"Sword Twenty, Sword Twenty..."
The Pioneer Emperor raised his sword, eyes dazed, aimlessly waving the Worryless Sword left and right in search of the twentieth sword form.
Elena Cloud’s eyes flickered. She asked, "Your Majesty, you reverse-engineered Shepherd Heavenly Venerable’s sword techniques to deduce his various secrets—so what do you think Shepherd Heavenly Venerable is doing now?"
"Infiltrating Carefree Haven."
The Pioneer Emperor didn’t hesitate. "He’ll start from High-Emperor Heaven, searching for the secrets of my sword techniques, looking for a way to defeat me. The reason he set a two-month deadline isn’t to wait for Fenix to establish the Netherworld, but to use those two months to study my swordwork."
"Quinn Heavenly Venerable and Shepherd Heavenly Venerable truly are family—their thinking is exactly the same."
Elena Cloud chuckled and withdrew. "Then I’ll leave Your Majesty to ponder Sword Twenty. May you achieve it soon."
In High-Emperor Heaven of Carefree Haven, Shu Jun followed Quinn Shepherd, only to see Quinn wandering the mountains and forests instead of heading straight for the academy, examining the soil and terrain, scrutinizing the hills.
Quinn even transformed his vital qi into swords, drilling into the mountains and deep underground with the Drill Sword Form.
"Saint Baby, what are you looking for?" Shu Jun couldn’t help but wonder aloud.
"Why are you calling me Saint Baby too?" Quinn said, half laughing, half exasperated.
Shu Jun replied, "I'm a Creator, so of course I call you Saint Baby. It's our custom. What exactly are you searching for?"
Quinn used his vital qi to shape a sword, drilling into the depths of the earth to extract fragments of rock. He grabbed a handful, squeezed them in his palm, and said, "The Pioneer Emperor's sword split the world, forming thirty-three heavens and carving away nearly half the Beyond-Shore World. There's something odd about this story."
Shu Jun looked puzzled.
"We've been in the Beyond-Shore World for a while now. The continents where the Creators live—the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas on land—are all visualized by our race. These lands float in the void and aren't connected to each other."
Quinn again shaped his vital qi into a sword, driving it into a mighty mountain in High-Emperor Heaven of Carefree Haven. The sword qi burrowed deep into the mountain. "One sword forming thirty-three heavens—that's terrifying. If the Pioneer Emperor really stabbed out with one sword and directly cut off thirty-three continents from the Beyond-Shore World, merging them into thirty-three heavens, then even if all Creators joined forces, including God-Queen Langwo, they couldn't possibly have resisted him for twenty thousand years. So how did the Creators manage to oppose Carefree Haven for so long?"
Shu Jun was stunned. "One sword forming thirty-three heavens means the Pioneer Emperor slashed out, and thirty-three heavens were created under his sword, taking half the Beyond-Shore World. It's not that he literally sliced the world in half with a single stroke."
Quinn retrieved some stone fragments from inside the mountain and grinned. "God-King Shu Jun, you’re too honest. You have no idea how the Pioneer Emperor looks honest but is actually cunning as a fox."
He squeezed the stone fragments and found traces of metallic powder among them.
Quinn blew on his palm, scattering the stone dust and leaving only the metallic powder behind. "If one sword really formed thirty-three heavens, complete with mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans, then the Pioneer Emperor wasn’t just the greatest swordmaster—he’d be a Creator himself! Maybe Supreme Emperor could do that, but his divine sense was never that refined. This can only mean…"
Quinn raised a finger, lightly slashing through the towering mountains ahead. A flash of sword light split the mountain in two. He laughed, "The Thirty-Three Heavens of Carefree Haven were forged ahead of time!"
The mountain split in half under his sword light, revealing a massive structure of divine metal within!
Shu Jun was stunned, staring in horror at the intricate structure inside the mountain.
Inside the mountain, everything was forged from divine metals and materials. The metals were shaped into countless components, each inscribed with runes, like parts of a vast, unimaginable machine!
