They had met!

Ye Futian appeared thoughtful. Many images flashed across his mind at this very moment.

More than 200 years ago, the Sovereign Princess—his mother—had a premonition of the dangers ahead, which accounted for the events that took place later. Subsequently, the Sovereign Princess herself had fallen.

But now, Donghuang the Great claimed that she had always been around; in fact, Ye Futian had already met her.

Then, there could only be one possibility remaining, and that was she had been existing in the world in another form.

“No wonder there is the resonance!” Ye Futian secretly marveled, looking at Donghuang the Great.

“The ninety-ninth heaven in Heaven Realm, that slice of the Heavenly Path!”

“Mmm.” Donghuang the Great nodded. “In the days of yore, she made her Heavenly Path into an ancient tree that allowed all things to grow. Later, she sent the spirit of the Heavenly Path into your body, which became your spiritual soul, to accompany you in your growth always. She transformed herself into an imperfect Heavenly Path to existing in the world. This was to avoid the suspicions of the others.”

“No wonder the six emperors did not enter,” Ye Futian murmured. Everyone knew that the Heavenly Path possessed a spiritual consciousness, or else it would not have yielded divine items as it did. But Ye Futian never dreamt that the consciousness of the Heavenly Path would be his mother—the most superior woman in the world. Nobody could even come close to her.

Ye Futian felt a pang of sadness in his chest at this moment. It turned out that they had met already.

“So, Ji Wudao is also a pawn!” Ye Futian said.

“Yes,” Donghuang the Great nodded, “Ji Wudao has always been part of the plan. Like Diyuan and Yu Sheng, they are the future rulers of the order between heaven and earth. At the same time, they are also used as distractions so that the rest of them may confuse Ji Wudao as the one who covets heaven. In fact, in recent years, this is exactly what everyone thought.

“And it’s not just the world—even Ji Wudao himself thinks so as well. His growth has far exceeded anyone’s expectations. Ji Wudao has completed the cultivation of the Chaotic Heavenly Swallowing Method, a terrifying divine method that can devour the abilities of the others, absorbing them as his own. More precisely, Ji Wudao can be described as a pawn that has escaped the chessboard.”

Donghuang the Great continued, “If he is under control, then even if he inherited the throne of the Heavenly Emperor, he can still be used by you. If he is no longer under control, he can be replaced instead. Futian, you are the true Heavenly Emperor.”

Ye Futian did not feel happy when he heard what Donghuang the Great had told him. On the contrary, he felt a sense of sadness.

Donghuang Diyuan, Yu Sheng, and Ji Wudao were all about the same age as he was.

So this was the truth—all of them were born for the same goal, and all of them were pawns in this game, played between heaven and earth.

But Donghuang the Great had changed the game. For his safety, he and Donghuang Diyuan switched their identities, which even Emperor Ye Qing didn’t know. That was the reason why Emperor Ye Qing was so sorrowful after looking into his spiritual soul.

Everyone was born for his sake.

How sad was this for Donghuang Diyuan, Yu Sheng and Ji Wudao?

“So, Chen Yi was too.” Ye Futian thought of what happened at the Great Bright Domain in the land of 18 domains, which ended with Blind Chen’s death. Now it seemed that only Donghuang the Great could have staged all this.

Donghuang the Great nodded and asked, “Do you have any other questions?”

“What about Qingyao?” Ye Futian asked.

“She is not part of this,” Donghuang the Great nodded, “Ye Qingyao was an accident; the child of darkness was not part of the plan.”

“What about the teacher?” Ye Futian asked again.

“The teacher is an unusual man,” said Donghuang the Great, “Some things were done because I asked the teacher to do them.”

Ye Futian nodded. Then, it was not surprising that he was the one in charge of Four Corner Village.

“So, with such a massive plan, who is the enemy?” Ye Futian finally asked, “Who can make her perish? And why did Emperor Ye Qing have to die? And even Emperor Ye Qing’s whole faction was wiped out?”

300 years after the unification of the Divine Prefecture, the civil war between the two emperors erupted, resulting in the entire faction of Emperor Ye Qing being obliterated. It was said that there was so much blood they formed into rivers in that battle, and it was not just Emperor Ye Qing who was killed; it was commonly believed that numerous great demons had been immolated in that battle, which created a huge gap in the Demon Realm.

It might even be that only a few core people knew the truth and died willingly. The majority of them remained ignorant and became collateral damages to the plan.

For those people, it was unbelievably cruel. Once, they were the founders of the Divine Prefecture, but they were purged ruthlessly.

Donghuang the Great had a complicated expression on his face when he heard Ye Futian’s questions. This was also the pain he felt in his heart for many years, which he had been unwilling to face. If he had a choice, he rather that it was him who died.

“Let me answer for him,” a voice said. Ye Futian turned around and saw a familiar figure coming towards them.

When Ye Futian saw the man, his heart trembled slightly, but he couldn’t manage to address the man as he used to.

At this time, he was no longer a hunched-over old man. An icy aura permeated from him, and his eyes were cold to the core, tinged with cruelty. Those eyes looked at Ye Futian. “Your mother wanted to remake the order of the world and end the era of chaos. But the best way to change the world is to directly gain control over the world. Many years ago, she had already predicted the outcome, so the plan had been in place even before she fell. The only difference was that the plan was not as extensive at the time, and only some things were being done. It wasn’t until her fall that the plan started to take shape.

“As for her death, we still haven’t figured out who the enemy was. But as far as we know, it’s very possibly the Human Ancestor. Of course, it would not be the one that you saw today,” Ye Futian’s godfather looked at Ye Futian as he continued to explain. “But in the battle back then, the enemy was gravely injured as well and fell into a deep sleep. The Human Ancestor you see today is most likely just the other’s spokesperson in the world.”

Ye Futian was extremely shocked inside. The Human Ancestor was known as the ancestor of the Human Realm, in charge of the world order. Could something like this have been hidden so deeply within his background?

“After your mother fell, the enemies still refused to give up and forbade the existence of two emperors in the Divine Prefecture. They joined forces with the Dark World, the Devil World, and the Empty Divine Realm to start a war, intending to destroy the Divine Prefecture. Because of that, a civil war between the two emperors erupted, and the Divine Prefecture separated from the Heaven Realm. This was a tragically costly price to paralyze our opponent. At that time, the other also had concerns of their own, so the battle was a lose-lose situation. Our enemies did not dare to fully expose themselves, for they worried about the forces of the Devil World and other principalities, so things eventually calmed down in consideration of everything and all parties. However, they had never relented in keeping tabs on Donghuang Imperial Palace. As a result, Donghuang Imperial Palace cleared the remaining power of Emperor Ye Qing as a way to buy us 200 more years. If we didn’t sacrifice a faction, and if the other party spares no expense, the Divine Prefecture may have ceased to exist a long time ago.”

“Now, the world has changed dramatically. The Age of the Gods was upon us, and the Human Ancestor had already begun using his hidden prowess. This was also an indication that the real player may be returning, so we are in a race of time. After you ascend to the throne, the tasks that your mother could not complete will fall upon you.

Having said that, he knelt on both knees and prostrated under the stairs. He kowtowed to Ye Futian and said, “Your servant, Yu Tu, beseeches the young master to ascend the throne. The Heavenly Path is dead, and Futian shall rule!”