422 The Ancient Path

"Let's go to the Dragon platform."

Recalling these words which had reverberated in his heart, Meng Qi felt that the hustle and bustle around him had grown distant and even the pedestrians and street pedlars there seemed to be figures in paintings. He had been pulled away from this world so quickly.

The sky began to turn blue, bright and clean following a short dimness. There was a boundless mist-covered lake appearing in front of Meng Qi, which lined up with the horizon in the distance. It was bottomless even in the winter.

Daze lake's water was limpid, as if it had turned so clear through layers of filtration, bringing about the desire to drink it on sight. However, people could see the crimson liquid constantly pouring out from the depths when taking a good look at it. There were also wisps of black gas rising from the lake, but they then disappeared due to the long-term floatation and inexplicable change.

"Here is the real Dragon Platform where Human Sovereign cast swords," Gao Lan told Meng Qi in a loud raspy voice.

Meng Qi did not know about the Dragon Platform since he had failed to follow his travel plan to visit it before. He was a bit confused and asked, "Brother Gao, this is the Dragon Platform?"

The name did not sound like that of a lake!

Gao Lan grinned and said, "People always confuse one thing with another due to their ignorance. At the time between the end of the medieval times and the beginning of the recent ancient time, Demonic Buddha destroyed the Dragon Platform in a rage since he didn't succeed in obtaining anything valuable from it during an exploration. This place had been reduced to a lake which connected to the underground molten lava and Yin fire. However, the descendants of Human Sovereign who guarded the Dragon Platform from generation to generation have nearly been exhausted due to casualties, leaving a chance for their servants and servant girls to assume their identities. Claiming to be Human Sovereign's descendants, the servants and servant girls cast high platforms ten miles away from the Dragon Platform and gradually developed them into today's Wujun Dragon Platform City."

"A long time ago, Emperor Ai of the Kang Dynasty had determined the real position of the Gragon Platform after getting some information on it by chance while searching through ancient manuscripts. He had sent his men to excavate it in spite of the destruction of Human tribe's destiny."

"No wonder the excavation of the Dragon Platform City by Emperor Ai was just a rumor, without any real evidence. People suspected that he had found a new path to excavate the Dragon Platform from another place and was later discovered by the descendants. Now it turns out that the Dragon Platform City and Dragon Platform are two different places." Meng Qi said, taking a tumble. "But how could Gao Lan know about this? Was it possible that an orphan surnamed Chen had once been caught by him?"

After looking around, Gao Lan suddenly laughed and said, "I came here in secret and the people were caught unprepared as I attacked them suddenly. So in this case, there was no more disturbance."

His expression was covered by his whiskers while his tone was filled with the self-praise "I was really witty".

With his interception of others halfway and very fast walking speed, Gao Lan had set out from Ying City when the moon faded and succeeded in arriving at the Dragon Platform at sunrise. He also stayed in Anjun Jun City for quite a while. Maybe only several people who had heard of it before could get information on Gu Xiaosang at this time, except for those that had expected early.

"The real Dragon Platform...Mad Prince who was comparable to Evil Master also thought so highly of it at that time..." With the sudden speculation in his mind, Meng Qi asked in a low voice, "Brother Gao, is your goal Sword of the Human Sovereign or some other remaining Magical Arms?"

Meng Qi could not keep as calm as usual and paused at the Sword of the Human Sovereign, because it was the legendary Human tribe symbol as well as the immensely powerful Magical Arm. No one could ward off its sharp blade light during those days it belonged to Human Sovereign.

There were few pages of "Peerless Godly Weapons" on the Exchange List of Dominator of Samsara in the Six Realms, but there were only ten items including Sword of the Human Sovereign showing on the first page. The unabridged version of The Buddha's Palm was worth one million Karma points, while Sword of the Human Sovereign itself was worth nine hundred thousand Karma points!

It was extremely precious!

"Not bad, you really have good taste." Gao Lan said with a smile. "How could the True Emperor Seal smell of a few breaths of the Sword of the Human Sovereign without Emperor Ai's discovery of the clue about it from the Dragon Platform?"

