Chapter 1669: 荒天帝、叶天帝、女帝,何在

Chu Feng honed himself, carving an unparalleled, deadly battleground in the deepest reaches of chaos. He subjected himself to every form of grand dao attack from the old laws, from the chaotic heavenly thunder to all other assaults. There, he fought with his physical body and his soul light, battling to the point of madness. In this era, he could not venture out. Lacking opponents, he waged war against himself, separating his two dao fruits and battling until both aspects of himself were on the verge of perishing, their very origins shattered. Yet, he never hesitated. Unable to seek out adversaries, he could only restrain himself from hunting down the Immortal Emperors of the ominous race, refining himself in this life-threatening manner.

Standing outside the boundless killing field, Lin Nuoyi was deeply worried, anxious that Chu Feng might disregard his own safety and truly suffer an accident. She perceived the boiling battle intent beneath his calm exterior. As long ages passed, he had continually craved that ultimate battle. The day he plunged into the Ominous Land would surely shake heaven and earth, astounding all ages!

Chu Feng battled for countless ages, repairing the field whenever it shattered, continuously layering various attack methods to suppress and overcome himself. In these desolate years, without enemies, and in his unique situation, he fought to the point of madness, cultivating a vast and endless killing intent all by himself! He appeared to have waged war for several epochs, with the power of killing tribulation emanating from his eyes and brows. One day, he stopped, realizing that many tens of thousands of years had passed. He remained seated cross-legged for a long time, gradually calming his emotions and settling into silence and profundity.

After 4.21 million years of the Ruined Era, Chu Feng and Lin Nuoyi emerged from chaos and once again walked the world. They spent a period of peace and tranquility together, exploring all the magnificent landscapes. For tens of thousands of years during this period, Lin Nuoyi accompanied Chu Feng, traveling to every corner of the world. Their footprints were left across the vast universe. Chu Feng was subtly and invisibly engraving domain runes, transforming one great world after another into a part of his domain. During this time, they were peaceful and serene. After countless lonely years, their reunion in this world was the greatest compensation. However, neither could believe in fate; the so-called heavens had long been trampled underfoot. The only things they could truly trust and stand firm by were themselves.

"Oceans turn to dust, thunder and lightning wither..." Chu Feng sighed with emotion, noting that in many places they visited, the vast oceans of old worlds had dried up. The phrase "vast oceans turn into mulberry fields" was not merely words but a tangible reality. In this era, spiritual energy was so dense it could not be dissipated, yet there were no heavenly tribulations. All evolvers had bypassed their trials; the lightning tribulations seemed to have withered away. During this time, Lin Nuoyi, through profound accumulation, finally reached the pinnacle of the Quasi-Immortal Emperor path. However, she chose not to break through, instead continuing to refine herself. Walking alongside Chu Feng, she received much inspiration. She did not wish to simply replicate the path of the woman from the pollen realm, but rather sought to forge her own dao, though this proved exceedingly difficult. She did not necessarily crave a completely distinct path of evolution; rather, she continuously refined herself, taking new steps to supplement her current one.

This was a warm and beautiful period. She and Chu Feng spent time together, never parting, visiting many old places. Recalling the past, they were moved, saddened, and filled with a multitude of emotions. Over these years, as they walked together, they rarely experienced that sense of loneliness, where they felt detached from the bustling, vibrant human world.

"I have found a path," Lin Nuoyi told Chu Feng, "whether or not I can forge a new dao, I will break through to become an Emperor." She informed him she was going into seclusion. This time, she prepared to journey through myriad ages and spaces, tracing the footsteps of the woman from the pollen realm to verify her own dao. Chu Feng nodded, sending her into the deepest reaches of chaos and constructing a domain to conceal her aura. Even if she were to awaken one day and begin her breakthrough, she would not be detected by the creatures of the plateau.

"When traveling through myriad ages and spaces, be careful not to get lost in them!" Chu Feng softly reminded her. He felt that if Lin Nuoyi pursued this path, it would likely consume a vast amount of time and carry significant risk. What if she immersed herself in the past, identifying with the woman from the pollen realm? Variables could easily arise. In that scenario, what if she couldn't wake up? And even if she did revive, who would she truly be?

"Don't worry, I'm confident. She is no longer here, and she has also resolved not to return. I am just... myself," Lin Nuoyi reassured him. She fell silent within that domain, as if sinking into a deep slumber. Chu Feng stood there for a long time before finally departing, then began to diligently improve himself.

