Chapter 492 – The Sovereign’s Avatar Appears, the White Emperor’s Sword!
by spirapiraThe treasure he had long dreamed of was right before his eyes. Su Xing wasted no time and walked over to the small tree.
He sealed off his five senses, relying solely on divine sense to pinpoint the Bewilderment Branch’s location.
The Bewilderment Branch was so powerful that it could bewitch any living being that perceived it through the five senses — even Saints were no exception.
However, with his five senses sealed, Su Xing easily transplanted the nearly withered Bewilderment Branch into his spirit field grotto-heaven.
“Phew… the Bewilderment Branch. If I plant it in Five Elements Soil afterward, there should still be a chance to save it!”
“Even if it can’t be revived… these branches are more than enough for pill refinement!”
Su Xing breathed a sigh of relief.
Regardless, the objective of this time reversal had been achieved.
And now, Su Xing was becoming interested in the history of this era.
So he quietly watched the White Emperor and the Celestial Secrets Girl, curious to see what would happen next.
“The Celestial Evolution Wood — I’ve finally found it!”
The Celestial Secrets Girl was overjoyed. She came to the tree and picked up many of the fallen, withered branches.
The Celestial Evolution Wood was a supreme treasure for crafting “divination artifacts.”
At the same time, it was tremendously helpful for comprehending the Dao of Cause and Effect and Destiny!
Even the seventh realm Dao of Cause and Effect and Destiny could be rapidly elevated with the help of the Celestial Evolution Wood!
Su Xing thought for a moment, then also went to the Celestial Evolution Wood tree and picked up a few branches.
There were plenty of withered branches here anyway — no reason to let them go to waste.
They might prove useful to Su Xing later!
Just as Su Xing and the Celestial Secrets Girl were happily exploring the treasures in the core of the Secret Realm…
The White Emperor beside them furrowed his brow deeply, sensing something unusual.
The wooden sword at the Celestial Secrets Girl’s waist seemed to emit faint, resonant hums, making the White Emperor’s premonition grow ever stronger.
“Brother Su Xing, Celestial Secrets Girl… now that the Celestial Evolution Wood has been found, let us leave immediately!”
“Something about this place… isn’t right!”
The White Emperor quietly mobilized the energy within his body, already entering a combat stance.
Su Xing and the Celestial Secrets Girl had been happily collecting treasures, but upon hearing the White Emperor’s words, they immediately became alert.
Su Xing carefully extended his senses and discovered a faint, stinging pain between his brows — a warning from Blessed by Fortune!
However, some unusual force seemed to be interfering with Su Xing’s perception!
The Celestial Secrets Girl, after performing a divination, also had a slight change in expression and was about to speak.
Suddenly… the sky went dark!
The entire sky of the Red Cloud Secret Realm was instantly plunged into darkness, as if the whole realm had been stuffed into a sack.
At the same time, the Celestial Secrets Girl’s expression shifted as she said:
“All communication methods have failed! I can’t contact the Celestial Secrets Pavilion…”
The White Emperor said decisively:
“Let’s leave this Secret Realm first!”
With that, the three of them rushed toward the exit of the Red Cloud Secret Realm.
Exploring the Secret Realm had taken over three years, but leaving it took less than three days.
Three days later, when Su Xing saw the state of the Eighth Heaven, he froze.
Because the entire Eighth Heaven had gone dark!
At the same time, a light screen resembling a black hole appeared in the sky above.
Countless evil, eerie creatures poured out from within that black hole.
The foreign race!
Su Xing probably understood this terrifying race better than anyone else in this era!
“But this number… isn’t it a bit too many?”
“They’re trying to conquer the entire Eighth Heaven!”
Su Xing’s eyes widened as a hypothesis formed in his mind.
It was most likely during this era that the Eighth Heaven fell to the foreign race.
And in the millions of years that followed, the powerful cultivators of the human race began coming to the Eighth Heaven to fight back against the foreign race?
“Hss… so this really is a major historical event!”
Su Xing thought to himself.
“So, what should we do now? Fight those foreign race creatures… or report this to the human race’s forces as quickly as possible?”
Su Xing looked at the two beside him, wanting to hear their thoughts.
The White Emperor shook his head slightly after hearing this and said:
“It’s too late! At the rate the foreign race is arriving… in just a few months, the entire Eighth Heaven will be overrun!”
“By then… it will be virtually impossible for the human race to reclaim it!”
The Celestial Secrets Girl beside them also said:
“There’s no time to send word… the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master can foresee all things. The moment the Eighth Heaven was invaded, he surely already knew!”
“What we need to do is buy as much time as possible! We must hold out until cultivators from the lower realm arrive as reinforcements!”
