Refining the Mountains and Rivers

A light sound came from the bronze coffin. The lid was pushed open and a pale palm stretched out, slowly grabbing onto the edge and lifting itself up.

A middle-aged man rose up from the coffin. He wore an imperial crown on his head and nine dragon robes. His open eyes surged with divine light and when he moved his arms he seemed as if he could step through the stars in the sky.

There was unexpectedly a great emperor buried in this bronze coffin. Although the aura of death wreathed his body, he actually retained a trace of vitality.

The auras of life and death were mixed together. Although they were diametrically opposed to each other, they freely flowed around in a stable and continuous system.

This was incredibly strange and eerie.

The man's eyes fell on Zhan Lingtian and Lin Weiwei. His pupils flashed and he said, "How many years has it been since the founding of the nation? How is the strength of the empire now?"

Zhan Lingtian was beyond excited. Although he found it hard to accept, he already realized that this great emperor who seemed both alive and dead was actually the founding emperor.

The portrait of the exalted one in the ancestral temple and the image that was stored in the inheritance jade slip were all completely the same as this person in front of him. Moreover, it was impossible to fake this aura of a true emperor, one that stood atop the highest heavens and suppressed the world!

"Reporting to great ancestor, it has been 76,250,000 years since the founding of the Zhou Empire. The empire collapsed 40 million years ago and the royal bloodline is on the wane. All that is left is a single city territory region with fewer than a trillion subjects."

Bang -

The altar shook and the skies changed color. Fog tumbled around as if a million divine mountains were suddenly falling down together.

Zhan Lingtian trembled and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale.

The founding emperor had a furious look. "When I was buried, I had already passed down an imperial edict to keep as a legacy through the nation. If society is unstable, you may awaken me from my deep sleep. How dare you not respect it!"

Zhan Lingtian didn't argue back. He simply acknowledged his sins. Luckily, the heaven-suppressing aura soon vanished.

The founding emperor had a cloudy expression. "Tell me exactly what happened."

There must have been an accident somewhere.

Zhan Lingtian suppressed his discomfort. He respectfully said, "40 million years ago, chaos and smoke rose in all areas of the empire. The ancestors of the clan wished to summon the founding emperor to stabilize the destiny of the nation. No one knows the specifics of what happened, but to my knowledge the summoning was not successful. Before it could be completed, all of the ancestors that participated in this matter suddenly died a violent death.

"The empire was already standing atop the winds and waves, in a precarious position. After this attack they were no longer able to recover. A million years of war followed and the empire's territory was divided into seven…"

At this time, the history of how the current seven great empires in the Land of Divinity and Demons came to be was suddenly revealed.

After speaking, Zhan Lingtian cautiously looked at this silent great ancestor. His heart was in chaos. The Emperor's Seal that had been passed down generation through generation in his clan was actually the great founding emperor himself…during the past when the world had been in chaos and the nation was teetering on ruin, if the great ancestor had been smoothly awakened would the great Zhou Empire have managed to be preserved?

But this hypothesis no longer mattered. No matter what the reason was, Great Zhou had already fallen over 30 million years ago.

The silence continued for a long time. Then, the founding emperor looked up. His pupils surged with divine light, as if he were looking across the endless river of time towards events from long ago.

Then, he finally sighed, as if he had become aware of something.

"I went to war for 10 million years, finally ruling over the world and establishing the greatest undertaking of all time. I gathered the destiny of the nation unto my body and suppressed all sides! Because I had a feeling to avoid catastrophe, I went into deep sleep while on the edge of life and death…even so, I couldn't preserve the imperial clan and help our inheritance continue onwards."

His eyes moved. "Rise. The two of you awoke me from my deep slumber and have done a great deed for the imperial clan. You will be rewarded in the future."

Zhan Lingtian and Lin Weiwei quickly fell to their knees and profusely expressed their gratitude.

The founding emperor flicked his sleeves. An invisible strength wrapped around the two people. Then, along with the bronze coffin, they all vanished from sight.

