78: Chapter 78 Top Ten of All Time

With a single step, the galaxy shifted.

Within Emperors Fall Pass, only countless Cultivators remained, still frozen in shock.

It took a long time for the crowd to slowly recover from their stupor.

Then, the place completely erupted.

"The Great Emperor, it really was the Great Emperor!"

"I saw a living Great Emperor; my life is complete!"

"The Great Emperor even passed down techniques and left dao marks for everyone. If these dao marks weren't still here, I'd suspect I was dreaming."

"Me too."

Discussions, exclamations, and cries of excitement echoed throughout the entirety of Emperors Fall Pass.

They never expected that the Chaos Great Emperor would not only secretly leave his seclusion but also hide his identity among them, finally leaving behind dao marks for them to contemplate.

It all felt like a dream, yet it was undeniably real, filling them with overwhelming joy.

At that moment, Jiang Hao took a step with the three in tow, instantly crossing the endless starry sky.

Feng Xi finally recovered slightly from the massive shock, and she cautiously looked at Jiang Hao's profile.

That face still bore the appearance of the grey-robed old man from before—ordinary, covered in wrinkles, and completely unrelated to the brilliant and Divine Might of a Great Emperor.

But in Feng Xi's eyes now, it seemed to be shrouded in a layer of holy radiance.

"Sen... Great Emperor..." she spoke softly, her voice still trembling slightly, "Are you... are you really the Chaos Great Emperor?"

Jiang Hao turned his head to look at her.

Under Feng Xi's gaze, the wrinkles on his face receded like melting snow, his hunched frame became upright, and his greyish-white hair turned pitch black.

In an instant, the old man who looked like he had one foot in the grave vanished, replaced by a handsome young man with deep, profound eyes.

The corners of Jiang Hao's mouth curled up as he smiled and said, "What, could there be a fake Great Emperor?"

Feng Xi's eyes went wide, and her mouth formed an 'O' shape.

Although she knew in her heart this was the real Great Emperor, seeing his true form with her own eyes still made her heart race.

"No, no!" She waved her hands hurriedly, her small face turning bright red, "I just... I just couldn't quite believe it..."

She took a deep breath, trying to organize her words: "I've imagined many ways of meeting the Great Emperor, like perhaps at some grand ceremony, seeing the Great Emperor from afar sitting on a divine throne, surrounded by Chaos Qi, looking incomparably majestic.

"Or perhaps after the Great Emperor leaves seclusion, people from all directions would come to pay homage."

"But I never thought..." her voice grew smaller, "it would be in a teahouse on the Ancient Path, sitting at the same table as the Great Emperor, listening to him critique Prodigies fighting, and even hitching a ride on the Great Emperor's cloud carriage..."

Thinking of this, she suddenly laughed, feeling that this was better, more storied, and more beautiful. She smiled, "Actually, putting it that way, it's quite interesting. Great Emperor, we really share a fated connection."

At this point, she suddenly remembered something, and her eyes lit up: "No wonder, no wonder I felt an inexplicable fondness for Senior... for you, Great Emperor, from the very start. It's because you are the Great Emperor!"

Jiang Hao raised an eyebrow: "Oh? You had an inexplicable fondness for me from the start? Could you sense my aura?"

"No, no." Feng Xi shook her head and said seriously, "It was a... intuition. I just felt you were very approachable and really wanted to talk to you. Thinking about it now, it must be because you are the Great Emperor, and you're the person I admire most. Whether it's your portraits or your statues, I look at them often, so..."

She became more excited as she spoke, gesturing with her hands, "Great Emperor, we really have a fated connection, and my intuition is very accurate!"

Jiang Hao couldn't help but smile at her lively manner.

This girl was truly the polar opposite of her aunt, Feng Wu, in her youth.

Feng Wu was always cold-faced, with pitifully few words, preferring to act rather than speak.

This niece, however, was a chatterbox, as lively as a little Phoenix.

Well, she actually was a little Phoenix.

"Your aunt..." Jiang Hao paused, "is she doing well?"

