Of his fifteen Heaven Palaces, the first and foremost is the main Heaven Palace, formed from the Dao hidden within his Spirit Embryo Treasury.
Second is the Divine Sense Grand-Luo Heaven Palace, followed by the Sword Heaven Palace, Dragon Heaven Palace, Demon Heaven Palace, Creation Heaven Palace, Martial Dao Heaven Palace, and Painting Heaven Palace.
These eight Heaven Palaces are complete.
The other seven—Blade Heaven Palace, Medical Heaven Palace, Divine-Art Heaven Palace, Forging Heaven Palace, Buddhist Heaven Palace, Thief Heaven Palace, and Formation Heaven Palace—are still incomplete.
This time, Quinn Shepherd was attempting to have his Primordial Spirit break through the South Heaven Gates of his eight complete Heaven Palaces. If he succeeded, it would mark his entry into the True God realm—albeit an incomplete one.
Once the Butcher, Old Ma, and the others achieved breakthroughs and developed techniques leading straight to the Emperor’s Throne, Quinn could learn directly from them and perfect his remaining seven Heaven Palaces.
His Overlord Three-Core Art now counted as a small Heaven Court method, still some distance from the full eighteen Heaven Palaces of the great Heaven Court method.
Quinn activated his Overlord Three-Core Art. His Primordial Spirit stood before the South Heaven Gate of the main Heaven Palace—then suddenly split into fifteen, each Primordial Spirit appearing inside a different Heaven Palace.
This was the Primordial Spirit fission technique from the Threefold Undying Mind.
After Quinn refined the Threefold Undying Mind, he integrated it into his Overlord Three-Core Art. This set him apart from other Heaven Court cultivators like Madam Yuanmu and Her Majesty the Empress, whose great Heaven Court methods use only Primordial Spirit projections—casting shadows into each Heaven Palace, rather than sending true Primordial Spirits.
Quinn, however, used true Primordial Spirit division.
All fifteen of Quinn's Primordial Spirits advanced together, simultaneously stepping into the South Heaven Gates.
An invisible pressure swept in—the South Heaven Gate’s force was strange, pressing in from every direction. Every inch of his Primordial Spirit’s surface endured immense pressure, and even the deepest corners of his Primordial Spirit suffered force from all sides.
Previously, Quinn hadn’t understood the source of this pressure, but now he realized it was Dao pressure.
The Heaven Palace realm is modeled after the structure of Heaven Court, and the South Heaven Gate is the South Heaven Gate of Heaven Court—formed from the ancient gods’ Dao.
It could be said that for every god who enters the divine realm, their South Heaven Gate is a projection of Heaven Court’s South Heaven Gate. Only by enduring Dao pressure and passing through the gate into the Heaven Palace can one be considered a True God.
However, in Quinn’s Heaven Palaces, some South Heaven Gates are formed from postnatal Daos—the Sword, Creation, Martial Dao, and Painting Heaven Palaces each exert different pressures, unlike the traditional Heaven Palace South Heaven Gates.
The Sword Heaven Palace’s South Heaven Gate felt as if countless flying swords stabbed into his Primordial Spirit from every direction, disrupting his sword Dao and forcing him to mobilize his sword Dao to resist.
It was as if he were dueling Emperor Kaihuang, the sword Dao grandmaster; his Primordial Spirit instinctively unleashed all kinds of sword moves, contending with the invisible Emperor.
In the Painting Heaven Palace’s South Heaven Gate, it was as if he walked into countless unimaginable painting worlds—each step forward felt like traversing myriad worlds and enduring all kinds of ordeals.
His Primordial Spirit used Dao as brush, yuanqi and divine sense as ink, painting bizarre worlds within the South Heaven Gate, as if dueling Deaf, the Painting Sage, resisting painting Dao with painting Dao.
In the Creation Heaven Palace’s South Heaven Gate, he seemed to encounter Crimson Emperor and Bright Emperor, contending in creation Dao with the most imposing Creation Emperor.
In the Martial Dao Heaven Palace’s South Heaven Gate, he seemed to contend with the mightiest martial Dao Emperor, just like facing the Warfist Celestial Teacher.
Eight of Quinn’s Primordial Spirits advanced simultaneously, the pressure from the South Heaven Gate mounting and causing his Primordial Spirits to shrink.
He acted decisively, mobilizing his body’s functions—melding spirit and flesh—to withstand the pressure and press forward with difficulty.
