Chapter 499

"Great Xia..."

The Nine Heavens True Monarch almost crushed his silver teeth, yet he dared not speak the full name.

Such an immortal, almost every thought elicits a response; if one harbors another thought, it is easily sensed by the other party.

Moreover, she had not forgotten how her sworn second brother, the Yuan Huang True Monarch, had died!

Merely by the thought, the Nine Heavens True Monarch still decided to go to Haojing City.

As for what is hidden in the Eastern Emperor's relics, she is truly curious!

……

Dongxuan Divine Prefecture, outside Haojing City.

Space-time tore apart, Zhang Jian's figure appeared; at this moment, a divine city deep within his palm also rose into the sky, placed by him in the deep subspace outside Haojing City.

Such a magnificent action, in his hand, is described with serene simplicity.

As the Eastern Emperor's Divine City descended, the myriad immortals and gods remained unaware and unconscious.

Zhang Jian's attainment in the two laws of space-time far surpasses that of ordinary immortals and gods.

At this moment, deep within the divine city, layer upon layer of magnificent immortal Dao laws' power flows forth from within.

These are layer upon layer of magnificent miraculous abilities far surpassing the Heavenly Immortal realm, bearing a trace of indestructible and imperishable nature.

Zhang Jian has already sensed it; it is a composite-type third-rank defensive immortal law.

It should have been arranged by the Eastern Emperor at his peak, and is extremely formidable.

Zhang Jian's gaze fell upon the Eastern Emperor's relics; around the relics, the light of sun, moon, and stars is spread everywhere.

Within the radiance, as if myriad stars are arrayed, there lies a domineering divine light that exterminates heaven and earth's living beings; if one is careless, they will be directly struck by the forbidden law.

However, this layer of terrifying celestial starry forbidden law is now suppressed by the power of the Mountains and Rivers Altar deep within Zhang Jian's palm.

"The ancient hegemon Eastern Emperor, during his lifetime, was renowned for his Eastern Emperor Nine Yang Splitting Immortal Law; it is said this ancient hegemon received the Dao lineage inheritance from the ancient Holy King, the Sun Holy Emperor, and is a sworn brother to the Fire Virtue King!"

A portion of information about this ancient sage flashed through Zhang Jian's mind.

His knowledge of the Eastern Emperor is not extensive.

Between heaven and earth, only fragmented words clarify that this is an ancient hegemon who once commanded myriad gods to suppress extraterritorial demons, waged war against extraterritorial powerhouses, and achieved magnificent feats!

Conversely, the Sun Holy Emperor and the Fire Virtue King are mentioned in greater detail.

The Sun Holy Emperor is a Holy King born in ancient times; at that time, the human race of the Zhou Mountain Realm had just sprouted, and gods and demons were numerous.

The Sun Holy Emperor is not only the sovereign of the human race but also the leader of all races.

The Fire Virtue King, however, is the leader of the human race; he was born bearing the Fire Virtue, once obtained the《Sun True Classic》, renowned as the《Fire Virtue True Classic》, and was once famous throughout the land.

Zhang Jian carefully observed the forbidden law surrounding this divine city; he sensed that the third-rank celestial starry forbidden law around here and his own perfected third-rank immortal law seem to share a common origin.

"Chaotic Star Sword Decree!"

Zhang Jian's eyes flickered slightly.

The Chaotic Star Sword Decree is what he learned from a jade tablet on a failed relic by the White Water River.

The origin of that relic is also unknown.

A thought flashed in Zhang Jian's mind; as he waved his hand, only a vast sword intent rose into the sky; within the sword intent, countless starlight burst forth and gathered into a sharp edge, as if countless sword shadows fell from the firmament, suppressing the celestial starry forbidden law around the Eastern Emperor's Divine City; a magnificent starlight avenue instantly formed from the void, extending directly to the city gate.

The city gate slowly opened.

The gate presented a blazing golden hue.

As if it were the gate to the utmost yang of heaven and earth.

Zhang Jian's gaze flickered; as he took a step, his form instantly transformed into a flowing light entering deep into the gate.

However, upon entering deep into the utmost yang gate, Zhang Jian could immediately sense that, in an instant, killing intent permeated the surroundings; strands of celestial starry radiance evolved forth, as if turning the interior of this divine city into a vast star-sea universe.