With that, an exquisite black abacus appeared in the Celestial Secrets Girl’s hand.
She tossed the abacus into the air, and it transformed into a golden light screen.
It became a spectral abacus tens of thousands of zhang wide, pressing down upon the foreign race creatures in the sky.
With each roll of the spectral beads, corresponding foreign race beings in the sky had their lives extinguished.
Su Xing raised an eyebrow at the sight — from this supernatural art, he could sense the auras of the Dao of Yin-Yang and the Dao of cause and effect!
In an instant, countless foreign race creatures — among them who knew how many foreign race deities — perished beneath that abacus.
“Hss… both the Dao of Yin-Yang and the Dao of cause and effect have reached the seventh realm… so she achieved Great Firmament through these Daos?”
Su Xing was somewhat surprised.
Meanwhile, hundreds of cultivators rose into the air, rushing in from afar, charging toward the foreign race creatures in the sky.
Every single one of these cultivators possessed at least Mystic Immortal cultivation!
In this era, the Eighth Heaven still had no absolute restrictions.
Many cultivators at the Mystic Immortal level and above would come here to explore Secret Realms and search for grotto-heavens.
Seeing this, Su Xing also summoned the Blackice sword, riding it through the air. Each time his blade swept past, it precisely took the head of a foreign race deity.
Only the White Emperor remained in place, unmoving, his brow furrowed ever deeper.
Su Xing saw the White Emperor’s expression and seemed to sense something as well.
Sure enough, as the human race cultivators continued joining the battle…
In mere moments, three spectral figures emerged from the black hole.
One of them was all too familiar to Su Xing!
“Is that Red Moon? No… it’s the second-generation Red Moon!”
“And the figure beside him… is that another chief god!?”
Su Xing’s heart lurched. The appearance of two chief gods instantly shifted the battle’s dynamics.
But what puzzled Su Xing even more was this:
Standing before both Red Moon and the other chief god was a humanoid figure whose features were impossible to discern.
Among the three, this shadowy figure was faintly the leader!
“This aura… I can’t detect it at all!”
Su Xing’s heart jumped, and an intense sense of foreboding surged within him.
The White Emperor finally gritted his teeth and said:
“A Saint among the foreign race… an avatar of a Saint…”
Upon hearing this, Su Xing’s scalp went numb!
A Saint among the foreign race — wouldn’t that mean… the Sovereign realm!
The figure before them was actually an avatar of that Sovereign!
“So… which law does this Sovereign command?”
Su Xing’s brow was tightly furrowed.
According to his intelligence, only by mastering a supreme law and cultivating it to its very pinnacle could one achieve the Sovereign realm!
And the moment those three figures appeared, the White Emperor moved!
With a casual wave of his hand, the wooden sword at the Celestial Secrets Girl’s waist vanished instantly, appearing in the White Emperor’s grasp in the next second.
Then he swung the sword, and a terrifying sword intent slashed toward the figure before the black hole.
At the same time, the second-generation Red Moon stepped forward. Crimson Power of Laws transformed into a shield, firmly blocking the sword radiance.
Yet the figure suspected to be the Sovereign’s avatar made no move whatsoever.
Seeing this, the White Emperor no longer stood by as an observer. He soared into the sky and attacked the Red Moon chief god.
All around, hundreds of human race cultivators continued their desperate battle.
From within the black hole, foreign race creatures kept pouring out endlessly.
“True war… is about to erupt!”
Su Xing sighed inwardly and began slaying the enemy as well.
This battle lasted a full forty-nine days!
The Celestial Secrets Girl fought one of the chief gods to a standstill.
The White Emperor battled the second-generation Red Moon, and on the forty-ninth day, he finally defeated him.
Of the hundreds of human race cultivators, nearly half had fallen.
Even Su Xing had been wounded dozens of times.
Yet before the black hole, that Sovereign’s avatar still had not acted.
Its eyes remained closed, as if sensing something.
After defeating the second-generation Red Moon, the White Emperor had not a moment’s rest before pressing on toward the avatar.
“This Sovereign’s avatar… seems to be gradually recovering its power!”
“If this continues… its power may soon surpass that of a half-saint!”
Su Xing’s heart jolted with alarm.
If that happened, the entire Eighth Heaven would be completely conquered!
And the foreign race could even use the Eighth Heaven as a foothold to push further downward… ultimately launching a full-scale invasion of the entire lower realm!
“So… this battle determines the future of the entire human race!”
“But against an enemy this powerful… how did the White Emperor win?”
Su Xing was curious.
In reality, the foreign race had not breached the passage between the Nine Heavens Domain and the Five Great Domains.
