Shrouding the Heavens: The Years I Served as the Female Emperor's Strictest Master

"Where was Xiaoyao? Wasn't he involved in what happened back then too?"

Deep within the various life restricted areas, the cold divine senses of Supreme Beings on "duty" cast their gazes over. Their spiritual fluctuations carried traces of scrutiny and investigation, along with a measure of wariness toward the Undying Daoist.

At the end of the Primordial Era, Fighting Saint Emperor's roar had echoed throughout the land. Some beings had vaguely heard it as well.

Although that place was not within Human Emperor Hall's jurisdiction, Central Plains had always been a key area of their attention. They knew that one of the Immortal Ascension Road's nodes from ages past was located at...

Southern Region of Eastern Wasteland.

Several hundred miles outside the capital of Ancient Yan Kingdom.

A slender figure in a black dress lightly waved her fair hand. The restrained demonic aura around her drifted about, erasing every trace of bloodshed that had spread into the surroundings.

The beautiful figure wore a Bronze Mask capable of blocking divine-sense probing. She was none other than Li Qingjue, who had been separated from Tan Lin for more than three months.

During this time, she had remained near Yaoguang Village, tempering her Dao foundation and preparing to break through into the Immortal Platform Secret Realm.

Whenever she finished her cultivation insights and sat in meditation, she would occasionally bestow some Fortune in secret upon the villagers who had once given her food and clothes.

If her brother and master were the sole pure land within her vicious-dragon state of mind,

then the villagers in this settlement were the sparse greenery decorating that patch of pure land.

Their small acts of kindness had kept her, only four or five years old after her brother was taken away, from starving or freezing to death.

One had to know that the mortal dynasties of this world also levied harsh exactions upon the lower classes. Few rulers cared for the people. Even though these villagers lived hand to mouth themselves, household after household would still scrape together a little from time to time, allowing her to survive until she met her master several years later.

She had always remembered this kindness.

They had let her know that this world was not filled solely with petty scheming, nor was it filthy and sordid everywhere.

Though... those kindhearted villagers had made up only a very small portion of the village...

Splash...

The blood and water from corpses crushed apart by demonic aura fell like a drizzling rain.

Only now had Li Qingjue finished a completely one-sided slaughter.

She had extracted the origins from every cultivator who had tried to exploit and torture mortals for amusement in the nearby villages, then crushed their corpses.

These cultivators were mostly outsiders from beyond the region. Their elders had died during the Drill Tower trial, leaving them temporarily unable to return to the outer regions, so they had remained in the Southern Region.

Because they were outsiders, with some not even being human, the negative emotions brought by the deaths of their friends, relatives, masters, and elders filled their hearts. Stranded in a foreign land, the pressure within them could easily be ignited by the tiniest matters, leading them to vent their emotions through murder... and lust...

Naturally, rogue cultivators without backing, as well as mortals, became their preferred targets.

Buzz...

The demonic aura around Li Qingjue surged through the void. After sweeping away the blood rain from this place, it all flowed back into her body and tempered her fleshly vessel.

A gentle breeze blew in midair, making the sash of her black dress flutter and briefly revealing the exquisite curves beneath her robes.

Her dark hair cascaded like a waterfall. She still retained the simple habits she had kept when she was with her brother and master, using only a plain wooden hairpin to bind her bun behind her head. Though not luxurious, she possessed an otherworldly grace beyond compare.

Rumble...

Suddenly, the skies over the Five Regions of the Big Dipper changed drastically. The moment the disturbance from Central Plains arrived,

the ruthless killer raised her masked face toward the heavens. All fierceness and coldness faded from her eyes as she gazed blankly and clearly toward Central Plains.

"Master... you'll succeed. You definitely will..."

She called softly, her voice carrying a hint of longing.

Having spent more than twelve years with Tan Lin, most of them within the Drill Tower, she naturally recognized the Human Emperor's aura.

In truth, although she did not say so aloud, she still felt a little resentment over her master going alone to Central Plains for one final attempt.

The great era was about to begin. After the Drill Tower's collapse, the Ancient Roads of the myriad races had begun opening one after another. Her Dao heart was firm, and she believed she could contend for the emperor's throne in this lifetime.

Once she became an emperor, would she really be an ungrateful wretch who refused to help her master recover?

