Tianji Palace.
Just like any other day, it was empty and quiet.
Lou Youzhi supported Dou Tianyuan as they walked closer to the dragon throne and bowed slowly.
"I have learned about this and would like to pay my respects to Your Majesty."
"Come in."
Emperor Yongtai's voice came from behind the curtain.
Except for the voice which had changed from old to strong, the tone was no different from before.
Just as indifferent.
"I really figured it out for you..."
Dou Tianyuan muttered.
The two began to climb the stairs.
Normally speaking, to go to the back hall to meet Emperor Qing, one has to exit the Tianji Hall, go around the back of the hall, and ask for an audience through the north gate.
Like the Qitianzhai that many royal families have participated in, they all enter from the north gate.
But for both parties who had already laid out their carriages and horses, this step of pretending to be respectful was obviously redundant, and Emperor Yongtai was too lazy to bother with such a detail.
When he opened his mouth, the golden curtain had already been lifted, clearly allowing the two to enter directly from behind the dragon throne.
Just like that, the two of them followed the curtain and entered.
The hall connecting the front and back halls is spacious but seems crowded.
Because the entire hall was filled with all kinds of documents hung horizontally with hundreds of silk threads.
There are pictures, articles, leather scrolls... crowded.
With just one glance, Lou Youzhi saw a lot of content that he had only heard about before but had never been able to experience in person.
For example, it shows the earliest Kunyu map, which has a much larger land area than the current one.
For example, the ancient cultivation methods recorded in ancient characters.
And so on and so forth.
“These things didn’t exist at the beginning.”
Emperor Yongtai's voice came from deeper inside, "I prepared this after I decided to tell you the truth. Unfortunately..."
What a pity?
Unfortunately, no one dared to accept the invitation or obey the order to enter the back hall.
Lou Youzhi was not moved at all by this.
He just glanced at the various precious historical materials hanging there and paid no more attention to them, supporting Dou Tianyuan and continuing to walk.
Squeak.
The door connecting the rear hall and the hall opened automatically.
The palatial but common apse space is revealed.
A heroic and majestic figure stood with his hands behind his back and his back to the two of them.
It was Emperor Yongtai.
"His Majesty……"
Lou Youzhi pretended to bow again.
"Okay, I won't kill you."
Emperor Yongtai interrupted without even turning his head, "Don't you want to see the evidence of the destruction of the world? Come and see it."
Lou Youzhi and Dou Tianyuan looked at each other and took a step forward at the same time.
The first step is to enter the back hall.
——Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss!
The huge noise was obviously harsh, but at the same time it seemed so empty and ethereal. It appeared so suddenly!
Even though Lou Youzhi had made preparations in advance, he still lost consciousness in an instant, his heart filled with fear.
"That's it! That's it!"
Dou Tianyuan broke free from the support and staggered a few steps.
He ran all the way to Emperor Yongtai before he could no longer help but stumble and fall down suddenly.
Then, his whole body froze.
On the ground in front of him, there was an irregular hole about ten feet in radius.
The edges of the hole are covered with fine cracks extending in all directions.
Inside the hole was an indescribable deep darkness.
Just one glance and Dou Tianyuan felt a strong urge to escape from here.
“Is this the damage to the world?”
I don't know when Lou Youzhi stood behind Dou Tianyuan.
The tone that was equally frightened but retained a certain degree of calmness made Dou Tianyuan calm down quickly.
"That should be it..."
Dou Tianyuan slowly stood up and murmured in shock, "The sound came from here, exactly the same as what I heard before."
"Oh."
Emperor Yongtai turned around, revealing a face as young as the one on Qitiantai.
"If the entire Tianxuan Realm is regarded as a cave heaven, the rules that originally filled the world can now only cover a small area like the back hall."
"That's why this annoying sound can't be heard outside the back hall."
As he spoke, Emperor Yongtai flicked his sleeves.
The floor of the rear hall was smoothed again, revealing the original luxurious carpet.
The noise and the hole disappeared in an instant.
"It's ridiculous."
Emperor Yongtai suddenly shook his head with amusement, "I only have a few short years left to live, and the Yongzhou matter is just to delay it for a little longer for the sake of my successor and the world."
"But I didn't expect that so many unexpected things would happen later."
"You resent me for Jiang Zhihong's death, but have you ever thought that if Jiang Zhihong did nothing, at least two million people in Yongzhou could survive?"
"And if Jiang Zhihong succeeded in saving Yongzhou, given the drastic population decline at the time, the entire world would once again be in danger of destruction within ten years."
"I want to ask you."
Emperor Yongtai asked calmly, "If that really happens, the next Emperor Qing will be coerced by you guys with the so-called justice of the world and can no longer use natural disasters to delay the crisis. Then, all the people in the world will die because of this. Who should we hate?"
The repeated questions were all real facts laid out in plain sight.
On one side are personal emotions, and on the other side is the danger of world destruction.
