The Black Heaven Sect's Honorable Xuan Qi and its cultivators had long received word that Chu Kuangren was coming back, so some elders came out to wait for his return.

Besides the elders, hundreds of thousands of Black Heaven disciples waited too.

“Isn't Elder Senior Brother coming back too soon? It's only been half a year since he descended onto Earth.”

“Our Elder Senior Brother isn't just anyone. He may have descended for only half a year, but now everyone knows who he is! Why would he still need to train?”

“True, our Elder Senior Brother is simply too impressive.”

“Yes, he's very powerful.”

“I'm so excited! I just joined the Black Heaven Sect, so I haven't met our Elder Senior Brother yet. I wonder what he looks like!”

“I a.s.sure you, Junior Sister, no man will be able to catch your eye after you see him.”

The disciples chattered amongst themselves while they looked expectantly at the gates of the Black Heaven Sect. Eventually, a small dot appeared on the horizon.

If one looked closely, they would see it was a Fairy boat.

When the Fairy boat stopped outside the gates of the Black Heaven Sect, a white-robed young man stepped off, followed by a lady in a skirt.

Chu Kuangren and Lan Yu had arrived.

The remaining people on the Fairy boat were Nangong Huang, Murong Xuan, and a few others. They were dispatched to Northern Lingdao State to aid in the demonic onslaught, and now they returned victorious!

“Our Elder Senior Brother is home!”

“Heavens! Our Elder Senior Brother does look ethereal!”

“Elder Senior Brother! I love you!!”

The newest disciples in the Black Heaven Sect took their first look at Chu Kuangren and all screamed obsessively.

The other disciples expected nothing less.

“Congratulations, Elder Senior Brother!”

Jun Yi yelled with a fist salute as he walked out.

When the others saw this, they followed suit.

“Congratulations, Elder Senior Brother!”

“Congratulations, Elder Senior Brother!”

“Congratulations, Elder Senior Brother!!”

Soon enough, hundreds of thousands of disciples began yelling and overlapping voices rang throughout the sky. Chu Kuangren was very much a highly respected figure in the Black Heaven Sect.

Chu Kuangren smiled blankly at the crowd before he arrived in front of Honorable Xuan Qi and the other elders. He greeted them with a fist salute.

“My humblest greetings, Master and elders.”

“No need to be polite, Kuangren. Thank you for your hard work in banis.h.i.+ng the demon cultivators in Northern Lingdao State.” Honorable Xuan Qi stepped forth and expressed his grat.i.tude.

He had heard the rumors about Chu Kuangren slaughtering hundreds of thousands of demon cultivators, in which even a longtime Honorable Sage might not have accomplished this feat.

Needless to say, Chu Kuangren was young, but his accomplishments made many cultivators from all over the world look up to him.

“I simply carried out my task. It was nothing great,” Chu Kuangren simply replied.

This trip to Northern Lingdao State was very worthwhile to him. Not only did he kill hundreds of thousands of demon cultivators that broke him through the Battle Monarch Realm, but he had also obtained the Sage Ruler Weapon, Demonic Spear of Apocalypse, and increased the Black Heaven Sect's reputation. It was a bountiful excursion.

With the greetings out of the way, Honorable Xuan Qi pulled Chu Kuangren aside to talk. “What do you think about the Primordial Emperor's Essence?”

The Seventh Forefather had told Honorable Xuan Qi about the divine predictor's words.

“The Primordial Emperor's Essence is similar to the Primordial Purple Haze. It's a treasure that can help one become an Emperor. However, just like the Primordial Purple Haze, relying on it to become an Emperor is the most inferior way into the Emperor Realm.”

“But regardless, you would still be an Emperor.”

Honorable Xuan Qi blinked in surprise. “There hasn't been an Emperor in over 150,000 years, but you don't seem to really care too much.”

Chu Kuangren shrugged innocently. “Honorable Teacher, you did say that an Emperor was no small matter. How dare I not care? I just don't wish to rely on the Primordial Emperor's Essence to become an Emperor.”

“Do you have the confidence to become an Emperor with your own strengths?”

