"Ancient Era? Immortal Emperor Era?" He Yiming didn't really understand, so he asked.
"What exactly happened after the Primordial Era? Why is this era called the Immortal Emperor Era?" he continued.
Mu Xueying smiled faintly and slowly began to explain.
"In the era when the Five Calamities of the Heavenly Dao existed—in other words, the Primordial Era we just experienced—humankind was originally destined to be exterminated."
"But… an anomaly occurred."
"That anomaly… was you and your disciples. You actually defeated the Five Calamities, saving the Primordial Humans from being slaughtered, allowing them to survive!"
"Most importantly, your disciples built sanctuaries for the Primordial Humans, cultivated millions of acres of fertile land, created theRotating Hotpot City, even invented the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and countless other miraculous creations!"
"With your power, the Primordial Humans withstood the Heavenly Calamities again and again, growing stronger and stronger! Humanity survived… and among them, two heaven-defying beings rose to unimaginable heights, becoming peerless existences!"
"One of them was the mysterious powerhouse claiming to be from the Refine Clan—Purgatory. It's said his master was invincible across eternity! Purgatory himself admitted he wasn't even one ten-thousandth of his master!"
"The other… was Qing from the Tree Clan. He united and led humanity, pushing civilization to its peak, becoming the most powerful intelligent being of the Primordial Era. He was honored as the First Primordial Human Emperor!"
"Later, the Primordial Human Emperor Qing absorbed the boundless luck of humanity and achieved an invincible power. He proclaimed himself 'Immortal'… the first human Immortal!"
"For endless years, the Five Calamities continued attempting to erase humanity, clashing repeatedly against Qing, who commanded all humankind!"
"Until… the final battle arrived."
Mu Xueying paused here.
"And after that?" He Yiming asked.
This Qing…
Surely… he was that broken horned boy Qing from before?
"In the last battle, the Five Calamities accumulated power for countless millennia and finally had enough strength to completely annihilate humanity! By then, Qing already possessed the qualifications of an Immortal Emperor. He was honored as the first Human Immortal Emperor—title: Longevity."
"But…"
"Just as humanity fell into absolute despair, on the brink of extinction…"
"The second Immortal Emperor appeared!"
"That was Immortal Emperor Purgatory! He had been hiding within the Five Calamities themselves and suddenly launched a sneak attack, gravely wounding the power of the Five Calamities! Joining forces with Immortal Emperor Longevity, the two of them slaughtered all Five Calamities, completely destroying the First Generation Heavenly Dao—crippling Heaven itself!"
"However, in its dying struggle, Heaven counterattacked and struck Immortal Emperor Purgatory into another realm… where he vanished."
"Immortal Emperor Longevity survived. He led all humanity forward… into an entirely new era."
"The Immortal Emperor Era!"
"That… is the history I know."
He Yiming sharply caught onto one thing.
"You said 'First Generation Heavenly Dao power'… so there's a second?"
"Yes."
"After the Five Heavenly Calamities of the First Generation Heavenly Dao were destroyed…"
"The Primordial Era truly ended! Humanity entered its dominion period—the Immortal Emperor Era!"
"But Heaven still existed. So it created a Second Generation Heavenly Dao power… the Nine Color Heavenly Tribulations!"
"The Nine Color Tribulations are classified by number of colors, each possessing different attributes! For example—Three-Colored Lightning Tribulation, Five-Colored Ice Tribulation, and so on!"
"Even though the Second Generation Heavenly Dao powers were born…"
"Humanity had already grown far too powerful! One peerless genius after another appeared, creating one Heavenly Fate Art after another!"
"And after Immortal Emperor Longevity, more Immortal Emperors continued to emerge!"
"Immortal Emperor Longevity even created the Immortal Realm itself! Anyone who becomes an Immortal ascends into the Immortal Realm!"
"So the Second Generation Heavenly Dao power—the Nine-Colored Tribulations—can do nothing to the Immortal Emperor level. You could say…"
"This is truly the era belonging to Immortal Emperors! Even Heaven… can no longer do anything to them!"
Mu Xueying finished calmly.
"I see…" He Yiming finally understood.
Simply put…
Heaven… is basically a massive antivirus system.
Humans… were like viruses.
The Five Calamities of the Heavenly Dao were the First-Generation Firewall, created to exterminate humans and other intelligent life—preventing any form of wisdom from ever existing!
But then he appeared together with his player army… and completely crushed the Five Calamities!
After that, humanity developed wildly. Among them, Immortal Emperor Longevity and Immortal Emperor Purgatory—one led all humans, while the other hid within the Five Calamities and struck from within. Together, they destroyed Heaven's first antivirus firewall—the Five Calamities!
Once the firewall was gone, humanity—this "virus"—naturally exploded in growth, evolving to the mighty strength it possesses today!
Not only did Immortal Emperors continually emerge, they even created the Immortal Realm—literally establishing a second world separate from the Primordial Continent!
Heaven later created a Second-Generation Firewall, the Nine-Colored Tribulations… but unfortunately, they were useless against Immortal Emperor–level beings!
Meaning…
Immortal Emperors were basically invincible in this era!
No natural predators.
No force capable of suppressing them.
Perhaps…
The only ones who could fight Immortal Emperors…
were other Immortal Emperors!
"So that means… we're in the Ancient Era now? The Immortal Emperor Era? And everyone who has reached the Immortal Realm should've already ascended to the Upper Realm, right?" He Yiming asked.
"Correct."
"In the Immortal Emperor Era, the world was divided into two! One side is the Immortal Realm! The other is the Lower Realm—that same endless starry continent that has existed since the Primordial Era!"
"This endless starry continent was divided by Immortal Emperor Longevity into three thousand domains! Each domain is governed by a Domain Lord! These Domain Lords are honored as Human Emperors! Their strength is roughly equivalent to a Seventh-Order Demon Race powerhouse—Divine Transformation realm!"
Mu Xueying explained clearly.
"Three thousand domains?" He Yiming was shocked—he couldn't help connecting it to the later Three Thousand Realms.
"If the Ancient Era only had one massive continent… then why did it become three thousand separate Realms in our time?" He Yiming asked curiously.
"Between the Ancient Era and our era… there is another era."
"It is called—the Lost Era."
"No one knows what happened in the Lost Era. Even I don't know!"
"But one thing is certain—"
"After the Lost Era, the Immortal Realm vanished. No humans ever saw immortals again! And the endless continent that had existed since the Primordial Era… shattered into the Three Thousand Realms!"
"The once glorious Immortal Emperor Era of human dominion… was gone forever!"
Mu Xueying said with a faint smile.
"So that's how it is…" He Yiming finally understood.
"The Ancient Era… the Immortal Emperor Era, huh? Then the first thing we need to do now is carefully set up a base, gather intel, build a foothold, assess the environme—"
He hadn't even finished strategizing when a player rushed over.
"Brother Ming, bad news!"
"What's wrong? Don't tell me Lufei stirred up trouble again? Or Handsome Sanji disappeared somewhere?" He Yiming asked casually.
"Lufei, Handsome Sanji, Zoro, Bear… actually, aside from us third-beta test, basically all the first-beta test and second-beta test players vanished!"
"What!?"
He Yiming was instantly dumbfounded!