Chapter 674 Emperor Jia

"Congratulation to the Dao Opening Sect. Our world has a protector."

"Congratulation to Origin Fellow Daoist. We could not survive this situation without you."

"Congratulation. Now that the world is safe, I can rest easy. Now, I'll be leaving."

"I feel the same. The sect has many things I need to take care of."

"I hope much prosperity to the Dao Opening Sect. Now, I have to go supervise my son's cultivation."

One by one, the factions gave their congratulatory words before quickly leaving with one excuse after the other. Origin One did not say much besides nodding his head. He knew most of these people would plan on how to deal with this recent power shift, and many would even form secret alliances.

However, his act of revealing Sword One's power was calculated, and he expected this outcome.

'Let's go talk to Sword One.'

Emperor Enlightening Academy:

Headmaster Song Li ended the conversation, a deep frown on his face.

"What should we do now?" asked the teachers and Insurgent. In this generation, they technically did not have a Heaven Chosen. The situation was not looking too good for them, and their future was bleak.

"The best option is to use the Praying Altar. Only the founder can save us–or at least give us a survival chance," said Song Li after pondering for a while. Immediately, the Academy headed to a secret realm with an altar of Emperor Kong and prayed to it.

…

"You did a great job," commented Desolate One. However, Sword One shook her head, "Even with the array, I can barely equal that man; he's not any ordinary Immortal Sovereign; he 's not only powerful but also experienced."

"You shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself; you've only got to that level and are still adapting."

"He's right. All that matters is you have the strength to protect the sect," said Origin One, who had just arrived.

"I'm not. Anyways, I still have some room for growth."

"As long as you have the right mindset."

"Now that we have the strength, should we use a more aggressive approach when doing things?"

"No, our current model is fine. We must keep things calm until the kid proves the Dao," disagreed Origin One.

"Origin is correct," added Sword One. "Plus, we have to be more careful. After I reach this realm, I sense there might be some hidden Immortal Sovereign left in our plane."

"What? Seriously?"

"We did suspect this possibility. However, all information proved otherwise."

"My question is, why have they not shown up?"

"The ones I sensed seemer feeble, so I guess they are secretly healing," replied Sword One. "I'm also guessing some are hiding, sealed, or waiting for something."

Everyone became quiet, pondering the ramification of this news.

"We always knew the Myriad Emperor World was the most complicated," said Judgment One. "Since Eternals are hiding, why not Immortal Sovereign?"

"Forget about this for now," said Miscellaneous One. "The pending issue is those people who attacked us. We can theorize they were responsible for what happened to the Heaven-Devouring Emperor. But who are they exactly?"

Sword One took out one of her swords. "Glad you brought this up. I got some blood from him, hoping to find them through it." She handed it to Miscellaneous One, who observed it.

"I should find something." He connected to the sect's formation for his calculation, and as expected, there was an ungodly amount of resistance to calculating an Immortal Sovereign.

'Maybe the previous me could not do anything, but I've learned a great deal from the Emperor,' thought Miscellaneous One before changing tactics and using the things he recently learned.

"Not enough power."

"Use the sect's luck," said Origin One.

"I'll let you use the Protective Array." Under normal circumstances, the array could only be used once there was eminent danger and the council of Emperor Lineages agreed. After all, any active use burns far greater resources. However, no one can say anything to Sword One–especially since she is not doing it to hurt other factions.

The Dao Opening Sect just needed to give the excuse that she was fighting a foreign enemy and needed its strength.

With this boost, Miscellaneous calculated something: a string of runes. And after translating them, they were coordinates.

"Is that the coordination to the Battle Spirit World Community?"

"Unless something changed since the Devil Era, it should be." 

"So, they are the plane scheming against us. So, who is the faction that sent that Immortal Sovereign? They must be from a very powerful and lucky faction to have a surviving Sovereign."

Everyone looked at Shadow One for an answer since he was in charge of information gathering from the Endless Void.

"Don't ask me. I've only gathered basic information. Besides knowing the Battle Spirit World is fourth on the Eternal List and has a growing presence in the Commerce Hub, I know very little."

With the closure of the Myriad Emperor World, Shadow One could not continue to gather more information and had left someone else protecting the Fate Shadow Guard as they worked on their own, semi-cut off from home.

