The Jade Emperor’s brain could no longer bear the burden.

Horrible breaths of Dao began to emerge from the Jade Emperor, and everyone felt that the Jade Emperor in the sky seemed to have changed.

He became colder, even more high and mighty, and endless information completely submerged him, shattering his heart and mind.

At this moment, the Jade Emperor suddenly fell from the sky, and before he even touched the ground, he turned into a pile of ashes and completely dissipated within the Three Realms.

Thus, an era of the Heavenly Emperor came to an end, even abruptly so; many had thought that, like before, the Jade Emperor could struggle for a moment, but in the blink of an eye, this once imposing ruler of the Three Realms had fallen.

"Alas..." someone sighed in the void, seemingly lamenting the demise of the Jade Emperor.

The fall of a once-great figure always left these elders filled with sighs, realizing only at such times that they truly had grown old, and that if they didn’t hasten, they might never have the chance to ascend to the Dao.

"The Jade Emperor has just fallen like that?" Lin Fang murmured to himself.

Whether it was his strength or his methods, the Jade Emperor had left a deep impression on him, giving him great pressure, but to fall like this, how could it not make one sigh with emotion.

"Yes, this is the tribulation of the great Dao; if one can’t pass through, their body dies and the Dao vanishes," Feng Jiu said with a deep sigh.

Even though she had no fondness for the Jade Emperor, his demise still brought Feng Jiu a feeling of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox; he was the rival of her lifetime and had inflicted upon her the most brutal defeat.

Although Feng Jiu always said that the Jade Emperor’s victory was unearned, the battle itself was a combination of strength and wisdom, and she was, after all, the ultimate loser.

Thus, for the Jade Emperor, Feng Jiu held great esteem, considering him to be the strongest existence in this era aside from those few Transcendents.

But even such a person could not pass the tribulation of the Dao and ultimately perished in front of all living beings, leaving everyone to wonder who could claim the pinnacle of the Dao in this era.

In fact, everyone who witnessed the Jade Emperor’s tribulation knew that this might be the best era to ascend to the Dao, as future Dao tribulations would only become more frequent and difficult.

This was because as cultivators kept emerging, the rules of the Dao were constantly being perfected, and the restrictions on those who defied fate intensified substantially.

The tribulations of the Dao in the future would only get harder, and if one did not fight for that slim chance in this era, they would likely never have the possibility to ascend to the Dao afterward.

Everyone thus stared blankly at the place where the Jade Emperor disappeared, silent, a golden age of the cultivation world had thus come to a close.

However, the impact of this event was profoundly far-reaching, signaling the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one.

The tidal wave of the era was coming, and some people with profound vision in the Three Realms could already see the scene of numerous heroes vying for supremacy in the future.

But this time, no one knew who would be the main character at the center of the stage.

In the Heavenly Court, there was a chorus of wails. The Jade Emperor had fallen before all eyes, immediately driving countless people to despair—that was the supreme sovereign, how could he have just died?

Even many immortals believed that if they just walked into the Lingxiao Treasured Palace, they would still see His Majesty seated on the throne of the Heavenly Emperor, looking at them with a majestic gaze.

The Jade Emperor was the soul of the Heavenly Court; ever since its establishment, he had been its master, and for many lower-tier immortals, they had grown accustomed to being ruled by the Jade Emperor.

Over the years, the Heavenly Court exerted its might over the Three Realms, sweeping away injustice and bestowing endless glory upon these people. They believed in the Jade Emperor’s ability, and even in themselves.

Even when the Heavenly Court fell into a period of turmoil and many difficulties erupted all at once, these people still chose to steadfastly support the Jade Emperor and stabilized the situation at the time.

But now, the one they viewed as their soul’s highest commander had perished and his Dao had vanished, with not even a corpse left behind. How could they not feel panic and unease?

For a time, everyone was like headless flies, bumping into each other in chaos, and the entire Heavenly Court was in complete disarray.

Just then, a streak of rosy clouds descended from the sky, landing within the Lingxiao Treasured Palace, and a majestic and sacred figure appeared once again.

"It’s His Majesty, His Majesty has returned!" an Immortal Officer suddenly cried out.

His voice immediately attracted everyone’s attention. People looked up and indeed saw the indifferent face of the Jade Emperor slowly appearing.

"Impossible!" someone exclaimed in shock.

The Jade Emperor had fallen amidst the tribulations of the Dao. How could he possibly come back to life? If he had succeeded, by now it should be a universal celebration, with the manifestation of ascending to the Dao visible to all. How could there be so little disturbance?

For many who coveted the throne of the Heavenly Emperor in secret, this was like a bolt from the blue, leaving them ashen-faced in an instant.

The resurrected Jade Emperor did not say another word, simply nodding before closing his eyes, and the surrounding clouds immediately obscured his face.

Seeing that majestic countenance, all the panic-stricken people immediately calmed down. As long as His Majesty was there, the Heavenly Court would still stand.

However, the mighty beings of the Three Realms were keenly aware of the anomaly. They knew very well that the real Jade Emperor had long perished, and the figure now appearing was definitely not the Jade Emperor.

These individuals were of high cultivation levels. At the very moment the Jade Emperor showed his face, they sensed his aura and instantly understood everything.

"Alas!" Feng Jiu sighed softly.

She also saw that familiar face, but it was absolutely not the old friend.

"The Jade Emperor is resurrected?" Lin Fang asked in disbelief.

After all, that was the tribulation of the Dao. No one had ever heard of someone resurrecting from the tribulation of the Dao.

"That’s not him!" Feng Jiu stated emphatically, with a hint of complexity in her voice.

"That’s a puppet controlled by the Heavenly Dao. You can also think of him as the Jade Emperor transformed by the Dao. The Jade Emperor perished during his tribulation, but because he had been eroded by the Heavenly Dao for many years, the Heavenly Dao created his mirror image as a puppet to continue operating the Heavenly Court and ensure the order of the Three Realms," Feng Jiu explained to Lin Fang in a soft voice.

This discovery was not good news for them. It indicated that the Heavenly Dao was gradually developing its own intelligence, no longer just a bundle of rules acting on instinct as before.

And this Jade Puppet Emperor formally marked the beginning of its meddling in worldly affairs. If no one attained the Unity of Dao in this era and controlled the fates, then the Heavenly Dao would gradually take control over the Three Realms. Once it grew in strength, the outcome for them, cultivators who defied fate, was not hard to imagine.

After hearing this, Lin Fang also couldn’t help but shiver. If the day Feng Jiu spoke of truly came, he wasn’t sure about mortals, but the fate of cultivators like themselves would certainly be bleak. After all, their practice of cultivation was essentially stealing the power of the Dao.