A Mortal Speaks, and the Holy Lord Is Stunned

Primeval Holy Land, Library Pavilion.

Afternoon sunlight streamed through the mottled window lattice, setting tiny motes of dust dancing like sprites. The pavilion was as quiet as ever, broken only by the occasional rustle of turning pages.

Su Chen sat quietly behind a long wooden desk, holding a damaged scroll made from some unknown beast hide, his expression intent.

On the system interface invisible to everyone else, the Southern Heavenly Gate White Jade Brick Fragment he had placed not long ago was now in a curious state.

[System monitoring] The laws of the Canglan Realm's Heavenly Dao are conducting a superficial analysis of the "Southern Heavenly Gate fragment"... The illusory causal lock is under strain. Current stability: 89%. Note: If a being of the Canglan Realm gives the fragment a "definitive identification" (deciphers and speaks its true divine name aloud), the Heavenly Dao's analysis will be forcibly terminated, and the fragment will become fully integrated into this realm's historical causality.

Sure enough, even the Heavenly Dao picks on the weak and fears the strong.

A smile touched Su Chen's lips.

As long as the cultivators of the Canglan Realm gave this broken brick an accepted identity and acknowledged it as a relic of the ancient Heavenly Court, the realm's damaged Heavenly Dao would accept its presence and stop rejecting and analyzing it.

Now he needed to reveal that identity.

Boom!

Just then, a muffled tremor rolled through the depths of the peaceful sky.

Several terrifying auras descended without warning upon the square outside the Library Pavilion, their overwhelming power utterly unconcealed.

Thud, thud, thud...

Hurried, heavy footsteps approached.

The Library Pavilion, usually visited by no one but the occasional outer disciple, welcomed the most esteemed group of people in the Canglan Realm today.

At their head strode Ji Changkong, the Primeval Holy Lord whose lifespan had been extended by a hundred years. He wore a purple-and-gold Daoist robe patterned with the eight trigrams, and violet energy faintly billowed around him.

Behind him filed the Heavenly Sword Guest, peak master of Heavenly Sword Peak; Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws, peak master of Void Peak; and several white-haired Grand Elders whose auras were unfathomable. Every face was grave.

"Greetings, Holy Lord. Greetings, peak masters and elders."

Su Chen obediently set down the hide scroll, rose, and stepped forward to bow.

His face showed just the right measure of awe and apprehension for a mortal facing such powerful figures.

"At ease."

Ji Changkong swept his sleeve, barely sparing Su Chen a glance.

It was not that he looked down on Su Chen. At that moment, the object in his hands had captured every bit of the Holy Lord's attention.

"Quick! Ten Thousand Laws, activate the Primeval Heaven-Shrouding Array here! Don't let a trace of this treasure's immortal aura escape!" Ji Changkong ordered urgently.

"Yes, Holy Lord!"

Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws formed seals with both hands. Countless arcane formation runes sank into the Library Pavilion's walls and floor. With a hum, an invisible barrier sealed the entire pavilion off from the outside world.

Only then did Ji Changkong carefully take the white jade brick fragment from inside his robe.

The moment he placed it on the desk, the air throughout the Library Pavilion seemed to grow ten million times heavier. An ancient, desolate aura of supremely exalted primordial law rippled outward.

Several rows of century-old sandalwood shelves beside Su Chen creaked under its pressure, as though they might bow down on the spot.

"This is... the physical remnant of last night's vision."

Ji Changkong gazed at the white jade, his eyes full of fervor and wonder.

"Last night, we saw the Heavenly Court collapse. Today, we found a piece of it in Sorrowwind Valley. Unfortunately... not one of us can decipher the two ancient characters inscribed on it."

The Heavenly Sword Guest looked troubled as well.

He stepped forward and stared at the two ancient characters on the jade. Though time had nearly worn them smooth, they still carried supreme immortal authority. He said in a low voice:

"These characters possess an extraordinarily high spiritual standing. I tried to decipher them by force with my divine sense just now, and the Immortal Sound within nearly shattered my soul. These are not words mortals like us can read!"

"Holy Lord, does the Forbidden Library beneath the Library Pavilion contain any unique manuscripts recording writing from before the Ancient Era?" another Grand Elder asked anxiously.

Ji Changkong sighed and shook his head.

"The great rupture a hundred thousand years ago erased every trace. Though our Primeval Holy Land has a long history, most of the texts in the Forbidden Library are fragments from after the catastrophe. Finding a clue to writing from the Ancient Era among them would be like finding a needle in a haystack."

For a time, these renowned powers of the Canglan Realm crowded around a broken brick, anxious as cats on a hot tin roof.

They knew the fragment must hold a staggering secret of the Heavenly Court. Yet the door stood right before them, and they could not even read the sign above it. The frustration was almost unbearable.

Then, as a suffocating silence settled over the hall...

"Um... Holy Lord?"

A gentle voice, tinged with timidity, sounded abruptly in the quiet pavilion.

Everyone turned.

Su Chen, the Library Pavilion's menial disciple who had been standing to one side, looked at them uneasily.

