Chapter 2196 – Imprisonment of the Divine Chains ... ... ... Emperor Shakya had always been one of the most peak powerhouses of humanity. If it weren’t for the great decline of humanity’s martial arts civilization, his road of cultivation would have been far smoother. In the first great invasion that the saints launched in the wild universe, he had been at the Empyrean limit. But now, he had finally stepped into True Divinity. Emperor Shakya was also the second True Divinity of humanity. Seven people were sitting in a grand hall, silently. Emperor Shakya sat above a lotus throne, his ten fingers weaving together as he produced buddhist seal after buddhist seal. This lotus throne was one of Mount Potala’s magic tools. Mount Potala had an inheritance that extended for billions of years, and the throne was one of their most precious cultivation support items. When it came to magic tools, there were numerous offensive and defensive kinds. But when it came to auxiliary magic tools, they were actually quite rare because the array formations required to refine one were exceedingly complex. Hum – Hum – Golden light dazzled outwards on the lotus throne. The surrounding heaven and earth origin energy gathered around the six surrounding people. For a time, the light Laws sparkled and Supreme phantoms appeared behind these six people. A Supreme phantom was the symbol of an Empyrean. Now, Dragon Fang, Xiao Moxian, Lin Huang, Hang Chi, Sable Ink, and Jun Bluemoon all had Empyrean level cultivations; the only difference was that they were in different small boundaries. In the great calamity of humanity, many human masters grew at an astonishing speed. For geniuses at the rank of Lin Huang or Sable Ink, they didn’t need 10,000 years to become an Empyrean; 7-8 thousand years was enough. 10,000 and several thousand some years was enough time for them to reach the upper Empyrean realm or even the limits of an Empyrean. Unfortunately, several hundred years ago the destiny of humanity had been imprisoned, so if these people wanted to make a breakthrough they first had to break through the Heavenly Dao’s divine chains of order. However, wanting to break through these divine chains was easier said than done. When Lin Ming broke through to the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, he had relied upon an inestimable accumulation of destiny and treasures. In addition, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian had dual cultivated, and while he was being chased down by Tian Mingzi and his back was against the river in a life or death situation, it was only during that critical moment that he broke through the Heavenly Dao dao diagram and obtained the power of the Nine Stars. But amongst humanity, there really wasn’t anyone capable of comparing with Lin Ming, and it was also difficult to reproduce the same situation that Lin Ming faced in the past. Thus, the proud elites of humanity each started to test different methods to make breakthroughs. For instance, within the great array formation managed by Emperor Shakya, six Empyreans attacked the bindings of the divine chains together. Within the great array, Emperor Shakya was only playing a supportive role. Whether or not one could break past the chains relied on a martial artist themselves. The higher a cultivation a martial artist possessed, the stronger their shackles would be. Ultimately, everything boiled down to one’s talent, potential, as well as their determination in attacking chains of the Heavenly Dao. All of this together decided if one was strong enough to defy the heavens and change their lives! Six lights wove together into a star. Emperor Shakya emitted brilliant golden light from every acupoint. This light coalesced into a buddha as the sound of chanting sutras lingered in the world, persisting for a long time. At this time, in the skies, the divine chains of order had formed a heavenly dao diagram that pressed down on the heads of all present. The lotus throne beneath Emperor Shakya’s feet revolved and a golden hand shot upwards. At the same time, the six Empyrean martial artists around Emperor Shakya each tried to break through their own respective cultivation bottlenecks! During these years that the essence gathering system had been sealed away, they had all reached their peaks in their small boundaries. If it weren’t for the divine chains of order hindering them, they would have already made their breakthroughs. Bang! The golden hand gathered together with the strength of the six people and violently crashed into the heavenly dao diagram, causing it to shake! Again and again, the brutal strikes continued. Every time the dao diagram dimmed, it was immediately supplemented by the golden divine chains of order that snaked around like pythons, adding more energy to the dao diagram. If one attacked the heavenly dao diagram, they would cause a backlash to occur. Xiao Moxian was fortunately able to withstand it. She had a deep background and possessed formidable potential, and she even possessed the body of a God Beast. But as for Hang Chi and Sable Ink, they were shaken by the strength of the Heavenly Dao. Their meridians were damaged by the shaking strength and blood flowed out from the corners of their mouths. Before their impact against the heavenly dao diagram lasted for an incense stick of time, they had already exhausted themselves. If this continued then they would suffer catastrophic and irreversible losses. They slowed down. Dragon Fang, Jun Bluemoon, and Lin Huang also slowed down a great deal. After an incense stick of time passed, Xiao Moxian stopped too. This time, their attempt to break past the chains of the Heavenly Dao had been defeated. This result didn’t leave them surprised because they had already