After 4.59 million years of the Ruined Era, Chu Feng had explored almost all the heavens. He continuously analyzed various locations, silently and without leaving a trace, yet in truth, he was inscribing domain runes. Although he walked the path of domain evolution, with great power belonging to himself, this did not mean he would abandon the innate destructive force of the domains. Should he one day venture to battle in the Ominous Land, he would pour out all his strength, hoping to harness the domains of all heavens to shatter the entire plateau! Although this would likely be difficult and the outcome unknown, he still diligently prepared and experimented throughout his evolution.

During this period, across various worlds, he successively discovered all the unique terrains that had appeared on the stone jar. He entered and exited these terrifying and ominous places, seeing only scenes from the past. From these, he extracted the intricate patterns, learned from their paths, and perfected his own dao. Traversing those desolate lands, Chu Feng witnessed tragedy after tragedy. These were the protagonists of their respective epochs, all Quasi-Immortal Emperors, some even true Immortal Emperors, who had perished beneath mountains and rivers, devoured by the plateau connected to the reincarnation path, and transformed into death zones. They should have illuminated the ages, yet all became a bloody past, known to few.

"Jar, do you have a spirit? Are you recording the dusty past, the sorrows of those years? What exactly do you want to do, what do you want to express?" Chu Feng sighed softly, full of questions. The stone jar glowed and hummed, confirming it possessed a spirit, albeit an ignorant and nascent one. It recorded a history of bloodshed but was powerless to change anything.

Subsequently, Chu Feng journeyed to the Sacrificial Sea, where he analyzed the shattered universes and countless buried great worlds. Their endless number exhausted him, yet he became irrevocably immersed in the process. Many tens of thousands of years later, Chu Feng withdrew from there, shifting his focus to that ancient altar—the sacrificial ground of the ominous race! It was immensely grand, standing in the center of the Sacrificial Sea, renowned as the Immortal Emperor Sacrificial Ground. Chu Feng was somewhat wary and very cautious of this place. He eventually observed and explored it from a distance, extracting various strange runes before finally departing. He did not wish to disturb the Ancestors; at this stage, he could not act rashly. He intended to return once he had attained the Sacrificial Dao realm to uncover its secrets.

The world was splendid, a golden age had arrived. Although Chu Feng measured time by the Ruined Era, the human world had long since entered a new epoch. In this new epoch, everything flourished, and Immortal King-level beings began to emerge! Strictly speaking, the era of spiritual depletion during the Ruined Years, though not very long compared to ancient epochs, was indeed considered a bygone age. Though Chu Feng felt a pang of loss, he acknowledged that the past was ultimately buried, lost in dust. Those people and events were no longer visible. This brand new epoch was extraordinarily magnificent; after reaching its peak, it did not wane but grew even more prosperous, constantly shining. Some Immortal Kings were comprehending the dao, striving to reach the pinnacle. Among all worlds, though many evolvers existed, none could transcend the heavens or oversee the vast universe to name this epoch. Because they had experienced so little, no ancient figures like Jiudao Yi or the Corpse had survived in this world, let alone those at the peak of their path. Chu Feng merely watched in silence, not revealing himself in this new epoch.

The Resurgence Epoch! Ultimately, it was the ominous beings who named this epoch. Chu Feng had not dared to kill Immortal Emperors, but having studied and analyzed Immortal Kings in certain desolate lands, he naturally knew these rumors. The Ruined Epoch and the Resurgence Epoch, though relatively brief compared to previous ones, truly marked the passage of two distinct eras.

After 4.91 million years of the Ruined Era, Chu Feng, carrying the stone jar, gazed from afar at the Ominous Land. During the Ancestors' slumber, he came to study the inherent patterns outside the plateau. He had just arrived, taking a hurried glance, before turning and departing. He had an inexplicable premonition that lingering too long might alert the Ancestors, waking them from their slumber. After he left, he directly entered the Ancient Reincarnation Path and began studying the Ancient Underworld! This was an unfathomable place, filled with various strange and powerful incomplete patterns. Chu Feng tirelessly immersed himself there, spending hundreds of thousands of years. The Ancient Underworld and the Ancient Reincarnation Path were entirely silent, deathly still, without a single sound. Like a dense spiderweb, they connected all heavens, with paths leading to every universe. Naturally, there were also paths leading to the plateau, but Chu Feng did not step onto those dark routes filled with ominous energy.

One day, as Chu Feng explored a broken path in the Ancient Underworld alone, he felt an intuition, instantly vanishing and reappearing at the path's end. There, at the exit connected to a great universe, something was amiss. Chu Feng's pupils sharply contracted. He saw... a corpse, which made his body tremble. Although many years, two epochs, had passed, that person's past voice and smile seemed to be from just yesterday, indelible and right before his eyes.

