📖 Chapter 1315 - Three Layers

16 May, 2024

As rumbling filled Wang Baole’s mind, his whole body shuddered wildly. Normally, he would never be shaken up this easily.

However… the scene in front of him was completely beyond any expectations, so much so that Wang Baole felt as if he was going insane.

The Emperor Spirit looked exactly like himself.

What kind of meaning did this have? Wang Baole started breathing heavily after thinking about it for just a moment.

There was no time for him to ponder too deeply. As he stared at the face of the unmasked Emperor Spirit, Wang Baole’s body moved backward rapidly. Previously, he had already blasted open the golden net, and now he burst through the opening like a bolt of lightning.

Moving with unbelievable speed, he disappeared into the red mist in the blink of an eye. And even when moving so quickly, Wang Baole restrained his cultivation base and concealed his aura. Thus, the Emperor Spirits soon lost track of him.

It seemed that they could no longer lock on to his position. After searching for a while more, they slowly merged into the red mist and faded away.

After concealing his aura, Wang Baole seemed to be moving through the red mist with a destination in mind. But in reality, he couldn’t shake the sight of the Emperor Spirit at all and had no thoughts for anything else.

‘Something’s strange!

‘According to my previous analysis, the Emperor Spirits are like false fourth step cultivators. To be precise, they’re actually puppet-like existences, and… they’re derived from none other than the Emperor himself.

‘That would also explain how there could be so many fourth steppers. After all, the Emperor once sent out a hundred thousand strands of divine will and created a hundred thousand Never-Ending Dao Domains. At his level, creating all these false fourth step puppets isn’t something difficult.

‘But as for the reason they look just like me… There are two possibilities I can think of.’ Wang Baole’s eyes flashed with a sharp light.

‘Aside from the stele world, the other 99,999 Never-Ending Dao Domains successfully turned into Dao Fruits and returned to the Emperor to help him resist his wood tribulation.

‘The first possibility is that each of those Dao Fruits ended up becoming an Emperor Spirit. The reason the Emperor Spirits look the same as me is because… if nothing happened to the stele world, then I would have been here among them as well. They are me, and I am them…’

The logic and conclusion to this idea was perfectly reasonable. But for some reason, Wang Baole’s mind couldn’t help but linger on the second possibility.

‘What… does the Emperor’s true body look like? Is his face… also the same as mine…?’ Wang Baole didn’t dare to think too deeply about this possibility. After a long moment silence, he took a deep breath.

‘The second possibility is just a random thought. It won’t be true… it can’t be true!’ Wang Baole closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he had already buried all his thoughts in his heart. Waving his hand, he released the young man who cultivated the Dao of Joy.

When the young man appeared, his expression was blank. It was only after a moment passed that he suddenly remembered the previous scene. His face paled, and he immediately looked all around for any signs of Emperor Spirits. When he found that there were none, he was stunned for a moment, but quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Then, looking at Wang Baole, he realized that this mysterious person was actually completely unharmed.

"Senior…" The young man started to speak, but Wang Baole interrupted him.

“Tell me about the Ancients you mentioned before, as well as how to enter the world you came from!”

Wang Baole’s calm voice made the young man feel a lot of pressure. At this moment, he fully understood that the person in front of him wasn’t some awakened Ancient, but rather a mighty figure from the outside world who was horrifyingly powerful.

‘He can probably kill me with a single glance!’

When it came to such an existence, the young man didn’t dare to hide anything, nor did he dare to let his thoughts wander too much. He could only try his best to put on an obedient look and explain everything he knew.

The young man didn’t know about Source Universe Dao Void, nor did he know what world he was in. From outside, Wang Baole had seen 108 universes, but the young man knew only a single continent.

This continent was boundlessly vast. Throughout history, those who managed to reach the end of the world were few and far between.

But this continent, this world, wasn’t just a single layer. According to the young man’s knowledge, the world was divided into three layers.

The first layer was called the Slumber Realm.

The second layer was called the World Realm.

And the third layer was called the Buried Realm.

The young man lived on the second layer. To him, the first layer was just a legend. He had never been there, but he heard rumors that it was the place where the Emperor Spirits lived.

As for their current location, according to the young man, it was the space between the second layer and the third layer. Further down was the third layer, the Buried Realm, which was also where the Ancients came from.

There were many rumors about the Buried Realm. The most widespread one claimed that it used to be different from its current state. In the past, myriads of Daos had competed with each other, and powerful figures were as numerous as clouds.

But an unknown catastrophe befell the world, causing everything to be buried. It wasn’t just the civilization that was buried but also the cultivators.

Although most of the cultivators returned to dust, some managed to safely enter hibernation. In later years, they woke up one after another, leaving the Buried Realm and wandering into the second layer of the world.

These people were called Ancients. Each and every one of them was a formidable expert.

“In the second layer, the World Realm, there are three main forces. The Ancients form one of them. They call themselves… Ancient Epoch City.

“The other two main forces are the seven emotions and six desires. Joy, Anger, Worry, Thought, Sadness, Fear, and Fright make up the Branches of the Seven Emotions. Ear, Nose, Eye, Tongue, Flesh, and Heart make up the Six Great Desire Cities.

“I am a cultivator of the seven emotions, from the Joy Branch.

“As for those songweavers before, they’re from Ear’s Desire City, which is part of the six desires!

“The Joy Lord of the Dao of Joy was defeated and suppressed by the Ear’s Desire Lord, so the Joy Branch has declined. We all have to conceal ourselves and scrape out a living in hiding.

“As for the way to leave here and reach the World Realm, it’s very simple, for us at least. We only need to activate the natural laws we cultivate, and the laws of the World Realm will resonate and guide us there.” As the young man spoke, he shot a quick glance at Wang Baole.

Wang Baole fell into deep thought. He had tried many methods before, but couldn’t leave this place. Now, he realized that it was because his laws were different, meaning he couldn’t resonate and find a direction to the World Realm.

As Wang Baole pondered over this, the young man suddenly gritted his teeth. Seemingly having come to a decision, he spoke.

“Senior, if you want to enter the World Realm, you need to cultivate a law that matches the requirements. This junior is willing to separate a strand of my own Joy Dao and turn it into a Dao Seed to allow Senior to gain insight from it.”