Inside the golden divine palace, Chen Hu blazed like a sun. The divine light surging from him illuminated billions of kilometres of heaven and earth, solemn and majestic. When he mentioned that his strength had spiked several times and the source likely traced back to his brother, Chen Chu, the grand hall fell silent.

Deep in the void, Qian Tian, who looked like a ferocious monster coiled in the farthest darkness, paused, and a look of shock slowly surfaced. "Back when Chen Chu departed, his realm had already reached the middle stage of the true spirit level. With the level of your cultivation three years ago, for a bloodline retrace to push you up so drastically, the only explanation is that he has reached the primordial level and become a chaotic lifeform. This manifestation appeared five times in succession. Does that not mean he later broke through four major realms in a row... primordial sovereign!"

Even Qian Tian, long accustomed to Chen Chu's heaven-defying ability, couldn't help feeling shaken.

Three years... After merely three years away, he has advanced from the middle stage of the true spirit level to a primordial sovereign. Are the resources and opportunities over in the divine region truly so outrageous? No.Qian Tian drew a deep breath, suppressing his shock and dismissing the notion.

Several years had passed. Though the group who left back then had not yet returned, the upper echelons of the Human Federation and figures such as the Celestial King had already established contact.

They therefore knew a few things about the situation there. He knew those people had only just broken through a minor realm; even the one with the best opportunities, Zhenwu, had only reached the peak of the ancient titan level. That harvest wasn't better than what he had achieved by remaining to guard the Federation and study the depths of the void.

At the same time, through the exchange of information, and owing to Chen Chu's status over there, Zhenwu and the others had learned many high-level secrets, such as the divisions beyond the primordial level: after the First, Second, and Third Primordial Heavens came the Fourth, the primordial sovereign, who commanded space-time.

Qian Tian shook his head with a sigh. "As expected of your brother. His ability is no longer something that can be described as 'unprecedented and unrepeatable,' but truly illustrious across the ages."

At Qian Tian's awe, a proud smile surfaced on Chen Hu's stern, resolute face. "My brother has always been the greatest, whether in talent or in strength. I have a feeling that the next time we hear news of him, he'll shake the entire mythical world."

"Without question." A smile also showed on Qian Tian's black scaled face, before he grew solemn. "Chen Hu, that ancient fragment of bone has stirred of late. I sense that another golden eternal divine palace might be about to open in the most twisted depths of the void."

Boom!

Chen Hu sat bolt upright. His aura surged, overbearing and ferocious. "It's finally about to open? Let's head down at once, Sir."

He rose to his feet, and the entire palace, the sea of palaces, and even heaven and earth itself all quivered faintly. It was as if what stood up wasn't a ten-meter-tall stalwart youth, but a colossal beast that filled the world. The pressure he exuded bore a faint resemblance to Chen Chu's of old.

As Chen Hu moved, golden radiance spread beneath his steps and formed a golden rainbow bridge that pierced into the void. In the blink of an eye, he and Qian Tian vanished into the far reaches of endless emptiness, while the shattered black hole that had bored through the void within the palace slowly faded away.

***

In another world altogether, deep within the sun of the Solar Divine Region, a pair of resplendent golden-white eyes slowly opened. "Ah Hu's aura has vanished."

Within an incandescent liquid flame, a golden-white figure a thousand kilometres tall stood upright. Behind her, a divine wheel hundreds of kilometers across, like white metal cast into a ring, turned slowly.

This towering figure gave off a strikingly paradoxical impression. From afar, she looked like a splendid, slender super-mech; on closer view, she was a beautiful woman in a magnificent golden-white divine gown, dignified and noble.

Luo Fei lifted her gaze toward the unknown above and softly said, "Chen Chu, Ah Hu has left the mythical world."

Her voice carried the faint majesty of the Heavenly Dao. It pierced space-time and rang through to the deepest part of the region, startling a terrifying existence. A phantom traced by only a few fine lines, yet hundreds of times larger than the sun, slowly emerged.

The cosmos trembled. Transcendent energy across billions upon billions of kilometers seethed and converged to bloom into a sky of golden petals, as if welcoming the descent of the supreme Heavenly Dao. However, only Luo Fei, who possessed a certain level of Heavenly Dao access, could witness this vision.

The moment that linear phantom appeared, its gaze passed through the crystal wall of the world and fell on the golden divine palace. In its eyes, nine silver rings coalesced into a counter-rotating vortex. Time and space within the palace froze and reversed, replaying the scene of Chen Hu and Qian Tian's conversation.

