The entire Celestial Palace was under his control, and in normal circumstances, no one would be able to enter without his permission.
What made Heaven even more cautious was that he was unable to fully utilize his power in the passage, while Wang Chong had nothing to fear.
Heaven was in an extremely passive position.
His true concern, however, was just how Wang Chong had managed to get in in the first place.
Countless thoughts ran through his mind, and a moment later, Heaven understood, his golden eyes slowly turning cold.
“Master Guangcheng, was it you? After so many years, We did not think that you would continue to oppose Us again and again!”
Not even the twelve Supremes knew the secret to entering the Celestial Palace. The only person who did was that one who had experienced that strange coincidence, Master Guangcheng.
“It seems that We did not punish you enough. Once this is all over, We will make sure that things between the two of us are fully understood, but this time, you won’t be so lucky! We will make it so that you never live on this world again!”
Heaven’s voice had a bone-chilling tone, but in a flash, he calmed down.
Bang!
A thick, green-black cloud gushed out of his body, swiftly transforming into a starry sky around Heaven. With a flick of his fingers, these countless stars fused into the sides of the passage.
Though Wang Chong’s attack hadn’t destroyed the Heaven-Reaching Path, it had still damaged it to a certain extent. The Celestial Palace was in a crucial phase, and letting this situation stand might set off a chain reaction with unpredictable consequences.
Though Heaven wanted to continue the pursuit, he was forced to prioritize the repairs.
And someone of Heaven’s strength didn’t need long to repair this passage.
“Flee! This is your choice. In the end, none of you will be leaving this place!”
Heaven glanced down the passage and then quickly put the matter aside.
This truly was the path leading to the Celestial Palace, but it was a path of no return.
Other than him, no one could enter this path and leave alive.
Buzz!
As Heaven applied his arts, his surroundings quieted down.
Farther down the passage, Wang Chong was advancing at full speed.
“How long do you think we can delay him?” Li Xuantu suddenly said, the danger of death following him like a shadow. Though he had been in danger many times before, this was the closest he had ever been to death.
Heaven had cut off their path of retreat, so it was too late for any regrets.
“Our strategy should have already taken effect. The insides of this passage are much more fragile than the outside, and Heaven can’t ignore it. But it won’t buy us that much time!” Wang Chong sternly said.
Every cell in his body was operating at full capacity.
Luo Supreme and Alpha Supreme had vanished into the depths of spacetime, so Wang Chong was no longer confident in his ability to deal with Heaven.
“All we can do is to use this time to break the insides of the Celestial Palace as quickly as possible…”
Suddenly, Wang Chong looked up, his heart thumping.
Li Xuantu also sensed something and looked up.
Rumble!
A thunderous rumbling was coming from above, and as Wang Chong and Li Xuantu stared in shock, roiling thunderclouds blocked their path.
A seal!
This giant thundercloud made the two of them scowl.
Though it was still far in the distance, they could sense pure destructive energy within it.
It was a vast sea of energy that could make anyone tremble in fear.
“What do we do?”
Li Xuantu emerged from the halo divine tool to stand next to Wang Chong, looking up with a scowl.
There was no doubt that Heaven had activated the seals within the Heaven-Reaching Path.
After all, this was Heaven’s personal ritual tool. It was impossible for it to not have any defenses.
The ideal situation was a smooth entry into the very heart of the Celestial Palace, but that was clearly not the reality they lived in.
“This seal contains enormous power, and it’s not that easy to destroy it. Even if we can break through it, it would require vast amounts of Stellar Energy, and that would be enough for Heaven to catch up to us,” Li Xuantu grimly said.
Wang Chong said nothing, but his heart was heavy.
He naturally understood what Li Xuantu was saying. Heaven had clearly calculated everything, which was why he had turned his attention to repairing the passage.
This lightning seal was the first challenge they had to face.
Wang Chong was considering even further than Li Xuantu. A powerful ritual tool like the Celestial Palace wouldn’t have just one seal protecting the passage. Even if they did everything they could to break through this seal, there would probably be a second, a third…
Even if they managed to get inside the Celestial Palace, they would probably be emptied of Stellar Energy and be unable to do anything.
At this time, Wang Chong finally understood why Master Guangcheng had advised them not to do this.
“Don’t worry! I have a way!” Wang Chong finally said after a few moments of thought.
He extended his right hand, and as Li Xuantu watched in shock, Wang Chong snapped his fingers, and a golden light appeared in his palm.
“This is…”
Li Xuantu frowned as he looked questioningly at Wang Chong.
Without a word, Wang Chong opened the seal around the golden light, and Li Xuantu immediately sensed a familiar energy.
“This is… Heaven’s aura!”
Li Xuantu trembled in shock.
Not only did the ball of light in Wang Chong’s palm have Heaven’s aura, it contained a sliver of his core energy.
But Li Xuantu couldn’t think of when Wang Chong could have had a chance to collect this wisp of energy.
Collecting a wisp of core energy from a powerful existence like Heaven was no easy task.
“The Sage Emperor left it behind!” Wang Chong tersely said.
