Chapter 286

Chapter 286: Ye Tianming’s Guardian!

Ye Tianming and Zhantai Zhan followed the old man to their residence, and when he saw it, he was instantly stunned.

He had an entire mountain to himself, with over a dozen palaces built on it, all extremely lavish, and all of it was his alone.

Not only that, there was also a dedicated cultivation ground, and within that ground, there were five ancestral veins with incredibly dense spiritual energy.

On top of all that, the Divine Academy immediately advanced him ten years of salary, totaling three million True Star Core Crystals.

It had to be said, the treatment was genuinely excellent.

Ye Tianming even felt it was a little unreal, though he quickly returned to normal. After all, back at Guanxuan Academy, he had enjoyed treatment even more extravagant than this.

Zhantai Zhan was clearly delighted as well, running freely through the lavish halls, looking here and touching there.

The residence they lived in was truly enormous.

Inside the hall, Zhantai Zhan suddenly ran up to Ye Tianming and tilted her head back to look at him. “Is this going to be our home from now on?”

Ye Tianming nodded. “For the time being.”

Zhantai Zhan broke into a smile.

Ye Tianming smiled as well.

Truth be told, he had also wanted to live a few peaceful and quiet days.

Here, he didn’t have to worry about matters of order anymore. Right now, he just wanted to settle down and rest for a while.

Night.

Ye Tianming and Zhantai Zhan sat by a hillside. Looking out, stars filled the sky, and at the edge of their view was a lake, with the countless stars reflected in its surface, as if the sky had been turned upside down. It was breathtaking.

Zhantai Zhan leaned against Ye Tianming, gazing into the distance, lost in thought.

Ye Tianming turned to look at her and smiled. “What’s wrong?”

Zhantai Zhan shook her head slightly and said nothing.

Ye Tianming gently ruffled her hair and asked again, “What’s wrong?”

Zhantai Zhan looked up at him. “Will you leave someday?”

Ye Tianming shook his head. “No.”

Zhantai Zhan stared into his eyes. “Really?”

Ye Tianming nodded and said earnestly, “Unless I die.”

Zhantai Zhan said nothing, only held his arm tightly.

Sensing Zhantai Zhan’s insecurity, Ye Tianming gently pulled her close and smiled. “Do you remember things from before?”

Zhantai Zhan shook her head. “When I try to think about it, my head hurts. It hurts so much.”

Ye Tianming smiled and gently rubbed her head. “It’s okay. Sooner or later you’ll be able to remember.”

Zhantai Zhan said nothing, only rested her head on his shoulder.

Late at night.

After Zhantai Zhan fell asleep.

Ye Tianming placed her on the bed, then entered the storage ring that Tower Ancestor had given him. The flow of time inside was different from the outside world — ten years inside equaled one day outside.

He couldn’t help but be astonished.

Such a heaven-defying thing truly existed in this world.

It was so heaven-defying that even he found it hard to believe. It seemed he had still underestimated Tower Ancestor.

He didn’t linger in his shock, nor did he immediately begin cultivating inside. Instead, he started studying the flow of time within the ring compared to the outside world.

The essence of it.

He wanted to understand why time passed differently inside than outside.

And so, after a full month of research, he concluded that it was likely a suppression of the Great Dao.

The special space-time within the storage ring contained a certain Great Dao, and that Dao suppressed the Great Dao of the outside world, which was why time flowed differently between the two worlds.

But what Dao was it?

Ye Tianming was deeply curious about the Dao contained within the special space-time of the ring and continued his research, but after some time, he came up empty-handed.

The Dao was too high.

He couldn’t comprehend it.

Ye Tianming couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile. To outsiders, reaching the Dao Establishment realm must seem like becoming all-powerful, but only those who had reached that level would know — there were higher mountains still, and many whose heights couldn’t even be seen.

Just like the Dao contained within this space-time, it was so far above him that he couldn’t even perceive it.

Ye Tianming stopped researching, left the storage ring, and went to find Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing smiled. “You’re here about the young lady by your side, aren’t you?”

Ye Tianming was a little surprised. “Uncle Qing, how did you know?”

Zhou Qing smiled. “Just a guess. To be honest, the misfortune on that young lady of yours is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Ye Tianming said gravely, “Never seen before?”

Zhou Qing nodded. “It’s terrifying. Honestly, by my calculations, she should already be dead by now……”

Ye Tianming fell silent.

Zhou Qing glanced at him and continued, “I should warn you of one thing — her misfortune is far too dreadful. If she continues to stay by your side, you may also……”

Ye Tianming looked at Zhou Qing. “Uncle Qing, is there any way to resolve it?”

After a brief silence, Zhou Qing said, “Forgive me for prying, but you and this young lady are…?”

Ye Tianming said, “Uncle Qing, just say whatever you need to say.”

Zhou Qing said gravely, “To cleanse the misfortune from her body, there are two methods that might possibly work, but the cost……. even if you gave your life, success is not guaranteed.”

Ye Tianming asked, “What are they?”