At the mountain's roots, divine metals and materials extended deep into the earth!
Clearly, the entire High-Emperor Heaven of Carefree Haven was a colossal artificial construct, forged from divine metals and materials!
This High-Emperor Heaven of Carefree Haven was built by countless master artisans, a heaven forged by many hands!
"Just as I expected."
Quinn brought his hands together with a heavy clap, and the split mountains closed with a thunderous rumble. He said, "I once heard that, at the end of the Pioneer Era, the Pioneer Emperor ordered Leo Yoran—Indra King Buddha—to lead all the Heaven-Craft artisans to forge Carefree Haven. The Woodcutter Sage opposed it, but the Pioneer Emperor didn’t listen and still had Leo Yoran complete the forging."
Shu Jun’s mind was spinning. He muttered, "Carefree Haven should have been carved out by the Pioneer Emperor’s sword—God-Queen Langwo couldn’t have been mistaken. How could it have been forged by Leo Yoran...?"
"Leo Yoran, Indra King Buddha, was called the War King in the Pioneer Heaven Court. Not because he was a great commander, but because he was unrivaled in forging war artifacts."
Quinn explained, "He forged Carefree Haven by gathering all the master craftsmen to create thirty-three colossal divine artifacts. These artifacts secretly embody the sword principles of the Pioneer Emperor’s sword Dao. In other words, the thirty-three artifacts are the concrete manifestation of the Pioneer Emperor’s Thirty-Three-Heaven Sword Dao!"
He looked out at the mountains and rivers of High-Emperor Heaven in Carefree Haven. "The flow of rivers, the shape of mountains, every geographic feature—even the divine cities, villages, and statues—follows the patterns of his sword techniques."
Shu Jun was still dazed, muttering, "Impossible, right? He carved out Thirty-Three Heavens with a single sword strike; countless Creators and God-Queen Langwo saw it with their own eyes. If he’d just brought Carefree Haven’s Thirty-Three Heavens here, he couldn’t have hidden it from Langwo or all those clan leaders and elders. Pulling tricks in front of them would be too difficult. Not to mention Langwo, even the clan leaders weren’t inferior to me in my prime."
Quinn walked toward the nearest divine city, laughing, "I once wielded the Worryless Sword—the Pioneer Emperor’s own blade. Back then, I didn’t know its origin, only that it felt strangely light and effortless. Later I learned it was the imperial sword! Isn’t it odd that an emperor’s sword is so light?"
Shu Jun hurried after him. "Making a treasure light isn’t that hard, is it?"
"Leo Yoran was the greatest Heaven-Craft master; he could certainly forge a light sword. But I could rarely unleash the Worryless Sword’s true power—and that’s what’s strange."
Quinn said, "By rights, I should have been able to activate all the runes inside the Worryless Sword, but I could barely draw out its power. This imperial sword felt... empty."
Suddenly, Shu Jun understood. He blurted out, "You mean, back then the Pioneer Emperor hid Carefree Haven’s Thirty-Three Heavens inside the Worryless Sword. When he arrived in the Beyond-Shore World, he stabbed out with the sword, and Carefree Haven flew out, forming the Thirty-Three Heavens?"
Quinn nodded. "The Pioneer Emperor had many geniuses under him. My master, Wen Heaven Celestial Teacher—the Woodcutter Sage—was revered as a saint; Ethan Cloud was a grandmaster of arrays; Leo Yoran was the greatest Heaven-Craft master. With their wisdom and skill, folding Carefree Haven into the Worryless Sword was possible. After all, they’d already tested this idea once before."
He recalled the Imperial Gate Divine Saber owned by King Tian Shu of Youdu, which contained countless folded spaces within.
"Scoundrel!" Shu Jun cursed, furious.
Quinn was incensed and smacked Shu Jun hard on his big head. "That’s my ancestor! Only I’m allowed to insult him, not you!"
Shu Jun clutched his head, fuming. "So I can’t even talk about him?"