During the matter of the true and false Sage Emperor, Heaven’s avatar had infiltrated the Imperial Palace and summoned Third Son Xuan’s consciousness from within the Sage Emperor’s body. But at that time, the Sage Emperor succeeded in collecting a strand of core energy and sealing it.
The Sage Emperor had left behind a detailed explanation for Wang Chong.
Chapter 2344 - A Sly Trick to Get Through!
Chapter 2344: A Sly Trick to Get Through!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Li Xuantu reacted very quickly and understood what Wang Chong was thinking. “You want to use this sliver of Heaven’s energy to fool the seal and get through?”
“Mm. Time is short, and this is the only solution at present,” Wang Chong calmly said.
“These are seals left by Heaven. No matter what, these seals would never attack Heaven. If we can pretend to be Heaven’s avatar, we might be able to get through without any problems!”
“But what if we fail?” Li Xuantu sternly said.
The seal’s power was not to be underestimated, and Wang Chong was merely offering a hypothesis. If they failed, even with his Grotto Heaven realm cultivation, Wang Chong would be heavily injured.
Wang Chong fell silent. He naturally understood the dangers, but there was no better way.
“If we don’t try, how will we know?” Wang Chong sternly said.
A moment later, Divine Embryo 1 emerged from the halo divine tool, and Wang Chong inserted Heaven’s energy into it.
Buzz!
A few moments later, Divine Embryo 1’s aura disappeared, and Heaven’s energy spread through its body and concealed the original aura.
“It’s still not enough!”
Wang Chong quickly frowned. The energy left behind by the Sage Emperor w
as excessively weak, like a cup of water on a burning cart. It was impossible for it to satisfy the requirements and successfully disguise Divine Embryo 1 as Heaven.
It was like an adult of 1.8 meters tall trying to wear the clothes of a child. No matter how one tried, one would fail to get the clothes on.
After a few moments of thought, Wang Chong suddenly contacted the Stone of Destiny.
“Stone of Destiny, is there a way to convert other energy into this kind of energy?”
The Stone of Destiny had a very powerful conversion ability. It was capable of both Blood Reformation and language translation, so perhaps he could use the Stone of Destiny’s power to assist him in this deception.
The Stone of Destiny was quiet, and a few moments later, it finally delivered its verdict.
“User’s request is impossible to carry out. Target’s attributes are too powerful, and it is difficult to completely convert user’s energy to an energy of the same attribute!”
The Stone of Destiny’s reply left Wang Chong disappointed. However, the Stone of Destiny suddenly began to speak again.
“However, it is completely plausible to convert only the user’s aura. In addition, if user uses the power of the Archon of Destiny, the target energy can be increased to a certain extent, but the effects are extremely limited, and it is not advised for user to do so!”
“It’s enough!”
Wang Chong was elated. All he needed was to deceive the defensive power of the seals, not to become Heaven. For Wang Chong, altering his aura was already enough to become Heaven.
“In the name of the Archon of Destiny, execute the order!” Wang Chong sternly said.
Buzz!
A few moments later, Li Xuantu stared in shock as Divine Embryo 1’s aura completely disappeared, a new energy taking its place.
In the blink of an eye, ‘Heaven’ appeared before Li Xuantu.
“Impossible!”
Even Li Xuantu couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise, mentally sighing in wonder.
Li Xuantu could also change his aura to disguise himself, but not so completely as Wang Chong had.
This was no longer a simple disguise. It was like he had really become Heaven.
Li Xuantu had seen Heaven before, and this was precisely why he was so amazed.
But Wang Chong was unconcerned by his reaction. Once the aura conversion was done, Divine Embryo 1 shot forward like an arrow from a bow toward that thundercloud above.
Ten thousand feet!
Five thousand feet!
Three thousand feet!
The distance shrank, and Wang Chong, Li Xuantu, and Little Nightmare all held their breaths as they nervously watched.
Boom!
A thick bolt of lightning crashed down, passing a hundred-some feet away from Divine Embryo 1. This bolt of lightning managed to leave a deep black fissure in space from which fire gushed out.
However, none of the lightning struck Divine Embryo 1.
Two hundred feet!
One hundred feet!
Wang Chong’s Divine Embryo 1 disappeared into the Celestial Palace’s seal like a bird disappearing into the forest, vanishing without a trace.
“Success!”
While everyone else was still nervous, Wang Chong sighed in relief.
His judgment had been correct. These powerful seals of the Celestial Palace had no means of identifying specific people, only identifying from the aura whether the visitor was an enemy or not.
So long as one could disguise oneself with Heaven’s aura, one could be exempt from all these seals.
“Let’s go!”
A few moments later, Wang Chong called back Divine Embryo 1, and the group passed through the terrifying lightning seal and toward the end of the passage.
One seal, two seals, three seals!
Wang Chong had been correct. Even though Heaven had left himself this path, Heaven had left behind numerous powerful seals within the Celestial Palace.
These seals all had different natures, but they all possessed a destructive energy.
If Wang Chong had not resorted to deception and disguised himself as Heaven’s avatar, he would have ultimately wasted all his strength while still finding it very difficult to get into the Celestial Palace.
Whoosh!
