Chapter 2186: Return

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Zhou Muhuang looked up at where the imperial palace was and said, “Let’s get up.”

Everyone continued moving upward after he said that, moving along that stairway conjured from divine light. It was like they were moving up to a real heavenly court.

They stood high up in the sky, which didn’t look all that far away. However, that was only because they were standing under divine light, and the space had nothing else for reference, which made them feel like common people looking up at the stars in the sky.

That was the imperial palace reigning throughout the entire Divine Prefecture, the very top of the heavens.

They finally saw someone after some time. A door appeared before them, leading to the gates of the Imperial City, where formidable guards stood over the gates.

That Imperial City was something that one could not step in from outside, as it was shrouded in terrifying divine might. Entrance into the city required passing the heavenly gates.

“I’m Zhou Muhuang of the Domain Chief’s Manor of the Shangqing Domain, hereby leading the cultivators of the Shangqing Domain to the Imperial City. I hope that we would be granted passage,” Zhou Muhuang went up and said to the guard, who then seemed to be communicating with the ones in charge inside. He nodded and said, “Please.”

The guards made way right after that. All of them then went inside the gates right away. The terrifying power of space emanated from inside.

Ye Futian and the others felt like they were inside another space after getting in there. The place was surrounded by divine light, and mystical qi filled the place. The Imperial City was not a single entity; there were many hovering cultivation temples everywhere, all of which were inhabited by very powerful cultivators. Anyone permitted to train and stay inside the Imperial City would be someone with esteemed status or descendants of ancient formidable ones.

The Imperial City was the most mysterious place in all of the Divine Prefecture. No one knew just how many formidable beings there were in there, and even the cultivators throughout the 18 domains had only heard rumors about it.

Some speculated that among the countless cultivation temples in the imperial city, some ancient cultivators were found inside.

Everyone went on to look all over the place after getting there. Towering divine glows fell like waterfalls in there, making it seem like there was an extremely magnificent hall of the gods within. That was the highest point of the heavens; it was the very peak of the nine heavens.

That was the Imperial Palace.

That was the place where Donghuang the Great lived. This was the most powerful of places throughout the entire Divine Prefecture.

Ye Futian wondered what kind of people would be able to live inside that Imperial City and see the Imperial Palace all the time.

There were definitely many top-notch cultivation forces in the many continents in the Imperial Domain, and he wondered about the Imperial City inside the Heaven’s Gate.

I think that the core forces of Donghuang the Great are in here, including the divine generals, the leaders of the legions, and people of that sort, he thought.

Ye Futian was feeling rather restless, wondering what kind of relationship he shared with the Imperial Palace.

Zhou Muhuang then brought the formidable ones toward the Imperial Palace. Once they got near the Imperial Palace, they discovered just how magnificent and vast the place actually was. The Imperial Palace had its own strata, and they were stopped right outside the place. Some formidable ones came to receive them, and Ye Futian actually knew the man. It was none other than the palace lord of Empty Imperial Palace—the emissary who the Imperial Palace sent to oversee the Void Realm.

The emissary seemed to have seen Ye Futian and his eyes lingered on him for a brief moment. He smiled and then looked at the crowd before saying to Zhou Muhuang, “Thank you all for coming.”

“It is an honor for us to serve the Imperial Palace, and we would certainly give it our all. All top-notch forces throughout the Shangqing Domain sent their people to the Origin Realm,” Zhou Muhuang replied.

“Allow me to lead the way,” the palace lord of the Empty Imperial Palace said as he did so. Divine might lay upon everyone, and even someone as powerful as Ye Futian felt that pressure on him; it felt rather solemn.

No one said anything during the journey, and everyone followed the palace lord of the Empty Imperial Palace in silence.

There was more than one way leading to Void Realm other than the Imperial Palace. Yet, given that it was the Imperial Palace that called the formidable ones to arms, it was only natural for them to head over there through the Imperial Palace. Those of the Shanqing Domain were not the ones doing so, as those from the rest of the 18 domains were doing the same as well. Many formidable ones had made it to the Origin Realm.

The palace lord led them on a detour around the external fringes of the Imperial Palace instead of heading inside the palace itself. He even slowed down and deliberately came near Ye Futian, saying, “It has been years since we last met, and it would seem that your powers have seen considerable growth, Emperor Ye. It looks like what happened all those years ago was a blessing in disguise. You’ve now become someone capable of reigning supreme somewhere in the Divine Prefecture.”

The battle back in the Void Realm all those years ago saw Ye Futian at an undisputed disadvantage. Everyone thought that he was dead, and the palace lord certainly didn’t expect to see him reappear.

It was all like a dream.

He wondered just how Ye Futian managed to leave alive and come to the Divine Prefecture.