And the path to the central hub is a Star Divine Bridge, with rows of stars intertwined like spirals, branching into seven or eight routes leading to the central region of the star sea.

On each row of stars, forbidden laws are spread throughout, intertwining life and death.

If an ordinary cultivator falls into it, they must expend great mental effort to unravel the various trials of human nature within.

Zhang Jian, however, is simpler; with a flash of his form, a strand of purple-yellow divine light surrounds him; wherever it passes, the Holy King's divine power seals all laws.

In an instant, he appears to traverse the Milky Way, directly entering the depths of the void divine city.

At the center of the star sea, there stands alone a magnificent palace.

"Fusang Dao Palace!"

Zhang Jian merely glanced at it, and his expression instantly became astonished.

This is a golden palace, actually built upon countless suns' true fire entwined upon boundless eternal stars.

Within the entire interior of the Eastern Emperor's Divine City, there actually lies an extraordinarily vast artificial star.

Its entire body is entwined with endless blazing golden light; countless fire-attribute and pure yang-attribute great Dao laws entwine around it.

Yet Zhang Jian clearly feels that its core deep within is still a celestial great Dao law as the dominant force, governing everything.

Around it, countless celestial starry forbidden laws are spread.

Stars scattered like chess pieces!

However, this poses no difficulty for Zhang Jian; purple-yellow divine light appears in the depths of his eyes; merely glancing, he directly penetrates layer after layer of intense golden light, flying straight from outside this sun star into its interior.

Before the Dao Palace, Zhang Jian's form manifested.

Although beneath his feet lies the fierce true fire of the sun, Zhang Jian feels no heat; instead, the temperature is just right.

In the distance, Zhang Jian's gaze moved; he saw a magnificent and extraordinary mulberry tree.

Its entire body entwined with golden light, towering a thousand zhang in height.

Even more extraordinary is that it is actually a twin-born, conjoined entity!

Born from the same root and growing as twins, resembling twins born joined together, truly miraculous.

"Is this the Fusang, the spiritual root of heaven and earth?"

Zhang Jian's gaze swept over, and a hint of a smile immediately appeared in his eyes.

The Fusang spiritual root actually also exists within the Eastern Emperor's relics; the Eastern State Zhang clan can be said to have added another layer of foundation.

The Fusang spiritual root, a heaven-earth spiritual root, is rumored to be the innate spiritual root of the Sun Holy Emperor, who attained the Dao beneath the Fusang spiritual root.

It is a heaven-earth divine object level spiritual root, close to a heaven-earth rare treasure.

Every thousand years it can bear some mulberry fruits, possessing the effect of enhancing fire-attribute and pure-yang-attribute spiritual roots; moreover, it has two most precious effects: one is to augment vital energy and supplement Dao cultivation, the other is to assist Yin Spirit Venerables in prematurely comprehending the marvel of pure-yang Nascent Spirit.

This is a rare pure-yang divine object.

Zhang Jian's gaze then fell upon the open space between the Dao Palace and the Fusang Divine Tree.

There lay orderly rows of crystalline stone steles.

At this moment, the stone steles were concealed by a secret method, but in Zhang Jian's eyes, nothing could hide.

Those crystalline stone steles numbered over a hundred, each filled with strands of special qi—some icy and cold, some domineering, some blazing, some strange, some filled with endless killing intent.

With a wave of Zhang Jian's hand, a divine light flashed across the void, and immediately the true forms of the stone steles appeared on the open ground.

As he stepped forward to these stone steles, his gaze fell upon them, yet his eyes showed some fluctuation.

Each of these stone steles was refined from the corpses of gods and demons, with the names and taboos of gods and demons clearly inscribed within.

"Guanghan Immortal Sect's Cold Moon Fairy Maiden battled the extraterritorial demon star for 186,000 years in ancient times, both sides suffered mutual damage, and their bones were buried here!"

"The chief of the Five Patrol Envoys of the State and Divine Dao, Ancient Yue God-King, alone guarded the Yuan Chen Pass, dying alongside the Nine Capital True Immortals, the Xuan Du Wang clan's old ancestor, and the Holy King Clan's Jiang Yuanwu!"

"In the year 186,050 of ancient times, the demon clan betrayed; my master, the Yu Hong Immortal Maiden, perished in fragrant demise and jade extinction at Jiuyuan City!"

