With the presence of the Ten Invincible Sovereigns, the mere human race, even if they could cause significant losses to the Divine Punishment Army, were only in one domain. The Divine Punishment Army still existed in the other nine domains, and the true Ancient Monarchs had never truly mobilized in person.
The awakening of the Ten Domain Lords seemed to restore the Heavenly Emperor Hall's absolute rule over the Heavenly Emperor Realm, and the world's faith in the Heavenly Emperor was restored.
Ten days later, the ten towering pillars of light gradually dissipated. The Ten Domain Lords simultaneously issued orders: once traces of human sinners were discovered, they were to be reported immediately, and the Heavenly Emperor Hall would take action to kill them with thunderous force.
This was to truly establish authority, to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.
Half a month later, in the Eighth Domain, a supremely powerful young figure appeared in a great metropolis. He did not conceal himself; he was a human Heaven's Pride, and extremely powerful. He came alone, breached the metropolis's defenses, slaughtered countless Divine Temple experts, and ultimately forcefully suppressed and killed the Divine King city lord, shattered the Divine Temple, destroyed the divine statue, and retreated unscathed.
This incident directly shook the Heavenly Emperor Realm and seemed like a direct slap to the Heavenly Emperor Hall's face.
No sooner had they said they would leave the humans with no place to hide, than a human supreme Heaven's Pride took action and killed a Divine King city lord.
It was heard that this person was the invincible Imperial Son of the pursued imperial clan, the Xiao Family. He was not present when the Divine Punishment Army was chasing the Xiao Family's Heaven's Prides. After learning of it later, he was enraged and single-handedly charged into the great metropolis, annihilating all the experts of the Heavenly Emperor's Divine Temple in that city.
Afterwards, the Heavenly Emperor Hall of the Eighth Domain received the report and immediately dispatched forces. Even the Divine Punishment Army of this domain mobilized, cooperating with five Divine Kings to go.
But they could find no trace of the Xiao Family's Imperial Son; they came up empty.
At the same time, similar events occurred in other great domains. The originally hidden Imperial Sons, Imperial Daughters, and strongest young supremes of the human race successively emerged, roaming the great domains. In a single day, they beheaded over a dozen Divine King-level metropolis lords across the Ten Great Domains of the Heavenly Emperor Hall, all retreating unscathed.
The Heavenly Emperor Hall was furious. The Domain Lords personally took action, their boundless heavenly might and divine sense enveloping the heavens, seeking to find traces of the human sinners.
But it was useless. The humans possessed concealment methods. Even powerful Ancient Monarchs were ineffective because those were hidden imperial techniques created by the Ancient Great Emperors of the various imperial clans, with extremely strong concealment.
Under these circumstances, the Domain Lords of the Ten Great Domains manifested a projection, traveling through the various domains, searching for the slightest trace of the human sinners.
They searched throughout heaven and earth, their divine sense vast and boundless, capable of moving mountains and rivers across millions of miles in a single thought.
But half a month passed, and they were still unable to find them. The humans were hidden too deeply; they could not be found.
This made the expressions of the Ten Domain Lords very unpleasant.
Meanwhile, the consecutive slaps to the face by the humans, the killing of Divine King experts, and the constant failure to achieve results, even with Ancient Monarchs taking action, caused the world to question the Heavenly Emperor Hall, and faith began to waver once more.
During this period, the Ten Domain Lords personally took action against some forces that were the first to spread rumors and shake the faith in the Heavenly Emperor, exterminating them with thunderous force. When Sovereigns acted, there were fundamentally few in the world who could truly resist.
But the more thunderous the methods, the more they caused the world's faith in the Heavenly Emperor Hall to waver.
Moreover, the Heavenly Emperor never manifested. The world began to doubt whether the Heavenly Emperor still existed in the world. Otherwise, faced with the provocation of the human sinners, why would he not descend in wrath and destroy these human sinners?
The various imperial clans, immortal clans, and Mythical Emperor Domains could sense that because of the humans, the people of the Heavenly Emperor Realm were beginning to waver in their faith in the Heavenly Emperor. It was feared that complete chaos would erupt before long.
