Dominator Emperor

And now, Marquis Jiangzuo—the very heir favored by the Elders of the Jiangzuo Family—had died at the hands of a Xiyan Ancient Sect disciple. How could this not make the Jiangzuo Family gnash their teeth in hatred, wishing they could slaughter the entire sect!

Within the Xiyan Ancient Sect, inside Solitary Peak, Li Qiye sat cross-legged in his room. His Life Palaces were wide open, two of them floating above his head. One was large and the other small; the former was his Main Life Palace, and the latter was a Secondary Life Palace.

The Secondary Life Palace was one Li Qiye had newly opened himself. By the time he reached the Great Perfection stage of the Palace Breaking Realm, his second Life Palace had already been successfully established.

At this moment, inside Li Qiye’s Main Palace, his True Destiny sat with its eyes closed, absorbing Heaven and Earth Essence Qi. A Kunpeng soared within, refining the essence qi to construct his Dao Foundation.

Meanwhile, Li Qiye’s Life Wheel continued to turn. His Blood Qi surged like a ceaseless river. Cycle after cycle, the refined Blood Qi condensed into Longevity Blood, which was then stored within the Life Wheel.

The Yin Yang Blood Sea, which supported the Celestial Life Wheel, flowed ceaselessly like a pair of Yin Yang Fish in an endless cycle. Blood Qi slowly coursed through it, and the essence that trickled out nourished the Life Wheel like morning dew. This caused the Life Wheel to spin even faster, which in turn accelerated the rate at which the Moon Vortex Sun Wheel Technique refined Longevity Blood.

At the same time, nourished by the Yin Yang Blood Sea, the Life Wheel grew even more brilliant as Annual Rings were added one after another. This phenomenon signified that Li Qiye’s lifespan was increasing year by year. Barring any accidents, his life would extend with each passing year.

Li Qiye was now in the Vigorous Longevity Realm. In fact, he had already entered this realm back at Demon’s Back Ridge. Now, he was even approaching its Great Perfection stage!

The Vigorous Longevity Realm has three stages, which, from lowest to highest, are: First Tempering Treasure, Second Gathering Radiance, and Three-Soaked Life Wheel!

In the First Tempering Treasure stage, one tempers their Longevity Treasure with Blood Qi. Any cultivator who reaches this stage must possess a Longevity Treasure, whether it is inherited or personally refined from the Annual Rings of a Longevity Spirit.

A cultivator who reaches this stage—whether from a Minor Sect or a Major Sect—must obtain a Longevity Treasure of their own. They could have done without one before, but from this realm onward, it is an absolute necessity. Otherwise, without a Longevity Treasure’s aid, their refinement of Longevity Blood would be significantly slower than others.

Thus, cultivators from minor sects, having no other choice, can only refine the cheapest Annual Rings into a Longevity Treasure and wait until they become powerful enough to replace their Life Wheel. At the very least, the cost of replacing a Life Wheel is far less than that of replacing a Heavenly Destiny True Artifact.

Li Qiye had acquired a Longevity Treasure long ago—the Yin Yang Blood Sea. In fact, he had refined it time and time again even before entering this stage, so he surpassed the First Tempering Treasure stage with ease.

The Second Gathering Radiance stage involves absorbing the Essence of Heaven and Earth, strengthening one’s vital Blood Qi, and refining it into Longevity Blood! To a cultivator, neither Blood Qi nor the Essence of Heaven and Earth is the ultimate substance—Longevity Blood is. It not only contains the essence of one’s lifespan but also the Essence of Heaven and Earth that has been refined through cultivation.

There is a saying among cultivators: once you exhaust your last drop of Longevity Blood, you are on the verge of death!

The Moon Vortex Sun Wheel Technique was absurdly powerful for refining Longevity Blood. With the aid of his Yin Yang Blood Sea, the process was effortless for Li Qiye. Through repeated refinement, his supply of Longevity Blood became abundant and was stored within his Life Wheel.

The third stage is Nourishing the Life Wheel. This is a process where the Longevity Treasure feeds back into the Life Wheel, while simultaneously nurturing the Longevity Treasure itself.

When cultivators reach this stage of cultivation, they must extend their lifespan. This is the stage where a cultivator truly begins to transcend the realm of mortals.

Nourishing the Life Wheel means using the Longevity Treasure to extend one’s lifespan. As more and more Annual Rings form on the Life Wheel, it signifies that your lifespan is increasing year by year!

When your Life Wheel accumulates one thousand Annual Rings, it signifies that you have reached Great Perfection in the Nourishing the Life Wheel stage. This also marks Great Perfection in the Vigorous Longevity Realm, and you will advance to the next realm—the True Fate Realm.

Once you reach Great Perfection in the Nourishing the Life Wheel stage, you will possess a lifespan of one thousand years. This means that, in principle, even if your Dao Practice never advances another step, you can live for a full millennium. Of course, this doesn’t account for dying in an accident or being killed by others. In reality, it’s doubtful anyone can live out the full thousand years just by reaching this stage; you are bound to encounter enemies or face deadly perils eventually.

As the Annual Rings were added one by one, Li Qiye’s lifespan increased year by year.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Qiye stopped using the Yin Yang Blood Sea to nourish his Life Wheel. He then turned his focus to his second Life Palace—the new Secondary Life Palace he had established.

