Everything within the Donghuang Sacred Hall must be seen by the Supreme Immortals. Perhaps even the Immortal King seated high upon the thirty-third heaven, loftily overlooking all things in the mortal world, was watching. Where did he get the audacity to speak like this? It was surely a suicidal act!
Seeing Hua Chen shake his head in denial, the crowd soon turned their gaze to another super genius in the Donghuang Sacred Hall—Han Xiangzi, a super genius whose fame and talent were no less than Hua Chen's.
But Han Xiangzi hurriedly denied it as well.
Subsequently, everyone looked towards several other famous super geniuses, all of whom had been contemplating the Immortal Stele within the Donghuang Sacred Hall for over a month, some even for ten years, giving them a certain chance.
Yet these super geniuses were also denied one by one.
Everyone was puzzled. If it wasn't these world-renowned super geniuses, could it be a veteran influential figure from the older generation?
It wasn't entirely impossible, for among Donghuang's personal disciples, there was one who had once been an aged, twilight-years Divine King on the verge of death.
Speaking of that old Divine King, his life's journey could indeed be considered an immortal legend.
The old Divine King's true name was Wang Hao. The first half of his life could also be called incomparably glorious. He awakened his talent very early, born as a Great Perfection Supreme Genius from among infinite living beings, overflowing with heaven-defying talent, capable of suppressing an entire immortal domain alone.
Moreover, his fortune was not shallow. He once obtained an Immortal Dao inheritance from within the Immortal Burial Ground, cultivating an Immortal Scripture, and from then on, his life advanced triumphantly.
Just over a hundred years old, he had already become a generation's Heavenly King, revealing immortal grace. At the time, he was praised by all as having the hope of attaining the Immortal Dao Fruit and becoming another renowned Supreme Immortal of the Primordial Immortal Realm.
However, right within the Heavenly King Realm, Wang Hao encountered the most terrifying enemy of his life. That opponent was also a Great Perfection Supreme Genius, and moreover, a child of the Immortal Dao.
The two viewed each other as lifelong arch-enemies, battling all the way from the Heavenly King Realm, becoming Great Powers, and finally breaking into the Divine King Realm, becoming the two most dazzling peerless Heaven's Prides of the Primordial Immortal Realm at that time.
Everyone knew that as long as they walked to the end, they had great hope of attaining the Dao and becoming immortals.
Yet, after Wang Hao and his great enemy stepped into the Divine King Realm, they engaged in the strongest battle of their lives.
After the peak battle, both were severely wounded, but it concluded with Wang Hao losing by half a move.
The great enemy emerged victorious, with the brilliance of the heavens shining upon him.
As for Wang Hao, after that battle, he was nearly dead, his blood staining who knows how many mountains and rivers. His Divine King Dao Fruit was severed, his cultivation plummeting catastrophically from the Divine King Realm, ultimately falling to become a Saint.
It could be said he ended in gloom.
After the battle, Wang Hao's glory faded, and he left his homeland in gloom.
In the latter half of his life, Wang Hao no longer possessed his former talent; his genius vanished, becoming an ordinary person.
However, Wang Hao was also a man of great perseverance. Starting from Saint, he painstakingly re-cultivated bit by bit, spending eighty thousand years to finally return to the Divine King Realm.
Unfortunately, by the time he returned to the Divine King Realm, he was already very old. In the subsequent hundreds of thousands of years, he remained confined to the Divine King Realm, ultimately only becoming a Nine Tribulations Divine King, still some distance from Quasi-Monarch.
And that great enemy from back then had long since become an Immortal Monarch, dominating for hundreds of thousands of years, governing an immortal domain on behalf of a Supreme Immortal for many millennia.
Just as everyone thought Wang Hao would eventually reach his Great Limit and pass away sitting in meditation, while that Immortal Monarch would prove his Immortal Dao.
In his final twilight years, with less than a millennium of lifespan remaining, Wang Hao came to the Donghuang Sacred Hall. Spending eight hundred years, he actually, just before his lifespan's Great Limit arrived, completely comprehended a wisp of Immortal Venerable One origin.
