Chen Xia had now become the safest person in the entire Great Zhou Dynasty.
Because he was locked up in the deepest part of the imperial city's celestial prison.
It had been over twenty thousand years since his last imprisonment, and Chen Xia couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. He vaguely remembered that the last time he was imprisoned was for helping the Great Emperor Seedling reincarnate.
Was it called Qiong Qi?
Chen Xia couldn't quite remember clearly.
As for the reason for his current imprisonment, it was because he had smashed the pills offered to Emperor Capital, and then promised to refine more pills as compensation. So the Great Zhou Dynasty locked him in the depths of the celestial prison, preventing him from escaping while also allowing him to recover from his injuries.
Two Heaven Mending Realm cultivators were responsible for guarding Chen Xia. They were considered extremely powerful high-level cultivators in the Great Zhou Dynasty, stationed on the left and right at the front, steadily guarding Chen Xia in the prison.
They weren't worried about Chen Xia escaping, but rather feared that he wouldn't be able to refine the pills. The pills that were smashed this time were all of superior quality, and many of the medicinal ingredients were extremely difficult to find. The Great Zhou Dynasty had spent decades to refine only this many.
Although the princess was willing to personally vouch for him, the two Heaven Mending Realm cultivators still felt that Chen Xia couldn't be trusted. They believed there was a high possibility that he was just talking big to save his life, estimating that his intention was to preserve his life for the time being and then seize an opportunity to escape.
Chen Xia sat cross-legged inside, his expression calm. His injuries had mostly healed. Although he had been singled out for retribution by the Way of Heaven, thanks to this body being a remnant soul, he hadn't suffered too much karmic backlash.
It could be understood that he was stunned at the time, but there were no lasting effects.
His fingers moved slightly, with imperceptible time flowing and revolving around his fingertips, encompassing hundreds of years of time.
On these hundreds of years of time, a divine light, though tiny, was extremely dazzling and pressed down.
This was a trace of the Way of Heaven that Chen Xia had forcibly retained when he was singled out for retribution by the Way of Heaven.
The Way of Heaven settled accounts with him, and he suppressed the Way of Heaven!
Although he could only barely retain a strand now, as his cultivation increased, his comprehension of the Dao deepened, and his abilities strengthened, it wasn't impossible that he could wrestle with the Way of Heaven in the future.
And perhaps only he in the world could forcibly retain this strand of the Way of Heaven.
Because he was a person without destiny, he didn't have too much karmic entanglement with the Way of Heaven. Others had already become two separate planes, one the Great Death Realm, and the other the realm domain.
So now he and the Way of Heaven could be considered to have the same origin but different roots.
Chen Xia had already stepped out of the jurisdiction of the Way of Heaven. Since becoming the will of the Great Death Realm interface, he had begun to transcend.
This was the most different point between him and other cultivators, a difference in origin.
The two Heaven Mending Realm guards at the door noticed his movements, frowned, and warned:
"Don't have any other thoughts, don't make any small moves, don't think about escaping. If you really have the ability, then naturally you can get out alive, and even achieve fame and success. But if you don't have the ability..."
The Heaven Mending Realm cultivator's tone became heavy as he continued:
"Then there's only death awaiting you."
Chen Xia just chuckled lightly, not saying a word.
In his eyes, the threats of the Heaven Mending Realm cultivators were as laughable as children making empty threats.
And he obviously wouldn't bother with children, unless the children were truly misbehaving.
The two Heaven Mending Realm cultivators before him were relatively well-behaved, as they only made threats without any other actions.
Chen Xia yawned boredly.
The celestial prison was somewhat gloomy, located in the depths of the stars, almost reaching the center.
He was imprisoned in the most heavily guarded position, with the prison formed by a grand formation, without even the slightest flow of spiritual energy, and strictly limiting cultivation.
Even Heaven Mending Realm cultivators would be restricted to the Nascent Soul stage in this prison.
Moreover, there were formations within formations. If a cultivator tried to use magical treasures or talismans, the formation would instantly suppress them, with power comparable to a full-force attack from a peak Heaven Mending Realm cultivator, terrifyingly powerful.
It was an interesting formation within a formation.
So the bored Chen Xia began to study this formation.
Since he had promised Zhou Jia to refine pills, he wouldn't run away first, and there was still a character in the Great Zhou Dynasty that interested him.
Emperor Capital.
