King Wen's Heaven and Earth

Boots—King Wen's boots. In Su Yu's memory, this was a remarkably powerful weapon. Moreover, there had been plenty of gossipy anecdotes circulating about King Wen's boots; in truth, that pair of boots lived on in everyone's minds. Yet no one had ever paid them too much heed. No matter how formidable King Wen's boots were, they were still just his footwear. Now, however, based on the intelligence Gui had brought back, Su Yu had come to a certain deduction: those boots might actually conceal a heaven and earth. That was the terrifying part. The thing had been hidden right before everyone's eyes, yet no one had been able to tell... Even if you beat the Human Sovereign to death, he probably would never imagine that King Wen would open his heaven and earth inside a shoe! "The boot in the little white dog's possession... might just be a guide, like the divine characters in the Tombstone of Civilizations that guided others to locate the heaven and earth... In that case, King Wen's heaven and earth is likely inside the other boot!" Su Yu reached another conclusion. In all probability, it wasn't the one with the little white dog, because the little dog was constantly on the move. If it had been that one, it would mean King Wen's world could be moved about at will. To verify this, he still needed to find the little white dog and get hold of that boot. Ignoring Gui, who was currently condensing an avatar, Su Yu beckoned with a hand, and Xingyue manifested once more. By now, Xingyue was thoroughly speechless and quite annoyed. "What is it this time?" *Summoning me over and over—it's infuriating!* *I'm in the middle of working!* Many people had been injured this time, and she had been busy treating them. Su Yu kept summoning her every few moments; it was a huge nuisance! "Tell the little white dog to toss his boot into the world and let it drift downstream. I don't feel like going to fetch it myself!" He didn't call the little white dog back, either—too troublesome. If a dog traveled all by itself and got lost, what then? "Understood!" With a flick of Su Yu's hand, Xingyue vanished. As she left, she wanted nothing more than to curse him out. *Summoned at beck and call, dismissed with a wave—is that all I am?* *Su Yu is going too far!* Su Yu chuckled, then glanced into the distance where Gui was condensing his avatar. Gui's surroundings were shrouded in a hazy illusion—a mirage within Su Yu's world. Su Yu let out a laugh and suddenly summoned his Human Lord Seal! The Human Lord Seal plummeted like an enormous dome, covering him completely! Only this felt secure! With the Human Lord Seal here, even if Gui's true body came in person, he might not be able to shatter the seal and escape. A mere avatar would have no chance whatsoever! Meanwhile, behind the Heavenly Gate, Gui was expending his strength to teleport the sphere King Wen had given him. However, its power was evidently immense, so teleporting it across would take some time. At this moment, the Great Zhou King flew over through the air. He had also sensed the subtle abnormality and now slightly furrowed his brows. "Your Majesty!" Su Yu smiled. "It's nothing. Just a first-tier powerhouse from behind the Heavenly Gate—a newly ascended one at that. It's only an avatar. Let Lan Tian play with him." The Great Zhou King's expression turned odd. *That really is just playing around!* Lan Tian had been idle lately with nothing to do and no way to head upstream. Staying here to spar would serve nicely as practice with the Great Dao. "The Heavenly Gate..." The Great Zhou King pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty should still be cautious. Among the beings behind the Heavenly Gate, there are some truly terrifying entities!" Su Yu nodded slightly. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Are you familiar with the Sixth Generation Human Lord?" "The Sixth Human Lord?" The Great Zhou King searched his memory and nodded. "Fairly familiar, though we didn't interact much. The Sixth Human Lord was also an outstanding hero—or rather, every generation was. However, his temperament was somber and laconic. Back then, there were people from the Fire-Passing lineage supporting him, so I didn't get too involved." "Did you know he opened the Heavenly Gate?" The Great Zhou King shook his head, though he added, "I didn't know while he was alive. But after his death, I looked into the circumstances surrounding his sudden demise. He likely opened one of the three gates and was ambushed!" Opening the Heavenly Gate wasn't impossible for someone with immense talent. Yet what Su Yu was pondering now was not that, but something else. He said softly, "I'm wondering—where did he get the method to open the Heavenly Gate?" The Great Zhou King was startled. Su Yu said calmly, "Methods to open the Heavenly Gate are extremely rare—virtually unheard of! Of course, he might have been exceptionally gifted and traversed the passage between the realms of life and death in Xingyu Mansion, thus grasping the method on his own. Otherwise, no