Inside the second Life Palace, the Spring of Life gurgled, the Tree of Life shone brilliantly, and the Life Furnace blazed fiercely...

The only difference was that this second Life Palace contained no True Destiny; this is the greatest distinction between a Main and a Secondary Palace. In the place where the True Destiny should have been, a Dao Bone was floating instead!

This crystalline, jade-like Dao Bone was none other than that of Little Confusion, which Li Qiye had brought back from Demon’s Back Ridge. Li Qiye drew upon his Spring of Life and Tree of Life, using the Water of Life and the Power of Life to temper the Dao Bone again and again. He made the bone even more translucent, and after countless refinements, he could faintly see silk-like Laws forming within it. These fine Laws were wrapped into a cocoon, as if life were gestating inside.

The Life Furnace, Spring of Life, Tree of Life, and Pillar of Life within a Life Palace could all lend their power to refine Life Artifacts. However, many Elder Sages did not believe their true profound purpose lay in merely refining artifacts.

As for the true mysteries of the Life Furnace and its counterparts, very few people throughout the ages have ever been able to explain them clearly!

Cultivators possess a Main Life Palace and Secondary Life Palaces. The True Destiny resides in the Main Palace. Simultaneously, the True Destiny Artifact—also known as a True Artifact—is also housed within the Main Palace, governing the True Destiny’s offense and defense!

Treasure Artifacts, on the other hand, reside in the Secondary Life Palaces. This is the greatest distinction between True Destiny Artifacts and regular Life Artifacts! However, Treasure Artifacts also fall into different categories: for instance, there are unrefined and unnurtured Treasure Artifacts, and then there are those that are actively nurtured and refined.

Unrefined and unnurtured Treasure Artifacts are largely those inherited from one’s elders, or artifacts that one has personally refined but no longer actively nurtures.

This type of Treasure Artifact will not advance in level. A cultivator can use it at any time, but its level will remain fixed forever.

One can store any number of these Treasure Artifacts in a Life Palace. In fact, a Life Palace is an immense space; if you are powerful enough, you can even fit the heavens and the earth inside!

Nurtured Treasure Artifacts, however, are different. A single Life Palace can only nurture one Treasure Artifact at a time. During that period, the Life Furnace, the Spring of Life, and the other features can only refine and nourish that one specific artifact. This means that each Life Palace can only actively support a single Treasure Artifact.

A Treasure Artifact nurtured by a Life Palace will advance in level along with your Dao Practice. At the same time, its power and special properties will change depending on the Cultivation Technique used to refine it.

For cultivators refining a Treasure Artifact within their Life Palace using the Life Furnace and Pillar of Life, there are two primary materials: Dao Treasure Gold and Celestial Beast Dao Bone.

Dao Treasure Gold and Celestial Beast Dao Bones are vastly different. A Treasure Artifact refined from Dao Treasure Gold has no upper limit to its level. If you are powerful enough, you can refine a single piece of Dao Treasure Gold all the way into an Immortal Emperor’s Treasure.

Celestial Beast Dao Bones are different, however. The level of the Celestial Beast from which the bone was taken sets a hard limit; the Treasure Artifact refined from it can never surpass the bone’s innate level.

Even so, many cultivators still prefer to use Celestial Beast Dao Bones as the material for their Treasure Artifacts. The reason is simple: an artifact refined from a Celestial Beast Dao Bone will possess the Dao might and form of the original beast.

For example, if one were to refine a Treasure Artifact from the Dao Bone of a Sky Mad Lion Emperor, the resulting artifact would not only possess the power of the refinement technique but also the divine might of the Sky Mad Lion Emperor’s roar!

Refining an artifact with Dao Treasure Gold means starting from scratch, but its potential is far greater than one made from a Celestial Beast Dao Bone. An artifact from a Celestial Beast Dao Bone, however, is much more powerful in the early stages.

Li Qiye repeatedly nourished Little Confusion’s Dao Bone with the Water of Life and the Power of Life. For him, this wasn’t as simple as merely refining it into a Treasure Artifact; Little Confusion held a very special significance.

Little Confusion was, one might say, innately gifted—so much so that it could even be called peerless. However, it was extremely fragile in its youth and needed to undergo one metamorphosis after another.

It was for this very reason that when Li Qiye brought it out from the old lands all those years ago, he had Mingren Immortal Emperor raise it in the western part of Demon’s Back Ridge. He even demarcated a forbidden zone there, as it was the most suitable place for Little Confusion to grow.

Given enough time to grow, Little Confusion would one day become an existence that could shock the very gods. In fact, tens of thousands of years ago, it had already grown to a terrifyingly powerful state.

However, during the thirty or forty thousand years he was slumbering, something happened: Little Confusion was killed! ’This is a provocation against my authority.’ This was a score he would settle with the responsible party, sooner or later.

As Li Qiye nourished the bone again and again with the Water of Life and the Power of Life, an unknown amount of time passed. Eventually, the Dao Bone began to faintly emit a rosy mist. This finally allowed Li Qiye to breathe a sigh of relief. ’There’s still hope!’

In Li Qiye’s eyes, the appearance of this rosy mist meant there was hope. ’One day,’ he thought, ’I will allow this nigh-invincible existence to reappear in the world!’