After witnessing the exchange, the silver light-wheel vortex in the crown-bearing phantom's eyes suddenly shattered. Each fragment flashed with an image containing Chen Hu or Qian Tian. It had retraced the past and peered into the future.

When the last silver shard faded, the sketched phantom turned back slowly. Its gaze landed on the splendid figure deep within the star, and its tone was unhurried. "It's fine. Pay them no mind."

Chen Chu's Heavenly Dao will was about to dissipate. Just then, Luo Fei said, "Chen Chu, three years have passed. Your cultivation has already broken through to the primordial level, yes? What realm are you at now?"

The will Chen Chu had left behind had fused with heaven and earth to become the Heavenly Dao. Unless it concerned the destruction of the world or Chen Chu's family, it wouldn't gather and descend, much less answer Luo Fei or converse with her.

However, over the past half year, Luo Fei had keenly sensed subtle changes in the world. It felt as though the world had come alive, or rather, that the operation of its principles had grown more vigorous, and the source lay in Chen Chu's mark, who presided over the Heavenly Dao.

Faced with Luo Fei's question, the linear phantom that stood across the starry sky paused. Only after a long while did it react. It looked at Luo Fei, and a lively smile touched its face. "Sovereign... and beyond."

A formless, terrifying power appeared out of nothing, sweeping across the Heavenly Dao's phantom.

Poof!

The figure woven from a few lines collapsed at once beneath that dreadful force, scattering into motes of light that faded and re-merged with the Heavenly Dao. Before that suddenly descended power, the Solar Divine Region's Heavenly Dao was no more than paper.

Luo Fei watched, a little taken aback, but not truly worried. What mattered more to her was that Chen Chu had indeed returned or rather, half a year earlier, he had already returned in some special mode of existence.

With that thought, Luo Fei's gaze shifted, and her true body, which had lain dormant for years, slowly rose to its feet.

Boom!

A mighty force erupted from the depths of the sun, shaking the entire star into instability. On its surface, tongues of flame hundreds of thousands of kilometers long unfurled.

She had fused with a masterless first-layer Primordial Azure Sky, the revived body of an ancient semi-true-spirit-level creature, and the origin power of the Solar System. United as one, Luo Fei didn't seem conspicuous, yet her cultivation had quietly grown to a shocking level.

Shreek!

From the erupting corona came the cry of a divine bird. A three-legged golden crow, wings spanning a hundred thousand kilometres and wrought entirely of flame, took shape and wheeled about the sun.

The sight drew countless gazes from the Blue Planet at once.

"Look, the golden crow has appeared!"

As the sun rose over Wujiang City, a fiery divine bird that was no more than a tenth of its size circled around it. Many on the street looked up, excited.

Since the advent of the new era, the world had grown ever more mythic. The Faerie Race and the Heavenly Feathered Race now lived alongside humans. Strange mutated beasts and divine beasts out of theClassic of Mountains and Seas[1] kept appearing. Sea serpents roared across the oceans; qilin trod mountains on land.

Even the golden crow born of the sun had appeared more than two years ago. At the start of every month, as the sun rose, the three-legged golden crow would dance beside it, heralding the arrival of a new month.

On a street not far from Nantian Martial Arts High School, a middle-aged man suddenly remembered something. "Right, today is the opening ceremony for Nantian. I heard seven heirs of kings are enrolling this year, all direct descendants within four generations."

A few meters away, a young man with a briefcase, about to hail a taxi to work, halted and turned his head. "Not just kings. I saw online that the third-generation grandchildren of four Heavenly Feathered chief gods are also among the new students."

"The Heavenly Feathered chief gods?" The dozen or so people nearby all paused, then moved closer to gossip.

"By their ages, those third-generation grandchildren should be at least a thousand years old. With such power, why would they attend Nantian?"

"I know this one." A bright girl in a white dress with a white bow in her hair took up the thread, brimming with interest. "Because of the civilization war that broke out with the Purgatory Demon Clan, the upper echelons of the Heavenly Feathered Race sealed many of their astonishing geniuses the moment their ability showed over hundreds of years. One, to prevent assassination by the Purgatory Clan. Two, if the Heavenly Feathered Race were ultimately defeated, those sealed and taken away would be the hope for its future rise. So when you count it up, these geniuses wouldn't be that old. Their strength would only be high-tier, which fits Nantian's admission requirements."