"Su Chen, this is a discussion of the sect's highest secrets. You may leave." Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws frowned slightly but spoke without malice, waving him away.

After all, a mortal disciple with no cultivation could do nothing to help. If the jade fragment's immortal authority caught him, his body and soul might be destroyed on the spot.

But Su Chen did not leave. Instead, he hesitantly pointed at the two badly worn characters on the jade fragment and said softly:

"I... I just thought those two characters looked somewhat familiar."

"What?!"

The air in the hall seemed to freeze.

Boom!

Ji Changkong whipped around. His eyes, deep as stars, locked onto Su Chen, and the terrifying pressure of his peak Dao-Slaying cultivation nearly slipped beyond his control.

"What did you say?! You've seen these characters before?!"

The Heavenly Sword Guest and Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws flickered forward, closing in on Su Chen in an instant, disbelief shining in their eyes.

"I... my cultivation is meager. I don't know anything about the Ancient Era or the immortal authority you speak of."

Pressed by several powerful auras, Su Chen's face went "pale." He drew his neck in and explained nervously:

"It's just that, while sorting through the old texts in the Library Pavilion these past three years, I saw similar symbols on a charred, nameless fragment. Nine-tenths of it had already rotted away..."

"There was an extremely blurred picture on the fragment, showing a towering white jade gate. Those two characters were carved right above it."

Ji Changkong stopped breathing.

"Where is that fragment now?!" He stepped forward and gripped Su Chen's shoulder, his voice hoarse with excitement.

"Two... two years ago, not long after I read it, its spiritual energy ran out, and it crumbled to ash." Su Chen shrank back "fearfully" and answered in a small voice.

Everyone's face fell with bitter disappointment.

But Ji Changkong immediately seized on the crucial point and fixed Su Chen with a burning stare.

"Since you read it, do you remember how the fragment said those two characters were pronounced?!"

Every powerful figure there focused on Su Chen.

The Library Pavilion was so quiet that the drop of a pin would have been heard.

Su Chen swallowed and seemed to search his memory. After a moment, he slowly spoke two syllables, sounding unsure.

They were ancient, obscure sounds, belonging to no language of the Canglan Realm.

But the instant those syllables left Su Chen's lips...

Hummm!

The white jade fragment lying on the wooden desk erupted with brilliant immortal light, illuminating the entire Library Pavilion!

Within the radiance, countless incomplete golden runes fluttered like butterflies.

A faint, crisp crack rang through the void, as though an invisible chain had been severed.

It was the Heavenly Dao's rejection. The instant the divine name was spoken, the Canglan Realm's laws of causality... forcibly erased it!

And that was not all. Everyone in the Library Pavilion felt an explosion in their minds, as though they heard ten thousand immortals reciting in unison, with gods and demons joining the chorus.

The meaning conjured in the void by those two characters appeared with perfect clarity in the depths of every soul.

Translated, they meant:

—[Southern Heaven].

"Southern Heaven..."

Ji Changkong murmured the words, dazed.

The vision of the Heavenly Court collapsing and countless immortals shedding blood flashed through his mind once more.

The ruined stairway to heaven, the shattered, towering gate, the supreme Heavenly Emperor drenched in blood...

"The Southern Heavenly Gate! That towering gate was the entrance to the ancient Heavenly Court—the Southern Heavenly Gate!"

Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws's face flushed red, and he roared with near-mad excitement:

"It all fits! Every piece fits! The shattered gate in last night's vision was the Southern Heavenly Gate! And this white jade we found is a fragment of its foundation!"

"When the words 'Southern Heaven' were spoken, all laws resonated. That means this world has acknowledged those characters! The Heavenly Dao... is acknowledging this lost history!"

The Heavenly Sword Guest turned sharply toward Su Chen. The look in his eyes had changed completely.

He was no longer looking at an ordinary menial disciple. He was looking at an impossible miracle, perhaps even... a terrifying being wearing a mortal's skin!

"Su Chen..."

Beyond the shock in Ji Changkong's eyes lay deep suspicion and scrutiny.

How could a menial disciple with no cultivation read divine script from the Ancient Era when even we cannot look directly at it?

And the moment he spoke, the immortal relic awakened and the laws of causality acknowledged it?

In the cultivation world, no one believed in mere "coincidence."

Ji Changkong's mind raced, weaving explanations.

Is Su Chen... really an ordinary mortal?

Could an ordinary mortal live safely for three years in the Primeval Holy Land, with the fierce winds of Sorrowwind Valley and visions appearing across heaven and earth, while remaining so steady of mind?

More astonishing still, why was he the only one to see that "charred fragment" none of us knew about? And why did it crumble to ash right after he read it, as though... that text had existed for the sole purpose of unraveling the Southern Heavenly Gate's causal mystery through his words today?

At the thought, a thin sheen of cold sweat formed on Ji Changkong's back.

He looked at Su Chen's handsome, gentle face, so calm it seemed almost uncanny, and a bold suspicion arose that made even him shudder:

Could this young man... not be a menial disciple at all, but the reincarnation of an ancient being who survived the catastrophe of the Ancient Era?

Or could he be... the "guide" chosen in this age by the Heavenly Court's lingering will?!