Inside the Forbidden Barren Wasteland, beneath the land of black soil, within the Slumbering Emperor Coffin.
Once Chu Kuangren broke through that barrier, his understanding of his Invincible Dao gradually grew and rose to a whole new level.
It was the Emperor's Dao!
After cultivating for so long, he has finally stepped foot into the Emperor's Dao!!
"Is this how it feels to become an Emperor? What a wonderful experience!"
Chu Kuangren stepped forward.
An unimaginably dense Emperor's Dao fluctuation instantly erupted from him, causing the mists of Chaotic qi in the surroundings to tremble violently.
His twenty-four strands of Emperor qi also erupted alongside his Emperor Dao. It swept past everywhere like a great typhoon and killed countless demons and ghouls in its path.
Even the Gate of the Underworld could not stand against such tremendous power. Several cracks soon appeared and spread all over it.
A few moments later, the Gate of the Underworld crumbled into pieces!
"Argh!!"
With his divine power destroyed, the Underworld God's willpower thought form let out a howling shriek. In an instant, his gigantic face collapsed and dispersed.
"Nice. It looks like he'll have to recover for some time after this." The Chaos Daoist Celestial chuckled.
Although the Underworld God's willpower thought form was connected to the Slumbering Emperor Coffin, such an attack would not kill it that easily. However, the repercussions he suffered from Chu Kuangren's attack would take him quite a while before that willpower thought form could appear once more.
"Your Dao is at least a Flawless Quality Dao!"
The Chaos Daoist Celestial said to Chu Kuangren with amazement.
"Epic-quality Dao?"
"That's right. Although everyone possesses a unique type of Dao, there is a distinction in quality and realms among the various types of Dao out there."
"I'm all ears."
Chu Kuangren replied attentively like a model student.
The Chaos Daoist Celestial had provided him with much useful information. Despite being an astral body, he cleared his throat. "Now, I've told you about the different realms earlier. As for the quality of a person's Emperor Dao, it's categorized into five types. They are Ordinary, Flawed, Flawless, Epic, and Prominent respectively. Ultimately, these five types of quality differ from each other in terms of how powerful and profound they are."
"In that case, what's the quality of your Dao?"
"My Dao is that of an Epic quality."
The Chaos Daoist Celestial replied with a hint of pride on his face. "Ever since ancient times, not many possess a Dao with Epic quality."
"How do I increase the quality of my Dao?"
"It's incredibly difficult. The quality of an Emperor's Dao is closely related to the resources he or she has gathered, how many foundations he possesses, and most importantly his understanding before becoming an Emperor. Once someone becomes an Emperor, the quality of Dao he has would be the one he gets. It can't be increased or improved like a person's cultivation level. Without tremendous amounts of resources and huge luck, it'll be hard to change the quality of a person's Dao."
"I understand. If that's the case, is there anyone out there with a Prominent-quality Dao?"
"There is. Besides humans like us, there's a small number of ancient gods and immemorial beings who possess a Prominent-quality Dao. However, among us humans, only one person I know has it!" The Chaos Daoist Celestial could not help but reveal a hint of admiration in his eyes.
"Who is it?"
Chu Kuangren was a little surprised.
What kind of person could make the Chaos Daoist Celestial admire them so much?
"He was the one who started the Great Panhuman Revolt, the one who led us against the Gods and eventually sealed them away. He is known to us as… The King of Humans, Cang!"
"The King of Humans… Cang! Cang, is he still alive?"
The Chaos Daoist Celestial shook his head sadly. "During the Great Panhuman Revolt, he battled against the King of Gods, who was the strongest among the gods. In the end, both of them met their end in the Immemorial Kunlun Gorge. Not even a single bone from him was left behind."
"That's a shame."
Chu Kuangren sighed.
It was a shame he did not have the opportunity to meet such a person.
"Alright. Now that your Emperor's Dao has been formed, it's time you start working on your Emperor's Core as well," said the Chaos Daoist Celestial.
Chu Kuangren nodded.
If one truly wished to become an Emperor, having an Emperor's Dao alone was not enough. They would still have to build an Emperor's Foundation and an Emperor's body!
Doing this would require a mountain's worth of resources.
At the Emperor Mountain, this process would be omitted by the help from the Emperor's Throne. As such, one could use the energy coming from the Emperor's Throne to build their Emperor's Foundation.
That was why so many people were so eager to climb up the Emperor Mountain.
With the Emperor's Throne, they would not need to gather all sorts of resources to build their Emperor's Foundation. After all, they already had their work cut out by the Emperor Mountain.
