Xu Lai let out a light laugh. "Why, you look as if you’ve seen the end of the world."
"Qingfeng, take a look," Yu Guiwan said, passing the Jade Slip over, her delicate hands trembling slightly.
Xu Lai probed it with his Divine Sense.
Recorded inside were a passage of text and a segnt of an image.
The image was extrely blurry, shrouded in swirling clouds and mist, and pervaded by terrifying laws of the Great Dao.
Xu Lai’s pupils shrank. This image was a snatched piece of a heavenly secret!
In truth, upon reaching the Quasi-Emperor Realm, one could begin to sense the will of the heavens that existed in the unseen—what was known as a heavenly secret. Compared to cultivators in lower realms, those at the Quasi-Emperor level were far more accurate with both divination and predictions of the future. This was simply because they were more aligned with the Heavenly Dao!
However, this was the first ti Xu Lai had ever seen soone actually seize a piece of a heavenly secret. He, too, could snatch heavenly secrets, but they could only exist within his own mind, unable to be stored in a Jade Slip as Elder Huang Quan had done.
This act was detrintal to one’s virtue and would stain a person with imnse karma. One could never know when the Heavenly Dao might co to settle the score.
Of course, among all manifestations of the Heavenly Dao, only Earth’s had developed a consciousness. The others, like the Heavenly Dao of the Immortal Domain, were utterly impartial. If it decided to strike you, it absolutely would. If the Quasi-Emperor Tribulation couldn’t kill you, it would upgrade to the Great Emperor Tribulation. If that still wasn’t enough, it would intensify exponentially, and if even that failed, it would simply multiply its power tenfold.
In any case, from all the ancient records Xu Lai had read, not a single individual in the Emperor Realm had ever forcibly snatched a heavenly secret for their own use. It wasn’t that they couldn’t, but that it was neither worth the cost nor necessary.
Therefore, Xu Lai couldn’t help but exclaim, "A brilliant move."
Yu Guiwan was incredibly frustrated. At a ti like this, why couldn’t her junior brother just act normally?
Sensing his senior sister’s disapproving gaze, Xu Lai turned his attention to the "heavenly secret." The vision was short, lasting only for a dozen breaths.
Within the blurry image, Xu Lai saw a young man bathed in blood, his body covered in terrifyingly powerful Emperor Artifacts. The young man was no longer breathing. He had died in the boundless starry sky, and a pall of endless grief settled over the Immortal Domain.
Instantly, the skies everywhere in the Immortal Domain turned pitch black, and countless laws of the Great Dao spread out.
A teor, so brilliant it was blinding, streaked across the sky.
This was the Emperor’s Demise.
Currently, there was only one Great Emperor in the Immortal Domain: Xu Qingfeng.
Therefore, the Great Emperor who had fallen in the vision was Xu Lai.
"..."
Xu Lai was silent for a long ti.
Yu Guiwan wanted to speak but stopped, at a loss for what to say.
It was Baize who calmly spoke up. "This piece of a heavenly secret..."
"It’s quite convincing," Xu Lai praised without hesitation. "It feels like I’m right there."
"Xu Qingfeng!" Yu Guiwan panicked. "That’s clearly you! Your life will be in danger soon!"
"Really? I don’t believe it."
"..."
Hearing her junior brother’s nonchalant reply, Yu Guiwan’s forehead veins throbbed. For so reason, she had the sudden, inexplicable urge to beat him to a pulp!
"Don’t worry," Xu Lai reassured his senior sister, then turned his attention to the other passage left by Elder Huang Quan—
*Having chanced upon a heavenly secret, be warned of the looming peril. I, Huang Zhongtian, the Ferryman of the Netherworld, can help you escape life and death, but you must agree to one demand of mine.*
...
"So your na is Huang Zhongtian?" Xu Lai pondered the na, then nodded after a mont. "Splendid."
"...How is it splendid?" Baize asked, tilting his head.
Xu Lai didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze settled on the writing in the Jade Slip, and he gave a dismissive smirk.
