198: Chapter 198 Never mind, never mind, it's not easy for anyone, new era

The Forbidden Zone Supreme Beings who was cursing at Emperor Shang Yang felt worse the more he cursed, thinking fiercely in his heart:

"That damned Shang Yang! I wondered why he suddenly became so friendly. So, he was waiting for me here!"

Some time ago, Emperor Shang Yang suddenly started drinking tea and wine with him to reconnect, reminiscing about the old days to set the mood, and lavishly praising him.

At the time, he felt something was a bit off, but he didn't think too much of it.

After all, his relationship with Shang Yang was decent, and Shang Yang had indeed been in deep slumber for a very long time; they hadn't seen each other for ages.

He thought Shang Yang genuinely missed him. He never expected it was all a calculated move.

Infuriating!

Some Forbidden Zone Supreme Beingss pretended to console him, "Fellow Daoist, forget it, forget it. Everyone has their own struggles."

But the amusement in their eyes was impossible to suppress.

Often, this is how people are. They might feel quite unlucky and upset themselves.

But upon hearing someone else is even more unfortunate, they instantly don't feel so bad anymore.

The cursing Supreme Being also knew what these people were thinking and snorted.

It wasn't that he begrudged the undying medicine. After all, he had already used it, and it held little effect for him now.

What pained him was losing his chance at Ascension.

If he had known that offering the undying medicine could grant access to the ascension passage, he would have offered it long ago. Shang Yang had simply taken advantage of him for nothing.

"It seems I need to think of a way," he thought to himself, deciding he would also abandon martial virtue and resort to theft and deception.

"And that Chen Dao is simply a madman! He actually ambushed and killed that old monster Ming Gu! They were close friends for many years! To do such a thing just for an Ascension spot, I truly look down on him!"

One Forbidden Zone Supreme Beings suddenly shifted the target of blame to Heavenly Venerate Chen Dao.

"Exactly! He's simply a beast!"

Speaking of this, everyone began cursing loudly, as this truly concerned them. They also feared being ambushed at any unknown time.

By analyzing the actions of Shang Yang and Chen Dao, the group roughly deduced the conditions required for the ascension passage.

Some Supreme Beings cursed Heavenly Venerate Chen Dao for being unscrupulous; others denounced Emperor Shang Yang for swindling treasures.

There were even Supreme Beings who, amidst their furious cursing, had flickering eyes, secretly calculating their chances of taking down a certain neighbor if they made a move.

After cursing for a while, the group dispersed, each harboring their own petty schemes.

Soon, through some hidden channels and analysis of scattered clues, rumors quietly spread among the Forbidden Zone Supreme Beingss: those without blood debt needed to offer scriptures and treasures;

Those with blood debt needed to add an additional head of a Supreme Being as a pledge of allegiance.

For a time, the atmosphere within the various Forbidden Zones became extremely bizarre.

Supreme Beings who had never launched Dark Turmoils felt their minds stirring, beginning to take stock of their own assets or casting their eyes upon their neighbors' treasured collections.

Those Supreme Beings with hands stained in blood instantly felt as if needles were pricking their backs!

They were horrified to discover that they had likely become prey in the eyes of other blood-stained Supreme Beings, who were also desperate to obtain a spot!

The originally indifferent and fragile alliance relationships crumbled in an instant.

Invective, condemnation, mutual suspicion, covert vigilance... Undercurrents surged violently within the Forbidden Zones.

Jiang Hao merely tossed out an opportunity and set two differentiated rules, plunging these Supreme Beings, who had slumbered for countless ages and coexisted harmoniously for many years, into an unprecedented crisis of trust and internal turmoil.

No one knew if the Fellow Daoist beside them would transform into a soul-reaping Yama in the next moment.

For the next several thousand years, the Life Forbidden Zone were no longer peaceful. Brief Supreme-level conflicts erupted from time to time, with dazzling radiance and soaring murderous aura, but they usually subsided quickly.

That was because some Supreme Beings attempted to ambush their prey.

Unfortunately, none succeeded; it mostly ended in mutual injury.

