Not far away, a peerlessly beautiful, flawless woman controlled the Treasure-Gathering Basin and sucked in the Demon Emperor's supreme treasure.
It was an enormous green basin, like an oasis floating in the sky. It radiated an exceptionally gentle and sacred glow, while vigorous life brewed within its verdant light.
"It's her!" Ye Fan recognized the woman's origins. Pang Bo had been taken away with her people; she was from the Demon Race.
"What a scheme..."
In an instant, Ye Fan understood everything. This Demon Race woman had let the Human Race's Great Powers fight and die at the front, overcoming every obstacle, while she had long since set an ambush here to reap the rewards.
"A good scheme? Every scheme stems from insufficient strength." Lin Xian sighed. "A descendant of the Azure Emperor, reduced to such a state. How tragic, how lamentable."
"Tragic and lamentable?" Ye Fan was stunned. Looking at the flawless woman, he frowned. "She clearly gained the greatest benefit. Why would Heavenly Master..."
"Because you don't understand Great Emperors, and neither do those fellows in the sky. That's why they dare fight the Azure Emperor's descendants over the Emperor Weapon, the Chaotic Green Lotus." Lin Xian shook his head. "Don't be fooled by how lively things are now. Once the Emperor Weapon revives and starts settling accounts, if it truly threatens the Great Emperor's last remaining descendants, things will get interesting."
"Are Great Emperors really that powerful?" Ye Fan muttered. He knew Great Emperors were the strongest of the strong, but he could not imagine just how strong they truly were.
In the Dao-Difficult Era, Sages sealed themselves in divine source. Kings roamed the Eastern Wasteland, and even the leaders of the great sacred lands were merely Immortal Two Great Powers.
The predecessors who had witnessed the Azure Emperor's peerless splendor and might suppressing the universe ten thousand years ago were separated from the present by three or four generations.
Three or four generations—how many remembered what had happened before their great-grandfathers' time? It had long been worn away by the years.
The world had lost the reverence it should have held for Great Emperors.
Not to mention rogue cultivators like Ye Fan; even Great Powers born from Desolate Ancient Families and Extreme Dao Holy Lands knew only that Great Emperors were stronger than ancient Sages, but not exactly how much stronger.
Ants could never imagine the gap between divine elephants and heavenly dragons. They could not even glimpse their backs.
"The word 'Emperor' is as heavy as Mount Tai, enough to crush all ages." Lin Xian said solemnly. "The ignorant truly know no fear."
That year, the Big Dipper's Great Powers dug up the Qing Emperor's Tomb, with achievements comparable to the sect masters of the Three Thousand Dao Provinces during the Chaotic Ancient Era.
That year, a group of cultivators below the Saint Realm wanted to seize an Emperor Weapon.
That year, Heavenly Jade Sacred Land led an expedition to attack the Desolate Antiquity Forbidden Zone and force their way onto the Immortal Ascension Road.
That year, the Azure Emperor's descendants ran about everywhere, without even a single protector.
All that could be said was that they were all ridiculously reckless.
In the void, Yan Ruyu was ethereal and sacred, still flawless and immaculate, her beauty unmatched. She swiftly put away the Treasure-Gathering Basin and transformed into a streak of light, vanishing into the distance. Only a string of heavenly laughter remained. "Many thanks to the seniors for your assistance. Otherwise, even if a descendant of the Demon Emperor came in person, it would have been difficult to truly claim the Great Emperor's supreme treasure..."
"Look at that..." Lin Xian clicked his tongue. "They haven't merely lost the Emperor Weapon. I'm afraid they've even lost their inheritance and knowledge. If we could record this scene, it would definitely fetch a good price in the future."
[Ding-dong] [System 10086 at your service] [Event: An Immortal Two Great Power digs up the Qing Emperor's Tomb] [Evaluation: A name recorded in history, sung of through the ages] [Reward: One Recording Stone (Note: Undying through all ages, indestructible by heaven and earth. Even if eras restart and reincarnation cycles onward, the dark history will remain)]
"Dear, I suggest you don't sell it to Yan Ruyu. Selling it to the Azure Emperor would be worth even more." System 10086's voice rang out, deeply suggestive.
"System, why did you pop out on your own this time?" Lin Xian asked suspiciously. Ever since he had come to know the system, System 10086 had grown lazier by the day. It usually avoided work whenever possible. Who knew who it had taken after?
Why was it suddenly working overtime today?
