The Human Emperor

Chapter 2375: Master Guangcheng’s Secret!

“Mm.”

Master Guangcheng nodded.

In the Celestial Palace, the psychic brand that Xuanyuan had left had also mentioned this. Before the incident, Xuanyuan had managed to develop a few theories from the clues around him. Even so, Xuanyuan felt no hatred for Master Guangcheng. On the contrary, he was grateful to Master Guangcheng for keeping him company for countless days and nights. However, this was exactly why Master Guangcheng felt so ashamed and overcome with grief.

“Wang Chong, thank you for listening to all this,” Master Guangcheng said, his expression softening.

“Xuanyuan is the best disciple I’ve ever had, and the one that I cared about the most. I poured a great deal of blood and sweat into him, and there perhaps will be no one else with such outstanding talent and brilliant qualities. I will also not take any other disciple. Xuanyuan’s death was the greatest pain in my life, and it is precisely why I do not wish for you to retread his unfortunate path.

“In the Celestial Palace, while you managed to defeat Heaven and destroy his personal ritual tool, that was far from enough to kill him. So long as he lives, you are still far away from talking about victory.

“Heaven has far greater abilities than you can imagine. Even if his soul is heavily injured, so long as he is given enough time, he can still come back, and the Purification plan and Celestial Palace will repeat themselves.

“Moreover, Heaven has at least three Doomsday Insignias under his control. Essence Supreme, Grand Supreme, and Radiance Supreme are gathering the rest. Heaven’s reemergence is inevitable,” Master Guangcheng said.

Wang Chong fell silent, his heart heavy.

At that moment, Wang Chong thought about Xu Qiqin. Whether it was for saving Xu Qiqin or saving this world, Heaven was a barrier that had to be overcome. Only by killing him could everything be brought to an end.

“Wang Chong, you’ve never seen Heaven’s original body, so you don’t understand how powerful he is. With your current ability, even with Little Grass’s legacy, you’re still no match for Heaven. This is a power that is far beyond your ken. Only the Divine Martial realm can deal with the Divine Martial realm. If you cannot break through that threshold, then once Heaven truly emerges into the world, everything will come to an end, and everything you have done before this will be meaningless,” Master Guangcheng solemnly said.

“But… how can I reach the Divine Martial realm?” Wang Chong finally asked.

The Divine Martial realm!

This realm was far too distant. Even though Wang Chong had a cultivation that placed him far above other mortals, he still had no idea about how to reach the Divine Martial realm.

The Sage Emperor had tried to reach the Divine Martial realm, but he had ultimately failed.

Since ancient times, only Heaven had ever managed to reach the Divine Martial realm.

“This is the main reason I sought you out. Reaching the Divine Martial realm requires a long time and astonishing talent, as well as various lucky encounters. Truly, it can only be run into, not sought after. But there is one important thing to reach the Divine Martial realm that one cannot go without, and it is also one of the reasons no one except Heaven has ever succeeded.”

Wang Chong straightened up as he hastily asked, “What is it?”

“Dragon Qi!” Master Guangcheng firmly said.

“Ah?”

Wang Chong was struck dumb. He had never imagined that this would be the necessary item for advancing to the Divine Martial realm.

“‘Dragon Qi’ is just one name for it. You can also consider it as the acknowledgement of the heavens and earth,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

“In the Subtle realm and Grotto Heaven realm, one understands how to control the laws of the world. At the Divine Martial realm, one requires the law of the world to submit to you. You must become the master of laws, the master of the world.

“Only by obtaining the acknowledgment of the heavens and earth can you surpass the Grotto Heaven realm, and observe and control an even higher level of energy. It is similar to how one deep in the mountains cannot see the entirety of the mountain. Only by escaping this situation and placing oneself high in the sky can one see everything,” Master Guangcheng said.

Wang Chong turned pensive.

Though he still didn’t understand what sort of power the Divine Martial realm was, he was gradually beginning to understand Master Guangcheng’s words.

What Master Guangcheng was saying was really that he needed to ‘surpass laws’. Only by surpassing the laws of the world would he be able to take another step forward, to an even higher level.

“Since ancient times, only imperial households have possessed the Dragon Qi, and only Emperors have become masters of the world, acknowledged by countless people, so they found it easiest to transcend. Heaven was the earliest sovereign of the world, and this was an important reason that he was able to reach the Divine Martial realm.

“But after Heaven, it has become basically impossible to reach this level. Those astonishingly talented experts are mostly solitary loners who are used to traversing the wilds, so very few of them have had a chance to become Emperor. As for Emperors of the secular realms, few of them can reach the Saint Martial realm, let alone the Divine Martial realm. A sovereign has numerous affairs constantly dragging them down, and they waste so much time on government affairs that it is foreordained that they cannot reach a very high level of cultivation. Thus, for countless eons and epochs, no one except Heaven has been able to reach the Divine Martial realm.

