Translator: Sparrow Translations  Editor: Sparrow Translations

There was this thing that she couldn"t run away from, she couldn"t defeat, and neither could she chase it away. All this lazy b.u.m did was steal her food, and Tun Tun didn"t want to live anymore, and her life and future was just bleak and desolate.

Even when she was having a battle of wits and shamelessness with s.h.i.+ Tianhao, she had never felt so helpless and stifled – at least s.h.i.+ Tianhao wouldn"t be watching her from day to night. Rather, she was the one watching s.h.i.+ Tianhao all the time and waiting for the opportunity to steal his food.

s.h.i.+ Tianhao and Jieyu were both enjoying the show from outside the Wasteland Valley while Zhu Yi and Bai Guang shook their heads continuously.

s.h.i.+ Tianhao chortled as he returned to the Wasteland Valley to save Tun Tun from Rollroll"s “evil clutches” before he went back to the Black Heavenly Treasure Tree.

Tun Tun was so touched that tears almost poured out of her eyes. She gave s.h.i.+ Tianhao a bearhug and shouted, “I will never steal the things that you"ve hidden away anymore! Uh, wait… I mean, I will only steal half, and I won"t take any more than that.”

s.h.i.+ Tianhao rolled his eyes and replied, “A leopard can"t change its spots after all.”

s.h.i.+ Tianhao was a little annoyed that the Wasteland Valley had another glutton of a resident. He had to protect his treasures from the little Taotie before this, but now he had to prevent another giant panda from stealing his food. Initially, he had the idea of taking the entire race of giant pandas out from that middle world, but it seemed like this issue required more careful consideration and contemplation…

s.h.i.+ Tianhao and Zhu Yi didn"t deliberately spread the news of their clash with the dragons. However, the epic battle between the Celestial Sect of Wonders and the dragon race spread throughout the Divine Lands anyway.

Another one of the Four Heroes of the Celestial Sect broke through to the next level after Zhu Yi and reached the second-level immortal soul stage, sending another ripple through the Grand Celestial World.

It didn"t take long before another piece of news was pa.s.sed around: the Extreme Dao Eminent, w.a.n.g Lin, had also reached the second-level immortal soul stage even before s.h.i.+ Tianhao did.

The Celestial Sect of Wonders were becoming stronger and stronger.

What caught everyone"s attention the most was that Lin Feng, the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, wounded the Origins Celestial Dragon through the Void Battleground from the outside with a single slash of his sword, even though the dragon had the power of the Black Sea"s oceanwater.

The Heaven-Destroying Sword"s formidability shocked the world once more. The event turned everyone"s heads, and everyone felt their hearts as heavy as ever from another glimpse of Lin Feng"s current prowess.

Most of the high-level cultivators could guess the reason why the Great Qin Empire"s Prince Gunyang, s.h.i.+ Zongmao, the Celestial Sect of Wonders" Zhu Yi and s.h.i.+ Tianhao entered the Void Battleground.

In the end, the Immortal Dragon City"s existence held extraordinary significance to the Great Qin Empire.

The Great Qin Empire with the Immortal Dragon City and the Great Qin Empire without the Immortal Dragon City could be considered two different levels of power in some sense.

Some people were keeping tabs on s.h.i.+ Zongmao"s returns from his expedition, and many of them were aware that s.h.i.+ Zongmao had come back empty-handed.

Not long after, news came from Xiling City that the Immortal Dragon City was no more. However, s.h.i.+ Yu"s daughter, s.h.i.+ Xingyun, had merged with the Immortal Dragon City and was currently cultivating elsewhere.

Everyone was shocked by this piece of news.

The Great Qin Empire did this as a form of deterrence. Even though s.h.i.+ Xingyun was indeed cultivating by herself somewhere else, the Great Qin Empire kept quiet about the fact that she had no intention to return under the Great Qin Empire"s wing.

In order to avoid backlash, they naturally didn"t do things like speaking on s.h.i.+ Xingyun"s behalf.

s.h.i.+ Xingyun would just close one eye at what the Great Qin Empire was doing, as long as it wasn"t too outrageous, and she wouldn"t make life hard for them. s.h.i.+ Zongtang, s.h.i.+ Zongmao and the others all wanted s.h.i.+ Xingyun to come back to them, so they tried their best to form a rapport with her.

