It Is Time

The trio stared at Feng Wu Shuang with flabbergasted eyes. Could a person change their mind at such breakneck speed?

"Qing Yue remember that in the future you cannot become one of those women that say no in the morning and yes in the evening. Remember, it's essential for you to be consistent."

Qing Yun lectured.

"Yes, second brother!"

Feng Wu Shuang's face trembled as she battled the urge to snap those siblings' necks.

"Bah! I don't care anymore! Let's discuss serious business. How are you going to attend the competition?"

Although Hou Hui possessed many powerful artifacts, if he solely relied on them, there was no way for him to stand out in the upcoming competition. The reason was simple.

No one would come unprepared.

With the importance they attached to the Heaven Shrouding coffins, the gods wouldn't hesitate to bestow many powerful artifacts to their disciples and descendants. Better yet, many would come with suppressers.

Suppressers were artifacts whose only purpose was to incapacitate other artifacts. They were ranked in the same way as artifacts were and could render any artifact of the same rank inoperable.

Long Wei, Long Ming, Feng Wu Chen, Kong Ren, Jiu Fang You and Feng Wu Shuang herself. All the sons of heavens and celestial fairies would come equipped with such items.

Another reason why artifacts were not that valued by the divine clans, was that for them, suppressers were easier and cheaper to refine than artifacts of the same rank. Although Grade Twelve Suppressers were not common, with the background of the sons and fairies, could they not get their hands on at least one?

Thus, if Hou Hui wanted to join, he would have to rely on his cultivation base.

But to Feng Wu Shuang's concern, Hou Hui replied with a mischievous grin.

"Hehe, I will, of course, attend with my full cultivation base."

"Come again?"

Feng Wu Shuang blinked but soon, she recalled his trip to the lesser heaven layer and the gains he mentioned so she inquired no further.

"Well, I'm sure you'll show me when the time comes."

She then turned heels and headed toward the exit.

"Leaving so soon?"

"Soon your rectum. If I spend another minute in this place, I don't know how I will be able to explain myself when I return home. I'm a maiden!"

The trio was puzzled. Since when did maidens so brazenly lied on a man's bed? They wanted to inquire about that serious matter but realized it would probably be better to wait for their new big sister to leave. After all…she had balance issues.

But before they could make the inquiry, however, Hou turned cast them a serious glance.

"Now that you've arrived in the Heavenly World, there are many things you need to learn to avoid offending the wrong party. I will also impart different cultivation methods onto you. But first, do you have any questions?"

"Yes!"

Clearly, they had always been waiting for an opportunity to inquire about several things.

"Is it true that immortals coat their skin in wax to make it look immaculate?"

"Is it true that the Heavenly Emperor is a wrinkled, white-haired old man who spends his days throwing dices in a fish pond?"

"Is it true…"

"Is it true…"

They went on, and on, slamming the crumbling Hou Hui with a plethora of nonsensical issues.

"Real questions!"

He snapped.

"Oy…ok. I have one. How is the Heavenly World divided? How many immortals and how many gods?"

"Fifty million counties, thirty thousand immortal domains, fifty-three paradises, and four divine regions."

"The counties are administrated by Life Immortals and Dao Revelation Immortals. The thirty thousand immortal domains are administrated by Great Dao Immortals. The fifty-three paradises by the dragon gods. And the four divine regions by the four dragon kings."

Hou Hui explained, but his words caused the trio to stare slack-jawed.

"Then…then…that means there are at least fifty million immortals in the Heavenly World?"

Qing Yun stuttered.

"More. Much more."

It was impossible for all immortals in the Heavenly World to obtain an official position at the county level. Thus, the actual number of immortals was far beyond the number of counties.

In the following two hours, Hou Hui spent his time teaching them the customs and hierarchy of the Heavenly World.

"Exhausted!"

They exclaimed and collapsed on the floor.

"We are only getting started. It's time to cultivate!"

Hearing the word "cultivate" it was like candies had been hanged above their noses. They stood up straight like arrows with military discipline.

"Qing Yun, your physique is special so you cannot cultivate as others would. In fact, before a certain time, you cannot cultivate qi."

"Why is that?"

Asked Qing Yun with concern.

