Quinn Shepherd let out a long breath, feeling completely at ease.
Ever since returning from the Grand Void, Elaina Cloud had been clinging to him, leaving him no time at all to perform the Soul-Calling Rite for Venerable Cloud.
Besides, attempting the rite in Heavenly Court was far too dangerous. All Ten Heavenly Venerables were present—there was no way to hide it from them.
Now that Elaina Cloud had been sent away, Quinn could finally breathe easy.
"Dutian, move out." Quinn returned to the Imperial Palanquin, his voice tinged with joy.
The Heavenly Dragon Imperial Palanquin surged forward, nine divine dragons galloping along the Yong River, heading east.
Inside the palanquin, God-Queen Langwo asked, "Saint Baby, aren't you going to see the Pioneer Emperor?"
"No need."
Quinn opened the vertical demon eye at his brow. Venerable Cloud's physical body lay on the cloud blanket, while God-Queen Langwo spread her divine sense, shrouding the palanquin so no outsiders could see what was happening inside.
Quinn unleashed his divine sense and vital qi, forming countless runes. He said, "The Pioneer Emperor came out this time to see the results of the Everpeace Reform, to see for himself how it turned out. There's no point in me meeting him—only by witnessing it firsthand can he break the illusions in his heart. Besides, right now Venerable Daybreak is probably using his artifact to monitor us. I'd better behave myself."
Shu Jun sneered, "Saint Baby, you call this behaving yourself?"
High above Origin-Root, Venerable Daybreak withdrew his gaze, slowly closing his eyes. Meanwhile, the clay avatar in Origin-Root Celestial Palace paced and muttered to himself, "Venerable Shepherd is even stronger than before, but still far from the Heaven Palace Realm. His Pioneer Era couldn't support the full Heavenly Court stage. Still, his swordsmanship is terrifying. And Shepherd Heavenly Venerable—always stirring up trouble, wherever he goes!"
"But I never expected Earth Mother to stir up another storm! Remarkable, truly remarkable. To get rid of her, I'd have to deal with Heaven Duke and Lord Soil first, and nullify Shepherd Heavenly Venerable's resurrection arts..."
Inside the Heavenly Dragon Imperial Palanquin, Quinn immediately began his ritual, chanting incantations and channeling divine arts to call Venerable Cloud's soul. After a while, he stopped, frowning slightly.
"Saint Baby, are you unable to sense Venerable Cloud's soul?" Langwo asked.
Quinn nodded, thinking aloud, "Even if a soul is shattered, I can still summon its black sand. Even for beings like the Empress or Primordial Lady, who only pretend to be dead, as long as I have their physical bodies, I can trace their souls' whereabouts. My divine arts can search the heavens and earth—every realm, even Heavenly Court, Profound Capital, Netherworld, and the Shadow Realm, must heed my call! But I can't sense Venerable Cloud's soul at all, as if it never existed..."
"This is the Supreme Emperor's doing."
Shu Jun considered, "The Supreme Emperor has the power to make a soul vanish completely, never to be found again. Venerable Cloud was killed by him, wasn't she?"
Quinn's expression grew grave. He nodded lightly and asked, "Even if a soul is broken, it turns to black sand and is absorbed by the Shadow Realm. What power does the Supreme Emperor have to make Venerable Cloud's soul disappear entirely?"
He was genuinely puzzled.
His Soul-Guiding Spell was a Netherworld art, and after his own improvements, he was confident it could track a soul no matter where it hid.
"In this world, there are only three people who can hide their souls from your search."
Shu Jun said gravely, "First is the Supreme Emperor. The other two are the ancient goddesses, the Empress and Primordial Lady. Both possess the Abyss of Return, which can shatter and annihilate everything. When they activated it in the past, countless masters of my race were buried. One of our other god-kings died at their hands. Not just souls—even divine sense is utterly wiped out, ceasing to exist. Not even the Supreme Emperor can do that. His power lies in his divine sense—his Grand-Luo Supreme Divine Sense."