written records of how to open the Heavenly Gate have ever been passed down. In my case, I only learned it thanks to the Martial Emperor's cultivation technique!" With 720 apertures and countless combinations of techniques, how could anyone know which configuration would open the Heavenly Gate? Testing them one by one would have killed a person long before finding it. Even if one didn't die, every failed attempt would inflict severe injuries. The Sixth Human Lord had opened the Heavenly Gate without a sound. Su Yu was genuinely curious: where had he obtained the technique? Back then, the Martial Emperor had still been trapped in madness and chaos. With that in mind, Su Yu continued, "Furthermore, Hundred Battles' faction seems connected to the Human Gate, yet they've been keeping their eyes glued to the Earthly Gate... That's also suspicious. Since he opened the Human Gate, why didn't he enter it instead of obsessing over getting into the Earthly Gate?" The Great Zhou King paused, then replied, "The Human Gate cannot be opened, or perhaps its true location cannot be found, so the Earthly Gate was more accessible..." Su Yu waved his hand and shook his head. "Let me ask you: aren't those behind the Heavenly Gate constantly trying to force it open? Look at people like Gui—the guy in contact with me—they're all scheming day and night to get out! Inside the Earthly Gate, those ancient beasts are doing the exact same thing! But the Human Gate... there hasn't been a single ripple. Have you sensed anything?" The Great Zhou King raised an eyebrow. "Your Majesty means...?" "Could they have made arrangements long ago?" Su Yu smiled. "Or perhaps they have already supplanted someone and descended into the myriad realms?" "Your Majesty is referring to... Zhou Ji?" The Great Zhou King was taken aback, exclaiming in surprise, "Could Zhou Ji be the spokesperson of the Human Gate?" Su Yu nodded. "A guess, merely a guess! Zhou Ji is definitely off. He was callous toward Hundred Battles, and his attitude toward Yu was rather lukewarm. When he rescued Yu, it felt more like he was doing it to maintain a link with the Human Ancestor! Yu is, after all, the Human Ancestor's descendant!" "Hundred Battles opened the Human Gate, and Yu did too. But did Zhou Ji?" Su Yu smiled. "Also, after he severed the human race's Physical Body Dao back then, I suddenly realized his strength hadn't diminished much. So after severing his Dao, where did his power come from? I didn't understand before, but now that I've connected to the Heavenly Gate myself, an idea strikes me... power was being transmitted to him from within the Human Gate!" That day, when Zhou Ji severed the Physical Body Dao of the human race, Su Yu had actually wanted to kill him. However, realizing that the fellow's strength hadn't noticeably weakened, Su Yu had chosen to let it go. Back then, Su Yu hadn't understood the circumstances. Now that he was connected to the Heavenly Gate himself, he couldn't help considering the possibility: was Zhou Ji's undiminished strength due to someone behind the gate funneling power to him? Was Zhou Ji truly of Hundred Battles' bloodline? Or had an entity behind the gate possessed Zhou Ji's body? Who could say! What kind of beings resided within the Human Gate? Humans? The myriad races? Or chaotic ancient races? Su Yu knew roughly what lay behind the Heavenly Gate and Earthly Gate, but the Human Gate now struck him as the most enigmatic of all. Aside from learning of its existence through Hundred Battles, he knew virtually nothing about it! Not just Su Yu—even the Human Sovereign knew very little about the Human Gate. The Human Sovereign had made arrangements in both the Heavenly Gate and the Earthly Gate, yet regarding the Human Gate, he had been powerless. According to the Human Sovereign, the Human Gate was situated downstream along the River of Time, possibly at its very end. Su Yu was only speculating aloud; neither the Heavenly Gate nor the Earthly Gate had been resolved yet, so a rough understanding of the Human Gate was enough for now. These matters had to be taken step by step. As for Zhou Ji... if he truly was the Human Gate's spokesperson, then his entry into the Earthly Gate harbored sinister intentions. Perhaps he had intended to enter of his own accord from the start. Bringing Yu along... hehe, perhaps she was merely a stepping stone, a guide. He might be trying to use Yu to locate the Human Ancestor! The Great Zhou King reflected for a moment, then suddenly remarked, "If Zhou Ji is the spokesperson of the Human Gate, then the Heavenly Gate actually has a spokesperson as well." "Hm?" Su Yu was startled. *Who?