Chapter 1 The Beginning

Whoosh!

Winds surged, and the vast sky of countless miles transformed into a rolling sea of clouds. Endless light fell from the heavens, illuminating countless clouds and scattering radiance upon the world.

This place was already over three thousand miles above the ground, where the gale-force winds were fierce enough to tear apart steel and the temperature was so cold that one's breath turned to ice.

At such an altitude, ordinary birds could not reach this place, let alone mortals, save for spiritual birds and cultivators.

However, upon this high altitude, which should have been devoid of human traces, sat an immense city.

Like a celestial pillar, a gigantic peak rose from the earth, piercing straight into the clouds above. At the summit of the mountain, a vast and magnificent city stood amidst the churning sea of clouds.

This city was large and square, like a great seal imprinted upon this void, obscuring the sky and the sun. As its immense shadow flowed down, it covered who knew how many miles of spiritual fields.

This was a city in the sky.

This was where the Great Zhou Imperial Capital was located, and within it lay the central hub of the Great Zhou Imperial Court, which looked down upon the world with pride.

If someone could look down from above, they would discover that this city was incomparably huge. All the buildings within were far larger than those of ordinary cities, like a city where ancient giants lived.

Ordinary people within it were as small as ants. As they walked and looked around, they would naturally feel immense awe.

Whoosh~

This was a magnificent and solemn palace, guarded by soldiers outside, yet silent within. Only pure spiritual energy, as substantial as smoke, flowed within.

There was no light within.

"When the five colors appear, heaven and earth will collapse..."

At one point, a low murmur echoed within the palace, then dissipated into the darkness.

Boom!

Then, the tens-of-feet-tall palace doors were suddenly pushed open, and streams of pure spiritual power, seemingly imbued with intelligence, leaked out of the palace.

The mundane atmosphere instantly intensified.

It could be seen that with the leakage of this refined spiritual energy, the elite soldiers guarding the palace all felt a thump in their hearts, as if they had seen a venomous snake.

Although they did not retreat, their expressions could not help but change drastically. They were extremely wary, as if the extremely pure spiritual energy was the most terrifying poison in the world.

Pa-thump~

Pa-thump~

Pa-thump~

Within the cold and desolate palace, black boots with dragon patterns stepped on the icy floor, producing crisp sounds.

Beneath the冕旒 (miǎnliú, crown), the gaze was cold and indifferent.

Long Xingyi, clad in a red-gold imperial robe, pushed open the palace doors and stepped into the palace from the light.

Above the high heavens, the sunlight was scorching, but this palace seemed to be isolated from all light, even though the palace doors had been opened.

Even though someone had already walked in.

The light, like a waterfall, remained before the palace doors, with a distinct boundary that was terrifying.

Inside and outside seemed to be two different dimensional worlds.

Whoosh~

Long Xingyi's face was ashen as he slowly stepped into the palace. As his footsteps landed, a buzzing sound grew louder, and layers of void space appeared before him.

The layers of void space gathered and piled up here. As one looked at them, one seemed to be able to see thousands of layers of void space flowing and changing beneath them.

If those who did not know the foundation stepped into this place, they might not only be unable to enter this palace with a single careless step, but might even become lost in the void.

It seemed that within this palace, many dimensions of void space intersected.

Whoosh~

Long Xingyi walked with his hands behind his back. Before long, he stopped in the very center of the palace, at the center of all the void and chaos.

Before him, darkness was like a tide, obscuring sight, but it could not block Long Xingyi's gaze.

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He quietly looked at the ancient bronze cauldron before him, and after a long time, extended a finger and gently tapped it.

Buzz~

A wisp of faint cyan light slowly lit up in the darkness, initially only a dot, then gathering into a ball, and then slowly pulling away.

Like a ball of stretched-out thread, before long, it had transformed into a phantom image upon the massive bronze cauldron, seventy-three units in length and width, like a chessboard, or like a great power gathering the traces of heaven and earth, shrinking the Great Zhou territory hundreds of millions of times over into a sand table.

