Volume 1, Chapter 352 – Return

It was late summer, and the sky was somewhat overcast, with a hazy drizzle falling.

Shi Lan crossed through space, stepping on raindrops as she moved through the curtain of rain, her mind constantly replaying the contents of that secret letter.

That secret letter not only gave the rough current coordinates of Shi Tianlu and the others, it also broadly described the state of the Central Heaven Domain.

Most of the time, this kind of information was prepared for those who had spent years fighting on the frontier and had not returned, people who knew little about the latest situation in the Central Heaven Domain. Now, it had also provided Shi Lan with considerable convenience. At the very least, it had given her a general understanding of the Central Heaven Domain as it stood today.

The Central Heaven Domain was divided into thirty-six prefectures. These thirty-six prefectures surrounded the Imperial Palace like stars encircling the moon, with countless cities, towns, and villages beneath them, all directly under the Imperial Court. Within each of the thirty-six prefectures, a prefectural lord was appointed to oversee and inspect affairs.

Shi Lan vaguely remembered that Wu Lingkong came from one of them, Wuyang Prefecture. According to the information in this secret letter, the prefectural lord of Wuyang Prefecture was named Wu Hong. With both bearing the surname Wu, it was hard to say there was no connection between them.

Without exception, the prefectural lords of these territories were all appointed from within the Imperial Court, and with the authority of their prefectural seals, they managed all affairs, great and small, within their prefectures.

Whether Human Emperor clans or great martial sects, none would openly defy the Imperial Court’s orders as conveyed by a prefectural lord.

In the Central Heaven Domain, the Imperial Court’s degree of control was clearly more than several dozen times stronger than in the Chengtian Domain.

That was understandable. The lands of the Chengtian Domain had only been retaken from the demon race by the Heavenly Martial Emperor in the recent ancient era, and even now, only a million years had passed. As the heartland of the human race, the Central Heaven Domain had never fallen out of human control since the primordial era.

Among this information, what surprised Shi Lan somewhat was that although the Central Heaven Domain was far vaster than the Chengtian Domain, the number of powerful experts there was not as she had imagined before, with Heaven-Man Realm great powers roaming everywhere.

Although there were quite a few second-grade powers there, even the Nascent Soul Realm already counted as a rare powerhouse. In some mid-tier forces, they were top-level figures, rarely seen by ordinary people. As for those in the Heaven-Man Realm, they were even more elusive, like divine dragons whose heads could be seen but never their tails.

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Aside from this general information, what interested Shi Lan most were two rankings: the Heavenly Prodigy Record and the Immortal Maiden Ranking.

The origins of these two rankings were mysterious. No one knew which force had produced them, and they were updated irregularly.

The Immortal Maiden Ranking listed the hundred most breathtaking women in the Vast Land of Shenzhou. These women possessed not only beauty that could topple the world, but also rare talent and natural gifts, with brilliance that astonished the age.

The Heavenly Prodigy Record was even more frightening. It was divided into the Heaven List and the Earth List, with thirty-six names on the Heaven List and forty-eight on the Earth List, making a total of eighty-four human prodigies. Anyone who had not entered the Heavenly Astral Realm before the age of twenty did not even qualify to be listed.

Shi Lan gave it a quick glance from top to bottom and soon found the name Tianwu Yangyu among them, ranked twenty-sixth on the Heaven List.

Ranked first was a man named Gao Linyuan, at the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. In terms of martial cultivation alone, he was still a whole major realm above the current Shi Lan.

Shi Lan looked over it a few more times, then tossed all of that information out of her mind, picked up her pace, and hurried in Shi Tianlu’s direction.

The pressure of her lifespan nearing exhaustion was gone, and the tasks given by the system were no longer as deadly as before. Shi Lan now felt utterly unburdened. She had read those rankings and forgotten them at once, never taking them to heart.

At this moment, she had only one thought.

She wanted to go home.

…

At the Imperial Palace, before the grand central square, the Human Emperors gathered once more.

