The peak, named Dita Peak, soars into the clouds and has an ancient and simple appearance.
The Emperor's Steps, as the name suggests, are a place that only the Emperor can set foot on. All other people are forbidden to approach, and those who disobey will have their entire family exterminated.
Ancient trees reach for the sky within the peak, auspicious clouds fill the air, divine light shines brightly, divine mist permeates the air, flowers and trees bloom in springtime, wild animals frolic in the mountains, and the fragrance of spiritual trees emanates from the garden. The magnificent and vast divine sound of the laws resonates slowly, and wisps of the Great Dao's divine spectrum write the law of nature!
Deep within the mountain peak, pavilions and towers stand tall. In front of one of these towers, a young man dressed in a blue robe, with a vast and divine light flowing in his eyes and his robes fluttering in the wind, stands with his hands behind his back, looking down at Chang'an City.
His appearance was handsome, and he was dressed in a blue robe with unparalleled elegance. Just by standing there, it was as if he was walking on a thousand paths, detached from time and space, with the long river of destiny flowing around him.
Beside him stood a dignified middle-aged man, dressed in a black dragon robe, his aura as steady as a rock, also standing with his hands behind his back, overlooking the vast land below.
"Master Xiao, when you undergo your tribulation later, will you need my protection?"
The middle-aged man suddenly spoke up.
He was none other than Wang Mang, the founding emperor of the Xin Dynasty.
"No need, I can handle this mere calamity!"
The man in blue was Xiao Ning. He didn't turn his head and shook his head slightly in refusal.
Upon hearing this, Wang Mang's face showed a hint of anxiety. He said, "However, Master Xiao intends to bring down all three calamities and five disasters at once. I am truly worried!"
After nearly six hundred years of getting along, Xiao Ning, a fellow townsman, was more like a mentor to Wang Mang than a teacher.
Now, with his tribulation imminent, Wang Mang is always filled with worry whenever he thinks about it.
Successfully transcending the tribulation will grant one immortality.
Those who cannot overcome this will turn to ashes, their souls scattered, and they will not even have the chance to be reincarnated.
Moreover, according to Wang Mang's knowledge, throughout history, only one in a hundred people have successfully overcome the tribulation.
Xiao Ning raised his hand to stop Wang Mang from speaking, and said to him, "When have you ever seen me fight a battle I wasn't confident of winning? Don't worry, I've been preparing for this day for nearly six hundred years. I've long wanted to see how real this so-called calamity really is!"
Wang Mang, recalling Xiao Ning's past achievements, finally laughed and said, "Then I wish Master Xiao a successful tribulation and a tribulation, and that he may ascend to immortality in one fell swoop!"
"Thank you for your kind words!"
After a moment of silence, Xiao Ning asked, "Sun Wukong is about to escape. How are your preparations going?"
Upon hearing Xiao Ning's question, Wang Mang's face lit up with excitement, and he said happily, "It is good that Master Xiao knows. More than five hundred years have passed, and through the selection of the best from generation to generation, there are now more than 80,000 descendants of my royal family who have entered the path of cultivation!"
"From among them, nearly a thousand more geniuses were selected. They were all top-notch talents in cultivation. With the support of the royal family's resources, their cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds, and they rose step by step!"
"Now, among these thousand people, more than thirty have reached the Nascent Soul Realm, which is comparable to mine. The next five hundred or so are all at the Yang Spirit Realm, and the remaining four hundred or so are all at the Golden Core Realm."
"Moreover, they have been trained and cultivated together since childhood, so they have a tacit understanding and can obey orders without question, unite as one, and fight side by side!"
"They practiced all the formations bestowed upon them by Master Xiao, such as the Lesser Heavenly Cycle Star Formation, the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Formation, and the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiend Formation, constantly and memorized them!"
"If that monkey doesn't come, fine. But if he really wants to cause trouble for me, I'd like to see just how powerful the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong, really is!"
If outsiders knew of Wang Mang's smug words, they would surely be shocked.
It should be understood that in the human cultivation world, those at the Golden Core stage can dominate a prefecture, those at the Yang God stage can become elders of a powerful force, and those at the Primordial Spirit stage are all sect leaders in major sects.
On the surface, there are no immortals in the mortal realm. The Great Completion Tribulation Realm is the top combat force in the mortal realm. However, most of them hide in the deep mountains to cultivate in seclusion or to experience the mortal world in order to temper their Dao heart, and rarely show themselves.
Even top-tier sects in the Eastern Continent, such as the Shu Mountain Sword Sect, Kunlun Mountain, and Tongtian Sword Sect, whose backgrounds are unfathomable and were founded by important figures in the Heavenly Realm, still have leaders at the Nascent Soul Realm and elders at the Tribulation Transcending Realm.
Now, behind this mortal dynasty that dominates most of the Southern Continent—the Great Xin Empire—there are actually more than thirty Yuan Shen realm cultivators, more than five hundred Yang Shen realm cultivators, and more than four hundred Golden Core realm cultivators.
If people in the cultivation world knew this, they would be utterly astonished.
After listening to Wang Mang's words, Xiao Ning nodded slightly and then warned, "Be careful in everything you do. After all, there is a difference between immortals and mortals, and the gap between them is as wide as a chasm. The difference in realm cannot be bridged by simply increasing the number of people!"
After a pause, he changed the subject and said, "Of course, with the help of the many formations I passed down, and the fact that the monkey has been imprisoned for nearly six hundred years and his cultivation is almost ruined, we can still fight against him!"
At this point, the man in blue, Xiao Ning, turned his head, looked at the beautiful landscape at his feet, and sighed softly.
In the blink of an eye, I have been in this world for more than 500 years, or to be precise, 598 years, 3 months and 7 days, or 218,367 days.
For more than 200,000 days and nights, Xiao Ning spent most of his time in seclusion cultivating. The rest of the time, he guided the middle-aged man, Wang Mang, the founding emperor of the Great Xin Empire and a fellow townsman of the transmigrator, in his cultivation. Occasionally, he also gave guidance to the later emperor of the Great Xin on some ways of governing the country.
At the same time, it was precisely because of Xiao Ning's support that the Great Xin Kingdom was able to develop from a medium-sized kingdom with thirty-six counties under its jurisdiction into a super-large empire that now spans most of the Southern Continent.
The empire comprised 365 prefectures, had a population of 7.8 billion, and a territory of 120 million square kilometers.
All of this is thanks to Xiao Ning.
Although he rarely appeared in public, his legend circulated among the upper echelons of the Great Xin Empire. He was revered as the Imperial Tutor by successive Great Xin emperors, a title that lasted for nearly six hundred years across ten dynasties.
Xiao Ning wanted to bring down all three calamities and five tribulations at once and overcome them all at once. For nearly a hundred years, he had suppressed the lightning tribulation, the first of the three calamities, time and time again. But now, he could no longer suppress it. Three days later would be the day of his tribulation.
"system!"
Xiao Ning murmured a name, and a light screen, visible only to him, popped up, displaying a series of information.
...
[Host]: Xiao Ning (Junior Member)
Points: 1,664,761
[Current consecutive check-ins]: 218367 days
[Maximum consecutive check-ins]: 218,367 days