In the secret chamber of Jade Dragon Villa in the Qilin Mountains.
The abbot of Ten Thousand Buddha Temple, the sect leader of Nine Heavens Pavilion, the grand master of Huating Sect, and Prince Li, the宗正 (Imperial Clan Affairs Minister) of the Great Yong Dynasty, were gathered together. They exchanged glances for a while with grim expressions. Finally, Prince Li tapped the table and said:
"An unknown celestial being appears, and you had no inkling of it. And you still have the gall to talk about suppressing and overseeing the world? Is this how you oversee the world?
The ancestors are very disappointed in you.
They asked me to remind you, if your abilities are too lacking to help suppress and oversee the world, our royal family wouldn't mind re-establishing a few other sects. You should know, our royal family has the capability; we were the ones who elevated your three sects in the first place.
We can also cast you three sects into the abyss."
The Ten Thousand Buddha Temple, Nine Heavens Pavilion, and Huating Sect, the three top sects in the world, had all soared to prominence by aligning themselves with the founding emperor of the Great Yong. Their contributions to establishing the dynasty brought them immense power and inexhaustible resources, leading to their current status and dominance over other sects.
Most crucially, the core martial arts secret manuals they cultivated were all derived from the Human Emperor Suppressing Heaven Art, the imperial family's supreme technique.
While these derived techniques were indeed more potent than those of other sects, they shared a fundamental flaw: anyone cultivating these derived techniques, no matter how powerful, would be suppressed by a practitioner of the authentic Human Emperor Suppressing Heaven Art. This suppression could even transcend major cultivation realms.
In other words, a single Grandmaster from the imperial family who practiced the Human Emperor Suppressing Heaven Art was enough to suppress a celestial being who cultivated a derived technique. This was reportedly connected to the nation's destiny and the emperor's mandate, but regardless of the specific origin, this was the reality.
This situation made the imperial family deeply trust the three major sects, firmly believing they would never betray them, or if they did, they would be no match for the royal family.
Simultaneously, they harbored even greater apprehension towards other sects producing celestial beings.
Therefore, besides obeying their commands and carrying out tasks that were inconvenient for the imperial family to handle openly, the three major sects had a crucial responsibility: to oversee the martial world for them.
They were to monitor the movements of all martial artists with the potential to become celestial beings.
And to ensure they met untimely deaths whenever possible.
Any individual who reached the Grandmaster realm around the age of thirty would be placed on a kill list.
They even had informants within the demonic sects.
After all, assassinating talented martial artists was acceptable once or twice, but frequent occurrences would easily expose their methods. Therefore, if individuals from the demonic sects were exclusively targeting righteous sect geniuses, everything would appear far more plausible.
However, the demonic sects sensed the situation was spiraling out of control.
This led to the joint crackdown forty years ago.
Now, with the sudden appearance of a new, young celestial being in the world, how could the Great Yong's Old Ancestor, who was over 250 years old and had long since retreated to the background, that is, the founding emperor, not be enraged?
Their royal family had failed to cultivate any new celestial beings, yet a new one had emerged elsewhere. This was undoubtedly a tremendous threat to their royal family.
After all, he himself had only a few decades left to live, while a new celestial being, barring accidents, could live for at least another 150 to 160 years, or even over 200 if their aptitude was higher. How could he not be worried?
This was why Prince Li displayed such fury.
No ruler wished for the world to become uncontrollable or to harbor individuals who could contend with them.
"Heh, Prince Li, while the emergence of a new celestial being in the world is our failing, compared to our three sects, aren't there more people responsible for overseeing the world within the imperial court? Yet they also failed to discover anything. They haven't even figured out who this new celestial being is to this day.
So what's the point of you taking your anger out on us?
We have our faults and sins, but do you, the current 宗正 responsible for overseeing the world within the royal family, have no faults or sins?
Don't try to shift all the blame onto us to absolve yourself; we won't accept that."
Over the years, the three major sects had developed foundations that were in no way inferior to the royal family's. Their celestial being grand elders had even been secretly trying to modify their core cultivation techniques, willing to decrease their power to reduce the restrictions and constraints they faced.
Most importantly, they estimated that the royal family's celestial being ancestor, the founding emperor, due to numerous injuries sustained in his youth, would not live to the full lifespan of a celestial being, which was 300 years.
He would likely reach his limit around 260 or 270.
As he was already over 250 this year, he didn't have many years left. Moreover, the relationship between the royal family and them was already so close that a complete rupture was no longer feasible.
Therefore, they were unwilling to be ordered around, treated with condescension, and scolded with arrogance.
Thus, the sect leader of Huating Sect immediately retorted with a cold, unimpressed sneer. If a real confrontation were to occur, they might not fear the royal family. Their current relationship was merely one of cooperation, so why should they grovel like dogs?
"You..."
Prince Li was accustomed to being superior. Being questioned and retorted to like this naturally made him furious, but he also knew that if he were to completely sever ties with the other three sects, the Old Ancestor would not forgive him.
Furthermore, he might not even be able to defeat them.
So, in the end, he couldn't even utter any harsh threats.
This undoubtedly made the other two present look down on him even more. However, to spare his dignity, they did not add insult to injury by continuing to mock him. Instead, they mediated and steered the conversation back to the main topic: the new celestial being.
"Prince Li, based on the information we've gathered, it's believed that the individual broke through in the forest near Yuhua Sect. The celestial phenomenon at the time was considerable.
As for their specific identity.
No one knows for now.
We only know she is female. And in this world, it's rare for women to disguise themselves as men, while men rarely disguise themselves as women, so her gender is likely confirmed. Furthermore, she excels in swordsmanship, but her power was so immense that she killed that demonic elder with mere sword qi that lacked any elemental properties or distinguishing features, making it difficult to analyze her martial arts from the residual sword qi.
However, it is certain she had a feud with that demonic elder.
It can be said that she broke through to the celestial realm and immediately went to seek revenge on that demonic elder. Although we don't know why she didn't seek revenge when she was still a Grandmaster, the enmity is undeniable.
We are currently meticulously investigating the enemies of that demonic elder, but he had far too many adversaries. We are still slowly sifting through them.
These are the only known details so far."
After everyone's emotions had calmed down, the sect leader of Nine Heavens Pavilion quickly recounted the information they had obtained.
To be honest, there was very little useful content.
It was practically impossible to determine who that celestial being was.