Volume One: The Game of the Master Chapter Fifty-Eight: Celestial Treasure

“So this is where Father ascended all those years ago? It looks like such an ordinary planet.” Qin Shuang and Qin Si walked along the street, gazing at the scenery around them with a sense of nostalgia.

The Realm of Immortals, Demons, and Beasts had witnessed too many stories of Qin Yu. Ever since the brothers left the Dinosaur Realm, they had come to Maple Moon Star in the Immortal-Demon-Beast Realm—the very planet where Qin Yu had ascended to the Immortal Realm. This was the place where Qin Yu had first soared to the heavens, and also the hometown of their senior brother whom they had never met. Today, the Liu family remained one of the three great clans on Maple Moon Star. When Qin Yu fought his great battle here, he had spared the Liu family, and even afterwards, the Emperor Yu’s forces did not trouble them. After all, the Liu family was a minor clan, insignificant in the eyes of such figures.

“Shuang, have you felt the divine tribulation yet?” In the Liu Yue Tavern, Qin Si sipped wine he had brought down from the Divine Realm, and sent his question to Qin Shuang through voice transmission.

“No, I have no idea why, but there’s been no sign of the divine tribulation at all!” Mentioning this, Qin Shuang grew frustrated. The energy within him had long since reached the threshold for the divine tribulation, yet to this day there was not the slightest sense of it. To be sure, Qin Shuang had spent a year consolidating his cultivation on the third level of the Jiang Lan Realm—which was equivalent to cultivating for a thousand years in an environment a thousand times richer in spiritual energy than the outside world. His internal energy no longer increased but had grown incomparably refined over those thousand years.

“Perhaps it’s because you were born in the Divine Realm. Enduring the tribulation in the lower realm may be different!” Qin Si smiled, trying to comfort him. In fact, with Qin Shuang’s current state, he could have accompanied Qin Si to the Divine Realm to undergo the tribulation, but Qin Shuang insisted on passing it in the lower realm, wanting to ascend like their father had done.

“Don’t worry, brother, I’m not anxious. Although I haven’t sensed the divine tribulation, the energy within me is extremely pure. Even without a divine weapon, I could easily take on an ordinary lower-ranked divine being!” Qin Shuang grinned, flexing his arm for emphasis.

His body had already reached the strength of a lower-ranked heavenly divine weapon. Dealing with a lower-ranked divine being was indeed a simple matter.

“That’s good, I—”

Qin Si had just raised his wine cup when his expression suddenly turned grim.

“Shuang, undergo the tribulation and ascend as soon as possible. I’ll be waiting for you in the Divine Realm!” As soon as Qin Si finished speaking, his body began to float, rising straight through the roof of Liu Yue Tavern into the sky.

“Brother…” Qin Shuang could see from his brother’s face that this was no voluntary flight.

This was an upper-ranked heavenly deity, after all—who could possibly have the power to forcibly take away such a figure?

“Brother!” Qin Shuang called out again, and with a great shift, floated into the air.

Qin Si’s figure continued to rise. Qin Shuang could see clearly now: above Qin Si, a golden gate stood open. In the blink of an eye, Qin Si was drawn fully into the golden door, which then vanished.

At the same time, in all energy spaces equivalent to the Immortal-Demon-Beast Realm, in all mortal realms, gates like these appeared one after another. Divine beings of every rank who had lingered in the lower realms were forcibly recalled to the Divine Realm by these golden gates. Among them was even a god-king, who was likewise dragged through a golden door.

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Qin Si, having just been forcibly recalled to the Divine Realm, found himself in the Purple Profundity Mansion.

What he hadn’t expected was that his father, Qin Yu, absent for many days, had also returned.

“Si, come sit!” Qin Yu said cheerfully, gesturing to Qin Si. Their mother, Jiang Li, sat beside Qin Yu.

“Father, when did you get back?” Qin Si all but ran over, plopping down on the other side of Qin Yu.

“If I didn’t come back, you and your brother would probably just run wild out there and never want to come home!” Qin Yu laughed heartily, one arm around Jiang Li, the other gently patting Qin Si’s shoulder.

“Father, it’s not like that. My brother wanted to go through his tribulation in the lower realm before returning. By the way, you don’t know—he’s already reached the upper-ranked divine being’s soul level, and his body is as strong as a lower-ranked heavenly divine weapon!” Qin Si was a bit embarrassed, but grew animated when speaking of Qin Shuang.

“Si, did you say Shuang’s soul level is already that of an upper-ranked divine being?” Jiang Li’s eyes lit up. Over these years, she had known little of her sons' affairs—Qin Yu never told her. Now, hearing from Qin Si that Qin Shuang had cultivated so quickly, she was amazed.

“That’s right. Shuang is very diligent. The soul is the hardest to cultivate, and before even becoming a divine being, his soul has reached the upper rank. His future prospects are limitless!”

