Chapter 53: The Three Sovereigns of High Antiquity

  Zhang Hao hurried along the road while listening to Xiao's explanation, and after a moment, Xiao continued, "The Three Ancient Emperors were the Human Emperor, the Sword Emperor, and the Spirit King!"

  Ren Huang was a commoner, a scholar in humble attire, who later became the Emperor of Cultivators and established a dynasty of cultivator emperors.

  Jian Huang was infatuated with the sword path, the king of slaughter. A lone cultivator who defied the heavens and had no regard for the law, he was later subdued by Ren Huang.

  Ling Wang is said to be a demon cultivator, able to summon all beasts and command the spirits of the land. Extremely mysterious, yet somehow he was also secretly subdued by the Human Emperor and compiled into the Three Thousand Great Daos.

  It was from then on that human cultivators could rival those of the Divine Race, the Demonic Path, the Yao Realm, and the Buddhist Sect.

  "If the Heaven Wasteland has a Xianjing Ruins' Deyuan Baoge, and within the Baoge there really is a Creation Jade Disc, I fear that the seven major sects will not let go of such an opportunity. Now, the Demon Clan resides deep in the underground world, the Yao Clan hides in various large worlds, and the Divine Clan is rarely seen in the nine heavens and ten lands. As for human cultivators, they have been too comfortable for too long, killing each other and dividing their territories. I fear that the appearance of the Creation Jade Disc in the Xianjing Ruins' Deyuan Baoge is a sign that a great calamity is about to befall!"

  "The more chaotic the better, muddy waters make it easier to fish, and take advantage of the fire to loot!"

  "It's probably not that simple, Yan thought deeply as he spoke!"

  Yi! What is this thing? Zhen was deep in thought, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

  Zhang Hao's divine sense stirred and entered the Tongtian Tower, where he saw that the originally unremarkable willow branch was now standing inside the tower, taking root and sprouting.

  "Hollow willow branch!" Haha, haha, this carefree Taoist has no vision, having such a treasure yet not knowing how to utilize it.

  Zhang Hao suddenly remembered what his ancient classics said: "The empty-hearted willow branch is the tree of the divine world of the ancient gods, which was divided and came from it. Many spiritual roots in the ancient desolate era were transformed from the World Tree, including the Bodhi tree of Buddhism, the ginseng fruit tree of the immortal realm, the laurel tree of the Moon Palace, and the empty mulberry tree used by the Roc to build its nest. There is also a set of Hunyuan Five Elements Flag that was also divided from the World Tree."

  Thinking of this, Zhang Hao's eyes narrowed and said: "This hollow willow branch is the five-element divine wood, could it be that the five-element command flags on the rotating wheel are the ancient Zhongshu Yellow Flag, the Eastern Qinglian Treasure Color Flag, the Southern Lidi Flame Light Flag, the Western Su Color Cloud Boundary Flag, and the Northern Xuan Yuan Controlling Water Flag."

  Shang Ting listened to Zhang Hao finish, twirling his mustache and laughing: "This set of flags isn't an ordinary spiritual artifact. In the ancient era, this Mixed Yuan Five Elements Flag was a top-grade Daoist artifact. Who knows why it fell to become a spiritual artifact now? But with the Empty Heart Willow's Mixed Yuan aura nurturing this Mixed Yuan Five Elements Flag, the Five Elements Flag can give birth to the Five Elements' aura. Day and night, repairing the Tongtian Tower... This time, the harvest is truly not small."

  Two people chatted as they hurried back to the Hongchen Sword Sect.

  Along the way, he gazed at the distant Tianhuang Island several times, and a faint feeling emerged in his heart. Countless memory fragments surged up wildly in his mind, sending waves of intense pain deep into his soul. He endured it with all his might as his divine sense swept over the locations of various sects' mountains, and he vaguely recalled something.

  ——————

  Unconsciously, Zhang Hao had returned to Hongchen Sword Sect for more than half a month.

  Tianjian Peak Plaza Central

  One after another extremely mournful and piercing howls came from the Fowlong Ding in the square.

  The red flame turtle emerged from the icy layer of the cold pool, poking its head out to gaze at the square in front of the Hao Ran Building, where the flames were raging wildly inside the Fulong Cauldron, and the cultivators inside the Cuigu Valley were screaming their lungs out. Then it slowly withdrew its head back into its shell.

  The Spirit Beast tirelessly drove the spiritual energy to condense into ice and fire spiritual energy clusters, which smashed towards the Red Flame Fuxi Divine Turtle that was retracting its four limbs. The ice layer was blasted open by these strange ice and fire spiritual energy clusters, revealing a hole from which wisps of white misty air escaped, rising and falling ceaselessly, making the surroundings of the Cold Pool seem like an immortal realm.

