Donghuang Taiyi’s expression turned cold. “Don’t get arrogant. Do you think the Celestial Court will crumble without you?”

“Is that not the case?” Zu An calmly replied. “You’re alone. How are you going to deal with Xuanyuan and Shennong? How are you going to deal with the Asura race? Will you only be satisfied if I join their side?”

Donghuang Taiyi’s face turned livid. He understood that Zu An was currently indispensable to the Celestial Court, but he couldn’t take it. How could a supreme god like him be pushed around by a fake?

You have successfully trolled Donghuang Taiyi for +399... +399... +399...

Zu An didn’t want to provoke Donghuang Taiyi as he was busy with other matters, so he said, “Don’t worry. I won't undermine your authority. In fact, I’ll slowly recede from the front stage after some years and hand things over to you. By then, you can call the shots in the Celestial Court. I just want to enjoy the benefits of being the Celestial Emperor for now.”

Donghuang Taiyi’s complexion finally looked a bit better. “Fine. I hope that you aren’t playing tricks on me, or else I’ll reveal that Emperor Jun is dead.”

He did need an Emperor Jun to hold the fort for the time being before power was handed to him. Besides, Zu An had contributed by convincing Shennong to steer clear of the war. For those reasons, it wasn’t a big deal to let Zu An enjoy the privileges of the Celestial Emperor for the time being.

“Sure. It’s my pleasure to work with you,” Zu An said with a smile.

Donghuang Taiyi harrumphed, but he still came to an agreement with Zu An. Thus, the two of them joined forces to enlighten the beasts. Under their authority, the remaining celestials had no choice but to reluctantly contribute a bit of their blood essence.

Zu An used the collected blood essence to awaken sapience in the beasts. Looking at them, he knew that they would eventually form one of the Six Paths. Afterward, he returned to the Underworld to visit the Deity of Love and Beauty and hash out their plans.

That piqued Xihe’s jealousy. She noticed how Zu An and Houtu were always speaking in private, so she couldn’t help but suspect that they were doing something else on top of that. These days, she was closer to Princess Liuli instead.

Meanwhile, Zu An and the Deity of Love and Beauty were able to work out the details. The latter would split the Asura Path’s power insignia inside Princess Liuli into two pieces, while transporting a sliver of herself into the future. That would make it harder for the other universal deities to interfere in her plans.

In the meantime, the Deity of Bliss and Desire secretly visited him and asked him about his progress. Zu An told her that it would take longer for him to establish a relationship of trust, and she was delighted by the answer. She had expected the Deity of Love and Beauty to remain skeptical, but it was already a good sign that the latter didn’t outright reject them, but instead displayed a willingness to engage with them.

In that delight, she gave Zu An another generous reward. It was just that she couldn’t bring her true body into this world, or else the Deity of Knowledge could notice her intrusion. So, she could only deal with Zu An as the Heavenly Devil Empress.

Unfortunately, this body was nowhere as resilient as Zu An’s. Her eyes eventually flipped upward, and she was forced to beg for mercy.

...

While sparring, the two also decided on their next course of action.

As it turned out, Xuanyuan was a Bliss and Desire envoy. The Deity of Bliss and Desire wanted Zu An to replace Xuanyuan as her envoy, but Zu An rejected her offer. He was more than happy to let Xuanyuan take the heat while he secretly leaked crucial intelligence from the Celestial Court to Xuanyuan. Thanks to that, Xuanyuan’s faction slowly gained the upper hand.

As a result, Donghuang Taiyi encountered setbacks on the battlefield and became easily irritable. He tried to ask Zu An for help, but the latter insisted that he had only agreed to stall Shennong and the Asuras, and that Donghuang Taiyi should deal with the rest by himself. Donghuang Taiyi was frustrated, but there was nothing he could say.

Zu An spent his following days leisurely. He often visited Wu Mountain to take care of the yao grass. Slowly but surely, the Goddess of Wu Mountain was being born anew.

He spent other days with Xihe in the Celestial Court. Before long, Xihe became pregnant and gave birth to several suns. While she basked in the joy of motherhood, worry and fear slowly took over her heart. She still remembered the plight of the Ten Suns in history. She asked Zu An about that several times, but the latter refused to tell her a concrete plan, claiming that other entities might intervene if they sensed his intention.

Frustrated, Xihe threw several tantrums, but in the end, she still chose to trust him. That said, she wasn’t about to stake everything on an individual. She secretly made preparations. This way, she would still have other ways to save her sons in case her future lover turned out to be lying to her.

More time passed. Donghuang Taiyi failed, and Xuanyuan was crowned as the new Celestial Emperor, taking the title of the Yellow Emperor.

Zu An joined hands with the Deity of Bliss and Desire to rewrite the world’s history. As a Chaos and Enigma envoy, he specialized in weaving falsehoods into the fabrics of history. It also helped that he had the support of the Deity of Bliss and Desire and the Deity of Love and Beauty. Soon, history was reshaped under his influence, turning into what he was more familiar with.

Emperor Jun and Donghuang Taiyi were no longer the supreme gods who had ruled since the inception of the Celestial Court. Instead, the first Celestial Emperor was the Green Emperor, who had two sons, the Flame Emperor and the Yellow Emperor.

The Flame Emperor became the second Celestial Emperor, but then the Yellow Emperor defeated the Flame Emperor to become the third Celestial Emperor.

Following his defeat, the Flame Emperor descended to earth. Since then, the Flame Emperor’s lineage and the Yellow Emperor’s lineage were perpetually in conflict.

Each Celestial Emperor eventually had to go into seclusion in order to achieve Sainthood. Before that, they had to pass the Celestial Emperor’s position down to someone else.

After the Yellow Emperor abdicated, his son, the White Emperor, took over as the fourth Celestial Emperor.

Zhuanxu, the White Emperor’s nephew, later became the fifth Celestial Emperor.

...

Through the Time Annal, Emperor Jun became the White Emperor’s child who sought to take back the Celestial Emperor’s seat from Zhuanxu. Thus, he schemed from the shadows and incited a war between the Fiends and the Shamans. He wanted to replace Zhuanxu as the Celestial Emperor, while eliminating the Shaman races as well so that the Fiend races could dominate the world.

To avert the war, Zhuanxu sacrificed his descendant to sever heaven from earth, but Emperor Jun wasn’t happy with that. He continued scheming, and eventually, he successfully incited a war between the Fiends and the Shamans. In the end, he sacrificed his ten sons, the Golden Crows, in an attempt to obtain unparalleled power.

...

One of Emperor Jun’s disregarded sons, Yao, attempted to lift the Human race up to achieve Sainthood. Despite knowing about Emperor Jun’s scheme, he secretly pushed the matter forth to overthrow both the Fiends and the Shamans, so that the Humans could take over.

In the end, Yao became the Human Emperor.

...

Eliminating an important historical figure could induce a severe backlash from the River of History. However, Zu An went about it through the Time Annal, and he mixed truths and falsehoods to muddy the water. That greatly reduced the backlash.

It was at this point that Xihe finally understood Zu An’s plan. To close the loop, she took the initiative to seal off her own memories.

Zu An couldn’t bear it, but Xihe was unbothered, saying, “You said that we’ll be together in the future, and I believe that. Even without these memories, even if my identity changes and we reunite in a different era, I believe that I’ll still fall in love with you.”