I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 529: The Whereabouts of the Flame Emperor
After Wang Lan returned to his home in the Imperial Capital and rested for a while to recover his spent spiritual power, a system notification suddenly sounded: "Assisting in the annihilation of the Demon Clan’s army of 300,000, reward: 40,000,000 experience points, 5,000,000 skill points!"
Wang Lan, who had dropped the Time-Space Gemstone and fled, arrived home completely exhausted. Previously, he had forced his spiritual power to perform dozens of instant teleportations. A single teleportation might not feel like much, but the fatigue piled up after dozens of them, and even a body of iron couldn’t withstand it.
So upon returning home, the moment his mental focus relaxed, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion swept over him like a flash flood. Instantly, Wang Lan knew nothing more. It took him a full hour to slowly come to his senses.
After he had recovered a little from his exhaustion, the prompts in his mind began to sound.
Having previously suppressed a beast tide and a descent of the Demon Clan’s army, Wang Lan’s experience bar for Star Sea One was nearly full. Suddenly, the addition of 40,000,000 experience points instantly leveled him up.
After reaching Star Sea Two, not even a second later, the experience bar for Star Sea Two was filled once again. Instantly, Wang Lan completed a two-tier jump from Star Sea One to Star Sea Three.
Although these were all in the early stages of the Star Sea Realm, his realm had grown much more profound. If my previous Star Sea Realm had seemed somewhat immature, now it’s brimming with vitality.
What truly delighted Wang Lan, though, were those millions of skill points. Skill points are now the only constraint binding my growth, especially the diamond-level skills, which devour skill points like beasts.
But diamond-level skills are good indeed. Unlike other skills, where progression in the same realm only mildly increases proficiency and casting speed with no significant power improvement, diamond-level skills are all cultivation technique-level. Upgrading these has very obvious progressive benefits; even a minor rank increase results in a noticeable power boost.
Ascending Sunlight Sword Skill to diamond nine consumed 3,000,000 skill points. This was from an upgrade starting at diamond six. Then he improved the Phoenix Form. Even though he knew the Phoenix Form would eventually reach its peak at the Blue Diamond level, he still chose Phoenix Form.
Wang Lan had thoroughly mastered Phoenix Form, so he also understood there was one ultimate secret technique within it: Phoenix Transformation! This allowed him to truly transform into the divine beast Phoenix and possess combat power that surpassed the Star Soul Realm for a short duration.
In theory, Dragon Emperor Form also has the final move, Dragon Transformation, but since Qing Emperor hasn’t cultivated the original version of Dragon Emperor Form, Dragon Transformation has never emerged. Perhaps in the future, Yu Ruoyun can bring Dragon Transformation back into the world.
Though Infinite Fire Skill is powerful, since its skill points can be increased through cultivation, I’m not eager to push it to its peak.
As for attribute-based Star Martial Skills, having obtained the Five-colored Phoenix Form, Wang Lan had already integrated all the attribute-based Star Martial Skills he had mastered into the Five-colored Phoenix. And for non-attribute-based Star Martial Skills, Wang Lan had also integrated them into the Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious Form.
It could be said that Wang Lan had etched and compressed his Star Martial Skills onto two discs, which he then loaded onto the Dragon Emperor Form and the Five-colored Phoenix Form. In my world, there’s no room for wastefulness.
Feeling his strength soar once again and his combat abilities at their peak, Wang Lan finally made a phone call to Number One. Number One told him the nuclear strike had been highly successful and ordered Wang Lan to head to the Forbidden City immediately.
Upon arrival at the Forbidden City and under the escort of bodyguards, he was led to the international conference room where Number One was located. At that moment, leaders from various nations stood up straight, watching anxiously as the Space Gate on the satellite feed slowly closed.
It wasn’t until the Space Gate had completely shut that a wave of enthusiastic cheers erupted in the conference room. When people are in a state of extreme excitement, they don’t care about their status.
The leaders of some of the world’s most powerful countries were present in the room—they were recklessly tossing documents into the air, joyously dancing on the desks. It was a veritable frenzy.
If this scene was captured, the citizens of their countries would probably go mad. Is this really the solemn and devout leadership we elected with our votes?
Of course, the excitement was short-lived. As leaders, they were able to control their emotions in the shortest possible time. The closure of the Space Gate signaled that humanity had secured a true victory.
For the first time, they had stopped the Demon Clan’s army outside the human world. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Once the video conference ended, connections from various countries were severed as each went back to announce the good news to their citizens and to celebrate properly. The media hurried to prepare news bulletins, as tonight was bound to be a nationwide festivity.
Wang Lan quietly watched this scene, his gaze curiously settling on the four men standing next to Number One. Apart from the already familiar Qing Emperor, he had never seen the other three men, but Wang Lan could confidently identify them.
That rugged-looking old man with a thick white beard must be the Western White Emperor. Emperor Bai has trained his physical body to the ultimate peak and is a master of Thunder Attribute law. Before Emperor Bai attained the title of one of the Five Emperors, his epithet was Thor.
The handsome older man with a sleek back hairstyle and captivating deep eyes must be the Northern Nether Emperor. Nobody knows what Ming Emperor excels at because he never likes to team up for missions, and the ones he undertakes are always highly classified. Thus, among the Five Emperors, Ming Emperor is the most mysterious and unfathomable.
