Xianyang.
"King Zheng of Qin, having unified the Qin Kingdom for twenty-six hundred years, has conquered all the Dukes under Heaven. The common people are at great peace. His virtue rivals the Three Sovereigns, and his accomplishnts surpass the Five Emperors."
"Therefore, he establishes the title of Emperor and has commanded Chancellor Si that all laws, weights, and asures, which were inconsistent and dubious, shall be clarified and unified."
"The Qin Dynasty is hereby established. The Emperor shall be known as the First Emperor!"
As the Chief Eunuch’s shrill proclamation echoed, the man of profound and solemn majesty seated upon the highest throne—a middle-aged figure clad in a Nine Dragon Profound Robe and wearing a Twelve Crowned Crown—spoke faintly:
"Henceforth, there shall be no Celestial Son, only the Human King. And We are both sovereign and emperor."
He sat enthroned in the great hall, gazing down upon his ministers. Miraculous vistas of mountains and rivers manifested around him, and the unending praise of the masses echoed from the rafters. The fate of the land and its people rested within his gaze!
"Relay Our decree. In ten days, we travel to Taishan to perform the sacred rites."
"Not to pay homage to the Celestial Realm, but to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, to the Elder Sages of the past, to pay homage to..."
"Saint Lu!"
The ministers kowtowed, proclaiming in unison:
"Your Majesty’s might is as boundless as the heavens!"
......
On the peak of Taishan, before a thatched hut, chicks pecked at grain while an old farr hoed his field.
As he worked, the Old Nong glanced aside with a smile.
"So, you’re troubled by the new rules you established for the Current World?"
"Yes, Teacher."
Lu Xuan admitted candidly.
"I know this is not a long-term solution, nor is it the way to achieve World Clarity. But one must put things into practice to understand them fully. Knowledge and action must be one."
"Well said."
The seemingly ordinary Old Nong leaned on his hoe, wiped the sweat from his brow, and chuckled.
"Your new rules may be accumulating the resentnt of the people, but they at least grant the masses a temporary peace. For that, you are not wrong."
Lu Xuan nodded earnestly and said in a low voice,
"I understand. My knowledge is still far too shallow. I wish to remain by your side for a ti to continue my studies, Teacher."
"You may," the Old Nong said with a smile. "This incarnation of mine will remain here. You can join in farming the land for ten days."
"Yes, Teacher."
"In ten days, an old acquaintance of yours will arrive. After you et with them, I will take you to see your eldest senior brother... The ti is right."
Lu Xuan, still wearing his Bronze Mask, bowed once more.
Just as the Old Nong raised his hoe to resu his work, he seed to recall sothing and asked,
"Ah, that’s right. You cannot use the title ’Profound Clarity’ for now... Have you prepared a new one?"
"In response to your question, Teacher, yes, I have."
Lu Xuan answered with a smile.
"I shall be called..."
"Profound Yellow."
As the words fell, the Old Nong gave it little thought and nodded with a smile. anwhile, in a remote Daoist Palace, a certain limping Daoist leisurely rose to his feet.
"Excellent," he said with a smile.
......
’Where is this...?’
The rugged man stood on the dirt ground, a look of shocked uncertainty on his face as he muttered to himself,
’Is this... Ancient Tis?’
He felt the familiar Primordial Qi and the shackled power within his body being released bit by bit. He was ascending from the Grand Grade, returning to the Immortal Realm as his Acupoints evolved one by one into Grotto Heavens.
Soon, all three hundred and sixty-five of his Grotto Heavens were glowing, evolving further into individual Little Worlds. He himself broke past the Immortal Realm... and returned to the level of the Celestial Realms.
He went from Celestial Venerable back to Upper Celestial Venerable, finally reaching the peak of that state. He could touch the boundary of Daluo and Eternal, even taking a step further than before—he had half a foot in the Daluo realm!
A Daluo was one who, once they achieved sothing, achieved it for all eternity. They could begin to roam the rivers of ti and history, their past and present unified as one, with no mont of weakness.
This journey back in ti had deepened Yang Jian’s understanding of the nature of Years, bringing him even closer to the Daluo realm.
’Is this really Ancient Tis??’
Yang Jian’s heart pounded, his emotions shifting from confusion to elation, and then back to confusion again.
With a single thought, his form vanished, reappearing in the very sa instant high among the clouds, standing before the Great Celestial Gate of the Central Celestial Court.
