1 Prologue 1

The universe is a big place with various kinds of planes and dimensions. Heavenly planes and major dimensions stood at the top with lesser planes and minor dimensions existing in their shadows.

In a certain special dimension filled with a suffocating air of bloodlust and carnage, where demonic energy ran uncontested and non-demonic creatures found it difficult to survive, two parties of 7 individuals stood in confrontation as the space between them got heated.

Such an arrangement would make one presume that it was an equal fight with both sides having a somewhat similar fighting power and number of men, but in reality, it was nothing but that.

"Divine Celestial Emperor, do you really intend on taking on all six of us?" A humanoid demonic creature spoke as it stared at the lone warrior in front with some degree of apprehension.

Standing proudly in white and gold daoist clothes was a middle-aged man with ink-black hair and a pair of deep blue eyes. The emanation he gave off was that of a supreme being who remained untainted even in a mundane world.

Despite being surrounded 6 to 1, in an environment that was highly unfavourable to him but advantageous to his opponents, there was no sign of anxiety or worry on his face. Only a smile crept on his lips as he glanced at his enemies.

"Just you 6?" The middle-aged man, the Divine Celestial Emperor, asked without hiding his disdain.

"Don't underestimate us just because of a lucky breakthrough!" Another of the 6 fiends roared.

The demonic character had a pair of horns nestled on his forehead but of the two, one was incomparably longer than the other one, at least 3 times. Black tadpole-sized inscriptions decorated his body like tattoos, covering about 80% of his body. A few of the inscriptions were depictions of ancient gods and demons or primordial monsters that had existed with the beginning of time. As for the remaining inscriptions, they were but strange characters that were comprehensible to few in the entirety of the universe.

"Monarch of Devouring, is it?" The Divine Celestial Emperor faced the fiend with a look of interest.

"You're indeed worthy of speaking to me with your 3rd place rank." he said with a sarcastic tone.

"If anyone is to talk about a lucky breakthrough, it shouldn't be you."

"You…!" The monarch of devouring growled.

Being a practitioner of the dao of devouring, the monarch of devouring had things easier than the others. All he had to do was eat his fill of heavenly materials or even other cultivators and he would experience an increase in cultivation.

Of course, the heavens were fair so there were certain restrictions to such a method of cultivation, one of which was the difficulty to reach the peak of cultivation with such an unorthodox method. Nonetheless, the dao of devouring was perfect for progressing quickly at the early stages as long as one had their fill of heavenly items.

Because of this, some despised the practitioners of such an art as they felt that it was detrimental to one's growth but mostly because it was a sort of cheat code at the early stages. Hence, they declared that the art was one that traded one's luck and potential for rapid progress at the early stages, and considering that it got more difficult to advance later on, this rumour was sometimes considered more than just such.

"Enough. Stop paying attention to his provocation." The first of the demons who spoke before, flung a glance at his teammate, shutting him up almost instantly.

Apart from the malevolent air around him and the equal length pair of horns, he looked no different from an average human being.

"To have used provocations against us, is the Divine Celestial Emperor unsure of his victory?" The horned 'human' smirked.

"Haha. That's possibly the greatest joke I have heard in a millennium. Enough talking. I didn't come here for a little chit-chat. Let's settle who deserves the 12th page of the Heavenly Tome in the simplest fashion." The Divine Celestial Emperor laughed.

The leader of the six devil group, the horned human, had a frown on his face. Truthfully, he didn't want to clash with the Celestial Emperor. The Divine Celestial Emperor didn't make a name for no reason.

Since the inception of the 33 heavenly planes, no single individual had dared to take on the title 'Divine'. Not even a sect or a holy land had dared to do so. Yet the Divine Celestial Emperor had not only done so but had gone further to unify the heavenly plane under his rule; something no individual, race, sect or sacred land has ever done. Even the ancient Sage race had only managed to conquer 21 realms before their downfall, and they were revered to be the strongest of all. The Divine Celestial Emperor ruling over the 33 heavens was more than enough of a testament to his great strength.

Nonetheless, a fight was inevitable as neither of the two parties was willing to back down.

Currently, the 12th and final page of the Heavenly Tome was in the hands of the six fiends. It was recently discovered in the Netherworld Lands, a heavenly plane ruled directly by the six fiends.

Truthfully, while it was said that the Divine Celestial Emperor ruled all 33 heavens, it wasn't a direct form of rule. Apart from 12 heavenly realms that directly answered to him, the rest were ruled by their respective apex experts but they still had to give face to the Divine Celestial Emperor to the extent of allowing his might be displayed in their region of command. There was no reason for this other than their fear of his strength, after all, it was better to be the nominal head of a heavenly plane and receive its resources without much effort than to lose that all and die.

The Netherworld land ruled by the six fiends, similarly abided by the commands of the Divine Celestial Emperor but for the 12th page of the Heavenly Tome, the six fiends were willing to throw all forms of deference to the wind.

Who was the Divine Celestial Emperor in the face of the heavenly dao?

Even though he was reputed to be the strongest expert under the heavens, he was still one beneath the heavens.

The Heavenly Tome on the other hand, was rumoured to be able to help one peer into the secrets of the heavens; the secret to becoming a true sovereign of the dao and standing on equivalent stance with the heavens. As long as one had all 12 pages and combined them to form the original tome, reaching the indomitable peak of martial dao and achieving eternal life was not impossible. This was a level of strength that the Divine Celestial Emperor hadn't even progressed to.

Just imagine, if they could reach such heights, who was the Divine Celestial Emperor that they would still fear? He would be nothing more than an ant for them to step on.