Since everyone had such thoughts and were on guard, success was very difficult.

Therefore, during these turbulent five thousand years, the Inter-Realm Channel opened only once more, admitting an Ancient Emperor with substantial assets and clean hands, named Immortal Granny, a female Supreme Being.

After Immortal Granny left, several more millennia passed.

On this day, deep within the cosmos, the traces of the Great Dao belonging to the Great Emperor Qiankun Xiao Fan, finally dissipated completely between heaven and earth after the long passage of time.

The heavenly heart imprint was once again masterless; the shackles of the Great Dao loosened.

A new era was declared open.

Within the vast starry sky, from some dust-sealed Ancient Stars and hidden Secret Realms, powerful auras began to awaken, soaring into the heavens.

The suppressed fortune of the great era, held back for ten thousand years, once again gave birth to countless heroes and talents.

The Emperors Path was about to open; the struggle for the Dao began anew.

Throughout the myriad worlds, countless proud sons of heaven and outstanding talents gazed up at the starry sky, their eyes burning with ambition and fighting spirit.

To whom would the throne of Emperor belong in this generation?

All creatures under the frosted sky compete for freedom.

New legends were about to be written in blood and fire.

The figure seated atop the Thirty-Three Heavens merely looked down quietly upon all of this, as if watching a cyclical prelude no different in essence from those of the past.

With the shackles of the Great Dao dissipated, a new era of contention for the Emperors Path quietly descended.

At the edge of the cosmos, on an Ancient Star long forgotten by the world, the spiritual energy here was thin.

Suddenly, on the star, an eggshell cracked, and divine light shot into the heavens.

A young Qilin, its body covered in cyan-gold scales, its four hooves wreathed in Innate cloud-qi, struggled free from the stone womb within the sealed ancestral land.

Its eyes newly opened, the clear depths of its pupils reflected the brilliance of the starry river, also imprinted with fragments of glory and downfall from the inherited memories of its clan.

This was the last orphan of the Kylin Clan, named Qi Xuan. However, Qi Xuan was not of pure blood, but a hybrid—a mix of human and Qilin.

Qi Xuan's father was a pure-blooded Qilin, immensely powerful, the strongest young talent of the clan at the time, and the future of the race.

Unexpectedly, his father fell in love with a human.

And an ordinary human at that, only at the Sendai Realm.

Although the second level of the Immortal Terrace wasn't low, compared to his father, she was quite ordinary.

Little Qi Xuan, born a hybrid, seemed to have average talent and was often bullied by other young Qilin.

Although Little Qi Xuan was deeply saddened, he did not give up on himself. Instead, he worked even harder. He wanted to prove himself, to prove he was not inferior to anyone.

Even the invincible ancestral progenitor.

The Kylin Clan had once been glorious. In the Ancient Era, they were also a powerful race, producing an Ancient Emperor during the early Ancient Era.

Later, after the Qilin Ancient Emperor passed away, the Kylin Clan declined significantly, but they could still be considered a strong race.

But during the Primordial God War, the Kylin Clan suffered a catastrophic disaster.

Qi Xuan's father was killed by the enemy, and all the other powerful members of the clan were slain as well.

Qi Xuan was only eight years old at the time. His mother used her last vital essence to seal him into the core of the Qilin ancestral star, hoping he could endure the long silence and await an opportunity for revival.

This young Qilin, bestowed with the name Qi Xuan by its Bloodline memories, grew up alone on the desolate ancestral star.

He gnawed on the fossilized remnants of divine medicines, drank the last remaining spiritual liquid from deep within the earth veins, and fought with the surviving fierce beasts of the ancestral land.

Over three hundred years, his cyan-gold scales grew increasingly radiant, and the horn on his forehead began to condense Great Dao runes.

But he knew the nutrients of this star could no longer support his advancement to higher Realms.

The burden of reviving his clan and his yearning for the vast starry sky compelled him to decide to leave.

"Goodbye, Father, Mother. I will return. I will make the glory of the Kylin Clan return once more!"

One morning, Qi Xuan took one last look at his ancestral star and entered the starry sky. He was about to begin his new life!