Shrouding the Heavens: Those Years as the Female Emperor's Strictest Master

Wherever the aftershock passed, the vacuum of the universe shattered like an invisible mirror.

Bang...

Deep within Undying Mountain, the Stone Emperor's Dao body, manifested from the stone embryo's will, let out a muffled groan. That massive stone hand had been blasted apart.

Even several fine cracks had appeared across the shell of his Dao body!

Meanwhile, Tan Lin's quasi-chaotic giant hand outside the restricted area had merely dimmed slightly, yet its momentum remained undiminished. After knocking him back, it continued descending over those pitch-black mountain ranges!

"You?!"

The Stone Emperor's incarnation of Dao will was both shocked and furious at the sight.

After all, his true body was still sealed away. It was perfectly normal that he was no match for his opponent.

He also understood his opponent's current state. Tan Lin would eventually vanish. Even if his true body broke its seal and emerged, even if he ultimately blew Tan Lin apart, it would only waste his vitality and blood essence for no gain.

Far too costly!

Yet if he simply watched Tan Lin cut away the mountains without doing anything, would anyone dare come and step all over them in the future?

How could such an awkward, frustrating situation not suffocate him?

"Fellow Daoist Stone Emperor, they are merely a few barren mountains on the outskirts. Removing them will not affect the core sleeping grounds of the restricted area. Why get angry? I am borrowing them for now; perhaps there will be a generous repayment someday."

Tan Lin's calm voice rang out.

Yet even as he spoke, his hand showed no mercy.

Whoosh...

Threads of Yin and Yang energy in his palm transformed into chains of laws, becoming tangible and erupting with immense power as they wrapped around the black divine mountains and pulled fiercely!

Crack!

Rumble...

In an instant, the entire Undying Mountain restricted area shook violently!

The next moment.

Those black mountain ranges, connected to the roots of Undying Mountain—mountains that had fallen here as one whole during an anomaly in the Primordial Era and stood for eternity—

Were uprooted by Tan Lin's supreme power!

Crash...

The instant the mountains separated from Undying Mountain's roots, dense patterns from the restricted area's core appeared out of nowhere over every mountain body, flickering in and out.

The mysterious Dao aura, black as ink and permeating the entire restricted area, abruptly dropped by a measure.

From Tan Lin's first strike, to the clash with the Stone Emperor's manifested Dao will on duty, to this very moment, everything had occurred within a single breath.

The mountain roots shook violently.

One Restricted-Area Supreme after another slumbering within remained sealed, yet a considerable portion of their consciousness had awakened from deep sleep.

Over the past decade or so, they had awakened far too frequently, causing the vitality and blood essence of some Supremes already in poor condition to decline even further.

Most crucially, the one disturbing them was basically always the same person!

This made several Supremes who had past grievances with him fly into a rage.

"Human Emperor!! Let us first settle the old grievance over the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree!"

That Supreme released half his body from its seal and threw a punch. Imperial laws surged like a celestial river flowing backward, seeking to smash Tan Lin and the severed mountains into pieces.

High in the heavens, Tan Lin divided his focus in two. While collecting the three black mountains, he manifested the Yin-Yang Millstone.

Boom...

The millstone turned and crushed downward toward the restricted area. As the two forces collided, the heavens and myriad realms trembled.

At this moment, the Stone Emperor's Dao body, which had just shown signs of standing down, charged into the sky and joined forces with that Supreme to attack Tan Lin from both sides.

However, after succeeding, Tan Lin did not linger at all.

The quasi-chaotic giant hand wrapped around the towering black mountains and instantly retracted. It tore through the void and vanished directly.

The Supreme's furious strike only shattered Yin and Yang energy filling the sky, along with the lingering imperial laws. The Stone Emperor's Dao body had also lunged at empty air.

Within the restricted area, the lingering echo of Tan Lin's words dispersed in the wind:

"Do you dare fully break your seal and fight me beyond the domain? If not, keep lying there!"

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Whoosh...

Deep within Undying Mountain, streams of Supreme divine sense swept madly through the void, yet they could no longer capture even the slightest trace of Tan Lin's aura.

It was as though he had never appeared at all, vanishing with startling abruptness.

The Stone Emperor's Dao body slowly descended from the sky, then stood in the missing section at the outskirts of the restricted area, his aura rising and falling unstably.

In the end, all his pent-up frustration condensed into a chilling snort before slowly receding.

Like the Supreme who had already half-broken his seal, it was not that he did not want to keep Tan Lin behind.

But Tan Lin's state was simply too unusual. He had returned briefly, maintaining peak combat strength. If they truly fought to the death, this incarnation of Dao will would certainly be insufficient. If his true body emerged then, it would only waste vitality, blood essence, and origin.

The cost was too great. Fighting an existence about to vanish completely over a few outer mountains was not worth it.

It would be all effort for no reward, so they could only let the matter drop.

"Fellow Daoist Stone Emperor, can you trace where those mountains went?"

At this moment, ripples of divine sense came from that half-unsealed Supreme.

"The Human Emperor undoubtedly possesses a great secret. His methods of stealth and concealment are too inconceivable. Even following only the aura of those three mountains, there is no way to trace or locate them..."

The Stone Emperor's Dao body shook his head.

"What use does someone about to vanish have for cutting away these mountains? He sacrificed all his imprints in this world, as well as every trace of his Dao..."

A Supreme asked in confusion.

"Could he possibly return once more?"

"Not in his condition. Impossible."

"..."

"Time will reveal everything. If ten thousand years are not enough, then wait several hundred thousand more. When the next Immortal Ascension Road opens, the truth will always surface..."