failed many times before this. But, the repeated failures caused gloomy clouds to appear in their hearts. The several of them were already the elites amongst the human elites. If they weren’t able to break through the chains of the Heavenly Dao then there was no need to mention other martial artists. During these years, many human martial artists had turned their gaze towards the body transformation system and began to cultivate the Eight Inner Hidden Gates and Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. This included Lin Huang; he placed even more of his time in cultivating the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. But humanity’s body transformation technique had been abandoned for 3.6 billion years. How easy could it be to redevelop this cultivation system from the ground up? Moreover, even the body transformation Laws were still partially blocked by the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign. If one wished to cultivate them, there was still tremendous resistance! In truth, after humanity’s destiny had been shackled, besides relying on one’s potential to break through, one could also rely on brute force. When a martial artist reached the upper True Divinity realm and they possessed the corresponding Laws (such as the Swallowing Laws or the Curse Laws), then they would have the ability to change the destiny of an ordinary race. If they could reach the realm Beyond Divinity, then they would have the ability to create and destroy worlds, and even influence the flow of destiny for an entire universe. Likewise, if one wished to use brute force to break through the chains of the Heavenly Dao, they needed at least an upper True Divinity level of strength to accomplish this. However, amongst the entire human race, no one had reached this boundary. When it came to the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign, whether it was Divine Dream or Emperor Shakya, they were both a great deal weaker than him. And with the essence gathering system locked away, it would be even more difficult for Divine Dream or Emperor Shakya to surpass the Good Fortune Saint Son. At this time, Sable Ink swallowed a pill and began to meditate and restore herself. As she stabilized her tumbling blood vitality, she looked up at the heavenly dao diagram that was gradually fading away into the skies. She couldn’t help but sigh deeply and say, “Senior Lin Ming... he is truly an outstanding human hero.” Sable Ink was well aware that when the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was sealed away in the past, Lin Ming had relied on his amazing potential, his determination, as well as Xiao Moxian’s help to break past the heavenly dao diagram. With Emperor Shakya assisting through an array formation and the six Empyreans joining forces, the difficulty of breaking into the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace in the past was far greater than what these six people had to undergo now. Yet none of these geniuses were able to break past the barrier. Moreover, the more attempts they tried, the more they could feel how terrifying the bindings of the Heavenly Dao were. Without feeling this for themselves, none of them would have had an inkling of how difficult this was for Lin Ming in the past. “Lin Ming...” As Xiao Moxian heard Sable Ink speak of Lin Ming, her gaze seemed to turn distant. Since Lin Ming left, he had spent 500 years in Tragic Death Valley and around 1500 years in the Demon God’s Tomb; he had been gone for a full 2000 years. Because Xiao Moxian hadn’t cultivated in Tragic Death Valley for such a long time like Lin Ming did, her age hadn’t yet reached 10,000 years. However, for most of this time, she and Lin Ming had been separated. In their first parting, 7000 years had passed. In their second parting, 2000 years had already passed... Moreover, this time, she didn’t know if Lin Ming was alive or dead, or even if he was doing well. How could she not be worried? Lin Ming had gone to the Dark Abyss this time, and that place was just far too dangerous... “Father will be safe.” Beside Xiao Moxian, Lin Huang had just recovered. He gently held onto his mother’s hand to comfort her. “Mm.” Xiao Moxian nodded. At this time, Sable Ink felt a bit embarrassed by her loss of decorum just now. She said, “In the past, even when Senior Lin was being chased down by Soaring Feather God King he was still able to create miracles. This time Senior Lin will surely return and his strength will definitely have risen. He should have steadily reached the upper Empyrean realm, or perhaps even reached... peak Empyrean!” Sable Ink’s eyes flashed with reverence and admiration. There was no one in humanity that didn’t respect Lin Ming. And, Sable Ink and Lin Huang could be considered peers of the same generation. She had grown up listening to Divine Dream tell stories of Lin Ming, and when it came to respect and worship of the older generation, her fervor was naturally much more intense than that of those like Dragon Fang and Jun Bluemoon who came from Lin Ming’s generation. “Peak Empyrean...” Xiao Moxian couldn’t confirm this. In fact, Lin Ming’s talent and potential mainly manifested in his ability to leap past boundaries to fight. In terms of cultivation speed, Lin Ming couldn’t be regarded as an extreme genius; he was even somewhat slower than Xiao Moxian. When Xiao Moxian had broken into the Empyrean realm, Lin Ming had only been a half-step Empyrean; he wasn’t much faster than Lin Huang. This was mainly because the Laws that Lin Ming cultivated were far too high and their difficulty far too great. Now, Xiao Moxian was merely a little bit from reaching the peak Empyrean realm. It would already be wonderful if Lin Ming could reach the upper Empyrean realm.