"But it was destroyed by Demonic Buddha, wasn't it?" Meng Qi took a short breath.

Standing with his hands crossed behind his back, which made him lofty and heroic. greatly showing the master image, Gao Lan leisurely said, "No matter how strong Demonic Buddha is, he can just be equally matched as Human Sovereign as best. So how could the real Dragon Platform and Sword of the Human Sovereign be destroyed so easily?"

"Come on. I will show you the Dragon platform."

While speaking to Meng Qi, his breath slowly changed to extend infinitely, as if it had merged with the whole world and the sky.

When looking at him, Meng Qi seemed to see farmers tilling the land in the distant, woodcutters cutting firewood and fishermen casting a net. He also seemed to see the manufacturing of paper, the construction of houses, the curling of smoke, the samite and tussores, the martial artist practicing his skill and the whole world of mortals!

Gao Lan took a step to make the lake water separate naturally, followed closely by Meng Qi.

The lake grew deeper as they went further. The water wall on both sides emitted glistening light of waves, showing a dreamy scene.

Suddenly, Gao Lan waved his hand and the True Emperor Seal flew out of Meng Qi's arms, pausing the breath of all living creatures and cohering the feeling of kingly ways. It finally fell into Gao Lan's hand.

The world suddenly changed as Gao Lan gently held it, making Meng Qi too dizzy to resist. The surrounding lake water became a quaint and solemn palace.

There was a course way allowing only two people to walk abreast behind the palace. The warm yellowish red flame on the lampstand on both sides seemed to never die.

"We will reach the platform for casting swords after passing the Human Emperor's Ancient Path." Gao Lan held the True Emperor Seal and kept walking.

Then, he stopped in front of the ancient path and smiled saying, "Little brother, please, try to see how far you can go."

"Huh?" Meng Qi was confused. Pushed by Gao Lan's breath, he stepped onto the course way.

Hardly had he entered the course way when he suddenly felt that voices and scenes entered his ears and heart respectively one by one.

Wild animals were hunted and killed during the barbarous age; people were dragged out their feeble existence during troubled times; the human tribe could only survive by themselves with the existence of bloodsucking wild beasts, the tyrannical demonic cults, the vindictive evil spirit and the offish god; they overcame all obstacles, made every effort to pave roads, ended turmoil, built cities and repaired roads...

These scenes were as heavy as the real deal, pressing on Meng Qi and making him tremble, keeping him from moving ahead.

Meng Qi suddenly understood that how far one could go along the Human Emperor's Ancient Path was up to his strength... With the emergence of his unyielding spirit and the pale gold glow, he used almost all of his power to keep his body steady and increase his strength. He took a step forward.

Due to the heavier scenes, Meng Qi could not help stooping down as if he were carrying huge rocks. There seemed to be copper and iron walls in front of him, making it hard for him to penetrate them.

With the high-speed flow of his genuine Qi and the bulging muscles that made his clothes tighten, Meng Qi grit his teeth and took another step with a fierce countenance.

"Squeak, cluck!" He seemed to hear the sound of his bones and muscles, as if heavy mountain peaks from all directions were pressing down on him. He was not even able to sweat.

Meng Qi strived to move even a half step. He slowly bent both legs because his knees were unable to withstand the pressure anymore.

"Great. You can take three and half steps before opening the Hidden Latch..." As Meng Qi heard Gao Lan's voice, with a little surprise, the heavy pressure disappeared.

Meng Qi's whole body was sweating now as if it was inundated. Meng Qi tilted his head and only saw that Gao Lan seemed to be holding the True Emperor Seal effortlessly.

"How strong!" He heard Gao Lan's laugh and voice even before exclaiming out loud. "One can walk on the Human Emperor's Ancient Path relying only on his strength if he doesn't cultivate the Human Sovereign Martial Arts or carry powerful treasure. Besides, no one can reach the end of it unless Demonic Buddha appears in the world, Human Sovereign comes back to life, Heaven Sovereign emerges again or Saint Buddha returns to the world."