"She's doing great!" Feng Xi's eyes brightened even more, "Aunt is now a Grand Elder of the Phoenix Realm and often enters seclusion, but every time she comes out, she tells me stories about you from back then, Great Emperor!"

She began counting on her fingers: "How you defeated the strong as the weak, how you swept through the Ancient Path, how you suppressed the Forbidden Zones, how you organized the daos of heaven and earth... I grew up listening to your stories!"

As she spoke, she suddenly leaned in closer and asked mysteriously:

"Great Emperor, my aunt said you were very popular with favored daughters of heaven back then, and many female Prodigies liked you and expressed their feelings to you. Is that true?"

The corner of Jiang Hao's mouth twitched slightly.

"Ahem." He gave a light cough, "This is adult business; children shouldn't pry."

"Oh, so it's true then." Feng Xi nodded, and then added as if it were only natural,

"Makes sense. For someone like the Great Emperor—good-looking, talented, and powerful—it's certain that many people would like you. Otherwise, a proud person like my aunt wouldn't have been moved."

Jiang Hao: ...

This girl...

After finishing, Feng Xi asked again, "Great Emperor, I heard that when you proved your Dao, right after you finished your tribulation, a Heavenly Venerable ambushed you and was slain by you. Later, there were also Heavenly Realm Supremes and a Mother Bug, who were also slain by you. Is that also true?"

Jiang Hao nodded: "That is true."

"Wow!" Feng Xi's eyes were full of worshipful little stars, "So powerful! I knew Aunt didn't lie to me!"

Feng Xi was immersed in the excitement of meeting her idol.

She circled Jiang Hao, asking all sorts of questions and sharing various interesting things she had seen.

Jiang Hao listened seriously, answering from time to time.

"Great Emperor, where are we going?"

Jiang Hao didn't turn back, his voice calm:

"To the final resting place of an old friend."

A massive Star Domain slowly emerged at the end of the passage ahead.

The shape of that Star Domain was extremely peculiar.

It resembled an unimaginably large corpse lying across the Universe.

The outline of the Star Domain vaguely showed a human form, with distinct head, torso, and limbs.

Countless stars were born, moved, and perished within that corpse, as if they were its blood and cells.

On the periphery of the Star Domain, nine light bands like divine rings slowly rotated; those were naturally formed Innate dao patternss.

An ancient and majestic aura permeated the entire Star Domain.

Feng Xi's pupils shrank as she looked at that Star Domain.

She felt the Phoenix Bloodline within her body vibrating violently; it was an instinctive reaction when encountering an existence of the same Rank or even a higher level.

"This is..."

A hint of reminiscence flashed in Jiang Hao's eyes as he looked at the Star Domain.

"Heavenly Venerable Lingbao."

He said slowly:

"One of the Nine Heavenly Venerables of the Mythological Era, the one who presided over slaughter and ending."

"This place is the Star Domain formed by his corpse after his fall."

Feng Xi sucked in a breath of cold air.

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao!

That Heavenly Venerable of peerless slaughter from the Mythological Era!

His corpse had actually turned into such a massive Star Domain?

In the next moment, Jiang Hao brought Feng Xi to the center of the Star Domain.

Before them was an unimaginably massive Ancient Star, dark gold in color, its surface covered in naturally formed dao patternss.

Those patterns were complex and mysterious, as if they recorded the secrets of the Great Dao from the beginning of heaven and earth.

The Ancient Star floated quietly in the center of the Star Domain, radiating a desolate, ancient, yet incomparably majestic aura.

Feng Xi was so shocked by the sight before her that she was speechless.

She could clearly feel how terrifying the remaining Great Dao imprints on this Ancient Star were.

Even though millions of years had passed, and even though that Heavenly Venerable had long since fallen, that pressure that stood above the myriad daos still shrouded the entire Star Domain.

"So... so powerful..." she murmured, "Is this a Heavenly Venerable? Dead for so many years... yet still so terrifying..."

She turned her head to look at Jiang Hao, her eyes full of curiosity: "Great Emperor, among Dao Provers, is Heavenly Venerable Lingbao considered very powerful?"

Jiang Hao gazed at the Ancient Star and nodded.

"The Top Ten of All Eternity."