Emperor's Domination

A million years had passed, and the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect finally became weak. It no longer had the power to sweep through the world and rule over the Nine Worlds like before. However, the ancestral land of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect still remained.

The ancestral land of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect used to be extremely vast. Some said that when the sect was in its prime, it ranged around one million miles with thousands of ancient pavilions and countless disciples that were not just from the Mortal Emperor World! Even Charming Spirits, Heavenly Devils, and Stone Golems — these races that were favored by the heavens — joined the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect." [1]

The Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect’s glory was a path with no return; in the end, the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect had to let go of its vast land and hide like a turtle in a corner of its old land.

Li Qiye’s group went on their trip with Protector Mo leading the way. Because he had been to the Ancient Land multiple times, he could be regarded as a light car traveling on a familiar road.

Today, there were only a few dozen main peaks and the area only spanned for a thousand miles. This was incomparable to the old scale.

They left the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect on a straight road to the Ancient Land. One could see the rolling mountains and high peaks like a Dragon Tiger that was entrenched in the middle of this grand earth.

The Ancestral Land of the sect used to be a beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers, just like a land of immortals. However, today, from Li Qiye’s eyes, this was not the case.

Closing the distance to the Ancient Land, he only saw death: dried trees and withered forest, bare mountains and empty rivers, devoid of birds and beasts; a land of stillness.

Observing along the way, he found that there were ancient temples and high pavilions inside the mountain ranges and deep valleys. Unfortunately, these ancient temples and high pavilions were broken into pieces and surrounded by wild grass and a deathly aura.

From the delicate engravings of these broken ruins, one could imagine the prosperity of that year, the majesty of that year.

Countless undulating peaks and many ancient structures were only ruins, today!

Traveling on this wretched ground, even Protector Mo gently sighed. A sadness and unwillingness to see the once invincible Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect falling into this state.

Li Qiye silently trod on this familiar ground that had entirely transformed in today’s time. However, the decline of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect was not why Li Qiye’s expression greatly changed. What moved him was that he was walking on top of a grand ground, yet he could faintly feel the evil aura under the earth!

Li Qiye had felt this evil aura inside the Ghost Pavilion, before. He was familiar with it, and he knew the origin of this evil energy, but he couldn’t imagine how this evil energy had appeared once again.

This land used to be filled with legends. That year, when Li Qiye was the Dark Crow, he was well aware. It was the same with Immortal Emperor Min Ren. It was indeed mysterious, and it was indeed legendary; however, it also buried a frightening existence.

Establishing the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect on this ground, Li Qiye had his own reasons that year. In order to get rid of future complications, Li Qiye had infiltrated the deepest part of this ground. After Min Ren shouldered the Heaven’s Will, Li Qiye made him personally refine and use an invincible sealing formation on the deepest part.

In principle, this evil aura shouldn’t have appeared again. In reality, after Min Ren had left and when he was the Dark Crow that appeared in this world again, he was keeping track of this land. After countless years and from era to era, he was still observing this land, but this situation had never happened before.

However, during his last deep slumber, only a short thirty thousand years had passed, yet this matter had happened and it greatly shocked Li Qiye.

Li Shuangyan, standing next to Li Qiye, couldn’t help but say: “There is an ominous thing underground!”

As a genius, her spirit sense was extremely sharp. Walking on top of this land, she felt that there was an aura on the ground that caused her to become angry.

Protector Mo gently shook his head and sighed: “I heard that that year, there was a great change, and it brought about the decline of our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect.”

Nan Huairen was considered to be very informed within the sect, so he busily spoke in place of his master: “I heard that that year, we didn’t actually lose to the Heavenly God Sect. If there was not such a strange event that happened to us, not to mention a single Heavenly God Sect, even ten would be easily destroyed by us.”

“The Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect did face a great calamity that year.” Li Shuangyan changed her expression and said: “I’ve heard about the grand calamity happening at the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect, but the later generations assumed that the sect was making an excuse for their grand defeat.”

“Hmph, what excuses. I heard the elders say that if the grand calamity didn’t happen that year, what the hell would the Heavenly God Sect be to us? When Immortal Emperor Ta Kong was still in this world, he wouldn’t even dare to arrogantly say that he could destroy our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect.” Nan Huan Ren coldly snorted; his arrogance was as high as the heavens. Seeing his expression, it was almost as if he personally experienced the battle that year.

