Imperial God Emperor

In the reply letter, Ye Qingyu expressed his gratitude but declined Tang Chong’s goodwill.

These were eventful times, with Ren Puyang and another white-robed divine guard, Xiao Lin, missing in action. For the time being, Tang Chong was Ye Qingyu’s most powerful ally at the Alliance of Domains. Ye Qingyu did not wish for the Heaven Wasteland Domain’s issue to cause Tang Chong to be flayed by political rivals at the Alliance and thereby endanger Tang Chong’s status. After all, Tang Chong was most useful to him by remaining as the commander of the white-robed divine guards.

Ye Qingyu sat in quiet contemplation after writing the reply letter.

For some reason, although the situation seemed all-good at present, Ye Qingyu had a nagging feeling that a storm was coming. Every now and then, he would shudder with fear, as if the “sudden inspiration” of some time ago was repeatedly re-occurring.

What exactly is wrong?

For a time, Ye Qingyu was unable to figure it out.

“The overall situation and internal conditions of the Heaven Wasteland Domain have all been stabilized. Although the message from the Immortal God Court states that everything is fine in the Clear River Domain, the figures of Bai Yuanxing and the others have been continually popping up in my mind. Could something have changed in the Clear River Domain? I should pay it a visit as soon as I can.”

This was his conclusion after thinking back and forth.

Subsequently, he went into self-isolation again.

Before heading to the Clear River Domain, he had to make full use of the remaining time to sum up and reflect on his recent comprehension, and make progress on the [Divine Emperor Sword Mantra] by perfecting and integrating his small accomplishment in it. He had a feeling that this trip to the Clear River Domain would not be straightforward.

As he operated the nameless breathing technique, his inner yuan surged.

Like a meditating monk, he sat with his eyes closed and his face calm and peaceful.

In extremely beautiful fashion, wisps of sword will and qi, each no more than a meter in length, expanded and contracted in Ye Qingyu’s body like a peacock flaunting its tail. At first, they seemed to be varying in length and disorderly, but as time passed, they became as sparkling and clear as ice crystals, and their lengths became completely uniform. They expanded and contracted with perfect rhythm, while their gleaming radiance made Ye Qingyu look as awe-inspiring as a white-robed deity king.

Three days passed in a twinkling.

The sword radiance that lingered around Ye Qingyu slowly entered his body.

He was not yet done cultivating. Opening his mouth to spit out a beam of ice qi, he remained in meditation as the yuan qi in his body surged like a giant tide. During these days of cultivating the [Divine Emperor Sword Mantra], his inner yuan was relatively less condensed than before, and so he had to operate his qi and regulate his condition.

Another three days passed just like that.

He gradually readjusted his condition to its optimum.

His sword will blended perfectly and his inner yuan surged.

Just as he was about to end this cultivation session, an intense stream of consciousness suddenly pervaded the Void, seeming extremely far away yet right in front of his eyes at the same time. As his heart jolted, he raised a hand and tore the Void. He then opened his palm and grabbed hold of a trace of spiritual wave.

Using his divine consciousness to probe it slightly, he was able to extract the information contained within.

“Huh? This is...”

An unclear image appeared in his mind. There were collapsing mountains and reverse-flowing rivers, while the mountain gate of some large sect was bombarded by beams of giant cannon flowing light. As the ground shook, a rift was torn in the sky, with smoke and the wails of countless beings filling the air. This was a war scene. Under the heavy bombardment, the figures of numerous experts successively turned into flying ash, accompanied by human roars which sounded like that of the howls of despairing beasts...

Where is this?

Ye Qingyu felt uncertain.

He had never seen such a mountain gate and such a scene, and had never visited the place of this scene before.

“How did a trace of consciousness like this manage to get my attention and be grabbed hold of in the Void? This is really strange...” He wondered if his sudden inspirations these days were a result of this wisp of consciousness. The problem, however, was that none of it seemed to have any relation to him.

After some contemplation, he carefully re-examined the information contained in this trace of consciousness.

This time, he quickly discovered a few clues.

“That’s… that symbol. Isn’t it the Immortal God Emperor Sect’s?”

He unexpectedly discovered a few rather-familiar patterns and signs on the battle garments of a few desperately fighting and struggling figures. On careful examination, these patterns were very similar to those he had seen on Nan Tieyi, the successor of the Immortal God Emperor Sect, as well as Ling Xiaoran and Heng Yuge who together managed South Facing Inn in Flowing Light City and once fought alongside him.

He was deeply astonished as he thought about this.

Could the image in this consciousness be depicting the process of the Immortal God Emperor Sect’s Mountain Gate being breached?

That’s impossible. I’ve always maintained contact with the Immortal God Emperor Sect, and last contacted them three months ago. The feedback from them was that they’re beginning to obtain a dominant position in the Clear River Domain and are vigorously regaining their former glory. There are no other forces in the entire Clear River Domain which can compete with them. How can anyone breach their mountain gate and put them in such a difficult position when they command such a great advantage?