"Chaos gives birth to the Green Lotus..." the system said leisurely beside Lin Xian's ear.
System 10086 had comprehended the Immortal Scripture from the bronze coffin, which concerned the evolution of the Immortal Realm. Chaos and the Green Lotus were undoubtedly a crucial part of it.
Chaos gave birth to the Green Lotus, the Green Lotus gave birth to Pangu, Pangu opened heaven and earth, and heaven and earth became the Immortal Realm. This was a process of evolution, and also the Great Dao the Azure Emperor sought to prove.
Others did not know, but the system and Lin Xian knew very well that the Azure Emperor had not died. His Primordial Spirit had entered the Desolate Pagoda, suppressing the Divine Spirit within it. There, he had opened a small Divine Realm, intending to create and bring forth a true Immortal Realm himself. It was astonishing and heaven-defying.
Yet even Immortal Kings found it somewhat difficult to create a cosmic Immortal Realm, much less a Human Dao Heavenly Emperor. If the Azure Emperor's former self, Immortal King Qinglian, had come instead, there might perhaps have been some hope.
"Recording Stone..."
With a thought, Lin Xian retrieved the Recording Stone. He did not record Yan Ruyu's embarrassing history; he was preparing to make a big move.
"Heavenly Master, be careful!" Suddenly, a cry of alarm rang out as Ye Fan warned him.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"
The sounds of tearing through the air were endless. Streams of divine radiance shot toward the shattered stone mountain, like a meteor shower streaking across the sky.
Just now, the Treasure-Gathering Basin had appeared in a flash. Though it had already gone far away, it had released boundless radiance, drawing all the nearby sentient weapons toward it.
Sentient weapons were a feast for highly cultivated experts, but a slaughter for ordinary cultivators. The weapons flew at terrifying speed and were incomparably vicious, piercing through more than a dozen cultivators on the spot before shooting past, leaving behind only bloodstains and over a dozen corpses.
"Fellow Daoist Duan, aren't you going to make a move? I won't rob you this time."
Lin Xian remained unhurried as he shouted toward the back of the mountain. A chubby figure revealed himself.
"How did you know I was here?" Duan De asked with great curiosity. At the same time, he rode a divine rainbow toward the rain of weapons, intercepting the sentient weapons charging toward the Five-Finger Mountain area. He actually managed to catch two of them.
Lin Xian merely smiled without speaking. With that greedy nature of yours, once you noticed something strange and saw the Treasure-Gathering Basin here, there was no way you could leave.
"Ahhh... hahaha!"
Duan De returned in both joy and pain, hopping and scrambling as he fled back. He clutched a blood-red shield tightly in his hand, but a golden short sword was stuck in his backside.
"This way of seizing treasures..." Ye Fan's expression turned strange as he unconsciously touched his own rear.
"Fellow Daoist Duan, would you like to cooperate?" Lin Xian asked the fat Daoist, who was covering his backside, with a beaming smile.
"Cooperate?" Duan De's eyes rolled as he asked suspiciously, "Pull an Immortal Leap together and use this kid as bait? Cough, cough. Let's make this clear first—I want fifty percent!"
"Daoist, your words are mistaken. We are all upright and honorable people, acting openly and with righteous integrity." Lin Xian declared sternly. "How could we do something so despicable? Earlier, it was Daoist who robbed us first."
Lin Xian activated his skill, striking first to seize the initiative.
"Then what was it when you robbed me of several chunks of Source Stone?" Duan De's face darkened, his heart aching terribly.
Even Ye Fan knew the answer to this question. Without hesitation, he said, "That was legitimate self-defense and reasonable compensation."
Duan De revealed a contemptuous expression. Robbery was robbery—why dress it up with so many fancy terms? How hypocritical.
"If Daoist joins us, we can't possibly give you fifty percent. At most..."
As he spoke, Ye Fan glanced at Lin Xian and waited for him to decide.
"Too small. Your vision is too small."
Lin Xian said with heartfelt disappointment, "How much money can an Immortal Leap even make? Sacred lands and great families exploit people layer upon layer. Bottom-tier cultivators have long become paupers; there's no profit left to squeeze from them."
"If you aren't squeezing Source from paupers, then whose Source are you taking?" Duan De asked in surprise. "What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Fellow Daoist, have you ever heard of archaeology?" Lin Xian asked with a mysterious expression.
Sacrifice, fantasy novels, people in a high-martial world, yet logging into the future forty thousand years later in their dreams