Such unimaginable but possible prospects made these villains ignore the hurdle that was the middle-aged man in front of them in hopes of a brighter future.

"Go!" The leader of the demons ordered.

Immediately, the other five spread apart as they surrounded the Divine Celestial Emperor, each taking a spot some distance away from the other with their target right at the centre.

Their moves seemed simple and crude but there were some incomprehensible truths behind them. If one didn't know any better, they would think that they were merely surrounded, but in reality, it was more than that. A formation had come to life with the actions of the six, enhancing the overall strength of the six while also emitting a daunting pressure that tried to suppress the target.

"This formation was made to perfectly counter you and to give us six a fighting chance. For my respect for you, Emperor, leave now while you still can. But before you do so, you have to surrender the Tome's pages in your hands as well make an oath never to reveal what transpired here." The human devil stated his demands.

There were 12 pages to the Heavenly Tome and while each page was said to hold a certain secret, having all 12 pages was nonetheless better than possessing only one. When all 12 pages are combined, the elusive arts of the heavens would be formed.

It was believed that the remaining 11 pages were currently in the hands of the great emperor despite the said individual having publicly denied it. Nonetheless, a simple denial wasn't enough to stop the rumour.

"And don't try to deny that the pages aren't in your hands without swearing a heavenly oath on that. At your level, you should be even warier of oaths."

"There's no need for me to do that. After today, it would pretty much be known that I have the 12th page so it doesn't matter. Enough talking already. Show me what your little battle formation could do otherwise I'd be really disappointed at your progress in martial dao." The middle-aged Emperor smiled.

"I see you don't plan on relenting. Fine then, die."

The six fiends immediately launched their attacks almost at the same time.

The Monarch of destruction tossed a spinning black wheel at the Divine Celestial Emperor.

The Spirit King of the Nine Nethers waved a massive flag at the Divine Celestial Emperor, sending an alarming number of ghosts and wraiths at him. Each of the spirits possessed a frightening amount of energy with some of them being only weaker than the Spirit King himself.

The other fiends also performed their various arts, hurtling their attacks straight at their target. Even the 'human' who led the team didn't stand aside as he also launched his attacks.

For a moment, the Divine Celestial Emperor was surrounded by a startling amount of energy that made the space around him tremble in awe. Even the space cracked in the wake of the leader's attack. The air around him was pressurized to form a natural swamp-type prison that made movement physically impossible.

If one of the six fiends were in his place, they would find it extremely difficult to escape from the confinement. However, the Divine Celestial Emperor wasn't one of the six fiends, but an individual on an entirely different level.

"Hmph." A snigger rang out.

"Calm."

A mysterious invisible wave spread out with the Divine Celestial Emperor as the centre, reaching out to envelop the 6 different attacks that aimed for him as well as engulf the six allied attackers.

Following that, something incredibly unimaginable took place. No sound, no brilliant lights, no blasts, no sign; without any form of notification, the attacks aimed at the Divine Celestial Emperor had mysteriously disappeared.

While it was true that the six foes never expected their attacks to hit their opponent, they were expecting him to neutralize it with some effort, either with a devouring technique or with a different technique but at least with one that would produce a significant reaction; especially a destructive one. None of them expected him to deal with their attacks with such ease and effort that he didn't even need to lift a finger. Only a word and their attacks had disappeared without any sound, like a stone sinking into the depths of the ocean.

"He's as the legends say, unpredictably powerful." The Spirit King, who was a dark-skinned humanoid monster with a crown of thorns and a crooked wooden black staff in his hand grimaced at the sight. It was then he remembered a legend that was said to have taken place before he ascended the throne.

There was a reason that the Divine Celestial Emperor remained the overseer of the 33 heavens. Even though the leaders of the other 21 realms the Divine Celestial Emperor didn't directly rule could band together and face him, they never did. It wasn't that the idea never crossed their minds because it did -at least more than once-, instead, the target was just too powerful.

Back then, a great storm had once occurred. During that period, the Spirit King was just a youngling with no foothold in the world at large. On the large scale of things, he was a nobody.

Of the sovereigns in charge of the 21 realms, excluding the ones who were close allies to the Divine Celestial Emperor as well as the neutral factions, some of the other rulers of the heavenly planes had once banded together to take him on. There were at least 11 sovereigns in that battle with a lot of other subordinates who were just one level lower. The allied force had made great waves and assaulted the holy sanctuary of the Divine Celestial Emperor.

The allies of the Divine Celestial Emperor had wanted to assist him in the fight as no one believed that he would be able to take on 11 sovereigns on his own. But the Divine Celestial Emperor had refused them with the claim that there was no reason to take a group of dead men seriously.

Many had once thought he was being overconfident or arrogant after all, it was 1 against 11, and though the eleven were weaker than him, it was just by one major realm only.

Usually, against an opponent one realm stronger, numbers could be used to cover up the gap. Even a general could be taken down by the right number of captains. For this reason, no one thought the Celestial Emperor would come out on top. It was for this reason that though the Divine Celestial Emperor was the renowned strongest, the other sovereigns didn't always follow his orders to the letter. It was also for this same reason that the 11 sovereigns had confidence in their coup.

However, it wasn't until the D-day that they realized that they were wrong. 1 against 11, a battle most thought would be hard-fought turned out to be a one-sided slaughter. The outnumbered outmatched his opponents. Of the eleven sovereigns that had banded together against him, the Divine Celestial Emperor took the lives of six as a warning to everyone. He might be one man, but all of them added together still wasn't enough to fill in the gaps in his shoes.

"In the end, he still hasn't gained immortality. He either dies today or we do." The largest of the six fiends, who towered like a small mountain, echoed his thoughts to the others.