True Monarch Baixi stared fixedly at the hand piercing his chest.
“A Dao Throne... Unfettered Heaven? How is that possible?” The words were squeezed out of his throat with great difficulty.
Unfettered Heaven was one of the original Dao Thrones at the very source of the main branch of All Living Beings. It had been attained by True Monarch Jiahao ten thousand years ago, returned to the heavens upon his fall, and had never been successfully attained by anyone since. Logically, whether an unclaimed Dao Throne returned to the heavens or waited for the next True Monarch to claim it, such news could never be hidden from the entire cultivation world.
But what was the situation now?
When that palm had pierced through his chest just now, he had clearly felt the aura of Unfettered Heaven. This was a Dao Throne of a higher tier than the Floating Life Painting he had attained. It was precisely because of this that he didn't have the slightest room to fight back.
A trace of clarity suddenly flashed through True Monarch Baixi’s fading eyes.
No!
How could a mere junior of the Fourth Realm walk so casually into the depths of the Royal Court, a place only the Son of Heaven of Daqian and the successor of the Great Record could enter? He himself had to rely on the traits of his Dao Throne to barely manage it, so what did the other party rely on?
He had seemed pathetic while being pursued, yet every step had landed exactly on the line between life and death without him ever dying. The True Monarch who had attained a Dao Throne on the Unfettered River had arrived far too conveniently, and her intervention had been far too timely...
All sorts of doubts linked together into a single line in his mind.
He finally understood. The other party had clearly been feigning weakness to lure him into dropping all his defenses, specifically choosing the moment when he was about to obtain the Dao-Supplementing Jade—the moment when his mind was most relaxed—to strike.
But what was this “Senior Cultivator” plotting by setting such a grand stage?
What had he done to deserve an existence who had attained Unfettered Heaven going to such great lengths for him?
This question pursued his divine sense until the very last sliver of his consciousness completely dissipated, yet he never found an answer.
True Monarch Baixi’s “body” swayed and then crashed to the ground.
...
The blood of a True Monarch splashed, soaking the blue tiles of the palace ridge in a patch of dark red.
When a True Monarch falls, there should logically be a phenomenon of a Dao Throne returning to the heavens.
But True Monarch Baixi’s death was silent and without a sound. That Floating Life Painting Dao Throne belonging to him was crushed and devoured by some kind of power before it could even escape his husk, leaving not even a trace behind.
At this moment, the silence on the palace ridge was nearly eerie.
“Gu Chengming” withdrew his hand and casually brushed his sleeve, the faint scent of blood on his fingertips dissipating cleanly.
He tilted his head and looked with a beaming smile at the other two True Monarchs not far away.
For some reason, those two True Monarchs felt a bit intimidated, and for a moment, they didn't know what to do next.
In Gu Chengming’s Sea of Consciousness, that belated uninvited guest finally and leisurely presented his calling card.
A male voice, carrying a bit of a smile, rang out: “Haha, little friend, my sincere apologies.”
“One who comes uninvited like myself must be quite annoying.”
Gu Chengming: “...”
Well, at least you have some self-awareness.
The male voice seemed to sense his internal criticism and, after half a beat, added: “This matter was entrusted to me by an old friend. Borrowing little friend’s body was truly a move of necessity.”
“But please believe me, little friend, I have no intention of harming you.”
“For the next period of time, things will move in a direction favorable to little friend. Little friend just needs to enjoy it.”
At that last sentence, Gu Chengming heard a hint of a grin.
As a sword cultivator who also practiced the Red Dust Technique, Gu Chengming’s understanding of the concept of “worldly karma” was clearly quite deep.
After learning the Unfettered Freedom Art and being helped once by this True Monarch Jiahao in Floating Islet City, he should have understood that this True Monarch Jiahao likely wanted to use him for something.
It was just that Gu Chengming hadn't expected the other party to pop up at a time like this.
Looking at it this way, the fact that he was able to obtain the Unfettered Freedom Art so smoothly in the Tianque Secret Realm back then was indeed arranged by this True Monarch Jiahao behind the scenes.
Gu Chengming was somewhat helpless, but looking at it from another angle, True Monarch Jiahao could be considered to have avenged him.
After all, that True Monarch Baixi had been chasing him for a long time just now and had directly attacked without a word.
If it weren't for his many trump cards and the timely arrival of True Monarch Liuyun Suyu, he might have been finished.
Following this line of thought, it wasn't impossible to “enjoy it.”
But what exactly was this True Monarch Jiahao trying to do?
Before Gu Chengming had time to think further, his body acted on its own.
