A great era returns! The difficulty of Dao Severing, a failure on the imperial road!

Several supreme Great Daos receded, and heaven and earth began to revive.

The suppression that seemed to hang over everyone's heads vanished completely!

From this moment on, the path of cultivation lay wide open!

Of course...

Those with insufficient aptitude still could not reach particularly lofty realms.

But with a great era's arrival, the last thing lacking was people with heaven-defying aptitude!

A being emerged from a secret land, his immensely burly frame bearing a mysterious black coffin as though he carried a primordial divine mountain. His footsteps were heavy, yet exceptionally firm and powerful.

Others emerged from divine source, their clothing ancient, their eyes weathered by time.

They seemed to have stepped out of the river of years, as though an entire lifetime had passed.

The prodigies and monstrous talents of the present age emerged together, all manner of divine physiques gathered, and their splendor left people marveling!

Among them, one Sacred Body stood unrivaled.

This physique, the same as the Heavenly Emperor's and passed down since ancient times, shone brilliantly once more in this era!

His golden blood and vitality were like a nightmare.

Whenever they appeared, they suppressed the prodigies and monstrous talents, all but invincible!

He traveled across the great regions, stormed into holy lands and ancient clans, and defeated every holy son and divine maiden.

His invincible momentum had taken shape.

Everyone believed he would advance like a blade splitting bamboo, break through the Saint Domain's barrier, enter the Quasi-Emperor realm, and ultimately reach full mastery, becoming another invincible being!

But...

No one could have foreseen it.

Of all those vast, brilliant prospects for his future, he attained not a single one...

A heavenly chasm barred his way.

Dao Severing...

Since ancient times, this trial had caused countless prodigies who dazzled the annals of history to fade silently from heaven and earth.

It did not care how peerless your talent was.

It treated everyone equally!

This was a trial that stood before every prodigy.

Quite a few physiques could be considered fully mastered once they broke through this trial!

One could imagine how difficult it was!

So difficult that even this Sacred Body, whom everyone believed would reach full mastery, was stopped.

At first, this was no great matter.

The world believed he was merely building his foundations, attempting to sever open a Great Dao that led to the heavens!

That was why he was taking a little longer.

It did not matter. He was already far ahead of his peers, and that advantage was enough to let him experiment and open an even greater lead later!

Only...

When his peers, the holy sons and divine maidens, crossed that threshold one after another and became Dao Severing Kings.

Things began to grow somewhat delicate.

The gap... had been completely closed.

Yet even then, some still expressed their understanding.

Dao Severing was of paramount importance!

Even among the many Great Emperors, quite a few had chosen to linger before this realm for a long time, delaying their breakthrough.

And once they found their own path and successfully severed their Dao.

A smooth road awaited them, and their progress became swift!

Until they fought their way across the starry sky and found no opponent left!

So...

He was still building his foundations!

The Sacred Body was walking a path strewn with thorns, seeking to emulate the Heavenly Emperor of the previous era who had attained the Dao with a Sacred Body. His ambitions were immense!

Many were skeptical of this.

Until three hundred years passed.

The Ancient Starry Sky Road had long since reopened, and his peers had set foot upon it, fighting all along the way and establishing tremendous reputations!

The best among them had even obtained supreme treasures.

One returned midway, making a powerful return from the Ancient Starry Sky Road, his cultivation already at an exceedingly formidable level!

When he heard that the Sacred Body had still failed to sever his Dao, he showed little reaction.

He merely said.

"Just a failure on the imperial road."

"No... he never set foot on the imperial road. He's merely someone irrelevant."

This assessment was filled with contempt and disdain.

It was utterly different from his terrified, panicked expression when the Sacred Body had pursued him for a million li.

And these words thoroughly cemented the fact that the Sacred Body was finished!

No one held out any hope for him anymore.

Only the Sacred Body himself remained as he had always been, his gaze resolute, utterly unaffected by the words of the outside world.

Only... that barrier to Dao Severing was like the shackles of the Heavenly Dao.

No matter how hard he tried, he could not break through!

His repeated attempts to break through had long since emptied his entire fortune.

Not long afterward, people from an ancient clan approached him.

Their purpose was... to invite him to marry into their clan.

They valued his talent, knowing that although he had been stopped before Dao Severing, his talent was genuine!

Thus, they were willing to have a woman of exceptional aptitude from their clan marry him.

They would cover all his future cultivation needs.

What they were gambling on was a future, a tomorrow!

They held both his talent and his will in extremely high regard!

They believed he would surely cross that heavenly chasm one day and return to the peak!

And after briefly considering it.

He solemnly agreed.

Although a supreme figure among a generation's prodigies becoming a live-in son-in-law.

Sounded exceedingly humiliating.

He truly lacked cultivation resources.

Besides... what was wrong with being a live-in son-in-law!?

The widely circulated Biography of the Heavenly Emperor contained records of the Heavenly Emperor who had attained the Dao with a Sacred Body.

He, too, had started as a live-in son-in-law!

What was that called?

A legacy!

There was no helping it. Those of the Sacred Body lineage were basically all self-taught strays.

Cultivation resources and the like were firmly controlled by ancient clans, holy lands, and the various major powers.

Without joining one of them, it was hard to rise!

Besides...

Regarding that Heavenly Emperor's status as a live-in son-in-law, plenty of people who enjoyed a spectacle and never feared making trouble bigger were spreading a story that might or might not have been deliberately fabricated.

That Heavenly Emperor... had probably remained a virgin until his death!

Thinking of it that way, after marrying into the clan, he could at least couple however he pleased.

He could use whatever position he wanted.

Moreover, the woman was breathtakingly beautiful, exceptionally talented, and possessed the potential to attain the Dao.

For her to be matched with a half-crippled Sacred Body like him was simply a tremendous blessing falling from the sky!

What was there left to hesitate over?

They settled it on the spot!

The grand wedding proceeded smoothly.

The Sacred Body married into the clan, and although he was considered half-crippled.

Thanks to his glory many years before and his title as the only Sacred Body of the present age.

And because, although the clan he married into was not an ultimate Dao lineage, it was still quite renowned.

The wedding was held with tremendous fanfare, and some even crossed regions to offer congratulations.

The marriage became an amusing topic of conversation among the world's living beings.

And although the bride possessed extraordinary aptitude and the potential to attain the Dao.

Few thought this would hinder her struggle for the seat of the ultimate Dao.

Simply because...

She was truly too young.

A full three hundred years younger than the Sacred Body, she was far too young and far too inexperienced.

Though she possessed the potential to attain the Dao.

She had simply been born a little too late.

The faster among those prodigies and monstrous talents had already fought their way to the final few trials of the imperial road.

With such a long stretch of time separating them, her hope of catching up was truly slim.

And this made many people sigh.

One after another, they gritted their teeth, demanding to know how the Sacred Body had managed to feast so well!

A full three hundred years younger-she was only a child to him!

How could he bring himself to lay hands on her!

Beast!

Animal!!

No wonder lightning tribulations had descended every time he broke through, even before his physique reached minor mastery!

What a pity they had failed to strike him dead!

Besides that, they also lamented.

A prodigy with the aptitude to attain the Dao, born two hundred years too late.

"What a pity..."

"An Innate Dao Fetus."