Upon it, mountains, rivers, grass, trees, plateaus, valleys, and various cities and wildernesses were scattered in various places, lifelike and clearly visible.

It was, without a doubt, the territory of the seventy-two Daos (provinces) of Great Zhou, including the location of the Great Zhou Central Hub.

The various scenes upon it were lifelike and like reality. Zooming in, one could even see the dense figures of people coming and going in the various cities.

Silently watching the Great Zhou Map of Rivers and Mountains before him, Long Xingyi's gaze flickered slightly as he said in a deep voice:

"Northwest Dao, You Province!"

Whoosh~

The cyan light was like water, making rustling sounds. On the map, the corner corresponding to the Northwest You Province suddenly rippled with mist.

In the blink of an eye, various scenes appeared before Long Xingyi's eyes, from far to near, from small to large, in extremely detailed form.

"Five-Colored Divine Light..."

As Long Xingyi murmured to himself, the scene on the screen changed again.

The sky, which had already been high noon, changed with it, as if time was flowing backward. In an instant, it had returned to the starry night sky, recreating the scene of the two people fighting last night.

The Great Zhou Map of Rivers and Mountains was the central treasure sitting upon the bronze cauldron of the previous dynasty, the Great Xia. Upon it were all the rivers and mountains of the world, and it could monitor all the movements of the world.

Even as his thoughts moved, he could recreate and decompose scenes from many days ago, analyzing everything from the smallest time scale.

"Who exactly is the person who made the move..."

But in the next instant, Long Xingyi's expression darkened, because even though he had already reduced the time scale on the map to the lowest level, he still could not detect where that Five-Colored Divine Light came from.

Who was its master.

Vaguely, he could not help but have the illusion that the master of the Five-Colored Divine Light seemed to be extremely knowledgeable about the Great Zhou Map of Rivers and Mountains, or rather, the Great Xia Nine Cauldrons.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible for it to be such a coincidence, hiding all traces of the attack to the point where they could not be discovered.

"The Great Fortune of Heaven and Earth, sometimes rising and sometimes falling. Between the rising and falling of fortune, there are boundless great secrets. Every time, peerless heroes are born in response to the times, stirring up the winds and clouds."

"Such a person, unless it is a true node of great fortune, it is almost impossible to find..."

"Just like the Zhuge Celestial Master of that year, who was among the top three in calculating the past and present, he could not discover the whereabouts of the Grand Ancestor before the collapse of Xia..."

A desolate, ancient, gentle, and slow voice seeped out of the void, floating in the dark and somber palace.

Long Xingyi glanced askance. In the faint cyan light, an old man with white hair and beard, short and hunched, slowly walked out of the darkness.

The crutch made of ancient wood gently tapped the ground, emitting a low and rhythmic sound.

"Dragon Bone Libationer!"

Long Xingyi's gaze narrowed.

The position of Libationer came from ancient times, and was the original position in charge of sacrifices. In the current Great Zhou, it was in charge of etiquette and education.

It was a position of high authority.

These two Libationers of Great Zhou had profound cultivation and extremely long lifespans. It was rumored that they had been guests of the Grand Ancestor and had achieved Dharmakaya (law body) as early as tens of thousands of years ago.

In the current Great Zhou, their status was even higher, especially the Grand Libationer, who was in charge of the responsibility of sacrificing to the heavens, whose status was even vaguely above his, the crown prince.

Therefore, Long Xingyi did not dare to be too negligent. In fact, he was unwilling to personally see these two old fogeys when the five colors appeared in the world.

"The beginning and end of fate, the rise and fall of fortune. We and the Nine Cauldrons obtained one of them, and we can already see through the phenomena of the world. Back then, when the Nine Cauldrons of Great Xia were all present, we could even use the Nine Cauldrons to interfere with the ages and time and space, and reverse and deduce the future changes, but Great Xia, after all, still perished."

