Qin Wentian had stepped into that level. Surpassing immortal emperors, entering the Empyrean Realm.
"How terrifying." Someone felt his heart shuddering. Murong Xiaoxiao and the rest also stared in shock at Qin Wentian. Tens of years ago, he was merely a mid-stage immortal emperor at the grand banquet of the Lifelong Realm. He only took such a short period of time to reach the peak-stage and now, had even entered that realm where countless people aspired to.
As for that madman, he actually spent a thousand years here before he broke through. From this, one could see how terrifying the disparity was between them.
"This is comprehension ability. Maybe, although he was in the mid-stage of the immortal emperor realm, his comprehension over his laws had already exceeded many peak-stage immortal emperors or even surpassing supreme-level immortal emperors like Shan Lengqiu."
Those years ago when the two of them discussed the Dao, it was evident that Qin Wentian's understanding of sword laws was indeed deeper than Shan Lengqiu.
"Congratulations senior." Yi Qing spoke. Right now, he no longer referred to Qin Wentian as Brother Qin and called him senior instead. In the cultivation world, the strong would always reign supreme and strength would determine one's status. As for their age, it was impossible to tell just by looking at the cultivator's appearance and in addition, it didn't mean that because you are older than me, I should respect you. For example, there should be some old fellows in the Lifelong Realm who had cultivated longer than the Realmlord. Could it be that the Lifelong Realmlord still had to call them seniors?
Unless the older ones are seniors of one's clan or sect, or someone you respect a lot, there wouldn't be such a case.
An example was that if Qin Wentian met some older people with a lower cultivation base than him but he respected them, he would still refer to them as seniors. But to strangers, this was naturally not applicable. Strength was the determinant.
"There are different opinions about the Dao. Only those who eventually enter the Empyrean Realm can be considered extraordinary." Someone sighed with admiration.
"I've heard in the past that when one reached the peak-stage of the immortal emperor realm, their cultivation base is already at the great circle and their laws should be solid enough. If they wanted to take the next step, it isn't as simple as absorbing more energy. They had to break through by pure comprehension. Some people can comprehend that in a day, but there were also many who were stuck at the bottleneck for the rest of their lives. Now that senior has broken through to the empyrean realm, this point is truly proven."
"That's right. Senior Qin's cultivation base was already at the great circle of the immortal emperor realm before this. Right now, based on his supreme comprehension abilities, he managed to take the next step within just mere tens of years. We are all extremely impressed." The attitude of everyone was completely different from the past. Tens of years ago, they felt gratitude to Qin Wentian for saving their lives and were already filled with respect with regards to his combat prowess. But now, they treated Qin Wentian as a senior of the empyrean realm. In their eyes, the reverence within was true respect for a higher existence. After taking that step, Qin Wentian had successfully crossed the gap, he had became someone that was a different level from them.
Although Qin Wentian had now only gained comprehension over the source origin of a single law attribute, but given his extraordinary talent and comprehension abilities and the fact that he used a mere tens of years to take the first step, it was a given that he would soon be able to quickly comprehend the source origins of his other laws. The first step was always the hardest. In the future, he would definitely become a character that was equal to the palace lords of the nine world palaces. Characters at that level were all lofty individuals. Their respect for Qin Wentian was only natural.
Only Shan Lengqiu had a heavy look on his face. His heart was filled with misery. He had been cultivating here and hoping he would break through one day. However, in a mere tens of years, which was an extremely short period of time to experts like them, he still had comprehended nothing while Qin Wentian already broke through. When he thought of this, his pride felt incomparably suppressed.
However, this was merely Shan Lengqiu's feeling. Qin Wentian didn't even glance at him. He who was standing in the center of the storm nodded his head lightly at everyone. After that, his figure flashed, transforming into a beam of sword light and left here directly.
Upon seeing Qin Wentian departing, everyone felt a sense of disappointment and frustration and the state of their hearts couldn't calm down even after a long time. Qin Wentian was too terrifying, he only took such a short period of time to enter the empyrean realm. It was still understandable if Qin Wentian had been comprehending the sword laws for countless years, but everyone knew that just a mere tens of years ago, he was only at the mid-stage of the immortal emperor realm.
However, Qin Wentian naturally wouldn't care about what these people were thinking. He soared through space quickly and not long after, he came to a fire mountain. This fire mountain's atmosphere was extremely scorching. That was a blood-colored redness in the center of the fire mountain, exceedingly vibrant, causing people's heart to shudder as they looked at it.
Qin Wentian used his sword intent to cover his body. His sword intent was like an armor, protecting his body. He stepped out and entered the fire mountain, coming to the central core of it. Over there, rocks of a brilliant red could be seen and a reddish gas was emitted from them. There were no other existences here, only the fire existed.
Qin Wentian controlled his sword intent to scoop up some rocks before tossing them back down. He knew that these terrifying rocks that contained fiery destructive properties were unable to be contained inside an interspatial ring, there was no way for him to bring them away as they would melt the space within any storage items. Only empyrean-ranked treasures would be able to contain them.
Qin Wentian roamed here for several days before transforming into a beam of light and departing. He continued to roam the Taotie Mine. He originally came here for the sake of his cultivation and not for mining. Hence, he didn't feel any need to excavate anything.
