Daqin Zhentiansi

Chapter 1081 Which are true protectors, and which are imprisonments disguised as protection?

Zhang Yuan was stunned.

Then he heard Xuanjue slowly and clearly reveal, word by word, the secret that had been hidden by the Heavenly Palace for countless millennia.

"The primordial Heavenly Dao is constantly growing."

"The extraordinary individuals of the Heavenly Palace lineage derive their power from the refinement of the primordial origin."

"But human strength has its limits. It's one thing for saints and great saints, but the consumption of the primordial origin by a Heavenly Venerable is more than ten thousand times that of an ordinary Venerable."

"Therefore, the Heavenly Palace must continuously reduce the power of the myriad races of the primordial world."

"Enslaving divine beasts, suppressing the human race, and nipping any potential Heavenly Venerable in the bud."

"Otherwise, if the primordial origin is excessively consumed, the entire Xuntian Continent will spiral out of control."

"In fact, the Heavenly Palace's control over the primordial world has been declining, and it has never truly and completely controlled this world. The collapse of Xuntian Continent is only a matter of time."

"When faced with two evils, choose the lesser. Emperor Jun Tianzun's choice was to suppress all races in the primordial world for endless years and preserve the supreme order of the Celestial Race."

Zhang Yuan finally understood.

He finally understood why the Heavenly Palace was so determined to suppress the primordial divine beasts.

Why resort to any means to prevent the rise of humanity?

Why go to such lengths to weaken all the ancient races?

They would rather attract foreign enemies and demons, and sacrifice countless lives, than fail to maintain this unbalanced order.

Because the Celestial Race could not control the primordial world at its peak.

They could only control a weakened, enslaved, and domesticated primordial world.

Abandoning Xuntianzhou pushed this situation to its extreme.

From then on, there were no more Celestial Venerables in the world, and everyone lived within the circle defined by the Celestial Race.

Never be reborn.

“Isn’t he afraid…” Zhang Yuan’s voice was hoarse, and a hint of bloodlust flashed in his eyes.

“What are you afraid of?” Xuan Jue retorted. “Afraid of the resistance of all the races of the prehistoric world? He stands at the highest point, blocking the way upwards.”

"Without the emergence of a new Celestial Venerable, no one can threaten his position."

"From a game theory perspective, this decision is perfect."

Zhang Yuan remained silent.

He suddenly turned around and looked at the middle-aged man in black robes who had followed him up from the eighth floor.

Kuiyan.

After removing its seven chains, Kuiyan did not exhibit any of the tyrannical aura of an ancient demon.

He stood quietly in the shadows of the ninth floor, his face partially obscured by his black robe.

If it weren't for his eyes, still jet black and intertwined with scarlet, gleaming eerily in the darkness, he would almost look like a real ordinary person.

"The collapse of all realms is unsolvable," Kuiyan suddenly spoke.

His voice rang out in the silence of the ninth floor, carrying an odd calmness.

It doesn't feel like it's telling some earth-shattering secret; it's more like it's recalling a memory that's too ancient and too distant.

He stopped a few steps behind Zhang Yuan, not sitting down, but standing with his hands behind his back, his gaze seemingly piercing through the stone walls of the Demon Suppression Tower, looking towards a very, very distant place.

"This has to start with the world we live in."

Kuiyan's voice was neither hurried nor slow.

He raised his right hand, and a faint purple phantom image appeared at his fingertips.

The image depicts a vast, boundless sea of ​​stars, within which countless points of light flicker like breaths. "All worlds coexist, endlessly regenerating. But every world has a lifespan."

"Some worlds have existed for billions of years, while others have perished at the very beginning of their existence."

"The world after death will not completely disappear, but will fall into a place."

With a light tap of his fingertip, a bottomless dark area appeared beneath the starry image.

"The Abyss of Depravity".

"The other side after the dissolution of all worlds."

Kuiyan's voice became deeper, as if he were telling a story from the past that even he himself was unwilling to talk about.

"The remnants of a world that has fallen into the abyss of depravity will gradually evolve into another form of existence."

"They have no physical form, no fixed shape, but they retain the obsession of the creatures of the original world: the desire for life, the fear of death, and the anger at destruction."

"These obsessions, after being twisted over millions of years, have finally become what you call the Heavenly Demons."

"The Heavenly Demons are not living beings. They have never lived, so they crave 'existence' itself. They will attach themselves to any living being, attempting to return to the myriad worlds by possessing their physical bodies and souls."

"That's why the Heavenly Demon is so pervasive and impossible to eradicate."

"Because they are not invaders, but the inevitable product of the dissolution of all worlds. They are the shadow side of the rules of all worlds, the opposite of conservation."

Zhang Yuan listened in silence.

He recalled the ancient books he had read in the Qin Dynasty, the inexplicable gaps in the history of cultivation in the Nine Provinces, and the cultivators who had clearly reached a certain level but suddenly disappeared.

“So the Heavenly Palace’s suppression of the prehistoric world is not just about control,” Zhang Yuan said in a low voice. “They are also maintaining a balance.”

“Balance.” Xuan Jue took over the conversation, a barely perceptible fluctuation finally appearing in his voice, as if mocking, or perhaps sighing, “Di Jun’s balance is to maintain the supreme status of the Celestial Race at the cost of sacrificing all the races of the prehistoric world.”

"If they wanted true balance, they wouldn't have allowed the Heavenly Demons to erode the edge of the Primordial World. They wouldn't have been thinking about how to pass the problem on to the next generation with minimal cost when the Sky-Patrolling Continent was collapsing."

"They're just scared."

"We fear that once the myriad races of the primordial world have grown up, the Celestial Race will no longer be able to control this land."

Zhang Yuan lowered his eyes and fell into a long silence.

He suddenly thought of the Qin Dynasty.

I thought of the Nine Provinces.

He thought of the homeland where he was born, grew up, and fought.

By the time he left, the cultivation levels in the Nine Provinces of the Great Qin had been suppressed to only the Grandmaster realm.

At that time, he thought this was a natural evolution of the laws of nature, an inevitable result of the Dharma-ending Age.

But now, he suddenly had another thought—

What if it wasn't natural evolution at all?

If that's for the sake of balance?

If the cultivation levels of the Nine Provinces were not suppressed to the extreme, wouldn't those evil demons hidden outside the myriad worlds, and those heavenly demons lurking in the Abyss of Depravity, have long since devoured the Nine Provinces?

Why has the Qin Dynasty remained safe and sound for so many years? Is it due to luck, or is it protected by some unknown force?

Heavenly Palace, Heavenly Venerable, Celestial Race.

What exactly did they do over those millions of years?

Which are genuine acts of protection, and which are imprisonments disguised as protection?

he does not know.

The ninth floor fell silent again.

The starry sea image at Kuiyan's fingertips slowly dissipated, turning into a faint purple light that merged into the darkness.

Xuanjue remained seated cross-legged, his hands resting quietly on his knees, the shackles on his wrists remaining silent under billions of times the force of gravity.

"It's time to go." Zhang Yuan suddenly stood up. (End of Chapter)