However, Chu Kuangren was not at the Emperor Mountain right now. Despite having affirmed his Dao through strength alone, he would still need to spend tonnes of resources building his Emperor's Foundation.
"Normally, I might feel a little troubled by this. However, there's no need for me to feel this way inside the Slumbering Emperor Coffin."
"This endless mists of Chaotic qi is basically an ocean of resources up for grabs!" Chu Kuangren smacked his lips.
"Remember, an Emperor's Foundation is also grouped into different categories. Hence, do your best to build up the strongest Emperor's Foundation you can. This will affect your growth as a cultivator in the future as well, so do proceed with utmost caution and give it your all." The Chaos Daoist Celestial reminded him seriously.
"Understood!"
Chu Kuangren sat down with his legs crossed, and his Universal Cauldron Physique activated!
Like hundreds of rivers flowing back into the ocean, the surrounding mists of Chaotic qi rapidly surged into Chu Kuangren. After being refined, they were immediately stored inside his spiritual mound!
The Emperor qi within Chu Kuangren's spiritual mound increased. His seven Supreme Foundation Levels glowed brightly as they started to resonate, growing closer and closer with each other.
The moment the Supreme Foundation Levels made contact, an incredibly terrifying energy burst erupted just like the Big Bang itself. Then, the seven Supreme Foundation Levels shattered and turned into a gigantic whirlpool.
The fragments of the Supreme Foundation Levels were absorbed into the whirlpool. After some time, a gleaming golden pearl could then be seen within it.
That was the first step in cultivating an Emperor's Foundation and an Emperor's Core.
It was destroying all of the foundations before reconstructing and merging them to form the Emperor's Core!
The stronger the Emperor's Foundation, the higher the quality of an Emperor's Core produced!
…
At the peak of the Emperor Mountain.
A figure suddenly stepped foot on it.
That person in long black robes was still very energetic when he reached. He was the Qin clan's outlawed sky-pride, known as the best in the world, Qin Tianchen!
Looking at the Emperor's Throne before him, Qin Tianchen took a deep breath. Desire burned in his eyes.
"I've earned a spot on the Emperor's Throne once again in this life. With the foundations from my previous life, I'll definitely become an even stronger Emperor in this second life. Even the ordinary Emperors would be no match for me."
/strong>
Qin Tianchen said before his figure flashed, turning into a ray of light towards the Emperor's Throne. The instant he sat on it, the whole Emperor Mountain rumbled.
A golden pillar of light shot into the sky and straight through the clouds!
Golden clouds of prosperity appeared as Daoist chimes echoed the realm.
All of the Sovereigns outside the Emperor Mountain were shocked when this happened.
"Someone has reached the peak and become an Emperor!"
"It's the Qin clan's outlawed sky-pride!"
"Haha. As an outlawed sky-pride of my Qin clan and a reincarnation of a Great Emperor, Qin Tianchen's achievement is truly well deserved. He has finally come out on top and ahead of the others!"
The Qin clan's Sovereign laughed. He was extremely pleased.
The other Sovereigns looked at the remaining sky-prides who were climbing the Emperor Mountain anxiously while continuing cheering them on in their hearts.
'The first Emperor's Throne has been taken.'
'Come on!'
'Hurry up!'
Following Qin Tianchen's ascension to the Emperor's Throne, some of the other outlawed sky-prides eventually reached the mountain peak after countless hardships and using many Opportunities of Fortune.
"The Emperor's Throne is mine!!"
The second person to reach the mountain peak was the Wang clan's Wang Quan.
He turned into a ray of light and quickly darted towards the Emperor's Throne. Following that, a second golden pillar of light shot into the sky from the Emperor Mountain!
The third person to reach was Lan Yu.
Behind her, the other members from the Black Heaven Sect could no longer be seen.
Climbing the Emperor Mountain was not an easy task. Since she could not bring everyone up with her, she had no choice but to go ahead.
She walked up to one of the Emperor's Thrones. In an instant, countless mysterious knowledge about the Emperor's Dao poured into her. The third golden pillar of light appeared right after.
Following that, the Nine-Headed Snakelet Tribe's Jiu Yan, the Runic Land's Zi Wuji, the Sha Tribe's Sha Wushe, the Seven Emotion Sect's Leng Ningyu, and the Bai clan's Bai Hongyu occupied another five Emperor's Thrones. Among the nine Emperor's Thrones now, only one remained.
The Sovereigns' gazes were fixed on the last Emperor's Throne with their breaths heavy. Some of the archaic ancient orthodoxies whose sky-prides had yet reached the peak got even more anxious.
"Look, someone has reached the peak. That person is…"