The traditional South Heaven Gates were the easiest to resist; the Heaven Palaces formed from postnatal Daos were the most difficult.
Ancient god Daos have been thoroughly studied, but postnatal Daos have only just begun.
His main Primordial Spirit, Grand-Luo divine sense Primordial Spirit, Dragon Primordial Spirit, and Demon Primordial Spirit all passed safely through the South Heaven Gates, but the Sword, Martial Dao, Painting, and Creation Primordial Spirits remained trapped.
The Heavenly Dragon Imperial Palanquin traveled deeper into the starry sky, soon arriving at the Celestial River. Dragon-Qilin steered, while Annie worked to digest the ancient god she’d devoured.
“At this speed, it’ll take about half a year to reach the place the cult master mentioned.”
Dragon-Qilin peered ahead and saw that the Celestial River’s course was very different from later eras. He glimpsed a galaxy cascading down from the heights of the universe, flowing toward its four extremes.
Countless stars orbited the river—its waters seemed to flow from Profound Capital, and at the head of the galaxy lay Profound Capital itself.
The Heavenly Dragon Imperial Palanquin was now beneath the galaxy.
Inside the spacious carriage, Quinn cultivated, ignoring the others. Da Hong and Gu Xiao tried to coax information from Luo Xiao, but despite their flowery words, Luo Xiao never revealed the location of the Great Void.
Time flowed on. One day, the Heavenly Dragon Imperial Palanquin finally reached the galaxy’s base, halting to travel deeper into the place where the river fell.
At that moment, Quinn finally broke through the Sword Heaven Palace’s South Heaven Gate, soon passing through the Martial Dao and Creation Heaven Palaces as well—only the Painting Dao remained.
“Cult master, we’re almost there!” Dragon-Qilin called.
Quinn opened his eyes, exhaled a turbid breath, and withdrew his Painting Dao Primordial Spirit from the South Heaven Gate, deciding not to press on.
His painting Dao was still far inferior to Deaf’s. Even if he persisted, he wasn’t confident he could break through the South Heaven Gate and become a true god of painting Dao.
“Brothers, we’re almost at the ancestral court. Let’s head out.” Quinn said to Da Hong and the others.
Da Hong, Gu Xiao, and Luo Xiao stepped forward, each looking at Quinn with surprise.
Quinn was now utterly different from a few months ago. A strange Dao aura radiated from him—he seemed apart from the world.
It was as if Quinn’s body contained a universe, isolated from the external cosmos. Within him were his own heaven and earth Dao, his own primordial universe.
“His cultivation path is definitely different from other divine arts practitioners and gods!” Da Hong and Gu Xiao thought to themselves.
Quinn’s cultivation path was unique.
Before the Dragon-Han era, there was no concept of realms. From the extinction of the Creators to the founding of the Heavenly Court in early Dragon-Han, it was an age of demigod races rising.
During this period, people did not cultivate; strength depended on bloodline.
Those with stronger bloodlines had greater power.
During this time, the ancient gods’ children ruled all races. God-Emperor Langxuan and Ancestor God King were the leaders among demigods.
Around the beginning of the Dragon-Han era, the Seven Heavenly Venerables established the seven Divine Treasury realms. When Heaven-Guide Venerable died, Quinn improvised a longevity method for becoming a god, and together with Vast-Sky Venerable taught the Heaven Palace realms and Heaven Court realm to the world.
From then on, the concept of realms existed.
So, it's no exaggeration to say Quinn and the other Heavenly Venerables invented realms.
Many later generations never realized this and recklessly judged Quinn by realms alone, drawing wildly wrong conclusions about his cultivation and dying by his hand in great numbers.
For people in early Dragon-Han, the Divine Treasury Heaven Palace system created by Quinn and the Seven Heavenly Venerables hadn’t yet taken root. Demigods and other races cultivated it mainly to gain longevity like the ancient gods.
Demigods cultivated Divine Treasury Heaven Palace only for immortality—bloodline still determined strength.
But over the ages, more and more people discovered how powerful the system was, and bloodline doctrine gradually faded into the margins.
Bloodline no longer guaranteed strength—this overturned demigod and ancient god supremacy, so the Dragon-Han transformation became known as the Dragon-Han Revolution.
It was a revolution against demigods and ancient gods.
In the ages that followed, the Divine Treasury Heaven Palace system became so deeply rooted that people stopped questioning why it made them so powerful.
