Chapter 1423: Seventy-Two Greater Dominions

Li Luo played around with the new Dragon Elephant Thunder Blade for a while more and then, with a thought, the sword transformed into a stream of thunder energy that shrunk before turning into a delicate thunder blade tattoo on the back of his hand.

The Dragon Elephant Thunder Blade was even more valuable than a high-grade Mythic Armament. It could naturally be stored away on his body and refined by his resonant power. In the future, Li Luo’s connection with it would only improve.

At this point, all of his equipment had been greatly upgraded. Not only had he obtained the Lesser Dragon Sacred Seed, his commonly used blade and bow had both been elevated to high-grade Mythic Armaments. Even a high-grade Duke would probably stare with reddened eyes and hurl obscenities at him if they knew how extravagant his equipment was, much less ordinary Dukes.

At the same time, Li Luo consoled himself bitterly. Relying on his background was not a big deal... The only issue was that he simply could not experience the fulfilling pleasure of struggling and relying on his own efforts. Whether he felt a sense of pleasure at this windfall or not didn't really matter. He didn't have a choice that he was born as House Luolan's young lord or the Dragon's Fang Lineage's Third Young Master.

Meanwhile, Tantai Lan was observing Li Luo's equipment, and she nodded in approval. With this, he should have gained the necessary power to protect himself. "It looks like you should be heading towards the Celestial Mirror Pagoda soon."

Tantai Lan lamented, "My two little brats, it took great difficulty for us to reunite, and yet we barely spent any time together."

Jiang Qing'e had left the Dragon's Fang Lineage for the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College a few months prior to assist Li Luo in advance and to understand the situation surrounding the Celestial Mirror Pagoda. Now that Li Luo's seclusion had ended, it seemed as though he wouldn't be staying for much longer. As a mother, Tantai Lan felt a little melancholic seeing her children all grow up already.

Li Luo hurriedly walked over to her side and squeezed her shoulders with a smile. "Mother, isn't all this just for us to raise our strength quickly? We'll go to the Nobles' Battlefield with you in the future and rescue the old man. Speaking of which, do you think we can ask Heavenly Emperor Li to give a hand? If he were to help out, wouldn't Father be saved?"

Tantai Lan sighed lightly. "You don't know this, but the fact that the world is able to remain peaceful is because of the Heavenly Emperor experts. They have taken on an immense burden to protect it. After you left the Xia Kingdom and explored the Heavenly Origin Divine Continent for so many years, have you ever seen or heard of a Heavenly Emperor appearing in person?"

Li Luo paused and then shook his head. Even Heavenly Emperor Li himself had only left behind a strand of will.

"All of the races in the world have signed an ancient covenant. All Heavenly Emperors must fulfil their duty and protect the depths of the Nobles' Battlefield. That is where our world and the Others’ world meets, and Heavenly Emperors are the strongest defenses against them, standing tall like majestic mountains. Without them, you would see tragedies like what happened at the Treasure Domain occur much more frequently around the world. Heavenly Emperor Li has already protected the World Border for hundreds of years, and his position is being monitored by Grand Devil Kings. How could he move lightly?"

Tantai Lan's expression turned even more complicated and she sighed yet again. "Can you imagine how the four Heavenly Emperors must have felt when the Treasure Domain changed so dramatically? So what if they were able to sense the changes? Even if Heavenly Emperor Qin saw that Qin Jiujie had betrayed him, he would be unable to take action to punish the traitor. Countless Grand Devil Kings are keeping a close eye on him, and the moment he exposes a flaw, he will suffer from a devastating attack. If the defensive line shows any weakness, another Origin Reversion War may unfold across the world."

Li Luo fell silent as Tantai Lan explained things. These were the most hidden secrets of the world, and merely knowing them was a heavy burden.

"Is the shadow world really that powerful? Is it comparable to the ten divine continents?" Li Luo couldn't help but ask. This was something that was far out of reach for most, and ordinary powers had no way of knowing about this.

Tantai Lan calmly replied, "Since ancient times, the Others have constantly been born. Our world originally had thirty-six divine continents, but now there are only ten. Where do you think they went?"

A chill enveloped Li Luo from head to toe. Perhaps even some elders in Heavenly Emperor powers were not aware of this. At the very least, he had no idea that there used to be thirty-six continents. Could it mean that some of them had been eroded by the shadow world?

That meant that he already had the answer to his first question. If the ten divine continents were truly stronger than the shadow world, how could they have lost so many continents?

"Throughout the ages, there was only one point in time when the ten divine continents had the upper hand and even launched an attack on the shadow world. It was a single man," Tantai Lan continued.

Li Luo's gaze turned abstruse as he knew what she was getting at. "The final Sacred Void Resonance Sect Master."

Tantai Lan nodded. "He was the strongest Sect Master in the sect’s history, but even he was unable to end this chaos. In fact, shortly after he returned from the shadow world, his body deteriorated and he fell. The entire Sacred Void Resonance Sect was destroyed and buried in the annals of history afterwards."

"Are the Others really that terrifying?" Li Luo felt a weight on his heart. Although he was far too weak to be a factor in this conflict, it was clear that the Others were a mortal enemy that could not coexist with the living beings of the world. The destructive and xenophobic instincts of the Others ensured that only one would survive.

They thrived on the negative emotions of people, which was unavoidable to all living beings.

"I heard that the shadow world has quite a few Other Dominions. Is that how their strength is divided?" Li Luo asked.

"Other Kings have a level of sentience comparable with living creatures, and they naturally form their own forces. These forces have been termed as Other Dominions, and there are countless Other Dominions in the shadow world. However, what people truly fear are the Seventy-Two Greater Dominions. They can be considered to be on the same level as Heavenly Emperor powers on the divine continents."

Luo's eyes were filled with shock. Seventy-two Heavenly Emperor powers? What did this signify? This meant that there were seventy-two Grand Devil Kings!

That was an incredible number of Heavenly Emperors! The entire Heavenly Origin Divine Continent only had four of them! Even if he were to count all of the Heavenly Emperors across all the divine continents, could they even compare?

He felt that this wasn't possible either.

Meanwhile, the ancestors like Heavenly Emperor Li were resisting all these malicious existences in a place no one knew of, dealing with enemies who outnumbered them by several times. The pressure on them was unimaginable. It was at this point that Li Luo felt immense awe and respect for those lofty individuals. Without them propping up the skies with their massive figures, their world might have long descended into hellish purgatory.

Tantai Lan looked at the silent Li Luo and knew that the implications of this information was too much for him, a mere second-grade Transcendent Duke. She then grabbed his hand and smiled. "The number of Heavenly Emperors doesn't mean that much. In the end, that will not be the main factor in whether we win or lose."

Li Luo smiled bitterly. "What do you mean Heavenly Emperors don't mean much? What are the conditions for victory or defeatm then?"

Tantai Lan tightly gripped Li Luo's hand as she answered solemnly, "At the end of the day, it is not about Heavenly Emperors. It’s about who can reach the stage above it."

She paused for a moment. "In other words... the tenth-grade!"