Chapter 210: Discovery
Chapter 210: Discovery
Three years passed like fleeting snow.
To creator-level beings, this span meant little—mere moments for plotting. But for ordinary people, three years changed everything.
Harnessing faith, Ye Chen’s cultivation deepened. His mastery of the Heavenly Book now held no equal. Countless methods emerged from his exploration of the fourth stage—a path uncharted, with no predecessors to guide him.
At Great Snow Mountain’s peak, Western Kunlun stood complete.
Ye Chen alone had built this temple through “deception,” weaving illusions that awed the villagers below into fervent worship. Their intensified faith cloaked him not just in the Way of the Immortals’ ethereality, but the solemn majesty of divinity itself.
“A Qing… ever considered becoming a Mountain God?”
Behind him, A Qing stiffened. Her three years of progress to the third stage owed much to Ye Chen’s unreserved teachings—though even she grasped only fragments. A Mu trailed further behind.
“You’d give me Kunlun’s divine seat?”
She frowned. He’d created everything—the temple, the faith, even the concept of divine positions. Why relinquish it now?
“Wasn’t this your goal all along?”
“Once. Now it’s a shackle.”
Ye Chen produced a golden Light Sphere. As A Qing touched it, power surged—suddenly, she felt every crevice of the mountain, heard even ants scuttling in their nests.
“Incredible.”
A Qing couldn’t help but sigh. She finally understood why Ye Chen had progressed so rapidly in these three years. With the Mountain God’s divine status bestowed upon him, he seemed to have become one with the entire region. This profound harmony between man and nature must have greatly aided his cultivation of the Heavenly Book.
“To advance further, I must gather more faith.”
Ye Chen gazed at the swirling snowstorm ahead, his eyes blazing with unwavering determination.
“I’ll be departing for some time. The Divine Dynasty must have detected our presence by now. Though Lin Zhenbei and others will delay them, we can’t remain passive forever.”
He raised his hand and flicked a finger.
The raging snowstorm parted before him. An invisible path materialized in midair, and he strode away through the tempest. When his figure finally disappeared, the blizzard closed behind him like a curtain.
This miraculous scene was witnessed by villagers praying devoutly at the foot of the mountain.
“An immortal!”
“I saw an immortal!”
“Treading through snowstorms – no mere Fighting King could achieve this! So true immortals do exist!” A burly man clutching a longbow named Halbahe muttered in awe. “To think I’d witness such divinity…”
“Chieftain.”
His guard spoke hesitantly. This group represented the Golden Family, the strongest nomadic tribe beneath the Great Snow Mountain. They’d long heard rumors about the mountain immortal, dismissing them as tricks by some Fighting Emperor expert – until this moment.
“Send word to Sixth Uncle in the capital. Use the divine eagle.”
This wasn’t the fractured Southern Song era but a unified empire. All powers bowed to the Divine Dynasty, even nomadic royalty like the Golden Family needed imperial recognition. Such was the terror of the Fighting Emperor’s rule – any unapproved force was deemed rebellion.
A single Fighting Emperor could dominate all realms. Were it not for Ye Chen’s sudden emergence, this dynasty would have endured until the emperor’s natural death.
Capital.
In a dim study, an old official in dark blue robes lit an oil lamp. Mu Kun – known as Zha Mutie in his nomadic youth – studied the report with trembling hands. At forty years in the capital, he’d shed all traces of his nomadic heritage.
“Immortal? Walking through blizzards? Preposterous!”
He reread the letter thrice before burning it. Only family codes convinced him this wasn’t a jest. Pacing his chamber, he muttered:
“An entirely new power system? If true… Why no reports from northwest officials? Unless…”
Seizing brush and paper, he scrawled:
“Send our people to Great Snow Mountain immediately – even as servants!”
A black eagle carried his wax-sealed message northwestward.
Dawn.
Divine Dynasty court assembly.
The morning ritual unfolded like clockwork. The current emperor – distant offspring of the original Fighting Emperor – drowsed on his throne. Courtiers moved through familiar motions, bound by centuries-old protocols.
“Present petitions or depart.”
The mechanical routine broke when armored general Xia Bochang stepped forward. This Fighting King had battled Ye Chen at Tianqing Gorge years prior.
“Does Your Majesty recall the Tianqing Gorge rebels?”
The emperor blinked blankly. A eunuch whispered confirmation.
“After years of pursuit,” Xia Bochang produced a sealed scroll, “we’ve finally tracked them.”
The eunuch inspected the document before passing it up.