The two wanted to refute, but they couldn't find any arguments to refute.
In the end, Dou Tianyuan asked with great reluctance, "Is there really no other way?"
"There is no proven method, but... when I was still the crown prince, I once tried to find another way."
Emperor Yongtai suddenly spoke up, "Perhaps there is a way to solve the problem once and for all without requiring anyone to die."
"Once and for all?"
Dou Tianyuan immediately became alert, "What's the solution?"
Emperor Yongtai slowly uttered three words: "Eternal Heaven."
"this……"
Lou Youzhi's heart tightened, but he said calmly, "I have found some records that Changshengtian is different from other caves. The space inside is very small, probably only the size of a house. Not to mention the migration of the entire human race, even a family with a slightly larger population would find it too crowded."
“Of course not a migration.”
Emperor Yongtai shook his head. "No matter what, Changshengtian is just a cave heaven, far from being comparable to Tianxuanjie. How could I be so unwise?"
"When I searched all over the mountains and rivers, in addition to finding a magical power, I also obtained the Eternal Heaven and many fragments of the Cave Heaven."
" Some of them contain rules, while others only have a little spiritual energy left."
"I have placed all these fragments in the Eternal Heaven."
"Because my goal is to find a way out of Tianxuan Realm, and the rules of Changshengtian are not effective for people with incomplete purple palaces like Taizu bloodline, so it was not until I returned to the capital a long time later that I noticed something unusual when I was counting the harvest."
"The fragments were contaminated by rules, and many of the rules on them disappeared, turning them into completely dead objects."
"On the contrary, other fragments containing spiritual energy have been preserved very well."
Emperor Yongtai looked at the two of them deeply, "If my speculation is correct, those rules were absorbed by Changshengtian."
"Can the rules of longevity absorb other cave rules?"
Dou Tianyuan was stunned, "Has Changshengtian changed?"
"I didn't want to make it known to everyone, so I didn't become the real controller of Changshengtian, and I couldn't really feel the changes."
Emperor Yongtai shook his head slightly, "But the rules on those fragments disappeared, there can only be this explanation."
Lou Youzhi thought of a more critical question and asked, "Your Majesty just said that not all fragments have absorbed the rules?"
"really."
Emperor Yongtai nodded and said, "Some rules can be absorbed, and some rules will always remain the same no matter how long they are stored in Changshengtian."
"It may be related to the grade of the cave, but there is no need to worry about that."
"I have tried it with some higher-grade cave fragments."
"At least, the fragments of the Illusionary Heaven that cannot be absorbed by the other caves can be absorbed by the rules of the rear hall."
"However, it may be that there are too few fragments of Huan Zhen Tian, ​​so it is of no help to the rear hall."
"But Changshengtian is different. You know, what I had at that time was a complete and intact Changshengtian."
"The method I am trying to think of is to break up the Eternal Heaven, and then collect as many fragments as possible that are contaminated with the rules of immortality, and feed them all to the rear hall."
As Emperor Yongtai spoke, the two of them couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
indeed.
Although immortality is a rule that applies to lifespan, the gradual decline of a cave or a world can also be seen as another form of lifespan.
In addition, no matter how high the grade of Changshengtian is, it certainly cannot be compared with the entire Tianxuan Realm.
This method is theoretically quite feasible.
After pondering for a moment, Lou Youzhi's heart moved slightly, "Your Majesty designed Lin Kuang, wasn't it for the purpose of incarnating in the first place?"
"An incarnation?"
Emperor Yongtai shook his head and laughed, "This is just an unexpected gain."
"If you want to destroy a cave heaven by human means, you can only do it by using another cave heaven to touch it and make the rules of the two conflict with each other."
"And the many caves in the capital are either not easy to move, or each has its own forces entrenched. It is not something that a prince can squander at will."
“So, there was a plan for Lin Kuang.”
"As for the incarnation..."
"Before Lin Kuang survived the collapse of Baicao Garden, I didn't know that a mere Taoist master could actually master a magical power."
"Unfortunately, I didn't expect that all the rules of Changshengtian were actually gathered on a fragment, and this fragment has never been found by the court."
"I have put so much thought and effort into this, but because of this small deviation, I have failed for more than 20 years."
"It was not until a while ago that the immortal appeared that I saw hope again."
"If I'm not mistaken, the immortal is the descendant of Taizu, right?"
Emperor Yongtai looked at the two of them meaningfully, "Where is he now? Do you two know?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lou Youzhi and Dou Tianyuan's faces turned grim, and they chose to keep silent at the same time.
"Whatever."
Emperor Yongtai sighed, "Do you know what the environment outside the world is like?"
environment?
The two were stunned, wondering why Emperor Yongtai suddenly brought up this.
"Think about it. This gap has existed for so many years. How not send people out to investigate?"
After saying this lightly, Emperor Yongtai turned around and made the terrifying black hole appear again.
