Daqin Zhentiansi

The city lord's mansion of Feihong City is located at the highest point in the very center of the city.

The entire building is constructed of dark gray stone, without any unnecessary embellishments.

Only above the main entrance of the main hall is carved a single, bold character in a flamboyant style—

mysterious.

Zhang Yuan landed in the square in front of the city lord's mansion.

As soon as he landed, the main hall doors burst open with a roar.

A person walked out of the hall.

The man was wearing a very simple blue robe, the material of which was indiscernible, but it draped beautifully, flowing like water along the lines of his body.

He looked to be only in his thirties or forties, but the aura in his eyes seemed to have witnessed the rise and fall of an entire river, and there was a sense of remoteness in his brows and eyes that did not belong to this era.

He is the owner of that voice.

He stood at the entrance of the main hall, looking at Zhang Yuan in the square.

Then he laughed again.

The laughter went from low to loud, from loud to wild, and finally it was almost a roar.

The power contained in that laughter shook the entire city lord's mansion, and caused the spiritual energy within a radius of dozens of miles to surge violently.

"A million years!"

His voice seemed to burst forth from the depths of his chest, carrying a hoarseness and a sense of triumph after surviving a catastrophe.

"A million years! I thought you'd never come back! I thought that damned dark abyss had swallowed you! I thought—"

His voice trailed off.

He stood at the entrance of the main hall, looking at Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan was also looking at him.

There was silence for a moment.

Zhang Yuan spoke up: "Senior Xuanqing."

"A million years. I never thought we'd meet again."

Xuanqing stood at the entrance of the main hall, listening to every word Zhang Yuan said.

Then he looked up at the sky and laughed.

Laughter, like the ringing of swords, soared straight to the heavens!

"it is good!"

He strode out of the hall, and with each step he took, a blue lotus flower formed from spiritual energy would bloom on the ground.

His long hair danced wildly in the wind, and his laughter echoed throughout the entire city of Feihong.

"I've forgotten all the favors others owe me. But the one I owe you, I've remembered for a million years!"

He walked up to Zhang Yuan and met his gaze.

"You want to fight that unfinished war? Fine!"

A flame burned in his eyes, a flame that had been suppressed for millions of years, never extinguished, waiting for this moment.

"Zhang Yuan, I've been waiting to hear you say that for a million years!"

Zhang Yuan looked at Xuan Qing, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Help me gather people who can fight. I need to know how many people on this Xuntian Continent still remember what happened back then."

Xuan Qing stopped smiling.

He turned and walked towards the main hall, paused at the threshold, and said without turning his head, "Come in. There are some things you should know."

Zhang Yuan followed him inside.

The furnishings inside the main hall were extremely simple, with no superfluous decorations, except for a long table in the center with a huge map spread out on it.

The map was neither drawn on animal hide nor on paper.

It was a map of light and shadow formed by spiritual energy, floating above the table, emitting a pale blue light.

Zhang Yuan glanced at the map, his gaze sharpening slightly.

That was a complete map of the thirty-two domains of the Sky Survey.

Mountains, rivers, cities, and passes are all clearly marked. On the northern edge of the map, a large area is marked in dark red, like a spreading wound.

Xuan Qing sat down at the table and gestured for Zhang Yuan to sit down as well.

Without any formalities, he went straight to the point: "How much do you know about the battle at Tianyuan City a million years ago?"

Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment: "I witnessed the aftermath of that great battle in the Demon Suppression Tower. Tianyuan City fell, all races were wiped out, and the Heavenly Venerable led the Xuntian Continent to retreat."

"Evacuation?" Xuan Qing sneered, his voice tinged with an indescribable bitterness. "Do you really think that's evacuation?"

Zhang Yuan looked at him without saying a word.

Xuanqing lightly swiped his finger across the map of light and shadow, and the map suddenly zoomed in, fixing on the center of the dark red area in the north.

In that location, there was a bottomless black mark, like a vertical eye watching people beyond the map.

“Tianyuan City was not breached.” Xuan Qing’s voice deepened. “It was shattered by a single palm strike.”

Zhang Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.

Xuanqing continued, "In the end, the Supreme Realm experts among the Heavenly Demons personally took action in that battle."

"With a single palm strike, the entire Tianyuan City, along with the foundations of the surrounding three thousand miles, will be reduced to dust."

His voice was calm.

"At that critical moment, the Celestial Venerable made his move."

"Using the Demon Suppression Tower as a base, he mobilized the entire power of the 3,600 patrol continents to forcibly suppress that Supreme Heavenly Demon within the spatial rift."

Xuan Qing raised her head and looked at Zhang Yuan.

"It wasn't a withdrawal. It was the use of 3,600 Sky-Patrolling Continents as chains to suppress a Supreme Heavenly Demon for a million years."

Zhang Yuan's breath hitched slightly.

Three thousand six hundred patrols across the Heavenly Continent.

Each one is as large as a star.

Each one carries the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

The Celestial Venerable transformed them all into chains, solely to suppress one being.

"For the past million years," Xuan Qing's voice continued, tinged with weariness that seemed to seep into his very bones, "the Heavenly Demons have never ceased their attacks."

"They want to rescue that Supreme Being, but that Supreme Being is constantly eroding the seal of the Sky-Patrolling Continent with his own demonic energy. Of the three thousand six hundred Sky-Patrolling Continents, eight hundred have already completely collapsed."

Zhang Yuan remained silent for a long time.

His gaze fell on the map of light and shadow, looking at the areas marked in dark red, as if they were wounds that were widening.

Then he spoke, his voice very soft: "Is the Celestial Venerable of yesteryear the same person as the Celestial Venerable of today?"

Xuanqing's gaze suddenly froze.

He didn't speak.

Zhang Yuan looked at him, his gaze calm and profound: "What exactly happened on both sides of the river of time over the past million years? The Emperor Jun I saw in the Demon Suppression Tower does not match the legend of the Heavenly Venerable circulating on this Sky-Patrolling Continent."

Xuanqing remained silent for a long time.

Then he put down his teacup and said in an extremely deep voice, as if squeezed from the depths of his chest, "You should know who the current Celestial Venerable is."

Zhang Yuan closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes again a moment later.

"It is Xuanjue."

When he said those three words, his tone was very calm, as if he were stating a fact that he already knew but just needed to confirm.

Xuan Qing nodded.

"It's Xuan Jue. The one you rescued from the ninth level of the Demon Suppression Tower. The one the entire Celestial Race believes is destined to be the successor to the Heavenly Venerable. That one—"

He paused for a moment, a hint of bitterness in his voice that he could hardly conceal.

"The person who, after inheriting the position of Celestial Venerable, completely sealed off this part of history for millions of years."

Silence fell once more in the main hall. (End of Chapter)