Chapter 26: The Crisis of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths

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In the remote, desolate fringes of the universe, Taiyin stepped forth from a massive rift in the void, which radiated destructive energy and the brilliance of lightning tribulations.

He sensed the familiar laws of the universe, yet his expression was complex.

Opening his hand, specks of golden radiance drifted from across the cosmos, condensing in his palm into a dense mass of divine light. He was slightly taken aback. Within it, he perceived a memory etched into the essence of the light.

It was a memory woven into the power of faith—a collection of the desperate prayers for salvation offered by countless followers of the Taiyin Human Emperor throughout the ancient ages.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, after living out his third life and entering his twilight years, Taiyin had reached the pinnacle of his combat prowess. In an attempt to pierce the Path to Immortality at an incorrect time and place, he suffered devastating injuries within the Sea of Realms. Encountering an inexplicable, ominous force, his primordial spirit shattered and he lost many of his memories.

Dragging his broken body with a fractured spirit, he barely managed to return to the Path to Immortality, leaving behind half of his physical form, only to find he could do nothing upon returning home. He had not even managed to preserve the intelligence he had gathered on the Path to Immortality before, with his final breath, he was ambushed and perished.

Yet, out of profound regret, he had left behind a lingering obsession.

Taiyin could sense that not long ago, the fragment of that obsession he had left behind in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths had regained its reason, only to fade away after a brief moment of clarity. The memories of that obsession, resonating with the laws of the universe, flowed into his heart, showing him everything that entity had seen and known.

His face grew heavy with a mixture of rage and sorrow, followed by a sigh as he fell into silence.

Taiyin was born in the Primordial Era, a time when the human race was weak, reduced to livestock for the myriad races to harvest as blood-food, living in wretched conditions. Through sheer strength and endless battle, he attained the Dao and became an Emperor, redeeming the human race from its plight and becoming revered by countless humans as the Human Emperor. He possessed two Emperor weapons.

The Taiyin Moon Blade, forged from Profound Yin Lunar Soul Gold, was his weapon of enlightenment, a tool of slaughter honed through a lifetime of conquest.

After his ascension, he collected another divine material and, wishing to leave behind a force to protect humanity even after his passing, forged the Human Emperor Seal, a weapon primarily for suppression and defense.

Taiyin gestured, summoning the Human Emperor Seal he had left in his homeland to protect the people while he campaigned on the Path to Immortality. Through the memories of his obsession, he sensed the conspiracies that had unfolded after his death, yet he was left with even more questions. He needed to summon his weapon to uncover the truth from its dormant deity.

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Following an invisible ripple, Taiyin frowned. "Such a faint response... has the Human Emperor Seal been shattered?"

He then channeled a secret technique, using the resonance of the Taiyin Dao to attempt the summoning once more.

...

Billions of light-years away lay an ancient life-bearing region known as the Flying Immortal Star Domain.

On the planet of Flying Immortal stood a site of immense antiquity, rumored to hold the secrets of immortality: the ancient land of Kunlun.

In a hidden realm, an elderly man with a cultivation level at the seventh heaven of the Quasi-Emperor stage appeared incredibly frail. He held a precious gourd, channeling a secret technique—one of the Nine Secrets, the "Soldier Secret"—to refine a primitive, black seal with a missing corner and a crack that nearly split it in two. He used the vast, ocean-like reserves of Taiyin Lunar Essence fluid accumulated over thousands of years within the gourd to nourish the artifact.

This was the Human Emperor Seal, discovered by the remnants of Kunlun in the starfields after a divine battle on the ancient star of Yinghuo.

This sacred human artifact, which had protected the race for tens of thousands of years, had drifted through the stars like a meteor. During the inexplicable great war on Yinghuo, the autonomously awakened deity of the Human Emperor Seal had participated in a battle against a Supreme Being. Even though the Seal was terrifyingly powerful—capable of wounding a Supreme Being head-on—its deity had been grievously wounded, its body shattered, and its divine power nearly extinguished.

After the Kunlun remnants found it, they spent tens of thousands of years refining it with secret techniques, barely restoring a fraction of its power to serve their own ends.

However, at this very moment, the black seal, worshipped as the foundation of the Kunlun remnants in their temple, suddenly began to tremble.

"What?!" the old man exclaimed, startled as he felt the power within the Seal begin to reawaken. His expression shifted drastically.

Boom!

A strand of supreme pressure permeated the air. The slumbering deity within the weapon began to wake, releasing a wisp of primordial Yin energy. Though the deity immediately suppressed its own power, the surge nearly shattered the seventh-heaven Quasi-Emperor.

Then, despite the temple’s array patterns sealing the void, the Human Emperor Seal effortlessly tore through space and vanished, leaving behind only the old man struggling to reconstruct his body.

The only thing left in its place was a message: "Though I have been refined and worshipped by you for tens of thousands of years, I have served your ends; we are now even."

As a pitch-black rift in the void was forcibly torn open, the jet-black seal emerged.

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The Seal was etched with flickering stars, flowers, birds, fish, stones, and scenes of human life. Yet, the once-pristine Imperial weapon was missing a corner, and a shocking crack nearly bisected it.

Taiyin caressed the Human Emperor Seal, his expression complex and unreadable, a mournful sigh echoing in the void.

He channeled a secret technique, transforming endless Lesser Yin Lunar Essence to nourish the weak deity within the Seal.

The deity of the Human Emperor Seal manifested as a blurred shadow, transmitting a faint divine thought: "Taiyin, I have failed you... and failed the human race..."

Taiyin sighed softly: "Alas, you have done your best. Focus on absorbing this blood to restore yourself. I have returned; I am here for everything."

He then brought out tens of thousands of the cubic containers he had collected earlier—those constantly overflowing with his ancient blood—and infused them all into the inner space of the Human Emperor Seal. The blood, surging with the endless power of the Taiyin Lunar Essence, began to wash over the battered artifact from within.

His gaze turned toward the other side of the universe, his killing intent surging like a physical force.

Yet, sensing the unmasked presence of more than thirty Supreme Beings of the Imperial Dao across the universe, he could not help but frown, falling into hesitation.

With the power of Fangzheng, Taiyin had lived a fourth life and was confident that his strength was unparalleled. However, facing thirty-some Supreme Beings, even he felt a measure of trepidation.

"Can the sentient beings of the universe withstand such a catastrophic war?"

Throughout history, the Supreme Beings had "slashed themselves" to wait for the Path to Immortality, falling from their state of perfection to seal themselves in slumber. But as the ages passed, even in their sealed states, their lifespans slowly ebbed away.

When their time neared and they could no longer sustain their seals, they would awaken to devour the life energy of countless beings to extend their own lives. This was the origin of the "Dark Turmoil" that haunted the universe.

In the Primordial Era, after Taiyin attained the Dao, he consumed an Undying Medicine to live a second life. In his twilight years during that second life, four ancient Supreme Beings, seeing his decline, had brutally initiated a Dark Turmoil.

Taiyin had fought to the death to stop them, besieged by the four Supreme Beings. Though he managed to slay one at great cost, he was left gravely wounded. The turmoil only subsided after the other three Supreme Beings devoured the corpse of their fallen peer.