As for the immortals and gods of the Ancient Heavenly Court, almost no records of them remained in the present age.
After all, far too much time had passed from the Ancient Era to now—so long that every record would warp and vanish...
Not to mention the patient, water-dripping-through-stone efforts of all sorts of interested parties.
Today, the cultivation world's impression of the Ancient Heavenly Court was almost entirely limited to this: it had been established by the Five Directions and Five Emperors of old, and its eventual collapse had brought about a Heaven-and-Earth Calamity.
That was all.
As for the origins of the Ancient Heavenly Court, how it operated internally, and among its mighty Imperial Lords, how many merely held empty positions as marks of reverence and how many had truly been assumed by ancient great powers themselves—there was no longer any way to investigate.
Even scholars in the cultivation world who loved antiquarian research could only piece together a rough outline.
Miaogaotian was not among them. He did not know who the Gouchen Emperor truly was, but this method—one that could rise amid demonic fire and even reverse the situation to control devil sect cultivators—was simply too famous.
The Ancient Black Emperor's secret transmission: the Moon Malefic Serpent-Shadow Seal.
Moon Malefic was an ominous star that could not be investigated. It wandered through the Void, beyond verification and beyond detection, yet devoured everything around it. Whether light, heat, or existence itself, once anything drew near, it would fall within and turn into nothingness.
This art was the ultimate secret of the Black Emperor's school for enslaving ghosts and gods. Once it entered the body, it would be inscribed upon the core of one's form and spirit. With a single thought, one would ascend to the pinnacle of the