What she did not know was that the Human Tribulation after the Dao-Proving Tribulation was extremely complicated and full of variables. With Tan Lin now added as an unpredictable factor, matters had become even more inscrutable.

Even whether she, the future Female Emperor, could safely attain the Dao and become an emperor in this lifetime remained unknown.

Northern Region, at Nine Dragons Embracing the Pearl.

Within the Ancient Emperor Mountain Secret Realm.

A wisp of divine sense left by the Undying Heavenly Empress outside the Divine Source stirred faintly.

"Human Emperor? He's truly insane. He's sacrificing every trace of his Primordial Era Dao to gain a brief return to his peak. How is that any different from the Restricted-Area Supremes' Ultimate Sublimation? He will ultimately vanish..."

Her thoughts shifted.

Clad in iridescent feathered gauze, her enchanting and fiery figure suddenly stepped out from the already cracked Divine Source.

Tap... tap...

The slender heels of her emerald spring-flower shoes clicked crisply against the ground as she approached the divine spring pool. Her delicate brows furrowed, and her voice carried a trace of mockery.

"I thought you could stir the waters far more thoroughly. So you're nothing but trash after all. I overestimated you..."

As she thought this, her mind abruptly shifted again.

After all, he was a Dao Attainer who had already died once a million years ago. Now that he had reappeared, surely he would not be unable to raise even the slightest wave.

"Knowing full well that Human Emperor Hall in Central Plains is a dragon's den and tiger's lair, you still went. Are you truly stupid, or do you have something to rely on? After this... can you really survive?"

Suddenly, ripples spread across the surface of the divine spring pool.

Looking at the peerlessly beautiful jade-like face reflected in the water, she seemed to think of something. Her furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

Boom!!!

Central Plains, deep within Human Emperor Hall.

Within the massive hall, the Human Emperor Banner sensed Tan Lin's aura and erupted with an earthshaking hum.

The Heaven-Suppressing Runes laid upon the banner by the Undying Daoist flashed wildly, preventing it from fully breaking free of its final restraints and reaching Tan Lin's hand!

"You're detonating every trace of Dao you left in this world? You're truly making a final gamble..."

Behind him, the Undying Daoist lightly clenched his hand. The Undying Heavenly Blade shot over from the distant heavens, on the verge of flying into his grasp.

With such a heavy weapon in hand, he no longer cared whether the other party obtained the soul fragments in that banner and fused them with his remnant soul.

Besides, he was here. He would not give the other party a chance to break the restrictions.

"Hand over your great secret obediently. Perhaps I'll grant you a quick death when the time comes. You know, after living this long, I naturally have a few methods for tormenting souls..."

The Undying Daoist spoke with a smile.

But before his words had even faded, he saw Tan Lin casting a technique to break the restrictions, and his expression turned cold.

The condensed, incomparably vast power of faith circulated within his body. He struck out with one palm, forming a giant hand that blotted out the sky. Terrifying imperial might swept out, making the heavens rumble like a sheet of torn cloth.

With one hand, he drove the Divine Soul Pool Water. The tricolored liquid transformed into a constantly shifting true dragon and lunged at Tan Lin.

His other hand gripped the Undying Heavenly Blade that had crossed the endless starry sky. With a cold sneer, he prepared to seal Tan Lin's remnant soul.

Who would have thought—

The next moment, a sudden change erupted at the other end of the universe!

As though he had sensed something, the Undying Daoist's expression changed drastically before he could even swing the Undying Heavenly Blade and unleash a world-shaking strike.

Far beyond the endless starry sky, deep in the core of an unknown ancient star.

The crimson-gray mist dispersed. An extraordinary golden condor suddenly appeared out of thin air, carrying a formation diagram that radiated a terrifying imperial aura. It burst forth with destructive light and crashed into the center of the underground fire and magma!

There, endless immortal radiance shone as a Five-Colored Immortal Egg floated within.

Rumble...

At the same time, within the great hall, Tan Lin's remnant soul turned around.

The powers of Lunar and Solar intertwined. The phantom of the Yin-Yang Millstone, his Dao-proving artifact from his previous life that had long since been destroyed, reappeared from nothingness and blocked the true-dragon strike of Divine Soul Pool Water, an attack from the Undying Daoist comparable to that of a Supreme Being.

"What? Are you still planning to stay here? If so, your true body's nirvanic rebirth this time may well end in failure, Dao Brother."

