“The legends… are true….” No one, not even Celestial Virūpākṣa, was paying any attention to Bai Xiaochun anymore. Everyone was focused on entering one of the fan rib paths.
Bai Xiaochun joined them, his heart pounding, his mind ringing with the message that had just been transmitted.
This fan was not, in fact, an archaean precious treasure. It was… a world treasure that had once belonged to a sovereign!
The Sovereign Realm was something that could drive the countless cultivators in the Eternal Immortal Domains completely crazy. They would do just about anything to become that powerful!
Qi Condensation cultivators and archaean emperors alike would go to any lengths to achieve that goal!
From ancient times until this moment, there had only ever been three sovereigns in the Eternal Immortal Domains, all of whom had perished. After their deaths, the three dynasties had come to be: the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, Saint-Emperor Dynasty, and Arch-Emperor Dynasty!
Obviously, the Sovereign Realm was supreme and unparalleled!
Of course, there were different levels within the Sovereign Realm. For example, the enormous sleeping giant outside of the Eternal Immortal Domains was supremely powerful among sovereigns. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to call him a paragon entity!
There used to be innumerable worlds out in the starry sky, all of which could have potentially given rise to sovereigns. But things were different now. A catastrophe occurred when the Enemy from Beyond, that enormous sovereign outside the Eternal Immortal Domains, personally destroyed the entire starry sky. All worlds and all living beings died, giving birth to endless darkness.
The damaged fan had once belonged to some unknown sovereign who was killed in body and soul. However, that sovereign’s legacy had remained behind. It was damaged, but… it was still a legacy treasure!
What was generally referred to as a legacy was essentially a set of core Daoist teachings and doctrines.
This fan… was a precious treasure that contained the legacy of a sovereign’s Daoist teachings and doctrines!
After that unknown sovereign died, this damaged fan kept floating through the dark, lifeless void. Years upon years passed, an endless cycle in which it traveled without cease. From the moment its journey began until now, it never found a second owner!
And there could only ever be one person to become the successor of that unknown sovereign, only one person to inherit that sovereign's core Daoist teachings and doctrines!
“Every rib on that treasured fan… is a path to the legacy. Every path contains a hundred levels. Whoever can get through the most levels in three months… will become the new owner of this magical item!
“According to the voice that spoke in my head, the one hundred levels within the various fan ribs are all the same. Furthermore, passing each level comes with a reward…. After all, the goal of the fan is to find a successor, not to kill people!” That last point was why all of the cultivators from the two dynasties were so excited.
And it was also why the devas were already filled with so much passion.
As of now, they realized that they could contend with celestials to gain ownership of the fan, and acquire the core Daoist teachings and doctrines of a sovereign. Even better, the levels all came with rewards. Although no one knew exactly what those rewards were, this item had once belonged to a sovereign, so any rewards would be significant, enough to drive the devas and demigods crazy.
And thus, everyone raced toward the paths in the fan ribs. There were already people disappearing inside as Bai Xiaochun hurried onward.
After selecting a fan rib, he was just about to enter when, all of a sudden, a different nearby fan rib glowed with bright light. A moment later, a deva cultivator from the Saint-Emperor Dynasty tumbled out, coughing up blood. After staggering backward a bit, he settled down cross-legged to meditate, a defiant gleam in his eyes.
Bai Xiaochun was obviously surprised by this.
“That guy failed? He’s a deva, but he couldn’t even get past the first level?!” All of a sudden, Bai Xiaochun felt the need to be more on guard than ever. After a moment of thought, he turned and hurried over to the deva cultivator.
When the man saw Bai Xiaochun approaching, it didn’t matter that he was from the Heavenspan Realm, he was a celestial. The deva quickly rose to his feet and clasped hands formally.
“What happened in there?” Bai Xiaochun asked. “You failed? On the first level?”
The deva hesitated for a short moment. Not daring to hold back the truth, he lowered his voice and explained that he had come close to passing the first level, but had failed in the end.
According to his description, the first level featured five deva-level puppets.
At that point, Bai Xiaochun breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, seven or eight more devas emerged from the fan ribs in bad shape. All of them had various injuries, but none were life-threatening. At this point, Bai Xiaochun felt a bit more confident. After taking out a few more sets of leather armor and putting them on, he took a deep breath and headed back to where he had been about to enter the fan rib.
The moment his foot touched the rib, rumbling sounds filled his ears, and his vision swam. When he could see clearly again, he was in a ring-shaped arena.
Great pressure weighed down on the arena, at the front of which was a huge statue, half-human, half-beast, with a very vicious expression.
Five monkeys sat in meditation at the foot of the statue, their fur as bright as fire. When they opened their eyes, they were all equally crimson. Growling, they transformed into five beams of light that shot toward Bai Xiaochun.
Bai Xiaochun was initially struck with fear. After all, it was impossible to use divine sense to check the cultivation base fluctuations of the monkeys, which looked incredibly fearsome.
But even as Bai Xiaochun began to back up, he blinked a few times.
“I can’t check their cultivation base, but… they’re so slow! So, I guess the levels don’t adjust to your cultivation base….” Eyes shining with confidence, he charged toward the five monkeys.
Raising his voice, he shouted, “Anyone who gets in my way… dies!”
Feeling very pleased with how heroic he sounded, he picked up speed, causing a tempest to spring up as he closed in on the monkeys.
He didn’t need to use any divine abilities or magical techniques. He had so much momentum that three of the monkeys exploded before he could even touch them, becoming nothing more than wisps of smoke.
The other two held on for a moment longer, but then similarly exploded into smoke as he passed.
Feeling very relaxed, Bai Xiaochun came to a stop on top of the head of the statue. Clasping his hands behind his back, he proudly swished his sleeve.
“All who dare to block the path of Bai Xiaochun, are doomed… to be reduced to ashes.” Just when he was about to continue onward, the wisps of smoke formed together into a medicinal pill, which he grabbed. It was translucent, and emanated a strange, fragrant aroma. Although he didn’t know the name of the pill, based on his Dao of medicine, he could quickly tell that this could be described as an immortal pill for people in the Deva Realm.
In fact, to people from the Eternal Immortal Domains, it would probably be more valuable than ten deva-level immortal pills.
Feeling wonderful, he put the medicinal pill away, whereupon the world around him vanished, and the fan rib appeared ahead of him. Without any hesitation, he proceeded on to the second level, and then the third….
He crushed each and every level as easily as dried weeds, until he found himself in the sixth level.
This level was different than anything before it. Ruins stretched out around him, along with nine steps leading upward. After lifting his foot off the eighth and final step, he realized that the secret of this level had to do with the pressure which would crush down, and was based on the level of one’s cultivation base!
“That can’t stop me!” Snorting coldly, he drew upon his boundless fleshly body power to place his foot down and complete the sixth level!