At the same time, the three on the wanted list—Ye Chen, the Divine Emperor's Son, and Chu Shenjun—had still not been found, further fueling the roots of the wavering faith.
The Ten Domain Lords, though furious, were helpless. They were truly powerless. The humans were hidden too deeply; they could not be deduced, they could not be found.
Meanwhile, the various imperial clans, immortal clans, and Mythical Emperor Domains initially provided some intelligence about human traces, but later, they also stopped providing it, as if harboring great apprehension.
Time passed, and soon, half a year had gone by since the Heavenly Emperor Hall began hunting the humans. But in half a year, there had been no harvest whatsoever.
The human race seemed to have directly vanished from the Heavenly Emperor Realm. No matter how the Heavenly Emperor Hall searched, they could not be found.
The Heavenly Emperor Hall also sensed that the world's faith in the Heavenly Emperor was growing increasingly low, and often it was no longer pure, filled with many distracting thoughts.
In fact, the Ten Domain Lords had been very anxious during this period, also harboring a kind of doubt towards the Heavenly Emperor.
Logically speaking, the Heavenly Emperor could not be unaware of everything happening in the outside world, yet he never manifested. Why was this?
No one could know this.
The Heavenly Emperor Hall was very worried about this situation, fearing that one day, faith in the Heavenly Emperor would completely collapse. They felt compelled to take action.
Moreover, the sudden disappearance of the human race over the past half year also made the Heavenly Emperor Hall think that the humans were probably afraid and had quietly withdrawn from this realm. Otherwise, it was impossible that there had been no activity for half a year.
To prevent the continued wavering of the world's faith in the Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Emperor Hall felt it necessary to take action.
Located at the highest point of the Heavenly Emperor Realm was the Heavenly Emperor Palace, the true heavenly palace directly under the Heavenly Emperor.
The Heavenly Emperor Palace was incomparably magnificent, far surpassing the Heavenly Emperor Halls where the Ten Domain Lords resided. It possessed the majesty of an Ancient Great Emperor, solemn and inviolable. All the myriad Daos of the heavens had to submit here, and laws calmed into a vast ocean.
The Heavenly Emperor Palace was serene, not matching the imagined scene of experts as numerous as clouds. Only the Ten Domain Lords could go to the Heavenly Emperor Palace.
Within it, there was a tall divine hall, usually extremely dark and exuding a sinister aura. Inside was a huge long table, with five tall divine seats on each side, seemingly covered in dust.
Boom—
Suddenly, the dark divine hall, which had not seen light for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, once again appeared resplendent and magnificent.
On the tall divine seats on both sides, figures of peerless majesty appeared, their bodies shrouded in hazy laws. They were clearly the Sovereign Domain Lords of the Ten Great Domains.
The arrival of the Ten Domain Lords did not lead to immediate speech. Instead, they all looked towards the far end of the long table.
There, a tall imperial throne stood, the exclusive imperial seat of the Heavenly Emperor. The Ten Domain Lords, upon seeing it, had to show reverence from the depths of their hearts.
The Heavenly Emperor, even in his absence, remained supreme and inviolable.
After a long time, everyone withdrew their gazes, focusing on the long table.
"For many tens of thousands of years, we have not appeared together in the Imperial Hall. I remember the last time we appeared was when His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor appointed us to the positions of Domain Lords of the Ten Great Domains," one of the Domain Lords spoke, his voice low like rumbling thunder, echoing continuously in the Imperial Hall.
Another Domain Lord also spoke, equally low in tone: "Back then, His Majesty appointed us as Domain Lords of the Ten Great Domains to guard the faith in the Heavenly Emperor and maintain the stability of the great world. Never did we imagine that the emergence of these human sinners would shake the world's faith in His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor. Yet, in these days, we have been unable to stop it. We have truly failed in our duty."
"We have let down His Majesty!"
The Ten Domain Lords all felt they had failed in their duty to His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor.