Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Celestial Emperor's Palace

Watching Nuwa depart, Qin Yuan found herself caught in a dilemma.

What should she do? Should she go and warn the Heavenly Emperor?

She wanted to give a reminder, but since Nuwa was a sage, everything she did was transparent to such beings. Acting rashly could easily backfire.

“What’s wrong, Qin Yuan?”

Just as Qin Yuan was struggling with her thoughts, she suddenly received a message from Li Tian, startling her while giving her a secret sense of relief. She quickly replied, “Heavenly Emperor, Her Majesty the Empress just came looking for you.”

Outside the Palace of Mirrored Radiance, Li Tian smiled and responded, “I already know.”

He had left a hidden restriction within the palace; the instant Nuwa entered, he sensed it—otherwise he wouldn’t have returned.

Arriving at the Empress Palace, Li Tian immediately saw Nuwa seated deep within the main hall. He appeared before her in a flash.

“What’s the matter, my Empress?”

“Where did you go?” Nuwa opened her eyes and asked suspiciously.

This wasn’t the first time; ever since twenty thousand years ago, Li Tian seemed to vanish every so often.

“It’s nothing, just went out for a walk,” Li Tian answered with a vague smile.

Of course, he couldn’t admit he’d gone to secretly meet with Xi He and Chang Xi. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so much effort researching ways to conceal himself from the saints’ perception.

Besides, he was confident he hadn’t done anything inappropriate. His interactions with Xi He and Chang Xi were purely spiritual in nature.

“Really?” Nuwa approached Li Tian, drawing near and carefully sniffing his scent.

Seeing this, Li Tian guiltily took a step back, but remembering he was now a sage, having reached the level where “not even a leaf clings to him,” it was impossible for any scent to linger. His confidence grew.

“Of course it’s true.”

As he spoke, Li Tian naturally embraced Nuwa, gently saying, “So, what did my Empress want from me?”

Nuwa leaned into Li Tian’s arms, a faint smile quickly appearing on her face. She had only asked out of curiosity—seeing Li Tian unwilling to talk, her interest faded.

“Come, look.”

Nuwa led Li Tian out of the hall to an open area within the palace. She pointed with a finger, and a tender green sapling sprang forth from the stone floor. In an instant, it grew into a towering tree, ten zhang tall.

Li Tian stared with astonished curiosity. With his experience, he could tell at a glance it was a genuine tree, not a product of magic nor any trace of rapid cultivation—inside and out, it was indistinguishable from a naturally grown tree.

Of course, if he used the power of the Heavenly Way with careful manipulation, he could achieve the same effect. Yet throughout, he sensed not the slightest fluctuation of Heavenly Way energy.

That was truly remarkable.

“What is going on?”

“It’s the path of Creation,” Nuwa replied with a smile, a sphere of green light appearing in her hand, suffused with endless Dao essence, deep and verdant.

Though it was only the faintest hint of the path of Creation, it was enough to excite her. Remembering what Hongjun had said in the Palace of Purple Dawn—“the saints of the Great Dao surpass the Heavenly Way”—she seemed to glimpse the day when she would fully comprehend the path of Creation.

Li Tian watched the sphere of endless Dao essence in Nuwa’s hand, filled with wonder. It seemed not even the Three Pure Ones had grasped the beginnings of the Great Dao, yet Nuwa had?

“It’s the power of incense,” Nuwa said, seeing Li Tian’s amazement and feeling a surge of accomplishment. She smiled and explained.

With a wave of her hand, vivid images appeared around them. In each scene, elegant halls stood, their entrances bearing three graceful characters: “Palace of the Heavenly Emperor.”

Each main hall enshrined two solemn statues, seated side by side—Li Tian and Nuwa themselves.

Incense power?

Li Tian immediately understood what Nuwa meant.

In countless myths of his previous life, gods vied for faith; the saying “man fights for a breath, Buddha receives a stick of incense” highlighted the importance of faith power to deities.

It seemed now that this power of faith could indeed aid in comprehending the Great Dao.

Thinking this, Li Tian grew excited and quickly examined himself.

Sure enough, he now possessed a unique energy, similar to merit but fundamentally different—imbued with a mysterious quality and the distinct aura of mortal humanity.

“When did the lower realm start building Palaces of the Heavenly Emperor?” he asked.

“It’s been a few hundred years, I think…” Nuwa answered uncertainly. She had only discovered the power of incense after comprehending the beginnings of the path of Creation, then traced it back to the construction of the palaces in the lower realm.

“Let’s visit the human race. If conditions are right, we can have Suiren and the others build more of them,” Li Tian said.

With a sweep of his divine sense, he instantly understood the situation regarding the Palaces of the Heavenly Emperor across the vast cosmos.

Perhaps because construction had only recently begun, there were merely a few dozen such palaces scattered throughout the land.

Though not a small number, compared to the entire human race, it was pitifully few.

After all, the human race now numbered in the hundreds of billions—Earth once had only several billion.

If they wished for the Palace of the Heavenly Emperor to stand in every corner, they would need at least ten thousand!

“Alright,” Nuwa agreed without hesitation.

Having tasted the sweetness of faith power, she had no objections.

Immediately, the two boarded the Nine Dragon Chariot and the Nine Phoenix Carriage, departing from the Southern Heavenly Gate and flying toward the lower realms.

To match Nuwa’s status as Empress, Li Tian had visited the phoenix clan tens of thousands of years ago and acquired nine ice phoenixes for her.

Originally, he had hoped for nine five-colored divine phoenixes.

But upon arriving at the phoenix clan, he abandoned the idea, for their numbers had dwindled to barely over a hundred.

Even more withered than the dragon clan—at least the dragon clan still had four nine-clawed golden dragons left, while the phoenix clan’s leader was merely a three-colored divine phoenix.

So Li Tian settled for nine snow-white ice phoenixes.

As for the choice, it wasn’t because he favored white, but because ice phoenixes were mostly female, making it possible to gather nine.

Though their strength was lacking, after tens of thousands of years of nurturing with spirit pills and materials, and occasional teachings from Li Tian and Nuwa, these nine ice phoenixes had advanced to the Da Luo Golden Immortal level, not much weaker than the nine five-clawed golden dragons.

…