The title of Dao Ancestor originated 20,000 years ago.
At that time, in the Great Heaven, an old Daoist appeared holding the sun and moon in his hands. He created a treasure that could suppress planes of existence.
The Great Profound Capital.
The treasure was very powerful, but the Dao Ancestor was not necessarily that powerful.
Some said the Dao Ancestor was an Great Emperor, but he had only proved one Great Dao, placing him at the bottom among the 300 Great Emperors of the heavens and worlds.
But if the Great Profound Capital was counted along with him, the Dao Ancestor would move from the bottom to the top, at the level of a Three Dao Great Emperor.
However, the Great Profound Capital had too many usage restrictions. Not only would it not increase combat power in many situations, it could even become a burden.
Under these circumstances, the Dao Ancestor also refined the Twelve Taoist Boys.
The Twelve Taoist Boys were split souls of the Dao Ancestor himself combined with half-immortal instruments he refined. From twelve to one, the lower the number, the more powerful they were, and the more they resembled the Dao Ancestor.
But now there were no longer twelve Taoist Boys. 10,000 years ago, only seven remained, the other five had fallen in battle.
Each Taoist Boy had power comparable to a Great Sage, and the top-ranked One Character Taoist Boy had half the power of the Dao Ancestor, equal to three Great Sages.
But this did not affect the Big Yellow Dog, because he was now a Great Emperor!
He had proven his Great Dao and engraved it into the Heavenly Dao of the worlds. A Great Emperor!
One Character Taoist Boy stood far away, unmoving, just watching.
The Big Yellow Dog Emperor's body quivered slightly as he dragged the remnants of the Ash Emperor's body like a dead dog, staring straight at One Character Taoist Boy, his divine light dazzling, disdainfully silent.
"If you keep looking, I'll crush your half-immortal body and extinguish your false soul."
One Character Taoist Boy's eyes lowered slightly and his figure retreated into the void.
"Go call the Old Daoist over." The Big Yellow Dog Emperor shouted again.
"No need to call, I've been here all along," a light voice responded.
Somehow, a black-robed Daoist was already sitting cross-legged amidst the starry sky, covered in intricate, constantly shifting talismans that kept changing order.
Legend has it that the pitch-black daoist robe of the Old Daoist is a treasure, containing three thousand top-tier Dao arts, and its three myriad changing characters represent a different Dao art every time they shift.
The Old Daoist's eyes met the Big Yellow Dog's.
The two orchestrators and would-be overturners of this event were now facing off.
"It's true you have great patience to spend four great kalpas and 400,000 years laying out your plans," the Big Yellow Dog sneered.
The Dao Ancestor replied,
"Mainly the arrays took too much time. Covering this entire Necropolis with arrays without other Great Emperors noticing was quite troublesome indeed."
"Did your schemes include me from the beginning until now?" asked the Big Yellow Dog again.
The Old Daoist lowered his brows, his gaze shifting, and nodded. "From beginning to end... they did."
Bang!
The Big Yellow Dog suddenly crushed the remnants of the Ash Emperor's skull, a mad smile on his face. "Good!"
His emperor body stood tall amidst the stars. With a single push of his palm, he crushed all the nearby stars to dust. His attack created a galactic wind storm that tore open heaven and earth and rumbled towards the Old Daoist.
Silent, the Old Daoist extended his shriveled left hand. Tiny before the Big Yellow Dog Emperor's body, it nevertheless steadily blocked the punch, quelling the shuddering stars.
"No hurry," the Dao Ancestor whispered.
The azure sky flashed brightly and the stars hung high. A great sun rose, followed by the cycles of sun and moon.
The azure dome's sun, moon and stars had arrived!
Spirit energy suddenly emerged in the dead land of the Necropolis. The plane that should have been filled with death aura was now bathed in heavenly light as the Heavenly Dao descended upon it!
