Dominator Emperor

Monk Dazhi wore a string of large, round Buddha Beads around his neck. If Monk Dazhi himself didn’t look like a High Monk, then the Buddha Beads hanging around his neck would certainly convince anyone that he was one.

The Buddha Beads around Monk Dazhi’s neck flickered with Buddha Light. Within each bead, it was as if a Buddha was seated solemnly, their posture dignified. At times, one could even hear the resounding sound of Buddhist chants.

Therefore, regardless of whether Monk Dazhi was actually a High Monk, a single look at the Buddha Beads around his neck was enough to inspire awe.

Monk Dazhi was the abbot of Dazhi Temple. In truth, he was the only person in Dazhi Temple. He was the abbot, the congregation, and the cook.

Although Dazhi Temple was built just outside Feihuai Village, Monk Dazhi was not a local. In fact, Dazhi Temple had not even existed outside Feihuai Village in the past.

It was said that Monk Dazhi had come from North Marsh, undertaking an ascetic pilgrimage on foot. He had walked all the way to the outskirts of Feihuai Village and ultimately claimed to have a great affinity with the place. So, he built Dazhi Temple there and became its abbot—and its only monk.

Rumor had it that Monk Dazhi possessed Boundless Buddhist Dharma. A villager from Feihuai Village had once personally witnessed him taming a White Tiger, which he then took as his mount.

After the old village chief invited Monk Dazhi over, he led him to the backyard and said, ”High Monk, this is the place. The shadow sometimes appears and sometimes doesn’t. There’s no set time for its appearance; it might show up during the day or at night.”

Hearing the old village chief’s words, Monk Dazhi couldn’t help but pinch his fingers together as if performing a divination. He then put his palms together, looking every bit the High Monk, and chanted, ”Amitabha, my Buddha is merciful. Benefactor, this poor monk has divined the nature of the Ghost here. This is a Hungry Ghost. In its previous life, this Hungry Ghost starved to death, never once having a full meal. How about this? Benefactor, prepare a magnificent feast. This poor monk will use it to lure it out and see if it can be guided to Enlightenment.”

Hearing Monk Dazhi’s explanation, the old village chief said no more. He and his wife prepared a grand, multi-course feast and laid it out on a large table in the backyard.

”Amitabha, my Buddha is merciful.” Seeing the magnificent feast laid out on the table, Monk Dazhi put his palms together, chanted a Buddhist phrase, and said, ”Benefactor, this Hungry Ghost is not to be trifled with. This poor monk will now lure it out. When this poor monk performs the ritual, I wish for no one else to be present. If the Hungry Ghost were to come out and attack, it would be troublesome if someone got hurt.” As he spoke, he took out his Dharma Sword and began mumbling Divine Thoughts, looking for all the world like he was about to perform a ritual for Summoning the Soul.

”Then I must trouble the High Monk.” Hearing this, the old village chief hurriedly left with his wife.

After the old village chief and his wife had left, Monk Dazhi put away his Dharma Sword and rubbed his hands together. Seeing no one around, he grinned and said, ”Excellent, excellent. My Buddha is merciful. Meat and wine are poisons that pass through the gut. This poor monk is devoted to the Buddha and holds compassion in my heart. For now, I shall help this Hungry Ghost achieve Enlightenment from these gut-passing poisons.” As soon as he finished speaking, he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a large, plump duck, and began to feast ravenously.

In no time at all, Monk Dazhi devoured the feast like a whirlwind, cleaning off every dish on the table. His mouth was slick with grease, and at that moment, he didn’t look anything like a High Monk.

However, the so-called haunting in the old village chief’s backyard wasn’t a ghost at all. It was Li Qiye.

It was just that Li Qiye was inside another Grotto Heaven, where he was in the process of completing his Refinement of chaos and was about to break out. It was precisely because Li Qiye was refining chaos and on the verge of breaking through that people outside would sometimes see a floating shadow, making it seem as if there were a ghost.

Li Qiye had his reasons for choosing this place as a foothold. There was a secret here. In the very location of Feihuai Village lay a world-shaking Grotto Heaven—an independent space, an absolute domain.

This place was tied to a secret, a secret concerning one of the most controversial figures of the Desolate Era: Immortal Emperor Feiyang.

Immortal Emperor Feiyang was one of the Human Race’s most ancient Immortal Emperors. He achieved his Dao in the Desolate Era and hailed from the Nantian Family of the Middle Grand Realm. Although Immortal Emperor Feiyang came from the Nantian Family, he himself never admitted to being one of their disciples.

What was even more interesting was that after leaving the Nantian Family, Immortal Emperor Feiyang never once returned to the Nantian World, not even after becoming an Immortal Emperor.

The Nantian Family’s attitude was also very strange. During Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s era, and even for several long eras after, they did not dare to publicly announce or acknowledge that Immortal Emperor Feiyang was a disciple of their Nantian Family.

It wasn’t until much later that the Nantian Family finally dared to tell outsiders that Immortal Emperor Feiyang was their disciple, and that the Nantian Family took great pride in him.

Despite this, the Nantian Family, the very family Immortal Emperor Feiyang came from, failed to receive his legacy. Immortal Emperor Feiyang never passed his inheritance back to the Nantian Family.