"Who goes there!" the Four Great Celestial Kings bood. But when they saw who it was, their expressions changed, and they bowed in respect. "Greetings, True Monarch Erlang."
"No need for formalities." Yang Erlang stared at the four familiar figures, feeling dazed all over again. He was about to say sothing when he spotted a figure bursting out of the Celestial Court in a desperate escape.
’That’s...’ Both Yang Erlang and the Four Great Celestial Kings were stunned. ’Nezha?’
Before they could react, another child shot out from the Celestial Court on his Wind-Fire Wheels, spear in hand, his face a mask of fury.
"Brother Yang, soone’s impersonating ! Get him!"
With that, the fuming Nezha zipped away on his Wind-Fire Wheels, leaving the Four Great Celestial Kings to exchange bewildered glances and a profound chill to creep into Yang Jian’s heart.
’Nezha is here, too?’
’And we haven’t just traveled back into our past selves from Ancient Tis... We’ve returned in our true bodies!’
’In other words, this era now has two Nezhas and two Yang Jians. If Taibai and the others also ca back...’
Yang Jian’s face fell. With a flicker, his form vanished.
The Four Great Celestial Kings blinked, completely dumbfounded, and began to mutter amongst themselves.
"Did the True Monarch just... use Everywhere? Has he broken through the Immortal Realm and entered the level of the Celestial Realms?"
"I don’t think so. There haven’t been any cosmic signs of a new Celestial Realms expert being born... But he’s been at the Immortal Peak for a long ti. He’s probably close. Perhaps he’s just manifested the trait of Everywhere ahead of schedule?"
"Mmm, that must be it!"
Just as the Four Great Celestial Kings were discussing this, they heard footsteps approaching from behind the Celestial Gate.
They turned, their eyes wide with shock, and exclaid in unison,
"True Monarch??"
"What is it?" The celestial god, clad in armored robes and holding a Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade, frowned. "Have you seen Nezha? There were two of them a mont ago, causing a huge ruckus in the Celestial Court. It’s very strange."
The Four Great Celestial Kings nodded numbly.
"I shall go and see." The Three-Eyed Celestial God nodded, his body transforming into a streak of golden light that shot toward the Human World.
The Four Great Celestial Kings stared at one another and said in unison,
"Two True Monarchs..."
......
"Is anyone ho?"
Wang Zhiyao, sitting in her wheelchair, called out softly at the door. When there was no answer, Zhang Jifeng pushed her toward another house.
Both of them had their brows tightly furrowed. Wang Zhiyao spoke in a grim tone.
"This is strange. My phone has completely lost its signal, and this town looks odd, too. There are no tall buildings, everything has an ancient feel, and I don’t see any sign of modern technology..."
Zhang Jifeng nodded in grim agreent.
"And I can feel that the Primordial Qi in the air is over a hundred tis denser, and its quality is terrifyingly high. I suspect..."
Neither of them spoke further. The style of this city was remarkably similar to the Peach Blossom Spring. An unbelievable thought flashed through their minds: ’Did we... travel through ti??’
’Did we arrive in another world, one similar to the Peach Blossom Spring?’
’No, the Primordial Qi is too dense...’
’Or... did we arrive in a ti before the End of Dharma Era?’
Lost in thought, they arrived at another house. Before they could knock, the door opened, and a young man stepped out.
"And you two are...?" The young man was clearly taken aback, looking the strangely dressed man and woman up and down.
Zhang Jifeng cleared his throat and asked politely,
"Excuse , but where are we? We’re from an isolated mountain village and got lost. We just wandered out and found ourselves here... May I ask who the current ruler of the world is?"
The young man’s expression grew even more peculiar. He took several steps back warily.
"The ruler of all under Heaven? That would be King Zheng of Qin... No, wait, it’s the First Emperor now."
???
!!!
Zhang Jifeng and Wang Zhiyao both sucked in a sharp breath. Wang Zhiyao instinctively asked,
"Thank you for clearing that up for us. Might we ask your na, sir?"
"Liu Bang. My courtesy na is Ji."
......
「Three days later.」
On Taishan, the man in the Bronze Mask ticulously turned the soil with a hoe. Nearby, the Old Nong lazed back in a chair to enjoy the cool air, fanning himself with an old bulrush fan.
He let out a yawn and asked with a smile,
"After our three days of discussion, child, do you believe your new rules’ benefits outweigh their drawbacks, or is it the other way around?"
