Chapter 844: Distinctions of Closeness and Distance

The last person to become an Immortal.

Li Rui thought to himself.

His steps did not pause as he swiftly approached the Green Emperor statue.

Most of the cultivators who had entered the Emperor’s Hall ahead of him were gathered at the base of the massive Green Emperor stone statue.

The Emperor’s Trial is called Imperial Listening.

The Emperor’s Trial is not a contest among Immortal Sects; cultivation base and talent are secondary at best—what they seek is a promising candidate to suppress an entire dynasty.

As the saying goes: the great affairs of a state are sacrifice and war.

What is sacrifice?

It is the offering to the spirits of past Emperors.

Li Rui slightly narrowed his eyes; upon the Green Emperor statue, he sensed a hundred distinct qi signatures—all of them past Emperors.

The Emperor’s Hall—the very words “Emperor’s Hall” are the most fitting in the world.

For every Emperor, in the end, is buried within the Emperor’s Hall; over a thousand years, the accumulated imperial qi and imperial souls have become immense.

Emperors of every dynasty took pride in being interred within the Emperor’s Hall.

Imperial Listening means linking one’s own fortune to the statue, gaining recognition from the imperial souls within the Green Emperor statue; the degree of recognition is divided by the color of the aura.

Purple qi is supreme, red qi is middling, blue qi is inferior.

Li Rui recalled the intelligence he had heard from Yu Haizhen.

At that moment,

A middle-aged man clad in a python robe spoke leisurely, casting a kind gaze toward Li Rui: “My name is Ji Fang, Ji Fan’s clan uncle.”

“Greetings, Elder Ji.”

Li Rui bowed his hands.

“Just call me fellow cultivator.”

Ji Fang waved his hand.

His bearing was even nobler than that of many imperial clans of the Shenxu Immortal Dynasty.

Who in the world does not know that the Zhongyao Immortal Dynasty shares the same ancestral roots as the Ji family? As one of the five supreme-tier Immortal Dynasties of the Emperor’s Hall, the Zhongyao Ji clan naturally had to send representatives.

Unlike first-tier Immortal Dynasties,

The five supreme-tier Immortal Dynasties may send ten participants each to the Emperor’s Trial.

Ji Fang had entered precisely in this manner.

This was already Ji Fang’s second visit to the Emperor’s Hall.

He was among the most experienced, and thus knew every detail within the hall.

Ji Fang: “I wonder if anyone this time will again earn purple qi.”

This trial truly represents the level of recognition from past Emperors.

Those who earn blue qi are recognized by ten Emperors.

Those who earn red qi are recognized by thirty Emperors.

Those who earn purple qi are recognized by a hundred Emperors.

Understand that each Emperor had a different temperament; even if a True Person possessed extraordinary talent, if an Emperor disliked him, he simply would not be favored—let alone gaining the approval of a hundred Emperors at once. How difficult is that?

Even spirit stones are not universally loved, let alone a stranger from a later generation.

Thus, those who earn purple qi are invariably beings blessed with immense fortune.

“It has been fifteen hundred years since the last purple qi appeared.”

Ji Fang spoke with a cheerful smile.

He understood the Emperor’s Trial thoroughly.

Li Rui grew interested; given his connection to Ji Fan, he immediately began conversing with Ji Fang.

Ji Fan merely smiled in response, not immediately linking his own dao qi to the imperial spirits within the statue, but instead observing like a spectator, glancing left and right.

The calm of an experienced cultivator.

Those with keen eyes would notice that not only Ji Fang, but many cultivators from the supreme-tier Immortal Dynasties, also watched calmly, not rushing to activate their dao power.

Why?

Clearly, they had been instructed by their family elders before arriving.

Hence, they were in no hurry.

Those who first activated their dao power were mostly the patriarchs and Holy Emperors of first-tier Immortal Dynasties.

Of course,

To say these men were impulsive and restless

would be to vastly underestimate the ruthless ones who had carved their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood—they knew these truths well.

But do not forget:

The imperial spirits within the statue were strangers to them, yet to the imperial clan disciples of the supreme-tier dynasties, they were their ancestors—great-grandfathers, uncles, patriarchs!

Relying on first impressions is nowhere near as reliable as relying on bloodline.

Precisely because of this, the imperial clan disciples of the supreme-tier dynasties could remain so composed.

The facts proved it so.