Please Inherit the Position of Dao Protector

It wasn’t long before Chen Yi arrived at the place where Hua Wuyan was staying.

She was in a cave again, brewing medicine using an ancient method.

A filthy iron pot, an ordinary stirring stick, and firewood.

The green medicinal liquid in the pot bubbled away with a steady “glug, glug.”

“How strange. This time, you came within ten paces of me, yet I still couldn’t sense your presence. Looks like you’ve grown stronger again, Martial God Chen.”

Hua Wuyan turned to look at Chen Yi.

She gave him a thorough once-over, then took out several pieces of tortoiseshell and tossed them onto the ground. Her brows drew tightly together.

“I can’t divine anything about you anymore. That shouldn’t be possible…”

Chen Yi smiled and spoke frankly.

“I’ve already reached a level of cultivation beyond the upper limit of the Void Realm.”

“Mm. That can only be the reason.”

Hua Wuyan was actually very curious about how Chen Yi had managed to accomplish this.

But she knew that asking would be pointless.

It wasn’t that Chen Yi wanted to hide anything. With his current strength, he could stand in the middle of the street and shout that he had traveled here from another world, and he still wouldn’t have anything to fear.

It was simply too troublesome to explain all of that to a native of the Human Realm like Hua Wuyan.

Better to preserve a little mystery.

“Senior Hua, what I’m about to tell you is very important.”

Chen Yi told Hua Wuyan that, in a few decades, all the Five-Element Root Vessels in the Human Realm would be destroyed, eventually leading to the apocalypse and the realm’s destruction.

As she listened, Hua Wuyan used the divination arts of her witchcraft path to perform her own calculations.

“Strange. I can’t divine even the slightest trace of this Black Hand you mentioned.”

“That’s because he possesses power from the Real Realm, just like I do.”

During the sixth simulation, Chen Yi had learned from someone else that before Li Lingyue embarked on the Ascension Road, she had said that the Black Hand had to be from the Real Realm.

At the very end of the simulation, Chen Yi had intended to ask her why she was so certain.

Unfortunately, he died before he could ask.

“So you want to hide these Five-Element Root Vessels from the Human Realm in other planes, so the Black Hand can’t achieve his goal?”

“Exactly. Although this doesn’t guarantee that he won’t find them, it’s still better than keeping all the eggs in one basket.”

“Why not place them directly on your person? Is this Black Hand stronger than you?”

“I’ve never actually fought him. I haven’t even seen his true face. My guess is that he only possesses the ultimate power of the Void Realm, but… anything I haven’t witnessed with my own eyes can never be confirmed.”

Hua Wuyan had no objection to handing the Mountain-River Armor over to Chen Yi.

But she had one condition.

“Please, Senior, tell me what it is. Within the Human Realm, there’s nothing you could ask me to do that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish.”

“I want you to inherit the position of Human Guardian.”

“?”

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow, his expression frozen for several seconds.

This was a path he had never once imagined taking.

“Senior Hua, if I remember correctly, didn’t you once tell me that you had divined your successor? Regardless of who she was, she would at least be a woman, right?”

Hua Wuyan chuckled softly. She slowly lifted the wooden stick from the large pot and continued stirring.

“That was still the result of my divination a few days ago. But earlier today, I discovered that it was no longer the case.”

“She became a man?”

“No. I can’t divine anything anymore. It’s not just my successor—even many other things in this world have become impossible for me to predict.”

“This is…”

“It seems a variable beyond the laws of the world has appeared. It can freely twist every possible outcome, so naturally, the feeble divination abilities of the witchcraft path have lost their meaning.

“As for what this variable might be… Hmm, that’s a difficult one to guess.”

The divination abilities within Hua Wuyan’s witchcraft path had never truly been a means of predicting the future.

They merely calculated the most likely direction events might take.