“Don’t be madly impetuous!” Protector Mo yelled at this disciple: “An Immortal Emperor for a generation is someone that shouldered the Heaven’s Will and ruled the heavens; who are you to say such careless words!”

Scolded by his master, Nan Huairen dejectedly lowered his neck as he awkwardly laughed. He was a lively person; even after the scolding, he didn’t pay any heed and busily said: “I heard that the elders said the calamity that year was a mortal blow to our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect. Imagine that that year, a deadly disaster suddenly happened to our sect...”

“Don’t make inaccurate statements in front of Young Master and the princess. Even Elder Gu didn’t know many things regarding the disaster that year, only the bare minimum.” Regarding his disciple running his mouth boastfully, as his master, Protector Mo glared at him once. At this moment, as a protector, he was referring to Li Qiye as “Young Master.”

Nan Huairen, scolded by his master, awkwardly smiled. He finally said in a serious manner: “The unexpected event that happened that year, even the elders didn’t know about it. Some said thirty thousand years ago, some said fifty thousand years. Basically, thirty to fifty thousand years ago, a strange calamity happened at our sect.”

Li Shuangyan asked: “How was it strange?” Regarding this legend, she had also heard of it. However, she was not a disciple of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect, so there was a large chance that her sources were inaccurate.

“This...” This question was difficult for Nan Huairen to answer. He could scratch his head for half a day without producing an answer. In reality, he only heard about this from the legends. The exact incident, he didn’t know about. Even the elders — at their age — didn’t know, let alone him.

Eventually, Protector Mo gently sighed and revealed: “There was an ominous appearance, a strange occurrence at the center of the sect.”

As for the actual details of the ominous occurrence, Protector Mo himself didn’t know. The upper echelons of the sect only knew that something negative had happened, but no one knew the details because all of the disciples who had personally experienced the event were no longer part of this world.

When Protector Mo and Nan Huairen answer, the initially quiet Li Qiye gravely said: “The sealing of this ground had a problem.” His expression was rarely serious, but it showed a hint of coldness this time.

Li Shuangyan was shocked after hearing Li Qiye’s words. Inside her Nine Saint Demon Gate, there was an ancient piece of writing that contained the words left behind by their ancestor, Nine Saint Virtuous Paragon. Legend states that Immortal Emperor Min Ren sealed this land then built the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect on it, leaving behind an unshakable emperor’s foundation!

As for why Min Ren had to seal this land and what was sealed, the writing didn’t mention. Future generations didn’t know either.

At this moment, Li Qiye had spoken in a confident manner; without a doubt, it was as if he already knew beforehand. Li Shuangyan was perplexed since this was such an ancient matter. Furthermore, there were no concrete documents about it, so how did he know?

If one could travel around the boundary of the sect that year, then they would find that it was like a giant sea snail. This sea snail was extremely huge. Lying on the ground, it carried the entire ground of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect.

Today, the sect’s ground was but a part of the tail of this sea snail. That year, the center of the sect was located on the spine of the sea snail.

The moment they reached the center of the sect of that year, they found that all of the trees and plants were withered. From these dead trees, one could see that this place used to be filled with ancient trees and bright godly grass with heavenly vines that covered the skies. It was a shame that today, this place was now a dead ground.

Stepping into the central area, they saw a strange scene. Outside of the center, all of the ancient temples and pavilions were entirely collapsed into ruins, but the center was not like that at all.

As the central area of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect, Immortal Emperor Min Ren used to use this place to order the whole world and accepted the worship from all of the races of the Nine Worlds. Afterward, all of the sect masters of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect resided here to command the heroic crowd.

At this place, it would be described as having a forest of ancient pavilions and godly temples. However, today, they were all covered; it was as if the sky suddenly rained down mud upon them. Countless amounts of mud covered the buildings that became dried throughout the ages.

All of the buildings here seemed to be stuck in a thick layer of muddy paste, causing others to be unable to recognize their true appearance.

[1] Charming Spirits most likely resemble high elves, and Heavenly Devils are their counterpart.