Chapter 195: Heaven’s Mandate Appears, The Masterminds in the Shadows
Chapter 195 – Heaven’s Mandate Appears, The Masterminds in the Shadows
As the words fell, the gathered monks plunged into absolute silence.
Simultaneously, countless threads of Divine Sense locked onto Jueyuan where he stood before the ancient tree.
“Who are you?” A monk stepped forward, his voice a cold interrogation.
Yet, facing the hostile reaction of the Northern Desert Buddhist Kingdom, Jueyuan remained entirely unfazed.
Epochs ago, the Desolate Heavenly Emperor had forged a long spear and hurled it from the Middle Heavens. It traversed tens of millions of miles, violently impaling the Buddhist Kingdom.
This world-shattering strike not only nailed down the karmic lifeline of the Northern Desert Buddhist Kingdom but also terrified their sects into total isolation for over a millennium.
Logically speaking, there was no blood feud between the Northern Desert and the Desolate Heavenly Emperor.
To suffer such a sudden, unjust calamity—any normal cultivator would find this sheer humiliation impossible to swallow.
Yet, the Buddhist sects of the Northern Desert swallowed it.
The reason was brutally simple: the Desolate Heavenly Emperor was too monstrously powerful, so invincible that even a ten-thousand-year-old Buddhist Kingdom had to choke down its pride and endure in silence.
Even though the Desolate Heavenly Emperor had achieved Ascension alongside his followers over a millennium ago, the Northern Desert Buddhist Kingdom still did not dare violate his implicit decree.
And now, a complete stranger had manifested, casually claiming that the Desolate Heavenly Emperor’s Heaven’s Mandate had shattered.
Though his true motives remained hidden, to brand his intentions as “treasonous and deserving of death” was not an exaggeration in the slightest.
Reading their thoughts, the corners of Jueyuan’s mouth curled upward. “I am who I am. A monk of the Shaolin Temple, Dharma name Jueyuan.”
“The lifeline of the Buddhist Kingdom was severed by the Desolate Heavenly Emperor’s spear. To extract it, a bearer of the Heaven’s Mandate must arrive in person.”
“Now that the Desolate Heavenly Emperor’s Heaven’s Mandate is broken, the only way to salvage your lifeline is to nurture a new bearer of the Heaven’s Mandate.”
“This Master, the Desolate Heavenly Emperor is the supreme lord of all under heaven.”
“Your words are absolute treason!”
The Buddhist monks immediately fired back the moment Jueyuan finished speaking.
Seeing their outrage, Jueyuan said, “A monk naturally abides by the precepts. This humble monk’s words contain not half a syllable of deceit.”
“I know exactly what terrifies you. You are simply paralyzed by the fear that the Desolate Heavenly Emperor might suddenly return to settle old accounts.”
“On that front, you need not worry at all.”
“Because this humble monk holds an artifact that proves everything I have said is absolute truth.”
With that, Jueyuan retrieved a plain wooden bottle from his robes.
Uncorking the bottle, a phantom instantly erupted into the sky.
Hum!
An invisible ripple washed over the entire world, and the spear impaled into the ancient tree violently resonated.
Heaven’s Mandate!
This was the Heaven’s Mandate belonging exclusively to the Desolate Heavenly Emperor—and it was a broken fragment.
The Heaven’s Mandate and its bearer are bound as one. If the Mandate shatters, its bearer has undoubtedly suffered catastrophic ruin.
The Desolate Heavenly Emperor had truly fallen into a fatal calamity!
……
Middle Heavens.
Boom!
A massive mountain suddenly split down the middle. Deep within its core, a devastatingly handsome man sat cross-legged in meditation.
Interestingly, this man was currently exerting every ounce of his strength to suppress a violent internal surge.
After a long while, he successfully crushed the turmoil within his body. He tilted his head toward the sky and offered a bitter smile.
“What an utterly detestable bastard.”
“Couldn’t he have given me a little more time to prepare?”
With a sigh, the handsome man beckoned toward an empty patch of ground.
Swish!
A black shadow materialized before him.
“Transmit the order. Have everyone accelerate their pace. A very annoying player has just entered the board.”
“With his miserly temperament, he considers leaving the house without looting something a net loss. He’s definitely going to take a massive bite out of this cake!”
Hearing this, the half-kneeling shadow hesitated before speaking.
