Chapter 287

Chapter 287: Above the Mandate of Heaven!

Back in his room, Ye Tianming took out the scroll Zhou Qing had given him and began to read it.

About an hour later, from the scroll Zhou Qing had gifted him, he gained a general understanding of the entire universe.

The Theological Academy was located in the Theological Universe, founded by a pastor long ago. At first it was a very small academy, but over time more and more people joined, and it gradually grew stronger.

The Theological Academy was divided into three classes: the Theology Class, the Heaven Class, and the Human Class.

Among them, the Theology Class was the highest in rank. The geniuses in this class were truly one in a million across the entire universe.

The reason the Theological Academy was able to attract so many geniuses was because it housed a supreme divine artifact.

The River of the Great Dao!

In this chaotic universe, there were currently three known supreme divine artifacts.

The entire universe had three supreme divine artifacts: the “Precepts” of the Monastery, the “River of the Great Dao” of the Theological Academy, and the “Envoy” of the Divine Realm.

Of course, now there was one more — a sword.

The sword of the Yang family in the Guanxuan Universe: Sword Ancestor.

On this matter, some busybodies had objections, arguing that the Yang family’s sword was not worthy of standing alongside the three supreme divine artifacts. After all, that sword had yet to prove itself in any high-level battle.

In the Guanxuan Universe, fighting Ye Tianming — in everyone’s eyes — naturally didn’t count as a high-level battle, since Ye Tianming was merely at the Dao-Establishment Realm.

The three supreme divine artifacts, on the other hand, had all achieved glorious battle records in the past.

It was precisely because of this that placing Sword Ancestor alongside the three supreme divine artifacts remained highly controversial.

As for the three supreme divine artifacts themselves, the scroll offered little additional detail.

Since the current universe was in a state of chaos, there was no unified name for it.

Within this currently known expanse of the universe, there were countless civilizations and factions, and some busybodies had put together a universal power ranking list.

Currently ranked first was the Monastery.

Many people were relatively unfamiliar with this faction, as they had withdrawn from the universe for a very, very long time.

Yet it remained number one.

Second and third were the Divine Realm and the Yang family of the Guanxuan Universe.

However, because the Divine Realm had suffered a defeat last time, the Yang family was now ranked second, and the Divine Realm had dropped to third.

This was also the reason the Divine Realm could not accept the situation.

At its core, it was really a struggle over the Great Dao.

Although the Monastery was still ranked first, everyone knew this faction had long since withdrawn from worldly affairs. Moreover, the emergence of a new divine mandate meant the old gods were bound to decline eventually.

In particular, the fact that the Ancient God had voluntarily stepped down from the divine throne was seen by everyone as essentially clearing the way for the new god.

Therefore, the true struggle for the Great Dao, in everyone’s eyes, was between the Divine Realm and the Yang family.

Neither could afford to lose.

Besides the Yang family and the Divine Realm, ranked fourth was the Theological Academy. In fact, when the Theological Academy’s founder, the pastor, was still around, the academy had firmly held second place, unshakeable by anyone. But with the pastor’s disappearance, the academy’s ranking began to slip.

Ranked fifth was the Sacrifice Clan.

Seeing this, Ye Tianming was a little surprised — so the clan of his buddy Jiding was still seriously powerful!

The matter of the Dao Protector was looking promising.

Ranked sixth was the Savage Demon Realm, a world of demon beasts. In truth, the Savage Demon Realm had once enjoyed an extraordinarily glorious era. During that time, the great demon clans within the Savage Demon Realm had joined forces — and what they took on was the Monastery.

And it was the Monastery at its absolute peak.

That great battle swept across the entire chaotic universe, destroying countless worlds, and it took fully several tens of billions of years to recover.

But it was also that battle that left the Savage Demon Realm gravely weakened. Their Demon Ancestor was severely injured by the Monastery’s senior brother — the one who liked to reason things out — and his cultivation fell all the way back to zero.

With the Demon Ancestor’s cultivation shattered, the Savage Demon Realm immediately fractured and fell into chaos. Even so, the Savage Demon Realm’s strength remained terrifying.

If they were ever unified, the contest for second place would no longer be just between the Divine Realm and the Yang family.

Ranked seventh was: the Sword Tomb.

This faction he was naturally familiar with — when his little martial uncle had called for backup, this faction had come to help.

The Sword Tomb was a rather unique place. This faction had very few members, almost always passing down through a single line, and each generation had one responsibility: to guard a certain graveyard.

Though few in number, their strength was incomparably terrifying.

Moreover, this was a faction that nobody was particularly willing to provoke. Because they had so few people, you couldn’t really threaten them — but if they decided to give you trouble, you’d have a real headache on your hands.

Ranked eighth was the Ancient Pagoda Temple.

This was the same Ancient Pagoda Temple that had gone to the real world alongside the Sword Tomb to help in the fight. The Ancient Pagoda Temple was relatively low-key by comparison, truly keeping to itself and staying out of worldly affairs. The reason they went to help that time was because they had once owed the Monastery an enormous favor.

Ranked ninth was the Hantian Sect. The founder of this sect carried half-demon bloodline and had some connection to the Savage Demon Realm. The sect focused primarily on body tempering, and their physical cultivation was extremely formidable. Unfortunately, body tempering was simply far too grueling for humans, so very few people practiced it, and the sect had always remained lukewarm in its development.