  Inside the Tower of Heaven

  The ingenious use of the Hunyuan Five Elements Flag was triggered by the empty-hearted willow branch, and the dense Hunyuan Qi poured down from the depths of the sky, pouring into the Tongtian Tower. The tower's spiritual energy surged and churned, and the dense Hunyuan Qi collided with the tower body, emitting a clear dragon chant.

  Xiang Zhuang sat solemnly in front of a simple stone pedestal on the first floor of Tongtian Tower, the base of the pedestal was grayish white, and it was built with layers of gray stones. There were many bloodstains and cracks around it.

  Innumerable fragments of memories awaken from the depths of the soul, like a sheet of pure white paper that was once torn into countless tiny pieces by an unfeeling hand, and now these fragments are reassembled in the depths of the sea of consciousness with the powerful force of the soul.

  Many forgotten memories gradually merged with the soul, and the narrow eyes slowly opened. The grayish-white pupils flowed out of golden irises, and the golden light in the irises flowed several times. The irises seemed to stand up slowly in the eye sockets like vertical pupils.

  Innumerable fragments of memories emerged from the amethyst eyes, as if accelerated shots, a young man's confusion and ignorance, to old age, only in an instant, in the long river of years, a person's life is like dust.

  Xiang raised his head and gazed into the depths of the void above, the golden light in his narrow eyes gradually dimming, his eyes quickly returning to their usual grayish-white color, except for a single tear that silently rolled down from the corner of his eye.

  Time hurries people into old age, and a hundred years of cultivation are gone in an instant. These carefree years have slipped away so swiftly.

  His illusory and ethereal body suddenly solidified a bit, his narrow and long eyes revealing a deep sense of vicissitudes. He narrowed his eyes to gaze into the depths of the sky, where layers of forbidden secrets were hidden, all within his sight.

  Just as his gaze was about to penetrate the forbidden area and enter Tianhuang Island where Tianhuang Lao Ren was, Xiang suddenly realized something. His eyes flashed rapidly, and the flashing lights gradually stopped until they disappeared, and everything returned to calmness.

  "Yi! Xiang, I feel like you've suddenly aged a lot, your whiskers have turned gray!" Zhang Hao exclaimed, looking at Xiang who had suddenly appeared in the room.

  Shang Pingjing looked at Zhang Hao calmly and said: "I remembered many things, my realm has improved, and I also saw some secrets of Tian Huang!"

  "Are you okay?!" Zhang Hao asked anxiously as he looked at Can's serious expression.

  "You don't have to worry, I'm not seriously injured. Cultivators who defy the heavens and steal fate are the ones who will be killed. You're just a beginner, barely even qualified to enter the door, merely peeking inside from the threshold. Don't slack off!"

  "I have a measure!" Zhang Hao said, feeling the vicissitudes of life on his pale face, and his grayish-white eyes naturally revealed a hint of indifference. There was a faint sense of sadness in Zhang Hao's heart.

  "Is it necessary for a cultivator to forget worldly emotions and ignore everything?"

  "Originally, to Zhang Hao, the concept of Tiandao, Rendao and Modao were all nonsense. His initial wish was just to find someone who loved him, and with that person, he could wield his sword freely in the vastness of the sky, far away from worldly troubles, living a carefree life without conflicts. But now, it seems these things can only be an illusion, like flowers reflected in a mirror, or a castle in the air."

  "In this world, without power, you're just a fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of others. That's why he yearns for power, yearns to become stronger!"

  He was thinking when he suddenly heard a somewhat indifferent voice: "The peaks occupied by the various schools of cultivation in this Tianhuang are roughly a huge ancient formation. The cultivators in Tianhuang cultivate the Five Elements minor divine techniques, so the Five Elements spiritual energy is abundant in Tianhuang. The countless cultivation methods cultivated by these cultivators were all deliberately left behind, just to one day use all these cultivators as sacrifices!"

  "This is the conspiracy of Tian Huang Lao Ren, everything is a trap, and the Heavenly Decree is just a soul-calling banner for this trap. I said how can there be such good things under the sky!" Zhang Hao looked at the distant Tian Huang Island after finishing speaking, a flame of anger ignited in his chest, but he quickly suppressed it. Now his top priority was to figure out how to protect the Hong Chen Sword Sect.

  "It's just that Tiān Hū Lǎo Rén should be waiting for the right moment!" Xīng said, raising his head to gaze at the distant void, as if lost in thought.

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