"Overlord Body?"
The Imperial Preceptor of Everpeace was also puzzled. After thinking carefully, he realized he had never heard of such a physique, and looked at Village Chief in confusion. The name Overlord Body sounds so imposing—could there really be a physique greater than the Four Spirit Bodies?
Why have I never heard of it before?
Now it seems there are actually two Overlord Bodies in this world!
Village Chief’s face twitched, feeling a bit embarrassed. His old skin seemed loose and about to fall off. He thought to himself, "Overlord Body again! Quinn really can’t sit still…"
He couldn’t help but sigh—he really was getting old. Even telling a harmless little lie made his heart race, afraid someone would expose him. But who could actually expose him?
As the previous Human Emperor, all he’d done was tell a harmless lie—so why did it torment him so? Why was he always thinking about how to cover it up?
Ever since I made up this Overlord Body, I’ve told more lies than in all my previous eight hundred years!
Village Chief straightened up and shook his head, saying, "Quinn, there can’t be a second Overlord Body! That Victor Bloom is definitely not a real Overlord Body!"
Quinn was puzzled, and so was the Imperial Preceptor.
Crippled Joe clenched his fists in excitement. "As the only one who knows the truth about the Overlord Body, Village Chief has always kept its secrets close. Now he’s finally about to reveal some of its mysteries!"
Village Chief’s face was calm as still water. He said slowly, "There’s a will of heaven at work. In every era, only one true Overlord Body ever appears. All others, no matter how similar, are false Overlord Bodies—never the real thing. It’s always been this way since ancient times. In one era, the true Overlord Body can only be one person! Remember that."
The Imperial Preceptor couldn’t hide his shock. The only Overlord Body in the world? All the others are fake?
The world was even deeper and more complicated than he’d ever imagined!
Village Chief’s words made him wary and unsettled. The will of heaven, the only Overlord Body, the false ones—it felt as if some mysterious force was manipulating everything!
Crippled Joe didn’t think too deeply, but exclaimed excitedly, "Just as I guessed—there’s only one true Overlord Body in this world!"
Quinn was excited too, but then hesitated. "But Victor Bloom’s cultivation is almost equal to mine. The only person who can keep pace with me at the same realm is an Overlord Body."
There’s only one possible explanation for that.
Village Chief’s expression grew stern. He barked, "That means you haven’t worked hard enough! As an Overlord Body, you’ve let the Four Spirit Bodies or even a fake Overlord Body catch up to you. You should be ashamed and reflect on yourself."
Quinn straightened seriously and nodded hard. "Don’t worry, Grandpa Village Chief—I’ll train twice as hard! I really have been slacking off lately. I’m improving, but so is Victor Bloom. If I relax, he might actually surpass me!"
Village Chief relaxed inwardly. "Quinn really is too naïve—so easily convinced, and now he'll throw himself into training even harder. If Victor Bloom ever beats him, he’ll just blame himself for not working hard enough. That gives me an excuse for next time."
The Imperial Preceptor’s eyes flickered. He humbly asked, "Dao brother, just now you mentioned Overlord Bodies and false Overlord Bodies—there seems to be a connection. Could you explain it in detail?"
Village Chief felt a headache coming on. Quinn was easy to fool, Crippled Joe only cared about stealing things and didn’t know much about martial lore, so he was easy too—but the Imperial Preceptor was a different story.
"Ahem, the struggle between Overlord Body and false Overlord Body is a battle of fate."
Village Chief said seriously, "There’s only ever one true Overlord Body in the world, but there can be many false ones. I once heard a legend: if a false Overlord Body kills the true one, he can steal the true Overlord Body’s fate and become the real thing himself. Whether it’s true or not, I can’t say."
The Imperial Preceptor fell into deep thought, then suddenly looked up and asked, "The struggle of fate between Overlord Body and false Overlord Body is certainly dramatic. But how does a false Overlord Body know the other is the real one? If he doesn’t know, how can he kill him?"
Village Chief grew irritated. This guy just wouldn’t stop asking questions—how was he supposed to keep making things up?
"There’s actually an uncanny connection between Overlord Body and false Overlord Body. When they meet, both can sense each other."
Village Chief steadied himself and said, "The moment they meet, there’s a sense of mutual admiration—and at the same time, an instinctive, life-or-death hostility…"
He was nearly out of ideas, but Quinn’s eyes suddenly lit up and he clapped his hands. "That’s exactly how it felt when I met Victor Bloom! No wonder! No wonder! We ran into each other on the river—he was on a pleasure barge, and when he saw me, he stopped the boat and invited me aboard! So it was the resonance between Overlord Body and false Overlord Body at work."
The Imperial Preceptor no longer doubted. He looked up at the sky, lost in thought. "Victor Bloom comes from High Heaven, and the god who brought down that catastrophe also came from there. What kind of place is High Heaven? There are gods—and Overlord Bodies? Dao brother, you must know about it, right?"
"Just false gods."
Village Chief lifted his head too, gazing at the blue sky. To the west, the battlefield was raging, but neither paid it any mind.
"High Heaven is just a pack of watchdogs—spies the gods use to keep an eye on this world."
