Chapter 643 — Twenty Thousand Years of Bloodline Legacy

The more they saw, the more alarmed they became. Time here seemed to have frozen; there was no sound at all, and everyone remained in the pose of their final living moment.

Utter silence.

A deathly stillness beyond compare.

A stillness so oppressive it robbed the breath from their lungs!

"Those who came to study at Yuming Palace were the finest talents of the Heavenly Court's younger generation. When the calamity struck, it destroyed the entire future generation of the Kaihuang era in one blow."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor said woodenly, "The one who attacked this place used the divine abilities of Youdu. With a single technique, he erased the future of the Kaihuang era. I was lucky enough to escape the calamity. I did not dare look back; I fled in panic. I had thought my Dao heart was strong enough that nothing could fill me with dread. But when I saw so many companions, so many youths and gods and demons, all dead, I collapsed at once..."

The Human Emperors fell silent. Faced with such an unimaginable catastrophe, it would have been hard for anyone not to collapse.

"I fled, my soul shattered, panicked and terrified, like a dog driven from its home."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor said in a bitter voice, "I encountered the Heavenly Court's army rushing to the rescue, but I was utterly terrified. I did not join them. I kept fleeing, until I realized there was nowhere to flee. Where could I go? So I turned back and searched my way here, and then..."

His face twisted, his heart aching beyond imagining. He gasped for breath several times. "And then I saw the bodies of my comrades. Heh heh. I should have fought shoulder to shoulder with them, should have died here with them. But I fled. I survived, while they are buried here forever..."

His shoulders heaved twice. He swallowed his tears back into his belly and said woodenly, "I stayed here, with no will left to live, wanting to die alongside them. Just then, I saw many races fleeing disaster—cultivators escorting countless mortals to safety. So I took them in, protected them, and helped them seek a place to settle and multiply."

"I searched for a long time and found the place where the Heavenly Court had fallen. They were deeply grateful to me and honored me as Human Emperor. These ragged, exhausted people used their last treasures to forge a Human Emperor Seal, swearing an oath that generation after generation would uphold and remember it, never daring to betray, never betraying it. But they did not know that I was not the Human Emperor they wanted. I was only a cowardly deserter, frightened out of his wits!"

He smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Circumstances make the hero. I did not want to be this hero. I did not want to be Human Emperor, yet they pushed me onto this seat."

The Second Ancestor Human Emperor said, "Later you took me as your disciple and tossed the Human Emperor Seal to me—was it because you felt you were unworthy of it?"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor nodded.

He came to a building and looked up at the nine-story tower. Softly he said, "This is Yuming Pavilion. Within it are stored many cultivation arts and divine abilities of the Kaihuang era, better than the Dao arts and abilities of Taihuang Heaven. You may go in and learn whatever you wish."

He sat on the stone steps before Yuming Pavilion, desolate and downcast, gazing at the people before the pavilion—people long dead yet still seeming alive. They were familiar faces. Though twenty thousand years had passed, he could still call each of them by name.

But the Second Ancestor Human Emperor and the others did not enter Yuming Pavilion. They watched him.

Suddenly the Second Ancestor said in a bitter voice, "Master, since you possess better and higher arts and abilities, why did you not pass them on to me? Why did you not pass them on to the world? Do you think the people you saved were all mortals, all lowly commoners, unworthy of the arts here?"

He could not help but question him loudly, sneering, "Yes, you are the Human Emperor revered by all races. We are merely the lowly commoners and mortals you rescued, not as noble as your bloodline. You are an imperial prince, high and exalted. We are unworthy of your arts! If you had wanted to pass them on, why did you not do so twenty thousand years ago?"

He could not hold back the bitterness in his heart and cried out, "Do you know? After you left, I fought the heavens alone. I battled desperately, and how many times was I nearly beaten to death? But because of that broken seal you gave me, I held on. I felt I was Human Emperor, that I should do something for the human race! Teach me! Why don't you teach me!"

The First Ancestor was wooden.

The Second Ancestor pointed at the Human Emperors of past generations behind him and said sternly, "They too inherited that broken seal of yours. For an ideal you would not even deign to look at, they struggled their whole lives, fought their whole lives, poured out their life's blood! Many of them never married, never had children, never had descendants, all for fear that the title of Human Emperor would drag down their descendants, for fear that love and romance would hinder the cause of the Human Emperor! But you? You hid your whole life, hid for twenty thousand years—you failed us!"

The First Ancestor's body trembled. He shook his head. "I could not pass them on. So few people remain from the Kaihuang era. I could not pass them on to you. If I did, once you became a threat, you would be annihilated."

He raised his head, his eyes brimming with murky tears. "To pass them on to you would be to harm you. I could not pass them on..."

The Second Ancestor was wooden. After a long while, he said bitterly, "Now we are already dead, with only our primordial spirits left. What use is it to pass them on to us now?"

The First Ancestor buried his head in the crook of his arm and said in a hoarse voice, "There are many bodies in Yuming Palace. They died too quickly, and their bodies were preserved. You... each of you, seize a body and be reborn. Human Emperor Shen needs you. He alone deserves to be called Human Emperor... Go! Go! Do not let me see you!"

The Second Ancestor and the Human Emperors of past generations stood dazed. Suddenly the Second Ancestor bowed down. "Teacher!"

The other Human Emperors bowed one after another. When they raised their heads, the First Ancestor Human Emperor had covered his face and departed.

"Will the First Ancestor come back?" asked Yishan.

The Second Ancestor's heart was heavy. He said, "He may have seen hope in Human Emperor Shen, but he does not want to see us seize the bodies of his old friends and be reborn in them. I do not know whether he will return. If he does, seeing our reborn faces will surely remind him of those old friends..."