At the very least, the Eighth Heaven had a restrictive seal that prevented the foreign race from entering the lower realm in large numbers.
Otherwise, once the passage was broken through, the foreign race would be able to invade any world at will, and the human race would have perished long ago!
If this battle had truly occurred eight million years ago—
Then it meant the White Emperor had definitely won, or at least stopped the foreign race from invading further downward!
With doubts in his heart, Su Xing fought enemies while watching how the White Emperor handled the situation.
This battle continued for yet another half month!
The illustrious Sword Immortal White Emperor, a veteran Great Firmament Golden Immortal, one of the top one or two most offensively powerful beings in the world.
Yet the result was… he could not shatter the shield before the avatar!
Yes, an invisible barrier had appeared before the Sovereign’s avatar, protecting it from every angle without any blind spots.
Despite the White Emperor swinging his sword countless times over the past half month, he still could not break through this barrier.
Su Xing sensed the aura of that barrier, his brows tightly furrowed, feeling it was somewhat familiar.
“This aura… it’s the power of the void!”
“Void laws?”
Su Xing’s heart stirred as a thought arose within him.
As time passed, Su Xing also sensed that the Sovereign’s avatar was about to fully recover its power.
At that very moment, Su Xing saw the White Emperor’s figure in the sky.
In an instant, a fleeting impression flashed through Su Xing’s mind.
This carefree, freedom-loving Sword Immortal had, in this moment, made some heavy decision.
He threw his head back and laughed twice toward the heavens, then suddenly looked toward the distant Celestial Secrets Girl and said:
“Celestial Secrets Girl, let me show you today… the mettle of the man you love! I’m no mere vagabond!”
“Celestial Secrets, are you watching!”
With those words spoken, Su Xing felt the sword intent on the White Emperor’s body climbing at a terrifying speed!
“My name is Bai Zixian. I have cultivated the Dao for over six million three hundred seventy thousand years… entering the Dao through the sword, achieving the Great Firmament Golden Immortal realm!”
“My Sword Dao is named—the Sword!”
“It encompasses all ten thousand swords under heaven… cultivated to its ultimate end, I myself become the Sword!”
With every word the White Emperor spoke, the sword intent on his body climbed at an astonishing rate.
In mere moments, it had reached a level that Su Xing could no longer comprehend.
“This sword intent… is it truly only the seventh realm?”
Su Xing was shaken to his core.
Yet the White Emperor’s words continued, and the sword intent kept climbing!
“Today, at the cost of my Sword Dao! Borrowing the momentum of heaven and earth, the power of the world…”
“This sword can slay Saints! Can destroy the foreign race!”
“I have one sword… today I invite all under heaven to witness it!”
When the White Emperor’s final word fell—
Su Xing felt a change in his Blackice sword!
This mid-grade innate treasure had actually split off a wisp of sword intent at this moment, surging into the White Emperor’s body!
At the same time, countless points of light rushed in from all directions.
Every last one surged into the White Emperor’s body, into the wooden sword in his hand!
“All ten thousand swords under heaven… all submit to the Sword!”
Su Xing contemplated this revelation.
And under Su Xing’s gaze, this most astonishing sword strike in all of history was finally unleashed!
This one sword cleaved through the invisible void barrier!
Su Xing saw the surprise in the Sovereign avatar’s eyes.
In the next instant, the avatar was utterly shattered…
And after this sword was unleashed, the aura on the White Emperor’s body began to plummet ceaselessly…
Clearly, this one sword had cost the White Emperor an enormous price!
Immediately after, Su Xing seemed to hear a voice from beyond the heavens.
“All human race brethren in the Eighth Heaven, evacuate immediately…”
“I, the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master, shall deploy the Heaven-Severing Earth Formation to seal off the upper three Heavens!”
As this voice faded, the cultivators all began to flee.
The White Emperor, supported by the Celestial Secrets Girl, also departed from the Eighth Heaven…
Just as Su Xing was about to leave, he suddenly noticed his own figure gradually becoming ethereal.
“Hm? The duration of this time reversal… has it already run out?”
…
When Su Xing came to his senses again, he had already returned to the Real World.
The simulation text before his eyes displayed:
【You successfully participated in the major event “Sealing of the Upper Three Heavens”!】
【Ding, this simulation has ended…】
As the simulation text before his eyes concluded, Su Xing also came back to his senses, reflecting on the intelligence gained during this time reversal.
“So in that battle… the White Emperor paid an unbearable price?”
“And only then was he finally able to slay that Sovereign’s avatar!”
Su Xing’s brows furrowed tightly. Some of his doubts about the White Emperor were finally resolved.