Ranked tenth was: the Awakening Manor.

The most mysterious faction among the top ten powers. Throughout history, they had always been ranked tenth.

In truth, this faction had long been unknown to outsiders. The only reason it became known at all was because of the Monastery’s founder, the Ancient God. After the Ancient God visited the Awakening Manor once, he returned and voluntarily relinquished the divine throne, after which the entire Monastery completely withdrew from the universe.

Currently, only the Ancient God knew anything about the Awakening Manor.

Outsiders had no way of knowing the Awakening Manor’s true strength, so they were simply ranked tenth — and had always been tenth.

Beyond the ten great super factions,

there were also the Five Peerless Geniuses.

When Ye Tianming saw the Five Peerless Geniuses, he immediately broke into a smile, because he was on the list too.

There was currently a ranking for them as well.

Ranked first was the New God.

Second was the Dao Forsaker.

Third was: the Female Sword Cultivator.

This third one — no one knew her name. All anyone knew was that she was a female sword cultivator.

Fourth was none other than Ye Tianming himself.

Fifth was Yang Jia.

Of course, this ranking was only temporary, since these five had never truly faced each other in battle.

Once the struggle for the Great Dao concluded, there would be a definitive ranking.

Now, he had a general understanding of this chaotic universe.

The Great Dao Rankings!

His focus was still on the Great Dao Rankings and the divine mandate.

The Great Dao Rankings — as Zhou Qing had said, competing for them was truly no simple matter. Especially those “Outer-Dao Demons.” Not much was known about them in the world, because very few people had actually encountered them. And even those geniuses and prodigies who had encountered them didn’t know what kind of beings they actually were.

The one thing that was known was that these beings all belonged to “outside the Dao.”

Without a Dao Protector, it simply wouldn’t work.

Ye Tianming said softly, “Guess I’ll have to trouble brother Jiding when the time comes.”

Jiding: “…….”

As for the divine throne.

It was essentially a divine rankings board, but this one had only a single spot.

The divine throne was located in the Divine Hall — it was simply a seat. Sit on it and hold your position, and you became a god, able to command the divine throne.

As for what the divine throne actually did, no one knew.

Because only one person had ever sat on it — the Ancient God.

In any case, the world’s description was this: the divine mandate stood above even heavenly destiny.

After reading through it all, Ye Tianming had just one feeling — this universe was simply far, far too vast.

Back in Qingzhou, he had thought Qingzhou was already enormous. After leaving Qingzhou, he realized Qingzhou didn’t even count as a speck of dust in the Guanxuan Universe. After leaving the Guanxuan Universe, he learned there was still the real universe above. And after leaving the real universe, he discovered there were countless brilliant civilizations beyond it.

And above the chaotic universe?

Ye Tianming looked up. What met his eyes was a boundless, endless expanse of universe.

People always mocked frogs for seeing only the sky from the bottom of a well — but was there any possibility that humans were actually doing the same thing?

Ye Tianming shook his head with a smile.

Questions like that were too profound. They weren’t suited for him to dwell on right now.

What he needed to think about now was cultivating properly.

Cultivation!

Not just training!

He also had a brand new plan for his own path of cultivation going forward.

He wanted to see more and do more.

Seeing meant going around and looking at the world. Doing more meant taking more action.

Any idea needed to be put into practice.

Otherwise, it was just a castle in the air.

He thought of Liusha and his grandmaster. Their cultivation was really all about “doing.”

The Dao of all living beings.

This path wasn’t about writing a few laws and calling it serving all living beings. To truly do something for all living beings, one first had to understand what “all living beings” actually meant.

At that moment, Zhantai Zhan suddenly came running in, cradling a small white cat in her arms.

Ye Tianming was a little surprised.

Zhantai Zhan blinked. “Found it.”

Ye Tianming looked at the little white cat. The cat was clearly a bit frightened and quickly burrowed deeper into Zhantai Zhan’s arms.

Ye Tianming looked the little white cat over and smiled. “Cute.”

Zhantai Zhan broke into a bright smile.

Ye Tianming said, “Do you like it here?”

Zhantai Zhan nodded vigorously. There was endless food here, and it was huge — she could play however she liked.

Ye Tianming smiled and said, “I’m going to class in a bit. If you want to listen, you’re welcome to come. If not, just go play on your own.”

In this place, he had no worries about her safety, since Zhou Qing had people secretly following her.

Zhantai Zhan looked at him. “Listen.”

Ye Tianming laughed. “Then let’s go to class.”

With that, he took Zhantai Zhan by the hand and headed outside.

Class!

Ye Tianming actually had no idea what he was going to teach.

Lecture on principles?

That didn’t seem quite right.

Everyone who could come here was no ordinary person. Who would want to sit and listen to you preach?

Besides, his own principles weren’t necessarily anything worth hearing.

Talk about cultivation?

He didn’t even have any cultivation level right now. Talking about cultivation would be a bit hard to convince anyone.

So what should he talk about?

And there might even be some troublemakers. If someone stirred up trouble, should he just put up with it?

What a headache.

Still, he had to go through with it.

He’d figure it out when he got there!