The Qilin Had Grown Old

Three thousand years was a long stretch of time.

Such a span was enough for mortal bloodlines to pass through dozens of generations, enough to turn a spirited young king who had severed the Dao at the third heaven of the Immortal Platform into a decrepit elder with withering vitality. Yet to this universe, it was no more than an insignificant instant.

One day, three thousand years after the Undying Heavenly Emperor's fall, Yuangeng sensed something stirring within him. For the first time, he left the Ancient World on Mars where he had spent years in seclusion, stepping through the void to wander this desolate, boundless universe.

His destination was clear: the abode of this era's most illustrious emperor, the ancient star that housed the Qilin imperial clan.

"Greetings, supreme Sovereign Yuangeng!"

Yuangeng neither concealed his aura nor traveled quickly. Just as he arrived beyond the Qilin Ancestral Star, a Blue Qilin drawing in the light of the sun, moon, and stars saw him from behind. He hastily assumed human form and bowed toward Yuangeng from afar.

The qilin's human form was a handsome, imposing man with regular features and an extraordinary bearing, who looked to be in his thirties or forties. He stood at the first heaven of the Quasi-Emperor realm. His exceptional bloodline and formidable cultivation gave him a majesty that needed no anger to inspire awe, as though he looked down upon the entire cosmos.

Yet upon seeing Yuangeng, this great qilin displayed not the slightest arrogance. Every courtesy came from his heart.

"You are... the old qilin's grandson?"

Yuangeng glanced at the young qilin and recognized him at once. He was a rather gifted youngster whom Yuangeng had met while forging the Eternal Ancient Ruler. Back then, at only five hundred years old, he had already stood at the pinnacle of the Great Saint realm. Now, at three thousand five hundred, he had broken through to the first heaven of the Quasi-Emperor realm. Quite impressive.

"Yes. When you forged your weapon all those years ago, Sovereign, I watched from afar. Three thousand years have passed since then."

The man bowed deeply with heartfelt reverence, his voice carrying a sense of honor. Even now, he remembered the scene of Yuangeng forging the Eternal Ancient Ruler. Within the form of a single weapon, an entire universe could be contained. That majesty of cleaving heaven and earth still felt as vivid as yesterday.

"No wonder."

Sensing something, Yuangeng crooked a fingertip, and a divine ruler flew from the qilin Quasi-Emperor's brow. This ruler, too, was precisely one foot long, cast from eternal blue gold. Examined closely, it truly possessed an air of containing the universe.

"Merely watching me forge a weapon once, and you actually managed to capture a trace of its divine essence in this ruler."

He studied it briefly, then tossed the blue-gold ruler back into the qilin Quasi-Emperor's arms. The divine ruler had naturally been modeled after the Eternal Ancient Ruler, while also incorporating the fundamental Dao principles of his ancestor, the Qilin Emperor. It was quite good.

"Thank you, Sovereign!"

Receiving Yuangeng's approval filled the qilin Quasi-Emperor with delighted surprise. All his usual majesty vanished as he bowed deeply once more.

Unfortunately, he still failed to escape the constraints of the old qilin's imperial Dao laws.

Yuangeng left that last thought unspoken. The children and grandchildren of these Extreme Dao Supremes were in an awkward position. They had inherited little of an emperor's Dao blood, yet could not escape the shackles of the emperor's laws. The lower stages of the Quasi-Emperor realm were their ceiling; advancing further was almost impossible.

"Take me to your ancestor," he instructed casually.

"Yes!"

The qilin Quasi-Emperor answered, changing from his human form into an azure great qilin. He stood five zhang tall, his scales bristling, yet now he respectfully led the way, guiding Yuangeng into the depths of the Qilin Ancestral Star. Along their path, the Great Dao thundered, and countless members of the Qilin clan on the ancient star kowtowed in their direction, calling out to Sovereign Yuangeng.

Yuangeng followed in silence. Of course, he needed no youngster to guide him to the Qilin Emperor, but after so much solitude in the Ancient World on Mars, he was quite willing to savor these traces of the mortal world.

After guiding Yuangeng to the great dragon vein in the deepest reaches of the ancestral star, the qilin Quasi-Emperor departed. Yuangeng reached the spot of the Coiling Dragon Embracing the Pearl. Here stood the Qilin Grotto, a hundred zhang high, where all the star's fortune and imperial Dao majesty converged.

