Eternal Life as False Emperor

Under the guidance of Chen Liancang, Zheng Yi once again arrived within the Grand Ancestor's Mausoleum at Celestial Longevity Mountain.

The current Grand Ancestor's Mausoleum was silent, with only dozens of Shadow Guards cleaning within.

These people were the most loyal to Zheng Yi, born as Death Warriors, and would never betray Zheng Yi.

In the Jinluan Hall, the massive gold coffin had long been removed, and even the Dragon Throne had been pushed aside.

A dark entrance appeared before Zheng Yi.

"Your Majesty, please see, this jade step located in the middle of the Grand Ancestor's Mausoleum is actually hollow."

Chen Liancang explained, "Inside, not only is there the central hub of the Three Great Arrays, but also a massive 'Zheng Family Treasure Vault.'"

"This treasure vault has no mechanisms, as if it was specifically prepared for Your Majesty."

"This old servant personally went in to check, and there is no danger."

"Let's go down and take a look."

"Yes!"

Liu Cheng'en led the way, with Zheng Yi closely following into the Grand Ancestor Treasure Vault.

It was a spiraling staircase downward, and after a short while, a massive cavernous plaza appeared before Zheng Yi's eyes again.

Three array plates, each positioned in three different directions, appeared before Zheng Yi's eyes.

Each array plate was composed of hundreds, even thousands of special array patterns, extremely complex.

Among them, there were many holes, obviously places to set spirit stones.

"Your Majesty, these are the array plates of the Three Great Arrays. In due time, simply using spirit stones to activate the array hub, or having a cultivator personally stationed, can open the Three Great Arrays."

"Unfortunately, we do not have spirit stones in our hands, so this array can only serve as decoration."

Zheng Yi was stirred and asked, "Are there no spirit stones in the Grand Ancestor Treasure Vault?"

Chen Liancang shook his head and said, "None, Your Majesty, please~"

Chen Liancang continued downward, and soon a large door taller than a person appeared before Zheng Yi.

"Your Majesty, this is the Grand Ancestor Treasure Vault."

"Inside are many cultivation items left by the Grand Ancestor; many this old servant does not recognize."

Zheng Yi carefully observed and found that this large door only had two doors, but the surrounding walls were carved with dragons and phoenixes, fully displaying royal grandeur.

On it, the four large characters 'Zheng Family Treasure Vault' were inscribed.

"Let's go inside and take a look."

"Yes!"

The treasure vault doors were opened, and as Zheng Yi stepped inside, his nose was filled with a faint decaying smell.

Clearly, no one had entered this treasure vault for over three hundred years.

The size of the treasure vault was not large and could be seen at a glance.

With Zheng Yi's eyesight, it was roughly equivalent to a football field in size.

However, the height was quite impressive, about ten meters, with a total space of nearly eighty thousand cubic meters.

On both sides of the secret vault were rows of large iron blocks taller than a person, numbering in the thousands.

"What kind of things are these?"

Zheng Yi tapped these iron blocks, hearing a resonant sound, feeling the hardness.

Chen Liancang said, "Your Majesty, this old servant is not too sure either. They should be a material used by cultivators for artifact refining."

Zheng Yi took a few more steps and immediately said, "Elder Chen, please return to the capital and have Noble Consort Cui, Consort Chan, and Consort Yu come here. Neither of us are cultivators and cannot leave Bao Mountain empty-handed."

"Yes!"

Chen Liancang respectfully responded, immediately turning to leave and going to convey the order.

Zheng Yi then continued to walk forward with his hands clasped behind his back, observing as he went.

Row after row of massive stone blocks stretched over a hundred meters, and Zheng Yi frequently paused to examine them, finding them quite novel.

After passing this pile of stones, there were neatly stacked rows of wooden boxes. Upon opening them, Zheng Yi found another heap of items he didn't recognize.

Continuing forward, various materials appeared before him.

Special woods, metals, and even bones, some casually piled there, others haphazardly thrown in wooden boxes scattered across the ground.

Continuing forward.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Zheng Yi reached the deepest part of the treasure vault.

This should be where the most precious items of the treasure vault were kept, on a huge platform, there were twelve wooden boxes and jade bottles, large and small.

Zheng Yi carefully counted; there were seven wooden boxes and five jade bottles, quietly sitting there.

Three hundred years had passed, yet no one had touched them.

But being underground, even after three hundred years, there wasn't a speck of dust on these wooden boxes and jade bottles, appearing almost new.

"These things..."

Zheng Yi didn't plan to open them, opting to wait for Noble Consort Cui and others to arrive and open them together.

After all, if he opened them himself and didn't recognize them, wouldn't it be somewhat embarrassing?

"Huh? What's this..."

Zheng Yi's eyes suddenly brightened; in the middle of a few wooden boxes, lay a book...?

"How could there be a book here?"

Picking it up to take a look, he realized it wasn't a book at all but a booklet recording some secret stories.

Not knowing how long had passed, Zheng Yi rubbed his somewhat sore neck before closing the booklet in his hand.

"So that's it. The sudden disappearance of spiritual qi in this world isn't due to the spiritual qi tide. The spiritual qi tide is a long process, spanning at least thousands or even tens of thousands of years."

"Whereas the disappearance of spiritual qi in this world seems as if some mysterious person, or mysterious species, or mysterious change absorbed more than half of it, and even now, it is still being absorbed slowly."

Zheng Yi murmured: "Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they regard all things as straw dogs."