Qing Emperor Yu Qing, whom I know well, stands beside a plain-looking yet exceptionally tall and burly old man, who is likely the Xuan Emperor. Around the same age as Emperor Bai but appearing much younger.
In front of me is Jade Country’s mightiest ensemble—aged and worn.
The Qing Emperor was over 50, the youngest of the group. Ming Emperor was 63, while both Emperor Bai and Xuan Emperor were nearing 70. Among ordinary people, one could retire at 65, but the Star Martial Warrior world had no such concept. As long as you could still fight, even if you were over a hundred years old like Eld Di, you had to continue toiling at your post.
Of the Five Emperors, only four remain. Where is the Flame Emperor?
Even if Wang Ling were here, she’s already 48 years old. No matter how you look at it, it’s a gathering of the setting sun.
Number One smiled and bid farewell to the leaders before turning his head to see Wang Lan stealing glances at the Four Emperors, a kind smile spreading across his face.
"I won’t introduce you to each other, as I believe you all know one another. With such a major event occurring in Jade Country, I asked the four of them to assemble by my side as a precaution against unexpected incidents."
"Fortunately, no unexpected incidents occurred; we succeeded in annihilating all of the incoming Demon Clan army and also successfully held out until the Portal of the Demon World closed."
"Number One," the Xuan Emperor said, voicing his grave concerns, "though the Portal of the Demon World is closed now, there’s no guarantee there won’t be a second time. Not only do we possess the Time-Space Gemstone in our realm, but it appears the Demon Clan also has the capability to directly breach the passage here."
"Yes, it’s foreseeable that the arrival of the Demon Clan’s army is only a matter of time. However, we have at least successfully thwarted a descent of the Demon World, haven’t we? This is already a tremendous success."
"Throughout the long history of humanity, the Demon World has descended upon Sky Blue Star countless times. However, there has never been a record of us successfully intercepting and keeping them out, so we should be pleased. Likewise, the eventuality that the Demon Clan lands successfully and engages in another century war with our human race is within our expectations."
Number One’s words left everyone silent. Yet, at this moment, Wang Lan hesitated several times, wanting to speak but holding back.
Seemingly catching Wang Lan’s microexpression, Number One looked at him with a sly smile. "Greedy Wolf Crown," he said, "it seems you have something to say."
"This... I’m sorry, Your Excellency Number One, it’s just that I’m somewhat moved by the assemblage of the Five Emperors, yet one is absent."
"You’ve matured a bit. If it were the former you, you would probably have directly asked me about your mother’s whereabouts, what mission she was on, and why she still hasn’t shown up even when the world is on the verge of destruction, right?"
"Perhaps it’s because of the many experiences I’ve had; I’m able to see things more clearly and accept them. Even someone like me, who considers himself protected by great fortune, has come close to death several times. As I see it, the great figures like yourselves must have danced on the edge of life and death many times to stand here, right?"
"If you dance on graves too often, one day you might accidentally step into one. I just want to say, I’m not as naive as I was before, nor am I so fragile that I cannot accept reality."
"For one man’s glory, a thousand bones wither; life and death are fated, fortune and disaster lie with the heavens."
"Years ago, Eld Di told me that once my strength reached the pinnacle of the Star Sea Realm, once I received a title, and once I grew into a true powerhouse capable of shouldering great responsibilities, he would tell me of my mother’s whereabouts."
"I feel that now... I should have the ability and the qualifications."
Since Number One had already brought it up, Wang Lan didn’t plan to wait until he returned to find Eld Di. All five people present knew the truth, so there was no need to hide it any longer.
"You indeed have the qualifications!" Number One nodded in agreement. "With your rate of growth, you won’t need three years to reach the heights your mother did. When she was among the Five Emperors, she was, what... 28 years old? It’s been decades; I hardly remember."
"Indeed, she was 28," Qing Emperor nodded. He remembered it the clearest. Having been almost killed by her back then—how could he not?
"You’re only 20 years old... truly impressive. Your mother’s mission... we have to go back 10 years. By now, you must already know about the ancient cultivation civilization, right?"
"I know! Thousands of years ago, the cultivation civilization was very prosperous and powerful. But it completely vanished due to the Demon Clan’s successive invasions, which shattered it time and again."
"However, from the intelligence analysis at the national level, the collapse of the ancient cultivation civilization is far from as simple as imagined. The repeated invasions by the Demon Clan are one aspect, while the proactive withdrawal of the ancient cultivation civilization is another."
"Proactive withdrawal?" Wang Lan repeated, his expression changing. "Did the ancient cultivation civilization abandon humanity? Did they flee?"
"We better not jump to conclusions about the hidden circumstances, but one thing is for certain: the timing of the ancient cultivation civilization’s withdrawal is related to the destruction of the Western Heaven."
"Ten thousand years ago, Western Heaven was destroyed. It was from then that the Eastern cultivation civilization underwent massive changes. The most notable of these was the separation of the Three Realms and the establishment of Heaven’s Realm."
"Before the destruction of Western Heaven, Eastern mythology spoke of humans and gods living together, with many tribal high priests, or the chieftains themselves, being gods. And the gods of ancient times, in some sense, were just powerful cultivators..."
