“Come, sit.”

When Long Chen arrived, the High Priest had prepared the wine. In the Wine God Palace, there had to be wine for treating guests. It was just like tea in the rest of the world.

Long Chen sat. “High Priest, it seemed that you had some advice for this little one before?”

The High Priest smiled and shook his hand. “I wouldn’t call it advice. There are just some things I should inform you about. With the young lady from the Bloodkill Hall present, it wasn’t convenient for me to say anything, so I left it until now. This relates to how you should extract the divine seed. You can test it out yourself.”

The High Priest handed Long Chen a strip of beast hide, but before Long Chen could read it, the High Priest continued, “Did you know? Just as you left the battlefield, the Four Divines Writ came down.”

“The Four Divines Writ? What is that?” asked Long Chen.

“The Four Divines Writ is a symbol of the divine families’ communication. Counting this time, it has only appeared three times throughout history,” said the High Priest.

“Divine families? As in families of all gods?” Long Chen jumped in shock.

The High Priest shook his head. “No, the divine families have nothing to do with gods. The divine aspect is merely a respectful way to refer to their position.”

Only then did Long Chen feel a bit better. If there were entire families of gods, then they would definitely exceed his current understanding.

The High Priest continued, “The divine families are actually an extremely ancient race called the Immemorial Spirit race. It is said that they have preserved the human race’s purest, most original bloodline. They have the talent to innately awaken their Spirit Blood as soon as they are born.”

“They are born Empyreans with awakened bloodlines?!” exclaimed Long Chen.

“No, not all of them are Empyreans. They are simply born with the Spirit Blood that allows them to awaken their manifestation. Others have to awaken their manifestation step by step, and they stimulate their bloodline at the end to form a resonance with their manifestation. In the cultivation world, there is something called Essence and Function. The manifestation is Function, while Spirit Blood is Essence. Only once you have the Essence can you have the Function. But for most of us, we have to use the Function to slowly awaken our Essence. That is because our bloodlines are no longer pure. But the Immemorial Spirit race’s people have their Spirit Blood naturally woken. As long as they are not lazy, at least half of them end up becoming Empyreans with awakened manifestations.”

“They’re that powerful?” This was Long Chen’s first time hearing of such a terrifying existence on the Martial Heaven Continent. Wasn’t this too exaggerated? Others had to cultivate with their lives on the line, while for them, as long as they weren’t lazy, they could reach the same level.

“Long Chen, do you know the prerequisites to become a Sovereign?” asked the High Priest.

Long Chen shook his head.

“The Spirit Blood is the guide, the Spirit Root is the seed, and the Spirit Bone is the foundation. When all three are together, the Dao will manifest within the body and cause the heavens to acknowledge them. That is a Sovereign,” said the High Priest profoundly.

“I’m not interested. I don’t have any of that.” Long Chen shrugged. Although he had been prepared for that, he was still irritated. He had originally had those requirements, but they had been stolen by someone. Even now, he didn’t know who had done it.

The High Priest nodded. “Spirit Blood is only the simplest requirement and the guide. The real problems are the Spirit Root and Spirit Bone. That is also often called the Root Bone by others. The Spirit Root is something you know. It is categorized into five ranks on the Martial Heaven Continent, the lowest being bronze and the highest being violet gold. Toward the later stages of cultivation, the Spirit Root is mostly ignored. As for the Spirit Bone, it is not used for appraising the talent of a genius. These two things don’t have much use before the Spirit Blood awakens. But after it, it can nourish the Spirit Root and Spirit Bone, opening up the path of a true expert. However, the Immemorial Spirit race is born with their Spirit Blood awakened. They are born with their Spirit Blood nourishing their Spirit Root and Spirit Bone. So you should prepare yourself. The experts of the Immemorial Spirit race are very powerful.”

“Just what is this Immemorial Spirit race?” asked Long Chen, still confused. Why would the divine families suddenly appear out of nowhere?

“They are called the protectors of the entire world. They had countless glorious achievements, but after the first dark era descended, they were heavily injured and retreated to look after themselves. At that time, just as the continent’s powers were smashed apart and scattered, just as countless sects were destroyed and the entire continent was on the verge of destruction as well, the first generation Sovereign, Yun Shang, rose. He united the races on the continent and forced back the invaders, giving the Martial Heaven Continent a chance to recover. Sovereign Yun Shang was the first Sovereign, and the only one to suddenly soar against that kind of adversity. He was the only Sovereign who did not experience the qi flow eruption. After that, the divine families were silent for many years. Their ruling era was ended by the first dark era. After that came the time of the five Sovereigns. The divine families also appeared during those times to help the Sovereigns, but their light was eclipsed by the Sovereigns. The last time the divine families appeared on the continent was a dark era forty-three thousand years ago. The dark era from that time was not particularly large in scope, but it was the divine families that allowed the continent to pass through that tribulation. That was how their name once more resounded across the continent, but ever since then, they’ve been silent. For them to come out now while there is still no clear candidate for the next Sovereign indicates that the divine families might be leading the upcoming battles in the dark era. I explain this to you so that you understand what the divine families are. If your light is too bright, you’ll draw their attention.”

