After exchanging a few brief words with the two, Gu Changyuan turned sideways and raised his hand, inviting them to the Heavenly Palace's guest hall for a chat.
His movements were casual and natural, devoid of any unnecessary formality.
The two naturally did not refuse and followed Gu Changyuan into the guest hall.
When Gu Changyuan’s thirty-three disciples saw that the visitors were acquainted with their master, half of their wariness melted away.
Though their vigilance subsided, the disciples did not disperse. Instead, they followed their master into the hall.
Yin Hong and Ben Yansi swept their gazes over the thirty-three disciples behind Gu Changyuan, a flicker of shock flashing in their eyes.
Thirty-three individuals, their cultivation levels uneven, ranging from Human Immortal to True Immortal.
In the eyes of an Immortal Emperor, such cultivation was essentially no different from having none at all.
But cultivation was one thing; aura was another.
The thirteen human disciples each bore the aura of a Dao Body—every single physique a rarity that would appear only once in tens of thousands of years in the immortal realm.
As Immortal Emperors, they could sense the resonance between those Dao Bodies and the laws of heaven and earth. The stronger the resonance, the purer the physique and the deeper the potential.
As for the ten demonic cultivator disciples, Su Jiu'er and Yin Wuji lingered their gazes even longer.
Being of the demonic race themselves, their perception of demonic seeds was far keener than any human cultivator.
The demonic seed auras radiating from those ten disciples were clearly no ordinary demonic seeds—at least Holy Demonic Seeds, and many were of the Formless Demonic Seed variety.
Back in the Ruins of Chaos, their understanding of the Xuan Sha Ruins Lord had been sparse.
All they knew was that this man was exceptionally strong—strong enough to claim the top of the Ruins of Chaos, strong enough to kill enemies even they dared not provoke.
But they did not know his origins, his past, where he came from, or why he had appeared in the Ruins of Chaos.
Their perception of him had always been limited to the surface: “Very strong, very mysterious, do not provoke.”
So when they saw Gu Changyuan again, they encountered not just a benefactor who had once helped them, but a figure they had never truly understood.
His cultivation was unfathomable, and every single one of his disciples possessed a top-tier physique.
Gu Changyuan gestured for the two to sit on the guest chairs, then walked to the host seat, settled down, and began conversing with them.
For the most part, however, they were the ones asking about him.
Gu Changyuan did not hide much.
He gave a rough account of how he had founded three major forces in the Nine Empyrean Realm—the Heavenly Human Sacred Land, the Heavenly Demon Pavilion, and the Heavenly Demon Sect standing in a tripartite balance—his disciples’ growth, and the expansion of his influence.
Then he spoke of being swept away by a spatial rift and accidentally falling into the Ruins of Chaos.
Afterward, he returned to the Nine Empyrean Realm, led his forces and disciples in ascending to the immortal realm, annihilated the Lan Yu Immortal Sect, and established the Heavenly Court.
The two listened intently, without interrupting or interjecting.
When Gu Changyuan finished, they fell silent for a moment.
Then Ben Yansi spoke.
“I see that most of the Heavenly Court’s members are cultivators who have only recently entered the immortal realm—mostly from the younger generation. If you are to contend with the Imperial Court in the future, they will still need considerable time to grow.”
He did not question Gu Changyuan’s intentions, nor did he say “you can’t do it.”
His tone sounded more like he was stating a fact, a reality that needed to be acknowledged.
Given Gu Changyuan’s current strength, he could hold his own against the Imperial Court’s Immortal Emperors—Ben Yansi had seen Gu Changyuan fight in the Ruins of Chaos and knew that his battle prowess could not be measured by ordinary standards.
But the Imperial Court had eight Immortal Emperors, plus one ‘Monarch,’ and tens of thousands of Imperial Court cultivators.
Relying on Gu Changyuan alone might prove very troublesome.
He saw the talent in Gu Changyuan’s disciples and recognized their future potential, but the future was the future, and the present was the present.
The current Heavenly Court, if faced with a full-scale assault from the Imperial Court, would not hold out for long.
Gu Changyuan leaned back in the host seat, his gaze calm as he looked at Ben Yansi.
The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint curve—slight, but oozing confidence.