* "His Majesty the Human Sovereign!" Su Yu frowned. What did that mean? The Great Zhou King smiled. "Back when His Majesty the Human Sovereign opened the Heavenly Gate, he seemed to have had contact with a powerful entity behind it. I don't know the specifics, but they likely fell out later on... Even so, His Majesty the Human Sovereign probably knows a fair bit about the conditions within the Heavenly Gate. When Your Majesty has time, you could ask him for details." Some things, if you didn't ask, people wouldn't bother mentioning, or simply forgot to bring up. Su Yu did recall something: earlier, the Human Sovereign had mentioned that when dealing with the Immortal Emperor, he happened to be in a weakened period, which coincided with unrest in the Heavenly Gate. He had to suppress the Heavenly Gate on one hand, deal with the Immortal Emperor on the other, and cope with his weakened state at the same time... That was why he had been severely wounded. Thinking about it this way, the Human Sovereign was truly formidable. At his peak, how much Dao power had the Human Sovereign possessed? More than the power of 32 Daos? If so, that was terrifying! For now, Su Yu put those thoughts aside and quickly asked, "Setting that aside, after I left, was there some unrest around the Earthly Gate?" The Great Zhou King silently grumbled to himself: *I haven't even had the chance to report it, and you already know.* Indeed, Su Yu was the master here; at the slightest stir, he would immediately know. The Great Zhou King nodded. "Indeed. It's possible that someone who entered made contact with those inside and told them about us. Thinking Your Majesty had gone upstream, they tried to emerge, but I held them back!" Who leaked the information? Su Yu weighed the options. Zhou Ji and Yu? That was a possibility! As for Tiangu and his group, that was also possible, though they would surely be treading cautiously once inside, hiding as best they could; the odds of them actively approaching the locals were slim. Of course, the Demon race was another suspect. The Demon race seemed to still have an emperor inside the Earthly Gate. Had that Demon Emperor been planted intentionally, or had he fallen in by accident? While waiting for Gui's transmission, Su Yu walked toward the Earthly Gate. ... Before long, Su Yu arrived before the Earthly Gate. Behind the gateway, there seemed to be nothing at all; it stood suspended out of thin air. "If behind the Earthly Gate lies primal chaos, does the Dao of Time exist there?" Su Yu murmured to himself as he looked at the Earthly Gate again. He had heard that January and the others were also inside and hadn't perished yet. He wondered if January and company had ever looked outward from the other side. "Why can't I cultivate the Earthly Gate and the Human Gate...?" At this moment, Su Yu pondered this. He actually had thoughts of cultivating both the Earthly Gate and the Human Gate. To cultivate all three gates and link up with them! Ideally, he would find three powerful entities, look for an opportunity to kill them all off, or conversely probe the conditions within the three gates. Su Yu suddenly asked, "Great Zhou King, why is the Prison King's lineage able to cultivate the Earthly Gate?" It seemed only the direct lineage of the Prison King could cultivate the Earthly Gate. As for the Human Gate, Su Yu knew that opening 720 physical apertures was required. That seemed to depend on bloodline and racial heritage. Then why could the Prison King's lineage cultivate the Earthly Gate? "The lineage of the Prison King seems to combine the Prison King's bloodline with that of the Demon Emperor of the Demon race to form their current bloodline, allowing them to cultivate the Earthly Gate..." As Su Yu spoke, he looked at the Great Zhou King. "Is there something special about the Demon race's bloodline as well?" The Great Zhou King thought about it and shook his head. "I wouldn't know. Tracing that back would go far too distant in time!" "Fair enough." Su Yu didn't dwell on it. It was a slight pity, but Su Yu was still wondering if there was a way to cultivate them. His Great Dao rippled, and a moment later, Marquis Tongtian appeared. Su Yu looked at Tongtian. "Do I have any way to open the Earthly Gate and the Human Gate?" Seeing that Su Yu asked this question right off the bat, Marquis Tongtian thought for a bit and said, "Difficult! But Your Majesty could try a method of reversing bloodlines to manifest an avatar for cultivation!" He added, "Others cultivating the Earthly Gate and Human Gate probably possess some connection to the two gates. It actually has little to do with bloodline itself, but rather that the progenitor of that bloodline had some tie to the gates." He chuckled. "For instance, if Your Majesty has a connection with me, then after Your Majesty dies in the future, Your Majesty's descendants could cultivate my Tongtian Gate!" Su Yu just stared at him in silence. Under that stare, Marquis Tongtian felt rather sheepish. It had been quite a while since he ran his mouth, and today he seemed to have put his foot in it right from the start. "Ahem... Your Majesty won't die, and besides, Your Majesty doesn't have any descendants..." Su Yu continued to stare at him. Awkwardness washed over Marquis Tongtian, and he gave a dry laugh. "I didn't mean to mock Your Majesty! I don't have descendants either. Look, Your Majesty, I haven't even found a gate to be my wife!" The Great Zhou King rolled his eyes. *You'd be better off keeping your mouth shut.