“We live in the times of the Great Dharma Emergence. Since Ancient Emperors could reach Emperorhood with their own strengths, why can't I do the same?”

“Ha! Fantastic! Kuangren, you have the courage of an Ancient Emperor, but the Primordial Emperor's Essence is still a rare treasure. It is foolish to not fight for it. Things may not work as we want it to, so this could be a backup should you need it.”

Honorable Xuan Qi smiled.

It was not that he did not believe in Chu Kuangren. Rather, simply relying on nothing but oneself to become an Emperor was far too challenging. It may be the age of the Great Dharma Emergence, but in case he failed, having the Primordial Emperor's Essence would ensure he did not fall behind.

“Of course, I'll fight for it. I never said I wouldn't,” Chu Kuangren stated. Although he did not plan to rely on the Primordial Emperor's Essence, keeping or giving the treasure to someone else was not a bad idea either.

“That reminds me, Honorable Teacher, I plan to go into a closed-door meditation for a short while.”

“Go. You've just broken through to the Battle Monarch Realm, it's to be expected that you need time to stabilize.” Honorable Xuan Qi did not mind. He believed that with Chu Kuangren's abilities, a few days was all he needed.

Little did he know that Chu Kuangren's closed-door meditation was not for the sake of stabilizing his cultivation realm.

In fact, his actual goal was to acquire the Eternal Emperor Scripture that he had gotten a few days ago!

Inside the Towering Heaven Palace.

When Lil Bing saw Chu Kuangren, she was ecstatic. “Master, you've finally returned! I've missed you.”

“Ah, Lil Bing! You've improved so much!” Chu Kuangren could sense that Liu Bing had broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Once set in stone, she would be the best of the best. To think when she first arrived, she had not even attained the Golden Core Realm yet.

“I'm very grateful to the Spirit Gathering Array in the Daoist Palace. I wouldn't have improved so quickly without it,” Lil Bing said.

“But it's still the fruits of your labor.”

Chu Kuangren smiled.

They talked about old times for a while before he began his closed-door meditation.

Inside his Daoist Palace's room, Chu Kuangren fished out a pale yellow thread-bound ancient book.

Faint Daoist Rhymes floated around the book, and the words 'Eternal Emperor Scripture' was written on the cover in a large bold font. An Emperor's Rhyme suddenly gushed from the book!

“Terrifying!”

It was clearly nothing more than a thin little booklet, but Chu Kuangren could feel its weight as if it were a mountain.

The sheer power of an Emperor's Rhyme placed Chu Kuangren's Daoist's core under an unfathomable pressure. He could not help but kneel before it.

“F*ck, even reading this will be difficult without a certain level of strength.” So Chu Kuangren channeled his spiritual power and activated his spiritual mound's Five Supreme Foundation Levels to resist the pressure.

It took Chu Kuangren quite some time to familiarize himself with the pressure, and he spent all his power to flip open the first page of the Scripture.

Instantly, countless mysterious runes came into view, weaving and twisting in Chu Kuangren's mind before it settled into a figure of a handsome young man dressed in white. His body was filled with the boundless power of an Emperor.

The young man's lips opened and closed as if he were chanting an ancient saying. A peculiar sensation manifested in Chu Kuangren's heart.

His knowledge of Daoism was expanding alarmingly fast.

He knew that the man before him was the Eternal Emperor, and the chants were all his knowledge of Daoism. Any cultivator that had yet to become an Emperor would kill for a chance like this.

So Chu Kuangren dared not let the opportunity slip as he immersed himself in the knowledge of Daoism.

For the enlightened, the pa.s.sage of time is irrelevant.

Half a month pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.

While Chu Kuangren was in a closed-door meditation to acquire the Emperor's Scripture, several catastrophes happened in the Firmament Star.

Earthquakes and tsunamis of various magnitudes, or even natural disasters akin to hurricanes, appeared all over the world.

Within these raging storms, an ancient and slumbering sky-pride awoke in the ages of the Great Dharma Emergence!

With that appeared the very first Primordial Emperor's Essence that plunged every great sage orthodoxy into madness.