Quinn nodded. The Supreme Emperor's Grand-Luo Supreme Divine Sense was extraordinarily refined. Heavenly Court had long awaited Zuo Shaobi and Yan Shaoqing to create a divine sense Emperor-Throne method, but the Supreme Emperor had already pioneered it.
"Why is it called Grand-Luo?"
Shu Jun replied, "In fact, his divine sense had already coalesced in the ancient era, forming the Divine Sense Grand-Luo Heaven—a void world built entirely from supreme divine sense. No spell in existence can function inside it, not even yours. Its Dao rules are set by the Supreme Emperor alone. I suspect Venerable Cloud's soul has been exiled there."
God-Queen Langwo didn't know much about this and asked, "Shu Jun, could you explain Divine Sense Grand-Luo Heaven in more detail?"
"I don't know much about it either."
Shu Jun said, "Back when the Supreme Emperor wasn't so strong, I fought him for the title of strongest. He once mentioned it to me. His Grand-Luo Supreme Divine Sense, cultivated to the extreme, began to touch the ultimate void. His divine sense gathered there, ever-changing and eternal. Maybe only by reaching his level of cultivation can one find Divine Sense Grand-Luo Heaven in the ultimate void. Even at my peak, I never reached that stage."
He looked at God-Queen Langwo and said, "Your divine sense is stronger than mine ever was. Have you touched the ultimate void?"
God-Queen Langwo shook her head. "My current divine sense strength only reaches the Thirty-Fifth Void. I'm still one step away from the ultimate void."
Shu Jun looked envious and sighed, "That's already far stronger than I ever was at my peak."
Langwo replied coolly, "Naturally."
Shu Jun snorted and sneered, "Don't get cocky! I'm starting over from scratch. Once I cultivate the Celestial River Divine Treasury, I'll surpass your Divine Bridge Treasury by far! Just recently, I sought out Qi Jiuyi for advice on opening treasuries—he's leagues ahead of those bumpkins from Carefree Haven."
Quinn was surprised. "You went to Qi Jiuyi to learn how to open a treasury? Why go so far?"
Shu Jun didn't get his meaning. "You spend all your time glued to Langwo and Primordial Lady, so you have no time to teach me. I had no choice but to ask Qi Jiuyi."
This chapter isn't finished yet~.~. Please click next page to continue reading the rest!
Quinn laughed, "Qi Jiuyi did open the Celestial River Divine Treasury early, but he wasn't the first. Xushenghua and I were the earliest, but the second wasn't Qi Jiuyi—it was Dragon-Qilin. He inherited my true teachings."
Shu Jun glanced at Dragon-Qilin, who was sprawled out napping, and couldn't help but gape in shock.
Dragon-Qilin lazily lifted his head, gave Shu Jun a disdainful look, and then went back to sleep.
Fat Dragon has followed me the longest, and he's one of the people who understands the Everpeace Reform most deeply.
Quinn laughed, "Back when I was opening all sorts of divine treasuries and traveling through the academies, he was always by my side. Whether it's martial arts, divine arts, swordsmanship, or battle skills, he knows them all. Why bother asking Qi Jiuyi? Back in Everpeace, Qi Jiuyi lived in the western lands and didn't know much."
Dragon-Qilin yawned, stuck out his big tongue, and licked his lips. "Qi Jiuyi? He's my third brother. I'm his big bro."
Shu Jun was even more dumbfounded.
In Heavenly Court, a lively young girl with twin ponytails bounced along, her hair swinging playfully as she hurried toward the Zaofu Celestial Palace's spirit energy bridge. It was another Elaina Cloud.
"That brat actually let Earth Mother capture me. My avatar's doomed—Earth Mother will definitely mess it up! Back then, I really pissed her off. When she was stealing Heaven Duke's essence, I tattled to Heaven Duke and he gave her a beating..."