…

Ying Capital.

Great Chu, Emperor's Palace.

The emperor stood alone in a chamber, looking at the celestial chart above him. As he stared at the shining stars, his eyes were filled with dignity.

There were seven emperor stars in the world, but now an eighth had appeared. Moreover, it was so bright that the moment it appeared its light nearly covered the entire celestial chart.

The world's eighth emperor…no, perhaps he could be called the number one emperor of all eternity!

The ancient rumors were indeed true. The person who founded the great Zhou Empire and once ruled over the entire world was still alive.

Although he was already prepared, when he saw this sight in his eyes, endless waves still appeared in the emperor's formidable heart.

After a long time, Mi Ganyuan took a deep breath and suppressed the surging emotions in his heart. A formidable self-confidence burst out from his eyes.

Who cared if Great Zhou's founding emperor was known as the Eternal Emperor? The current world was no longer the territory of Great Zhou. Right now, he was the most formidable emperor in the world!

If things went well, he would be able to borrow the power of purgatory to suppress the founding emperor and then refine his flesh and blood, seizing his emperor's destiny. If so, he had a chance of becoming a transcendent emperor, obtaining the approval of the world.

At that time what would he need to care about the Immortal Sect or Demonic Path?

Ruling the world would be within his reach!

…

On the long snake stone tablet, black flames suddenly lit up in the skeleton's eyes. He was silent for a long time before he finally sighed.

"He is indeed worthy of being the Chu Empire's great emperor. He actually has the courage and bravery to do something so extraordinary!"

The 12 stone tablets had appeared. He could sense everything in the Sea of Purgatory.

"In order to carry out their great cause, even the solemn Chu Empire is willing to do something so dangerous. Since I know about it, how about I lend you a helping hand?"

How could the stable and peaceful Land of Divinity and Demons accommodate a clan that had been expelled for millions upon millions of years?

Only when the world was in disarray and everyone felt that they were in danger would no one care about them anymore.

The Chu Emperor had made his opening move in this great chess game. He wanted to add fuel to the flames and wouldn't miss out on this heaven-sent chance.

The skeleton lifted a hand and thrust out. The stone tablet beneath him trembled. The 12 stone tablets connected together and their auras suddenly erupted.

Originally, he thought about covering up this aura. But now he no longer held back.

Deep within the Sea of Purgatory, some sort of extremely terrifying yet extremely enticing aura spread out in all directions.

Of course, not everyone had the qualifications to touch upon this aura.

Only those whose strength had reached a certain level and dove straight to the source of the world would be able to discover its existence.

Within the darkness, profound eyes opened one after another. Some were shaken, some were puzzled, but without a doubt all of them were filled with joy.

No matter what the reason was, this would speed up the process. Hadn't they painstakingly endured waiting through the endless years for this time?

Bang -

Bang -

Aura after aura erupted throughout the Sea of Purgatory. All of these auras seemed solidly tangible, shooting up into the skies like pillars of smoke.

All of the life forms within the Sea of Purgatory began to tremble. Infinite fear rose up in the depths of their souls.

After the moves of the Chu Emperor and the mysterious skeleton, genuinely great waves had begun to roar!

Countless people felt fear and panic, their complexions paling. Although they had no idea what to do, all of them were left horrified.

Because they could sense that any one of these auras could easily crush them to dust!

…

In his temporarily carved open cave dwelling, Qin Yu fiercely opened his eyes. Divine light flashed within, a dawning realization beginning to appear.

He looked down, his eyes wide like full moons, as if he was seeing something unbelievable occur.

Sea of Purgatory…Sea of Purgatory…so this was the true origin of its name...

That's right. At this moment, Qin Yu could feel the vast aura released from deep below.

His cultivation boundary was indeed insufficient, but within his soul space, whether it was the purple moon or Cosmic Seacross Bell, they could make up for this flaw of his.

