Chapter 1844 — The Summons from the Holy Court

Time slipped away, and the three heroes of the Reform had become ancient legend. Emperor Yanfeng and Jiang Baigui had launched the Jingping Reform in a tiny patch of land, Shen Mu had walked out of the Desolate Ruins into Jingping, the Heavenly Alliance had been founded, High Heaven had invaded, the First Jingping Calamity had come, and all that history had grown so ancient that the memories of those who had lived through it had yellowed. Though those events were still branded upon their minds, the voices and faces of the people within them had blurred beyond recall. Emperor Yanfeng, the first Heavenly Emperor, had already gone to the Ancestral Court, and Sage Jiang Baigui had become as elusive as a divine dragon that shows its head but never its tail.

The Sage Hall still towered above Shangjing, yet seldom was any trace of the Sage to be seen within it.

As for Celestial Venerable Mu, who had single-handedly upheld the Jingping Reform, since he had entered the Ancestral Court and sealed it, he had never returned. Every so often there would be those who returned from the Ancestral Court, some Dao-attainers and some who had never attained the Dao, telling the world of the wars there and recounting battle after breathtaking battle. At first the people found these tales of war fresh and strange.

Some burned with hot blood and wished they could fly at once to fight and slaughter alongside those predecessors, while others wrung their hands and sighed for the fallen. But later, having heard too many such stories, they grew indifferent.

After all, the war in the Ancestral Court went on and on, fought since the age of legend with no result to this day, and likely to be fought on into the future. They felt that war had nothing to do with them, serving at best as idle talk over tea.

"Human life outweighs Heaven, gods serve man, the daily life of the people is the Dao. " This was the guiding line of the Jingping Reform, yet along the way there were reversals. When a million years of history had passed, the successors no longer remembered why their forebears had set such a line, and some were devoured and swayed by power and began to rot.

Heavenly Emperor after Heavenly Emperor laid down power and departed for the Ancestral Court, until under the thirty-second Heavenly Emperor power began to pass by hereditary succession without replacement, and under the forty-fifth Heavenly Emperor there was even an attempt to make the realm a family possession.

In the end Emperor Yanfeng led more than a dozen retired Heavenly Emperors rushing back from the Ancestral Court to bring that farce to an end. From then on, godhood was merely an office.

Above, the Heavenly Dao ran its course, below, Tubo and the Six Paths of Reincarnation turned, and Dao-attainers and the Heavenly Emperor governed all heavens and myriad worlds in perfect order.

After this incident the legends of the Ancestral Court caused a sensation once more, for the return of a dozen legendary Heavenly Emperors from the Ancestral Court to quell rebellion was truly spectacular and shook every heart. Many mighty beings from all heavens and myriad worlds journeyed toward the direction of the Ancestral Court to search for it, only to witness an inconceivable phenomenon there and find no way to enter at all.

After some more years the Ancestral Court was gradually forgotten again, as batch after batch of new prodigies stepped to the fore and displayed their brilliance across all heavens and myriad worlds. Contact between the Ancestral Court and Yuanjie grew ever rarer.

Once a Dao-attainer returned every three thousand years, then it became four thousand, five thousand, and later ten thousand, twenty thousand. When tens of billions of years had passed, the starry sky had grown vaster and more boundless, new heavens had appeared, the heavens and worlds lay farther apart, Yuanjie itself had grown greater, and going to the Ancestral Court had become a difficult feat.

The wars of the Ancestral Court no longer concerned people.

The vast majority did not even know that bloody battles were still being fought there.

They did not care, did not know what those men fought for, why they slew and why they died, nor whether the warriors there lived or died. Those predecessors and sages were like stars in the night sky, hung high and far away.

Only the Dao-attainers of Jingping, whether in seclusion or preaching the Dao, still cared for the wars there, asking those who returned from the Ancestral Court for news of that man. "He has stayed there a million years now, has he not?

Where is he still holding guard? " "Yes.

A million years, the whole history of Longhan, Chiming, Shanghuang, Kaihuang and Jingping, and he has held on so long. He said when the number of Jingping Dao-attainers reaches a certain point, there will be a decisive battle.

Then, he will return. " .

. .

"He has guarded the Ancestral Court ten million years now, has he not? Has the war there still not been settled? " "Yes.

The hidden peril in the Ancestral Court is too great, and he cannot free himself now.

The strength of Wuji has grown again, the strength of Old Man Wuya has increased, and there are other changes in the Ancestral Court. The treasure palaces of the Young Masters have descended, and there are several more Hall Masters.

He says he will return.

" . . .

"A hundred million years have passed and the world has utterly changed.

Is he still guarding there?

" "Yes, he still guards there, suppressing Wuji, suppressing Wuya. Last time he went to Jade Capital City in the Ancestral Court and fought his way into the Lingxiao Treasure Hall. His strength has grown greater, and he told us with great joy that the day of his return is not far off.

" .

.

. "A billion years have passed. When does he mean to fight the decisive battle?

When will he return?

" "Wait a little longer.

Wuya is nothing to fear, and the two Young Masters cannot fully descend, but there are still too few Jingping Dao-attainers, not enough to stand against them. Wait a little longer.

" .

. .

Three and a half billion years passed, and the ways of the world had changed like seas turned to mulberry fields, so greatly that even Dao-attainers devoted to comprehending the Dao felt strange when they woke from seclusion. The starry sky had grown vaster, the Four Polar Heavens lay farther from Yuanjie and all heavens and myriad worlds, Xuandu had risen higher, Youdu shrouded a wider reach, so that even Tubo Shen Fengqing and Celestial Venerable You found it extremely hard to govern so vast a Youdu universe. They first divided the Youdu universe into four jurisdictions, forged four more Six Paths Heavenly Wheels, built four great Dao halls, and set up the Four Yamas, but later the Youdu universe grew vaster still and four jurisdictions could hardly govern it.

The Four Yamas gradually became the Ten Yamas, and as the universe keeps growing, more halls may yet be set up. On this day, a messenger from the Ancestral Court came to Yuanjie to see the two Old Ancestors, Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian, saying, "The Celestial Venerable asks the two Old Ancestors to summon all Dao-attainers and return to the Ancestral Court. " Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian were stirred beyond words, and though their Dao hearts had been cultivated to the fortieth heaven realm, they could hardly steady their minds.

The two Dao Ancestors walked out of the ancient Dao hall, and waves of the great Dao spread outward from the hall, trembling like ripples in space.