"We really should not have taken such a secular approach after the Devil Era," commented Rainbow One, and everyone agreed with that statement. Isolating the world and the sect from the rest of the Endless Void did give them time to recuperate, but they should never have waited for so long to open their barrier.

"No point in complaining now. I'll contact the kid's Fate Shadow Guard to see if they know something," said Sword One, who did not want anyone else to go as she feared these foreign planes would besiege them.

"No need to go to the Commerce Hub to contact them. The kid left a way to contact them through a secret base in a Great Thousand World. Go there and ask for the information," explained Origin One, who understood her thought.

Sword One agreed and teleported to the designated world after leaving the Protective Array. A few hours later, she returned.

"I think I know who's responsible," she immediately stated after returning home. "The Spirit Genesis Sect, known as the Strongest Sect." 

"Better than us?"

Sword One shared the information gathered, which was basically one page with little information, and everyone reviewed it rather swiftly.

"This sect is weird," commented Turtle One. "They act arrogant and overbearing in the Battle Spirit World. However, in the Endless Void, they are extremely low-key despite their influence." The basic information gathered on them highlighted this aspect. It painted the Spirit Genesis Sect as a faction that does things in the shadow when interacting with other World Communities.

"Wait, something is wrong," said Shadow One with a frown. "The number of Eternal, why is it 2?"

"What do you mean?"

"After the sect master met with the heir of the Star-Lord Mountain, Mu Lei, he learned there were only two factions with 2 Eternals. So, he asked me to investigate. And the result of that investigation was a sect known as Purple Heaven Temple.

"But they mysteriously disappeared, creating the rumor someone destroyed them. And they only had 7 Emperors."

Everyone frowned.

"Did they change their name?"

"Doing such a thing would cripple a faction's Qi Luck and lead to their destruction. So, why would they do that?"

"Maybe, a way to bypass the Nine Emperor Curse?"

"The Chaos Ruler Sect tried that and looked at what happened to them."

"On the unlikely chance the Spirit Genesis Sect used this method and succeeded. Then, the fact they can become the strongest sect and overcome their Qi Luck would make them very scary."

"My intuition tells me something else is going on," added Sword One. "But how do we find the truth?" Such information is not easy to investigate, given the current state of their information network and the lack of direction.

"We just have to ask someone who knows and might be willing to tell us."

"You're talking about our business partner?"

"Yes."

"Will they demand someone in exchange? After all, we are only business partners–not allies."

"Maybe before, but after Sword One's power display, they should be more than willing."

That person was correct. 

After Sword One contacted Star Lord Mountain, an Insurgent that looked like an older man responded and introduced himself as Star Monarch.

"Sir Star Monarch, I will be direct. I've to ask about the Spirit Genesis Sect," said Sword One. She was truthful and told him about the attack and their theory about the Purple Heaven Temple. Of course, one of the reasons she told the truth about the attack was to determine whether the Star Beast World might be connected in some way.

Regrettably, Star Monarch never showed any other emotion or change in expression besides his serene and peaceful atmosphere.

"That's an interesting guess," he said slowly. "But the truth is more daunting. The second Eternal of the Spirit Genesis Sect created a paradox: there are only two sects with two Eternals–you guys and the Purple Heaven Temple–but there are three."

"I'm not following," said Sword One.

"Think of it this way: Heavenly Dao has a record of events that occurs in the lower dimension. These events are part of the Dao of Heaven, known truths of Heaven and Earth. And Heavenly Dao's record states that only two sects have two Eternal Emperors. But the real truth is there is a third."

"How is that possible? That would mean he tempered with the entire lower dimension's Heaven Dao."

"Exactly."

"Such a brilliant accomplishment," muttered Sword One, thinking how difficult it would be to pull something like this.

"What is that Eternal's name?"

"He is known simply as Emperor Jia."

"How come his name is not more renowned?"

"He seems to be a very secretive person. He influenced the Spirit Genesis Sect's low-key and behind-the-scenes development custom."

Sword One took a moment to process, "What was his objective in doing so?"

"That is a mystery. We guess it might be a form of protection for his sect. But there is bound to be some greater mystery behind it."

Sword One agreed with that statement. She thanked Star Monarch for his hospitality before ending the conversation.

(AN: Emperor Jia's name is from the sectarian faction, and the character Jia for his name has a different meaning than the one for the Jia family.

(Chaos Ruler Sect is mentioned in ch 232.)