The matters between Immortal Emperor Feiyang and the Nantian Family, as well as certain other events in his later life, all became enigmas to later generations—mysteries that no one could fully explain.

However, what outsiders did not know, Li Qiye did. He knew some of Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s secrets—secrets that the rest of the world was completely unaware of.

Immortal Emperor Feiyang, true to his title, was a flamboyant and unrestrained person. In his youth, Immortal Emperor Feiyang was a silver-tongued orator. Moreover, he did many things in his younger days that would spark controversy in later generations, with petty theft and swindling being among them.

Legend has it that when the young Immortal Emperor Feiyang spoke, lotus flowers bloomed from his tongue, and he could talk the heavens into a rain of celestial blossoms; his methods were truly extraordinary. He had even managed to trick a Stone Buddha out of the Buddha Burial Plateau. One could only imagine how incredibly persuasive he was.

Furthermore, Immortal Emperor Feiyang had incredible luck with women. It was said that even before he became an Immortal Emperor, countless women had fallen for him. Among them were no shortage of Princess Saintesses, Fairies, and Divine Maidens. Many of these women came from powerful backgrounds, some even being successors of an Emperor Immortal Gate.

But, although Immortal Emperor Feiyang had many women in his life, the strange thing was that he never married. Even after he became an Immortal Emperor, he never took a wife.

Throughout the ages, there have not been many Immortal Emperors who left behind no descendants, and Immortal Emperor Feiyang was one of them. In fact, he was the *only* Immortal Emperor to have had many women in his life, yet never marry!

To have loved so many is to be loveless. It was precisely because of this that he had caused quite a few scandals and became a topic of much discussion for later generations.

After Immortal Emperor Feiyang ascended to his throne, an incident occurred that later generations knew nothing about.

Among Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s many women, there was no shortage of those with peerless intellect. However, despite having so many women, he would never marry!

This led one of the women by his side to use some unknown method to successfully ”borrow his seed.” And after becoming pregnant with Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s bloodline, this woman did not seek any official title from him. Instead, she ultimately vanished from the world, as if disappearing from the face of the earth, and was never seen again.

This woman of peerless wisdom was deeply in love with Immortal Emperor Feiyang. She had successfully become pregnant with his bloodline not to become his Empress, nor for any official status. After secretly succeeding in her plan, she left Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s side, went into hiding, and vanished from the world to raise their son and continue his bloodline.

Many years passed, and it was as if this woman had vanished from existence. What no one knew was that she had hidden herself away in the Mortal World, transforming into an ordinary Mortal.

Eventually, the woman passed away. Her descendants with Immortal Emperor Feiyang never stepped onto the path of cultivation, instead continuing their line as Mortals in the mortal realm.

The village this woman founded was Feihuai Manor. She named it ”Feihuai” to mean ”Remembering Feiyang.”

However, the story did not end there. For an Immortal Emperor, few things in the world could escape their notice, and this was true for Immortal Emperor Feiyang as well.

Immortal Emperor Feiyang knew about the matter and knew where the woman had gone into seclusion. However, he did not do anything about it for a long time.

It was not until much later, after the woman had passed away and her descendants were flourishing as Mortals in Feihuai Manor, generation after generation, that Immortal Emperor Feiyang acted. Perhaps he was moved by the woman’s deep devotion, or perhaps it was because the woman and her descendants carried his bloodline... In any case, for reasons unknown, Immortal Emperor Feiyang set up a peerless grand stratagem in Feihuai Manor.

An Immortal Emperor had expended considerable effort to lay down this peerless grand stratagem, leaving many things behind. This grand stratagem was like his own presence, existing for millions of years to silently protect Feihuai Manor.

Because of this, over millions of years, Feihuai Manor produced many talented individuals. At the same time, many great figures also visited Feihuai Manor over the eons.

But whether it was the talented people who emerged from Feihuai Manor or the great figures who visited it, they were all merely passersby. No matter who came or who left, under the silent protection of the peerless grand stratagem, no one was ever able to shatter the tranquility of Feihuai Manor.

It was for this very reason that, for millions of years, Feihuai Manor continued to exist in this world, like a small, idyllic village straight out of a paradise.

Millions of years passed. Generation after generation came and went in Feihuai Village, and Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s descendants multiplied. Yet, Feihuai Village remained peaceful and obscure.

The strange thing was, although Immortal Emperor Feiyang had set up a peerless grand stratagem in Feiyang Village and left many things behind, as an Immortal Emperor, he did not impart even a single iota of his Daoist Techniques to his own descendants at the time.

Later on, Feihuai Village did produce Cultivators, and even some great figures among them. However, they were not from Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s Daoist Lineage. Instead, they were powerful experts who had been accepted as disciples and trained by outside Great Teaching Territories, having no connection whatsoever to Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s Daoist Lineage.

After countless ages, it was likely that no one alive knew the secret of Feihuai Village. Even if someone had known the secret during Immortal Emperor Feiyang’s time, they would have long since passed from this world.

However, Li Qiye was someone who knew this secret. And he was someone who had lived all the way to the present day!