Emperor’s Domination

“Brother Li’s achievement in plant cultivation can only be better than mine. You are the one who deserves to be one of the four alchemy prodigies.” Her elegant face was glowing red from excitement after saying so.

Li Qiye chuckled and gently shook his head: “The dao of alchemy is only a hobby to me. You are the one who had devoted all of your energy on this subject; only a pure person like you can truly be called an alchemist.”

This was Li Qiye’s honest belief. Yuan Caihe had a pure obsession for plant cultivation. In this matter, she was very similar to the Alchemy God in the past. She didn’t look at plants and spirit medicines just because of their preciousness, she also had a side that cared for the medicines as no one else did.

Along the way, they met a spirit medicine that had been dug up. Its fruits had been plucked by someone, and even the roots were exposed above the soil.

“Poor little thing.” Seeing this spirit plant that was on the verge of death, she quickly used her alchemy water to save it and replanted it in its original location.

This spirit plant’s energy quickly recovered. After seeing it flourishing again, Yuan Caihe heaved a sigh of relief and became very happy.

Li Qiye quietly watched her actions on the side and couldn’t help but chuckle after seeing her look of relief.

At the beginning of their journey, the Celestial Peak was very quiet, but in recent days, people had begun to show up.

Thunderous sounds appeared in the sky everyday as great carriages soared across the horizon. Some experts also flew here, including some weaker ones. It was clear that they were in a rush.

Another boom resounded in the sky. A group of huge golems flew right over Li Qiye’s head and disappeared in the depths of the mountain range.

“The Draco-Bulls want to cross the river, so many alchemists are here to catch some Immortal Sulfur.” Yuan Caihe commented after seeing so many cultivators and alchemists flying in the sky.

After calming down, she looked at Li Qiye and asked: “Is Brother Li also here for the Immortal Sulfur from the Draco-Bulls?”

Along the way, she didn’t ask where Li Qiye was going, and he didn’t ask her either. Inadvertently, they had an inexplicable and tacit understanding.

“You can put it that way. We can go take a look at the river.” Li Qiye gently nodded and said: “But I didn’t come for the Immortal Sulfur, I’m more interested in the Draco-Bulls themselves.”

“Then we share the same destination.” Yuan Caihe calmly smiled and said: “I also want to go to the Celestial Peak River. Recently, I have been refining a type of pill and am in need of an aged Immortal Sulfur that isn’t available on the market right now. This is the season for the Draco-Bulls to cross the river, so I came here to test my luck to see if I can find some aged Immortal Sulfur.”

Li Qiye nodded and said: “That shouldn’t be a problem. There will be a scary amount of Draco-Bulls going to the river, so there will definitely be an older bull among them.”

A Draco-Bull was a type of spirit beast that appeared in very few locations in the Stone Medicine World, and the Celestial Peak just happened to be one of them. Thus, whenever it was the season for Draco-Bulls to come out, many alchemists came to obtain some Immortal Sulfur.

Li Qiye and Yuan Caihe moved on. Their trip was supposed to be fairly smooth, however, when they wanted to cross a giant mountain, they found that the road was blocked.

A group of armored experts barricaded the path into the mountain, so when Li Qiye and Yuan Caihe got close, they were immediately blocked by these experts.

“Fellow Daoists, please take the long way around. Our Golden Leopard Prince is picking some herbs at this location. Please excuse us.” The experts who stopped Li Qiye and Yuan Caihe spoke in a serious manner.

Li Qiye glanced at the mountain and lightly asked: “Is there a need to seal off the path just to pick some herbs?”

The expression of one of the experts quickly turned cold as he spoke in a rude and unreasonable manner: “Our Golden Leopard Prince is picking medicines for the supreme celestial being. This is of the utmost importance and there is no room for errors. No one can handle the responsibility of messing this up!”

Li Qiye’s eyes narrowed as he slowly responded: “Is that so?” Until now, only Li Qiye played around without restraints. Others were certainly courting death by doing so before him.

To Li Qiye, this so-called Golden Leopard Prince and “supreme celestial being” were not worthy of consideration.

Compared to Li Qiye’s aggressiveness, Yuan Caihe didn’t want to compete with others, so she quickly tried to persuade him: “Brother Li, we can spend more time walking around, it isn’t so bad.”

Li Qiye looked at this expert once and was too lazy to say more words, so he left along with Yuan Caihe. If it wasn’t for her, Li Qiye would have crossed the mountain.

“Brother Li, don’t pay it any mind. The supreme celestial being they referred to was the world-famous Ye Qingcheng. Anyone would give him some face in the Stone Medicine World.” After taking the long path around, Yuan Caihe consoled him. 1

Li Qiye didn’t really care for such trivial matters. He only took the long path around because of Yuan Caihe’s urging. He smiled and sarcastically asked: “Oh really?”