Simply avoiding reporting the whole truth was enough to signal to the rest of the Divine Lands and to mislead them.

Some people tried to probe at the whole story by asking Zhu Yi and s.h.i.+ Tianhao, who were both on scene that day, but both s.h.i.+ Tianhao and Zhu Yi kept their mouths shut as they wouldn"t undermine the Great Qin Empire.

Within the Great Qin Empire"s inner circle, s.h.i.+ Chongyun and his mother"s statuses naturally rose as time went by and could no longer be compared to before.

After s.h.i.+ Zongtang ascended to the throne, he didn"t outrageously appoint his own lineage as members of the royal family and neither did he confer the t.i.tle of crown prince on anyone. Still, there was no question the previous crown prince s.h.i.+ Chongyun"s situation became extremely awkward.

Even though s.h.i.+ Zongtang treated him as nicely as he could, the Great Qin Empire"s throne was clearly to be far beyond s.h.i.+ Chongyun"s grasp, and his hopes of taking it in the future were slim.

Now that s.h.i.+ Xingyun had merged with the Immortal Dragon City, s.h.i.+ Chongyun"s circ.u.mstance became delicate once again.

Liang Gan was still the one who took over the throne to the Great Zhou Empire ever since Liang Pan was overthrown. The Great Qin Empire"s royal family had another thought – s.h.i.+ Xingyun didn"t want to become queen, but they still wanted her back, so why not help s.h.i.+ Chongyun onto the throne so that he could attract s.h.i.+ Xingyun back into the Great Qin Empire?

s.h.i.+ Chongyun was like an untamed horse, and he was avaricious like a wolf and brutal like a tiger. However, his relations.h.i.+p with his blood sister, s.h.i.+ Xingyun, was still as intimate as ever.

Back then, only s.h.i.+ Yu, s.h.i.+ Zongtang, s.h.i.+ Zongmao and several other high-level members of the Great Qin Empire"s royal family knew about the truth behind s.h.i.+ Xingyun"s background. s.h.i.+ Chongyun and most others only thought that s.h.i.+ Xingyun"s dragon soul had been obtained after birth.

However, s.h.i.+ Chongyun didn"t bear a grudge or any ill thoughts because of this. This was an extremely rare and surprising thing for s.h.i.+ Chongyun, who had always been rapacious and overbearing.

s.h.i.+ Xingyun had always been more talented than he was at cultivation, and even though the Divine Lands had seen females ranked before the male for the throne before, s.h.i.+ Chongyun never did harbor any jealousy or envy towards s.h.i.+ Xingyun.

s.h.i.+ Xingyun had always been rather supportive of her elder brother. During the time of the Man of Polycoria, s.h.i.+ Tianyi, the entire Great Qin Empire was talking about allowing changing the crown prince and the succession to the throne. s.h.i.+ Xingyun had always adamantly supported s.h.i.+ Chongyun in both private and public comments during this time, while their relations.h.i.+p with their mother was also extremely close.

The idea of allowing s.h.i.+ Chongyun back onto the throne wasn"t yet mainstream, and they also had to consider s.h.i.+ Zongtang"s opinions. However, this notion was still gradually disseminated, and s.h.i.+ Zongtang didn"t erupt in a fit of anger because of this, as if he had given his silent approval.

As long as s.h.i.+ Chongyun and his mother remained at the Great Qin Empire, s.h.i.+ Xingyun couldn"t completely tear herself away from them. Yet, if s.h.i.+ Xingyun wanted to take them away when real trouble came and during the Great Qin Empire"s most perilous moments, the empire couldn"t really stop her.

Methods like imprisoning them inside, threatening them or other antagonizing methods would only make matters worse.

Not before long, s.h.i.+ Xingyun returned to Xiling City as she said she would. She came back to visit her mother, her brother, s.h.i.+ Jingyun and her other intimates.

