Inside an ordinary and peaceful valley under the starry sky, Xu Zhongliang once sighed while hiding in an array.

"I really gave myself a difficult problem this time." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Wang Sheng could no longer remember exactly when it happened. The chaotic flow of time between Earth and the four great sky regions had long since distorted his sense of time itself.

It was before the plan involving the Holy Child faking his death. Back then, he had only recently reunited with his senior sister after a long separation. He watched Qinghua tear open space and withdraw beyond the skies. Only after snapping back to his senses did he head toward the secret base to look for Xu Zhongliang and discuss their next move with Qinghua.

That was also the period when Xu Zhongliang stood at the height of his influence. Internally, he had gathered experts from the Heavenly Court. Externally, he had united various small and mid-sized factions. Piece by piece, he gave the impoverished Earth's cultivation world something to rely on.

Xu Zhongliang, Wang Shan, Chun Yangzi, Qinghua, and the others had essentially built the current strength of Earth's cultivation world through sheer effort.

If they had relied solely on Earth's own strength, then even if Xiaomiao had suddenly awakened her "Heavenly Brain" and unified all of Earth's resources, they probably would still be fumbling around the ancient battlefield.

At the time, Wang Sheng viewed Xu Zhongliang as one of the wise immortals from the Ancient Era, the kind who stood shoulder to shoulder with his own forefather, Chun Yangzi.

"Even you have problems you can't solve, Senior?"

"Of course." Xu Zhongliang let out a self-mocking laugh, arms folded across his chest. "I'm not some invincible expert. There are far more than just one or two things I can't solve. I simply like thinking about useless things all day."

Wang Sheng naturally understood that some people were genuinely humble, while others merely used humility to elevate themselves.

Xu Zhongliang was clearly the former.

"The difficult matter you mentioned just now, does it have something to do with the current situation?"

Xu Zhongliang answered with a question of his own. "Fei Yu, what do you think our odds are of winning?"

"Not that great," Wang Sheng answered. "Ten percent?"

He felt that was a rather conservative estimate.

Xu Zhongliang raised a finger and gently wiggled it. "We stand no chance at all. How did you arrive at ten percent, though?"

Wang Sheng didn't know what to say.

"Because justice always wins?"

"Ha! Hahaha!"

Xu Zhongliang burst into hearty laughter, giving Wang Sheng a slight headache. Still, what the Star Deity said afterward left an incredibly deep impression on him, enough for him to ponder it for a very long time.

"Fei Yu, tell me this. What exactly does the Immortal Emperor, or perhaps Feng Jiu, truly want? Every living being exists for a reason. That is part of the Great Dao itself. No matter how strange her actions appear to us, there has to be an explanation behind them. We simply cannot see what that reason is.

"Does she want to stand above the Three Pure Ones? After years of thought, this is the only answer that still feels believable to me. Fei Yu, do you know who came closest to the Three Pure Ones?"

Wang Sheng had already learned the story of Nuwa by then. Hence, he answered almost immediately, "Nuwa."

"In truth, Goddess Nuwa surpassed the Three Pure Ones. The Three Pure Ones pursued personal transcendence, while she pursued the evolution of the entire world. On this point alone, even if the Three Pure Ones later surpassed their predecessors, they still could not compare to her. Besides, beings at that level are difficult to compare in the first place."

Xu Zhongliang's eyes narrowed as he smiled, then looked at Wang Sheng again.

"Give it a thought and try again."

Wang Sheng pondered for a moment before slowly shaking his head. "Could it be some great expert I've never heard of?"

"Great expert? Among the six strongest experts of this era, the first is Emperor Qinghua, who once mastered the Great Dao of Life and now controls the Great Dao of Death. The second is the reincarnated Great Buddha Lord of the Buddhist sects, the little monk now known by the Buddhist name Wufa.

"The third is Fairy Yunxiao, who stays detached from worldly affairs. Since the Ancient Era, she has rarely fought anyone, yet she is so overwhelmingly powerful that even the little monk fears her greatly. Fortunately, Fairy Yunxiao was your senior sister's close friend in her previous life.

"The bad news is that she dislikes you quite a bit. Forget asking her for help in the future. If she doesn't stab you with a few swords just because her friend became your Daoist partner, you should already consider yourself lucky."

Wang Sheng smiled bitterly. "What about the other three? If this is multiple choice, you should at least give me all the options."

"The fourth is Empress Houtu of the Nether Realm. However, she can no longer leave the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation. Although she remains a great expert, she is now more like a divine spirit. Winning her support will be the key to your future efforts.

"As long as she permits the cultivators who die on our side to reincarnate with their memories intact, then death would no longer truly have any effect. They could recover their cultivation progress at an astonishing speed.