Long Chen was silent for a moment. “They want to lead the upcoming battles? To tell the truth, I look forward to that. I never wanted to stand out. If they have the power, then I hope they use it well. If they need to cooperate with me, since they are a part of the Martial Heaven Continent, we can naturally work together for the continent. But if they start to play with me, then sorry, I don’t care if they’re the divine families or the ghost families.”

Long Chen knew that the High Priest was referring to the fact that when the divine families came to lead the future battles, the powers of the continent would be forced to listen to their arrangements.

Long Chen had never been good at listening to other people’s orders. Furthermore, with the Dragonblood Legion’s power, the divine families would definitely not be able to ignore them. When the time came, if the divine families’ orders differed from Long Chen’s desire, a conflict would be inevitable.

Long Chen’s meaning was also clear. If the divine families were so amazing, then they could save this world. The Dragonblood Legion would assist them, but that didn’t mean that they had the authority to order the Dragonblood Legion around.

“Other than that, I have another piece of bad news. Do you remember Di Xin whom you killed?” asked the High Priest.

“I remember him. That person was raised into an idiot. I can’t forget him even if I want to. What, is there some problem?” Long Chen’s impression of that idiot was still strong in his mind. At that time, his mother had even threatened Long Chen, saying that Di Xin was still a child. That was why Long Chen had let him off easy and given him a chance to reincarnate.

“The problem isn’t with him but his mother. I have heard that she comes from one of the divine families,” said the High Priest.

“How could that be? Didn’t you say that the divine families have been gone from the continent for thousands of years?”

“The divine families have truly been gone, but that doesn’t represent that they are isolated from the world. Don’t you think it’s curious how Di Long could be publicly scorned, insulted, and cursed by his wife with him only being able to accept it silently? There’s also the fact that Mo Gate was so powerful back in the day. With a pair of Sages, just as they were about to reach an unprecedented era, they were destroyed overnight. Some things simply cannot be said, but if you think about it, it’s not impossible to notice the answers,” said the High Priest profoundly.

Long Chen’s heart pounded wildly. To put it like this, the Di family had been supported by the divine families. As for Mo Gate, it had been destroyed precisely because of the divine families.

Long Chen suddenly understood why when he asked Mo Nian if he wanted to reclaim the ancient family alliance for Mo Gate, Mo Nian always shook his head.

Long Chen had always thought it was simply because Mo Nian was too lazy and liked his freedom, but in reality, he must have known that the divine families were related to the destruction of his clan. His enemies were far too powerful, so powerful that he didn’t even have the courage to get revenge against them.

Just what were the divine families thinking? If they were the protectors of the continent, they should be fighting openly and honorably. Why would they do something so petty in the dark?

Why would they interfere in personal enmities between families? Was it just to control the ancient family alliance? Just what would their goal be in that?

The High Priest hadn’t actually said much about this matter, but it was enough to raise Long Chen’s guard.

The waters of the Martial Heaven Continent were truly deep, frighteningly deep. If the ancient family alliance had such powerful secret supporters, then what about the other powers of the continent? The Xuan Beasts? Pill Valley?

Long Chen’s gaze gradually grew cold. It didn’t matter how complicated the power structure of the continent was. It had nothing to do with him. If someone provoked him, he would kill them. That was all.

After Long Chen left the High Priest’s residence, he found that Long Xiaoyu and Dong Mingyu had yet to return. Today was actually the Lantern Festival of the Grand Xia, the biggest celebration for the commoners. The entire capital was lit up in beautiful colored lanterns, while many young men and women were out playing until the sun rose.

By staying awake as dawn broke, it symbolized the blessing of good luck.

Seeing Long Chen return, Mrs. Long put a blue scarf on his neck.

“Mom, it’s not cold. Why do I have to wear a scarf? With my current constitution, it’s not even possible for me to get a chill,” said Long Chen laughingly.

“Just wear it. This scarf is actually for Xiaoyu, but I haven’t put a scarf on you in so long. I want to try to find that old feeling again.” Mrs. Long carefully wrapped the scarf all around Long Chen’s neck. She then tidied up his hair and nodded. Only then did she let him leave.

When Long Chen walked out, he saw Long Tianxiao’s back facing him, his shoulders trembling, most likely from laughter. Long Chen also laughed.

Leaving the Wine God Palace, Long Chen went to the imperial palace. As a result, he had barely gotten anywhere before two young ladies holding hands saw Long Chen. Their eyes lit up and they walked over to him.