What’s going on?

Standing up, he began to worry.

“It looks like I have to bring forward my trip to the Clear River Domain.”

He had made up his mind.

A day later.

In the Clear River Domain.

Ye Qingyu was standing upright on a barren hill.

It had been half a day since he traveled through the Domain Gate and officially reached the Clear River Domain.

When he departed those years back, the Immortal God Emperor Sect had already taken a firm hold of the post-war situation. According to the incoming letters of a year later, the Clear River Domain was gradually being restored and unified, with the Immortal God Emperor sect serving as the main power and other Human Race sects serving as support.

Therefore, he had thought that the Clear River Domain was set to become a peaceful and safe domain.

But instead, today’s happenings completely went beyond his expectations.

Everything had changed.

The entire domain was riddled with the flames of war and was in a state of utter chaos. In the past half a day, Ye Qingyu had traveled tens of thousands of kilometers but did not see a single sign of stability and peace. On the contrary, everywhere was covered in the smoke of war, and many historical cities had been turned into ruins. The smell of blood and death lingered in the sky, with many mountains already collapsed and large stretches of plains turned into deserts, and an aura of destruction lingered in the Void. These were signs of a large war between experts.

Moreover, while on his way, Ye Qingyu had seen countless fleeing people who were displaced from their homes. As the saying goes, ‘it is better to be a dog in peaceful times than a human in troubled times’. Indeed, in such troubled times, human life was about as valuable as that of crickets and ants, while bandits and ferocious beasts were everywhere. The beings of various large races were in a state of despair, yet it was apparently the Human Race which was the most miserable of the lot. Like ants in a stream of water, they could perish ignobly at any time.

Subject to such chaos, several forces which were originally of an orderly nature began acting unwisely and fought against one another with extreme bloodlust.

Order completely disappeared.

Chaos shrouded the world.

After half a day’s time, Ye Qingyu had finally found out the root of all this chaos…

The Greater One Sect.

The Greater One Sect again.

For some reason, the Greater One Sect had incredibly and mysteriously managed to rise up again after the war of the Storm Sword Duel gathering, when it had looked completely done for. Displaying immense power and using thunderous methods, it terrorized all. Its army, made up of disciples and several thousand powerful experts of mysterious origins, swept irresistibly throughout and wiped out countless sects within the domain, all while doing things in an extremely cruel and terrifying fashion.

Various large and illustrious sects, including the Starry Heaven Palace, the Dark Martial Sect, the Spiritual Platform Hall, and the Tempest Pavilion, were unable to survive.

It could be said that there was not a single survivor among all the sects which were affected by the massacre carried out by the Greater One Sect’s army.

Within just half a year’s time, the entire Clear River Domain was already trembling under the oppression caused by the Greater One Sect’s army. Every surviving sect had retreated to the mountains, where they sealed themselves up. All large cities and towns had thus fallen under the control of the Greater One Sect.

Before he had arrived, Ye Qingyu had guessed that it should be a foreign domain force which could threaten the might of the Immortal God Emperor Sect. Now, however, he realized that the force which terrorized the Immortal God Emperor Sect, as well as the true power in the Clear River Domain, was none other than the Greater One Sect!

How can this be?

He could not understand how.

This allowed him to realize that the situation was not as positive as he had expected. Thinking in association to the wisp of consciousness which he had sensed, he wondered if the mountain gate of the Immortal God Emperor Sect had indeed been breached by the mysterious army of the Greater One Sect.

He could not help feeling anxious.

What exactly has happened?

I must hurry to the Wei River Mountain Range, where the mountain gate of the Immortal God Emperor Sect is, to find out.

Problem is, I don’t know where this mountain range is.

As he pondered, he suddenly seemed to detect something. As his eyes flashed, two beams of indistinct purple lightning flickered out of his eyes and shot several kilometers away.

Several kilometers away.

A continuous stretch of giant shadows slowly swept across the mountain ridges and wastelands.

It was dozens of giant formation battleships traveling among the clouds with an impressive vigor. Large flags fluttered in the wind, making whistling sounds.

Huh?

The symbol on those flags is…

Ye Qingyu fixed his sights.

He discovered that the flags on the giant warships had a unique lotus-patterned symbol which he had seen in the Greater One Sect before.

Are these the warships of the Greater One Sect?

How did they come to possess such overpowering warships?

He was bewildered.

The warships traveling above the clouds were powerful and domineering, containing sufficient divine power and light-energy cannonballs to rival the firepower of the giant warships used by the Black Moon Divine Palace during the battle of the chaotic windstorms.

Although the Greater One Sect had deployed warships during the battle of the Storm Platform many years ago, the power of those warships was far inferior to that of these irresistible ones. Moreover, Ye Qingyu knew clearly that, given the strength of the Greater One Sect back then, there was absolutely no way they could have created warships of this level.