Chapter 1468: Chapter 517: Heavenly Court’s Counterattack, The Ancestors’ Great Trial (Part 3)

In a sense, they indeed did not need to utterly annihilate the Heavenly Court. Even if they could succeed in the end, they would have to pay a brutal price.

They only needed to delay the Heavenly Court’s momentum, dragging things out until the Ancestor Masters returned!

After the meeting was temporarily put on hold.

Kong Ming walked off alone to a certain place, and his Junior Brother Wensu quietly came to his side.

"Senior Brother, why did you suddenly overturn the agreement with the [Heavenly Prison Palace] and turn to support the Pantheon’s side?" Daoist Wensu asked in confusion.

Kong Ming did not answer, and instead asked, "Wensu, in the eyes of all the Ancestor Masters, what do you think we are?"

Daoist Wensu was stunned. What kind of question was this?

What are they?

They were all disciples under the Ancestor Masters’ Gates. This question was truly baffling.

Kong Ming said calmly, "To Transcenders, there is no longer any need for so‑called disciples to transmit the Tao on their behalf and accumulate Dao Power. In fact, for certain reasons, disciples might be for them a kind of... burden."

His pupils abruptly contracted; he said in a deep voice, "Senior Brother, mind your words! We too are the Ancestor Masters’ anchors in the world—how can we be called a burden?"

Kong Ming uttered only three words.

"Unification."

It made his Junior Brother fall silent on the spot.

Not all Transcenders had established Gates; this basically depended on whether the various Ancestor Masters had founded Gates before stepping into Transcendence.

For example, in their Void Realm, they were disciples of the Great Dao Ancestor Qian Wanqiu, yet had never established a Taoist Inheritance Gate, using only the Void Realm as their base camp.

For Transcenders forced to begin Unification, do they really need Gates, disciples, and even kin?

Wensu drew a deep breath and said, "Senior Brother, what does this have to do with besieging the Heavenly Court?"

Kong Ming sighed lightly. "Some time ago, I flipped through the classics left by our Ancestor Master and found a few instructions."

"Instructions?" Wensu’s pupils shrank. "Orders left by the Ancestor Master? Did the Ancestor Master already foresee the Heavenly Court’s return?! Why have we never seen them before?"

"With the Ancestor Master’s methods, leaving some messages that can only be seen at specific times is not difficult." Kong Ming’s gaze grew deep and shadowy. "The Ancestor Master did indeed foresee this great Tribulation, but what he left were not words guiding us how to break the situation, but that we... simply observe."

"Observe?!" Wensu was greatly shocked, his complexion changing. "What does this mean? Are we to sit by and watch the Heavenly Court grow, then threaten the existence of the [Void Realm]?"

Kong Ming smiled bitterly. "It’s simple: because this is not our Tribulation."

"Senior Brother, what exactly did the Ancestor Master leave behind?!"

After a moment of silence, Kong Ming’s expression grew complicated, and he murmured:

"Whose Tribulation this is—do we really need to ask?"

"Junior Brother Wensu, tell me: if Unification cannot be stopped, what kind of situation will the Sea of Realms fall into?"

Hearing his Senior Brother steer the topic back to Unification again, Wensu already found it hard to suppress the agitation in his Dao heart. Yet the next words from Kong Ming made his entire body and mind go cold, as though falling into an ice cavern.

"If Unification cannot be stopped, then who, in the end, will unify Heaven and Earth?"

"Must they fight until the Sea of Realms collapses, with the Ancestors battling life and death to carve out a final, tragic ending?"

"Is there among the Ancestors one who can convince all sides, and after completing Heaven and Earth Unification, still be willing to give the Ancestors and all beings a chance to begin anew?"

Kong Ming slowly lifted his head, looked at his Junior Brother, and said:

"According to the Ancestor Master’s meaning, once there truly was such a person—but regretfully, that person is already dead."

Wensu blurted out, "The Netherworld Lord?!"

Kong Ming slowly nodded. "The Netherworld Lord is dead. Even if he returns again, because of past Karma, the Ancestors will no longer choose him. In that case, the Ancestors need a new candidate—"

Wensu’s features all but twisted. "That... World Venerable?!"

"This is a grand examination—of us, and also of that World Venerable." Kong Ming said with regret, "But judging from the current situation, we fellows seem to have no means to block the Heavenly Court’s rise, so we can only look to that World Venerable Ji whom the Great Dao Ancestor [Void] holds in such high esteem."

Wensu said in disbelief, "If that World Venerable in the coming days stops the Heavenly Court’s rise, he will be accepted by the Ancestors as the future ’Unifier’?"

"How could it be so simple." Kong Ming shook his head. "This can only be counted as the first grand examination. All he gains is a pass at the gate, representing only the will of some of the Ancestor Masters."

"The Ancestor Master did not leave many words."

Doubt and bewilderment gradually surfaced in Kong Ming’s eyes,

"So I’m not too clear either what this grand examination is truly testing. Is it really only about preventing the Heavenly Court’s rise?"

"Or perhaps... that Heavenly Emperor, and even the Heavenly Court itself, are also part of this examination?"

...

In the depths of the Heavenly Court.

A golden arch bridge, every golden stone of the arch seemed to contain densely packed characters of different Taos; between each character stood for a civilization or power that had once submitted to the Heavenly Court.

"What is it?"

On the long bridge, before the golden railing, Doumu Yuanjun spoke indifferently, her voice ever farther removed from mortal smoke and fire, becoming ethereal and lofty.

She did not lower her head to overlook the many Realms within the Heavenly Court’s domain, the endless worlds, the boundless living beings...

But instead looked up toward some unknown place.

In the instant Luo Xuan bowed his head in audience, he caught a fleeting glimpse of this female Heavenly Emperor.

As the territories under the Heavenly Court’s rule ceaselessly expanded, her strength was also rising with the tide; the vision of Group Stars shrouding her grew ever more magnificent.

Like a towering giant tree: as the tree grew ever more lush and lofty, the phoenix perched atop its crown drew ever closer to the center of the Heavenly Dome, to the root of the Dao.

In Luo Xuan’s eyes, even without the Heavenly Court’s empowerment, her rank and strength were likely infinitely close to Transcendence, merely constrained by the suppression of Heaven and Earth, so that she had not taken that final step.

If she was like this, then who knew what state that fortunate World Venerable who had entered the Buddha Country was in now...

After seeing with his own eyes the Heavenly Court’s incense‑based Divine Dao System, that World Venerable’s current exclusive share of one‑tenth of the incense already made Luo Xuan so envious he could hardly bear it; he did not even dare to imagine the future exclusive share of three‑tenths!

As his thoughts flowed, Luo Xuan bowed his head and said:

"In reply to Your Majesty, the Star Lord sends word: in these past few years, the incense transmitted from the Buddhist side amounts to only eighty percent of the total. He asks that Your Majesty personally contact that Buddha Master..."

"In addition, with the all‑out offensive imminent, the Star Lord is confident of smashing in one stroke the faith in resistance held by the various Gates of the Sea of Realms. But besides the normal ninety percent incense due, he also requires an extra final ten percent; in this way, within merely a hundred years, the Star Lord is confident he can let the Heavenly Court once more ascend to the peak of the Sea of Realms!"