"Of course, achieving that would be extremely difficult. Even the Immortal Emperor failed to do it in the past. At most, he could only restore and reincarnate the remnants of Heavenly Court soldiers who died in battle. Still, that alone became one of the greatest reasons our celestial soldiers and generals were willing to fight to the death.

"The fifth is Ancestor Feng, who is rumored to still be in seclusion to recover from old injuries. If that great expert from the Primal Era is still alive and willing to act, he could probably swallow half the starry sky in a mere mouthful of true flame. Can you guess who the sixth is?"

Deep in thought, Wang Sheng shook his head.

"The little monk once told me that the sixth is Wang Shan at his peak. Great Divine Guardian Wang was once the Immortal Emperor's most trusted minister in the Heavenly Court." Xu Zhongliang breathed out slowly before smiling faintly. "Unfortunately, his Dao Heart became troubled long ago, so he is no longer the man he once was.

"Still, the fact that he chose to support you truly surprised me. Most likely, he is also searching for an answer to something from the past."

Wang Sheng shrugged, suddenly unsure how he was even supposed to respond. After all, he had nearly died at that man's hands several times already. He had not expected that even then, Wang Shan had still not been at full strength.

Calling him terrifying hardly seemed enough.

After thinking carefully for a while, Wang Sheng finally gave what he believed was the safest answer.

"Houtu."

"Oh?" Xu Zhongliang lowered his folded arms and clasped his hands behind his back instead. "Empress Houtu transformed herself into the Dao and became the ruler of the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation. In a sense, she truly was the closest being to the Three Pure Ones, who themselves have already merged with the Sea of Dao Laws. But that was in the past. Things are no longer the same now. Try again."

"Emperor Qinghua?"

"No."

"The Immortal Emperor?"

"Still no."

"Then who?"

Wang Sheng felt a headache coming on. Speaking with these experts was exhausting. Every single one of them loved talking in circles.

Xu Zhongliang narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze filled with amusement as he calmly replied, "You."

Wang Sheng was rendered speechless. Still, he also had a strange sense of realization, as though he should have expected this answer all along. Looking back now, the entire conversation from the beginning had already been hinting at it.

"Why?"

A faint light flickered within Xu Zhongliang's eyes as he slowly replied, "The reason is both complicated and simple. If you look at the Immortal Emperor's destruction of the Heavenly Court from another angle, you can arrive at a completely different interpretation. Your forefather, Chun Yangzi, once mentioned this possibility to me, and it opened my eyes as well.

"Back then, the Immortal Emperor only had one true opponent: the Three Pure Ones. If he wanted to become a being above them, then he first had to break free from their control.

"The Heavenly Court itself was established through their full support. They altered fate, fortune, and even parts of the world's Dao Laws to pave the way for the Heavenly Court to unify the four great sky regions. Now, we already know that the Immortal Emperor had no choice but to wage war against them. He was the one who stole the Holy Child's heavenly fate.

"I even suspect the Three Pure Ones were not entirely unaware of this matter. A conflict between them and Goddess Nuwa may have been involved in all this, though there is no point digging too deeply into speculation.

"At the time, they governed the entire four great sky regions through the Heavenly Court. By destroying the Heavenly Court with his own hands, the Immortal Emperor severed their means of interfering with the material world. To the Three Pure Ones, this was a severe blow as well.

"Beings like them have already transcended physical form and merged with the laws of heaven and earth. They cannot be judged by flesh and blood alone. They are both will and law itself, which is profoundly mysterious.

"Judging purely from the outcome, the Immortal Emperor won. Since the destruction of the Heavenly Court, conflict has spread endlessly among living beings. The Immortal Saint Realm has fallen into chaos and disorder, and the four great sky regions have gradually become isolated from one another. The influence of the Three Pure Ones has fallen to its lowest point since the Primal Era.

"It is as though a shadow has descended over the four great sky regions, and the Immortal Emperor hides under that shadow, plotting something through the method of reincarnation.

"Under normal circumstances, Fei Yu, you entered the game too late. The board was already filled with pieces. On top of that, Feng Jiu sealed you away herself. The fact that you managed to leave Earth successfully already raises many doubts. There is even a possibility that every action you have taken was part of her calculations from the very beginning.

"Do not doubt it. He truly is capable of such things. Otherwise, he would never have dared challenge the Three Pure Ones."

Wang Sheng still clearly remembered how he felt back then. It was an indescribable heaviness. It was dark and suffocating, as though pressure was crashing down on him from every direction.

That became all the more apparent because he and his senior sister had already become Daoist partners by then. The desire to protect her, while seeing nothing but darkness ahead, nearly pushed him to the brink of devilish deviation again and again.