“No one can stop Ye Qingcheng’s momentum at the moment. Not to mention the younger generation, even the older people treat him with respect.” Yuan Caihe noticed that Li Qiye was not too familiar with the Stone Medicine World’s events, so she explained a few things to him along the way.

“Ye Qingcheng is considered the number one man in the Stone Medicine World with no peers among the younger generation. Countless young geniuses and even Heavenly Kings from the previous generation joined under his banner. It could be said that presently, he has many supporters as well as great prestige. No one can match his momentum right now.” Yuan Caihe explained.

Ye Qingcheng was a compelling name in the Stone Medicine World. There were very few people here who didn’t know who he was. People referred to him as the supreme celestial being, or the Stone Medicine World’s number one man.

Many great powers and imperial lineages believed that Ye Qingcheng would become the Immortal Emperor of this generation. Even imperial descendants were very cordial to him; many of them even decided to join his camp.

Yuan Caihe explained Ye Qingcheng’s situation to Li Qiye. Li Qiye, on the other hand, only smiled at these matters and didn’t care too much. In his mind, as long as Ye Qingcheng didn’t oppose him, it would all be fine. However, if he or anyone else dared to do so, then whether they were geniuses or ordinary men, they would be killed without mercy!

After walking for quite a while, Li Qiye and Yuan Caihe finally reached some vast ruins that spanned for thousands of miles. This place was covered in weeds and gigantic trees.

Despite its current state, one could still see bricks and broken tiles on the ground everywhere. Among them were treasure jades and bricks from walls that had collapsed for who knew how many years. All of these treasure bricks had lost their divinity.

Judging from the scale of the ruins and the debris on the ground, one could tell that this used to be a gigantic citadel, one that could only be described as mighty and extravagant.

“The Celestial Peak Divine School…” Li Qiye’s mind went absent as he stood on top of these ruins. Its past appearance flashed before his eyes as if it was only yesterday.

After so many years, even the most long-standing heritages would fall into decline and eventually be unable to escape the fate of destruction, only to become ruins from then on.

“Brother Li also knows about the Divine School?” Yuan Caihe was surprised to hear Li Qiye because along the way, from their conversation, she knew that Li Qiye was not too familiar with the Stone Medicine World’s situation. Therefore, she didn’t expect him to know an existence like the Celestial Peak Divine School.

Keep in mind that this heritage had perished a very long time ago. In the contemporary era, very few cultivators knew about it.

“I have heard a thing or two about it.” Li Qiye smiled while looking at the ruins ahead.

How could he not know about it? The Divine School was created by an invincible Godking under his banner. In the past, he personally chose the location for the school’s establishment, but now, it was in ruins.

“The Divine School used to be the pride of our human race.” Yuan Caihe couldn’t help but passionately say: “Legend states that at its inception, its fame spread far and wide. During that era, humans from all over this world came to ask for favors from the Divine School. The human cultivators looked at it with pride.”

“Yes.” Li Qiye gently nodded. Although he was the one who selected the site, he didn’t stay here for long. At that time, the flames of war incinerated the entire sky as all of the Nine Worlds were in the middle of a great war.

In the generations after the death of the Godking, Li Qiye, in his Dark Crow form, didn’t return to this place. However, he had still heard of its decline. After so much time had passed, the once illustrious Celestial Peak Divine School had turned into ruins.

Yuan Caihe continued: “Tales told that the old Celestial Peak Divine School was not weaker than any imperial lineage in the Stone Medicine World as it dominated the lands for an era. What a shame that with the passage of time, the strongest lineage of our human race in the Stone Medicine World collapsed.”

“Even imperial lineages will fall one day, so it is not strange for the Divine School to collapse.” Li Qiye said.

He had seen these types of things too many times and had become numb to it. For tens of millions of years, countless unbeatable characters had answered his call. Countless unbeatable characters established their own lineages afterward, and eventually, all of these lineages fell before disappearing from everyone’s minds.

Such things happened in every era, so Li Qiye had grown accustomed to it.

“However, I heard that the Divine School’s decline was due to a different reason.” Yuan Caihe said.

“Different reason? What would that be?” Li Qiye was intrigued to hear this.

“Rumor has it that although the Divine School was very powerful, it seldomly made enemies in the Stone Medicine World. It could even be said to have very good relationships with many lineages. Moreover, since it was situated at the Celestial Peak, it rarely had conflicting interests with the other great powers.” Yuan Caihe said.

“So you are saying that the collapse of the school was not due to it being destroyed by enemies?” Li Qiye said with a light smile.

Yuan Caihe replied: “Yes, there was a belief that was very widespread for some time during that era, but after the Divine School was completely destroyed, no one ever talked about this belief again.”

“Then something extraordinary must have happened at the Divine School, correct?” Li Qiye’s eyes became serious. After the Godking progenitor of the Divine School died, Li Qiye didn’t come back to take a look. He didn’t return when the school was in decline either.

1. Qingcheng = Kingdom toppling, so I’m sure this fella is very pretty.