The Truth

Chapter 136 The Truth

Cangmao glanced at Fang Ping and muttered, "Liar, he's cursing me in his mind again."

Fang Ping's thoughts vanished instantly; he had forgotten that the fat cat would hear him if he spoke ill of it.

Who is this Richard? Cangmao didn't say which emperor he was titled, so he shouldn't be one of the Nine Emperors and Four Sovereigns.

Was it some relatively unknown but powerful figure from ancient times?

Being able to stand alongside the Spirit Emperor, one must be quite powerful, right?

Fang Ping was using some kind of technique to think about it in his mind.

He dared not have any strong thoughts. These emperors were truly powerful. Even though he barely had the combat strength of an emperor, they could still easily sense his thoughts.

The difference in strength is just too great.

Back when he was just a low-ranking martial artist, his thoughts could be sensed by high-ranking grandmasters because his mental energy was not refined enough.

Later, when he reached the third rank, his spiritual power became more refined, and he learned some minor techniques. The grandmasters could no longer sense him, but he could not hide it from the peak of the sect.

In other words, to perceive one's own thoughts, one's mental strength must be at least two major realms higher than one's own—at least.

If someone is one realm higher, they can easily kill him. If someone is two realms higher, wouldn't they be able to slap him to death?

Fang Ping dared not think too much about it, for fear that if he tried to force the thought, it would be sensed again.

Of course, the Emperor-level strength he mentioned here is not the strength of the four Supreme Heavenly Emperors, but the strength of the sect leaders in the medieval period, the sect era. This kind of strength is enough to be granted the title of Emperor with two titles.

In ancient times, this realm was also called a titled True God. The pinnacle above the ninth rank was also called a True God. A titled True God is the next realm after a True God.

Above that is the Saint-level strength, from the ancient Heavenly Court era when nine emperors and four kings coexisted, which appointed three envoys, eight kings, and thirty-six saints.

The name "Saint-level" comes from this. They are stronger than Emperor-level, but have not reached the level of Breaking the Six Heavenly Kings. Instead, they are in the transitional stage between Emperor-level and Heavenly King-level.

At this stage, the strength has not undergone a qualitative change. A Saint-level being can easily suppress an Emperor-level being, but two or three Emperor-level beings working together can contend with a Saint-level being, or even suppress them.

Strictly speaking, the next critical juncture is breaking through the Six Heavenly Kings.

Of course, for Fang Ping, those things weren't really that far off. His advancement speed was among the top in all the worlds.

He reached the fourth rank in one year, the eighth rank in two years, and the grand finale in three years. In the later stages, his strength was like a three-level leap, directly undergoing multiple qualitative changes, allowing his strength to quickly jump to the level of an emperor.

It can only be said that the contingency plan left to him by the War Emperor was indeed unfathomable.

"What brings you two seniors to our mortal realm?" Fang Ping asked the question that was of most concern to him first.

"Don't worry, we're only here for the Azure Cat, and we have no ill intentions towards the human world." The Spirit Emperor didn't answer Fang Ping's question, but Richard, who was standing to the side, explained it to him.

Richard had a good impression of this group of unyielding new warriors, so he didn't mind wasting his breath exchanging a few words with them.

The Spirit Emperor was quite arrogant, and it was impossible to get her to explain these things on her own initiative, even if she knew that Fang Ping was the future Human King and that his strength would even be greater than that of the Heavenly Emperor at his peak.

Otherwise, in the original story, he wouldn't have preferred to die at Fang Ping's hands rather than utter a single soft word.

With Cangmao's connection, how difficult would it be for Fang Ping to let her go? But she refused.

While one aspect was to feign loyalty to deceive the Heavenly Emperor, the other was because she was truly arrogant.

"I see. I have many questions about the ancient times. Could you please help me answer them?" Fang Ping didn't dwell on the question but instead changed the subject to focus on the ancient times.

Regardless of why the Spirit Emperor and this senior came to the mortal realm, they couldn't stop them; they didn't have the power.

All the experts have gone to the fake Heavenly Tomb. The human realm is now utterly powerless to stop these two.

By the way, the fake Heavenly Tomb was actually created by using the Linghuang Palace as a gimmick to lure in experts from all sides.

Now that the Spirit Emperor was right before him, Fang Ping felt a chill run down his spine. If the Spirit Emperor found out what they had done, he would probably beat them to death.

Of course, Fang Ping was thick-skinned, and no one could tell from his expression that anything was wrong.