Upon passing through the final seal, Wang Chong and Li Xuantu both exhaled, their expressions relaxing.
“We can finally head to the Celestial Palace. It will be some time before we have to worry about Heaven catching up,” Li Xuantu said, his tense body loosening up.
Wang Chong merely nodded in reply.
“Look at that!” Little Nightmare suddenly called out.
Turning their heads upward, they saw that as they approached the end of the Heaven-Reaching Path, the walls had turned from half-transparent glass to a greenish wood, and if they looked closely, they could see veins and grooves like those found on bark.
Li Xuantu sighed as he said, “This is the real Founding Tree!”
He somewhat understood now why the ancient texts had referred to this passage as the Founding Tree. If one looked at these walls, one would truly believe that they were inside a giant tree.
Li Xuantu could even feel a vigorous, tree-like life force from the walls.
“The current Celestial Palace must be damaged. If my guess is correct, this passage is what the Celestial Palace should have looked like, and why it was called the Founding Tree in ancient times.
“The damage done to the Celestial Palace is why Heaven decided to activate it and offer up the entire capital now!” Wang Chong said as he looked at the jade-green walls around him.
Master Guangcheng had said that Heaven had activated the Celestial Palace to maintain his immortality. This wasn’t wrong, but Wang Chong sensed that Heaven had another motive.
Regardless, these were all reasons that Heaven had to do harm to the Great Tang.
“Come on! Heaven is probably just about done repairing the passage now. We have to use this chance to enter the Celestial Palace and finish our mission!”
Wang Chong focused his energy, his face grim.
As they proceeded along the verdant passage, they encountered no obstacles.
They could sense that the Celestial Palace’s unique pulses of spacetime energy were growing stronger the farther they went.
They weren’t far from the Celestial Palace now.
As Wang Chong and Li Xuantu were preparing to pick up speed and rush to the end, Little Nightmare called out, “Master, look. Someone’s there!”
Their hearts thumped as they instinctively looked over.
Besides them and Heaven, there should have been no one else in the Heaven-Reaching Path. Even the twelve Supremes did not have the privilege to enter this place. But soon, Wang Chong noticed something.
About ten thousand feet away from them, a figure emerged from the jade-green passage, but this person was devoid of aura and did not seem alive.
“This is impossible!”
Before Wang Chong had even spoken, Li Xuantu shot forward, and Wang Chong swiftly followed.
They truly were not alone in this Heaven-Reaching Path. In the passage in front of them, a figure sat cross-legged, wearing ancient attire that belonged neither to this dynasty nor to the Sui Dynasty.
The person had a happy and contented smile, and there was even a hint of pride on his face. And as Wang Chong glanced over, he noticed that this person had a brush in his right hand and a book in his left, as if he was writing something.
But this person lacked any sort of vitality and had clearly been dead for some time.
Li Xuantu waved his hand and immediately took that book.
‘Renowned official of the Wei and Jin, Ge Zhu of the Ge Clan of the southern country, leaves his writing here…’
The book had been written in ancient script, but Li Xuantu had been raised in the imperial household and was well-learned, so this naturally posed no problem to him.
But upon glancing a
t it, Li Xuantu frowned.
“This should be someone from the Wei-Jin period, but Ge Zhu… I’ve never heard of him!”
The two of them had believed that they were alone, but to their surprise, there was someone else in the passage.
Anyone who could enter this place could not be an ordinary individual, but Li Xuantu had never heard the name of Ge Zhu before.
“It should be a descendant of the Daoist Ge Hong. Seeking the Dao and refining pills to attain immortality were very popular in the Wei-Jin period. This person was probably one of them,” Wang Chong sternly said.
(TN: Ge Hong was a scholar who lived during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and is most famous for his writing of the ‘Baopuzi’, the ‘Master of Embracing Simplicity’, which covered the art of refining elixirs amongst other topics.)
“But Teacher said that Heaven normally did not open the Celestial Palace, and outsiders would find it very difficult to enter,” Little Nightmare said from within the Foundation Dimension.
Its words made both Wang Chong and Li Xuantu frown.
Heaven naturally wouldn’t casually open the Celestial Palace, nor would he let in outsiders. It appeared as if this man had gotten in through his own luck and effort, but in reality, Heaven had probably done this intentionally.
“Strange. Heaven should highly value his personal ritual tool, so how could he permit an outsider’s corpse to be here? And why not take care of it? Most importantly, why did Heaven even let in an outsider in the first place?” Li Xuantu asked with a frown.
Chapter 2345 - Numerous Enigmas! Traces of Emperor Wu!
Chapter 2345: Numerous Enigmas! Traces of Emperor Wu!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Though the man had been dead for a long time, Li Xuantu could tell from the various traces of energy on his body that he could have reached the basic level of the Grotto Heaven realm at most. Anyone who could reach this level would be considered a top-class expert in any era, but not by Heaven.
Heaven was so proud that not even the twelve Supremes had a chance to see this Celestial Palace. This Ge Zhu from the Wei-Jin period was weaker than Li Xuantu and Wang Chong, so how could Heaven ever have permitted him inside?
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 1405