Naturally, this startled Donghuang. No one expected that an old Divine King on the verge of his lifespan's Great Limit, his body decaying, blood energy dried up—one foot already in the coffin, on the verge of death, with only a few years left to live—could achieve this.
Logically, even if Wang Hao had reached the peak of the Divine King Realm, just a hair's breadth from stepping into the Quasi-Monarch domain, that hair's breadth difference would be like a heavenly chasm, impossible for Wang Hao with his extinguished blood energy to cross. He would only have less than two hundred years left to linger on.
Who could have imagined he completely comprehended the wisp of Immortal Venerable One origin left by Donghuang within the Immortal Stele.
Yet, what was even more shocking was that Donghuang did not extend his life for another lifetime. Instead, he slightly baptized Wang Hao's fleshly body with Immortal Venerable blood, extending his lifespan by a thousand years.
Donghuang said at the time: The more it is like this, the easier it is to break and then stand anew, for a withered tree to meet new life. This way, once a breakthrough is made, it will be even stronger.
Sure enough, Wang Hao cultivated bitterly under Donghuang's tutelage. He didn't even live to the thousand-year lifespan Donghuang had extended, using his own originally remaining two hundred years to, just before his Great Limit arrived, forcefully achieve a tremendous breakthrough, becoming a Quasi-Monarch—the oldest Divine King in history to break through to Quasi-Monarch.
His lifespan surged dramatically. Wang Hao returned to youth, regaining his prime.
In the subsequent years, he also greatly benefited from the bit-by-bit accumulation over those hundreds of thousands of years. Accumulating deeply and then bursting forth, he advanced triumphantly all the way, rising from Quasi-Monarch to the Immortal Monarch level in less than ten thousand short years.
Finally, after bitterly cultivating for half an epoch and accumulating sufficient foundation, he leaped forward in one go, attaining the position of Supreme Immortal.
Moreover, within three epochs, Wang Hao continued to progress, ultimately becoming a generation's Immortal King, dominating the Primordial Immortal Realm, famous throughout the ages.
As for that great enemy from back then, he remained confined to the Immortal Monarch level. In his lifetime, he attempted to impact the Immortal Dao realm three times, all unsuccessful.
The final attempt to impact the Immortal Dao realm, because the Immortal Dao tribulations grew more devastating each time, ended with him perishing during the tribulation. A generation of heaven-defying talent thus perished from the mortal world.
In contrast, Wang Hao swept away his past from then on, soaring ninety thousand li into the sky, becoming the Supreme Immortal King who suppresses the heavens, past and present, to this day.
Therefore, after all the present super geniuses suspected of completely comprehending the final wisp of Immortal Venerable One origin denied it, everyone's attention turned to those veteran super-powerful figures, especially Divine Kings, Quasi-Monarchs, and Ancient Monarchs, who were also present.
Many felt it was highly likely that a figure comparable to Wang Hao of old had emerged.
However, those veteran powerhouses denied it one by one, admitting it was not them.
Everyone was puzzled. If it wasn't them, then who had completely comprehended it?
Boom—
Immortal light shimmered brilliantly.
At this moment, the Donghuang Bell transformed from the final wisp of Immortal Venerable One origin flew out, ultimately landing before Ye Chen.
Under the gaze of all, Ye Chen reached out and grabbed it. The Donghuang Bell, originally the size of a house, instantly shrank, finally becoming palm-sized, floating in his palm, glowing brilliantly.
"It's you!"
Everyone within the Donghuang Sacred Hall was greatly astonished. They never imagined the one who ultimately succeeded in completely comprehending the Donghuang Bell was actually Ye Chen, this person who showed no reverence for the Donghuang Sacred Hall.
Donghuang Qingshan was shocked.
Donghuang Yanran was also astonished, her beautiful eyes flickering with traces of strange brilliance as she watched Ye Chen, seemingly suspicious and curious about just who Ye Chen was.