"Yaoyao!" Chu Feng's heart ached. She had lost her former vitality, lying quietly with disheveled hair, her soul extinguished, utterly lifeless. Had Yaoyao truly perished in the past? With his cultivation, Chu Feng could naturally sense that she was merely an empty shell, her soul long departed. The incomparably stunning woman, once hailed as the greatest under the starry sky, was found here, her fate unchanged, still a beauty who had withered away. However, as a peak-level expert, Chu Feng possessed divine perception beyond human comprehension, capable of sensing the past, present, and future.

"Hmm?!" His expression shifted, and his eyes radiated light, illuminating the reincarnation path. Old scenes surfaced before him: it was the Empress who had sent Yaoyao away back then. Although the Empress was no longer visible, having vanished from all ancient history, Chu Feng still managed to reconstruct the past. On that day, Yaoyao was tragically impaled by a spear from a powerful ominous creature and nailed to the ground. Her body disintegrated, leaving only her remnant blood staining the battlefield. Finally, the Empress seized the sole opportunity while the Ancestors returned to the plateau's depths. She sent some people away, including the blood-stained earth from Yaoyao's fallen place, which was teleported away. The few who were saved back then most likely also met unfortunate ends; Chu Feng had not encountered them before. As for Lin Nuoyi, she had been sent away beforehand by the woman from the pollen realm.

Chu Feng placed a piece of clothing over Yaoyao's body, then sat cross-legged beside her. With a single thought, he established a domain and chanted true words. An Immortal Emperor's doing this yielded extraordinary power. He condensed countless tiny strands of light from the void—from ancient times and the present—which converged and entered Yaoyao's body. Soul light appeared in her body! Chu Feng was overjoyed. At his level, he could naturally project figures from the past and bring them back to life. As long as they hadn't been personally killed by an Ancestor, he was confident of success. However, he had never done this before, as interfering with the past and using earth-shattering Immortal Emperor means to alter destiny would have too profound an impact, potentially alarming the monsters at the end of the plateau. Furthermore, in this era, even if he were to project those old acquaintances, what then? If detected, or if he died in battle, they would still face a tragic end. After much anguish, he restrained himself, not wishing to alarm the Ancestors. He had not yet reached the Sacrificial Dao stage, so he couldn't fully comprehend the Ancestors' methods, and the keenness of their perception was unpredictable. Now, he was not manifesting from the past; rather, using his profound cultivation, he captured anomalous remnants of soul light, gathering them, and indeed, Yaoyao's soul light was rekindled.

Although Yaoyao's face was pale, she opened her eyes, revived, and her body gradually regained its vitality. However, Chu Feng's heart trembled. The moment she awoke, his power allowed him to naturally see through the past, present, and future. "Are you... still Yaoyao?" he asked.

"Yes... me, but with some old memories. Perhaps it is her too, Chu Feng, we meet again," Yaoyao replied, her soul light growing brighter and more intense as she gradually revived, gaining increasingly robust vitality. In the past, Ye Qingxian traversed epochs, building a bridge of communication for Huang and Ye, which involved immense karma. Furthermore, she had been personally killed by an Ancestor, making her revival extremely difficult. Emperor Ye had prepared two paths to save Ye Qingxian: one was to project himself into the past, protect her with the Myriad Things Mother Qi Cauldron, and guide her return. The other path involved Huang and Ye jointly leaving a single drop of her lifeless blood in the long river of history, which was eventually introduced into the bloodline of a descendant, hoping she would awaken one day. That lifeless drop of blood entered Yaoyao's body. When the Empress teleported her away at the very end of the ultimate battle, she enlightened that remnant blood, leaving a spark of hope for her revival. In fact, after long ages, the blood-stained earth continually transformed. Eventually, Yaoyao's blood intertwined with that remnant blood, gaining vitality, and after countless years, her body was reshaped. However, the process was extremely slow. It wasn't until hundreds of thousands of years ago that her body fully manifested here. Then, her flesh and blood glowed, emanating countless intricate patterns that diffused into heaven and earth; this was her soul, disintegrated and spread throughout the world, not merely awaiting complete resurrection but also serving as a form of cultivation. Born from death, this was a difficult yet viable path. The former Ye Qingxian, having been jointly protected by Huang and Ye and enlightened by the Empress, allowed her lifeless remnant blood to revive, intertwining and coexisting with Yaoyao, thus returning to this world.

"I am still me, and also partly her," Yaoyao spoke, revealing the truth. After all, countless ages had passed, and the original Ye Qingxian was reduced to a mere drop of remnant blood. Not much of her remained after her revival; she was both her and Yaoyao.