She had a secret conference meeting with s.h.i.+ Zongtang and s.h.i.+ Zongmao inside the royal palace, but n.o.body knew the contents of their discussion except the three who were part of it. However, s.h.i.+ Xingyun didn"t stick around for long and left Xiling City once again.

s.h.i.+ Xingyun traveled towards the Kunlun Mountains afterwards, and went up Mount Yujing to pay her respects to Lin Feng. Lin Feng gave her some pointers, and she departed the mountain after a while and disappeared from the world.

This perplexing journey made everyone else in the Divine Lands scratch their heads in confusion. n.o.body knew what exactly the relations.h.i.+p was between s.h.i.+ Xingyun and the Great Qin Empire.

However, everybody still had to consider s.h.i.+ Xingyun as part of the Great Qin Empire when estimating their overall strength.

It could be said in some sense that the Great Qin Empire"s original target had been partially achieved, and they could heave a sigh of relief as they worked on restoring their former glory as fast as they could.

The Divine Lands" overall situation became relatively more stable than before. The Gu Dynasty consolidated their establishment, while they gradually but surely expanded their territories, but nothing much else was worth taking note of.

The Great Qin Empire and the Great Zhou Empire chose a conservative att.i.tude and vehemently defend their own territories as they tried their best to prepare themselves against a possible expansion attempt by the Gu Dynasty.

The Great Void Sect and the Mount Shu Sword Sect were still sealing themselves inside the mountain. The disturbance stirred up by Big Luo eventually fizzled out. At least, n.o.body really talked about it anymore.

People were more concerned about where this new disciple from the Celestial Sect of Wonders was. However, Big Luo was never seen again after the episode, and even the inner circle of the Celestial Sect of Wonders couldn"t feel this ninth senior uncle or ninth grand senior uncle"s existence, and this whole thing became an unsolvable riddle.

The Barren Expanses sustained heavy losses during the last War of the Two Worlds, and there was much less infighting due to the pressure from the human race.

However, news of the treasure connected to the sea that came from the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage began to attract everyone"s attention.

Another wave of disturbance was stirred up, and multiple parties challenged one another for it. They tried their best to hold back due to the pressure from the humans, but the compet.i.tion was still fairly heated.

Various human powers partic.i.p.ated in the contest after receiving the news, and the situation became increasingly chaotic.

Still, the Grand Celestial World"s overall political situation became peaceful and stable after the War of the Two Worlds. Both the humans and the demons took the time after the war to recuperate, and everyone entered a period of restoration and development while the world entered a new state of equilibrium.

The news that Lin Feng had taken Big Luo in as his personal disciple didn"t break this equilibrium, and the news of the Spirit Sea released by the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage wasn"t enough to break this equilibrium either.

It could even be said that the very existence of the Spirit Sea was the reason why the situation became increasingly stable.

Everyone seemed to be preparing and waiting for the day the Spirit Sea opened up once more.

Time flew by during this time of peace and stability, and more than ten years pa.s.sed inside the Greater World.

The overall situation inside the Divine Lands wasn"t that much different from before, except the Gu Dynasty had made a series of territorial expansions.

What attracted the Divine Lands" attention even more was that some of the Celestial Sect of Wonders" second generation of successive disciples had reached the immortal soul stage, after Dao Yuting. More than one of them accomplished this feat, and everyone displayed superior strength and prowess.

The things that people had been deliberating about and the things that they had been concerned about were gradually becoming reality.

This new ent.i.ty that was the Celestial Sect of Wonders was already reigning supreme over the entire world. Their personal strengths and prowess were not yet at the pinnacle, and they were still in a state of rapid expansion.

The consolidation of their resources and their position became clearer and far more intimidating to the world as time pa.s.sed by.

The Celestial Sect of Wonder"s inner circle didn"t think much about this, and the younger generation of disciples were all working hard in their cultivations.

One day, the Heavenly Temple"s owner, Zhu Yi, returned to his abode. He tossed his sleeve, and an elderly man with white hair all over his face appeared before him.

This elderly man surveyed the furniture and the things inside the great hall with an inscrutable expression and a complicated look in his eyes. However, he quickly withdrew his emotions and knelt down respectfully before Zhu Yi.