The two entered the city. Quinn asked the locals for directions to the academy. Shu Jun couldn’t help but wonder, "Since you’ve realized Carefree Haven’s Thirty-Three Heavens are the Pioneer Emperor’s sword Dao, why bother going to the academy?"
Quinn entered the academy of High-Emperor Heaven, opening his third eye at his brow. Neither the divine beings nor the ability users in the academy noticed them as they walked in.
It was a divine sense illusion he cast, enveloping the entire academy.
Quinn’s divine sense was stronger than ever. Not even Jade Terrace-stage True Gods, or Execution Platform and Jade Capital-stage gods and demons, could pierce his illusion.
Of course, this only worked as long as he bore no hostility. If he showed any, people would sense him.
"Studying the Pioneer Emperor’s sword techniques is just one goal. My other is to see how much Carefree Haven’s Dao and divine arts have progressed over the years."
Quinn said coolly, "Twenty thousand years ago, during the Pioneer Era, Dao and divine arts exploded in innovation—new techniques and methods appeared constantly. I want to see if that wave of reform stalled after they retreated into Carefree Haven."
He came to the Canon Pavilion, walked right past the guardian god, and entered. "The Woodcutter Sage always said his greatest regret was failing to stop the Pioneer Emperor from entering Carefree Haven. I want to see if his judgment was right."
The Canon Pavilion bustled with divine ability users. Quinn stood before a row of bookshelves and instantly entered a dream, falling asleep. Countless tiny Quinns poured out of his dream, scampering everywhere, flipping through books, chattering 'maha maha'—it was a lively scene.
Yet none of the people in the Canon Pavilion seemed to notice this surreal scene, each busy with their own affairs.
Shu Jun was also reading, but his method was different—he swept through the books with raw divine sense, reading at lightning speed.
But Quinn’s Dream-Entering-the-Dao technique let his dream avatars not only read quickly, but also practice and test the divine arts recorded in the books—something Shu Jun couldn’t match.
In just half a day, Quinn had finished reading all the books in the pavilion.
Shu Jun was still not done. Quinn left the Canon Pavilion and wandered the academy, observing students as they cultivated Dao and divine arts.
He saw many students visualizing, fusing divine sense with vital qi. The Dao and divine arts he’d just read about also followed this path.
Clearly, after arriving here, the people of the Pioneer Era adopted divine sense cultivation, just as the Creators accepted the God-Treasury and Heaven-Palace system.
This counts as reform.
But the kind of reform Quinn had hoped for, like that in Yankang, was nowhere to be found.
In Yankang, rune research produced dozens or even hundreds of new rune systems—like primordial magnetism runes and yin runes—early results of the reform.
Besides that, Quinn had brought ancient god Dao rune systems from the Celestial Heavens.
Yankang used the Grand Micro Numerology Canon to recalculate and derive even more ancient god Dao rune systems—hundreds in total!
None of these advances existed in Carefree Haven.
After the migration, rune research in the Pioneer Heaven Court seemed to abruptly stop.
"This phenomenon is worth investigating..."
Quinn blinked, watching the students in the academy—each a divine ability user. He observed their spirit, energy, and mind, followed their daily routines, even infiltrated their thoughts with divine sense to see what they were thinking.
He was puzzled—why did the fiery wave of reform in the Pioneer Era abruptly end after they migrated to Carefree Haven?
As he watched, Quinn suddenly noticed a middle-aged Daoist in the academy quietly observing him, eyes fixed on him.
Quinn was startled. His divine sense enveloped the whole academy, making everyone ignore him—yet this Daoist kept looking straight at him, as if he could see through the illusion!
Quinn smiled at the Daoist; the Daoist smiled back.
"How should I address you, fellow Daoist?" Quinn approached, greeting him politely.
The Daoist hurriedly returned the salute. "Miles Su, a discarded disciple of Dao Gate, greets Shepherd Heavenly Venerable."
"A discarded disciple of Dao Gate?"
Quinn probed, "Miles Su, what’s your connection to the Dao Gate of the Primordial Realm?"
The Daoist flicked his horsetail whisk and grinned. "I founded it myself."