Chapter 390: Thirty Thousand Years of Darkness and Bloodshed
Su Yi raised the dark golden jade slip.
The divine materials used to craft it—Golden Billows Spirit Marrow—weren’t particularly rare. However, they feared neither water nor fire.
Su Yi inserted his divine sense into it.
Boom!
The vast power imprinted within the slip surged into his sea of consciousness, and one bizarre image after another floated into view.
He saw a?vast palace hall.
A thin, solitary figure sat atop the nine-stepped jade platform, streaks of divine radiance pouring down around him, like an intercrossing rain of the light of the Grand Dao. He had the bearing of a deity, as if he were gazing down upon the heavens themselves.
“It seems that this is the Heavensphere Yao Emperor,” said Su Yi.
The Heavensphere Yao Emperor wore long black robes, and he had his hair tied up in a Daoist topknot. His eyes shone like the moon and stars, and he was surrounded by the interwoven powers of the Laws of the Profound Dao. The aura of the Imperial Realm permeated his surroundings.
He was most likely in the Profound Serenity Realm.
The Profound Dao had three major realms: Profound Illumination, Profound Serenity, and Profound Unity.
Even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, those who reached the Profound Serenity Realm were authorities in the Grand Dao, top-class experts of the Imperial Realm!
However, Su Yi could tell at a glance that the Heavensphere Yao Emperor’s situation wasn’t looking good. The power of a mysterious prohibition was eroding his energy, and it had already damaged his roots in the Imperial Realm!
Alas, everything Su Yi saw was a scene imprinted in the jade slip. He had no way of determining the mysterious prohibition’s secrets.
“Founder, everyone in the sect is already settled in. It’s time for us to leave!”
The scene changed. A figure scurred into the grand hall, faced the Heavensphere Yao Emperor seated atop the nine-stepped jade platform, and bowed. He looked frantic.
This new arrival wore purple robes, and he had a willowy beard.
The Heavensphere Yao Emperor chuckled and shook his head, seemingly unconcerned. “Changhen, you are the leader of our Immortals’ Sword House, and the sky has yet to fall. Why are you in such a panic? Besides, the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness can restrict me, but it cannot kill me.”
Only then did Su Yi realize that the man in purple was the third-generation leader of the Immortals’ Sword House, Bai Changhen. There was no doubt about it.
This was the man who’d placed the Blood Sacrifice Spirit Array outside the palace.
“Wait a moment,” said the Heavensphere Yao Emperor. As he spoke, he slipped a lustrous white bone seal flowing with the light of the Dao from his sleeves.
“Founder, what are you trying to do?” asked Bai Changhen in confusion.
The Heavensphere Yao Emperor sighed, “Beneath the influence of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, the Azure Continent’s spiritual energy is sure to disperse. A change akin to the collapse of the Grand Dao is coming, and as a result, the grand orthodoxies scattered across this world shall inevitably disappear into the river of history.
“I can see it already: it’s highly likely that the Azure Continent will become a spiritually barren, mundane world without so much as a single grand orthodoxy remaining.
“The flow of time is relentless, and the vicissitudes of the years shall transform the world. In the days to come, what living thing shall remember that the Azure Continent was one home to countless competing orthodoxies? Who shall know that our Immortals’ Sword House was one of the world’s three great yao sects?”
When he said this last part, his voice was rife with lamentation.
“Founder, all of that is in the future. There’s no need to concern ourselves with it now,” said Bai Changhen with great worry.
“You’re right, but we can at least leave behind an opportunity for the people of the future, and we can at least make them aware of the age of darkness and bloodshed that befell the Azure Continent under the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness,” said the Heavensphere Yao Emperor somberly.
“Furthermore, thirty thousand years from now, the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness shall disappear, and this world shall welcome an unprecedented golden age, a Radiant Epoch. We might not be fated to see it, but the people of the future surely are!”
He paused, then continued, “What we have to do now is leave behind a seed on behalf of our Immortals’ Sword House, a seed of hope that might sprout and bear fruit in the Radiant Epoch!”
After making this declaration, he said no more. Instead, he started leaving Dao mark barriers on the white bone seal.
Before long, he placed the fully-engraved bone seal into a jade box. “This seal can control every restriction in the Immortals’ Sword House. Furthermore, the seal’s interior is emblazoned with our highest legacy and loftiest Daoist scripture, the ‘Allspirit Sword Sutra.’ Only a fellow yao cultivator blessed by destiny can obtain such an inheritance.”
“So long as the Allspirit Sword Sutra remains, our Immortals’ Sword House has definite hope of re-entering this world.”
Then, the Heavensphere Yao Emperor took out a dark golden jade slip and left a will imprint inside it.
“This jade slip records the origins and some of the secrets of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. In the days to come, whoever is fated to see its contents shall understand what I did today and why.
He then closed the jade box, placed it in front of him, and looked up.
In that moment, his deep, inscrutable gaze seemed to cross the barrier of countless years. It was as if he were looking directly at Su Yi.
Boom!
Su Yi’s field of view blurred, and the image collapsed and disappeared.
Just as I thought, this seal isn’t at all simple! It hides the highest Daoist scripture of the Immortals' Sword House!
It’s a pity; while this inheritance might make other cultivators mad with desire, what good is it to me?
