Chapter 521
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: The Five-Thousand-Year Secret
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Ever since Lu Yang had enacted the false court system and seized control of Jiangdong, the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord knew that the time for reversing the Earth position was drawing ever closer.
But he had also pinpointed the crucial detail.
‘They call it reversing the Earth position, but there’s a hard condition attached. He must first seek the Metal position—or do so immediately after the reversal.’
Because once the Earth position was reversed, Chongguang would undoubtedly begin seeking validation of the Metal position without delay.
In that scenario, if Lu Yang ascended and sought Metal at the same time, Chongguang would become his staunchest ally, leading to a win-win for all.
But what if Lu Yang couldn’t seek Metal at that moment?
If that happened, Chongguang would become a True Lord while he didn’t. The situation would flip entirely—who knew if Chongguang, elevated to True Lord, might turn hostile?
Unless Lu Yang was willing to trust the character of a Primal Saint Sect True Person.
Otherwise, he absolutely could not allow Chongguang to seek Metal first. Ideally, he would seek it himself before helping Chongguang—or at the very least, they would do so simultaneously.
With that in mind, the answer was crystal clear:
‘As long as I can stop this demon dragon from seeking Metal and sever his path, then Covered Lamp Fire faces no real threat. Dealing with the aftermath would be far easier.’
In the worst case, even if the Earth position was still reversed and Chongguang validated Covered Lamp Fire, as long as Lu Yang hadn’t validated Heavenly Upper Fire—leaving one supreme position unclaimed—it would mean one fewer major foe. Once the True Lords emerged, he could simply scheme anew.
The idea was sound. But how to pull it off?
He couldn’t deny that Lu Yang had him pegged precisely. The Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord truly had little strength left to interfere in the mortal world.
So he would have to borrow external power.
With that thought, the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord turned toward Mu Changsheng, mouth opening to say something.
But the next instant, a thunderous boom echoed—
“Bang!”
Xiao Shiye exploded.
More precisely, the false body of Xiao Shiye that Lu Yang had forged with his position authority detonated the moment the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord was about to speak. He decisively severed the connection.
The reason was simple:
‘My instincts are screaming—something’s off!’
‘The Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord... that old beast is definitely up to something!’
Lu Yang pinched a hand seal. Radiant splendor from the Coiling Dragon Root flowed over his fingertips, dispelling evils and warding off calamities, amplified by the profound fortune-sensing of Affairs of Rise and Fall.
Together, they heightened his sensitivity to danger to an extreme degree.
In the past, the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord could have obscured his senses with Knowledge Obstruction. But now, he no longer had that capability.
Thus, the instant he sensed peril, Lu Yang cut off observation of the Refining Law Secret Realm without hesitation—even with String-Controlled Puppet as backup. After all, his opponent was the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord. No amount of caution was excessive.
With that in mind, Lu Yang’s intent shifted slightly:
“Boom!”
Immortal Kingdom Dao Regulations crashed down, enveloping him securely at the center. As Xiao the Empress had said, this would shield his soul and divine sense from interference.
Only after that did Lu Yang nervously peek out, scanning his surroundings.
Where was the danger?
His fingers nearly sparked from friction as divine abilities flared in multicolored bursts, attempting to divine the threat’s source.
But the next moment, his expression changed drastically:
‘No... damn it, I shouldn’t have tried to calculate that!’
Too late. In the instant the thought formed, a flood of information surged through the web of causality, easily divined by Lu Yang!
The counteruse of the Dao of Karma!
Lu Yang instantly grasped the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord’s ploy: ordinary folk went to extremes to conceal heavenly secrets and sever causality, but he did the opposite.
He didn’t hide the karma—he offered it up freely.
Caught off guard, by the time Lu Yang realized, he had already divined the antecedents and consequences. Unease surged in his heart, yet so did confusion:
‘What the hell is he after?’
The Dao of Karma was formidable, but it lacked direct lethality. Even if he’d fallen for it, the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord couldn’t kill him across the void with it.
In other words: how exactly did he plan to win?
As Lu Yang pondered, the antecedents and consequences he’d just divined crystallized in his mind—revealing a simple exchange.
Between the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord and Mu Changsheng, just a few lines.
The Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord spoke first:
“Innate Dao Friend, speaking of which, you’ve been trapped in this Refining Law Secret Realm for... oh, going on five thousand years now, haven’t you?”