……

Upon each stone stele, the interior was entirely filled with desolation and indignation.

In Zhang Jian's eyes, there was also some fluctuation.

The era in which this ancient hegemon existed might be the darkest period of the Zhou Mountain Realm.

The number of powerful beings who fell upon these over a hundred stone steles is too great.

Among them are not lacking some founding ancestors whose names shook the ages.

Zhang Jian also saw several cultivators of the Tongshan Dao Lineage among them.

The highest in status among them is a second-generation old ancestor.

It is recorded that in the year 186,500, the Tongshan Five Ancestors' Yu Yang Old Ancestor died in battle before the Nine Springs Mountain Heavenly Envy Demon Gate, and his Nascent Spirit perished together with that of the Heavenly Envy Demon Lord.

Zhang Jian furrowed his brows.

The Tongshan Dao Lineage's second generation originally had twelve second-generation old ancestors, of whom three fell; the fallen ones were the eldest disciple, the second disciple, and the fifth disciple.

The eldest and second disciples fell during ancient times, when King Yu had not yet attained the Dao.

They fell during the struggle for the ancient Holy King's status against the Equal King.

The fifth disciple fell after King Yu Yu had attained the Dao and ascended.

After Zhang Jian glanced over numerous stone steles, he thought for a moment and then re-cast a spell to cover this portion of the stone steles.

From this, Zhang Jian could not help but infer that the Eastern Emperor might have similarly faced the ancient magic spring eruption, a similar heaven-earth great calamity, back then.

However, in ancient times, the gods might not have been united.

On the contrary, this allowed the heaven-earth great calamity to rapidly expand, resulting in numerous heaven-earth fissures, even enabling many extraterritorial powerful beings to descend in their true forms.

To be able to, under such difficult conditions, lead many native powerful beings to basically quell the great calamity—this Eastern Emperor truly deserves the title of ancient sage and worthy.

Zhang Jian then glanced once more at the surrounding splendid halls of the Sun Palace, and finally stepped forward into the depths of the Dao Palace.

Inside the Dao Palace, there were actually no prohibitions at all; instead, it was filled with boundless, vast innate pure-yang spiritual qi.

Endless streams of innate pure-yang spiritual qi flowed out from below, almost transforming the innate pure-yang spiritual qi within the palace interior into liquid form, drifting in the void.

As Zhang Jian, possessing the body of a Holy King, he now lacks no such innate spiritual qi.

At this moment, his gaze fell upon the Dao Palace.

The Dao Palace is spacious, yet around it are many futons and a few cases.

Clearly, in its heyday, it might have been filled with distinguished guests, every seat occupied.

On both sides are spread out grand, splendid, bright yellow interior decorations.

It can be seen that this Eastern Emperor greatly favored splendid, magnificent interior decorations.

The surroundings are filled with a sense of the royal way, the imperial way, and imperial bearing.

Yet now it is empty and desolate.

Only this Dao Palace remains here, having endured the baptism of time.

Zhang Jian merely swept his gaze over, and immediately discovered several rather valuable treasures.

First, there are two coiled dragons on the left and right sides of the case's surrounding pillars; they seem to be transformations of extraterritorial demon dragons.

Those two true dragons were refined into puppets; at their peak, they were celestial-immortal-level extraterritorial demon gods.

Next are the flames held in the beaks of the two tall copper cranes.

These are two exceptionally special innate divine flames; one might be the Nine Hearts Divine Flame, a special divine flame nurtured for hundreds of millions of years deep in the earth, containing part of the earth's creation attribute.

The other is innate pure-yang true fire!

This is one of the renowned innate true fires of the Zhou Mountain Realm, transformed from the fire-attribute Great Dao law's authority.

Zhang Jian merely glanced at it and did not take it; such treasures are of limited use to him now.

Of course, more importantly, he already possesses the Fire Emperor's Dao Attainment Diagram.

The fire-attribute mysteries contained in the Fire Emperor's Dao Attainment Diagram are more direct for him.

Next are the several 'relics' placed on the case!

Zhang Jian's gaze fell upon the case.

They are three relics.

It should be what he left behind before the Eastern Emperor fell.

Among them, two were personal items, and one was a jade pendant, its entire body entwined with endless crimson cloud light, the heavenly and earthly Dao patterns flowing within it in graceful curves.