Fang Ping was unaware that the Spirit Emperor already knew about this matter. Having read the original storyline, she naturally knew about the fake Heavenly Tomb incident.

Knowing that the martial artist from the human realm used her former palace as bait to lure experts from other factions into the fake Heavenly Tomb, thus buying more time for the martial artist from the human realm to develop.

"Ask away. I can't guarantee I'll know everything, but I can tell you what I do know," Richard said.

Now that the Heavenly Emperor is gone ahead of schedule and the Spirit Emperor has also escaped, other emperors will likely emerge from the Origin Land in the future. The so-called plot has been completely distorted and has no reference value whatsoever.

It's uncertain whether Fang Ping can rise to power smoothly under these circumstances, but Richard doesn't mind letting them know more information.

Otherwise, the lack of information could lead to significant losses.

Why did the nine emperors and four sovereigns of ancient times vanish overnight, and why did the Heavenly Court collapse overnight? Where did these emperors go?

This was what Fang Ping most wanted to know. Everyone behind him pricked up their ears to listen; this was a closely guarded secret from ancient times. Who wouldn't be curious?

Originally, it was thought that some great upheaval had caused the emperors to fall. For tens of thousands of years, many powerful people had guessed this, so the new martial artist also thought so.

But now that the Spirit Emperor has appeared, it proves that this guess was wrong. So there must be other reasons.

"Because there is a problem with the original path, the source of the original path's core has a loophole that is getting bigger and bigger and urgently needs to be solved."

If all these powerful individuals were selfless and worked together, it might be possible to solve the problem of the Origin Path. Thus, the Immortal Origin Project came about, initially designed to address the loopholes in the Origin Path.

However, everyone has selfish motives, and the emperors are no exception. Each of them had their own calculations, which caused problems to arise in the Immortal Origin Project.

The final result was that the three selfless Supreme Heavenly Emperors—War, Annihilation, and Hegemon—died in battle. The remaining emperors barely managed to fill the huge crater in the Origin Land with the Dao Fruits of the three of them.

But that wasn't enough, so the emperors, carrying the Dao Fruits, suppressed the source land, preventing it from emerging, a situation that continues to this day.

Richard glanced at Wang Jinyang, Li Hansong, and Yao Chengjun behind Fang Ping; they were the reincarnations of the three Supreme Heavenly Emperors.

"So they really are the reincarnations of three supreme heavenly emperors?" Fang Ping also looked at the three of them.

Wang Jinyang and Yao Chengjun remained calm, showing no emotion whatsoever at the thought of their extraordinary past lives. Li Hansong, this simpleton, had already been fooled by Fang Ping and firmly believed in his own remarkable origins in his past life.

"Yes," Richard said affirmatively.

"What if—"

Before Fang Ping could finish speaking his concerns, Richard interrupted him.

"The three supreme emperors had no intention of being resurrected through reincarnation. They would not stoop to such a thing."

Therefore, in this life they are simply themselves, with no further connection to the Supreme Heavenly Emperor of their previous lives.

"The one the three Supreme Heavenly Emperors truly chose is you."

Fang Ping was worried that the three Supreme Heavenly Emperors would resurrect them in their three bodies. He was overthinking it. The three of them never thought about being resurrected. They had placed all their hopes on Fang Ping.

To be precise, it was the War Emperor who chose Fang Ping, while the Destroyer Emperor and the Overlord Emperor simply trusted the War Emperor.

"Me?" Fang Ping was surprised.

"Of course, haven't you always suspected that your cheat system has a conspiracy? Suspected that one day when you grow to a certain level, you will be harvested by the mastermind behind the scenes."

Actually, you can use it without worry. There's no hidden hand behind it; it was given to you by the War Emperor. The energy you're using didn't come from nowhere, nor is it inexhaustible; it's the legacy of the three Supreme Emperors.

Richard didn't care whether Fang Ping could accept it or not, and dropped a bombshell.

Fang Ping's pupils contracted upon hearing this, and his face changed drastically. He almost couldn't resist turning around and running away.

The cheat software has been discovered?

Will I be arrested and dissected?

However, the people behind him didn't react at all to Richard's words. All of them who were close to Fang Ping knew that this guy had something going on.

This guy has a secret, a big secret.

But no one ever investigated it further, and everyone tacitly avoided mentioning it. They even took the initiative to protect him when he was weak.