"Nine Primogenitors of Taoism also can't pass it, right?" Meng Qi asked subconsciously.

"There are no real achievements in the world by Heavenly Primogenitor, Lingbao Primogenitor and Primogenitor Daode at present, and most of the stories about them were mythologies made up by later generations, leaving everything to speculation. Devil-Rinsing Primogenitor and Guang Cheng Primogenitor were not strong enough. They could reach the end, but couldn't take the final step." Gao Lan inferred based on the ancient books and records, frowning slightly. "However, I can't make a correct judgement since I never personally saw their strength in their heydays."

Meng Qi's extreme exhaustion disappeared slowly as the firelight on both sides sprinkled on him. Gao Lan stopped for a while to change his momentum again.

With the interaction of Qi movement, Meng Qi looked at him only to feel that Gao Lan became dim, deep and serene, full of the taste of loneliness and emptiness, as if they had returned to the beginning of the universe when the heaven was separated from the earth, with the sun, the moon and stars, but it was dead everywhere.

After a while, vitality rose all of a sudden, with the emergence of the wisdom. A little bit of human sovereign firelight from the different stars in the different world lit up and connected together to "illuminate" the dark universe, contending against the deathly stillness.

A single spark could start a prairie fire!

The strength of human sovereign could conquer heaven!

"This kind of momentum and this kind of feeling..." Meng Qi marveled at it.

Gao Lan stepped forward with the Print Seal on his hand and Meng Qi did not feel pressured anymore as he closely followed Gao Lan.

After walking for a while, they only saw that there was a breeding breath of green wood on the left side of the ancient path and the brightness of the sun left over, which connected with each other inextricably.

"Dongyang God could only get up to here." Gao Lan smiled with an introduction, pointing at the residual trail. "This course way is very special, because it can keep the last breath for a million years."

"Dongyang God?"  Meng Qi squinted at it. "Is he the one who left the words 'Who am I, who is me'? Did he come to the Dragon Platform? His strength did not seem to be outstanding at the Dharmakaya level..."

Meng Qi tried to find out the clue of the note, but there was only a little breath left on the antient path, without any clues to realization, so he had to keep on moving following Gao Lan.

"Mystic Fairy, the lover of Overlord, died as she destroyed her own Vital Spirit after bringing the Extinctive Blade of Overlord back to Method of Mistress Su." With a meloncholy tone as if he had had such a confidence before, Gao Lan said, "To my surprise, she was able to get here, so her strength was out of the ordinary."

There were lots of breaths left along the way. Gao Lan introduced the parts he could recognize to Meng Qi. The people mentioned were all famous big shots during medieval times, most of whom were recorded in the ancient books and records.

"She died by destroying her own Vital Spirit?" Meng Qi was very shocked looking at the unworldly and elegant breath different from that of people in the mortal world. When hearing the about Overlord told by Gu Xiaosang, he had thought that Mystic Fairy had harmed Overlord, because she had cooperated with an aristocratic family sect. Who knew that she finally died for love by self-destruction?

Gao Lan silently went ahead, looking a little lonely. He recovered after continuously passing several breaths and pointed at two breaths on both sides, saying, "They belong to two of the many sages in medieval times."

The stone door at the end was not far from here. People who could get here had such great magic power that it was hard to make a speculation.

Meng Qi was very familiar with one breath that was great, firm and upright, with Noble Spirit; he didn't have any feeling about the other one without seeing it, but it slowly bloomed like a flower in the heart when noticed.

"That belongs to Benevolent Saint who had left impartation of Noble Spirit and Nine Saint Swordplays. Haha, the Wang family from Zhou County was the one who had gotten his Confucian orthodoxy." Gao Lan said while looking at the great upright breath.

Meng Qi gently nodded since he could recognize it.

"The other one belongs to Heart Saint who stuck to the standpoints of 'Nothing exists beyond the mind' and 'Knowledge and action should go hand in hand'. His Confucian orthodox was in the Changle Confucian Temple where there were many members who just indulged in empty talk about the nature of the mind, less than Wang family." Gao Lan said with a sneer.