Chapter 2404: Abandoned

After the various forces left, Ye Futian descended from the starry sky. The sky was reconstructed, and the starry dimension disappeared. Myriads of stars disappeared from the sight of the crowd along with the silhouette of Ziwei the Great.

Ye Futian landed in Ziwei Imperial Palace. Yu Sheng came up behind him. The cultivators of Ziwei Imperial Palace and the Heavenly Mandate Academy all gathered around him.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief now that this ordeal had come to an end. However, they still couldn’t put their worries to rest completely since danger was still lurking.

Right now, they were besieged on all sides. They had even offended the Imperial Palace of the Divine Prefecture. The forces from the Divine Prefecture would no longer have any scruple about attacking Ye Futian and his allies. The former might even join forces to attack them. Of course, their prerequisite was that Ye Futian and his group left the Ziwei Segmentum. After all, if they chose to attack Ye Futian in the Ziwei Segmentum, they had to be prepared to face annihilation.

A gentle breeze blew past, and everyone felt a bit chilly. The cultivators stared at Ye Futian silently. Their journey from now on would most likely be arduous.

The various worlds were in chaos, and they were trapped here with a slim chance of breaking out of this predicament in a short time.

“We will temporarily abandon the Heavenly Mandate Academy,” announced Ye Futian. Immediately, all the cultivators from the Heavenly Mandate Academy were overwhelmed with sorrow.

They had formed deep bonds with the Heavenly Mandate Academy. Unfortunately, they were forced to abandon it now.

Ye Futian instructed, “Lord Taixuan, please make a trip to the Heavenly Mandate Academy and make arrangements for the cultivators who are still in the Lower Worlds to come to the Ziwei Segmentum. Then, please destroy the teleportation grand matrix.” Lord Taixuan nodded. He was aware that in doing so, they would completely sever the connection between the Heavenly Mandate Academy and the Ziwei Segmentum, abandoning their base at the Heavenly Mandate Academy.

All these years, Ye Futian had contributed a lot to the Heavenly Mandate Realm and the Original Realm. He had even been crowned the ruler of the Original Realm. However, the continual arrival of various forces in the Original Realm messed up the situation. This recent ordeal further complicated things. Everything had changed.

Ye Futian was kicked out of the game; he was but an outsider now. He had to desert his base at the Heavenly Mandate Realm and leave the Original Realm temporarily.

n.o.body here questioned Ye Futian’s motive in doing so. All of them were aware that he was forced to make such a decision. The current Heavenly Mandate Academy was a dangerous place to be in. If they chose to remain in the Lower Worlds, they would be attacked at any moment. They would naturally not leave behind the teleportation grand matrix for their enemies to use. After the rest of their members from the academy arrived, they had to destroy the matrix.

Lord Taixuan swiftly led others to carry out the plan.

Ye Futian said, “Right now, the Original Realm has undergone major changes. Cultivators from various worlds had come to the realm. However, all these things do not concern us now. In the coming years, we can only stay and cultivate in the Ziwei Segmentum. Fortunately, there is the starry cultivation court which was left by Ziwei the Great. It is very beneficial for our cultivation. I’ll meditate in the starry cultivation court for a period of time. At the same time, I’ll help everyone here with your cultivation too.”

Prior to this, he had quite a few allies from the Divine Prefecture. However, after today’s incident, they had left him. After all, all the forces in the Divine Prefecture were under the command of the Donghuang Imperial Palace. Who would dare go against the Donghuang Imperial Palace and support him? Ye Futian himself also did not wish for his friends to do so. If they did so, they would be dragged into this murky mess.

“For you, increasing your cultivation plane is indeed the most important matter now,” said Emperor Nan. Ye Futian was currently a seventh-tier Renhuang. If he cultivated to the ninth-tier and relied on the power of the starry sky in battle, even cultivators of Fang Ru’s level would not be able to withstand his attacks.

Even if he did not do so, once he cultivated to the peak of the Renhuang Plane and relied on the sacred remains of Shenjia the Great Emperor and the divine guqin of Shenyin the Great, Ye Futian would also certainly be able to unleash even more terrifying might. When the time came, he would no longer be restricted wherever he went. At least when he was against some super-powerful cultivators, he would have more power to defend himself.

However, the matters of the outside world did not concern them now.

“Do you want to cultivate in the Devil World?” Yu Sheng asked Ye Futian. If Ye Futian went to the Devil World, he would not be restricted by others.

Ye Futian shook his head. Over transmitted thoughts, he said to Yu Sheng, “Only we know what happened back then. Now, our ident.i.ties are unclear. The Devil World might have accepted you because your ident.i.ty is special. However, it is different for me. No matter what I do, I will need to be more cautious.”

