Chapter 343: Chapter 228: Through the Vicissitudes of the Mortal World, Victory and Defeat Are Decided, I am the Martial Saint of the Mortal World, Slaying Demons and Purging Devils

On that day, an unprecedented light descended from the heavens. Nine Golden Dragons danced in the air—an extraordinary phenomenon. As the golden radiance on the ground grew ever brighter, it eventually formed a golden river that flooded the entire sky.

Many people go their entire lives without ever witnessing the bestowment of a Celestial Mandate. Lu Mingyuan was fortunate enough to see it fall upon the Great Yan Dynasty. This was only the beginning; the Grand Ancestor of Great Yan would go on to conquer ten nations and become a true emperor for the ages.

A seven-colored divine cloud appeared in the sky, showering down a brilliant, holy light. The cloud grew wider and wider, blanketing the entire Central Plains World, the whole continent, all of heaven and earth.

At that moment, all living beings gazed at the sky in astonishment.

Such an astonishing celestial phenomenon had only ever been recorded in ancient texts—a changing of the Celestial Mandate, an event that occurred only once every five hundred years.

Many Mortals, including the Dynasty’s Mountain and Water Deities and Spirit Monsters, spontaneously prostrated themselves before the heavens. Even some Cultivators did the same.

RUMBLE!

A sound rumbled from within the seven-colored divine cloud. A dense wave of Destiny descended upon the Great Yan Dynasty, forming clouds that rained down a golden, divine shower.

Lu Mingyuan looked toward the sky and, to his surprise, found his own Realm rapidly ascending.

Great Yan obtaining the Celestial Mandate was a huge boon for him as well.

He was the one who had brought an end to the Great Zhou’s National Fortune; he had played a part in it.

And so, he received a share of the Destiny.

To the Celestial Dao, it was an insignificant amount, but to him, it was immense.

The Martial Dao Destiny surrounding Lu Mingyuan surged to unprecedented heights.

Absorbing this wave of Destiny allowed him to officially step into the Celestial Human Realm. Without any external aid, he touched the very threshold of the Thirteenth Realm.

"The Twelfth Realm... Celestial Human."

Lu Mingyuan muttered to himself, gazing at his palm. An unprecedented power surged explosively through his meridians and Acupoints.

This was the feeling of Martial Arts Perfection.

’I never thought I’d reach a Realm in the Scroll World that I couldn’t achieve in the outside world,’ he thought.

’To think I’d reach this Realm by claiming a share of the Destiny from the fall of the Great Zhou and the rise of a new Celestial Mandate.’

’It seems that if I truly want to become stronger...obtaining the Emperor’s Throne is a crucial step.’

After the Great Yan Dynasty was founded, Lu Mingyuan was named the first among the ten founding Marshals, the Heavenly Martial Grand General. In addition, he was granted a fiefdom, and his rank was elevated from duke to king. He became known as the Qilin King.

After reaching the Twelfth Realm, Lu Mingyuan often found himself thinking.

’With my current lifespan, couldn’t I live for a thousand years? I’ll become an old monster. Who could possibly kill me?’

However, he soon had no more time for such thoughts.

After reorganizing for half a year, the Great Yan Dynasty launched a war against the neighboring Great Song Dynasty.

Thus began the grand undertaking of conquering the ten nations. Under the command of the Grand Ancestor of Great Yan, Lu Mingyuan swept across the lands and unified the Four Seas.

Drawing upon the Destiny of multiple Dynasties, Lu Mingyuan’s Cultivation reached the Perfection of the Twelfth Realm, with one foot already stepping into the Thirteenth Realm. Yet, he could never manage the final breakthrough. His bitter pursuit of the ultimate Martial Dao had reached an unprecedented bottleneck.

He tried asking many people, including the Great Scholars of the Confucian Temple and even the Saints and Sages, but none could give him an answer. Their explanation was simply that he had reached his natural limit.

After all, a man’s power is finite.

Lu Mingyuan was not satisfied with this answer.

Fifty years on the battlefield passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the years, the Great Yan Dynasty solidified its claim to the Celestial Mandate. The Grand Ancestor gathered the Nine Bronze Tripods—a feat no previous King had ever accomplished—and became the undisputed hegemon of the Central Plains. He received tribute from ten thousand nations and brought an end to the age of chaos.

But fifty years can also change a great many things.

The Qilin Royal Mansion now housed three generations under one roof, filled with children and grandchildren.

Yun Qinghe’s life, however, finally came to an end. At seventy-six years old, she was frail and aged.

No matter how Lu Mingyuan tried to persuade her, she refused to continue practicing martial arts. She also declined the Life-extending Elixir he later offered her, choosing instead to pass away peacefully from old age.

In her own words, it was the life she was meant to live.

In the outside world, she had experienced the life of a supreme genius.

Therefore, the Scroll World had intentionally made her a Mortal this time, forcing her to live a mundane life. In a way, it was to perfect her Daoxin.

Yun Qinghe had clearly come to terms with it.

In the end, she still died of old age.

As she lay dying, she still thought of her former master’s name, her heart filled with regret.

Her former wish was simply to see her master one more time and to meet her friends from the orphanage again.

But now, she had a new wish: that Lu Mingyuan would one day defeat Lu Yunqing fair and square. She hoped that after they left this world, he would inherit the Emperor’s Throne and take her with him.

After she passed away, Lu Mingyuan was the first to visit her grave and offer a stick of incense.

His grandsons and great-grandsons clearly couldn’t understand why their grandfather respected his first wife so profoundly, in a way that went beyond the formal respect between a husband and wife.

Until one day, he met someone.

The Mortal World was no longer a suitable place for Lu Mingyuan. He chose to leave and roam the land, visiting Immortal Gods and Confucian Temple Saints.

Before he left, a debate arose within the Great Yan Dynasty regarding the remnant forces of Nan Zhou, who were entrenched on a hundred islands in the south.

A scholar by the name of Xun Yu came before the Great Yan Imperial Court and presented his "Ten Strategies and Ten Proposals," convincing the Grand Ancestor of Great Yan not to attack Nan Zhou.

"Xun Yu..."

The name left a deep impression on Lu Mingyuan.

「In a luxurious and exquisite private room of a jade pavilion.」

A young man with a smile on his face looked at the middle-aged man before him. Though he appeared young, his eyes were incredibly deep, as if they could see into a person’s very soul.

The man was none other than the renowned Qilin King of the Great Yan Dynasty. When the Grand Ancestor established the Martial Temple, the Qilin King was ranked number one.