She dashed toward the spirit energy bridge, her ponytails bouncing against her backside. She muttered, "Still, that brat won't ditch me so easily! He doesn't want me going to the Origin World, so I'll wait for him in Everpeace's capital! I didn't expect him to reach the Venerable Realm—last time, my body got snatched and I couldn't move at all. This time, I'll get myself a celestial body and beat him up the moment I see him!"
Just as she was about to slip onto the spirit energy bridge, she saw Liana Flowersoul heading her way. The two girls stopped, eyeing each other warily.
"Didn't Elaina leave Heavenly Court with Shepherd Heavenly Venerable for the Origin World?"
Liana Flowersoul's eyes held both dislike and curiosity. "Why are you still in Heavenly Court?"
Elaina Cloud lifted her hands, swinging her ponytails to her chest, and grinned. "I'm back again—is that a problem? Where are you off to, Sister Liana?"
Liana Flowersoul stared at her, replying gently, "Where are you going now?"
"So you're not planning to be my big sister anymore—you're going to be my mom?"
Elaina Cloud snorted, "You meddle so much—can you really control me? Even my brother-in-law ended up crawling into my bed thanks to your interference!"
Liana Flowersoul chuckled, "You're still my little sister—of course I care! Wherever you go, I'll go too."
Elaina Cloud rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly. "If you want to come, then come!"
She entered the spirit energy bridge, and Liana Flowersoul smiled and followed. A moment later, a white cat leapt nimbly and slipped into the Zaofu Palace's spirit energy bridge too.
The next moment, they appeared by the spirit energy bridge outside Everpeace's capital. Elaina Cloud hopped and skipped toward the city, exclaiming, "This Origin-Root Tree has gotten even bigger!"
Liana Flowersoul frowned, looking up at the little Origin-Root Tree rooted in Everpeace's capital, and snorted, "Utterly rebellious."
At that moment, a middle-aged man arrived at the Torr River Supervising Foundry outside Everpeace's capital.
Nowadays, Torr River is lined with countless supervising foundries, each massive and stretching along the riverbank, resembling a divine city from afar.
Within the foundries, divine light shot skyward. Huge divine furnaces roared day and night, while mechanical giants, controlled by practitioners, forged artifact components. Countless practitioners worked tirelessly, inscribing runes and crafting divine weapons.
Many tower ships soared into the sky, carrying finished artifacts toward the spirit energy bridge, bound for Heavenly Court.
The place bustled with activity. Emperor Kai Qin Ye passed by each foundry, observing their arrangements. Some even produced peculiar items like ice mirrors and windmills, embedding all sorts of spells into these tools to benefit the people.
"Blind, divine gold is a monocrystalline sequence in micro-arts, right?"
Emperor Kai Qin Ye suddenly heard a booming voice. He saw an old man with a suitcase talking to another elderly man with a bamboo cane and a black dragon bone belt. The suitcase-carrying elder said, "Black gold is a polycrystalline sequence, divine gold is monocrystalline. If you adjust black gold's polycrystalline sequence to monocrystalline, could black gold become divine gold?"
"In theory, yes."
The elder called Blind had exceptionally bright eyes. He took out a piece of divine gold and a piece of black gold, opened his eyes wide, and divine light burst forth. He could see their microstructures clearly. "But how to change the microcrystalline sequence—that's the real problem. Mute, your forging method can't precisely imprint runes onto the tiniest crystals."
The elder called Mute had a thunderous voice and sneered, "My newly-developed Tianyuan Grand Furnace forging method is designed for micro-forging, imprinting runes onto the smallest crystals. The problem is, my eyesight isn't as good as yours..."
Suddenly, both elders noticed Emperor Kai and turned to look at him.
Mute grinned widely, "Aba, aba aba?"
Blind leaned on his cane and smiled, "My friend, Mute is asking where you're from."
Emperor Kai stepped forward, smiling, "Friends, I come from Carefree Haven. I overheard your lively discussion and couldn't help but listen in. You mentioned changing black gold's microcrystalline structure to turn it into divine gold—could you explain in detail?"