“Master, since he is so blind to his own standing, should we…”
Crack!
The stone beneath the shadow’s feet instantly splintered. A terrifying burst of Pressure forced a thin trail of blood from the corner of the shadow’s mouth.
“The Desolate Heavenly Emperor was shaped by his hands. Do you truly believe an entity like that can be casually slaughtered?”
“Furthermore, do you comprehend that he deserves at least half the credit for the Desolate Heavenly Emperor bearing the Heaven’s Mandate in the first place?”
“To put it plainly, back then, he possessed the utter qualifications to contend with the Desolate Heavenly Emperor for the Heaven’s Mandate.”
“An existence of that magnitude… and a speck like you wishes to move against him?”
Submitting to the handsome man’s cold fury, the shadow bowed deeply. “Your subordinate recognizes his grave error. I beg Master for forgiveness.”
Huu.
Slowly exhaling a breath of turbid Qi, the handsome man waved his hand dismissively. “Execute the orders.”
“Additionally, establish a special position in my name. Title it ‘Night Watchman’.”
“This position requires absolutely zero duties, save for guarding the main gate.”
“After all, it is a vow I once made.”
“As you command!”
As the shadow vanished, the corners of the handsome man’s mouth curved upward. He whispered into the silence, “Chen Changsheng, oh, Chen Changsheng!”
“The Heaven’s Mandate of this epoch is already securely within my grasp. I truly cannot fathom how you intend to struggle against me.”
“It seems you truly are destined to guard the gates of my ‘Heavenly Court’!”
With a soft chuckle, the handsome man rose to his feet and vanished from the shattered mountain.
……
Eastern Wasteland.
The severed fragment of Heaven’s Mandate hung suspended in the firmament. Stimulated by the aura of the broken old mandate, the gestation of the new Heaven’s Mandate began to aggressively accelerate.
Observing this cosmic anomaly, a man in a long robe, casually playing a game of Go against himself, voiced his complaint.
“You have to be joking. Is this madman genuinely trying to tear the net by fighting to the bitter end?”
“This move… this genuinely exceeded my calculations.”
With a sigh, the robed man stowed his chessboard, then reached over and yanked a wooden warning sign from the earth, one that had stood guard before the Sacred Ruins forbidden area.
“My mission here is complete. The rest of you can slowly play this game out among yourselves.”
“Also, if my memory serves me correctly, there seems to be a particularly pathetic coward hiding in your domain.”
“The reopening of the Road to Heaven is now an absolute foregone conclusion. The entities above desire it, and those below thirst for it.”
“Now, I am incredibly curious to see what those stinking rats hiding in the middle strata will do.”
With those parting words, the robed man strolled away with a leisurely gait, leaving behind only the dead, unchanging silence of the Sacred Ruins forbidden area.
……
Void Realm.
A solitary figure sat cross-legged within the primordial chaos, a blinding light radiating from the center of his brow.
Piercing through that intense luminescence, the faint silhouette of a crystalline, flawless Immortal Bone could be seen.
Hum!
The Immortal Bone erupted with supreme, world-crushing might, as if violently suppressing an unfathomable force beneath it.
Ten breaths later, the violent tremors subsided, and the figure within the chaos slowly opened his eyes.
“Must we yield in this epoch as well?”
As the question hung in the air, an impossibly ancient voice drifted from the absolute depths of the chaos.
“Yield for one more epoch.”
“The Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land has meticulously calculated for eons, all to ensure Zhang Bairen bears the Heaven’s Mandate.”
“If Wu Li had not spectacularly disrupted the cosmic order in the last epoch, the Heaven’s Mandate would have undeniably been his.”
“Even you might not have possessed the strength to wrest it from him.”
“The Road to Heaven has been pried half-open. The schemes of certain ancient entities have shifted accordingly.”
“Whoever bears the Heaven’s Mandate in this epoch will attract the boundless fires of absolute war. If Zhang Bairen covets that throne, let him take it.”
Hearing this decree, the figure sitting cross-legged within the chaos closed his eyes once more.
However, just a fraction of a second before his eyes shut completely, the figure cast his gaze toward the infinite distance.
His line of sight pierced straight toward the realm many supremes referred to as the “Lower Realm.”
It seemed there was something buried within that Lower Realm that he found excruciatingly difficult to sever.