He was oblivious to the fact that Princess Donghuang helped Ye Futian in secret. And except for the two of them, there were probably only a few others who knew about it. Being only a subordinate of hers, Princess Donghuang naturally did not need to tell the palace lord any of it.

“You flatter me, sir. I was just lucky back then.” Ye Futian then asked, “Have you been in the Origin Realm this whole time? How are things over there now?”

The palace lord of the Imperial Palace then smiled and said, “I’m afraid you’ll need to be psychologically prepared, Emperor Ye. Things in the Origin Realm are completely different from how they once were. The changes are so significant that the place might as well be somewhere else altogether. You’ll be able to see for yourself once you return, and there’s no need for me to say more.”

Ye Futian’s heart sank, feeling a formless pressure washing all over him and making him feel restless deep down.

What is going on with the Origin Realm?

Obviously, the Origin Realm had seen extremely huge changes and was completely different from what it was when he left. As for the specific changes, he would only know when he headed back to find out himself. The key, however, would be if all his friends and family were still around.

I wonder how they are doing, Ye Futian thought.

The palace lord brought them to pass by certain areas with guards guarding them and came to somewhere rather mystical. There was an empty space before them, and there was a terrifying aura sealed within a gate of space. The place was surrounded by starlight, and it felt like a world of stars in itself. There was a deep spatial passage, which enabled them to sense something else from within.

“This is the gate of the passage leading to the Origin Realm. Enter, and you will be able to pass through this space and reach the Origin Realm. I’ll let the rest of you head over on your own,” the palace lord then said to the crowd. They were rather surprised that they were told to make the trip on their own instead of having someone from the Imperial Palace take the lead.

It would seem like things had yet to spiral into an all-out war.

They would have been required to move as a single unit otherwise.

“Thank you, sir.” Zhou Muhuang nodded to the palace lord of the Empty Imperial Palace and walked inside before everyone else. All the others then followed him into the passage.

Ye Futian walked through the gate and then into the passage. He felt like he was in the middle of nowhere mere moments later. There seemed only to be an endless void sprawled out before him. He saw many stars, and at that moment, he felt like he was seeing familiar faces in those stars.

There were Jieyu, Yu Sheng, Wuchen, and his other brothers and sisters-in-training. He wondered how they were all doing.

Nianyu should have all grown up right now, I guess, he thought.

I wonder how my teachers and the mistresses are doing as well, he wondered.

Xiao Muyu, Dou Zhao, Long Chen, and the others. How is their training going? How much progress have they made? How far have those supreme geniuses of perfect levels of the Great Path come?

Lord Taixuan. How is the old man doing now?

During the battles in the Origin Realm back all those years ago, he had been attacked by many from a good number of foreign forces like Tianshan Academy, the Golden Divine Nation, the Shen Clan, the Solar Divine Palace, and so on. All of them were out to kill him and get rid of the Heavenly Mandate Academy, which the Lord had protected again and again. There were also formidable ones from the divine palace, Emperor Nan of the Nantian Divine Kingdom, Xiao Dingtian of the Xiao Clan, and many other seniors of his. He wondered how all of them were doing during the years after his departure.

Is the Heavenly Mandate Academy still around? he wondered.

Are the Dragon Gods, the Divine Elephants, and the Sky Demon Court still united after and fighting alongside the Heavenly Mandate Academy?

All of those familiar faces flooded his mind. All those memories surged right there and then before he was even in the realm itself. It was as if he had recalled all that he had been through throughout the years—the crises, all those times when they helped each other, and the battles they fought, their lives hanging by a thread—all at once.

His eldest brother, second brother, his teacher Qi Xuangang, and the rest. While it had been many years since they last met, he felt like they were still close all the same.

Though he had been training in the Divine Prefecture for many years, to him, the memories he had in the Divine Prefecture would never be as intense and profound as those he forged back in the Origin Realm.

That was his home, where his family was.

Of course, there were also a lot of his enemies back there, like the overbearing Shen Clan, the arrogant Golden Divine Nation, the traitorous Jian Ao from Tianshen Academy, the antagonizing Solar Divine Palace, and those who hailed from the Divine Prefecture and showed nothing but contempt for everything, like the Holy Land of Taichu and some others. He would also never forget their faces as well.

If it hadn’t been for Princess Donghuang having mercy in that last battle back in the Void Realm, where he was ganged up on by so many formidable ones, he would have perished for sure.

Furthermore, that happened when he fought on the side of Divine Prefecture against the Dark Court and the Empty Divine Realm. Yet, those forces, which were supposed to fight alongside him, had turned against him and wanted to kill him instead. This was especially true for the Tianshen Academy. He remembered all of that all too well.

An intense emotional fluctuation happened as those memories flooded his mind, and everything in front of his eyes changed. He stood in midair and looked at the place before him. A familiar feeling washed all over him.

After 20 years, he was finally back.