Having failed to trace back the Blue Sky Sword Sea earlier, Chen Xia had already found the reason.
It was that the Way of Heaven didn't recognize the Blue Sky Sword Sea from twenty thousand years ago.
The logic was simple, because the traced Blue Sky Sword Sea didn't resemble the one from twenty thousand years ago at all.
Chen Xia needed to make it as similar as possible.
For example, unifying the Immortal Sword and reshaping the stars.
Or calling people back.
Calling back all the cultivators who were once in the Blue Sky Sword Sea to stay there, and then reshaping it. This way, the chances of the Way of Heaven recognizing it would be greater.
This was a good method, and Chen Xia would try it. Perhaps after reshaping the Blue Sky Sword Sea, the Old Fisherman would also regain consciousness.
Of course, it was just a possibility.
It was also possible that the Old Fisherman would completely disappear with the tracing back of the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
These were all uncertain.
But the tracing back definitely needed to be done, and it would begin after Chen Xia's main soul regained consciousness.
Because the unification of the Immortal Sword required tracing back.
Chen Xia had been thinking about this before. After retrieving the other half of the Immortal Sword, how should he unify them?
The Immortal Sword had been broken for over twenty thousand years, and the karmic connection between the hilt and the blade was already extremely small. They might even have become two different swords.
It wasn't as simple as just having both halves of the Immortal Sword in hand to unify them.
They might just be two half swords, the difference being one was a hilt and the other a blade.
And now Chen Xia had found the answer.
He would trace both halves of the Immortal Sword back along with the Blue Sky Sword Sea, back to twenty thousand years ago, naturally becoming one Immortal Sword.
He had thoroughly mastered the Time Dao, primarily focusing on taking the road less traveled.
All he needed was the Immortal Sword from twenty thousand years ago.
In the main hall of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Emperor Zhou's expression was gloomy, and had been for many days.
Zhou Jia stood respectfully with her head lowered, not daring to speak up.
"Jia, when are we supposed to present our tribute to the sage?" Emperor Zhou suddenly asked, though he already knew the answer.
Zhou Jia quickly replied, "Five years from now."
"Five years, you know it's five years!" Emperor Zhou's tone suddenly rose in anger.
"Let's not even talk about how to find the medicinal ingredients. Just the time needed to refine so many pills would take more than five years. Even if you found the best alchemist in the imperial city, they wouldn't dare make such a boast!"
"Now a cultivator who fell from the sky, without any background, and you vouch for him alone, expecting me to believe it?!"
After Emperor Zhou finished shouting, he slammed his fist onto the nearby azure lion white desk, instantly shattering this treasure equivalent to a spiritual weapon.
"Father, please don't be angry. He is my junior brother whom I once brought back to the Cloud-top Sword Sect. He has many extraordinary qualities and shouldn't be deceiving me," Zhou Jia quickly replied.
"Shouldn't?!" Emperor Zhou angrily questioned, "Do you want three million cultivators of the Great Zhou Dynasty to believe in your 'shouldn't'?!"
He slammed his fist onto a nearby white jade pillar, shattering it, and roared again.
"Do you know how tyrannical Emperor Capital's temper really is? If we can't present the pills this time, the entire Great Zhou Dynasty will change hands, and there will never be the words 'Great Zhou' again!"
Zhou Jia's body trembled, her head lowered, not daring to look up, not knowing how to respond.
Seeing her like this, Emperor Zhou softened, sighing as he continued.
"You're still young, you don't know how terrifying a figure like Emperor Capital truly is. He's a peerless genius left behind by an ancient overlord sect. Half of the sages in the current Star Region came from this overlord sect."
"Emperor Capital is even more outstanding among them. In his early years, he was famous for his volatile temper, killing many geniuses of his generation. He even had the reputation of killing an entire sect single-handedly."
At this point, Emperor Zhou looked at Zhou Jia and shook his head, saying softly.
"You are very talented, likely to become the first quasi-sage in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty, but compared to geniuses like Emperor Capital, you're far too insignificant."
"Quasi-sage is just the lower limit for such geniuses. Great Emperor is what they strive for as their upper limit."
Zhou Jia nodded slightly, silent.
Emperor Zhou waved his hand.
"Let this person prepare to refine pills in three months. If he can truly refine a few high-grade pills, I can do my utmost to protect him."
"But if he can't refine even one..."
"Then he can wait for death."