Zhou Qing looked at him. “The first is to have the Great Dao Tablet acknowledge a master, then use the three thousand Great Dao Dao Lords to forcibly suppress the misfortune on her body. But frankly, this is nearly impossible — the Great Dao Tablet has never acknowledged a master since it first appeared……”

Ye Tianming said, “And the second?”

Zhou Qing said, “Have her ascend to the divine throne and bestow upon her a divine fate — what legends call defying heaven to change one’s destiny. But…… that is likely even harder than having the Great Dao Tablet acknowledge a master. Because ever since your grandmaster stepped down from the divine throne, that seat has gone unfilled for hundreds of billions of years.”

Ye Tianming murmured, “The Great Dao Tablet……. a divine fate.”

Zhou Qing nodded. “Only these two things could possibly suppress the misfortune on her body.”

Ye Tianming said, “I understand.”

Zhou Qing looked at him. “My friend, forgive my bluntness — keeping her by your side may prove extremely detrimental to you, because the terror of her misfortune is something never seen before.”

Ye Tianming shook his head. “She ended up this way because of me.”

Zhou Qing was taken aback, then fell silent for a moment before saying, “Then you truly should bear that responsibility. It’s just that your cultivation right now……”

He was also quite curious about the fact that Ye Tianming had no cultivation at all.

Ye Tianming said, “The matter of cultivation isn’t urgent. Senior, if I were to contend for the Great Dao Tablet, how would I go about it?”

Zhou Qing looked at him. “Are you serious?”

Ye Tianming nodded. “Yes.”

After a brief silence, Zhou Qing said, “Once you obtain the qualification to enter the Great Dao Realm, you can enter and walk the ‘Great Dao Path’. Walk that path to the end and earn the recognition of the Great Dao Tablet. Simple enough when you put it that way, isn’t it?”

Ye Tianming smiled. “When you say it like that, it does sound pretty simple.”

Zhou Qing smiled wryly. “With your talent and your former strength, obtaining the qualification to enter the Great Dao Realm is no great challenge. But walking the ‘Great Dao Path’ to completion — that is an entirely different matter. Because it requires not only your personal strength, but also a Dao Guardian!”

Ye Tianming was a little surprised. “A Dao Guardian?”

Zhou Qing nodded. “Yes. To walk the Great Dao Path, you must have a Dao Guardian, because along the path there are Outer Dao Demons — an extraordinarily terrifying kind of being……”

At this, his expression became gravely serious. “Only if someone helps you hold off those Outer Dao Demons can you walk the ‘Great Dao Path’. Otherwise, the moment those Outer Dao Demons appear…… death is certain. In the past, when some prodigies walked this Great Dao Path, they brought an entire clan’s forces, or an entire sect’s forces, all working together to hold back those Outer Dao Demons……”

Ye Tianming said gravely, “These Outer Dao Demons are…?”

Zhou Qing said, “They are a kind of being that exists outside the Great Dao Tablet. Simply put, they have already surpassed the Great Dao Tablet, which is why they are so terrifying.”

Ye Tianming fell silent.

A Dao Guardian?

Maybe he could ask Brother Jidian to hold them off for him?

He just wasn’t sure if Brother Jidian could handle it.

There was nothing he could do — right now, the only person he could think of was Brother Jidian.

As for others…… there was also Little Uncle-Master Liusha, but Little Uncle-Master couldn’t fight.

Grand Senior Uncle and Second Senior Uncle were clearly powerhouses, but he didn’t know them, and he couldn’t just ask someone to be his Dao Guardian the moment they met, could he?

That would really be too much.

So after thinking it over and over, he still came back to Jidian.

He’d have to write Brother Jidian a letter when he got the chance.

Zhou Qing suddenly said, “Have you received the notice?”

Ye Tianming looked at Zhou Qing with a puzzled expression. “What notice?”

Zhou Qing smiled. “Every twenty years, Shenwu Sect invites a group of people to the Great Dao Realm to walk the Great Dao Path — what people call the ‘Summit of the Great Dao’. In half a year, it will be exactly time for this ‘Summit of the Great Dao’. By rights, with your reputation, they should be sending you an invitation.”

Ye Tianming said, “If they don’t send me one, can I go on my own?”

Zhou Qing nodded. “You can. But they will definitely send you one — after all, you’ve defeated Yang Jia three times.”

Ye Tianming nodded. “It’s fine. Even if they don’t send me one, I can just go myself.”

Zhou Qing said, “And this Dao Guardian……”

Ye Tianming smiled. “It’s fine. I have a good brother — he’s very capable. I’ll have him hold things off for me when the time comes!”

Jidian: “……”

Zhou Qing nodded. “Alright! By the way, while you’re at the Divine Academy, if you need anything, feel free to come to me or that girl Muse……”

As he spoke, he took out a scroll and handed it to Ye Tianming. “Take a look at what’s inside. It’ll help you quickly get acquainted with our Divine Academy world and the major top-tier powers throughout this universe.”

Ye Tianming took the scroll and smiled. “This is exactly what I need right now.”

After Ye Tianming left, Muse suddenly walked in. “Why didn’t you choose him? Our Divine Academy could serve as his Dao Guardian.”

After a brief silence, Zhou Qing said, “We already have a better choice.”

Muse said, “Yang Jia?”

Zhou Qing nodded.