Hearing the words Tianxuan Continent, the starlight in the woman's eyes flickered slightly.
She raised her hand, her fingertips gently brushing past a wisp of stardust drifting by.
After a long time, she let out a soft sigh. The sound seemed to traverse billions of years, carrying endless vicissitudes and melancholy, making even the surrounding stars appear to dim a little.
"Tianxuan..." she repeated the name softly, her voice incredibly gentle.
"To think I would hear this name again."
Ye Chuan was slightly taken aback. "Senior, you also know of the Tianxuan Continent?"
"I do, and I don't." The woman shook her head.
"Among the thirty thousand greater worlds, the billions of lesser worlds, and planes as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, there is more than one place called Tianxuan."
"The Tianxuan in my memory has probably long since turned into cosmic dust."
Ye Chuan didn't speak, just quietly looking at her.
He tried to probe her cultivation base, but no matter how hard he tried, it was like dropping a stone into the ocean—there was no response at all.
She was like the starry sky itself: seemingly empty, yet harboring boundless and endless power.
He couldn't even tell if she was dead or alive, a physical entity or a phantom.
"Are you looking at my cultivation?" the woman suddenly asked, looking at Ye Chuan with a faint smile.
Ye Chuan felt embarrassed. "This junior was impolite. It's just that Senior's cultivation is unfathomable, and I was truly..."
"There's no need to be curious," the woman waved her hand, her tone flat.
"Right now, I am nothing more than a wisp of a remnant soul. I don't even have a billionth of my main body's power."
"A... remnant soul?!"
Ye Chuan went numb in an instant.
A wisp of a remnant soul?
A wisp of a remnant soul could make him unable to even muster the thought of resistance?
Then how terrifyingly strong must her true body be?
Seeing Ye Chuan's shocked expression, she couldn't help but smile, a trace of nostalgia flashing in her eyes:
"You are quite interesting. You bear a strong resemblance to an old friend of mine."
Her gaze fell upon Ye Chuan, her eyes turning profound.
That look seemed to pierce through time and space, seeing Ye Chuan's past, present, and future.
Ye Chuan felt a chill run down his spine, as if all his secrets were laid bare under this gaze.
"There are many things about you that I cannot see through," she slowly said, a hint of curiosity in her tone.
"Multiple layers of karma are entwined around you, yet they cannot bind you. Interesting, truly interesting. I've lived for so long, but this is the first time I've seen an existence like yours."
Ye Chuan was stunned. His biggest secret had been seen through at a glance by this unfamiliar woman.
"Don't be nervous." The woman saw his wariness and smiled to reassure him. "I have no ill intentions toward you. I've just been here for far too long, and it's been a very long time since I've met someone interesting."
"I have long forgotten time here, and I have lost the concept of space."
"I waited... and waited, for who knows how many billions of years. I've almost forgotten what I'm even doing here."
She paused, then continued, "My name is Jiuhua. Others call me Empress Jiuhua."
Empress?
An Immortal Empress?!
Ye Chuan seemed to realize something. The person before him was an Immortal Empress?!
The apex of combat power?
Empress Jiuhua said, "As for where I came from and how long I've lived, I can't remember clearly. I only remember an apocalyptic war where countless stars fell, countless civilizations turned to ashes, and even the Great Dao was shattered."
"I was left with only this wisp of a remnant soul, drifting through this starry sky. In the blink of an eye, billions of years have passed."
"Senior Empress," Ye Chuan hesitated for a moment.
"Since you are an immortal cultivator, you must know about ascension, right? I cultivated to the Heavenly Immortal Realm on the Tianxuan Continent, but I could never sense the ascension passage, nor have I ever seen anyone successfully ascend. What exactly is going on?"
The ascension passage of the Tianxuan Continent seemed to have vanished into thin air.
The Empress raised her head and looked into the boundless starry sky, her eyes becoming incredibly complex.
"The ascension passage..." she murmured.
"It's gone."
"Gone?" Ye Chuan didn't quite understand. "How could it be gone? Isn't that the passage connecting the mortal realm and the immortal realm?"
"The immortal realm is gone, so naturally, the ascension passage is gone too," Empress Jiuhua said, as if talking about some trivial matter.
"After that great war, all the immortal realms, divine realms, and demonic realms—all the higher planes—were completely shattered. The passages connecting the various planes were entirely destroyed, turning into the chaotic billions of star fields you see today."
She turned her head, looking at the astonished Ye Chuan, and continued, "Actually, being unable to ascend is a form of protection for you all."
"This is no longer the world where immortal cultivators ran rampant."
"Many interesting civilizations have been born here, with various powers intertwining. As for the former immortal realm, it has long been occupied by other factions that devour the power of living beings from other planes." The Empress didn't want to explain too much, or perhaps she just didn't remember much of it either.
Ye Chuan fell silent.
He finally understood why no one on the Tianxuan Continent could ascend.
It wasn't because they didn't work hard enough, but because the path to ascension had long been severed.
Ye Chuan hadn't expected to hear an explanation for the Tianxuan Continent's ascension issue in this new era. Perhaps the two worlds existed on entirely different timelines?
"However, you don't need to be too disappointed that the immortal realm is gone." Empress Jiuhua looked at his disheartened expression, a faint smile curling at the corner of her lips.
"Since the old path is broken, then carve out a new one. The fact that you could walk out of that sealed little world proves you have the ability to do so."
"I am looking forward to seeing what you can do."
She raised her hand, a wisp of soft golden light gathering at her fingertips. With a gentle flick, the light shot into the center of Ye Chuan's brow.
[You have received a wisp of Empress Jiuhua's inheritance]
[You have obtained the Jiuhua Divine Vault Art]
[You have obtained the Jiuhua Imperial Seal]
[Your leveling speed is +99999%. You have become the spark carrying the immortal cultivation civilization. You are both the past and the future.]
Ye Chuan looked at the window that appeared before his eyes, staring blankly for quite a while before looking back at Empress Jiuhua.
Her body had become a bit more transparent, but she was still just as beautiful.
"Thank you, Senior," Ye Chuan said.
"Alright, you can go back now. It is inconvenient for me to keep you here to accompany me." Empress Jiuhua didn't say much more. With a gentle wave of her hand, a space-time rift enveloped Ye Chuan.
Ye Chuan cupped his fists. "If there is a chance, I hope we can meet again."
"Hehe, alright."
"If there is a chance..."
"Chaos..."
The voice gradually faded away, as if countless ages had passed.
By the time Ye Chuan came back to his senses, he found himself reappearing inside the Alpha Space Station.
Lin Xi and Kalen stood in the distance, looking completely bewildered.
Where had Ye Chuan just gone?
"Hmm... the immortal realm was destroyed?" Ye Chuan muttered to himself.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
