Quinn Shepherd, all smiles, reached down to help him up—though honestly, he couldn't budge him an inch. It was more for show, a gesture of goodwill. Prince Adrian Chime hurriedly cried out, "Don't touch me! My bones are broken!"
Quinn let go at once and said solemnly, "This was all just a misunderstanding. I thought His Highness the Divine Son was trying to kill me, and he thought I meant harm to the Hanging Realm. That's why we ended up fighting. Thank the heavens, the misunderstanding is resolved, and fortunately, no one was seriously hurt."
Prince Adrian Chime's eye twitched. No casualties? Are you blind? Can't you see me lying here? Can't you see all the dead and wounded Chiming soldiers?
Even the sacred mountain's lost a peak, and the holy temple's been torn down!
Quinn glanced around, speaking both to the Chiming gods and demons hovering in the air—who wanted to approach but didn't dare—and to Prince Adrian Chime himself. "Just now, I met the Crimson Emperor. He admired my talent and insight, so he passed on the Threefold Undying Mind to me."
At these words, a wave of shock rippled through the crowd above. Even Prince Adrian Chime was stunned and uncertain.
The Threefold Undying Mind was created by the Crimson Emperor. Ever since he vanished, the art was lost. Even the Bright Emperor didn't practice it—instead, he forged a new path and created the Seamless Creation Mystic Canon.
—Ben Coates's battle technique, the Seamless War God Art, also comes from the Seamless Creation Mystic Canon.
The Bright Emperor once tried to restore the Threefold Undying Mind, but no matter how hard he worked, he couldn't manage it.
That's because each emperor of the Chiming Era had their own specialty: the Crimson Emperor excelled at refining the Primordial Spirit, but his mastery of the flesh was limited; the Bright Emperor, on the other hand, was a genius in flesh cultivation, but less skilled with the Primordial Spirit.
Although this deal will make Quinn Shepherd even stronger, for the people of the Chiming Floating Realm, it means gaining a flawless dual-path cultivation system—one that lets their Primordial Spirits and bodies advance together!
All in all, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
"Good!" Prince Adrian Chime smiled.
A little over ten days later, the world-ark fleet of the Chiming Floating Realm finally set out. More than a dozen colossal tower-ships sailed in grand procession, forming a fleet as they departed the realm.
This time, half the population of the Chiming Floating Realm migrated, while the other half stayed behind as a seed—after all, as Prince Adrian Chime put it, "You can't put all your eggs in one basket."
Quinn Shepherd, Lynn Ling, and the others lived aboard one of these world-arks. The ship was like a mobile miniature continent, with mountains, rivers, and fertile fields—enough to house tens of thousands of people.
With more than a dozen of these giant world-arks, the fleet carried several million people—fully half the population of the Chiming Floating Realm!
The Chiming Floating Realm wasn't heavily populated—not like the Everpeace Empire, whose numbers reached into the hundreds of millions.
Quinn Shepherd walked the world-ark, studying its layout, measuring the heights of mountains and the flow of rivers, calculating the light cast by the artificial divine sun. Then he took out paper and brush, sketched the farmland layout, and ran the numbers.
The layout of the world-ark was extremely well-designed, ensuring the survival and growth of tens of thousands. Clearly, the Chiming Era possessed advanced arts of numerology and masterful artifact-forging.
"Did they have Daoist sects back in that era too?" Quinn wondered, a little dazed.
After surveying and mapping every part of the world-ark, Quinn finished his drawings and returned, only to find Lynn Ling caring for the First Human Emperor. Beside them, two large-eyed creatures were serving tea, pouring water, and brewing medicine.
The First Human Emperor lay on a lounge chair, sunbathing as he diligently practiced the Seamless Creation Mystic Canon Quinn had taught him, hoping his shattered bones would regenerate. When he saw Quinn return, his face darkened and he gave a disgruntled snort.
Quinn quickly put on a friendly smile and said, "First Ancestor, I swear it wasn't me who hit you—it was my brother! I've explained this so many times. I don't hold grudges, and I'd never send you flying on purpose."
The First Human Emperor snorted again, turning his head away and refusing to look at Quinn.
Quinn could only sigh and check his injuries. He found that the shattered bones had already been expelled, and new ones were growing in their place—though the process was slow.
He couldn't help but beam with joy. "Grandpa Village Chief can finally regrow his limbs!"
The First Human Emperor snapped, "You smashed my bones just so you could use me as a test subject to cure your grandpa? Don't forget, your surname is Quinn, and your grandpa's is Su. We're the real family here, and you're always siding with outsiders..."
Quinn hurriedly protested, "It really wasn't me—it was my brother who hit you!"
The First Human Emperor asked, "So in the family register, you're Fenix Greenwood, right?"
Quinn nodded.
The First Human Emperor pressed, "And your brother? Is he also Fenix Greenwood?"
Quinn hesitated, and the First Human Emperor caught the look on his face, then snapped, "So it was you after all! You're the one who hit me!"
Quinn mixed up a batch of medicine, sighing, "Fine, whatever you say."
"Princess Lynn, did you hear that? He admitted it! He admitted it!"
The First Human Emperor grew excited, pouring out his woes to Lynn Ling: "In all of Everpeace, I've only got one relative left, and he hits me—shatters my bones just to experiment for his unrelated grandpa..."
Quinn finished mixing the medicine, made him drink it, then had the First Human Emperor continue cultivating the Seamless Creation Mystic Canon. With both treatments together, his recovery would be much faster.
The First Human Emperor downed the medicine, spirits lifted, and kept complaining to Lynn Ling. Suddenly, someone shouted, "We're at Profound Capital!"
"Profound Capital?"
Quinn looked up in a hurry. Light shone everywhere, flooding every corner in the radiance of Profound Capital—there wasn't a single shadow to be found.
"Profound Capital is Heaven Duke's domain," the First Human Emperor explained. "His ray-avatar said he's going to add another seal to me, just in case my brother tries to get out and cause trouble. I wonder if Heaven Duke's real body knows about all this?"
The massive fleet of world-arks sailed into Profound Capital's radiance, then split up, each taking a different route. By dispersing, they could evade pursuit from the Heavenly Court.
No one knew how badly the Great Sun Star Lord was wounded, but if he intercepted them along the way, the Chiming Floating Realm's people could suffer terrible losses.
One by one, the world-arks veered off course and vanished into the blinding light. The ship carrying Quinn and his companions kept moving quietly forward. After more than ten days, they finally glimpsed Heaven Duke's eye once again.
A few days later, Heaven Duke's eye had vanished from sight—only a dense, almost solid sea of light remained.
Quinn kept waiting for Heaven Duke to add another seal, but after nearly a month traveling through Profound Capital, nothing happened. Eventually, their world-ark sailed out of Profound Capital and continued through the dark starry sky, heading straight for Luofu Heaven.
"Strange. Why didn't Heaven Duke add another seal? Why hasn't he recalled his avatar?"
Puzzled, Quinn went to check the First Human Emperor's injuries. After a month of rest and cultivation, all the shattered bone fragments had been expelled, and new bone had grown in their place—though it was still fragile, unable to bear the weight of his body.
After all, as a god of the Execution Platform, the First Human Emperor's body was incredibly heavy. Ordinary divine bones wouldn't be able to support him.
Quinn sent the two large-eyed creatures into the First Human Emperor's Heaven Palace to deliver medicine and observe his Primordial Spirit. "You're almost healed," Quinn said. "Keep training hard for a while longer, and your bones will be as strong as ever. With the Seamless Creation Mystic Canon, your body will be even tougher than before!"