One Trait Draw Per Year Even Simulations Count

[”Pfft!!”]

[You spat out the ancestral soup you hadn’t yet swallowed.]

[The Old Woman quickly grabbed a rag and collected it.]

[”Oh dear, don’t waste it, don’t waste it...”]

[You were speechless.]

[”Old Woman, isn’t this just fermented slop? How can anyone eat this stuff?”]

[Ji Wuqing burst out laughing.]

[”Why can’t we eat it? Didn’t they say drinking this when you’re sick makes you better? It’s medicine!”]

[”That’s not medicine! That’s fighting poison with poison! Your immune system is going berserk!”]

[Ji Baiming carefully examined the bowl of ancestral soup.] [”Could it be that the people here aren’t affected by the Pollution because of this soup?”]

[You said firmly.]

[”Absolutely not! We should check out the Emperor’s Tomb instead, that’s more reliable!”]

[Ji Wuqing remained enthusiastic.]

[”Let’s go, let’s go! The Emperor’s Tomb is a famous attraction on our Vermilion Violet Star, and I, a local, have never even been there!”]

[Ji Baiming chuckled.]

[”I haven’t been either. Let’s go take a look.”]

[The mountain where the Emperor’s Tomb was located sat right next to Longevity Wood Village.]

[The mountain wasn’t tall, but the path was rugged and difficult to traverse.]

[Of course, for cultivators, even an eighty-nine degree incline was just a slope.]

[”Where’s the tomb?”]

[The three of you had already reached the summit.]

[There were quite a few people here, all cultivators who had come to investigate the Emperor’s Tomb.]

[There was nothing tomb-like here, only a statue and a stone tablet covered in densely carved text.]

[The statue stood ten meters tall, depicting an emperor wearing a dragon robe and a ceremonial crown.]

[He gazed into the distance, exuding authority without even trying, a long sword hanging at his waist, proclaiming his power.]

[The statue had stood here for who knows how many years, its surface now covered in cracks.]

[What you cared about more was that stone tablet.]

[Ji Baiming and Ji Wuqing walked up to the tablet and examined it up and down for a long while, then the father and daughter exchanged a glance.]

[”Can’t read it.”]

[The tablet was covered in what was definitely writing, and some characters did bear traces of modern script, but overall the difference from contemporary characters was far too great.]

[So even Ji Baiming, the family head who had read countless ancient texts collected by the various races, couldn’t decipher the tablet at all.]

[But you could.]

[Because of ”Unrestricted Communication.”]

[”The Chronicles of Twenty-Four Emperors.”]

[Hearing you say that, Ji Wuqing looked over in surprise.]

[”You can read it?”]

[”Mm, this kind of script still circulates in the human world.”]

[You casually made up an excuse.]

[You were still wearing the ”Eavesdrop on Heartstrings” trait tag, so you heard Ji Wuqing’s inner thoughts:]

*Really? Is this guy messing with me? The script is twisted like a ball of yarn, who would use such complicated writing these days?*

[”Ahem, ahem...”]

[Ji Baiming’s inner thoughts:]

*The Void Realm is truly miraculous! Maybe it really does hide the secret to becoming an immortal!*

[You gave the tablet a rough scan and said.]

[”This is a biography of the twenty-four Celestial Emperors, though it’s quite brief, with each entry not very long.”]

[Ji Wuqing looked curiously at Ji Baiming.]

[”Father, did our human race really produce twenty-four Celestial Emperors in succession during the Emperor Era?”]

[”Father isn’t sure either. The Emperor Era is far too distant, and you know how the Alien Race has sealed off and destroyed all information on that subject. Father has no channels to learn more.”]

[”That’s strange. This huge tablet is standing right here, why haven’t they destroyed it?”]

[”Probably because they can’t read the characters and don’t know what it says.”]

[Ji Wuqing turned back to you and asked.]

[”Chen Yi, see if there’s anything about the Pollution recorded on there.”]

[You continued reading further.]

[”Emperor Nameless, sovereign of all races across the universe, worshipped by all living beings, thus the first sovereign since chaos, titled Ancestral Emperor. The Ancestral Emperor was born of noble lineage, yet his fate was fraught with hardship, sent as a hostage in his youth...”]

[The Chronicles of Twenty-Four Emperors recorded each emperor’s title and life story.]

[This included the female Celestial Emperor, Tianhuo Xuan Nu.]

[The female Celestial Emperor’s title during her lifetime was Flame Emperor. Because a later Celestial Emperor with a similar style emerged, the title of Flame Emperor was reassigned, and the female emperor was simply referred to as the Celestial Empress in various records.]

[This chronicle also recorded the legend of how, when the Celestial Empress’s end was near, she used the ”Slash Three Souls” method in hopes of living another life.]

[”Is there any record about the Pollution?”]

[”Yes, there is.”]

[”What does it say?”]

[”It seems that during the Emperor Era, Pollution was quite common, but fortunately the Celestial Emperors presided over the realm, and Pollution in the universe would ultimately be suppressed by them.”]

[”Well, we’re screwed then. We don’t have a Celestial Emperor now, so how do we deal with the Pollution?”]

[You shrugged, indicating you didn’t know either.]

[A few cultivators wearing rather wild attire approached you from the side.]

[”Brother, impressive! You can read this kind of prehistoric script?”]

[You turned to look at these people.]

[”Just a coincidence. I know a little.”]

[”Brother, you may not know, but folks in our line of work come across old artifacts far more often than the average person, so we’ve done a lot of research on ancient scripts. But the prehistoric writing on this tablet, we’ve truly never seen anything like it. It must be far older than any ancient script we know of. Oh, let me introduce myself. My name is Fulai, and these are all my brothers.”]

[The group clasped their fists at you in greeting, quite polite.]

[But when you casually listened to their inner thoughts, you learned that these people were tomb raiders.]

[And a rather high-end tomb raiding crew at that, because the lowest cultivation among them was already at the Core Formation realm.]

[Their leader, Fulai, was even at the Transcendent Realm.]

[With Transcendent cultivation and still doing grave robbing, you couldn’t help but feel a bit of contempt.]

[Fulai asked.]

[”May I ask, brother, does this tablet record what treasures are hidden in the Emperor’s Tomb, and whether there’s any danger?”]

[You smiled.]

[”I think this place is more of a memorial site, not an actual tomb.”]

[”Heh heh, once I dig up this mountain, we’ll know whether it’s a tomb or not!”]

[These people had astonishing execution, starting to work on the spot.]

[Cultivator tomb raiders didn’t need complicated tools or procedures. They just blasted things open with cultivation techniques and Divine Arts!]

[The only problem was that the cultivators on the mountain who were investigating the Emperor’s Tomb suffered the consequences.]

[Suddenly, the earth shook and the mountains quaked. Everyone could only use the now precious immortal power to protect themselves.]

[Fulai and his crew caused all that destruction, yet they only managed to tear up some topsoil. They couldn’t even shatter a single decent rock.]

[Ji Baiming said, ”This place seems to be no ordinary spot.”]

[Fulai looked at you and laughed. ”Brother, still think this is just a memorial site?”]

[You said flatly, ”Brother, you should be praying this really is just a memorial site.”]

[From these tomb raiders’ inner thoughts, you heard their contempt for the Celestial Emperors. They believed the emperors were merely legends of ancient people, mythologized by later generations, and that their actual cultivation was probably only at the Qi Transformation realm.]