Chapter 506: The Will of the Immortal Emperor

The figure was clad in a tattered imperial robe whose original color could no longer be discerned, and the robe was covered with cracks and dried dark‑golden bloodstains.

He simply sat there in silence, emitting no aura, yet seemed to be the very center of this ruin, even of the entire universe.

Gu Yuan stared at him.

He also looked at Gu Yuan.

A long while passed.

A voice, as if echoing from before the ages and laden with fatigue and desolation, sounded.

"What year is this night?"

Gu Yuan fell silent for a moment.

He could sense that the figure before him was neither a physical body nor a lingering soul.

It resembled a resolve etched deep within the river of time.

Because the opening of the one hundred twenty‑three Immortal Veins had been inadvertently triggered.

"There is no era name," Gu Yuan replied calmly, "I have no idea how long has passed."

"Is that so... has it ended..."

The figure muttered softly, its tone revealing neither joy nor sorrow.

"Very well."

He slowly lifted his head, and the blurred face seemed to turn toward Gu Yuan.

"Who are you?"

"Gu Yuan."

"Someone from the Gu Family?"

A hint of... interest? seemed to lace the figure's tone.

Gu Yuan felt a stir in his heart.

Even within the Ancient Immortal Court there existed a supreme Gu clan, which had produced more than one titan.

But it should have little to do with his own family.

"Yes, but it is probably not the Gu Family you have in mind."

"That is irrelevant," the figure shook its head, seeming indifferent to answering.

"You... are the Immortal Emperor?"

Gu Yuan finally voiced the question that had plagued him.

To have opened one hundred twenty‑three Immortal Veins and sit upon this broken imperial throne, aside from the legendary Immortal Emperor, he could think of no other.

"Immortal Emperor?"

The figure seemed to smile faintly, a laugh full of self‑mockery.

"Perhaps," it said. "It has been so long that even I am about to forget my own name."

"I even do not know whether I am dead or alive."

His voice carried a bone‑deep weariness.

"I am merely a thought left here, a... thought trapped by contamination."

Contamination!

Gu Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.

Shouzheng had said that the Ancient Immortal Court was annihilated by a terrifying contamination that swept across the heavens and myriad realms.

"Then what exactly is that contamination?" Gu Yuan asked in a low voice.

"What is it?"

The figure on the imperial throne fell into a prolonged silence.

He seemed to be recalling, pondering.

After a long while, he finally spoke slowly.

"It is everything."

"It surpasses the very existence of the Immortal Emperor."

"It may be the ultimate end of cultivation, yet it may also be a presence you can never surpass in a lifetime."

Those words made Gu Yuan's heart plunge abruptly.

He recalled his own increasingly malevolent duplicate.

He remembered the transformation that occurred after the duplicate devoured the resentful souls of billions in the Yuan Realm.

Was that also a form of contamination?

"Immortal Court... why did it fall?" Gu Yuan changed the question.

"Because I was too weak."

The figure on the throne gave an answer that Gu Yuan had not expected.

Weak?

Would the illustrious Immortal Emperor admit to being weak?

"It has nothing to do with Yaochi, Thunder Emperor Ancestor, or the Supreme?"

The Immortal Emperor fell silent.

After a long while.

He seemed to recall something.

"Ah, you mean Yao Mother, Thunder Punishment, and the Primordial Lord."

The Immortal Emperor shook his head: "At the crucial moment they chose to embrace contamination, delivering a back‑handed strike to the Immortal Court."

But that's all there is to it.

The fall of the Celestial Court has nothing to do with them.

Gu Yuan believed it.

Because he thought the earlier silence was the Celestial Emperor mourning.

It turns out he was reminiscing.

He doesn't even remember those so-called giants, supreme immortal kings.

"You're not bad."

The Celestial Emperor seemingly didn't want to recall unnecessary people, and once again turned his gaze toward Gu Yuan.

"One hundred twenty-three immortal meridians, a flawless Dao Fruit, using your body as a seed, forming your own world…… Your path goes farther than I imagined."

"I can feel that your Dao is filled with…… selfishness."

Gu Yuan didn't speak.

"Very good."

Yet the Celestial Emperor made a sound of approval.

"Those heroes who died fighting for all beings, for protection, for righteousness—I've seen far too many of them."

"They're all dead."

"And those selfish ones who only look out for themselves often end up surviving to the end."

"This universe needs no more heroes."

"It needs…… a bastard who can overturn the board."

Gu Yuan looked at him and suddenly said, "You're tired."

This wasn't a question, but a statement.

The Celestial Emperor fell silent.

Yeah.

He's tired.

One person, in this dead silent ruin, guarding an unbeatable pollution, having guarded it for who knows how many eons.

He has witnessed the birth of the universe, and also the destruction of eons.

He has witnessed the rise of countless heroes, and also the fall of countless gods and demons.

He alone has walked for too long, too long.

So long that even he himself has become a cold obsession.

"Yeah."

After a long while, he let out a soft sigh.

"I'm tired."

"Finally…… I've waited for someone who can talk with me."

"My Dao, not lonely."

His figure began to turn transparent.

As if it could dissipate in the wind at any moment.

Gu Yuan knew that this triggered thought was about to reach its end.

"Kid."

The figure on the imperial throne suddenly spoke.

"Considering you've kept this old immortal company and chatted for so long."

"I'll give you a small gift."

"A gift?" Gu Yuan looked at the figure about to dissipate.

"Yeah, a little trinket."

The figure on the imperial throne spoke in a flat tone, as if mentioning a trivial matter.

"Back then, fighting a Celestial Emperor at the source of the pollution, he got too into it, carelessly was ambushed from behind and had a finger cut off."

"That finger fell into the temporal-spatial turbulence and couldn't be found."

"However, at the last moment, I sacrificed and refined it, adding a Sword Intent so I could later find it."

The Celestial Emperor's sentence revealed a piece of information.

There are other Celestial Emperors!

"You…… aren't the only Celestial Emperor?"

"Naturally not."

The Celestial Emperor smiled: "Don't be nervous; for him, nothing is more important than cultivation, so in the short term he shouldn't come looking for you."

"What if he does?"

The Celestial Emperor fell silent.

Gu Yuan also fell silent.

He seemed to also know the answer.

If a Celestial Emperor were to make a move.

Then these myriad heavens and worlds.

Who could stand against them?

The Celestial Emperor's figure had become increasingly illusory.

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore."

"That finger still bearing my Sword Intent, I felt it; it is in your world."

Gu Yuan's spirit instantly sank into his own inner world.

At the top of the World Tree, within the Heavenly Dao world, a palm‑sized, ancient seal riddled with cracks was quietly hovering.

It was exactly the fragment of the Supreme Celestial Emperor Artifact that he had redeemed in the Heavenly Hall Treasury—【Primordial War Seal】!