* *The more you say, the worse it gets!* Left with no choice, Marquis Tongtian hurriedly changed the subject: "Those capable of cultivating the power of a gate must have reached some agreement with it, or simply left an imprint of their will inside! For example, Your Majesty can cultivate the Heavenly Gate... that means Your Majesty's ancestor—or rather, the ancestor of humanity, a supreme powerhouse—imprinted their power upon the Heavenly Gate!" Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "Who was our ancestor?" The Human Ancestor wasn't the initial ancestor. At most, the Human Ancestor was one of humanity's past leaders, just like King Wen, Sun, Moon, and Star—titans of a certain era, but not the primordial progenitor of the human race. The Human Sovereign could open the Heavenly Gate, Su Yu could, King Wen and the others could too... which meant their common ancestor might be a single entity. Could that ancestor have had ties to the Heavenly Gate? And had the Human Ancestor left an imprint in the Human Gate? Had the Prison King or the Yanhuo Demon Emperor left an imprint in the Earthly Gate? At this point, Su Yu grew genuinely interested in the powerhouses of even more ancient eras. Marquis Tongtian shrugged. "Perhaps it's the Master of Time? If he had descendants, I reckon cultivating all three gates wouldn't be a problem at all!" Well, that did make some sense. The Master of Time... Su Yu found himself increasingly intrigued by him. Where on earth was this supreme existence? Even the Lord of Dead Spirits hadn't died; Su Yu didn't believe the Master of Time was dead either. As Su Yu pondered these matters, his eyes shifted slightly. In the next instant, he reached into the void and plucked out a boot. The little white dog had cast the boot downstream, sending it along the River of Time to drift right into Su Yu's world. Su Yu caught the boot and felt its power—an exceptionally potent boot. Back when the little white dog was at the Heavenly King Realm, using this boot could elevate him to Celestial Venerable. Even now, using King Wen's boot granted him immense power. Su Yu probed it carefully and arched his brows slightly, sensing nothing peculiar. That meant that if King Wen's heaven and earth truly existed, it was not inside this shoe. And Tongtian, unable to contain himself once again, blurted out, "Your Majesty, does King Wen's shoe smell nice?" *What are you sniffing it for?* He was starting to suspect Su Yu had some bizarre penchant—snatching up a shoe out of nowhere and smelling it. He recognized it; it looked like King Wen's shoe. "..." Su Yu looked at him, his brow furrowing slightly, but soon broke into a smile. "Interesting! Tongtian, ever since you swallowed the Martial Emperor's Heavenly Gate, you seem to have reverted to your old self. Feeling stronger now, are you? No longer afraid of me nailing a door bolt onto you?" This argumentative gate hadn't bickered in quite some time! After Su Yu scared him earlier, he had been obedient, but today he seemed eager to pick a fight again. Tongtian smiled sheepishly. "Your Majesty jokes, how could I? I was just making an offhand remark!" Su Yu cast him a meaningful look. "Don't get cocky. Even though you've reached fourth-tier and feel close to third-tier, with your rate of growth... let alone having to devour gates, even if the true forms of the three gates revived one day, they might not catch up to me. Understand?" "Understood!" Tongtian shrank back, thoroughly chastened, not daring to utter another word. Su Yu had merely meant to keep him in line. Looking at the boot in his hand, he pondered how to locate the other one. Where was the other boot? A heaven and earth was best opened within primal chaos. If not opened in primal chaos, it would face rejection from the River of Time. Could the boot not be in the myriad realms, but hidden in primal chaos? That made sense; if a shoe were hidden in primal chaos, it wouldn't draw attention and would be exceedingly hard to discover. As if struck by an idea, Su Yu gave a soft laugh. He manifested a brush and tapped the tip onto the boot. The boot radiated a faint glow, but that wasn't enough—it only emitted light and nothing more. Su Yu's eyes flickered. After a moment's consideration, he took out the civilization chronicle. On the cover, the aura belonging to the original Recipes page vibrated faintly. Right at that moment, a phantom figure suddenly emerged from the boot! While the Great Zhou King and Tongtian stood dazed, Su Yu chuckled and swiftly whipped out a recording talisman, grinning. "King Wen crawls out of his shoe—sure enough, Senior King Wen has unique tastes and exists everywhere!" That phantom was just like the ones Su Yu had seen before. Back turned to all living beings! Hands clasped behind his back, white robes fluttering in the wind. Su Yu chuckled. "So you really did leave an imprint behind. Senior King Wen's hobbies are broad indeed—ubiquitous as ever!" This fellow King Wen left phantom projections