Everyone turned to the girl in white. Someone asked in surprise, "Miss, how do you know all this? I don't think I've seen it online."

"True. I haven't heard of this secret either."

At their curious looks, the girl simply smiled and did not answer. "Alright, Uncles,[2] carry on. I'm heading to Nantian to have a look."

She waved to them, turned, and left with a buoyant step. Taking in the somewhat familiar streets around her and the vehicles gliding half a meter above the ground, Luo Fei, who hadn't moved about with an ordinary person's mindset in a long time, found everything interesting.

Before long, she arrived at Nantian. Compared with a few years prior, the school, which was famed across the Human Federation, had already been expanded several times by heavenly-king-level powerhouses. The campus now covered tens of thousands of times its former area, though because the expansion had been within an internal space, it barely affected the surrounding district.

The gate was still the same, but once a person stepped through, the interior proved vast. Teaching towers a thousand meters high stood everywhere, and venerable ancient groves rose like pillars.

The flow of people on campus was staggering, and the intake grew every year. Each year, tens of millions applied, and a portion were admitted. The current resident population of the campus had reached more than two hundred thousand.

Most were students whose cultivation was far from weak; advanced auras flashed now and then. Because she looked only eighteen or nineteen, Luo Fei slipped into the school with ease, followed the crowd, and reached the open-air stadium.

Fifty thousand freshmen had already assembled below, arrayed in companies of a hundred. In the stands all around, second- and third-year students had packed the seats to watch the spectacle. In the row of seats facing the field sat the teachers and several youthful faces.

Those youths all possessed formidable auras; even the weakest radiated the Eighth Heavenly Realm. The strongest group had reached the late stage of the Ninth Realm, even the peak, and two among them had brushed the mythical level.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, Luo Fei looked around with curiosity, her gaze sweeping the masses in search of something. A handsome youth in silver battle armor, his Fifth-Heavenly-Realm aura wholly unconcealed, came over with warm enthusiasm. "Hello, I see you looking around again and again. Are you trying to find someone?"

"Mhmm, I'm looking for someone." Luo Fei nodded, playing it very ordinary.

The handsome youth grew even more eager. "I'm Jiang Tiansheng from second year, Martial Cultivation Class 3, and I also serve as a student council officer. There's no one in Nantian I don't know. Tell me who you're looking for. I'll help you and we'll find him in no time."

"You'll help me?" The girl in the white dress pressed her lips into a light smile; her eyes curved like crescent moons, leaving Jiang Tiansheng momentarily dazed.

Luo Fei nodded. "Alright, help me look then. As it happens, that person is also a student of Martial Cultivation Class 3, but his cultivation ability isn't very good. He took half a month just to complete Foundation Building."

"Class 3... half a month to finish Foundation Building?" Jiang Tiansheng frowned, running through the roster in his mind. He didn't recall anyone with such poor talent as to take half a month just to complete Foundation Building.

Because the concentration of transcendent energy had surged, the world's changes made cultivation more suited to humans, and resources were abundant, new students basically skipped Body Refining and went straight to Foundation Building.

The Body Refining Art, the threshold that once decided whether a high schooler could cultivate at all, had all but been eliminated, as should someone who spent half a month on Body Refining before finally completing Foundation Building; that ability was far too poor.

After a brief thought, Jiang Tiansheng hesitated. "The person you're talking about isn't from the recent cohorts, is he? And you still haven't told me his name."

Luo Fei laughed softly. "He isn't from these recent cohorts. As for his name, even if I tell you, you still won't find him, so never mind."

As she spoke, Luo Fei's gaze shifted, then snapped toward the crowd across the stadium. A familiar figure had just flickered past.

Before Jiang Tiansheng could respond, Luo Fei's figure vanished without a sound, as if she had never existed. The handsome youth who had been trying to strike up a conversation was startled, his mouth falling open in shock. "S-Space... teleportation. S-She's a mythical powerhouse!"

At the edge of the stadium, in a subspace layer unreachable to ordinary cultivators, Luo Fei looked with delighted surprise at a back within the crowd. "Chen Chu, you really have returned."

The transparent figure, like a 3D projection, turned back. A faint smile touched his face. "Mhmm. I came back to have a look."

1. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, also known as Shanhai jing (formerly romanized as the Shan-hai Ching), is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed since the 4th century BCE, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty. It is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550 mountains and 300 channels. ☜

2. It is common in Chinese culture to address older men as "uncles," even if they are not blood-related. ☜

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