Chapter 1235 In this era, I shall stand atop the heavens

　　Where did Senior Daozi get this palace?

　　The foul stench seemed like it came from the ancient times,. It went beyond time and space, and aged as time passed.

　　“What kind of palace is this?” Song Shuhang looked at the gorgeous palace and covered his nose.

　　As soon he said that, his heart moved.

　　Is this another fragment of the ancient Heavenly City?

　　He had already been in contact with many fragments of the ancient Heavenly City, so when he carefully observed the palace, he immediately sensed the aura of the ancient Heavenly City emanating from it.

　　The scholarly faction… fragment of the ancient Heavenly City… foul stench…

　　This can’t be that Divine Beast Department septic tank that True Monarch Eternal Fire mentioned, right?

　　Daozi wore a smirk, and said, “Mm-hm, I took this from the scholarly faction. They would not let me take other fragments, though. It was only this specific one they permitted me to take. This thing is so big that it took so much of my energy to bring it around.”

　　It really was it… The corners of Song Shuhang’s mouth twitched.

　　In addition, Daozi’s strength was truly great. When it came to the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion, four Tribulation Transcenders had to work together to set up a rune formation just to move the pavilion, yet Daozi alone was able to easily bring such a huge palace through space.

　　Such power was no longer that of a ‘Tribulation Transcender’.

　　Daozi… Could he have already stepped onto his own path and become an Immortal?

　　“I’ll be borrowing this scripture first… I don’t really know when I can return it to you, though.” Daozi patted Song Shuhang, and said, “But I assure you, I will definitely return it to you intact!”

　　Another Tribulation Transcender from the scholarly faction—the Lustrous Scholar—had made a similar promise, but he lost my ghost spirit in the end, Song Shuhang complained in his mind.

　　At the same time, he remembered something. He raised his head and looked at Daozi. “Senior, have you recovered?”

　　Daozi’s current behavior did seem to be a bit abnormal, yet it was somehow organized. Could he have recovered from his mental instability?

　　“Hehehehe.” Daozi smirked, and said, “Who knows?”

　　Song Shuhang asked, “Senior, what are you planning on doing by borrowing it?”

　　Daozi looked up, and seemed to have lost himself deep in thought.

　　After a long time, he clapped his hand, and said, “I want to become the second Sage.

　　“I want to stand on the peak.

　　“I want to be invincible in the world and rule this era just like the Sage did in those days!

　　“Then, I want to take my revenge on the entire world, hehehe.”

　　Daozi went crazy. He ran around Song Shuhang, spun, bounced, stopped, sometimes accelerated up into the air, and then fell back down.

　　He seemed to have yet to fully recover from his madness.

　　After running for a while, he ran back to Song Shuhang’s side, and asked, “Little Fellow Daoist, do you want to be my disciple?”

　　Song Shuhang looked dazed.

　　“I want to be just like the previous Sage and teach at least 13 disciples who end up reaching the Tribulation Transcender Realm,” Daozi continued. “I have quite the confidence in this as, at that time, it was I who ended up teaching my youngest junior brothers on our teacher’s behalf.”

　　In other words, Daozi already possessed the level and experience of teaching and guiding someone into reaching the Tribulation Transcender Realm.

　　Honestly speaking, Song Shuhang really wanted to say yes.

　　The scholarly faction had always had a style that he found likable. Furthermore, there were people there who were at the level of teachers of Tribulation Transcenders. It would simply be an excellent place for a cultivator to start.

　　However, before Song Shuhang could reply, Daozi suddenly shook his head, and said, “No, no. You aren’t suitable to be my disciple. Your fate is not with the scholarly faction; hence, you can’t become a scholar.”

　　Song Shuhang: 😳

　　“Goodbye~” Daozi laughed, and then kicked at the air.

　　A spatial gate appeared from nowhere.

　　Afterward, Daozi stepped into the spatial gate and disappeared.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Song Shuhang looked at the huge, smelly palace in front of him, and became a little worried.

　　The palace was suspended in mid-air.

　　How was he supposed to deal with this thing?

　　He couldn’t just directly put the entire thing into his Inner World, as the Inner World simply would not be able to handle taking in such a large thing in one go. When he had previously transferred the other fragments, he had the help of Senior White Two, who first shrunk the fragments down before having them transferred in.

　　But this time, nobody could help him shrink this fragment of the ancient Heavenly City.

　　In addition, the smell of this thing was quite strong.

　　If he were to place it inside the Inner World, would that cause the entire place to start smelling?

　　Behind him, Kindness, the branch head, Great Master Turtle, and the young disciples all had ugly faces, and were constantly vomiting.

　　The smell that had welled up inside the palace over the countless years assaulted their sensitive sense of smell. Even if they held their breath, the smell still seemed to be able to penetrate their pores and get into their bodies.

　　This stench was like poisonous that had come from ancient times.

　　Song Shuhang curiously asked, “Huh? Is it that bad?”

　　He could also smell the stench, and it was indeed quite smelly, but it was still within a tolerable range.

　　Could it be that his ‘liquefied’ body also allowed him to be immune to strong odors?

　　Kindness said, “Senior Tyrannical Song, we can’t handle it anymore.” She felt that while she spoke, the unbearable stench had poured into her mouth; this caused her to be extremely uncomfortable

　　Song Shuhang said, “You guys go back first, I’m going to go in and have a look.”

　　He gently jumped in and set foot inside the palace.

　　As he jumped over the gate of the palace, a barrier appeared and stopped him.

　　At this moment, the golden chain on his body slightly heated up.