everywhere. Su Yu had encountered them several times already! Previously, one had appeared at King Wen's former residence, then another within the Brush Dao, and now yet another emerged right here. At this moment, King Wen's phantom, with his back turned, let out a wistful sigh: "Wielder of the Brush Dao, I never expected you would discover my secret..." "You are quite remarkable!" Su Yu bared his teeth. "Idiot!" "Exceptionally remarkable!" Last time, Su Yu had cursed him the same way; this time, Su Yu did so again, but King Wen's pre-recorded routine proceeded without the slightest hitch. "Do you seek to explore my heaven and earth? Perhaps despair awaits you, for in your entire lifetime, you will likely never inherit my world... Still, it matters not; it should be of no small help to you!" Evidently, this was King Wen's ultimate backup plan left behind after the Brush Dao—his heaven and earth. If he perished and his world didn't collapse, the successor to the Brush Dao might be able to locate it. One had to admit, King Wen had left an impressive number of contingencies behind. Su Yu smiled brilliantly. "I don't want your lousy world anyway!" "..." The phantom didn't respond—it possessed no such capability—and simply continued: "Being able to uncover the secret of the boot proves that your wisdom, capability, strength, and fortune are all sufficient! You have also obtained the little white dog's approval! Otherwise, if the little dog didn't hand over the boot willingly, the moment it died, this boot would be ruined, and you would never find a single clue!" Su Yu raised his brows. The man certainly had plenty of tricks up his sleeve. King Wen had left numerous items and measures on the little white dog, including King Wen's former residence, the Four Great Daos, the Time Book... So many things were tied to the little white dog. This only reinforced Su Yu's conviction: he had to train the little fur ball into a second little white dog! Right now, the little fur ball was largely forgotten by everyone; he needed to leave behind a secure nest of his own. "Of course, successor to the Brush Dao, if you happen to be my eldest brother... then curse my bad luck!" King Wen's phantom spoke again with a sigh. "However, if my eldest brother found it or came looking specifically... it means he's on the verge of ruin as well. Such is fate, unavoidable!" "Perhaps by then, I too will have fallen!" Su Yu couldn't help laughing. *Just how terrified are you of the Human Sovereign merging his Dao into your world?!* King Wen's phantom continued, "Follow me, successor. Would you like to guess where my other boot is?" "Nope!" Su Yu had no interest in guessing, yet King Wen's phantom rambled on regardless: "You definitely can't guess. Even if you say you don't want to, it only proves you're incapable of guessing, incapable of imagining it. It shows your intellect and wisdom still fall far short of mine. But that is only natural—in this world, how many can compare to me?" "..." Su Yu laughed, while the Great Zhou King and Marquis Tongtian grimaced. This phantom will of King Wen was remarkably conceited. Well, that was just how King Wen was—narcissistic to the core! The powerhouses of that era all tended to be that way. "Come along, follow me. I shall lead you to my boot... You could never fathom where my boot truly lies!" This time, Su Yu was genuinely intrigued. Where was it? In primal chaos? That was the most likely possibility, yet judging by King Wen's tone, it might not be in primal chaos; otherwise, he wouldn't sound so smug! If it were truly hidden in primal chaos, there would be no need for King Wen to act so brazenly, claiming no one could ever imagine where it was. "In King Wen's former residence?" Su Yu pondered. Different heavens and earths exerted a degree of mutual repulsion. For instance, his world currently occupied the upper realm, and like the Human Sovereign's world, they didn't merge; all worlds repelled one another. Su Yu had been repelled when he was in the dead spirit realm, and he was also repelled in the River of Time, though the River of Time's repulsive force wasn't as overwhelming as that of the dead spirit realm. With these thoughts in mind, Su Yu swiftly followed King Wen's phantom forward. King Wen's phantom flew along the path, and Su Yu had no idea where he was headed. The Great Zhou King and Marquis Tongtian were intrigued as well. Where was King Wen's other shoe? And Su Yu couldn't resist a bit of gossip: "Did King Wen never wear shoes afterward? Why does it feel like he only ever had one pair?" Tongtian couldn't help chiming in: "Your Majesty... doesn't change shoes either, right?" "..." Su Yu blinked. *Is that so?