"With more cultivators, more spiritual qi is privately appropriated, leading to the thinning of spiritual qi throughout the world."

"But similarly, once a cultivator dies, the magical power within them returns to heaven and earth, transforming back into spiritual qi."

"Yet in this massive change of heaven and earth, despite the death of many cultivators, the spiritual qi hasn't been restored, meaning some existence has been secretly absorbing spiritual qi all along, and at an incredibly fast pace!"

These secret messages were all seen by him in this booklet.

"Their Zheng Clan ancestor was originally an inner sect disciple of the Netherworld Sect and had been preparing for this matter ever since discovering this secret news."

"Under the great calamity of heaven and earth, the Ten Great Sects and thousands of other sects waged wars to survive, turning the entire continent into countless fragments."

"Now the continent where Great Yu resides is actually a part of the original sites of sects like Mayfly Sect, Netherworld Sect, Celestial Desert Sect, with other continents being driven overseas."

"When the Netherworld Sect fought other sects to the brink of shedding blood dry during this great calamity, they moved the entire sect overseas, but the Zheng Clan ancestor remained behind."

"With schemes and resources snatched from the great calamity, he established Great Yu!"

Zheng Yi murmured: "The original intention of the Zheng Clan Grand Ancestor was to consolidate his power with the Mortal Dynasty and simultaneously use the secret techniques of the Netherworld Sect to transform himself into a spirit corpse body, living for ten thousand years, waiting for the spiritual qi revival."

"What a pity that in just over three hundred years, I interrupted it!"

"And these things..."

Zheng Yi turned his head, spreading his arms: "These things were specially preserved by the Grand Ancestor for his own cultivation later, all are top quality cultivation items!"

"It's a shame that the booklet records that among these cultivation items, spirit grass and elixirs suffered from spiritual qi loss, so not much was preserved."

"And who knows if the spiritual qi in the few remaining elixirs has also dispersed?"

Just then, sounds of movement came from the entrance of the treasure vault—it was Chen Liancang and others.

"Old servant sees Your Majesty." Chen Liancang said: "The three madams have all arrived."

Behind him, Noble Consort Cui, Consort Chan, and Consort Yu all saluted.

"Your servant greets Your Majesty."

"Three beloved consorts, please rise quickly. We are both spouses and fellow cultivators, no need for formalities."

Noble Consort Cui said: "Your Majesty, among fellow cultivators we are monarch and ministers first, spouses second, and lastly fellow cultivators; formalities must not be abandoned."

Zheng Yi smiled: "Beloved consort thinks ahead. By the way, beloved consort, these things were all left by the Grand Ancestor for us. Unfortunately, both I and Elder Chen are merely newcomers to cultivation, not very familiar with these cultivation items."

"I wonder if the three beloved consorts can enlighten me?"

"Then let us take a look."

The three of them split up and began inspecting the entire treasure vault.

Very soon Cui Xiabing exclaimed: "Your Majesty, please come over."

"Beloved consort, what have you discovered?"

At the entrance of the treasure vault, Noble Consort Cui scrutinized the largest black iron block with the greatest quantity and size: "This item should be the most foundational material for cultivators in artifact refining, refined iron!"

"I've seen it from the master, but the master only has a small piece, about the size of a bronze mirror."

"Unexpectedly...there's so much here in the Grand Ancestor Treasure Vault!"

As she spoke, she gestured with her hands, looking extremely surprised; her small mouth agape.

"Refined iron?"

Zheng Yi looked up and down at the pile of black iron blocks and directly asked: "How is it used?"

Noble Consort Cui smiled wryly: "Your Majesty, Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators can't use it. Only Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators can condense spirit fire with their own magical power to melt it for crafting."

"Or seek some Heaven and Earth Spirit Fire to melt it."

"I believe the Grand Ancestor must have expended great manpower and resources back then to refine so much refined iron."

"With so much refined iron, it even seems enough to craft the basic magical artifacts for all disciples of a sect!"

"A sect...tsk tsk tsk, at least several hundred to a thousand people."

Zheng Yi also marveled, and just then Consort Yu called from not far away: "Your Majesty, I recognize this item."

Zheng Yi and Noble Consort Cui came over to find Consort Yu standing in front of a pile of wooden boxes.

Several boxes had already been opened, and Consort Yu was counting the contents inside.

Zheng Yi took a look; it seemed to be a pile of yellow paper, stacked thickly.

"Your Majesty, this item is talisman paper; I saw it from my master, and the Spirit Testing Talisman granted by the master before was drawn using this talisman paper."

Consort Yu pointed to several other boxes: "Those boxes contain cinnabar, Chen Mo, and other items, all essential materials for talisman painting."

"Beloved consort can paint talismans?"

Consort Yu replied bashfully: "I consulted my master once, who gave me a book titled 'Initial Understanding of Talismans'. Nonetheless, until now, I can only paint two basic talismans, the Spirit Testing Talisman and Divine Movement Talisman, and my success rate is very low."

Zheng Yi said: "Practice makes perfect; beloved consort's low success rate in painting talismans is due to painting very few of them."

"These many talisman papers here are for beloved consort to use freely, quickly improving the skill in painting talismans, especially the Spirit Testing Talisman."

"I hope Great Yu can have many people possessing spirit roots."

"Spirit Testing Talisman?"

Consort Yu suddenly said: "By the way, Your Majesty, I had a few Spirit Testing Talismans before, with which I tested some sisters in the palace."

"Unexpectedly, there indeed was one with a spirit root."

"Oh? Who is it? What kind of spirit root?"