Infinite divine light burst out of the Old Daoist's eyes like ocean waves. He stood up and lifted his hand, then intoned deeply,
"A Great Sage is a bright shining star, a Sage is a slightly dimmer star, a quasi-Sage is a planetary ring orbiting the stars, and going down from there, the myriads of cultivators each represent something - either the earth, or a meteoric fire, or the four seasons, rain and thunder..."
"Now most have gathered, only one vital piece remains to guide in the light - a dazzling solar Divine Soul to elicit life here."
The Old Daoist's words halted as he looked straight at the Big Yellow Dog, smiling for the first time,
"You are this "sun"!"
"Go f*** your sun!" The Big Yellow Dog indeed gave a "solar" response. Pulling open the stars, he continued his earth-shattering attack on the Old Daoist.
Though an veteran Great Emperor, the Old Daoist's one-on-one combat ability was not that strong, while the Big Yellow Dog specialized in overbearing, slaughter-focused combat, burning with impatience. The two were deadlocked, unable to determine a winner.
The other Great Sages observed from the side, not daring to participate in this clash between Great Emperors for fear of being casually annihilated.
The Old Daoist was also in no hurry, exchanging blows with the Big Yellow Dog while surveying the scene, taking stock of the remaining Great Sages.
As the intense duel between Great Emperors dragged on, the onlooking cultivators were also quite helpless.
Chen Xia had his arms crossed, head tilted, frowning as he sized things up.
He couldn't use his Past and Future arts.
His inner devil wouldn't let him, saying that if he used it again the backlash from the Heavenly Dao would be unbearable. Not slumber or injury, but direct erasure of his limbs by the Heavenly Dao.
That was the price for overusing the Past and Future arts - the more he used them, the greater the cost, until now his entire self would be erased by the Heaven Dao.
Chen Xia frowned, thinking that using one of his limbs to trade for the Old Daoist's life would still be worth it. But his inner devil refused, telling him to wait and see if the Big Yellow Dog could gain the upper hand. There was no rush for now.
The deadlock continued in the heavens above. Neither side had scored a solid hit.
The revived Necropolis suddenly began to shake. The fallen remnants of the Ash Emperor's body suddenly struggled up. The broken stars converged from all directions to reforge his head, gleaming, glaring at the cultivators below.
He suddenly snapped his fingers.
Bang!
A quasi-Sage cultivator directly exploded into blood mist.
The snapping continued. Many cultivators on the scene burst apart. Their blood and divine souls fused into the Necropolis, becoming part of it.
Buzz!
A sudden shriek came from the distance.
A spear as vast as the starry river pierced through the remnants of the Ash Emperor's body. Next, a volley of golden arrows perforated his left eye. Finally, a coiling dragon sword stabbed deep into the Ash Emperor's chest.
In an instant, three Quasi-Emperors arrived on the scene!
A cultivator cried out,
"The Purple Spear, Break Sun, and Dragon Slaying Quasi-Emperors!"
Led by the three Quasi-Emperors, several more Great Sages followed. They faced off against the remnants of the Ash Emperor's body.
Ka-cha.
A bizarre sound rang out from the starry space.
The remnants of the Ash Emperor's body raised his trembling, unsteady arms like a swaying banner pole, then suddenly dropped them. He wrenched out the embedded gray-white spear and clasped it tightly in his hands, squeezing it until it shuddered and rumbled.
The Purple Spear Quasi-Emperor abruptly bent down and spat out a mouthful of blood, then gritted his teeth and shouted,
"We must destroy him! Only by killing him do we have a chance to live!"
Golden arrows shot out again with the might of Break Sun.
The Dragon Slaying Quasi-Emperor stirred up his flying sword, condensing the divine souls of the thirty thousand Boundary-Traversing Flood Dragon's he had slain. Taking aim at the remnants of the Ash Emperor's head, he instantly attacked.
The Great Sages assisted from the sides, solemn and vigilant.
Chen Xia frowned and squeezed his nose, pondering what to do.
He suddenly turned around.
Behind him stood a figure in black and white Daoist robes.
A number was written on it that no cultivator had ever seen before...
"Zero."