The hand that had just pierced through the True Monarch’s heart slowly rose, lightly gathering that pale gold Dao Throne suspended in mid-air into his palm.
...
At the other two ends of the palace ridge, the remaining two True Monarchs finally snapped out of their shock at Baixi’s sudden death.
Immediately after, they saw “Gu Chengming” clutching the Dao-Supplementing Jade in his hand.
A thought simultaneously surfaced in both their minds.
To snatch it, or not to snatch it?
The thought itself was absurd enough. Two Sixth Realm True Monarchs were actually hesitating about whether to take action against a Fourth Realm junior.
But such was the reality. True Monarch Baixi’s corpse was still lying there, and blood that hadn't yet cooled was dripping down the tiles of the palace ridge drop by drop.
The warning was right in front of them; they couldn't help but hesitate.
...
However, before these two could react, someone else had already done so.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu displayed the fine tradition of the older generation of cultivators.
She didn't care which powerhouse was currently possessing Gu Chengming; her eyes only saw that Gu Chengming had picked up a hot potato that would invite a fatal disaster. Her reaction was textbook-level protectiveness and decisiveness—without a single word of nonsense, she directly manifested her Dao Throne.
Moonlight flowed like water. The long sword at her waist remained in its sheath, but with just a ripple of sword intent, the current time and space were forcibly halted under the effect of her Dao Throne.
The withered peach branch by True Monarch Wangyan’s temple trembled violently. She was about to spit out a curse to distort reality, only to find that her words were frozen by time.
True Monarch Huiyi raised her pus-leaking arm, attempting to spread a haze that would corrode the array foundation, but the poisonous mist was forcibly suppressed back into her body by reversed time before it could even form.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu stood in front of Gu Chengming, using the most mechanical and skill-reliant Moon in the Clouds Dao Throne of the Unfettered River to stubbornly suppress two enraged Sixth Realm True Monarchs.
“Gu Chengming” looked at the back standing in front of him. He didn't pay any mind to the two suppressed True Monarchs, instead raising the Dao-Supplementing Jade in his hand.
“Return to Heaven.”
In the next instant, Gu Chengming only felt the void before his eyes as if someone had stirred it in water. An aura that didn't belong to this world was being “dragged” over inch by inch from some place so distant it was impossible to measure.
That aura was massive, chaotic, and frenzied, like the manic laughter and wails of countless living beings being haphazardly stirred in a broken bowl.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu’s sword momentum faltered, and she suddenly looked up at the sky.
“True Monarch Wangyue?!” A hint of panic entered her voice.
True Monarch Jiahao had used some unknown method to forcibly overlap the moment the Dao Throne returned to heaven with the moment the remains of Mad Joy were unsealed. He used the former to replace the Dragon Qi Seed and used the latter to fill the gap left by the former.
In the next moment, blood-colored patterns spread out from beneath the ground. Those patterns wove into a giant net, shrouding the entire capital within it.
Immediately following that, a mass of blood and flesh slowly rose from the center of that net.
It was a set of remains without a fixed form. From a distance, it looked like a monstrosity stitched together from countless pieces of flesh, bone, and organs.
The remains shrouded the entire capital, and the sky turned completely dark.
...
From the direction of the Night Guard Division, when Zhou Qingmu arrived with her blade, this was the scene she witnessed.
The moment the Fengtian Grand Array shifted, she had already reacted. But even as a half-step Sixth Realm cultivator rushing as fast as she could, she was ultimately a step too slow.
Blade light pulled a residual shadow behind her. Her figure didn't stop, but her eyes had already taken in the entirety of the mess.
Gu Chengming stood in the middle of the wreckage, his left hand pinching a mass of Dragon Qi residue that had already turned into an empty shell, his right hand hanging at his side, his fingertips still stained with a True Monarch’s blood.
Zhou Qingmu’s mind went boom in this instant.
“Chengming—”
She was about to rush forward almost without thinking, but before the words could leave her mouth, her gaze first swept over the remains covering the sky.
Her horizontal blade abruptly stopped in mid-air.
How could the remains of True Monarch Wangyue be here?
Zhou Qingmu’s mind went blank.
At the other end of the Imperial City, Ji Yixi arrived almost at the same time as Zhou Qingmu.
She looked at the empty Dragon Qi residue in Gu Chengming’s hand, then at the remains of Mad Joy that were devouring the capital, and couldn't help but gape.
The little dragon coiled on her shoulder murmured, “Ancestor... what exactly are you trying to do...”
...
Above the Royal Court, the two True Monarchs, Wangyan and Huiyi, finally broke free from the layer of temporal restraint left by the Moon in the Clouds.