“Don’t worry. The disciples here in the Heavenly Court are all from the younger generation of cultivators.”
His voice was not loud, but it rang out clearly in the quiet guest hall.
“The five great families of the Central Continent have all joined the Heavenly Court. Their Immortal Emperors and Immortal Kings, being bound by the Imperial Court’s karma lock, are currently not stationed here in the Heavenly Court.”
Gu Changyuan swept his gaze from Ben Yansi to Yin Hong, then from Yin Hong across the thirty-three disciples in the hall, and finally back to Ben Yansi’s face.
“However, if we truly need them, we can summon them at any time through the teleportation arrays. Not ‘within a day or two’—‘at any time.’”
Yin Hong and Ben Yansi exchanged a glance, and a shared understanding flashed in their eyes.
So that was it.
The Immortal Emperors and Immortal Kings of the five immortal families, locked by the Imperial Court, had not appeared in the Heavenly Court—not because the Heavenly Court lacked Immortal Emperor-level combat power, but because they had to remain hidden to avoid detection by the Imperial Court.
If the Imperial Court learned that the Immortal Emperors of the five immortal families had collectively joined the Heavenly Court, they would no longer underestimate this newly born force.
When that happened, the Heavenly Court would not face a ‘probe’ but a ‘full-force strike.’
Remaining hidden, staying outside the Heavenly Court, preserving strength, and waiting for the right moment—this was indeed a sound strategy.
It would avoid prematurely exposing the Heavenly Court’s true power, prevent the Imperial Court from being alerted ahead of time, and keep the young disciples out of danger.
Yin Hong was silent for a moment, then turned to look at Ben Yansi.
Ben Yansi looked back at her.
Their eyes met for an instant, and something flowed in that gaze.
It was the kind of unspoken understanding shared between two people who had survived life-and-death trials together.
They had met in the Ruins of Chaos, married there, and survived there.
They owed Gu Changyuan their lives—a very real debt, for if he had not intervened back then, they would have died on that wasteland.
That debt had stayed with them, and they had always wondered how to repay it.
Now, an opportunity had come.
Yin Hong withdrew her gaze and looked back at Gu Changyuan.
She leaned forward slightly in her seat, her eyes carrying a serious, solemn light.
Her voice was not loud, but every word was clear and firm.
“Would you consider allowing my husband and me to join the Heavenly Court?”
Gu Changyuan’s brows lifted slightly.
“Back then, with your help, we managed to escape danger. We also said that if you ever needed us, we would be ready to lend a hand. Those words were not mere politeness or empty talk—they were sincere.”
She paused and glanced at Ben Yansi.
Ben Yansi said nothing, but his gaze said it all—it said, “I feel the same.”
“Now that your goal is the Imperial Court, my husband and I may have only recently stepped into the Immortal Emperor realm, our foundations still shallow and far from matching those old-guard Immortal Emperors. But we, too, have undergone the trials of the Ruins of Chaos, walked through seas of blood and mountains of corpses, and survived battles against enemies far stronger than ourselves.”
Her voice carried no trace of self-deprecation, no “I’m not really good enough but I’ll try” attitude.
She was stating facts.
Immortal Emperor at the early stage—it was indeed not strong among Immortal Emperors.
But they had combat experience accumulated in the Chaos Ruins, the instinct to survive in desperate situations, and the courage to never retreat when facing a stronger enemy.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Gu Changyuan's mouth.
It was not a grand smile—even somewhat slight—but everyone present could see that it was a genuine, heartfelt expression of joy.
"Of course."
His voice was calm, yet warm.
"Welcome to the Heavenly Court."
He rose to his feet and extended his right hand.
Ben Yansi stood up as well, a smile on his face, and reached out to shake Gu Changyuan's hand.
Gu Changyuan smiled back.
"Then from now on, we are on the same side.
Let me first take you to choose a residence, and then I'll show you around."
"Very well."
Yin Hong also stood up, then followed Ben Yansi as Gu Changyuan led them out of the reception hall.
Ye Qingxue and the others had listened to their master's conversation with the two Immortal Emperors for an hour. Watching the three depart, they did not follow and instead returned to their own residence.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
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.”