"Huff! Huff!"

As Yuangeng approached, he heard steady breaths sounding from deep within the Qilin Grotto. Entering, he found the Qilin Emperor indeed inside. His old friend, however, was not in human form. Instead, he had assumed a hundred-zhang qilin body and lay asleep within the cavern.

After three thousand years apart, the old qilin's Dao body had not changed at all, but his presence had grown more profound. At his age and realm, the time for bold, relentless advancement had long passed. Instead, he let the years settle within him, amassing deep reserves for eventual breakthroughs.

"Old friend!"

Yuangeng called to him, only to find that the Qilin Emperor gave no response. His physical body was flawless, and his primordial spirit had not traveled elsewhere. Rather, he had fallen into a peculiar state, cultivating yet also struggling, unable to awaken.

"He was too obsessed with attaining a third life. He wanted to recreate the Heavenly Venerable's dream of the cosmos from the Mythological Era, but never expected to become trapped within it."

Suddenly, radiance flickered between the Qilin Emperor's brows, and the Eternal Blue Gold Staff flew out of his Immortal Platform. After three thousand years, the blue-gold staff that had nearly been shattered by a single saber strike from the Heavenly Emperor had long since been repaired. This time, he was the one who had asked Yuangeng to come and help the old qilin.

"A single dream spanning the ages. That is a mighty art indeed."

Yuangeng raised an eyebrow and stepped forward to examine the Qilin Emperor's condition. He found that the emperor's primordial spirit had indeed entered a dream, cultivating and transforming within an illusory dreamscape.

He recalled that in the original story, Ye Fan seemed to have fallen into a similar state after becoming an emperor. His physical body had remained flawless while his primordial spirit slumbered, passing through cycles of reincarnation in dreams to achieve a higher transformation.

But by then, Ye Fan had already become incomparably powerful. Whether in strength, accumulated foundations, or lifespan, he far surpassed the old qilin. Recreating his success was clearly no easy task.

Clang!

Thus, Yuangeng took the palm-sized Kunlun Immortal Bell from his Bitter Sea, then casually caught hold of the Eternal Blue Gold Staff. The two artifacts struck together, and a melodious resonance of the Dao immediately spread...

Under Yuangeng's will, the bell's waves washed over the Qilin Emperor's primordial spirit again and again like spring water in an immortal pool. This was one of the arts inscribed upon the Kunlun Immortal Bell. It could cleanse all distracting thoughts and was effective even on emperors.

The melodious tolling echoed for an entire day and night. Only on the second day did the old qilin's long, even breathing falter. The hundred-zhang great qilin first shook his head, then opened his eyes.

Whoosh!

Blue light blossomed as the Eternal Blue Gold Staff sank into the old qilin's body. He stared silently at the Immortal Bell in Yuangeng's hand for a moment before his voice rang out with the resonance of the Dao Sound:

"Something went wrong while I was developing the art. Thank you."

Ding!

Yuangeng lightly tapped the rim of the Kunlun Immortal Bell in his hand, making it give a pleasing chime that instantly lifted the spirits of everyone present:

"You haven't visited me in fifteen hundred years. That was a very long dream indeed."

"Fifteen hundred years!"

As his words fell, luminous mist wreathed the Qilin Emperor. His true body vanished, changing into the old qilin's human form as he, too, marveled at the time that had passed.

Yet Yuangeng saw clearly that three thousand years had truly left many marks upon the old qilin's face. His once-gray hair had turned completely grizzled. The white strands were not soft and smooth, but dry and brittle

-a sign that his life force was ebbing away.

"Old friend, you have grown old at last."

Yuangeng sighed. When he had first emerged into the world, his lifespan had been dwindling, and he had experienced the same condition. It was an unpleasant feeling. No matter how heroic a figure might be, even one who looked down upon the cosmos, he could not withstand the heavenly five declines.

"Old indeed!"

The Qilin Emperor sighed as well. Counting the years, he was already over twenty-one thousand years old. At more than eleven thousand years into his second life, he had reached the age when emperors began preparing for what would follow their deaths.