He smiled at the Undying Daoist, utterly calm.

"Oh, and I nearly forgot to tell you, Dao Brother. My arrangements extend far beyond this. The news that your true body is undergoing nirvanic transformation on that ancient star has already been revealed by me..."

Whoosh!

Before Tan Lin could finish, the Undying Daoist had already torn open the void, crossed the starry sky, and rushed toward the distant end of the universe.

Boom...

The core of that ancient star shook violently as the place of nirvanic rebirth suffered a fierce impact.

True Soul Fragment in Hand (3.1K)

Within the underground fire and magma.

The formation diagram carried by the golden condor self-destructed, unleashing shocking might far beyond its original power. Although the Five-Colored Immortal Egg was protected by a Heaven-Suppressing Ancient Emperor Grand Formation within the planetary core, and the other arrangements Tan Lin had mentioned did not appear,

the Undying Daoist still chose not to remain in Central Plains of the Big Dipper.

Ever since falling from the Immortal Domain, he had spent millions of years scheming and deceiving, beginning with betrayals and ambushes against others during his formative years, then eventually receiving the worship of all races and climbing step by step to where he stood today.

He could not afford to gamble, nor did he wish to.

It did not matter if he failed to obtain the Human Emperor's great secret. But nothing could happen to his true body in nirvanic rebirth. Even without that great secret, he could still become immortal!

"Phew..."

Within the great hall of Human Emperor Hall in Central Plains, Tan Lin's remnant soul immediately sighed in relief as he watched the Undying Daoist depart.

Under [Inverted All-Causes Vision], he could see that the Sea of Reincarnation was also stirring at this moment.

If the other party had not left with the Undying Heavenly Blade, and Xiaoyao Heavenly Venerable arrived as well, then he truly would have struggled to deal with this situation.

Fortunately, he had chosen his timing well. At the most critical moment of the Undying Heavenly Emperor's nirvanic rebirth, he had moved his pawn and launched a surprise attack.

Luckily, this was not the future. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had not yet entered the Strange World to "guard the gate," or else he would not even have been able to use this tactic of relieving pressure by attacking elsewhere.

Of course, there truly were no further arrangements at that nirvanic site. But with truth and falsehood mixed together like this, the Undying Daoist had no choice but to believe him.

He had indeed informed multiple restricted areas of the Undying Heavenly Emperor bathing in imperial blood and undergoing nirvanic transformation. He had even publicly exposed that secret at the time of his death in the Primordial Era.

It was simply that those Supreme Beings were all shrewd as ghosts. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had supposedly died many years ago, and there were no obvious traces to follow. Moreover, his former "glorious image" had been deeply ingrained in people's minds. Many believed it was merely Tan Lin's scheme, a final attempt to turn the tiger against the wolf and kill the Undying Daoist.

Even those who half-believed it would not rashly try anything.

After all, even if they confirmed that the Undying Heavenly Emperor was truly alive, how could they determine the location, timing, and condition of his nirvanic rebirth?

And even if they did grasp all that, could they defeat the Undying Heavenly Emperor, who had not self-severed, without joining forces in numbers or even undergoing Ultimate Sublimation?

Would the price of unsealing themselves and emerging into the world be proportional to the reward...

These many doubts and calculations, this attitude of staying aloof while matters did not concern them, meant that unless a blade was hanging over their own heads, they would not act lightly.

Only if Emperor Zun's situation from the Mythic Era repeated itself—when he forcibly dragged everyone toward "immortality"—would someone become the target of all, abandoned by allies and attacked by the gathered Supreme Beings.

Having lived three lives, Tan Lin believed he had already seen through the nature and thoughts of these Restricted-Area Supremes. He did not hold overly high hopes for them...

Still, if a Supreme Being truly left a restricted area this time to attack the Undying Heavenly Emperor, he would naturally be delighted to see it.

Hopefully, some Supreme Being is really stubborn enough...

Tan Lin thought to himself.

Then, he turned his attention back to where the screen stood.

The greatest obstacle had now temporarily vanished.

Now!

Tan Lin narrowed his deep eyes slightly. With Solar in one hand and Lunar in the other, he struck out with two consecutive palms. Imperial might erupted and shattered the outermost restriction on the screen.

He shot forward and reached through the air toward the Human Emperor Banner!