No supreme masters ever emerged in Great Song's martial world again.
Some said this was the Heavenly Dao falling silent, the decline of the martial path, and that only the immortal path offered a way forward.
But everyone knew that the National Preceptor alone had successfully cultivated the immortal path.
And the National Preceptor had long since entered seclusion, ignoring worldly affairs, his whereabouts unknown.
Some said the National Preceptor lived in seclusion in a secret chamber within Great Song's imperial palace. Others said he had long since gone out into the world, while still others claimed he had traveled overseas.
These were all guesses, but one thing was certain: the National Preceptor no longer concerned himself with affairs.
Fifty years had passed since he entered seclusion, and he had never appeared.
Still, the common people continued to revere Chen Xia, enshrining statues of him and paying their respects every month.
This was Chen Xia's main source of Spirit Dragon Qi. His Spirit Dragon Qi had now reached 750/1000, leaving him only 250 short of an upgrade.
It seemed close, but he received less Spirit Dragon Qi each year. Presumably, the closer he came to success, the harder it became to obtain.
Chen Xia stretched. Inside the deepest secret chamber built by the Great Song Dynasty, he looked at the lamp before him, feeling somewhat helpless.
This Cross-Realm Beacon actually needed charging, and it had to be filled with the fortune of heaven and earth.
Where was there any spare fortune left between heaven and earth now?
And so the Cross-Realm Beacon had been charging for thirty years, yet it only showed twenty percent completion. It would take at least a century to fill.
Fortunately, during their last conversation, Chen Xia had confirmed that Huang Qingyue was safe and he did not need to worry. She had even become a heaven-tier disciple, with her own palace and excellent treatment.
Huang Qingyue had been about to undergo her Nascent Soul Lightning Tribulation then. Presumably, she had reached Nascent Soul by now?
Such were the Immortal Realm's abundant cultivation resources.
Chen Xia sighed in wonder.
Actually, that woman could have taken Chen Xia to the Immortal Realm with her, but the Ninth Mountain could not accept him.
That meant Chen Xia would still be all alone if he went to the Immortal Realm. He would even have to face old monsters who had cultivated for thousands or tens of thousands of years, and Huang Qingyue would worry about him too.
So Chen Xia did not intend to go yet. He would wait until his Spirit Dragon Qi finished upgrading, he truly gained an initial grasp of the Great Dao of Time, his Mystic Primordial Qi wrote its first Dao chapter, and his allocated strength points reached 500 before ascending to the Immortal Realm.
Once he ascended, he would be entirely on his own, so he needed to be even more careful. There was no such thing as too many trump cards.
Still, when the time came, he could ask Qingyue to bring him some heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
And there was Xiao Xu, who had gone to the Immortal Realm long ago. He should be an important figure in his own right by now, too?
As Chen Xia thought about it, his resolve to live off others grew firmer.
He lived off others through his own ability. Who could say anything about it?
If you were so capable, go find someone to live off yourself.
Chen Xia folded his arms and nodded. This was indeed his ability.
There was no concept of passing time inside the secret chamber. Chen Xia estimated the years using the points the system gave him.
He sank his awareness inward and began writing the Dao chapter in his mind. This was an extremely taxing task, and the Dao chapter he wrote had to be perfectly neat, without a single mistake.
Even the simplest stroke took Chen Xia half a month of painstaking refinement.
By the time he finished that stroke, Chen Xia had more or less exhausted his mental strength. Drenched in sweat, he needed to rest for a month or so.
Besides this, Chen Xia was also refining his Golden Core, polishing his Golden Core Peak cultivation until it was more rounded and formidable, striving to make it no weaker than Nascent Soul.
This, too, required slow work to produce fine results. There was no rushing it; he had to pile up time.
Fortunately, time was what Chen Xia lacked least.
Sixty years to write the Dao chapter, a hundred years to hone his Golden Core. Chen Xia strove to finish all these things by the four-hundred-year mark.
He had no mind to concern himself with anything else, but the situation outside changed very quickly.
Great Song's ninth emperor succeeded to the throne, having heard the late emperor say since childhood that Great Song had an immortal's protection and could never fall.
Thus, after taking the throne, he acted without restraint. Any civil or military official who failed to comply with his wishes committed a capital offense punishable by beheading.
He liked hearing pleasing words, so the civil and military officials found every possible way to flatter him.
And those best at flattery were often the most treacherous, preying on the common people in their prefectures and counties, raising taxes without authorization and lining their own pockets.
The eloquent civil officials also began banding together to squeeze out the military officials, showing signs of taking control of the court and country.
Once the court fell into chaos, the country would soon follow.
This was the beginning of Great Song's downfall.
In the ninth year, a peasant uprising broke out in the southern prefectures and counties. Thirty thousand farming households united, attacked the authorities, and seized the prefectures and counties, their leader proclaiming himself king.
This enraged the reigning emperor. He sent three hundred thousand troops to suppress the region, ordering that all farming households be killed without mercy. Even merchant households could not escape execution; only officials' households were allowed to live.
Excessively brutal suppression often brought even fiercer resistance.
Many prefectures and counties within Great Song began resisting. Even some officials openly opposed Great Song's tyranny, while farming households rose up and marched on the capital.
The hearts of Great Song's people had changed. How could the nation survive?
In just half a year, the rebel militia fought their way into the capital, slaughtered the officials, and surrounded the imperial palace.
The reigning ninth emperor sat on his throne, his expression filled with disbelief, and roared through gritted teeth.
"How is this possible? How dare these lowborn wretches rebel? Our Great Song has an immortal's protection and will endure for tens of thousands of years! How dare these lowborn wretches?!"
Only a few eunuchs remained below him. They clasped their hands and spoke in trembling voices.
"Y-Your Majesty, they've already fought their way into the great hall. They'll... they'll be here soon!"
The emperor's eyes burned with fury. He slammed his fist onto the dragon throne and bellowed.
"These lowborn wretches! I'll go ask the immortal to slaughter them right now!"
He rose in anger and, under the eunuchs' hopeful gazes, walked toward his own palace behind him.
He remembered his imperial father saying that the immortal was in seclusion a hundred meters underground. Now he would go ask the immortal to slaughter these lowborn wretches.
The emperor ran furiously to his palace and shouted at it, "Immortal, come out at once and help me slaughter these lowborn wretches! Immortal, come out at once!"
There was no response.
The emperor's expression gradually grew anxious. He kept pounding the ground and shouted angrily.
"Come out! Immortal, come out!"
The immortal gave no response, even at the end.
The peasant soldiers closing in on him had already reached the spot and captured Great Song's emperor alive.
With that, Great Song had fallen.
The newly risen dynasty was called Great Xia, and the first thing its emperor did upon taking the throne was kowtow before Chen Xia's statue.
The immortal's existence was engraved in everyone's hearts. Every former resident of Great Song believed in the immortal.
And so the first thing Great Xia's emperor did upon taking the throne was kowtow to the immortal.
A hundred meters underground, Chen Xia naturally saw all of this, but he did not concern himself with such man-made disasters.
The succession of dynasties was inevitable.
He remembered telling Song Qian several hundred years ago that no dynasty lasted forever. Even if he was no longer the National Preceptor of Great Song, he would be the National Preceptor of Great Tang, Great Sun, or Great Li.
And time had already proven it all.
He was a spectator within time.
There was only one thing he needed to do.
Remain silent.