The two of them exchanged a look, not even bothering to leave a single harsh word.
The Dao-Supplementing Jade was gone, and the situation was ruined. If they didn't leave now, True Monarch Baixi would be their warning.
Their Dao Thrones were simultaneously activated, and the two figures lunged toward the outskirts of the capital.
Bang.
Two muffled sounds rang out in identical fashion.
The bodies of the two Sixth Realm powerhouses crashed into an invisible barrier and were bounced back solidly, falling pathetically back over the Imperial City.
The entire territory of the capital had been silently locked down.
True Monarch Huiyi froze in place, looking down at her own palm.
That strand of plague-haze that should have been at her beck and call was now steaming outward uncontrollably, as if being pulled away inch by inch by something.
On her half-rotten, half-alive face, an emotion of terror surfaced.
“The Great Calamity...”
“Is it the Great Calamity?!”
Rumble.
...
The Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth was essentially a cleanup set by the Heavenly Dao for cultivators.
Whenever cultivators occupied too many Dao Thrones and the Heavenly Dao’s authority was obstructed, this tribulation would fall to wipe out those existences occupying the Dao Thrones one by one.
It was never a single event, but a process strung together by countless troubles involving karma. Every event within this process was naturally labeled with the words “Great Calamity.”
And a True Monarch’s judgment of whether they were in the midst of the Great Calamity never relied on celestial phenomena or bells and drums, but on whether the Dao Throne they held was truly being affected.
The inability to escape the capital meant that everyone was now standing within the Great Calamity.
It was only then that Gu Chengming belatedly realized that the control of his borrowed body had been silently returned to his hands.
Before he could even move his fingers, he was wrapped in a full embrace of moonlight.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu reached out and pulled him into her arms, a roll of her wide, moon-white sleeves shielding him tightly beneath her.
The Moon in the Clouds Dao Throne around her suddenly sank, and the moonlight transformed into a thin cocoon, forcibly isolating this square inch of the world from the void that was about to collapse.
In his Sea of Consciousness, True Monarch Jiahao looked at this scene and laughed quite happily: “Then I won't disturb little friend’s good fortune.”
The moment the voice fell, True Monarch Jiahao’s aura receded like a tide, and Gu Chengming regained control of his body.
But before he could feel the softness of True Monarch Liuyun Suyu’s embrace, the surrounding world completely distorted under an irresistible, titanic force.
The night sky was torn open from top to bottom, and pale sunlight poured down from that rift like a waterfall.
Heaven and earth were overturned; day and night were reversed.
...
Gu Chengming only felt his head suddenly grow heavy, and the scenery before his eyes was like a ball being haphazardly crumpled in someone’s palm. He fell unconscious in a daze.
In the next moment, a voice rang out, spreading through the entire capital.
“Restore Order.”
As those two words fell, it was like someone had steadily pressed a palm onto a drumhead that was being beaten chaotically. The overturned heaven and earth returned to their proper positions in the same breath those words landed.
Night once again climbed onto the eaves of the capital. The sky-covering remains of flesh and bone still hung over the capital, but the momentum of it crawling inch by inch to swallow the entire Imperial City was forcibly held in place by those two words.
At the top of the Imperial City’s vermilion steps, a figure had appeared at some unknown time.
It was an old man, thin-faced, with hair as white as frost. He wore a set of semi-old blue scholar’s robes, the cuffs worn down to fine fraying. Tied at his waist was nothing more than an ordinary white cloth belt, and on his feet were a pair of old cloth shoes, their surfaces covered in dust from some unknown place.
He looked as if he had just casually walked out of some room in the Imperial Academy.
Zhou Qingmu was the first to react.
“The Master?!”
The Master stood at the top of the steps with his hands behind his back. He gave a salute to Gu Chengming in True Monarch Liuyun Suyu’s arms and then smiled, seemingly offering his thanks.
A ripple appeared in the southwest of the Imperial City, and a figure riding on stellar qi landed over the capital from the direction of the Imperial Observatory.
The newcomer looked like a middle-aged scholar, wearing a square cap and a dark blue robe embroidered with a circle of constellation patterns. Hanging at his waist was a palm-sized bronze armillary sphere; he was none other than the Director of the Imperial Observatory.
The moment the Director landed, he gave a slight nod to the Master and then drew a roll of thin bronze slips from his sleeve. The slips were densely engraved with star tracks and positions that had been settled countless years ago.
He lightly flicked his finger on that roll of thin slips, and the Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing Array operated at full capacity for the first time since its installation.
The Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing Array used the capital as its eye and the nine-tier palace as its bone!