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Today was the day Liu Yunzhen had agreed upon with Taishi for his return. He was to open the Yellow Springs Road once again and open a path for Taishi to return to the Lingyang Realm.

The Human Race Annals hung suspended in midair, radiating a hazy glow that illuminated the entire Imperial Palace. Dressed in green robes, Liu Yunzhen stood before the assembled Human Emperors. The scholarly air that had once filled his face had now been replaced by stern coldness.

It had already been a long time since Emperor Taishi had shattered the boundary wall between yin and yang and entered the Nine Nether. No news had returned for so long that the unease in Liu Yunzhen’s heart had grown heavier and heavier.

With the Sovereign absent from his post, the demon and devil races had once again begun to stir. The devil race, having already suffered heavy losses, was somewhat quieter, but the demon race still refused to give up and had begun violating the borders again and again.

All of this only magnified Liu Yunzhen’s anxiety.

“Prepare to open the gate!”

As he watched the great sun in the sky slowly move to the very center overhead, Liu Yunzhen slowly raised a hand and gave the order.

The Human Emperors simultaneously roused their blood and qi and began the blood sacrifice. Boundless blood light shot into the sky, and the fluctuations of laws from supreme Emperor-level powers shook the Nine Heavens.

A gate that seemed to reach from heaven to earth faintly emerged in the void. Compared with the gate Taishi had opened before, this one seemed far more illusory, as though it could barely hold together. Opening the Yellow Springs Road was no easy task for the Human Emperors.

Boom…

The gate slowly opened, and a river stretching from heaven to earth fell from the Nine Heavens and flowed into the Nine Nether.

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The Human Race Annals suddenly burst forth with boundless rosy light, like a guiding lamp illuminating the Yellow Springs Road.

Liu Yunzhen’s expression was cold and severe, and he said nothing. But the tightly clenched hand behind his back revealed his state of mind.

In the blink of an eye, seven and a half minutes passed, yet there was still no movement within the Yellow Springs Road. The assembled Human Emperors were drenched in sweat, their faces flushed red, clearly forcing themselves to hold on.

Opening the Yellow Springs Road placed far too great a burden on them.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the Yellow Springs Road began to tremble violently, showing signs of collapse.

Bang!

A large hand reached out from the gate and stabilized it. Taishi, covered in blood, stepped out slowly from within. The black-and-gold martial robe he had been wearing was already tattered to shreds, his hair matted with dark brown filth, and wounds faintly surfaced across his body, clinging with yin fiend death qi that radiated biting cold.

“Are you badly hurt?”

Liu Yunzhen asked a single question, but before Taishi could reply, he had already taken out several pills filled with extreme yang qi and fed them to him. Then he turned back and barked,

“Bring the White Jade Crimson Sun Pill and the Nine-Revolutions Creation Golden Pill! Prepare to open the Hunyuan Spirit Pool!”

“No need.”

Taishi raised a hand to stop Liu Yunzhen, shook his head slightly, and said with a faint smile,

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“It’s nothing.”

Liu Yunzhen frowned and was about to speak, when his gaze suddenly caught the tip of Taishi’s hair. A flash of glaring white slipped past his eyes, making his heart jolt, and he swallowed the words that had been about to leave his mouth.

The assembled Human Emperors looked at Taishi, their eyes full of expectation.

Taishi smiled calmly. A heaven-reaching precious scroll flew out from his sleeve and slowly unfurled. One spirit soul after another drifted out from within. Most of them were outstanding figures who had died in battle not long ago in the Chengtian Domain, and among them were quite a few juniors descended from these Human Emperors.

“Many thanks for the Sovereign’s holy grace!”

The Human Emperors spoke in unison to offer their thanks. One after another, they took out soul-nourishing heavenly treasures and magical artifacts, stored away the spirit souls, then departed in succession, hurrying back to forge new dharma bodies for their juniors.

…

“How is your body?”

After the Human Emperors had left, Liu Yunzhen asked with concern.

Taishi shook his head slightly. The sharpness that had once blazed in his eyes dimmed a little. The filth clinging to his hair slowly receded, revealing hair that was half white.

“In the end, I really am old…”