“Li Taiyi had the greatest hope of breaking these fetters and reaching the Divine Martial realm, but in the end, he failed.”

Master Guangcheng sighed.

Li Taiyi was the renowned Sage Emperor, the wise sovereign supported by the countless people of the Central Plains. His incredible talent and cultivation were enough to win the admiration and praise of countless martial artists, and there were few that could match him.

He had fit both of those two important requirements, but alas, he had still failed.

If even Li Taiyi had failed, how could anyone else succeed?

“Wang Chong, you are different. You and Li Taiyi are the most unique people I have seen in the last thousand-some years, the people with the greatest chance of reaching the Divine Martial realm. While you are no sovereign, you have the Dragon Qi that only a sovereign should have. And your cultivation… Now that you have obtained Little Grass’s legacy, I am sure that you can reach that boy Taiyi’s level.

“I have never reached the Divine Martial realm before, and even that boy Taiyi failed at the last hurdle. Neither of us were able to successfully glimpse that realm, so we are not able to impart to you much information on how to advance to that realm. You will have to depend on yourself for this,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

Dragon Qi and transcending the laws—this was what he had wanted to tell Wang Chong. Besides these two things, there were several other important factors, but no one except someone who was attempting to reach the Divine Martial realm could possibly know about them.

Wang Chong bowed and solemnly said, “Many thanks, Senior!”

At Wang Chong’s level of cultivation, the quantity and density of one’s energy were no longer very important. Information played a far more important role.

For Wang Chong, Master Guangcheng’s two points were priceless treasures, information that he could not obtain through any other method.

“Mm.”

Master Guangcheng looked at Wang Chong and nodded in praise.

While he had initially somewhat rejected Wang Chong, Wang Chong had successfully used his actions to obtain his recognition.

He had seen the same rare qualities on Wang Chong that he had once seen on Little Grass.

“But there is one point that you must take very seriously. The process of breaking into the Divine Martial realm is extremely dangerous. If you succeed, you will reach the same level as Heaven, and your soul will become immortal, but if you fail… you will be unable to transcend the laws, so you will receive a backlash from them. This was why Li Taiyi grew weaker and weaker, and in the end, he was so weak that he could only fight to a draw with Heaven’s avatar. This is the backlash of the world’s laws. If this happens, it means that the entire world has become your enemy, and even breathing becomes a battle. This is because all the laws are rejecting you!”

Boom!

Master Guangcheng’s words made Wang Chong’s heart shudder. Breaking into the Divine Martial realm would result in either advancement or withdrawal, as failure would result in backlash. Wang Chong had already known about this.

For many years, all the court physicians and Li Taiyi himself had attempted to find a way to treat the Sage Emperor’s injuries, but none of them had succeeded.

But this was the first time Wang Chong had heard the truth behind the backlash.

“So that’s how it was. I see…” Wang Chong muttered, his mind in turmoil.

Wang Chong’s mind immediately went to the World Constraint. If the Stone of Destiny could resist the World Constraint, then if the Sage Emperor had also…

Wang Chong quickly shook his head and rejected the idea.

The Sage Emperor was Destiny Experimental Body 9. He also had a Stone of Destiny, and if this problem could have been solved that way, it would have already been solved.

Moreover, while the World Constraint was severe, it would only happen once every long interval. However, from what Master Guangcheng had said, the Sage Emperor had been fighting the world at every moment. These were two completely different concepts.

“Understood. Thank you, Senior!” Wang Chong sincerely said.

“There is one last thing!”

Master Guangcheng’s face turned solemn, and his sleeve shook as he extended a finger.

As Wang Chong watched, countless points of light gathered on the tip of Master Guangcheng’s finger, transforming into a dragon-shaped character the size of an infant’s fist. Besides the image of a dragon, there was also that of a mountain.

Before Wang Chong could understand what was going on, Master Guangcheng thrust his palm forward, sending that image into Wang Chong’s body.

Wang Chong’s body shivered, his mind in shock.

“Senior, this is…”

Master Guangcheng slowly drew back his finger and sternly said, “This is my last gift to you, and it is also Heaven’s greatest mistake.”

He was clearly somewhat tired from this effort. It was apparent that creating this image had taken far more effort than it seemed.

“When Heaven intercepted me and sealed my soul into the earth, his intention had been to punish me, for me to suffer eternal pain and torment. But there are some things that not even Heaven can predict.

“When he sealed me, at the start, all I experienced was unimaginable pain and torment, and it was nothing but darkness beneath the earth. It seemed that I would not be able to see the sun for the rest of time.

“But not even the plans of Heaven are perfect. After an earthquake, all of the surrounding earth veins shifted in my direction. Besides that, after suffering more than three hundred years of pain and torment, my soul began to fuse with the earthly energy of the entire mountain range—something which Heaven could have never predicted. From a certain perspective, I am that mountain and that mountain is me. To put it another way, I became a ‘mountain god’.”