"Indeed. We are waiting anyway. When the Immortal Ascension Road opens, we can also wait for the day when some of the Human Emperor's secrets are confirmed..."

"..."

"Hehe, Jia Kong was already in poor condition. Now that he has half-broken his seal and exchanged a blow with the Human Emperor, I fear he will not last until that day."

"Not necessarily. It depends on when he can no longer endure and emerges to harvest the living. But now that it has been confirmed the Undying Heavenly Emperor is not dead, if he emerges alone, even if he devours the essence of all living beings, he still risks falling..."

Within Undying Mountain's sleeping grounds, more than a dozen streams of divine sense fluctuated frequently.

Even without deliberately eavesdropping, the Supreme called Jia Kong could more or less guess what his fellow Daoists in the depths of the restricted area were discussing.

It was indeed true that he was in poor condition. As though recalling certain matters in the near future, the sealing energy around his location surged violently. Only after a long time did it gradually settle, reinforcing the half-broken seal and sealing himself once more.

Yet this resealing was clearly incomplete. Perhaps he had already decided the day he would truly emerge?

"I truly never expected that what the Human Emperor revealed before his fall during that hunt in the Primordial Era was actually true. Back then, not a single person openly believed it."

"Oh? That Human Emperor had already seen through the fact that the Undying Heavenly Emperor was not dead during the Primordial Era?"

"Hahahaha, Fellow Daoist attained the Dao in the Ancient Era, so naturally you do not know every secret of those old events..."

"..."

"Then how did this Human Emperor learn of the Undying Heavenly Emperor's path of nirvana?"

"..."

The exchange yielded no results.

Whoosh!

At last, the Stone Emperor's Dao body in Undying Mountain gradually dissipated, returning to that wisp of thought formed from the stone embryo and resuming low-power duty.

The earthshaking commotion subsided.

Yet deep within Undying Mountain, that suppressed frustration and fury with nowhere to vent faintly seeped beyond the restricted area, making all living beings across the Big Dipper feel an inexplicable palpitation.

Before one wave settled, another rose.

This day was destined to leave the living beings of the heavens and myriad realms on edge, their emotions surging and plunging like a roller coaster on future Earth.

The Human Emperor's forceful seizure of divine peaks from the outskirts of Undying Mountain, and even his brazen provocation of the Supremes deep within the restricted area to battle beyond the domain—only for the Supremes to back down—

Was like a colossal boulder cast into an already stormy lake, instantly setting off towering waves. From this day onward, for a long stretch of time to come, the words "Human Emperor" would remain on the lips of many cultivators.

"Someone attacked a Life Forbidden Zone, and Undying Mountain is just letting it go?!"

"Jia Kong is trash. If I were him, I would definitely break my seal and kill that Human Emperor with my own hand. So what if my vitality, blood essence, and origin could not sustain me afterward? Over these years, have not the living beings of the heavens and myriad realms grown another batch?"

"..."

"That is a Life Forbidden Zone! The Stone Emperor actually failed to keep him?"

"How domineering. Is this the Human Emperor...? He ignored the Restricted-Area Supremes, cutting away mountains whenever he pleased..."

"I heard those mountains..."

Whoosh...

Almost the instant news of Undying Mountain's upheaval spread.

Countless incomparably powerful and terrifying streams of divine sense emerged from one Life Forbidden Zone after another, from ancient starfields beyond the Big Dipper, and from hidden secret realms.

Thoughts intertwined in the depths of the universe and throughout the void of the Big Dipper, transmitting barely concealed shock and uncertainty.

For those of lower standing, however, shock and horror occupied most of their emotions.

Since ancient times, who had dared treat a Life Forbidden Zone this way?

Even Great Emperors mostly focused on suppressing dark turmoil. Such an act of coming to the door to forcibly take something was simply unheard of!

At Human Emperor Hall in the Central Plains, a deep yearning and anticipation flashed through Suiren Lianlei's starry eyes.

All around her stood countless Human Emperor Hall cultivators preparing to follow the Purple Star Human King lineage into the outer domain.

After Tan Lin left, Gong Xuan, the Human Emperor Hall Master who had seemed to vanish from the world, quietly returned.

Ignoring the undisguised curses and stares within the hall, he came before an altar. He lit an incense stick at the place where the Human Emperor had once sat in meditation, praying devoutly.

After returning and seeing that the Human Emperor Hall had not lost a single person, he understood several things more clearly.

If His Majesty the Human Emperor truly wished to deal with him, where could he possibly flee?

Where could he hide?

Perhaps only such a towering figure was worthy of his external mysterious ancestor Pang Ya's devotion unto death?

Within the Ancient Mine of Primordial Beginning, in an ancient cave shrouded in chaotic energy at its deepest reaches.

Beside a massive block of Immortal Source lay several ancient objects of peculiar design, stained with mottled bronze rust.

Suddenly, an ancient, desolate voice that seemed to have settled through countless eras rang out, carrying a hint of amusement:

"After the Primordial Era ended, following Dao Yan, the Stone Emperor—a Saint Spirit who attained the Dao—took control of Undying Mountain. Since then, this restricted area has remained active. Today, its dignity has been trampled into the ground again and again..."

"What do you think of this Human Emperor?"

Another voice slowly asked.

"Hehe, the great secret on this Human Emperor's body has now made even me unable to resist investigating it. I rather hope he truly can return once more. If so, there may be another kind of 'Immortal Ascension Road' to walk."

"Did Eternal Silence, Fallen Immortal, and the other three not participate in that hunt back then? Did they not obtain any secret clues?"

"Them? They only entered at the very end and took a share of the Human Emperor's origin and essence blood... Throughout these endless ages, those truly making arrangements for the great secret upon the Human Emperor have been Xiaoyao and Undying..."