Mu Changsheng responded with puzzled questioning:
“Five thousand years?”
“What are you talking about? After my consciousness returned to my soul, I checked. It’s been trapped here for at most a thousand years or so...”
—What?
In that instant, Lu Yang was utterly baffled.
He couldn’t fathom what this dialogue meant or why it was the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord’s weapon against him—the danger he’d sensed.
What was wrong with this information?
‘Wait... I remember Mu Changsheng rose to prominence in that great calamity five thousand years ago. He vanished afterward, and his soul was seized by the Primal Saint Sect’s founding ancestor.’
Hm? Something didn’t add up.
Five lifetimes of Foundation Establishment amounted to about fifteen hundred years of lifespan. If Mu Changsheng rose five thousand years ago, he must have sought Metal no later than thirty-five hundred years prior.
He failed, and his soul was captured.
By that timeline, his soul should have been imprisoned in the Refining Law Secret Realm for at least three thousand years! How could it be a mere thousand?
The realization struck Lu Yang like enlightenment.
The moment he spotted the timeline inconsistency, it was as if he’d grasped a key, unlocking another sealed memory vault in his mind.
‘Clear and Pure Flying Snow True Lord... she’s off too!’
‘From what I know, she also rose five thousand years ago, just like Mu Changsheng. So she became a True Lord no later than thirty-five hundred years ago.’
‘Yet a century after achieving True Lord status, she clashed with the previous generation’s Dao Court Grand Preceptor.’
‘In other words, that battle happened at least three thousand years ago. But when the great war ended, the previous Grand Preceptor was liquidated by Emperor Jiayou.’
Here was the crux:
‘The Dao Court’s Heavenly Sovereign rules for only a millennium before dragon ascension to the immortals. In other words, Emperor Jiayou should be a True Lord from within the last thousand years!’
How could a True Lord from the past millennium appear three thousand years ago?
“Boom!!!”
The instant this doubt formed in Lu Yang’s mind, thunder roared from the firmament. He looked up blankly, pupils contracting sharply:
“Huh! Who would’ve thought... I... f*cking hell!”
He swallowed the words he was about to blurt out.
Through karmic divination, Lu Yang clearly saw a beam of Buddha light clinging to him like maggots in the bones—precisely the Buddha fate of the Buddha’s son!
In this moment, Lu Yang finally understood:
“Goddamn it, defense is impossible!”
‘The danger... is this very knowledge!’
‘The secret of the timeline, the taboo of five thousand years—even the various True Lords seem largely unaware. The Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord used it to screw me over.’
And from the reaction, this was likely a secret of the World-Honored One!
But the next second, Lu Yang forcibly shook off panic, fear, and other negative emotions, regaining composure. He gazed remotely toward Jiangxi:
‘No, it hasn’t reached the worst yet.’
True, he’d learned something he shouldn’t have. But now he was the Dao Court’s Emperor Huaming, with Immortal Kingdom Dao Regulations constantly empowering him.
‘I’ve got backing too!’
Dao Court and Pure Land had always worn false smiles while harboring ill will. The Dao Court’s Dao Lord would surely delight in using him to spite the World-Honored One and wouldn’t let the World-Honored One truly intervene.
‘As long as the World-Honored One’s true body doesn’t descend, it can’t drag me away.’
‘Buddha fate is ultimately the karma of the Buddha’s son, not the true World-Honored One. At most, it draws the Buddha’s son’s attention, adding variables to my Metal-seeking.’
‘...That’s it. That’s the Soaring Empyrean Sun-Obscuring True Lord’s plan.’
‘Directly killing me is unrealistic, so he took a detour—using a sliver of taboo knowledge to leverage Jiangxi’s hand and ruin my path to Metal!’
The next instant, Lu Yang’s premonition proved true.
“Amitabha!”
From Jiangxi’s direction, a beam of Buddha light shot skyward. A chanting voice echoed through heaven and earth, and faintly, a golden-bodied Great Buddha could be seen seated amid the cloud sea.
‘Victorious Will Generating Brilliance Dharani Heaven Worldly Manifestation? No.’
The manifested golden-bodied Great Buddha far surpassed the dharma image Lu Yang had seen on Guangming in his previous life, whether in aura or appearance.
No doubt about it—
‘The World-Honored One didn’t intervene personally, but He empowered it!’