Time continued to flow. Qin Wentian ignored all external matters, pushing them to the back of his mind. The news brought to him by Beiming Youhuang had provoked him. But he knew that without strength, he was helpless to change anything.
...
During these years where Qin Wentian had disappeared, many things happened to the Lifire Palace everyday. But the most major thing that had happened within these years was still the death of the Jialan Monarch. There were still no clues as to who that bandit head was. The Lifire Empyrean was still enraged and continued to use heavy benefits to tempt more bandits to surrender for the sake of gaining information.
In addition, there actually was a greedy individual who came to the Lifire Empyrean during these years. This man was none other than one of the bandits back then. He was from Heavenly City and had provided a sketch of the bandit head's features using his immortal sense. However, nobody recognized the bandit head. Zhuge Xiong began to suspect that the bandit head must have disguised his features and none of the other bandits knew a thing about him or each other. There basically weren't any clues for him to investigate further.
Zhuge Xiong finally understood it was useless to tempt the bandits.
Hence, that immortal king expert who surrendered, just as he was still fantasizing about the good life he would have, he was brought away to some other areas and killed the instant he exited Lifire City. The cultivation resources and rewards he obtained were naturally completely taken back as well.
Luckily none of the other bandits were tempted by their greed or they would have suffered the same fate.
In the Lifire Palace, Zhuge Xiong was making a report to the Lifire Empyrean.
"It has been so many years. Is there no news about Jialan Monarch's death at all?" The Lifire Empyrean's tone sounded unhappy.
"Reporting to palace lord. The bandit head had only appeared once and I found out that the bandits all had no idea about the identities of each other. That bandit head who killed the Jialan Monarch is a very intelligent man. I suspect that he disguised his features when he met with the other bandits. There are no clues for us to follow, and there's only a single point that I find slightly more suspicious." Zhuge Xiong continued.
"What point?" The Lifire Empyrean asked. The Jialan Clan had made a huge fuss about this matter to the upper echelons. Right now, the Lifelong Saint Hall already knew about this and had questioned him through his messaging crystal, causing the Lifire Empyrean to be extremely unhappy.
"The gathering of bandits seemed to have started from Heavenly City. And Heavenly City is none other than the place where Ye Qianyu's Thousand Feather Palace was located." Zhuge Xiong spoke.
The Lifire Empyrean's eyes flashed with a terrifying sharpness. "You are suspecting Qin Wentian?"
"Without enough proof, this subordinate dares not suspect anyone recklessly." Zhuge Xiong lowered his head. Right now, Qin Wentian was different from the past, he was no longer the Qin Wentian who had just became the northern governor.
"Zhuge Xiong, you have followed me for all these years and I've allowed you to manage and control everything in Lifire City. This seat has always trusted in your intelligence. Just speak without worries, regardless of who it may implicate." The Lifire Empyrean spoke. This Zhuge Xiong was someone extremely intelligent, he can be considered the Lifire Empyrean's advisor. Hence, he had the position of the grand governor.
"Palace lord, since this is the case, this subordinate will say this. From my investigations of Governor Qin, I know that he is capable of disguising his features and knew of many such techniques. Back then in Heavenly City, he appeared before with a different face." Zhuge Xiong continued, "In addition, after the Jialan Monarch had died, all of our suspicions were cast on him. But there's no doubt that he being the killer has the highest possibility."
"But everyone in the northern governor's manor can be his alibi. It's impossible for this matter to be wrong." The Lifire Empyrean was certain.
"This is what this subordinate wants to talk about. What sort of character is Governor Qin? Does he need to inform anything to his subordinates when he leaves his governor's manor? Usually, who in his manor would dare to disturb him? Although his actions looked casual that day, I feel that he did this intentionally. The timing is just too coincidental." Zhuge Xiong frowned.
"Also, there's another very important point. Since Qin Wentian knows the art of disguise, can there not be other cultivators who also know the art, disguising themselves with Qin Wentian's appearance?" Zhuge Xiong spoke,
The eyes of the Lifire Empyrean flashed after he heard this. He fell silent and eventually still shook his head. "Being able to walk out from the governor's manor so openly...it would be too risky if he cooperated with someone else. Who would have the guts to work with Qin Wentian to fool me? I doubt this is possible."
"Palace lord is truly intelligent. This subordinate feels this way as well, this doesn't seem to be too possible, right?" Zhuge Xiong spoke. The Lifire Empyrean glanced at him, "Since you said that you feel it's impossible too, why are you telling me this?"
"Because, your subordinate has another more audacious conjecture." Zhuge Xiong spoke.
"What is it?" The Lifire Empyrean asked.
"Qin Wentian might have cultivated some sort of cloning or avatar creation technique. This technique should be a supreme-level one, capable of emulating his true-self aura temporarily." Zhuge Xiong replied. Instantly, the Lifire Empyrean's eyes flashed with lightning.
Zhuge Xiong's words seemed to have lit up something in his mind. He soon understood what Zhuge Xiong was implying and he felt that this was highly possible and might really be the truth!
Upon thinking of this, the Lifire Empyrean's eyes narrowed, flickering with a hint of killing intent!