Chapter 1007: Assorted Emperors (2/2)

“Rulers of the four seas? Lords of the nine majors and the heavenly emperor?” Lin Yan blinked. “But the celestial lords and rulers are just Supreme Immortals of Original Order [1] and the heavenly emperor at the ingress realm… When they reach grand pure and great emperor…”

“You won’t have to revert back to your old selves?” Houtu smiled faintly.

Since she hadn’t experienced reincarnation or been reborn into another life, she remained who she was—a chaos realm master on par with Leize. She’d also fully recovered from her injuries, which made her the strongest expert in the world of immortals. Wuzhiqi wouldn’t stand a chance if she wanted to take him down.

“Eh?” Lin Yan and the others blinked.

“When the immortal dao is strong enough, us old farts born under the primitive great dao will become anomalies. The immortal dao will do everything in its power to assimilate us as its life forms,” Houtu explained. “The rulers of the twenty-four facets are the pillars upholding the immortal dao. If they all reach cultivation realms in which they behold their own decrees, that will strengthen the immortal dao to the point where it can erase your old selves.”

Though the rulers of the ten lands were creatures under the primeval human dao, their foundations ran exceedingly deep. In their time, they’d already known that the immortal dao would exist in the future, and so they’d been chosen in that era to pave the way for the future immortal dao.

Thus, they’d remained themselves after all this time, forgoing reincarnation and easily assimilating into this new modern era.

What the eight referred to as “decrees” were the cultivation realms like “king” and “emperor” that came with their own titles. Though human king was no longer a realm anymore, its “king decree” had been integrated into the grand pure realm.

Decrees were originally something created by God and inherited by the Exalted Divine Emperor. When the Exalted divines conquered the world of immortals and etched the Sacred Origin Runes into the Dao Flower, they’d done so to incorporate cultivation realms with decrees into the immortal dao.

The monarchs of the twenty-four facets would be able to uphold the immortal dao only when bolstered with a decree’s power. Since they had yet to all take their place, Mount Xuanhuang supported the immortal dao for now.

While the Central World had become Qing Yu’s heavenly palace, its decree was held by Qing Taxian. He was the ruler of the Central World and thus the heavenly emperor.

“Alright!” Lin Yan was the first to agree. “How long?”

“Ten years!” Houtu calculated.

It was the forty-eighth year of the Xuanhuang calendar. She foresaw the nine celestial lords, rulers of the four seas, and heavenly emperor reaching a decreed cultivation realm in the fifty-eighth year.

Before that time arrived, the eight would hold down the fort from Mount Vastspace and help the blood demon keep Wuzhiqi in check. As for how they could help those fourteen ascend to that realm…

Whoosh!

Five resplendent pillars of light shot to the heavens within Dusk Province. They resonated with the land, marking the emergence of another five great emperors. The sovereigns of the dao of five elements in the Dao Academy—the previous five priests in the Xuan Yuan Tomb!

After becoming one with their altars, they were almost the equivalent of five Exalted divine spirits. Great emperor was but a hair's breadth away from them, easily obtained.

That the masters of the five elements had become great emperors under the immortal dao instantaneously sharpened the dao into greater focus. The celestial lords that already grasped a mandate of the world made great strides in their cultivation, their rate of improvement faster than before.

1. Which means they still need to make it through the ingress, primordial, principal, supreme pure, jade pure, and grand pure realms.