* He looked down at his own boots—black surface trimmed with gold. After giving it some thought, he nodded. "Seems you're right!" Where had his boots come from? Oh, back when he ascended to the position of Human Lord, the Great Zhou King and the others had gifted them to him. After putting them on, he thought they looked fine, so he never changed them. During battles, including his clash with the Chaos Dragon where he was battered and blasted to pieces, the boots had long since disintegrated, but Su Yu had quickly reforged them in their original appearance. Once accustomed to them, he really didn't bother changing. There was no need! At Su Yu's level, not a speck of dust could adhere to him. Su Yu smiled and said nothing more. He continued following King Wen's phantom. King Wen's phantom flew on, eventually descending all the way to the lower realm. Su Yu followed him down. *Could it be in the Human Realm?* Su Yu surmised it might indeed be in the Human Realm. But... wouldn't it be repelled there? Or did King Wen simply not care about repulsion? Occupying just a tiny patch of space, facing rejection from the River of Time might not have bothered him. King Wen's phantom soon entered the All-Heavens Battlefield. Under Su Yu's somewhat surprised gaze, the phantom suddenly came to a halt. Su Yu looked around, still baffled. Where? This was the Star Sea. *Could it be hidden within the sea?* That was certainly possible! Yet in the next moment, King Wen's phantom laughed, exuding smugness, insolence, and arrogance. "Do you know where it is now?" "I bet you don't, because your intellect is still far inferior to mine!" Right then, Su Yu noticed that the boot the little white dog had kept suddenly floated up. King Wen's phantom wore a triumphant expression. "Let me show you what it means to pull a cosmic bait-and-switch!" "Rise!" Accompanied by that soft shout, before Su Yu's shocked eyes, the entire sea began to shake violently! At this moment, Su Yu was startled! Suddenly, he surged skyward, rocketing into the firmament above the realm. As he climbed higher and higher, the Star Sea unfolded beneath him, and the entirety of it entered his view! The Great Zhou King and Marquis Tongtian hurriedly caught up, both looking bewildered. And Su Yu, dazed for several seconds, muttered, "Holy shit!" The Great Zhou King was stunned. What was wrong? He looked downward as well... and didn't spot anything amiss at first. Yet beneath the violent tremors of the Star Sea, he looked more closely. He had never paid attention before, but now he couldn't help muttering, "Tongtian, do you still remember what the Star Sea looked like when it was on the ground back at the beginning?" Marquis Tongtian thought hard, then shook his head. "Don't remember!" "Then do you think... right now... this sea looks like a shoe—a shoe filled to the brim with water?" Marquis Tongtian looked down closely, dumbstruck. "It does!" No one had ever paid attention to this! Su Yu's mouth twitched, and he suddenly laughed and scolded, "King Ming!" Both men instantly turned to Su Yu! Su Yu laughed. "King Ming suspended the Star Sea in the air... Good grief, was the Star Sea swapped out right when King Ming suspended it, or did King Wen sneak it in afterward? If it was swapped out that early... that means King Wen opened his heaven very early on—even earlier than the Human Sovereign!" Yes, he had figured it out. The entire Star Sea was King Wen's boot! The boot was filled with water, and thus, the floating Star Sea came to be! Now he was pondering a question: had this boot already been put in place when King Ming suspended the Star Sea? If it happened back then... it would have served perfectly to mask the commotion! After all, King Ming elevating an entire sea into the sky must have caused a massive disturbance! Su Yu suddenly laughed again. "How fascinating! King Ming was in league with King Wen, wasn't he? Deliberately providing cover for King Wen?" He looked at the Great Zhou King. "When did King Ming suspend the Star Sea?" The Great Zhou King thought for a moment and quickly answered, "Shortly after the start of the Yongan Era. Back then, to please Princess Ming, King Ming suspended the Star Sea... It caused a colossal commotion. Of course, it was also intended to deter the myriad races. On that occasion, he lifted the entire ocean off the ground into the sky, keeping it suspended for hundreds of thousands of years—a terrifying feat..." Naturally, back then King Ming had been at most second-tier. Even so, suspending an ocean was well within his power. Su Yu chuckled. "Fascinating. At that very time, King Wen might have been opening his world!" Now he finally understood why no one had ever found King Wen's heaven and earth. Because King Wen's world was simply too audacious—it had been opened right in the All-Heavens Battlefield! Furthermore, it was right under everyone's noses—literally everyone's. Any powerhouse who reached the Sun Moon or Eternal Realm could not avoid visiting the All-Heavens Battlefield, and once here, they couldn't possibly not know of the Star Sea or fail to see it. In other words, practically everyone across the myriad realms actually knew where King Wen's heaven and earth was! Su Yu sighed with feeling. "Brilliant method! A true hermit hides in the bustling city! Everyone knew about King Ming suspending the Star Sea, but suspending a sea didn't serve much practical purpose. Looking at it now, it seemed intended to help mask the commotion of King Wen opening his world, since opening a heaven and earth generates no small disturbance..." No wonder even the Human Sovereign didn't know where King Wen had opened his heaven. Did King Ming know? Perhaps... not even he knew! King Wen might have stealthily slipped his boot in while King Ming was busy suspending the Star Sea! Su Yu chuckled, unable to resist remarking, "Fascinating. His boot, his world, hidden here, yet never repelled!" *And every time any of us entered the Star Sea, did that mean we were swimming inside King Wen's boot?