"It's good that you're back!" How could Chu Feng not be overjoyed and excited? The woman of unparalleled talent, whom he had believed lost forever—when he last traced back time, he had only vaguely glimpsed her figure. Chu Feng had thought her blood-stained resting place had been affected by the battles of Immortal Emperors and Ancestors, but now it seemed her fate had been intervened with by the Three Emperors, which explained why Chu Feng, at the Dao Ancestor realm, struggled to perceive her clearly then.

Chu Feng took Yaoyao, accompanying her into this splendid grand age, and told her about the immense changes of the past many years. "Almost everyone from our generation has died." Upon learning this, Yaoyao was no longer as lively as before; she became melancholic and saddened. The burial of an entire era was too heavy, knowing that all past sages had fallen in battle. Chu Feng accompanied her to many places, and indeed, the passage of time had changed everything. No familiar mountains or old landscapes remained, let alone the people from those days—all were gone.

"I need to go into seclusion, I need to cultivate!" Yaoyao said. Over these many years, merely reviving and returning to the world had consumed much of her time. However, she was ultimately extraordinary; born from death, it was also a form of cultivation, and she was now in the Immortal King realm. Chu Feng sent Yaoyao into the depths of chaos, not wanting her to be detected during her evolution and breakthrough. Given her talent, she should be able to make a breakthrough very quickly.

However, changes in the world are always unexpected. As the grand age shone brilliantly, reaching its peak and then soaring higher, a celestial shift was imminent. Beings from the Ominous Land emerged; Dao Ancestors took action, and an Immortal Emperor stood behind them, overseeing myriad worlds, conducting a minor sacrifice! Various calamities descended upon the world. Dazzling light streaked across the void, shattering powerful orthodoxies, forcing even Immortal Kings to bleed. However, this time, the ominous beings did not personally intervene or extensively harvest the lives of evolvers. They merely stood above the heavens, unleashing natural disasters that shook the very foundations of the Resurgence Epoch's grand age.

"How can one grow strong in too much comfort? Only through blood and chaos can growth be promoted, sparking a more brilliant flame of evolutionary civilization!" The Immortal Emperor, standing behind the Dao Ancestors and towering over all worlds, spoke chillingly. He did not act directly; the Quasi-Immortal Emperors unleashing various disasters was sufficient. This was the first time the evolvers of the "Resurgence Epoch" realized that unfathomable beings from beyond this world seemed to be interfering with them, gravely threatening the survival of all races.

After the natural disaster, the world's population decreased by twenty percent, and evolvers were similarly affected. Although many powerful individuals and orthodoxies were eradicated, overall, most people survived. The world's spiritual energy briefly weakened, but hundreds of thousands of years later, it flourished once more. Evolutionary civilization again became resplendent, and strong individuals emerged in abundance. The "Glorious Epoch" arrived. Although it only experienced a minor sacrifice, and eighty percent of living beings survived, this was indeed a new epoch. Relatively speaking, the Ruined Epoch and the Resurgence Epoch were indeed very brief, lasting significantly fewer years than other grand epochs. Of course, some epochs, like these two, were not particularly long. For instance, the Gray Epoch that Chu Feng experienced, or the Everbright Epoch mentioned by Gu Qing, were even shorter. Excluding the bygone Gray Epoch, after the ultimate battle, starting from the Ruined Epoch, then experiencing the Resurgence Epoch, and now entering the Glorious Epoch, Chu Feng could be considered one who had lived through three epochs following the great calamity.

In the ethereal realm, he felt a certain suppression, as if malice was reviving and about to descend. Were the Ancestors awakening? He frowned. In this epoch, he exerted his utmost to perfect his own method, hoping to take that crucial step soon—he wanted to succeed in the Sacrificial Dao! However, despite his inner unease and eagerness, he ultimately restrained himself from a risky attempt. He continuously comprehended the dao, pushing the path of his two dao fruits to their extreme limits, striving to eliminate any imperfections. Until one day, he awakened from his dao-evolving state, unsure how many years had passed, unable to precisely measure it against the Ruined Era. Many tens of thousands of years had passed in the Glorious Epoch.

Chu Feng entered the depths of chaos to visit Lin Nuoyi and Yaoyao, who had both successfully advanced into the Immortal Emperor realm, making him feel as if ages had passed. How many years had passed? He had forgotten the passage of time and hadn't rushed back to protect them during their breakthroughs. Although he knew in his heart that, given their foundations, they should be able to advance, he still felt a wave of lingering fear. This period of seclusion and dao evolution seemed to have consumed countless ages, as he had been entirely immersed in his own world. Chu Feng came and went in a hurry. He delved deeper into chaos and began to set up a domain, preparing for the Sacrificial Dao. He had that feeling—he felt ready to attempt the breakthrough! Of course, this might just be his illusion. He worried that if he waited any longer, another epoch would soon end. What concerned him most was the fear that the number of Ancestors in the Ominous Land would increase.