"I never thought that it would be hidden here…" Undying lightly mumbled to himself.

Qin Yu had a sudden feeling. He turned and looked around. That woman had indeed woken up. There was no fl.u.s.tered expression on her face. She glanced at Qin Yu before looking beneath her feet.

She had also sensed it!

"You cannot covet this good fortune, otherwise you will only destroy your own life." A cold voice came from between her lips, one that had no warmth to it.

Shen Yuanyin stood up and walked away.

She didn't even give one single thanks, or even glance more than once at him…Qin Yu's lips twitched. This woman's personality really was unchanging.

Undying's voice sounded out from within his mind. "She is right. With master's cultivation, you do not have the qualifications to meddle in the contest for this good fortune."

There was deep unwillingness in his tone of voice.

Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows. "Just what is it? You seem as if you know."

Undying bitterly smiled, "I cannot say."

"What?"

"With master's current cultivation, you should not be able to know of its existence. You may have used other methods to sense it now, but that is already touching the taboo. If you continue to investigate and your auras somehow cross over each other, you will provoke a great disaster."

Qin Yu's heart trembled. Hairs began to rise on the back of his head. At this moment, he seemed to sense some strange sort of attention aimed at him from the darkness.

There was no need for further explanation. He already believed what Undying had to say…

However, it really was hard to imagine that there existed something in this world that he didn't have the qualifications to know about. Forcefully investigating it might even cause him to face imminent catastrophe.

"This is a true good fortune…" Undying couldn't help but mumble to himself again.

Qin Yu fell silent. He could clearly hear the deep regret in his voice.

Was he being despised because his cultivation was too low?

For better or worse, he was someone who could fight with a Calamity Immortal. It really was difficult to accept this sort of thing.

Undying clearly didn't have thoughts to care about Qin Yu's feelings. He honestly said, "Master, great changes have occurred in the Sea of Purgatory. You cannot stay here any longer."

Before he finished speaking, terrifying auras erupted in the darkness like volcanoes. They rushed into the range of Qin Yu's perception with overbearing and peerless postures.

Each one of these auras was heaven-shaking. He even suspected that if they all collided together, this entire world might be destroyed!

Qin Yu's complexion changed. The tiny hints of bitterness in his heart thoroughly vanished. Compared to these auras, he was indeed far, far too weak.

Standing in front of them, while he might not be an ant, he wasn't much more formidable than a chicken egg. These existences might only need to use a little bit of strength to crack him open.

Helplessness flashed in his eyes. But, he knew that what Undying said was correct. He really couldn't stay in the present Sea of Purgatory.

With these terrifying auras appearing one after another, who knew what would happen afterwards?

If he didn't leave and was caught up in the chaos, he would almost certainly die!

If he lost the Water Marid he might have more chances in the future. But if he died here, everything he had done would be for nothing.

He lifted a hand and a light flashed. Several jade pieces appeared in his hand. These were all the highest quality jade. Even after being refined they maintained a strange l.u.s.ter. Tiny runes shimmered on their surface.

Before entering the Sea of Purgatory, the Chu Empire had given everyone a set of jade pieces. By using these, one could arrange a miniature array formation that would resonate with Ying Capital's great array, allowing a person to teleport away.

With a thought, the jade pieces flew up into the air, forming an array.

Qin Yu tapped a finger, pouring in magic power to activate them. The jade pieces began to shine and space startled to ripple.

But at this time an inexplicable aura arrived and disrupted the array formation. With loud cracking sounds, the jade pieces were crushed to dust.

…

On the stone tablet, black flames leapt up in the skeleton's eye sockets. His mouth was twisted as if he were smiling.

"Little fellows, in order for this liveliness to achieve the best effect, it is best for you to all stay behind.

"Perhaps you might die, but to be able to experience the final bursts of strength emitted from the peak powerhouses that have acc.u.mulated over hundreds of millions of years, you should feel honored.

"Now, enjoy well this grand ceremony!"