the solidified chains and ultimately dragged back.

As the chain stretched taut, it faintly burst with deep-blue divine radiance, like an eternal beam of light.

Boom...

At that moment, the entire ceiling of the hall exploded. The vast void high above shattered section by section like a mirror.

A massive banner wrapped in the law runes of the Lunar and Solar poles pierced through the ceiling and shot straight toward the Ninth Heaven!

The Primordial Spirits of all eight Saints were locked within the banner. The eight tiny spirit figures wore twisted expressions and struggled desperately, but all in vain.

Buzz...

Endless auspicious light and radiant colors descended from the Ninth Heaven, bathing the giant banner shaped like a battle flag. Its pole was forged from Eternal Blue Gold, containing faint imperial divine might, and within it seemed to sit a dormant deity.

Rustle...

The battle flag snapped loudly in the wind. From somewhere beyond perception came the earth-shaking roars of countless human soldiers and generals from the Primordial Era:

"Victory!!!"

"Victory..."

How could the war dead heroic spirits gathered in the banner during the Primordial Era number merely tens of thousands?

All spirits bowed before the banner.

Boom!!!

The giant banner circled high in the sky several times before crashing down into the Dao platform of the ruined hall.

At this moment.

The countless palaces outside had already begun trembling without end. The bloodlines of every Human Emperor Hall cultivator boiled, and they uncontrollably fell to their knees in the direction where the banner had landed.

"Whatever you have to say, go say it to the 'Human Emperor' inside the Human Emperor Banner."

The Human Emperor Hall Master reached out and grasped the giant banner.

The giant banner trembled as if trying to shake free from his hand, but several weathered Heaven-Suppressing Runes appeared from thin air upon its surface, and the banner once again fell silent.

Finally, with a sharp crack, the Dao platform beneath the Human Emperor Hall Master's feet split apart completely, faintly revealing a corner of the world below.

Deep underground, an enormous Divine Source cocoon was firmly imprisoned by a formation.

Within the dazzling and brilliant Divine Source, a disheveled burly man was bound from head to toe by nine divine chains, yet still emanated a powerful, savage aura.

"You call me a traitor, yet do you not realize that the way of this world has always been that the victor becomes king and the loser is vilified? Dongfang Taiyi, today, who is the prisoner, and who looks more like the traitor?"

The Human Emperor Hall Master cast a murky gaze toward the Divine Source, snorted coldly, then wielded a great divine ability and swept his hand, burying the place once more.

"At the end of the Primordial Era, Human Emperor Hall stood on the brink of collapse. Did I have a choice?"

He stood silently upon the ground above the Divine Source for a while. It was as if he were speaking to the person inside it, yet also as if he were talking to himself:

"At first, I understood you all, but when did you ever understand me? Even the Human Emperor of old, as powerful as he was, died beneath the Undying Heavenly Blade. Why leave such a mess for later generations...

The waters of this universe run far deeper than you imagine..."

As he spoke, the Human Emperor Hall Master's lonely gaze swept over the disciples who had come to clear the ruins, making them too afraid to approach.

"Back then, you admired the Human Emperor's deeds and imitated him by cultivating both Lunar and Solar power. In the end, you became muddleheaded, neither human nor ghost. You should have exiled yourself beyond the domain, but after detecting abnormalities within the hall, you turned back and tried to purge traitors like me?

Thinking about it now, it truly is laughable..."

His voice gradually fell silent:

"If one could live upright like a person, who would want to live like a dog?"

At last, the expression in his eyes returned to indifference.

Rustle...

He pulled out the giant banner's pole and returned it to its former restriction:

"If you are not an ultimate imperial weapon, then do not act like an ultimate weapon. I only continue to keep you because you still have some use..."