Quinn Shepherd carried a lantern, heading upstream against the current of the Celestial River. His divine sense visualized itself as a soaring dragon, and the dragon carried him racing across the water's surface, his robes billowing elegantly.
The robes he wore belonged to Wayne Gale. After all, Wayne Gale was the Cloud-Nether Emperor, and this garment was a treasure in itself. The way it caught the wind made Quinn seem weightless, utterly carefree.
Quinn's thoughts drifted, countless ideas flooding his mind.
It was now year 400,000 of the Dragon-Han Era—there were still more than a hundred thousand years until this age’s end. By then, Cloud-Venerable would die, Moon-Venerable would fade into seclusion, leaving only Venerable Skysoar to hold out alone.
The rise of the Ten Heavenly Venerables would continue the brutal history into the Chiming Era, the Supreme Sovereign Era, all the way until Venerable Skysoar was ambushed and slain in the Celestial River.
There were so many things he wanted to change.
Yet after this time-travel, he only had two more chances left.
This era still held so many regrets, and countless secrets waiting for him to uncover.
But he couldn’t spend both of his remaining chances entirely in the Dragon-Han Era!
Just as Wayne Gale had said, he could save those two chances for something even more meaningful!
This would be his last return to the Dragon-Han Era.
Before going back to the Ghost Ship, he longed to meet Cloud-Venerable in person, to sit knee-to-knee and talk as fellow Daoists, sharing their ambitions.
He wanted to drink with Cloud-Venerable, to raise cups and revel together.
He wanted to hear Cloud-Venerable’s thoughts on the future, and his views on the history that had passed.
It’s rare to find a true confidant in life—except your confidant lives in the past, while you yourself live in the future.
“One day, Vast-Sky Emperor, Lucas Lin, Xu, Supreme Emperor, Galen the Ancestral God-King, Flame-Venerable, Lady Yuna, the Empress, and even the reincarnated Ancient God Heavenly Emperor will gradually gain power, joining forces to destroy Cloud-Venerable. He will die in the Sky-River Heavenly Court.”
He silently thought, “His bloodline will be cursed by the Supreme Emperor, never living to see the moment he becomes a god. His soul will be sealed by the Supreme Emperor, eternally imprisoned in the Divine-Sense Grand-Luo Heaven Palace within the Ultimate Void.”
“His corpse will be sent by the Supreme Emperor to Taixu, sealed inside the Supreme Emperor’s flesh, becoming his trophy.”
“Daoist friend, the suffering that awaits you is so unbearably heavy.”
“And what awaits the human race is just as heavy.”
Quinn set aside all the thoughts swirling in his mind. Heavenly Court was still far off—he would need to travel for more than ten days before he arrived.
He released the lantern in his hand. Guided by his vital energy, it floated alongside him as he hurried on his way.
He took out the Taichu Egg; from within came the low, resonant sound of Dao, as if some ancient god inside was whispering secrets. Quinn listened, trying to grasp the mysteries hidden in that Dao sound.
The Taichu Path—before yin and yang split, before matter existed. If he wanted to rescue Venerable Ling, he had to fully understand the Taichu Path.
The voice within the Taichu Egg continued, as if that unborn ancient god was conversing with him. Yet the words were obscure, and Quinn could not decipher them.
“Unraveling the Taichu Path is no harder than creating matter from nothing! If Venerable Ling could forge such a heaven-shaking divine art, then I can certainly unlock the secrets of the Taichu Path!”
He stood atop the dragon’s head he’d conjured, closed his eyes, and actually drifted into a dream of the past.
In the dream, countless miniature Quinns circled the Taichu Egg, listening to the Dao sound within, feeling its rhythm, and trying to record the mysteries hidden in the sound as rune-paths.
"Maha..." One tiny Quinn rested his chin on his hand, licking his brush, his face smeared with black and white ink.
"Gurgle!" Another miniature Quinn excitedly swept his brush, recording the Dao insights he’d grasped as runes.
Unaware, Quinn traveled for over ten days. He woke from the dream, put away the Taichu Egg, and saw Heavenly Court looming ahead. The Taichu Egg was a grave matter—no one could know he held this ancient god egg.
These past days, he’d used dream-path cultivation to organize five Taichu runes, but the Taichu Path was so muddled and obscure, he couldn’t verify if any of the five runes were correct.
“I need to find Senior Brother’s hidden notes from Venerable Ling, comprehend her divine arts, and then compare the two. Only then will I know if my five runes are correct.”
Quinn felt a headache coming on. “Senior Brother isn’t a squirrel spirit—why does he love hiding things so much?”
Verifying the five Taichu runes was critical. Even if only one was correct, he could start from that one and slowly deduce more.
The hardest part is getting started.
Creating something from nothing, establishing the 'one'—that’s the most important solution!
With the ‘one’ established, then comes two, three, four, and five!
Heavenly Court was near. Quinn changed his appearance—not using his Mark Shepherd face, but transforming into a demigod guise to blend in. The Heavenly Court now had none of the grandeur of early Dragon-Han days; over ten of the thirty-six Heavenly Palaces had already departed, flying off to all corners of the universe. Many of the seventy-two Treasure Halls had left as well.
The thirty-six Heavenly Palaces and seventy-two Treasure Halls together formed the core of Heavenly Court, along with buildings like Jade Capital City, Heavenly Street, and Heavenly Market. Now, with so many palaces and halls gone, Heavenly Court looked battered and full of holes.
Laughter and joy from the demigods rang out—those dragon-slaying warriors, after killing the evil dragon, had finally grown sharp claws of their own, becoming new dragons themselves.