Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 449: Chapter 217: Imperial Fleet, Interstellar Convention

In the timeless pursuit of cultivation, years pass in the blink of an eye.

In the year 17,832 of the Fusang Calendar, Li Chang’an turned 2,500 years old. By this point, his Martial Arts Cultivation had reached the Divinity Transformation Realm, making him countless times more powerful than he was as a Grandmaster three hundred years prior.

Of course, this was not his greatest achievement over the past few centuries.

His true greatest achievement was remedying the shortcomings and flaws of the Incense and Candle Divine Dao. Using the Power of Incense he had gathered over the years, he elevated his own cultivation in the Incense and Candle Divine Dao to the True God Realm!

And one should not underestimate a True God.

Li Chang’an had already cultivated the Martial Dao. By building upon that foundation and also cultivating the Incense and Candle Divine Dao to a level just one step shy of its peak, his power grew exponentially. The synergy wasn’t a simple case of one plus one equals two; it far surpassed that of any Cultivator in the same Realm who followed only a single path. It would be no exaggeration to call it an attack from a higher dimension.

Cultivation was, of course, his highest priority.

However, over the years, Li Chang’an had not neglected to promote the Martial Dao and guide the world’s development.

Ever since the Sun Emperor fell and the Celestial Realm was destroyed by Li Chang’an, the remaining forces of the Incense and Candle Divine Dao in the Mortal Realm lost their great protector. They were either assimilated by the Godslayer Alliance or wiped out.

By now, the Godslayer Alliance was the undisputed ruler of the entire planet.

And as the true mastermind behind it all, Li Chang’an was the absolute master of this vast organization. In other words, Li Chang’an had become the single most powerful being on the entire planet.

Yet upon reaching this zenith of power, Li Chang’an found himself becoming more detached, his worldly desires fading.

He had expected the Celestial Realm’s fleet to return within a few decades, or a century at most. He never imagined that three hundred years would pass in the blink of an eye, and still, the fleet he awaited had not returned.

This left Li Chang’an feeling rather let down.

After all, that was often how things worked: the more one anticipated something, the greater the disappointment. It was when one stopped expecting anything that things started going smoothly.

Li Chang’an and the entire Godslayer Alliance had been in a constant state of readiness to face the Celestial Realm’s returning forces, maintaining a level of vigilance that was nothing short of relentless.

Yet, after all that, their preparations had come to naught.

Since the Celestial Realm’s fleet wasn’t coming to them, Li Chang’an decided to take the initiative. He dispatched teams to begin a thorough search of the surrounding planets.

This world’s civilization lacked the technological capability to build something as advanced as an interstellar spacecraft, but Li Chang’an knew how!

He had, after all, learned quite a bit of advanced technology in Night City and several other worlds.

This included the design schematics for interstellar spacecraft.

Of course, the technological level of the spacecraft he designed and created was still a far cry from that of the Flying Ships built by the Celestial Palace.

After all, the Immortal Palace itself was a product of the Cultivation World’s own technology.

Add to that the Liyang Empire, which Li Chang’an himself had founded... The advanced technology developed from the combination of the two was not easily surpassed.

Li Chang’an’s spacecraft could only support short-range voyages.

True long-range interstellar travel was simply beyond the support of their current technology and power.

Fortunately, for merely searching the surrounding planets, short-range spacecraft were more than sufficient.

When he destroyed the Celestial Realm, Li Chang’an had essentially inherited its entire Library Pavilion and archives. This included records of the Celestial Immortal Gods’ explorations of surrounding Star Realms aboard their ships.

Using these records and supplementing them with their own explorations, it took only a few decades for an interstellar exploration team to discover the wreck of an interstellar spacecraft deep in space.

The interstellar spacecraft appeared ancient and bore signs of numerous repairs. All evidence suggested that this was the main returning force from the Celestial Realm.

But now, the ship was a total wreck. All that remained was its shattered hull, drifting fragments, and countless desiccated corpses.

Based on the evidence at the site, the fleet had likely been struck by an unknown force during its voyage. The ship was hit, and not a single Celestial Immortal God on board had managed to escape. The entire crew had been annihilated.

’No wonder the Celestial Realm’s reinforcements never returned. Turns out they ran into some calamity and were wiped out halfway here.’

While the discovery was startling, everyone, including Li Chang’an, couldn’t help but feel a sense of grim absurdity.

With the discovery that the Celestial Realm’s reinforcements had long been destroyed, the Sword of Damocles hanging over the Godslayer Alliance finally vanished.

Under Li Chang’an’s orders, the interstellar spacecraft, already deep in space, did not turn back. Instead, it continued along the Celestial Realm’s retreat vector, hoping to find the planet that had originally been at war with them.

Decades passed once more.

The interstellar spacecraft reported back: the planet that had fought the Celestial Realm was also destroyed. It had been struck by an unknown weapon, and the entire world was engulfed in a sea of fire. Even now, the aftershocks of the explosion had not fully dissipated.

Now, this was no longer some distant spectacle to be observed with detached curiosity.

Instead, they felt a visceral fear and terror.

After all, if this mysterious, unknown power had only shot down the Celestial Realm’s ship, it could have been dismissed as an accident or a coincidence. Perhaps there was something special about the Celestial Realm’s vessel that had drawn the attention of some unknown entity.

But now, this same mysterious power hadn’t just downed a single ship. It had obliterated an entire planet...

That was a truly terrifying prospect.