A shrill scream sounded, and Lou Youzhi and Dou Tianyuan were inevitably frightened again.
After a while, when the two of them had gotten used to it a little, Emperor Yongtai continued to speak.
"Over the years, people who have achieved the ninth transformation of Yangshen, the ninth level of Dharmadhatu, and the ninth level of Golden Body have all been sent out."
"It was sent out with a rope tied around the waist of Taoist quality."
"Unfortunately, there was no gain."
"A rope of Dao weapon quality will be corroded in an instant once it leaves this world. If you pull it back with even a little force, it will be torn apart directly."
"The ninth rank of Dharmadhatu suffered the same fate as the Daoqi rope. It decayed into dry bones in an instant."
"Comparatively, the Golden Body Nine Transformations can last a little longer."
"The highest record was six hours later, when a faint cry for help was sent back."
"However, the most surprising thing is that there is only a Yang God at the second level of the Seed Dao."
As he spoke, an inexplicable light flashed in Emperor Yongtai's eyes.
This glimmer of light is fleeting and extremely difficult to detect.
But he was still inevitably caught by Lou Youzhi.
In fact, Lou Youzhi had been paying close attention to Emperor Yongtai's expression since he entered the back hall.
It was not until now that he noticed something was wrong.
Lou Youzhi felt a chill in his heart.
For some reason, he always felt that the gleam in Emperor Yongtai's eyes...
Like desire?
So Lou Youzhi asked carefully: "Could it be possible that Yang Shen can survive longer outside?"
"That's right."
Emperor Yongtai nodded, "With the Yang Spirit wrapped around the body, it can last a full month outside the realm."
"He's back?"
Dou Tianyuan couldn't help but ask.
"No."
Emperor Yongtai's tone was filled with regret, "The rope broke quickly."
"The reason why the emperor at that time could find out that he had lived for so long was because every person who went out left a life lamp behind."
"In fact, in all these years of attempts, only the Life Lamp can transmit information back to the outside world. All other external objects are ineffective."
I see……
Dou Tianyuan was a little disappointed.
The function of the life lamp is only one, which is to instantly reflect the life and death of the owner. When the person dies, the lamp will go out.
The life lamp is not a treasure, a magic weapon, or a Taoist tool. Even if the owner of the life lamp dies in the seventh level of the Imperial Prison, it will give an immediate response. It is reasonable that it can reflect the life and death of people outside the realm.
"In Taizu's notes, this is not what it looked like at the beginning."
Emperor Yongtai continued, "Its original appearance was similar to the entrance and exit of the cave, and it could be opened and closed at any time."
"However, since Taizu pacified the world, it can only be hidden and cannot be closed."
"Even if it doesn't continue to expand and always maintains this appearance, and the world won't be destroyed, have you ever thought about it..."
"Besides the Tianxuan Realm, are there any other worlds?"
"If there is ..."
Emperor Yongtai's tone suddenly deepened, "If a strong man from outside the realm comes in through this gap, what will we face?"
A strong person from outside the world?
Come in along it?
The two were shocked.
How powerful must one be to be able to survive in an environment outside the world where even Taoist tools and the Nine Transformations of the Golden Body would be corroded and destroyed?
“In addition, its expansion can only be delayed, not stopped.”
Emperor Yongtai did not give the two men time to react. "When I first saw it in the 42nd year of Wenchang, it was only six feet in diameter."
"From the founding of the country to the Wenchang era, it took thousands of years for it to expand to only six feet... but in just a few decades from Wenchang to now, it has expanded to ten feet."
Lou Youzhi and the other man looked at each other and were both speechless.
At least judging from all the current appearances, Emperor Yongtai's approach is truly correct.
Be it Jiang Zhihong, those Mars who screamed "What is martial arts" in Yongzhou, Du Qianchuan, Jiang Xinghe, etc., including the two of them themselves...
Both are wrong.
Is it really wrong?
"Now, there is a way that is likely to end the danger of world destruction."
Emperor Yongtai concealed the gap, turned around and said calmly, "And you still want to stick to that ridiculous and hypocritical morality in your heart?"
ridiculous?
hypocritical?
Dou Tianyuan's instinctive reaction was anger.
But Emperor Yongtai didn't care about his reaction at all, he just stared at Lou Youzhi deeply.
After all, Dou Tianyuan is often a reckless man, and this has been proven many times.
Lou Youzhi's past actions are enough to show that he is not a person who will lose his reason for personal feelings.
Everything I did before was simply because I didn’t know the truth about the world.
Now that we know this, we should be able to make a reasonable and correct choice.
pity.
Emperor Yongtai was still wrong.
"His Majesty."
Lou Youzhi laughed, "Your real purpose should not be to find a way out for the entire Tianxuan Realm, right?"
"In other words, you can't find a way out for the entire Tianxuan Realm."
"All you've done is to find a way out for yourself, right?"