Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 1084 - 1084 0637 The Curse in the Imperial Family

Chapter 1084: Chapter 0637: The Curse in the Imperial Family Secret Territory_2 Chapter 1084: Chapter 0637: The Curse in the Imperial Family Secret Territory_2 The Zhao family ancestors obtained an opportunity in the Imperial Family Secret Territory, which made them acutely aware that if used well, the Secret Territory could keep the Zhao family strong forever. Thus, they left an ancestral instruction, requiring their descendants, after cultivating to the Gold Core Stage, not to go to other places but must enter the Imperial Family Secret Territory. On the one hand, they had to guard the Secret Territory for generations of the Zhao family, ensuring no other person or organization could take it away. On the other hand, they hoped someone could find even greater opportunities within, and thereby push the strength of the Zhao family a step further.

However, thousands of years have passed, the Zhao family ancestors long since exhausted their lifespans and “died.” The descendants of the Zhao family continued to enter the Imperial Family Secret Territory in an unbroken stream, staying there for hundreds of years, hoping to gain more. Yet, for some reason, none of the Zhao descendants who entered the Imperial Family Secret Territory, no matter how hard they tried, could ever break through to the Nascent Soul Stage, not even to Half-step Nascent Soul, and most couldn’t even cultivate to the late stage of the Gold Core Realm.

This circumstance left successive emperors of the Great Zhao Nation incredulous and unable to accept it. Some believed the Zhao family’s bloodline might be cursed, while others wondered whether there were some unknown restrictions within the Imperial Family Secret Territory. Thus, the Princes in the Secret Territory would conduct selections periodically, choosing promising youths and sending them outside the Secret Territory to cultivate using outside resources to see if they could break through the Gold Core Realm. However, those sent out faced the same cultivation ceiling as those inside the Secret Territory. No matter who was sent out, they could not advance to the Nascent Soul Stage, ultimately succumbing to frustration within the Gold Core Realm.

Such results increasingly led the people within the Imperial Family Secret Territory to believe that the Zhao descendants might indeed be cursed, and the source of this curse was thought to be the so-called Saint’s Tomb.

Initially, the Imperial Family Secret Territory was essentially a cemetery, burying the remains of tens of thousands of cultivators. The Zhao family ancestors started by cleaning these graves and bit by bit, sought cultivation resources. Subsequent Zhao descendants also largely relied on excavating these graves to find resources for cultivation. Now, almost all the graves within the Secret Territory had been emptied and cleared, leaving only the last five tombs, known as the Saint’s Tombs.

It was unclear which gods were buried in these Saint’s Tombs, each heavily guarded and sealed. It was not just difficult to excavate these tombs, but even approaching them was an immense challenge.

Now, among the few remaining Princes in the Imperial Family Secret Territory, quite a few believe the curse originates from these five Saint’s Tombs. However, other Princes do not believe in the curse, instead adhering to another belief; if they could unearth these tombs and obtain the burial objects within, they might break through the limit imposed by the Secret Territory and attain the Nascent Soul Stage within their lifetimes, thus prolonging their lives.

As for the actual circumstances of those five Saint’s Tombs, Emperor Yonghe remained vague. It wasn’t that Emperor Yonghe wanted to conceal anything from Qi Tian, but he had always held the Saint’s Tombs in reverence. Despite his centuries within the Imperial Family Secret Territory, he never partook in exploring the Saint’s Tombs. At most, he had merely looked at them from a distance, so he was not very clear about the situation in and around the Saint’s Tombs, and naturally, he could not provide Qi Tian with a detailed description.

Qi Tian finally had a hard-won encounter with the core secrets of the Imperial Family Secret Territory, but the cost of obtaining this secret seemed quite high. If there really was a curse within the Secret Territory, now that he was in it, would he also be affected by the curse? Would he, like Emperor Yonghe and the others, be confined to the Gold Core Realm for life, unable to advance to the Nascent Soul Stage?

Qi Tian was somewhat worried, but after thinking it over, he decided to set aside his concern for the time being. Whether a curse existed within the Imperial Family Secret Territory or not was something Qi Tian did not fully understand. However, in Qi Tian’s view, the reason that the Zhao family ancestors and their descendants could not cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage was quite likely not due to a curse. There was a problem the Zhao descendants were reluctant to face head-on—it was quite possible that the Zhao bloodline simply lacked the innate talent for cultivation. To put it more bluntly, the Zhao descendants might lack the aptitude for cultivation, only capable of reaching the Gold Core Stage at most. This was seemingly the ceiling embedded in the Zhao family’s genes; cultivating beyond this point was impossible.

Actually, this was not a terribly difficult problem to explain. Cultivation has always been a process of selection, survival of the fittest from among many. Thousands of years have passed since the first generation of the Zhao family, and thousands of descendants have been born, but there is only one throne to vie for. Each generation of Zhao descendants has to go through a brutal competition for the imperial succession, and more than half of the Zhao descendants would be eliminated during this struggle. The one who finally becomes emperor may not necessarily be the most adept cultivator among his peers. They would then enter the Imperial Family Secret Territory and utilize the cultivation resources therein to practice cultivation. Over thousands of years, only about a hundred and eighty individuals have gained access to the Imperial Family Secret Territory. To expect a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator to emerge from such a small group is no easy feat.

Of course, this was just Qi Tian’s speculation. Within the Imperial Family Secret Territory, there was no shortage of people, and yet, it was odd that not a single Nascent Soul Stage cultivator had been born amongst so many. Purely from the perspective of population ratios, it was difficult to explain why no Masters of the Nascent Soul had emerged. But Qi Tian was very clear about one thing—the Cultivation World has always been fiercely competitive, and the Zhao family would keep a tight grasp on the Imperial Family Secret Territory. They would never allow anyone outside the Zhao family to have the potential to become a Master of the Nascent Soul. To achieve this end, employing some special means was not an unthinkable matter.

Regardless of the situation, the Imperial Family Secret Territory was not a benevolent place. If possible, Qi Tian still hoped to leave this place as soon as he could. The vast world outside was where he should be, as for the Imperial Family Secret Territory, he would let the Zhao family wrangle with it themselves.

After Emperor Yonghe briefly explained some matters to him, Qi Tian exchanged with Emperor Yonghe a few Wolf Teeth Knives that had been reassembled, including one that was of a quality above the Half-step Nascent Soul Level.

Emperor Yonghe, holding the Wolf Teeth Knife, was overjoyed beyond words. He never thought he would one day possess a magical weapon of such caliber, significantly increasing his personal security within the Imperial Family Secret Territory.

While Emperor Yonghe was thinking about how to express his gratitude to Qing Tian, Emperor Jianwu and Huoyang Emperor returned, bringing with them all the discarded Wolf Teeth Knives they had collected and handing them over to Qi Tian. As expected, these two Princes had also gathered some discarded knives above the Half-step Nascent Soul Level. Like Emperor Yonghe, they had intended to study the knives to see if there was a possibility of reassembling them.

Qi Tian collected all these discarded Wolf Teeth Knives and in exchange, gave them knives that had been repaired. Among them, Emperor Jianwu and Huoyang Emperor each received a knife of quality above the Half-step Nascent Soul Level, allowing both princes to truly possess a magical weapon of such caliber for the first time in their lives.