This is a piece of innate divine jade, unique in material, containing within it numerous fire-attribute forbidden arts.

Zhang Jian glanced at it and immediately knew it was a fourth-rank immortal treasure.

Yet on this immortal treasure, Zhang Jian sensed a trace of the qi mechanism of the Nine Heavens True Lord Xin Ziqing; once the seal is broken, this supreme treasure might very well fly into his hands.

Seeing this, Zhang Jian smiled faintly; since it was the Eastern Emperor's will, he immediately fulfilled his wish.

With a wave of his hand, a divine light shattered the secret art upon the divine jade, and instantly he saw this fire jade transform into a streak of flowing light that tore through the void and fled.

It vanished like a golden flash in an instant.

That was clearly the Golden Crow Transforms into Rainbow Grand Method; this immortal technique, Zhang Jian was very familiar with.

After all, the *Sun True Classic* was still in his hands.

Zhang Jian then turned his gaze to the other two relics.

One was a divine Dao artifact, its entire body entwined with boundless solar authority.

It flowed with fierce divine energy and carried an unusually strong incense aura.

It was an Emperor's Path Divine Sword.

Zhang Jian speculated that it might be the Eastern Emperor's natal divine artifact condensed from his own incense.

Similar to him, this ancient holy king, with vast incense, could likewise forge a natal divine artifact.

One could condense one's vast incense faith power into a heirloom to leave for descendants, or use it oneself as a trump card, effective at critical moments.

But Zhang Jian had not yet begun to forge it.

That is a fourth-rank immortal treasure.

"It seems the Eastern Emperor died in battle; he did not leave behind any other great power immortal treasures!"

Zhang Jian thought to himself.

It is rumored that the ancient hegemon Eastern Emperor possessed two supreme treasures in his hands: one was the Chart of the Heavenly Stars, the other was the Nine Yang Bell; both were fifth-rank immortal treasures.

Now neither is seen; clearly they were taken with him, possibly lost on the battlefield in the end.

The treasures left here should be dispensable, so he simply left them behind.

The last one was a wooden slip carved from fusang wood!

Zhang Jian had already guessed its purpose!

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Jian broke the secret arts entwining it, took it into his hand, and sent his primordial spirit to probe within.

"Indeed..."

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Zhang Jian's mouth.

Inside this fusang wooden slip was the Eastern Emperor's entire foundation and inheritance.

*The Record of the Heavenly Stars Treasure*!

Just a glance, and Zhang Jian's heart could not help but stir with waves.

The ancient hegemon Eastern Emperor's entire Dao and methods had their merits, especially his attainment in the Great Heavenly Dao and the Pure Yang Dao, which was exceptionally profound.

His fifth-rank immortal technique inheritance includes the Eastern Emperor's Nine Yang Splitting Immortal Method and the Heavenly Stars Method, both astonishing.

These two fifth-rank immortal methods can both be integrated into the two main immortal methods of the Mountains and Rivers State Diagram; the Eastern Emperor's Nine Yang Splitting Immortal Method can complement the Golden Crow Transformation Great Method.

The Heavenly Stars Great Method contains the mysteries of the Heavenly Stars, precisely the advanced gate of the Chaos Star Sword Art.

However, relying on his own understanding of the Heavenly Stars, Zhang Jian had also nearly comprehended this realm.

Combined with the power of the Heavenly Stars Soul, Zhang Jian believes he will surely achieve surpassing his teacher while emerging from the blue!

This *Record of the Heavenly Stars Treasure*, Zhang Jian immediately took it away; as for the other treasures, he left them here, to be used later as a semi-public trial ground for the Great Xia Dynasty, which also counts as not failing the Eastern Emperor, this ancient hegemon's legacy.

Zhang Jian then browsed through the other immortal palaces, and soon departed from this Eastern Emperor Divine City.

Subsequently, the immortals of the Ministry of Works of the Great Xia Dynasty re-surveyed this divine city, conducted a comprehensive assessment, and thereafter prepared to open it.

……

Time passed swiftly; as Zhang Jian attained the Dao, some messages from beyond the heavens gradually came through special channels and were delivered to his desk.

These were the "employment invitation letters" sent by many heavenly realms!

Zhang Jian had not yet ascended, yet many major powers beyond the realm had already extended olive branches to him in advance!