"You possess an Innate Immortal Root. Every thirteen years a rose of immortality will bloom within your dantian and directly make you break through to the peak of a realm. Soon when you turn thirteen, you will reach the peak of Qi Refining. At twenty-six, you will reach the peak of the Immortal Seed Realm, at thirty-nine, the peak of the Immortal Core Realm and so on until the seventh flower blooms and you reach the peak of the Life Immortal Realm at ninety-one."

"Unfortunately, because of that, you cannot truly start cultivating until the seventh flower blooms."

Qing Yun was devastated. Although he had no notion of how long it took for the average cultivator to reach immortality, the stories he heard and read in infancy clearly told him that less than a hundred years was pretty good.

However, if for decades he wasn't allowed to cultivate, didn't that mean he would have to stay idle and watch his siblings' steady progress? What about magical abilities? Could he also not learn any?

"Don't worry. In ten years, I will bring you into a special artifact that will allow you to cross those decades in a heartbeat. You will not have to suffer for long. In the meantime, we will need to help you familiarize yourself with the ancient paths so that when your seventh flower blooms, your foundation in the dao is solid enough for you to reach Dao Revelation quickly."

Qing Yun beamed. At least he wasn't going to turn into an idle freeloader for too long and could still learn some useful things. He didn't ask for more.

"Big brother, big brother, what about us? Do we have special roots?"

Qing Ya and Qing Yue asked while waving their small hands.

"Well…no. You have intermediate grade Spiritual Roots of the water attribute."

While in the mortal worlds that could be considered decent, in the Heavenly World, that was the lowest of the low. A low-grade Spiritual Root was enough to step into the road of cultivation. But it was improbable to reach the Immortal Foundation threshold in a lifetime.

With an intermediate-grade Spiritual Root, the best they could typically hope for would be the Immortal Core Realm. If cultivation roots were not of great value within the immortal path, they were of paramount importance below the Life Immortal Realm.

The siblings had no notion of root quality and so didn't know what to make of Hou Hui's words.

"But don't worry. I will use a special technique to improve the quality of your roots."

And only now did the siblings realize that they possessed a poor constitution. Still, confident in their big brother's skills, they weren't dejected.

"What kind of roots do the top talents in the Heavenly World possess?"

"The children of gods are all born with Divine Roots. But the quality varies from person to person. My imperial brothers the third prince and the crown prince possess respectively a high-grade Dragon God Root and a sublime-grade Dragon God Root."

The words divine and god made it simple to realize that those were outstanding constitutions.

"How about you?"

"Sublime-grade Root. Unknown nature. Unknown attribute."

….

"Hateful! Hateful! HATEFUL CREATURE!"

Yue Li roared as she stared at Long Ming's battered form. Her incandescent eyes then turned, and she aimed her trembling index toward Long Wei who stood at the other corner of the room with his arms folded beneath his chest and his back resting against the wall of immortal jade.

"And you…you just stood there and watched your little brother get brutalized by that vile creature? What purpose does your cultivation serve?"

Long Wei didn't budge, and his golden eyes remained locked on Long Ming's still unconscious form.

"Imperial mother, you should be thankful."

And that statement of his caused his mother to explode.

"Thankful? THANKFUL? My beloved son has been beaten in such a cruel manner, and you want me to be…THANKFUL? Long Wei are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

But Long Wei remained undisturbed.

"Such trivial physical damage can be mended with ease. It's what imperial father would have done to him, was he not already unconscious, that you should be worried of. In fact, I wonder if he's not still in danger."

Instantly, Yue Li was calmed. No one knew better than her the ruthlessness with which Tian Tu treated Long Ming. To outsiders, it would be impossible to imagine that he was his son. Breaking his bones, shattering his veins, battering him to the point he couldn't move an inch of his body. Crippling and mending his legs. There was nothing that had not been done. Although across Long Ming's twenty-five hundred years of existence, those events were not frequent, they still appeared every now and then.

Was Long Ming deserving of punishment?

Not always.

Was he deserving of such punishments?

Of course not.

So what would Tian Tu do to him now that the "matter" had spread like wildfire throughout the Heavenly Palace? She dared not imagine.