Never mind whether he believed this snatched heavenly secret was real or not. And never mind whether Elder Huang Quan, a re Quasi-Emperor at the Nine Heavens, could actually save him. Based solely on that unspecified demand, agreeing was absolutely out of the question! There was too much left unsaid. Who knew what kind of demand Huang Zhongtian would make in the future?
"Let’s go back to the Sect Gate right now. He might not have gone far," Yu Guiwan said, pulling on Xu Lai’s sleeve and turning to leave.
"Senior Sister." Xu Lai gently shook his head. "I’ve never been one to believe in fate. And Huang Zhongtian isn’t even a cultivator from this part of the cosmos. He’s soone we can trust even less."
"But..."
"Don’t worry," Xu Lai declared, his spirits soaring. "If I don’t want to die, no one in this heaven and earth can take , Xu Qingfeng, away!"
BOOM!
Thunder suddenly crashed around the Heavenly Court; the Heavenly Dao had sensed his declaration and sent down Heavenly Thunder in response.
Yu Guiwan still wanted to say sothing.
With a flicker in his gaze, Baize softly said, "Immortal Venerable Yu, let the Supre Emperor have a mont of solitude."
Yu Guiwan sighed and said no more.
Xu Lai left the treasure vault. He sat on the steps outside the main hall of the Heavenly Court. There were no Heavenly Soldiers to his left or right, nor were there any inside the hall.
Xu Lai sat alone as starlight pierced through layers of dark clouds, casting a silvery glow upon him.
"Huang Zhongtian..." Xu Lai murmured, a sudden thought striking him.
With a stir of his Divine Sense, a girl who looked seventeen or eighteen appeared before him. Despite her youthful face, she radiated a shocking pressure.
This was a Quasi-Emperor of the Sixth Heaven!
And yet, this girl, a Quasi-Emperor who could cause storms in the Immortal Domain, was currently trembling before Xu Lai. She hailed from the Celestial Clan, a people that had split from the Human Race a hundred aeons ago. As the Emperor’s Demise drew near, they had chosen to try and assassinate the Supre Emperor.
It’s over. I’m going to die. My clan... is completely dood.
Layers of gloom shrouded the heart of the Celestial Clan girl.
Xu Lai asked, "Do you know a Huang Zhongtian?"
"Huang Zhongtian..." The Celestial Clan girl looked bewildered. "Who is that?"
"A ferryman on the Netherworld."
"No... I don’t know him." The Celestial Clan girl shook her head, not daring to hide anything.
Losing interest, Xu Lai waved his hand dismissively. "Alright, you may go."
"Although I, Shi Lan, may die, the Celestial Clan will still—huh?" The Celestial Clan girl looked confused. "What... what did you just say?"
"If you didn’t hear , then forget it."
Xu Lai snapped his fingers. Shi Lan shuddered violently, feeling as if so terrifying entity had just locked its gaze on her. She turned sharply behind her but found nothing.
There’s a terrifyingly powerful expert lurking in the shadows! I could be killed at any mont!
Her survival instincts kicking in, Shi Lan hastily said, "Supre Emperor! Although I do not know any Huang Zhongtian, the Celestial Clan is in imminent danger. I beg you to lend us your aid."
"The Celestial Clan?" Xu Lai’s smile was ambiguous. "Since you are of the heavens, why would you need a human’s help?"
"This..." Shi Lan’s face flushed red.
Her body trembled with a mixture of sha and indignation. Finally, with no other choice, she dropped to her knees with a thud, pressing her forehead to the ground.
"Supre Emperor, our ancestors never wished to betray the Human Race. They were coerced by a powerful faction that used the very survival of the entire Human Race as leverage, forcing them into the heartbreaking decision to leave.
"Although our ancestral Immortal passed away long ago and the current clan leader refuses to elaborate, I am still certain that the Celestial Clan is a blade ant to be used against you.
"The truth is," she said, her voice trembling, "we have a slave seal placed within us. Our lives and deaths are decided by the whim of another."
"So you’re saying," Xu Lai began slowly, "that soone has been plotting against the Human Race for a hundred aeons?"
"Not against the Human Race." Shi Lan raised her head, her words ringing with conviction. "The plot is against you, Great Emperor Qingfeng!"
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