That mass of Mad Joy’s remains, which covered most of the capital’s night sky, was suddenly seized by a vast force from below.
Before it could even struggle, it was pressed inch by inch into the empty Dao Throne vacancy deep beneath the capital.
The Director of the Imperial Observatory then raised his eyes, looking toward the two True Monarchs above the Imperial City who were still in a state of utter disbelief.
He spoke indifferently: “Fellow Daoists, please stay.”
The withered peach branch by True Monarch Wangyan’s temple shook violently, and the curse that had been nailed by time for so long finally dissipated. She instinctively opened her mouth.
Before she could speak, the armillary sphere in the Director’s palm spun slightly, and the aura around her was forcibly dragged away from her half-withered, half-alive husk.
On the other side, the Master pointed his finger toward True Monarch Huiyi, and the latter also completely lost her ability to resist.
The Master and the Director exchanged a look, and there was no need for further words regarding the remaining matters.
The sky-covering remains of Mad Joy were pressed inch by inch into the ground, and the giant net woven from star tracks and moonlight slowly closed.
The night returned to tranquility.
As for Gu Chengming, who was shielded tightly within the moon-white cocoon, he had already fainted the moment the heaven and earth were overturned, completely unaware of this series of concluding events.
...
A strange ceiling.
Alright, this trope was indeed a bit too old-fashioned.
But when Gu Chengming opened his heavy eyes and the first thing he saw was indeed a sandalwood ceiling carved with intricate patterns, this classic line still instinctively popped into his head.
The scent of agarwood lingered at the tip of his nose, mixed with a faint, cool fragrance of osmanthus. The brocade couch beneath him was so soft it felt somewhat unreal.
Gu Chengming rubbed his head and sat up slowly, going over the events before he had blacked out in his mind.
The various True Monarchs had plotted to seize the Dao Throne, and he had accidentally stumbled into the middle of the game.
Then True Monarch Jiahao had borrowed his body, returned that Dao-Supplementing Jade to the heavens, and conveniently lured the remains of True Monarch Wangyue over the capital.
It seemed he had caused quite a large mess.
At this thought, Gu Chengming felt another wave of dizziness.
【Hundred Bones Resonating hurried to comfort him: It’s okay, Emperor Gu! We did our best!】
【Hundred Bones Resonating: If it weren't for our help, that Dao Throne would have been swiped by those True Monarchs long ago!】
【The Huiyuan Sword Manual immediately chimed in: Exactly!】
Thank you, Emperor Bai, and Little Huiyuan.
Although such self-consolation was perhaps a bit too optimistic, he couldn't think of any other way right now.
After all, in those games involving True Monarchs at the Sixth Realm, what he could do as a Fourth Realm junior was far too limited.
His thoughts gradually returned, and the tactile sensations of his body began to recover bit by bit.
It was only then that Gu Chengming suddenly realized his right hand seemed a bit heavy.
He turned his head and looked toward his right arm, only then discovering a person slumped on the outer edge of the bed.
A moon-white robe spread over the brocade quilt like flowing water. The person had her face half-buried in the crook of her arm, her cascading black hair falling down, with a few strands even playfully resting on the back of Gu Chengming’s hand, bringing a slight tickle.
Even though he had witnessed the miracle of heaven and earth being overturned last night, Gu Chengming still found the current situation a bit absurd.
As if sensing him waking up, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu’s eyelashes fluttered. She rubbed her eyes and sat up slowly.
When her vision finally focused and she saw Gu Chengming leaning against the headboard, staring at her with open eyes, she clearly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Little friend, you’re finally awake.” Then came a string of nagging.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous last night was?”
“How many times have I told you? In all matters involving Dao Thrones, you must first investigate their source. Do not be reckless when things happen, and prioritize your own safety above all else.”
“No matter how precious the Dao-Supplementing Jade is, it is but an external object. How could you not listen this time?”
Gu Chengming silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
After True Monarch Liuyun Suyu’s speaking speed slowed down slightly and the urgency in her eyes calmed a bit, Gu Chengming spoke up.
“Senior Liuyun is right to lecture me. This junior was wrong.” After a moment’s deliberation, he cupped his hands in a bow.
“Senior Liuyun, what is the situation now?” To be honest, everything before him was eerie beyond belief.
If it weren't for the fact that he still had the trump card of the Qingxin Art of Love, he would almost suspect he had been thrown into some illusion.
One moment he was experiencing that scene of heaven and earth being overturned and day and night being reversed, and the next he woke up normally in a strange bed with a Sixth Realm senior guarding him.