　　Afterward, the barrier seemed to have determined his identity, and it no longer barred him from entering.

　　Song Shuhang entered the palace.

　　There was nothing other than a giant pit inside the palace.

　　It was nothing but a dazzling golden shell, with a dark and empty pit. Its interiors appeared to have been cleaned up by the scholarly faction using a magical technique.

　　Well, it was still a fragment of the ancient Heavenly City. Although it was just a septic tank, it was part of the Heavenly City.

　　It was normal for the scholarly faction to have cleaned out its interior during the time when they preserved it.

　　However, even if they did clean the interior, it seemed like they were not able to force out the unbearable stench that appeared to be inseparable from the palace.

　　The smell could simply not be dealt with despite everything the scholarly faction had done. No matter which cleansing spell they used, the smell remained. It was as if the smell had completely integrated and become one with the palace.

　　Song Shuhang took off his gloves and reached for the wall of the palace.

　　[In the dream last night, Immortal Master Ivory Trigram divined for me and said that what I wanted to find was hidden in a dirty place that I could never think of. Speaking of dirty places… Isn’t the Divine Beast Department’s septic tank a dirty place? Perhaps the secret code that I’m looking for is hidden in here!]

　　Come on, secret appraisal technique!

　　Allow me to see the truth.

　　88,888 voices echoed in his mind, and golden runes emerged from his eyes and fell onto the palace.

　　At the cost of injuries and severe pain, the golden runes returned to him with results from the appraisal.

　　[The Divine Beast Department’s septic tank, one of the various fragments of the ancient Heavenly City. This is an important treasure of the ancient Heavenly City. The Heavenly City had several beautiful immortal gardens, seas of flowers, gardens of spiritual herbs, and forests of immortal fruits. All those could not have been maintained without the nutritional supplements that came from this place. Apart from the poop of a large number of spirit animals from the Divine Beast Department, there is nothing special here.]

　　Song Shuhang: “…”

　　Is that it?

　　What about the secret code? What about Slow-Witted Song? Give it to me.

　　Song Shuhang could not believe it, and urged the secret appraisal technique again.

　　Finally, the appraisal technique found new information.

　　Due to this, a bigger wound suddenly emerged on his body. He gritted his teeth as he endured immense pain. If he had not been in the liquefied state, he would have already lost great amounts of blood.

　　If I keep using this secret appraisal technique again and again, sooner or later, I might just become a masochist, Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　The new results of the appraisal appeared in his mind.

　　[At the right-hand position of the back door of this palace, on the third brick, there seems to be a relic left by someone.]

　　This is it.

　　The secret left by Slow-Witted Song.

　　Song Shuhang quickly ran to the back door of the palace. On the third brick on the right-hand side, he really did find an inscription that had been left by someone.

　　However, it was in the script of the ancient era, and Song Shuhang could not understand a single word.

　　Song Shuhang turned his head and moved his gaze towards the virtuous lamia… more specifically, Scarlet Heaven Sword who was in her belly.

　　It was time for Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword to appear.

　　“Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword, what do these ancient words mean?” Song Shuhang humbly asked for advice.

　　Scarlet Heaven Sword chuckled, and said, “Oh, so you just let me rot in Fairy ＠＃％×’s belly when you’ve no use for me, yet when you do have a use for me, you come asking me for help? Song Shuhang, your attitude is unacceptable.”

　　I’m going to make little friend Song Shuhang feel bad. Let’s see if he still dares ignore me in the future.

　　Song Shuhang was puzzled.

　　Song Shuhang said, “Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword, did you want to come out and get some fresh air? You could’ve just said so, I could have gotten the virtuous lamia to let you out.”

　　After that, he gave instructions to the lamia.

　　The virtuous lamia violently turned her head away from Song Shuhang.

　　Song Shuhang: “…”

　　The lamia turned back carefully to glance at Song Shuhang. She only saw Song Shuhang’s speechless face that also contained a tinge of confusion.

　　A moment later, she seemed to make a very heavy decision. She spat out Scarlet Heaven Sword, but she clutched Scarlet Heaven Sword tightly and refused to hand it over.

　　Song Shuhang asked, “Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword, can you translate it for us now?”

　　“Okay, it’s better if you can just let me stay outside her belly. Now, let me see what this sentence means…” Scarlet Heaven Sword looked at the ancient text above.

　　After that, it translated the text. “It reads: ‘F*ck, you actually made your septic tank this gorgeous?! Your scholarly faction is truly rich, isn’t it? You made your septic tank look as beautiful as other people’s palaces! It was so dark in here that I couldn’t see anything, and almost fell into this shit hole. Penniless Thief Sect’s Daoist Mulan hopes that every single one of you will fall into the pit and be unable to climb out!’ It seems that this was left by an expert of the Penniless Thief Sect. He probably sneaked into some area of the scholarly faction and entered this palace, but he obviously got nothing out of it.”

　　Song Shuhang: “…”

　　The Penniless Thief Sect.

　　This was the sect of ‘Daoist Cloudy Mist’ whom True Monarch Yellow Mountain had been chatting with using smurf accounts. It was also the sect of that Young Mistress Candy, who had climbed into his room to steal some things but unfortunately ended up getting caught by Senior White.

　　In addition, there was an expert in this sect called Cold Flame Sword. He stole Senior White’s statue from hundreds of years ago, which caused his outlook on life to transform.

　　Song Shuhang said, “It was actually a member of that sect, how unlucky.”

　　This isn’t what I wanted, what I wanted was the secret left behind by Slow-Witted Song…