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

Upon hearing His Majesty the Human Emperor, this item would ultimately be wielded by her?!

This was the Human Emperor Banner!

Whoosh!

Whoosh... whoosh...

At this moment, streaks of rainbow light flew in low from beyond the Human Emperor Hall's territory.

These were cultivators from the outside world who had witnessed the battle's end and the Human Emperor's arrival. They came swarming in from all across the Big Dipper, all wishing to come "pay homage" and behold the Human Emperor's majestic bearing. Yet they were now blocked outside by the Human Emperor Hall's grand formation, unable to advance an inch.

They shouted loudly outside, demanding to pay homage and meet the Human Emperor, but none of the hall's disciples answered them.

That was because everyone in the Human Emperor Hall had gathered around the core Dao platform palace. Their fanatical, reverent, and reluctant gazes had never left that majestic figure.

Before the grand hall, Tan Lin spoke to no one else. He had already made the arrangements and left the decision entirely to them.

Yet the surrounding cultivators still stood there hesitantly, looking up at him.

At this very moment, everyone knew that he was about to pass away. Everyone wished to see him off, and many had soaked their collars with hot tears.

Yet these people did not know that if they did not leave, Tan Lin could not easily depart either.

He still had a little time before he vanished.

Countless eyes were fixed upon this place, while covert gazes from the forbidden zones and beyond the domain silently watched him from the shadows.

This was why he did not intend to activate the All-Causes Soul Pearl here in advance and reincarnate.

Should I do something else with the little time I have left?

Tan Lin's thoughts stirred.

Before arriving outside the hall, the progress of mending his true soul with the firefly lights from the third Deep Crimson Light Point had already been completed.

Now, he had almost nothing left to worry about and could begin his next lifetime.

However, it was worth mentioning that the gaps in his true soul filled by the Soul Pearl's firefly lights had not truly been restored. The original was always better than a substitute.

That final small fragment of his true soul, suppressed deep within the Sea of Reincarnation, had to be reclaimed in his next lifetime if possible. He would have to break into the forbidden zone and seize it back.

Whoosh...

Endless auspicious radiance and multicolored lights continued to descend from the heavens, making Tan Lin's face increasingly indistinct.

A deep light flickered in his eyes. He was preparing to leave this place where he had once cultivated.

But before that, he still needed to take someone away.

Buzz!

At that moment, the dual states of [Inverted All-Causes Vision] and [All Causes Barrier] activated once again!

Immediately afterward, his figure and aura completely vanished from everyone's senses.

"Your Majesty!!"

"Your Majesty..."

This phenomenon undoubtedly triggered cries of shock and grief from the countless cultivators around the grand hall.

Many believed that perhaps their Human Emperor had vanished at this moment, without any warning.

Meanwhile, underground.

Crimson-gray mist surged as Tan Lin appeared directly beneath the Dao platform inside the grand hall.

His gaze swept around, and he immediately spotted a piece of sealed humanoid Divine Source underground.

The Divine Source was bound by layers of restrictions and wrapped in dozens of chains of divine laws. Its security was quite formidable, but to him now, breaking those restrictions was as easy as turning his hand.

Crack... crack...

Without the slightest hesitation, Tan Lin waved his hand and shattered every restriction in an instant.

The person sealed within the Divine Source had disheveled hair and looked like a madman. Boundless polar Lunar and Solar power likewise surged within his body.

"Human Demon... Dongfang Taiyi?"

Tan Lin stared at the Divine Source, seemingly lost in thought.

He had known someone was sealed underground ever since he had infiltrated this place to seize the Human Emperor Banner. However, he had learned the identity of the person within the Divine Source from those old subordinates.

This Human Demon, who in the original course of events had been born in the Southern Ridge at the end of the Primordial Era, had actually joined the Human Emperor Hall out of admiration for his deeds, then cultivated both Lunar and Solar arts.

Ultimately, he had gone mad...

"Many attempted to cultivate Lunar and Solar arts in the Primordial Era, but among those who reached your level, becoming merely mad rather than assimilating into the Dao before the Quasi-Emperor threshold is extraordinarily rare, even across the world. It is truly commendable..."

A wisp of Tan Lin's divine sense rippled out, soothing some of Dongfang Taiyi's mad thoughts within the Divine Source.

Then, seeing that Dongfang Taiyi seemed eager to emerge and pay respects to him, Tan Lin frowned slightly and ordered him not to enter the world in his current state. He would be better off remaining sealed within the Divine Source and lying dormant while awaiting a favorable opportunity in a later age.

After saying that, he swept his sleeve and stored away the piece of Divine Source as well.

Unseen, the Causal Line between him and the Human Demon had in fact indirectly formed long ago. However, when Dongfang Taiyi was born at the end of the Primordial Era, Tan Lin had already fallen for many years. The line remained hidden, existing only as a branch connected to the Human Emperor Hall.

But now that Tan Lin had returned from nothingness and Dongfang Taiyi's restrictions had been removed, the two had met. Their Causal Line thus transformed from a branch of the Human Emperor Hall into a main line directly connected to him.

Whoosh...

Having done everything that needed doing, Tan Lin lingered no longer.

His figure flashed and transformed into an intangible crimson mist, heading straight for the treasure-hidden secret land in the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland.

The six pieces of Divine Source, along with some treasures he had taken from the Human Emperor Hall's treasury accumulated over countless ages, all needed to be relocated.

Soon, above the Heavenly Mystic Ancient Clan Secret Land in the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland.

Tan Lin's figure silently emerged.

He did not enter the secret land directly. Instead, he hovered high in the heavens, his gaze like two bolts of cold lightning as it suddenly fell upon the chain of mountains in the southwest, shrouded in eternal darkness and ominous aura.