Yet for Quinn and others born a million years later, he and pioneers like Jiang Baigui, Emperor Yan Feng, Xu Shenghua, Wang Moran, and Lin Xuan of the Yankang Reform had already begun to question this truth.
Thus came the Celestial River Divine Treasury, overturning the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury.
Quinn was the greatest disruptor of the Divine Treasury and Heaven Palace systems in this reform.
After the Yankang Calamity, he was left without soul or spirit, surviving only by his divine sense. To stave off death, he created the Calamity-Response Sword, which swept through his own Heaven Palaces and seven Divine Treasuries, reopening his Spirit Embryo and regaining his soul.
With a single Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury, he evolved a primordial universe, recreating the ancient gods and transcending the Divine Treasury cultivation system—he had forged a path utterly different from the sages before him.
Purely by realms, his achievements were already difficult to measure.
The Divine Treasury Heaven Palace realms known to the world were created by him and the Seven Heavenly Venerables, but he was also the one to break them.
After reopening his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury, his cultivation could rival True Gods and even Jade Pool realm heavenly gods!
He could even completely abandon the Heaven Palace and Heaven Court systems, seeking his own path forward—until he reached an ineffable realm!
Yet for the sake of rapid progress, he gave up that road and returned to the Heaven Palace and Heaven Court systems.
But after that transformation, he was fundamentally different from other Divine Treasury Heaven Palace practitioners and gods.
For him, there was always only one realm—the Spirit Embryo realm.
His Heaven Palaces and Heaven Court weren’t built atop the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury—they were within it!
The Heaven Palace and Heaven Court realms were just minor realms within his Spirit Embryo realm!
The seven realms of the Heaven Palace realm were merely sub-realms within a sub-realm!
This was his greatest difference from other practitioners and gods.
All his Heaven Palace realms—even the Heaven Court realm—were unified as a whole within the Spirit Embryo realm.
Others were step-by-step students, but after the Yankang Calamity, he had already transcended the very realms he created.
Realms are just a framework for teaching ordinary people to cultivate; as their creator, he tried to break free from their constraints.
Of course, Quinn still needed the wisdom of people across a million years—and even reformers’ wisdom—to go further.
This was also why he didn’t abandon the Heaven Palace and Heaven Court systems.
He needed the wisdom of these people to grow.
Only in this way could he cultivate to a level able to contend with the Ten Heavenly Venerables in the shortest time.
In this sense, he wasn’t a complete revolutionary.
Total overthrow is revolution; mere patching and improvement is reform.
The Dragon-Han era was a revolution—it overturned bloodline determinism and made cultivation mainstream.
The Crimson Bright era was a revolution—it overturned demigods’ advantage over humans, allowing humans to become as strong as gods.
The Shanghuang era was a revolution—it overturned human reverence for gods, advancing the idea that human life was greater than Heaven, and put it into practice.
The Kaihuang era was reform, continuing Shanghuang’s results. If the Kaihuang era succeeded in imprinting postnatal Dao in the void, and Kaihuang, Warfist Celestial Teacher, and others became a new generation of ancient gods, it would have been revolution, not reform.
Yankang didn’t overthrow the previous era, but improved and perfected the Divine Treasury and Heaven Palace systems. That’s why the Yankang Reform can’t be called the Yankang Revolution.
Generations of humans and gods across five eras poured their lives and blood into perfecting the Divine Treasury and Heaven Palace systems, advancing people’s ideals step by step.
Quinn was an anomaly in this million-year revolution and reform.
Quinn stepped out of the imperial palanquin and looked ahead. There was only a stretch of void—no stars, no nebulae, no light, nothing at all, like a dark region in the starry sky.
“The ancestral court is right here.” His heart surged with excitement.
Gu Xiao glanced at him and whispered, “Brother Quinn, are you a Creator?”
Quinn shook his head.
“Then don’t release a demon.” Gu Xiao gazed at the void, speaking softly.
Quinn was momentarily stunned. Luo Xiao, meanwhile, excitedly came to the front of the carriage, visualized with his divine sense, and a stretch of void opened behind him—a sacrificial altar flew out from the emptiness.
“Whether this is the ancestral court, we’ll know as soon as we test it!” he called out loudly.
“How do we test it?” Quinn asked.
Luo Xiao could hardly contain his excitement: “Summon a void behemoth!”