"In the short term, I believe it’s the forr," Lu Xuan said, pausing his work and leaning on his hoe respectfully.
"As you said, it can at least achieve a temporary ’peace under heaven’ with no violent cri, or any cri at all, for that matter. While the long-term drawbacks may be significant, there should be few problems in the short term."
As he spoke, Lu Xuan adjusted the cool Bronze Mask on his face. Having deliberately altered his form and features to resemble a middle-aged man, his voice had also beco sowhat deeper. He continued,
"Moreover, establishing the new rules gave birth to a chess piece, so I can’t be too far off the mark. The specifics might be too vague and full of loopholes, but the general direction must be correct."
"A chess piece?" The Old Nong paused, his curiosity piqued.
Lu Xuan explained patiently.
"To answer your question, Teacher, when I implented the new rules and when I established the Immortal Covenant, each action produced a pure white chess piece."
The Old Nong was still a bit puzzled. He couldn’t perceive the Current World and didn’t know the specifics of what had occurred. He just frowned.
"Two pure white chess pieces? Two... Hmm??"
His expression froze. He seed to have thought of sothing, but he imdiately dismissed the notion.
’It’s impossible. Xiaoxuan is far, far too lacking. There’s no way he could have interfered with the Dao Fruit ga. It must have been one of the Ancient Ones who obtained half a Dao Fruit, or one of the two or three individuals standing at the very pinnacle of the Daluo realm.’
With this in mind, the Old Nong picked up his teacup, took a sip, and chuckled.
"How peculiar... Where are the pieces now?"
"I played them."
Lu Xuan answered honestly, describing the experience as he recalled it.
"When I held the pieces to make my move, the sensation was marvelous. It felt as if I wasn’t holding chess pieces, but ancient eons, the grand tide of destiny, an entire epic saga..."
"And when I placed them, the board felt as though it wasn’t a board at all, but the Great Heaven and Earth, the Great Cosmos, the ceaselessly flowing River of Ti, the entirety of history from past to present..."
The Old Nong’s eyes glazed over as he listened.
"Where is the board??"
"Right here." With a wave of Lu Xuan’s hand, a chessboard made of so unidentifiable ancient wood materialized, its surface crisscrossed with starlit lines and adorned with two pure white pieces.
CRACK!
The Old Nong’s hand trembled, and his teacup fell to the ground, shattering into fragnts.
"The Heaven and Earth Chessboard?"
He muttered aloud.
"So it really was you who made the move."
"What?" Lu Xuan asked, confused. "Teacher, you..."
"It’s nothing, it’s nothing."
The Old Nong rose to his feet, his expression solemn.
"Child, tell : where, how, and from whom did you obtain this board?"
Lu Xuan quickly replied.
"To answer your question, Teacher... I believe it was the Celestial Emperor? Lady Nuwa requested it from the deceased Celestial Emperor and then passed it on to ."
The Old Nong’s expression froze, and three question marks seed to pop up over his head.
Huh???
He coughed twice, recomposing himself. After pacing back and forth for a long mont, he glanced over and asked,
"You went beneath the stone monunt and t the Goddess?"
"Yes," Lu Xuan replied honestly. The questions in his own mind were multiplying. After a mont’s hesitation, he asked,
"Teacher, why do you all call Lady Nuwa the ’Goddess’? And her cultivation, that gaze that seems nearly Omniscient..."
The Old Nong’s brows furrowed deeply.
After a long pause, he let out a soft sigh. Just as he was about to explain, the sound of footsteps ca from down the mountain, reaching the thatched hut in just a few strides.
"A humble wanderer of the wilds, just passing through."
A disheveled Yan Huang put on the air of a worldly master, a gentle smile on his face. His gaze swept over the thatched hut, lingering for a mont on the Bronze Mask.
After determining that both the old farr and the strange young man in the mask were re mortals, he breathed an inward sigh of relief and smiled warmly again.
"A humble wanderer of the wilds, just passing through. I’ve co to ask for a bowl of water to drink."
Lu Xuan glanced over, his expression beneath the mask turning peculiar. He then shot a questioning look at his teacher.
The grave look on the Old Nong’s face vanished. He beca the very picture of an old farr, hunching his back and chuckling.
"Please, have a seat, good Daoist. I’ll go inside and fetch ya a bowl of cool tea!"
"Many thanks." Yan Huang gave a faint nod in polite response, but his eyes continued to scan the area, periodically glancing back the way he had co as if on high alert.
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