Undying Mountain!

Though his current state was unusual, exchanging all traces of his previous life's Dao for a temporary peak, the majestic power of the imperial path resting upon him was utterly real.

His imperial aura, sufficient to contend with any Supreme Being, looked down upon the world. His divine sense swept across endless mountains and rivers, placing most of the Big Dipper within his perception.

"I still have a little time. I can still lay some foundations for my next lifetime..."

He murmured softly, his tone calm.

The instant he spoke those words, he had already made his decision.

The next moment, he moved.

Under the concealment of the Soul Pearl's dual states, no earth-shaking spectacle appeared in the outside world before he truly came into contact with anything.

After all, what he intended to do was different from silently infiltrating Undying Mountain and gathering treasures more than ten years ago. This time, he could only catch the many Supreme Beings of Undying Mountain off guard.

The key to this matter was suddenness and speed. Otherwise, he truly would not succeed.

The Undying Mountain forbidden zone of today could not compare with that of the Post-Ancient Era. There was no future Empress... Void, nor were there several Great Accomplishment Sacred Bodies to take down multiple existences within Undying Mountain.

This forbidden zone currently contained more than ten self-sealed Supreme Beings.

It was a colossal entity second only to the Ancient Mine of Primordial Beginning in the entire universe, and during this Ancient Era, it was the most active forbidden zone without equal.

Buzz...

High in the sky, Tan Lin simply extended one hand.

Wrapped in dense crimson mist, that hand instantly crossed boundless space. It expanded with the wind, continuously stretching until it finally became a Chaos-like giant palm that covered the sky and blotted out the sun.

Yin and Yang energies flowed through its palm, evolving earth, water, fire, and wind, as though it held a newly opened world.

The hand reached directly for the black mountains on the outskirts of Undying Mountain, the most mystical among them and the ones that emitted the densest aura of extraordinary substances!

Those peaks were precisely where he had discovered the withered branch seeds left behind by the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree's nirvana more than ten years ago.

The entire mountain range had been steeped in some mysterious aura for countless ages, containing unimaginable special Fortune, along with wisps of intangible ominous aura.

His intention this time was to cut away these mountains and use them as the core to open a small secret realm suitable for the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree's survival within the Heavenly Mystic Ancient Clan Secret Land.

There should be at least a fifty to sixty percent chance of bringing the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree to life, allowing its seeds to take root and sprout.

Rumble!

The instant Tan Lin's giant hand touched those black mountains, before he could exert force and sever them—

In an instant.

From the deepest part of Undying Mountain, a terrifying will that dominated heaven and earth and made all living beings tremble suddenly awakened!

The aura of this will was like a mythical giant stirring from slumber and opening cold eyes.

Immediately afterward, endless imperial pressure erupted like a tsunami, sweeping through heaven and earth!

This was the Stone Emperor's aura!

His stone embryo Dao thought left in the outside world had been alarmed!

"Human Emperor!! You again! You keep pushing your luck... you are courting death!"

The imperial will of that stone embryo Dao thought pierced through boundless space, carrying heaven-shaking fury.

At the same time, a similarly sky-obscuring stone giant hand extended from the depths of Undying Mountain.

The giant hand was wreathed in tyrannical divine might that seemed capable of suppressing the azure heavens of countless ages, and it met Tan Lin's Chaos-like giant palm head-on!

The power contained in that hand was enough to effortlessly crush starfields and annihilate galaxies!

Boom!!!

The two palms collided, yet there was no apocalyptic sight of the Big Dipper collapsing and the universe crumbling as one might have imagined.

At their level, control over power had long reached perfection.

At that moment, countless gazes from within and beyond the domain converged once more. In the direction of the Human Emperor Hall in the Central Plains—

Those cultivators who had believed the Human Emperor had already vanished froze when they sensed that vast and majestic pressure sweeping across heaven and earth again.

"His Majesty... is still here. He has not vanished. Instead... he has attacked a forbidden zone?"

Suiren Lianlei's red lips parted slightly as she raised her head, her beautiful face turned toward the sky.

As she gazed into the distance across space, her murmur carried a trembling excitement.

Witnessing that shocking scene in the far sky, she deeply felt her own temporary insignificance.

At this moment, even merely watching a corner of such a clash from afar made her feel like a mayfly looking up at the azure heavens!

Beside her, Suiren Hong carefully held the Human Emperor Banner in his hands, revering it as though it were divine.

Seeing the strange commotion reflected in the skies above the Central Plains, he immediately drew a deep breath to calm the surging emotions in his chest, then slowly voiced his speculation:

"His Majesty the Human Emperor acts for the Big Dipper, for humanity, for all living beings in the universe! He wants to take advantage of these final moments to try and trade away one Supreme Being from the Undying Mountain forbidden zone..."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding cultivators, whether they belonged to the Human Emperor Hall or not, grew increasingly solemn and reverent.

"His Majesty the Human Emperor is magnificent!!"

"His Majesty's intentions are so painstaking..."

Boom!!

At the point where the two palms collided in the distance, the land of the Central Region did not tremble in the slightest. Yet the space above silently collapsed and was annihilated.

It turned into endless Chaos-like mist, within which earth, water, fire, and wind surged wildly.

The aura of heaven and earth's myriad Daos became utterly chaotic in this place at that moment!

A terrifying scene of the Great Dao collapsing and all things returning to ruin appeared high in the heavens!

Under Tan Lin's control, that destruction rushed beyond the high skies. The terrifying shockwave erupting in outer space spread outward in rings.

Bang... bang...