Qin Yu smiled, knowing all about his sons’ affairs, though he could not reveal it. If Jiang Li ever pressed him, he would only get a headache.

“He hasn’t become a divine being, yet his soul is already upper-ranked. Yu, I didn’t expect Shuang to be so formidable!” Jiang Li’s delight showed. In the Divine Realm, soul cultivation was the most difficult. For most, to have the soul just a little ahead of their level was remarkable; for someone like Qin Shuang to be three levels higher was almost unheard of.

“Father, my brother’s energy is already saturated and extremely refined. Why can’t he sense the divine tribulation?” Qin Si was filled with doubt about this and took the opportunity to ask Qin Yu.

“Heh, everything in the universe exists for a reason, Si. When your cultivation reaches that stage, you’ll understand.” Qin Yu’s cryptic reply left Qin Si perplexed, but seeing his father unconcerned, he felt reassured about his brother.

“By the way, Father, Mother, I was just with Shuang a moment ago. Why was I suddenly forcibly recalled to the Divine Realm? What happened?”

“It’s nothing. A supreme treasure is about to appear in the lower realm, so everyone from the Divine Realm was forcibly recalled by your second uncle. That’s all,” Qin Yu said casually, smiling. Jiang Li was used to his abilities, but Qin Si was stunned.

“Dad, a supreme treasure! And you act like it’s nothing!” Qin Si shouted, “It takes sixty trillion years for such a treasure to appear in the Divine Realm, and you say it’s nothing…”

Ordinary weapons no longer attracted Qin Si, but a supreme treasure still held great allure. He didn’t possess one yet.

“It’s just a supreme treasure. In time, you’ll have one too!” Qin Yu laughed heartily. It had been a long time since he’d seen Qin Si show such expression; this family happiness was something Qin Yu greatly cherished.

“In time? Dad, I know how powerful you are. If you can get one, why not give me one now?” Qin Si’s eyes sparkled as he tugged at Qin Yu’s sleeve, seeking help from his mother as well.

“Si, a supreme treasure isn’t something you can get just by asking. It all depends on fate!” Qin Yu smiled and shook his head. It wasn’t that he was unwilling to give Qin Si the treasure, but now that Qin Si’s name had disappeared from the Grand List of Primordials, the child’s future was a mystery. Qin Yu didn’t want his own indulgence to affect his son’s destiny.

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The Imperial Star of the Immortal-Demon-Beast Realm had once been an exceedingly ordinary planet. Since the legendary Qin Yu ascended from here, it had been named the Imperial Star.

In a courtyard on the Imperial Star, four people sat drinking and chatting. These four, however, were anything but ordinary. With their strength and status, a mere stamp of their foot would shake the entire Immortal-Demon-Beast Realm.

The eighth-rank demon emperor, the Golden-Winged Roc Zong Jue; the eighth-rank demon emperor, the Purple-Eyed Bull Demon King Pan Man; the ninth-rank demon emperor, the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Ao Wuming; and the ninth-rank demon emperor, Wu Long.

“Haha, Wuming, of the four of us, your situation is the worst,” Zong Jue laughed. “That boy Fang Tian has really let you down. After all these years, he’s still just a fifth-rank demon emperor. If not for him, you would have ascended to the Divine Realm long ago.”

Ao Wuming could only smile wryly. “What can I do? I can’t just boost his cultivation to the eighth rank so he can inherit the Dragon Emperor’s position.”

“If only we could let Fang Tian train in the Monkey Clan’s ancestral grounds, his cultivation would rise quickly,” Pan Man said with a laugh.

Both had known Fang Tian since the mortal realm. Back then, Zong Jue and Fang Tian were both twelve-tribulation rogue demons, the two invincible forces on the Purple Profundity Star. Even when envoys from the Immortal Realm descended, they were not necessarily their equals.

Now, things had changed. Zong Jue had become an eighth-rank demon emperor, and with the long saber given to him by Jiang Lan, he was among the top powers in the entire realm. When Pan Man and Zong Jue ascended, he had only just reached the first rank of golden immortal, but now he was also an eighth-rank demon emperor.

Fang Tian’s progress had been slow—compared to Zong Jue, the difference was like heaven and earth. Even now, he was only a fifth-rank demon emperor. Ao Wuming could only keep holding the position, suppressing his own cultivation to avoid undergoing the tribulation and ascending.

“But speaking of which, Wu Long, you don’t seem to have such concerns. You’ve been a ninth-rank demon emperor for a long time—why haven’t you ascended?”

“Secret!” Wu Long took a sip of wine, smiling mysteriously. “Don’t look at me as just another ninth-rank demon emperor—when it comes to battle, I’m stronger than the rest.”

“We don’t doubt that,” Pan Man said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the supreme force in the demon realm.”

“What—what’s that?” Zong Jue, looking up as he drank, suddenly noticed a change in the sky.

(To be continued)