Because Chen Yi had officially entered the Absolute Realm and brought that power beyond the laws of the world into reality, all divination abilities within the Void Realm—including Hua Wuyan’s—had directly become chaotic and unknowable.

After all, as long as Chen Yi interfered, no one within the Void Realm could predict his every move.

To put it simply, the Void Realm’s system had encountered a bug.

“Senior Hua, I’ve noticed a problem.”

“Go on.”

“When power beyond the laws of the world appears, divination through the witchcraft path stops working. But that Black Hand should also possess power beyond the upper limit of the Void Realm. Why didn’t your divinations fail before?

“I don’t believe he only entered the Void Realm a few decades from now.”

“That means he is sometimes in the Void Realm and sometimes outside it. When he isn’t here, his presence doesn’t affect divination.”

Could this Black Hand travel between the Real Realm and the Void Realm?

That was completely different from the projections created by the Starry Ape race, or the way the Red River Nether King extended his power down into this realm.

The Black Hand himself could travel back and forth between the two realms!

Even Chen Yi, who now possessed several hundred attributes, was incapable of doing that.

At most, he could ascend along the Ascension Road. Returning was completely impossible.

“So I’ve underestimated his strength…”

“Let’s get back to the matter at hand.”

“Oh, right, right—the Human Guardian. Senior Hua, you’re still in good health, and you’re far more experienced at this than I am. Why don’t you continue serving as the Human Guardian?”

“Being the Human Guardian can extend one’s lifespan by two thousand years, which is why we can generally live to be three thousand.

“You can communicate with the Earth Spirit. You’ve seen it before. Within the Human Realm, it allows you to leap anywhere at will. That is only one of the Earth Spirit’s abilities. Since your cultivation is higher, you may even be able to accomplish greater things.

“It can also replenish the fortune of the entire race. The existence of a Human Guardian protects the destiny of the race, while also receiving nourishment from that destiny in return, strengthening both fortune and aptitude for the immortal path. In short, you will possess greater fortune and be able to cultivate more quickly.

“And there’s more…”

“Senior Hua, you’re getting on in years. You’ve worked hard for the Human Realm and the human race your entire life, so it’s time for you to rest properly!

“Don’t worry. With me here from now on, I guarantee that the Human Realm will remain safe and the human race will flourish!”

Hua Wuyan smiled. On her aged face, the wrinkles looked like cracks running through a mountain range, layer upon layer.

“I believe you will be the finest Human Guardian in history.”

The position of Human Guardian was incredibly important. Hua Wuyan would never choose a successor carelessly.

In truth, there had been signs of her choosing Chen Yi long ago.

When Chen Yi had led the various factions in destroying the Ancient Wilderness Secret Realm and reclaiming the Ascension Road, Hua Wuyan had realized that he had already accumulated immeasurable merit.

As for his character—whether he was a good person or not—if even a Great Demon had accomplished such a feat, he would still have deserved to become the Human Guardian.

Come to think of it, a Great Demon really had served as a Human Guardian before.

Therefore, compared to the Great Demon, choosing Chen Yi as the Human Guardian could be considered a carefully made decision on Hua Wuyan’s part.

Moreover, when she had previously divined her successor, she had hoped to follow the will of Heaven.

So even after realizing that Chen Yi was more suited to become the Human Guardian, she had refused to place her own personal judgment above Heaven’s will.

Now that the will of Heaven had become impossible to discern, there was naturally no longer any need to follow it.

What was more, Chen Yi now possessed power beyond the Void Realm. He could protect the entire race better than Hua Wuyan herself—or anyone else in the Human Realm.

The inheritance of the Human Guardian was carried out through the Earth Spirit.

Hua Wuyan first summoned the Earth Spirit in the name of the Human Guardian.

This timid spirit ordinarily avoided all contact with strangers.

Only those with Five-Element spiritual roots and Dao protectors can make It lower its guard.

Or perhaps someone as skilled at bluffing as the Myriad Souls Banner could fool the simple-minded Earth Spirit.