* At this moment, the Star Sea had only trembled for a while, revealing a vague outline of a boot. It had not fully manifested yet. Su Yu smiled and quickly descended. King Wen's phantom was close to dispersing, laughing heartily with immense smugness: "The powerhouses of the myriad realms all lie beneath my feet; even the Human Sovereign lived inside my boot! Impressive, isn't it?" Su Yu froze! A moment later, his jaw dropped. Right! Xingyu Mansion... was situated within the Star Sea! This... he couldn't hold back his laughter. "Impressive indeed!" Just how strong was King Wen? Now he was genuinely curious. Did the Human Sovereign truly not know? One had to realize that the Human Sovereign had lived in Xingyu Mansion. And Xingyu Mansion, currently with only two floors remaining, floated directly above the Star Sea. That meant the entire Xingyu Mansion was actually situated inside King Wen's boot! Of course, there was no need to obsess over which came first. Xingyu Mansion had probably existed first, and King Wen had later sneaked his boot underneath. Which meant the Human Sovereign had lived inside a boot for countless years! Su Yu was laughing uncontrollably. "King Wen is wicked enough!" The Great Zhou King had already rolled his eyes. King Wen wasn't wicked—he was just bored out of his mind! He had definitely done it on purpose! *The supreme powerhouses of the heavens are all in my shoe, sniffing my foot stench. Feels good, doesn't it?* Whether anyone else felt good, Su Yu didn't know, but he was certain King Wen had enjoyed every second of it! After laughing for a while, Su Yu suddenly asked, "Was King Wen... stronger than the Human Sovereign?" He looked at the Great Zhou King. The Great Zhou King hesitated and shook his head. "I really wouldn't know. At their level, unless they fought to the death, who could say who was stronger? However, in the eyes of the powerhouses across the myriad realms, King Wen's fame was indeed greater than His Majesty the Human Sovereign's!" Su Yu nodded slightly. "Perhaps King Wen truly was stronger. Otherwise, how could the Human Sovereign not have sensed a thing? Back then, the Human Sovereign probably hadn't opened his heaven yet... The Human Sovereign opened his world much later, so King Wen should have preceded him!" By this time, King Wen's phantom was about to fade away completely. With a touch of wistfulness, he said, "Encroaching upon the territory of the River of Time is extraordinarily difficult! But I insisted on doing it! Successor to the Brush Dao, remember this: my might is beyond your imagination... Yet I could never display my full strength, for I was suppressed by the River of Time... Even so, I had to do it—to carve out a domain in the myriad realms that belonged strictly to myself!" "Sooner or later, the three gates will open. Both I and Old Boss Xingyu wanted to open up a pure land for the human race and for ourselves... He opened his in the desolate wild lands—that was yielding! But I refuse to yield... I'm going to snatch the Master of Time's territory, hahahaha!" At this moment, the phantom suddenly turned wild and uninhibited, laughing in a manner utterly unbecoming of a scholar. Yet Su Yu felt a tremor in his heart. King Wen... had done this deliberately! He had purposefully opened his heaven and earth right here! What daring audacity this fellow possessed! He had wanted to seize territory from the River of Time, opening a heaven within a heaven, carving out his own domain on the Master of Time's turf. Then what was the purpose of doing this? What were the advantages? Thinking it through carefully, Su Yu's mind stirred—the advantages were monumental! Whether during campaigns across the myriad realms or when all three gates swung open, the powerhouses from all across the realms would likely congregate in the myriad realms, and their gathering point would almost certainly be the All-Heavens Battlefield, especially the Star Sea! And the Star Sea... had been secretly claimed by King Wen! In that case, once the powerhouses of the myriad realms entered, they would essentially be walking right into King Wen's domain. Thoughts flickered rapidly through Su Yu's mind... Fascinating! *Was he preparing to wipe them all out in one fell swoop?