Yu Sheng did not say anything. He understood that what Ye Futian said was correct. Only the two of them knew what had happened back then. Ye Futian was never considered an heir of Emperor Ye Qing. Yu Sheng’s father had been the one who raised Ye Futian. However, he did not teach Ye Futian any cultivation techniques. He only said that Ye Futian was born an emperor. As for Yu Sheng, he would become Ye Futian’s support.

Hence, Ye Futian’s ident.i.ty was definitely not what the outside world imagined it to be. It was not as simple as him being the heir of Emperor Ye Qing.

Besides that, the way the Devil Emperor treated Yu Sheng, as well as the fact that the Devil Emperor was unwilling to tell Yu Sheng his ident.i.ty, made him suspicious about his own origins.

Ye Futian continued advising Yu Sheng, “Yu Sheng, although I am restricted now, you are from the Devil World so that no one will dare touch you. You can still train in the outside world. The Original Realm has undergone a huge change, and there are various fateful encounters out there. You can venture out and explore with the various cultivators from the Devil World to see whether you can claim some fateful encounters for yourself.” Yu Sheng nodded his head slightly. A cold look flashed past in his eyes as he said, “I will investigate those who spread the rumors.”

Yu Sheng clearly wanted to get back at them.

They had ulterior motives for intentionally spreading rumors claiming Ye Futian was related to Emperor Ye Qing. They wanted Ye Futian dead.

“For now, don’t get into large-scale conflicts with the forces of the Divine Prefecture. Both of us need to keep a low profile. When we are sufficiently powerful in the future, we will not need to worry about being unable to seek revenge,” said Ye Futian. Yu Sheng was somewhat unsatisfied, but he still nodded his head. However, he thought to himself that if he encountered the members of the Divine Prefecture when he was searching for fateful encounters outside, he would not show them mercy.

Ye Futian glanced around at the other cultivators and said, “I am sorry to have troubled all of you with this.”

“Palace Lord, we have been cultivating in the Ziwei Segmentum all this while. Now, you have opened up the cultivation court of Ziwei the Great for us. How can this be considered trouble?” said Renhuang Chen.

Xiao Dingtian from the Xiao clan said, “The Heavenly Mandate Academy originally rose to prominence because of you. If it weren’t for you, whether or not we would be able to survive until today in this chaotic world would be up for debate. How can this be considered trouble? The Ziwei Segmentum is much larger than the Nine Realms. It’s pretty nice to cultivate here.” Others also spoke up. Although their current situation was frustrating, recalling everything that had happened, they knew that Ye Futian had already done good enough as he led them forward.

“It is good to cultivate in seclusion for some time. We can improve our abilities,” added Emperor Nan. They would most likely need to cultivate for quite some time.

For the foreseeable future, they would not be leaving this place.

“Donghuang the Great promised to not meddle in your affairs. Once you overcome the divine tribulation, nothing will be able to stop you from going wherever you want,” said Fang Gai. He seemed to be comforting Ye Futian.

“I understand,” said Ye Futian as he nodded his head. He glanced over the familiar faces around him. He felt a sense of warmth well up inside him. He still had so many friends standing beside him and supporting him. He had no right to be decadent and slack.

…

In the Heavenly Mandate Realm of the Original Realm.

News of the war in the Ziwei Segmentum spread. Lord Taixuan led all of the cultivators of the Heavenly Mandate Academy away and then destroyed the teleportation grand matrix.

After that, the cultivators from various forces descended upon the Heavenly Mandate Realm and occupied the ruins of the Heavenly Mandate Academy. They also began to conquer the Heavenly Mandate City.

All the cultivators of the Heavenly Mandate Realm felt a sense of sadness over this incident.

Had the figure of their faith left the Heavenly Mandate Realm just like that? He had actually been dealt with by the Imperial Palace. An era had ended. The era of Ye Futian was ended by the Imperial Palace.

No one knew what the fate of the Heavenly Mandate Realm would be. Now, the cultivators here were at the mercy of the other forces. There would most likely be no one like Ye Futian, whose core tenet was to protect the Heavenly Mandate Realm.

At the moment, around the ruins of the Heavenly Mandate Academy, many cultivators had gathered. They were from all corners of the Heavenly Mandate Realm. An old man had brought along a youth. When the old man saw the scene before him, he sighed.

“Grandfather, has something happened to Renhuang Ye? Then, who will protect the Heavenly Mandate Realm in the future?” the youth asked as he looked at the ruins.

“No, Renhuang Ye has only left temporarily. He will return in the future,” replied the old man. However, how many years would it be before the hope of the Heavenly Mandate Realm returned?