"Whether it's a grand epoch or a minor epoch, one after another, I've experienced four or five epochs: the Gray Epoch encompassed the Everbright Epoch, and then I went through the Ruined Epoch, the Resurgence Epoch, and the Glorious Epoch. It's been a very long time."

On this day, Chu Feng elevated his two dao fruits to their absolute limits and extrapolated the path in his mind into the Sacrificial Dao realm, finally putting it into action. Within the grand domain, Chu Feng broke through. He sacrificed his dao fruits amidst thousands of layers of complex and incredibly powerful domains, where endless flames burned. Chu Feng's dao fruits illuminated the void, constantly collapsing and disappearing. Transcending limits, surpassing the mortal realm, and escaping the confines of so-called eternity, all karma was extinguished. Chu Feng was undergoing a terrifying death tribulation, once even falling into eternal stillness, with all his traces vanishing from the world. He achieved Sacrificial Dao with two dao fruits, an incredibly intense process. Until all things withered, the domain fell silent, and all fluctuations vanished, a single point of light bloomed, and his figure slowly emerged. He succeeded!

"Is this Sacrificial Dao?" Chu Feng stretched his body, feeling omnipotent power. The Heavenly Dao, all rules, and every aspect of order had lost their meaning to him. All that remained were the condensed patterns of his own evolutionary path. With a single thought, runes flowed around his body, and even the chaotic mountains and rivers bore the patterns of his Sacrificial Dao. Although he had just broken through, his success in Sacrificial Dao with two dao fruits immediately propelled him into an extraordinarily profound realm. It was precisely upon entering the Sacrificial Dao realm that Chu Feng's sense of crisis intensified. Being powerful enough, his perception became more acute, sensing a resurgence of malice sweeping through the ethereal realm. He knew the Ancestors must have revived, and perhaps little to no time was left for him.

Chu Feng left chaos and entered the present world, where he observed that ominous beings were indeed appearing with greater frequency. Soon, he learned a terrifying truth from the ominous beings roaming outside: the minor sacrifice at the end of the "Resurgence Epoch" had completed the full complement of ten Immortal Emperors at the plateau's summit. Chu Feng's heart sank. At that time, he was at the peak of the road, and indeed, his strength was slightly insufficient to perceive all of this. "The great sacrifice will begin soon," he intercepted this information from the minds of the ominous beings. This made his heart exceptionally heavy. He had a premonition that the ancient monsters on the plateau seemed intent on completing the full complement of Ancestors! He successfully broke through, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in history. Having entered the Sacrificial Dao realm, his perception was exceptionally acute, allowing him to discern parts of the truth. In fact, if it weren't for matters involving the plateau and the Ancestors, Chu Feng could perceive all secrets and see through the past, present, and future in any other place or among any other beings. As he entered meditation, he perceived even more; the situation was far more serious than he had imagined!

Chu Feng entered the depths of chaos, found Yaoyao and Lin Nuoyi, and gave them his stone jar, seed, stone zither, and other items. He intended to leave alone, prepared to single-handedly enter the Ominous Land at any moment! He walked the path of domain evolution, and at his current level, having successfully achieved Sacrificial Dao, he no longer needed the stone jar to conceal his aura; the special domain patterns he himself inscribed were sufficient to obscure everything. His actions, as if entrusting his final wishes, instantly made the two women's expressions change, and they pressed him to explain what had happened.

"The Ancestors still resent the events of that year and are re-evaluating," Chu Feng explained. "Four Ancestors have recovered to peak strength, some even having refined their dao further. They've grown suspicious, believing the third variable was not the Empress." Back then, not only did the Ancestors have dreams, but Chu Feng himself also vaguely experienced one. In that dream, he felt sadness, surprise, frenzy, shed tears, laughed, and even killed an Ancestor, marking him as another variable besides Huang and Ye. In the final battle, the Empress wore a mask with a melancholic, tear-streaked smile as she faced the Ancestors, leading some to mistakenly believe she was the third variable. Currently, the Ancestors are planning a major move, aiming to complete the full number of ten Ancestors. Why are they doing this? Chu Feng strongly suspected they wanted to re-deduce everything, to see if a third variable still existed! This was a shred of truth he had grasped with his omnipotent perception after attaining the Sacrificial Dao realm. After their recovery, the Ancestors seemed to suspect