"In fact, you can only blame yourself. Had you not given him permission to fool around, could things had gotten to that point? If you want to ask for marriage, privately discuss among elders. What is the meaning of publicly asking for the girl's hand? Is that not coercion?"

"Even if Long Ming was a hundred times braver, without your support, would he have dared?"

"But you are so dead-set on finding ways to torment Hou Hui that you acquiesced to that nonsense."

"Before worrying about Long Ming, worry about yourself."

Yue Li fumbled to find a retort, but there was nothing to be found. She couldn't understand why the existence of Hou Hui caused such erratic reactions in her. What was it about him that caused her to lose any sense of rationality and propriety? The eyes…it had to be the eyes!

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

The door sprang open, and a clapping Tian Tu walked in.

"Good. Very good. Very, very good job."

Yue Li despaired.

Both she and Long Wei were about to fall on their knees when a wave of divine power released by Tian Tu prevented them from doing so.

"You don't have to kneel. There is no point in doing so when you clearly don't put my imperial dignity in your eyes."

He said with a gentle smile then aimed his right hand at Long Ming and released a healing wave of divine power which quickly mended his wounds and brought him back from unconsciousness.

"Hou Hui, you bast…im…imperial father?"

Long Ming wanted to leap from the bed but realized that he could not move.

"I gave you one simple task. You had one job. One simple job. And you still managed to make a mess out of it huh?"

Tian Tu remarked with a calm that prevented the other three to feel at ease.

"Imperial father…I…I really love her…I thought…"

"You do not think. Imbeciles don't think."

Tian Tu cut. And Long Ming could only lower his eyes while waiting for punishment.

"Let me make this clear. If the dragon clan's team fails to capture all the six Heaven Shrouding Coffins, do not return. Otherwise, this emperor shall destroy your cultivation base, demote you to the rank of commoner, erase your name from the imperial family's registry and kick your worthless self out of the palace!"

…

In the phoenix clan's manor.

Xu Feng, the Phoenix God, strategized with the other leading gods of the bird alliance.

"We separate our forces into two groups. A team of immortals less than five thousand years old led by Feng Wu Chen and Kong Ren whose duty will be to confront the dragon clan's current sons of heaven. And an older team of immortals between the age of five thousand and ten thousand to confront the previous generation."

"The second team will be led by Jin Guang and Peng Yuan."

"What about Long Wei? Who will handle him?"

"The tiger and lion clans will send a team to deal with him specifically."

"As for the serpent and fish clans, they will be countered by the tortoise and snail clans. This time, I want to see how exactly does the dragon clan plan to stop us from obtaining the coffins!"

…

In the Holy Demon World within the demonic realm.

"Imperial father, what should be our stance in the upcoming battle?"

"Thanks to the humiliation of a hundred thousand years ago, the Nature Realm is willing to let go of the opportunity to seize a coffin as long as we can prevent the dragon clan from obtaining one. With their support, I want to see how exactly do those immortal ants plan to stop us! Let all the Heaven Shrouding Coffins fall within the hands of the Demonic Realm!"

…

In the Ten Thousand Flower World within the Nature Realm.

"Tree Ancestor, the opportunity is hard to come by. Are you sure of this?"

"The dragon clan has terrorized the three realms for far too long. It is time we remind them…of the bitter taste of defeat and humiliation! We may not be able to avenge the deaths of a hundred thousand years ago, but we shall use the opportunity to make those vile reptiles choke on their tongues!"

…

Meanwhile, Hou Hui was sitting cross-legged within his room and embedding the yang laws he had cultivated with immortal qi. He had already cultivated and polished the laws to the pinnacle, so the following process was simple. One after the other, a total of one million yang laws were embedded with immortal qi in a process lasting for six days.

At the dawn of the seventh, Hou Hui opened his eyes, and in a haze of scorching light, the one million yang laws merged into a miniature sun which hovered around his body.

Without hesitation, he grasped and slammed it into his chest, causing scorching rays of light to erupt from his eyes and pores.

In the meantime, in a distant location within the Heavenly World, six brilliant beams of light shafted toward the starry sky as if to announce to all living things that they had arrived!

The radiance spread across the entire Heavenly World, alarming all its residents.

Shortly afterward, a seventh beam of black and white light shot toward the starry sky.

"It is time!"