Forget it. If I get the chance, I’ll help your Immortals’ Sword House select an inheritor and pass the legacy within the seal onto them. That counts as realizing your heart’s desire too. This way, the Immortals’ Sword House shall carry into the future, and its incense burners shall remain lit,?thought Su Yi.
As he pondered, he sensed the other power imprinted within the dark golden jade slip.
This imprint was a description of the Prohibition of Darkness written in the True Spirit Glyphs of the White Marsh.
Su Yi was instantly immersed.
By the time he finished reading, his eyes shone with enlightenment.
The Prohibition of Ancient Darkness was an extremely strange and terrifying tribulation of the Grand Dao.
A little less than thirty thousand years ago, a massive change took hold of the Azure Continent. The source of the disaster was originally a fortuitous encounter.
While searching for good fortune in a forbidden ground known as the Well of Ancient Chaos, ?an Imperial Realm expert removed a mysterious and unknown seal. The incomparably terrifying power of the prohibition sealed below surged forth.
In less than a day, the power of the prohibition had spread across the entire Azure Continent, throwing the Laws of heaven and earth into disarray and bringing about drastic changes.
All cultivators at or above the Spirit Dao suffered the persecution and erosion of the prohibition’s power, and try as they might, they couldn’t free themselves of it.
Even Imperial Realm experts were no exception. There was nothing they could do to rid themselves of its bonds or corrosive effects.
This was an unprecedented change, and it caused widespread panic amongst the continent’s powerful orthodoxies. They couldn’t sit still or rest assured. The Dao of the Heavens had changed, and they believed disaster was imminent.
Out of concern for their own safety, each of the great orthodoxies dispatched its forces to search for the source of the prohibition.
But without exception, each such expedition ended in failure.
This was because no one, not even Imperial Realm experts, could draw near the Well of Ancient Chaos. It had become a true forbidden zone. ?If an Imperial Realm expert tried to force their way in, they faced obliteration.
In the end, a group of experts joined forces. They ultimately realized that this transformation was connected to the roots of the continent itself, its source.
The source of the Azure Continent was the “Origins of the Azure.”
In other words, a change to the Origins of the Azure had changed the layout of the entire continent.
Furthermore, the era’s experts deduced that it was highly likely that the Origins of the Azure were below the Well of Ancient Chaos!
Some of them even suggested that the Origins of the Azure were like a seed. All the changes affecting them arose because the seed was trying to sprout and had an urgent need for nutrients. Thus, it began seizing the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth for its own use. Only then could the seed break through the earth and grow.
Despite differing opinions, there was one thing all the top experts agreed on: this change would last a full thirty thousand years!
In order to protect themselves, the top orthodoxies chose to leave the Azure Continent. Imperial Realm experts led the way through the barrier surrounding their world and into the starry skies beyond.
Without their Imperial Realm experts at the helm, the abandoned orthodoxies faced calamity, and those who remained could only watch as disaster drew near.
The worst part was, as the change took full effect, numerous rifts appeared in the spatial barrier surrounding the Azure Continent, which led to unknown worlds.
As time passed, more and more otherworld cultivators started invading the Azure Continent to seize its cultivation resources. The otherworlders caused an enormous bloodbath, throwing the entire continent into upheaval. Alarm beacons filled the skies.
In the end, the various orthodoxies of the Azure Continent succeeded in sending the otherworld cultivators packing, and they used the power of restriction formations to seal the gaps in the continent’s spatial barrier.
However, they suffered massive casualties in the process, an enormous blow to their vitality.
Add that to the continued effects of the change to heaven and earth, and in the years that followed, the ambient spiritual energy grew sparser and sparser, and the Grand Dao crumbled. Countless once-illustrious orthodoxies slowly ebbed, then disappeared into the river of history…
This change was dubbed the “Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.”
The resulting era of darkness and upheaval was called the “Age of Ancient Darkness.”
Having learned all this, Su Yi finally understood why all these ancient orthodoxies had long since vanished into the river of history.
And he understood why the Azure Continent’s spiritual energy was so barren and sparse, and why it had sunk to becoming a mere mundane realm.
Everything was because of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness! The result of a change in the Origins?of the Azure!
“It seems the Prajna Meditation Garden on Treasure Temple Yao Mountain suffered the effects of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. That white-robed monk riding a true dragon must have left to avoid its effects.
“As for the Great Zhou’s Eight Great Yao Mountains, they each seal an exposed portion of the spatial barrier. The lost orthodoxies most likely placed the restrictions there to prevent further invasion by otherworld cultivators.”
Su Yi suddenly understood countless mysteries that had eluded him before.
Deep within the wilderness of Bloodthistle Yao Mountain, he had seen a spatial barrier sealed by a formation of one hundred and eight altars.
And, deep below Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, he had seen yet another spatial barrier sealed by the Burning Heaven Restricting Demon Formation.
It was then that Su Yi had slain an otherworlder who called himself the Crimson Peng Monarch. He hailed from a faction of otherworld yao cultivators, the “Incarnation of Stars Sect.”
Now, Su Yi finally understood. The powers restricting the spatial barriers had been placed there by the Azure Continent’s ancient orthodoxies during the Age of Ancient Darkness; their goal, to stop further invasion by otherworld cultivators!
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