The crutch-wielding old man sighed faintly, his old eyes slightly reverent:

"Your Highness, Crown Prince, some things should be slowed down a bit."

"Slow down? It concerns the fate of the country, the general trend. How can this Crown Prince slow down?"

Long Xingyi's expression was indifferent, his gaze unwavering, but he still cupped his fist slightly toward the old man before saying, "Where is the Grand Libationer?"

"Last night, my elder brother observed the celestial phenomena and saw that Five-Colored Divine Light. Afterward, he seemed to have been touched and went into seclusion."

Slightly cupping his fist as a return greeting, Dragon Bone's tone was gentle and without fluctuation:

"Before going into seclusion, my elder brother said that before he comes out of seclusion, it is best for the Crown Prince not to make decisions on his own. Everything should be decided after the 'Ten Thousand Methods Pay Homage, Sacrificial Ceremony to Heaven'.”

At this point, a sharp glint flashed in Dragon Bone's aged eyes as he looked back at Long Xingyi: "Having received the mandate of heaven, one can be prosperous forever! Before the Sacrificial Ceremony to Heaven, the Crown Prince must not cause trouble!"

Long Xingyi stood with his hands behind his back and remained noncommittal upon hearing this: "Is this also what the Grand Libationer said?"

"No."

Dragon Bone shook his head, "This is what this old man said."

"Sacrifice to Heaven, Sacrifice to Heaven, Sacrifice to Heaven!"

Long Xingyi suddenly took a step forward, his eyes bursting with a cold and bone-piercing stream of light: "If we can rest easy just by sacrificing to Heaven, then what about the three generations and forty thousand years of hard work of my Long family?"

"Your Highness, Crown Prince, you have lost your composure."

Dragon Bone's voice was still calm and unruffled, like a ten-thousand-year-old deep pool, without the slightest ripple: "What is the Mandate of Heaven? You who have received the favor of the Mandate of Heaven should understand a thing or two."

"I do not believe in the Mandate of Heaven, I only believe in myself!"

Long Xingyi took a deep breath, suppressing the emotions boiling in his heart, his tone low and indifferent: "If the Mandate of Heaven is immutable, how did Zhuge reverse the Mandate of Heaven?"

"Zhuge..."

Upon hearing this, Dragon Bone fell silent. After a long time, he tapped his ancient staff and said in an inexplicable tone: "There are always some people who are different from ordinary people..."

But he could not refute it.

Since ancient times, there have been many legends about those who wanted to defy and change their fate, and those who truly succeeded were not uncommon.

However, most people only reversed their own fate, and only took the fate of others to cover their own.

Only Zhuge was different, different...

"Ordinary?"

Beneath the 冕旒 (miǎnliú, crown), anger finally flashed in Long Xingyi's eyes: "Dragon Bone Libationer is too complimentary towards Zhuge!"

He was born with strange phenomena, had extraordinary encounters in his youth, and swept across the world in his youth, with no match among his peers or even the older generation.

In his youth, he had already taken control of Great Zhou. At his command, trillions of people were sacrificed, and seventy-two Daos of Yuanshen (original spirit) Dharmakaya experts had to bow their heads to him.

Now, at the age of ten thousand years, almost no one in the world can compare with him.

He never thought that one day, someone would use the word 'ordinary' to describe him!

Dragon Bone slowly raised his head, carefully scrutinized Long Xingyi, then lowered his head and bowed: "This old man misspoke, Your Highness, please do not blame me."

Long Xingyi stared at the old man, who lowered his head and remained silent.

Until a long, long time later, a trembling voice from outside the hall broke the silence within:

"Your Highness! The Yu Hua (Feather Transformation) Imperial Dynasty, Xuan Hua Crown Prince, and Xuan Jing Princess have come to visit!"