More importantly, this senior had actually fallen asleep while guarding him.
This was the most illogical part. Cultivators could abstain from food from the Third Realm, and at the Fourth Realm, they could replace sleep with meditation.
At the level of a Sixth Realm True Monarch, the physical body had long since been transformed, breathing in unison with heaven and earth. How could someone fall into a deep sleep?
Unless the external environment or rules had undergone some kind of change.
Hearing Gu Chengming’s question, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu also realized the confusion in his eyes.
She tidied the scattered hair by her temples and was about to explain.
...
Suddenly, an old voice came from outside the door.
“Allow this old man to explain.”
The curtain was lightly lifted by an old hand. The newcomer, wearing blue scholar’s robes and with hair as white as frost, was the Master of the Imperial Academy.
Gu Chengming had never met this Master. He only felt that the aura around the other party was so peaceful it felt unreal, and for a moment he couldn't gauge the other’s intention.
The Master first gave him a gentle smile and introduced himself: “This old man is the Master of the Imperial Academy.”
Hearing this title, Gu Chengming understood.
The “revealed” True Monarch of Daqian.
One of the few old-school powerhouses in the cultivation world, a True Monarch who still dared to trouble himself with various affairs during the Great Calamity without avoiding human tribulations at all—that alone was enough to prove his worth.
He got out of bed and cupped his hands: “This junior greets the Master.”
The Master raised his hand to support him and then turned his gaze toward True Monarch Liuyun Suyu, who was still sitting by the bed without getting up, and spoke with a smile.
“I wonder if Senior...”
The way he said the word “Senior” was quite deliberate, likely asking if she wanted to excuse herself.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu merely gave a huff. She clearly had not a single word to spare for this group of people who hid behind the scenes to plot against the world and even dragged Gu Chengming into danger.
The Master was stunned for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, saying no more to her.
He found a low stool to sit on, and his gaze returned to Gu Chengming.
“Since little friend can get up, this old man will explain it to you.”
The Master spoke unhurriedly.
This plot of Daqian’s could be traced back several hundred years.
Back then, the ancestors of the Ji family had already glimpsed the inevitable node of “Dragon Qi exhaustion” from a certain timeline branch of the Great Record.
Since the Heavenly Dao was ultimately going to reach out and reclaim the Dao Throne of the Dragon Qi Seed, rather than waiting for Daqian’s own roots to be gouged out to fill the Heavenly Dao’s appetite, it was better to take action first and prepare a more suitable patch for that vacancy.
That Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing Array of the Imperial Observatory had begun its first move from that very day.
Gu Chengming blinked.
The Master added that while the plot was good, the difficulty lay in the fact that after Daqian’s Dao-Supplementing Jade was mutated into the Dragon Qi Seed, it could not be actively triggered.
Therefore, the true difficulty was making it “return to heaven” on its own.
Hearing this, Gu Chengming’s expression became subtle.
So all that loud commotion earlier really was just you guys fishing.
As if guessing what Gu Chengming was thinking, the Master nodded frankly.
“To achieve the goal, a single Dao-Supplementing Jade was naturally not enough. Other Dao Thrones were also needed as nourishment.”
So those three True Monarchs were all tricked into coming here to serve as fertilizer for Daqian.
As if seeing his internal criticism, the Master smiled again.
“For this matter, we must thank little friend.”
Gu Chengming waved it off: “The Master overstates it.”
The Master’s tone took a long, leisurely turn.
“This matter received little friend’s help, so this old man won't hide this part from you.”
“This new rule is indeed a hundred times stronger than the previous Dragon Qi.”
“In the future, if evil spirits enter the capital, there will be no need to trouble the Night Guard Division; the rules within the city will strangle them on the spot.”
Gu Chengming was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.
The Master spoke again.
“Everything should have been for the better, but the only problem is that some accidents occurred midway...”
He sighed, his expression turning grave for the first time.
A bad premonition surfaced in Gu Chengming’s heart, and he heard the other party continue: “That Senior True Monarch Wangyue left some small gifts for Daqian.”
The Master said no more and took out a blue cloth file from his sleeve, spreading it out on the small table in front of Gu Chengming.
“Little friend, see for yourself.”
...
【1. Dao Thrones of cultivators at the Sixth Realm and above are replaced with 'Jiahao.'】
【2. The more 'Jiahao' the 'Jiahao,' the stronger the 'Jiahao.'】
【3. Utilizing 'Jiahao' duels can exchange Dao Thrones.】
Looking at these three lines on the material sent before him, a question mark appeared over Gu Chengming’s head.
Rate on N.U.