As a veteran Great Firmament Golden Immortal who had been famous for tens of millions of years, and moreover the greatest Sword Immortal under heaven—
The other powerhouses of that era, whether Qingyunzi or the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master, had long since advanced beyond Great Firmament Golden Immortal.
Even the Luotian Ancestor, had he not perished, would likely have become a half-saint by this era.
Only the White Emperor—his displayed strength remained at Peak Great Firmament!
Invincible below the half-saint level… but against a half-saint, he likely could not prevail.
“So… it must have been that battle that damaged the White Emperor’s Dao, which is why he has been unable to step into the half-saint realm all this time!”
Su Xing frowned slightly as one mystery in his heart was solved.
Su Xing’s second question concerned the timing of the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s appearance!
“The Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master, who claims to divine all things under heaven… still failed to notice the foreign race’s invasion. Is that reasonable?”
“Moreover, the White Emperor fought a bloody battle on the Eighth Heaven for over two months… yet the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master never descended.”
“Only after the White Emperor defeated the Sovereign’s avatar did the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master finally appear… the timing seems a bit too coincidental!”
Su Xing raised an eyebrow. After sorting through his thoughts, he leaned toward one truth.
The Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master had done it deliberately!
Deliberately waited until the White Emperor had defeated the Sovereign’s avatar before revealing herself!
“But… the price was far too great!”
“To leave the greatest Sword Immortal under heaven… with no hope of attaining Sainthood, trapped at Peak Great Firmament for millions of years without the slightest advancement…”
“Why would the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master do this?”
Su Xing quickly thought of one possibility.
Among the three thousand great Daos, the Great Dao of the Sword was undoubtedly the most peerless in offensive power!
And in that era, in the entire cultivation world, how many people could have broken through the Sovereign avatar’s void laws and defeated it?
Even a half-saint… even the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master might not have been able to do it, right?
“The Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s primary cultivation is the Dao of Cause and Effect and Destiny… her combat power at the same level is absolutely not invincible!”
“Perhaps she simply could not break through those void laws…”
“So the only hope could only be placed in the hands of the White Emperor, the greatest Sword Immortal under heaven!”
Thinking of this, Su Xing was struck by a creeping dread.
If this line of reasoning held—
Then the White Emperor’s meeting with the Celestial Secrets Girl… exploring the Red Cloud Secret Realm, searching for the Celestial Evolution Wood…
And ultimately the White Emperor sacrificing his own Dao to defeat that avatar—it all seemed to have been within the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s calculations!
“Hiss… divining all things under heaven—even the White Emperor… was nothing but a chess piece of the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master?”
Su Xing immediately felt his scalp go numb.
The Celestial Secrets Pavilion existed solely for the human race! Its purpose was to ensure humanity’s survival!
And in that battle, had they lost—had the Sovereign’s avatar been allowed to recover its full power—the consequences would have been unthinkable!
Under those circumstances, the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master sacrificed the White Emperor to preserve the human race, to preserve a glimmer of hope!
“Absolutely the correct choice… is that right, Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master?”
Su Xing frowned slightly. From a moral standpoint, this seemed entirely justifiable.
Yet it left Su Xing with a lingering sense of discomfort.
“Besides… did the White Emperor truly not realize this?”
Su Xing shook his head slightly. He felt certain the White Emperor had absolutely figured out the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s machinations!
Especially in the moment he unleashed that sword!
The White Emperor’s cry of “Celestial Secrets, are you watching!”—
That was most likely his response to the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master!
Thinking of this, Su Xing felt a bittersweet ache in his heart.
“The White Emperor, the greatest Sword Immortal under heaven… the wanderer who loved freedom most of all… yet in the end, he too surrendered his freedom.”
Su Xing let out a sigh.
He finally understood why all those Great Firmament Golden Immortals sought to reach the Ninth Heaven in pursuit of Sainthood.
While only the White Emperor had stood guard over the Heavenly Secrets Domain for millions of years…
And at this moment, Su Xing gained yet another flash of insight!
“Back then… was the destruction of the Luotian Sect also within the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s calculations?”
“Could the Celestial Secrets Pavilion truly not have prevented that war against the Luotian Sect?”
“Yet in the end… it was the Luotian Ancestor who sacrificed himself to seal the foreign race’s passage in the Celestial Demon Domain!”
“Otherwise, if the foreign race from beyond had continued pouring in… could the Five Great Domains have survived?”
Thinking of this, Su Xing couldn’t help but feel a certain wariness toward the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master.
This was someone who absolutely must not be offended!
For the continuation of the human race—for that absolute greater good—the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master was capable of sacrificing anything!
Or rather, all living beings under heaven… were merely chess pieces in her game.