Luo Yan had come across Xiao Nannan purely by chance. He had only wanted to find somewhere to spend his days in leisurely comfort, and after choosing this place and becoming an ordinary waiter at the Fresh Delicacies House, he had unexpectedly met the wandering Xiao Nannan.
She was the Ruthless Great Emperor's Dao Fruit, and he himself had deep ties to the Ruthless Great Emperor, so he could only keep Xiao Nannan by his side and care for her for a while, even though he knew he would not be able to do so for long.
He would probably be no more than a fleeting passerby in Xiao Nannan's life. Perhaps she would forget him before long.
"When speaking of that Heavenly Prodigy of the Demon Race, we have to mention his elder!" By the time Luo Yan returned, the story had already turned to him.
The others were interested too. "Fellow Daoist, hurry up and tell us!"
The demon cultivator wore a mysterious expression. "You may not know this, but the Azure Emperor was originally just a lotus seed born in chaos. It is said that he happened to land on a Green Cauldron, where he took root and sprouted, growing into an Immortal Medicine! In the end, he took human form and severed his Immortal Medicine body. Such extraordinary resolve!
"Many people know this secret now, so I won't go into detail! More than three hundred years ago, quite a few people saw the Azure Emperor reenact his own origins!
"You all have some cultivation under your belts, so naturally you understand how much an Immortal Medicine means to cultivators like us. It is a treasure even Great Emperors would fight over!"
He paused, then continued, "When the Azure Emperor first arrived on Big Dipper, several powerful demons hunted him down! Those demons weren't from Big Dipper, but from a life-bearing planet called Demon Star!
"Somehow, those powerful demons discovered the Azure Emperor's identity and pursued him relentlessly, hoping to refine him into a great medicine! Unfortunately for them, the Azure Emperor's talent was monstrous. Time and again, he turned peril into safety. Moreover, some of the powerful demons from that planet disagreed with the proposal and eventually took the opposing side, standing with the Azure Emperor."
The crowd grew restless. One of the more knowledgeable cultivators said, "Fellow Daoist, most of us already know all this. Could you tell us something we haven't heard before?"
"Since you're so eager to know, are you aware that three hundred years ago, a powerful figure from a Forbidden Zone struck from within it to intercept and kill the Azure Emperor?" he asked.
Everyone had expected something more. Apart from a few cultivators born more recently, almost all of them knew a little about these rumors. A young cultivator said, "Fellow Daoist, we already know this. That powerful figure from the Forbidden Zone seemed to call himself [Shen Ming]. He was terrifying!"
But the demon cultivator shook his head and waved his hands. "No, no, no... He isn't the one I mean! His origins are mysterious. They say he was very likely the son of a Supreme, sealed away until then and unsealed specifically for the Azure Emperor! But he wasn't the real central figure. That was an actual Forbidden Zone Supreme!"
Everyone's interest was immediately piqued. They all turned to examine the demon cultivator closely. At last, someone seemed to recognize something and asked uncertainly, "Are you Lü Jingshun, that demon Great Saint's great-great-great-grandson?"
Lü Jingshun sighed softly. "My ancestor is the Willow Saint."
The looks everyone gave him immediately grew strange. This descendant of a demon Great Saint was truly an odd flower among the Demon Race. Other descendants of Saints had at least some Saint blood in their veins, granting them considerable talent.
He, however, was different. From birth, the demon Saint blood of his Great Saint ancestor had been pitifully thin in his veins, leaving him no different from an ordinary willow demon! Yet he was the sole offspring of that demon Great Saint's lineage. The Great Saint had cleansed his meridians time and again, but still failed to change his aptitude.
Only after pouring in untold resources had that Great Saint barely managed to raise his sole descendant's aptitude into the ranks of Heavenly Prodigies. He could be called one of the Demon Race's greatest good-for-nothings.
His standing among the Demon Race was far from low, however. His ancestor was still alive!
"So that's how it is! Fellow Daoist Lü, please continue. What happened with that Supreme?" Everyone sincerely wanted to learn more. After all, his ancestor had personally experienced that Saint War and surely knew far more about it!
Lü Jingshun immediately continued, "At the time, the Azure Emperor deduced his own origins, prompting an unsurpassed expert to unleash a strike across the spacetime of countless ages in an attempt to kill the Child of the Forbidden Zone, [Shen Ming]. This drew the attention of a Supreme slumbering in the Immortal Mausoleum, one of the seven great Forbidden Zones, who tried to seize the Azure Emperor and drag him into the Forbidden Zone!
"Just then, an unsurpassed divine weapon on the Azure Emperor awakened. There seemed to be an expert sleeping within the weapon, who also struck to intercept the attack! That day, even their ordinary exchanges caught many cultivators below Dragon Transformation in the fallout and damaged their Dao foundations!"
"That's right. That divine weapon came from the Azure Emperor's elder!" he said, his expression solemn.
An uproar erupted in the crowd. An expert who could withstand a Supreme?!!
"Was that senior really a member of the Human Race?"
"Beyond all doubt!"
"My ancestor surmised that the senior most likely hadn't died, but was clinging to a last breath while hiding within the divine weapon!" Lü Jingshun said.
Now everyone was stunned.
Three hundred years had passed, and only now was such news being revealed!
"But after three hundred years, that human expert has probably already passed away!" a human cultivator sighed. That had been one of their Human Race's mightiest experts!
Seeing everyone lament, Lü Jingshun, who had anticipated all this, suddenly changed the subject. "I hear a secret realm will soon appear in the Central Domain. A divine weapon suspected to belong to the expert who blocked the Forbidden Zone Supreme back then briefly showed itself inside!"
"Hm? Fellow Daoist, is that really true?"
"I've heard this news too! I just don't know whether it's true!"
"They say there's a Great Emperor Tomb inside that secret realm. Presumably, that senior went to explore the Great Emperor Tomb in search of a way to prolong his life, only to die unexpectedly and leave his Life-Bound Divine Weapon there!" someone else said from within the crowd, seemingly intent on fanning the flames.
Lü Jingshun promptly dropped another explosive piece of news. "Perhaps you don't know this yet, but they say the legendary Immortal Artifact-the Desolate Pagoda-is buried in that secret realm!"
"What?! You mean the Immortal Artifact passed down in our Eastern Wasteland since ancient times-the Desolate Pagoda?"
This time, many people could no longer sit still.
After ten thousand years, that Immortal Artifact had actually appeared again! Rumor had it that long ago, it had fallen into a Great Emperor's hands. After that Great Emperor died, the Immortal Artifact vanished as well. Now a secret realm had opened, revealing a corner of an Emperor Mausoleum, and it had appeared once more.
The origins of this Immortal Artifact stretched unimaginably far back. If they could be traced, they would reach the Chaotic Ancient Era, an age even older than the Mythological Era!
More terrifying still, this Immortal Artifact could crush Great Emperors to death!
More than one legendary, world-shaking figure and peerless overlord had been crushed to death within the Desolate Pagoda. The whole world knew its fearsome name. Its terror was beyond compare, its might unrivaled!
Everyone began contacting their clans, sending back this immensely important news so they could verify whether it was true!
Luo Yan stroked his chin, his gaze fixed on Lü Jingshun. Had this man talked in circles for so long just to spread this news?
There was probably some secret here that could not bear the light of day!
Before you continue