To compile a record of history!

He’d nursed such plans ever since exiting the Xuan Yuan Tomb.

Holy Emperor Xuan Yuan had willingly gone to his death in the Primeval Era for the sake of future generations, but no one in modern times even knew of his name. Such a character like him should not, and could not be forgotten by the world.

However, the time wasn’t ripe yet; Lu Yun wasn’t strong enough to realize his ambitions. The day in which the immortal dao ran through the heavens and held all life in its purview would be the moment when the curtains were truly pulled back on history.

Instead of returning to the underworld, Xing Chen remained in the kingdom of hell. He discovered at this time that the restrictions from the underworld on him had disappeared, and the strength of a holy king that’d infused him before had turned into his own power. He sat down cross-legged beneath the Karmic Tree at the middle of the kingdom, borrowing strength from the tree to slowly refine the Cosmic Sea, Cosmic Eyes, and Cosmic Skycarver.

As he and Qing Yu had finished theorizing how to repair the immortal dao, all proceeded in an orderly fashion according to their plans. Drawing on the memories of his ten Yama Kings and various expert followers, Lu Yun began to draft an edition of history for the world of immortals.

His work was a real book and not a nascent spirit jade slip, its papers stemming from a refined branch from the Karmic Tree. They exuded a haze of virtuous merit and were impervious to water and fire.

As he worked on the draft, he placed it under the Karmic Tree for blessing and protection. His ten Yama Kings, Ge Long, Meng Wang, Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign, Carmines Eternal and Arbiter, a few Infernum with impressive backgrounds, as well as the slowly recovering Xuanyuan Xiaoyue all visited the Karmic Tree to place their memories down in this first annal of the world’s history.

Only the Karmic Tree could endure the monumental gravity of this task. Karmic fruits dotted its beaches, each of them archiving a portion of history that no one knew anything about.

“Little Yu, what would you say is the purpose of us tomb raiders digging up the bodies of those who’ve passed before us?” murmured Lu Yun as he watched the group beneath the tree’s branches.

Qing Yu looked wordlessly at her beloved.

“It’s to air out the histories covered in dust underneath the ground and bring them back out into the light. Most of what people know nowadays comes from these tombs.”

Qing Yu nodded with much on her mind.

……

The Dao Academy flourished and prospered, attracting immortals and cultivators from all over the world. No matter what kind of mindset or plans they came with, all were disciples of the academy once they enrolled and had the right to learn anything its curriculum offered.

But if they wished to study anything of a higher level, such as tomb raiding or feng shui, they had to pass the outer academy examinations after sixty years and make it into the inner academy.

Apart from Headmaster Lu Yun, there were five more additions to the ranks of the academy’s deans in recent times—the deans of the five elements.

The deans of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In other words, the five high priests of the Xuan Yuan Tomb.

Now that they’d obtained the real altars of the five elements and controlled elemental core essence, they received the immortal dao’s recognition the moment they entered the Dao Academy and became the official deans of the five elements beneath the heavens.

To grasp a great dao in the era before Emperors Fall was the hallmark of becoming a great emperor. However, the five elemental deans wielded their great dao through the altars, so they were representatives of the five elements at most, not great emperors.

The great dao of the five elements bolstered the immortal dao like five pillars supporting the sky, nurturing the will of the immortal so much that it showed signs of awakening from its perch in Mount Xuanhuang.

As time went on, increasing numbers of disciples flocked to the Dao Academy to the point where all forty thousand kilometers of Dusk Province were the academy in a general sense.

On the first day of the ninth month, in the first year of the Xuanhuang calendar, the Dao Academy made a certain announcement. Mortals were also denizens of the world of immortals, so they too had the right to cultivate whether or not they possessed a spirit root.

From henceforth, all mortals aged six and above could attend the Dao Academy and cultivate. It was no matter if they didn’t possess a spirit root, the academy had the Aurum Openia Pill! Any mortal or sentient mundane item that enrolled in the academy could obtain such a pill and embark on their path of cultivation!

Of course, it’d been less than a year since the Dao Academy’s founding, so its reputation and influence weren’t the greatest. This initiative could only be conducted in Nephrite Major and the parties friendly with Lu Yun such as the East Sea court, South Sea court, Unsullied Sea, and others.

Still, this sent the world of immortals into an uproar! A fearsome atmosphere shrouded the peak factions of the world like heavy smog, inescapable and unavoidable.

Though the world of immortals had developed for a hundred thousand years, there were still hundreds of millions of mortals in the world. These mortals were the foundation of the realm and the exclusive domain of many peak factions.

Apart from developing their own clansmen, these factions selected a few mortal youths with stunning potential each year for further fostering and brainwashing into their own troops. There were also numerous factions that created nations of mortals for use in worshipping divine spirits, so that they could support the guardian spirits of the clans.

The sudden announcement from the Dao Academy was worse than ripping out their hearts! This was a plan that spelled out their extinction!

Mortals were boorish and crude, while cultivators and immortals were magnificent, regal gods. Only fear and veneration came to mind when they thought of those who walked the path of cultivation.

At the same time, they dearly wished that they, too, could fly through the air and ground like the invincible immortals. They would sell everything they possibly could to gain the chance to cultivate for themselves or their close kin.

Just as immortals had their grudges and feuds, so did the mortals have a world of strife and cooperation of their own.

But now…

The Dao Academy deposited hope right in their laps! No matter who they were, all could enter the academy and cultivate if they were six years old!

There were no requirements to be met!

No potential to consider!

No spirit root to be tested!

The Dao Academy had the Aurum Openia Pill that could turn a born piece of trash into a cultivator!

With something like the Dao Academy there, who would continue to dash their heads against the ground for a chance to make it into their faction’s cultivation quota?

Immortals of the various celestial courts and peak factions erupted in panic. The Dao Academy’s impact had been limited before, but they were backed by the merchant alliance all the same. The alliance’s network stretched all over the world. If it stirred into operations, there was nothing easier for it to accomplish than to ferry mortals to the Dao Academy!

……

“Crazy, they’re absolutely crazy!” Patriarchs of the Ling, Zhu, Yue, and other various clans of Nephrite Major gathered together, all with exceedingly disgruntled expressions.

Their current emperor was Zhao Shenguang, and though Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi treated him like a lackey, he was still firmly in Lu Yun’s camp. That meant he would wholeheartedly oversee the rollout of this enterprise.

Thus, the first ones to bear the brunt of this delusional action would be the various top factions of Nephrite Major. They hadn’t even had time to prepare before their wonderful celestial emperor collected all of Nephrite’s mortals and sent them to the academy!

“This is simply a plan to wipe all of us out. That Lu Yun wants to weaken us, so this time, we must stand together. Otherwise…” The patriarch of the Ling Clan glowered forebodingly.

Things weren’t as simple as they initially came across. There were plenty of immortals in their factions that couldn’t cultivate, and though they grew despondent at their lack of personal success, they still had a myriad of ties to the faction.

The mortals wished to cultivate!