Village Chief spoke softly, "That snow calamity in Everpeace left the land devastated and still hasn’t recovered. It was just High Heaven sending down a disaster, using ordinary weather as a weapon. If a true god descended… heh…"
He withdrew his gaze. "The Eastern Sea is ten thousand fathoms deep, but it sank overnight. East of the Great Ruins used to be a vast ocean, but in a single night it became highlands and mountains."
The Imperial Preceptor felt a chill run down his spine.
"I’ve spent my whole life fighting against High Heaven. High Heaven is hard enough to deal with, but the ones behind it are even worse."
Village Chief looked at his own severed arms and legs, dazed for a moment. He whispered, "You’ll face them, and so will Quinn…"
The Imperial Preceptor gazed at his stumps. Others saw nothing special in those sword wounds, but as the sword god of his generation, he could sense endless mysteries within them.
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He knew just how terrifying the person who severed Village Chief’s limbs truly was.
"High Heaven will bring disaster to Everpeace again."
Village Chief let out a heavy breath. "But High Heaven’s main enemy is the Human Emperor. I’ve fought them for centuries. I have two or three years left—now, with you, you’ve grasped sword-dao and can fight them. In the future, Quinn will take up that burden. I’m leaving the Great Ruins; in the next few days a visitor from High Heaven will come for me. I can buy you both some time."
His words were plain, but all three heard a sense of determined resolve.
"A Human Emperor shouldn’t die in bed."
Village Chief smiled softly. "A sickbed isn’t where I belong."
The Imperial Preceptor looked up again and said quietly, "High Heaven… Someday, Everpeace’s iron cavalry will trample that place! But for now, we must crush Helan Pass first!"
He stood up. "Everyone, let’s move to Helan Pass."
A treasure carriage rolled up to the city wall. It was round and square at once. Quinn lifted Village Chief and set him inside, while the Imperial Preceptor took the reins, smiling: "Let’s continue our conversation at Helan Pass."
Crippled Joe picked up the golden scripture scroll from the tea table and tossed it to Quinn. "Who knows what kind of evil sorcery the Grand Venerable’s book contains."
Quinn caught the golden book and shook his head. "It’s not the Grand Venerable’s—it’s my family’s book, stolen by him."
Crippled Joe snorted. "Quinn, you really haven’t trained hard enough. You learned my Heaven-Snatch Switch-Hand, and still let that brat steal from you. You’d better stick to being the world’s number two divine thief."
"I was always happy being second—it’s you who kept insisting I was first."
Quinn opened the golden scripture scroll, surprised. "Ben Coates actually broke the seal on this book! It was sealed before. Oh, Grandpa Village Chief, I met my father!"
Village Chief’s mind went blank. He blurted out, "You met a visitor from Carefree Haven?"
Quinn set the golden book down, suddenly melancholy. "I saw him on the divine ark in Nethergloom Ravine. He’d used a forbidden art and fused with the ship, turning into a tree-man… He signed a Tu Bo contract with Earth Star Lord, so he couldn’t open his eyes to see me. He taught me many things, but in the end we still had to part…"
Quinn shook his head, pushing aside his tangled thoughts. He recounted everything that happened in Nethergloom and the Netherworld. The three elders listened, stunned. The bizarre adventure was both fascinating and terrifying, brimming with secrets too dreadful to contemplate.
The Imperial Preceptor was deeply shaken. Quinn was an Overlord Body, and his father was a godlike figure!
"How do the people of Carefree Haven become gods?"
Suddenly, the Imperial Preceptor remembered something: the people of Carefree Haven—their divine bridges connect to the Celestial Court!
The people of Little Jade Capital had told him that everyone else’s divine bridge was broken, but the Carefree Haven folk’s bridge was still connected to the Celestial Court!
Did that mean Quinn’s divine bridge was also connected to the Celestial Court?
He turned to look at Quinn, but Quinn was lost in thought, picking up the golden scripture scroll and glancing at it.
Ahead, the tower ship fleet rolled forward, crushing everything in its path. They were near Helan Pass and the Duckbill region, where corpses lay everywhere—barbarian sorcerers slain by true essence cannons.
Sword Hall Master Jian Sansheng and General Yu Yuan Gui De wielded the tower ships as swords. These two sword masters commanded the fleet, slaughtering the grassland army. In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the barbarian army had collapsed, battered by fourteen thousand true essence cannons, fleeing toward Helan Pass like a tidal wave.
After that, it was a one-sided massacre. Even the Witch King and the Khan fought desperately, but couldn’t stop their troops from routing, nor the enemy army’s advance.
The Imperial Preceptor’s carriage moved slowly. He calculated that by the time Sword Hall Master flattened Helan Pass, their treasure carriage would be entering the city.
In the carriage, Quinn studied the first page of the golden scripture scroll, growing more serious. Suddenly, he stood up, sending out wisps of vital energy from his fingertips. The energy formed rulers—round, square, triangular, oval—all sorts of angles and measures, as he began to measure the diagram on the first page.
"Quinn, what are you doing?" Crippled Joe asked curiously.
"Measuring the Magpie Bridge."
Without looking up, Quinn replied, "The cultivation technique in my family’s golden scripture is strange. To train with it, every angle of vital energy movement in this diagram must be calculated precisely. The diagrams in this book might be… might be…"