* This was rather similar to Su Yu's own past scheme of using the Tea Tree to lure enemies into his heaven and earth to catch them all in a net! Su Yu's eyes gleamed. Looking back at the Star Sea, it had already returned to calm, as if the violent upheaval a moment ago had been purely illusory, unnoticed by anyone else. Su Yu raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Remarkable. Such methods... The power of this heaven and earth is far stronger than mine!" It truly was far stronger than his own. Su Yu could not do what King Wen had done: bite off such an enormous piece of territory right within the domain of the River of Time! The key lay in the extraordinary location of this heaven and earth! Even if the powerhouses behind the three gates broke out, their first choice would be the Star Sea. As for the individual realms or the upper realm, none were suitable. Although the upper realm was rich in origin qi, it wasn't within the River of Time's coverage; moreover, the Human Sovereign's heaven and earth was there, and now Su Yu's was there too. If anyone came out, they would never go to the upper realm, nor would they choose the dead spirit realm. The myriad realms, however, were the most accommodating to all, and the Star Sea was the linchpin! Su Yu sighed with feeling. King Wen was undeniably powerful. Not only powerful, but all those years ago, even if he hadn't initially designed this against the three gates, he had certainly set his sights on targeting the myriad races! Yes, because Xingyu Mansion was right here! So King Wen's original objective had likely been to envelop all the powerhouses of the myriad races! Yet before he departed, he had never sprung the trap. Later, he must have repurposed it against the powerhouses of the three gates, because had he activated it back then, the myriad races would have realized this area was his heaven and earth domain! Only now did Su Yu truly grasp the sheer cunning and formidable capability of these ancient powerhouses. Both King Wen and the Human Sovereign had been plotting against the three gates! The myriad races getting out of hand had merely been the result of too many unforeseen accidents. Otherwise, once the Human Sovereign opened his heaven and earth to occupy the upper realm and King Wen occupied the Star Sea, any powerhouses bursting from the three gates would inevitably step into one of their worlds. When that happened, they might have been wiped out completely! Watching King Wen's phantom fade into nothingness, the Great Zhou King raised his brows. "Your Majesty, did King Wen mean that he prepared this place specifically to deal with the people from the three gates?" Su Yu nodded slightly. "A pity!" He smiled. "If not for the Time Master suddenly running into trouble, then even if the three gates opened and the Human Sovereign completed his heaven and earth... the powerhouses of the three gates would have suffered a disastrous blow at their hands!" Having said that, Su Yu grinned. "No matter, the plan can still continue. Apart from the few of us, nobody else knows about this anyway! Let's first locate the core of the heaven and earth. The power of King Wen's world hasn't leaked out; it should still be in a restrained, dormant state! I'll go see just how strong his heaven and earth really is!" ... A moment later. Guided by the other boot, Su Yu found the location of the world's core. It seemed situated in an entirely different void. A golden boot floated in midair, harboring an immense reservoir of power within—this was the true core of the boot. Su Yu's eyes shifted slightly. Looking toward the boot, he faintly discerned the power of over a thousand Great Daos! Su Yu's expression changed slightly, but he soon laughed. "The Human Sovereign... seems to have lost some face here!" Among world-openers, setting aside the Lord of Dead Spirits who pursued a solitary dao, the Human Sovereign's heaven and earth was definitely not as complete as King Wen's, nor did it possess as many dao principles! "King Wen might truly have been stronger than the Human Sovereign!" Su Yu sighed in amazement. The Human Sovereign really was put to shame! The Great Zhou King and Tongtian couldn't care less about that comparison. Both were staring intently at that heaven and earth; the core area was remarkably small! It seemed as though the entire world was contained within the confines of that boot. Yet both could faintly sense that terrifying, matchless power! The Great Zhou King couldn't resist a dry remark: "What forbearance! I'd say King Wen's Dao of Endurance was formidable. He practically never used this heaven and earth, nor did he ever expose it!" Had he exposed it, King Wen would certainly have been vastly stronger in that era! Su Yu smiled, not minding it. King Wen harbored grand ambitions and was preparing to trap a massive prize; before springing the trap, he naturally refused to reveal it. In this regard, he was quite like Su Yu—hadn't Su Yu left without bringing the Tea Tree along? He had wanted to spring a trap of his own! Yet looking at it now, even if Su Yu managed to ensnare someone, his trap wouldn't be anywhere near as grand as King Wen's. That man had intended to wipe out countless powerhouses from the three gates in one fell swoop!