Fang Ping was arrogant back then, and his secret was exposed very early on. At that time, he was only spared from being taken to the research institute because of the protection of his teachers at the school.

This is the new martial art; as long as you care about the human race, you don't need to delve into these details.

Even the biggest secrets can be accommodated.

Later, this guy became increasingly troublesome, and seeing that the school could barely protect him, he hooked up with Zhang Tao. There's nothing wrong with that; as the Minister of Education, isn't it only natural for Zhang Tao to protect Wuhan University students?

Although Lao Zhang often rips off his resources, he's never been one to back down. When trouble comes, he's truly there for the taking; to clean up Fang Ping's mess, he bravely faced off against countless True Kings in the Underground Cave.

Fang Ping has grown up under the protection of his predecessors all along.

Now that he has grown up, he also protects the entire human race.

This is the spirit of passing on the torch among the new generation of martial artists.

"Senior is joking, I don't have any cheat codes," Fang Pingqian laughed. He absolutely couldn't accept that as a joke; what if this senior was trying to trick him?

"Hmm, you don't. Let's continue with the whereabouts of the remaining emperors."

Richard didn't want his cheat code; he could easily create such a rudimentary one himself.

However, it's not practical in the Panlong world, where the focus is on comprehending the laws, and energy is never in short supply.

"Alright, alright, please continue, senior." Fang Ping couldn't wait for him to change the subject.

However, he now sensed that this senior was indeed very friendly, at least not to him or the new martial artists. He might even have felt quite favorable towards him for some reason.

"As for the whereabouts of the emperors, they are above the Immortal Source. That is, on the big light bulb in the underground cave. The vast majority of emperors are up there, except for one Earth Emperor who escaped before."

Now that the Spirit Emperor has emerged, it's estimated that another Emperor will appear soon.

Richard reveals the answer directly.

This world was originally divided into three realms: Heaven, Earth, and Man. However, the Heavenly Realm was destroyed in the ancient Heavenly Court Fall War, leaving only fragments of the Heavenly Tomb.

The territory is what martial artists in the human world now call the underground caves, including the 108 outer domains bordering the human world, the central domain, the King's War domain, and a large area submerged by the forbidden sea.

The underground cave was originally without the sun and should have been perpetually dark.

The Immortal Source Project essentially created an artificial sun on Earth—this is the Immortal Source. It's a colossal energy stone that continuously radiates energy, making it one of the Earth's primary energy sources.

"So that's how it is. So all those emperors are on the sun in the underground cave. Does that mean we've been under their noses all along?"

Fang Ping suddenly had an idea.

"That's pretty much it," Richard affirmed.

"Then why don't they come out and stop it? Since the fall of the ancient Heavenly Court, the tens of thousands of years of war have ultimately been caused by the disappearance of the emperors, haven't they?" Fang Ping asked.

"Why stop them? This is their own business. They want to cultivate more potential emperors. How can warriors improve without fighting?" Richard retorted.

"Why do they need so many royal seeds? Are they so kind as to care about the martial arts path of the younger generation? Didn't you say that those royals are too selfish?" Fang Ping asked, puzzled.

"Of course, new emperors are needed to fill the gaps. Didn't I already tell you? The Origin Path has a problem."

Although the Dao Fruits of three Supreme Heavenly Emperors were added to alleviate the problem, and the emperors suppressed it, the Origin Dao has been able to persist until now, but the problem has never been solved.

"Without new Emperor-level Dao Fruits being added, how will those Emperors emerge?"

Richard calmly revealed this terrifying truth: the Three Realms are now a breeding ground for the emperors, and the victorious Gu Kings will be used by the older generation of emperors to fill the pits.

This is the ultimate truth of the Three Realms. All the conspiracies, schemes, and power struggles below are for this ultimate goal.

Of course, the emperors are also scheming against each other. If not enough new emperors are eventually born, they will use each other to fill the gaps.

The Heavenly Emperor was even more ruthless; he wanted to use everyone to fill the hole.

Fang Ping and the new martial artists behind him were stunned. This was the Emperor? So ruthless? Compared to the machinations of these Emperors, the new martial artists' fate was not surprising.

They finally understood why the human realm had become the target of the underground warriors—it was all to cultivate powerful beings and to raise the Gu poison. All their schemes were for this goal.

Fang Ping originally had many questions he wanted to ask, but now he felt that none of them seemed important anymore.

Once the emperors' goals are clear, all other issues become trivial.