Covering the Sky: I am the King of Men, and I rule over the rise and fall of all heavens.

Chapter 7 The Departure of an Old Friend
There is no calendar day in the mountains, and the year is unknown in the cold weather.

A thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Jiang Bai steps out of Amitabha Buddha's courtyard for the first time.

Over the course of a thousand years, he traded with all living beings through the statue of the Human King, and the pure faith power he collected allowed him to create a divine self, specifically to handle the wishes of all living beings transmitted by the statue of the Human King, and to help Jiang Bai collect the essence of all living beings.

Perhaps it was preordained that the act of all beings in the universe offering their essence to Jiang Bai in exchange for "benefits" is called the Human King Sacrifice, which coincides with the secret technique of the Human King Sacrifice in the Human King statue.

This made Jiang Bai laugh and say, "I feel like I've become a member of the weird race."

After all, the Strange Clan relies on offering sacrifices to the heavens and the earth to exchange for more scriptures and cultivation materials from the Strange Plateau.

During this thousand-year period, Jiang Bai also used the Heavenly Heart Imprint to comprehend the myriad paths, writing one Great Emperor Scripture after another and creating one forbidden secret technique after another.

However, these are all used for trading with all living beings in the universe.

Because of these Great Emperor scriptures and forbidden secret techniques, Jiang Bai can now say that his legacy is spread throughout the entire universe. If the forbidden zones of life want to destroy his legacy, they would have to launch a dark upheaval that wipes out the entire universe.

"I guess this is a way of passing on the tradition," Jiang Bai said, finding it quite amusing.

However, this thousand-year research has not been smooth sailing for Jiang Bai. The power of faith for health preservation has not been very effective for him. The power of faith that is enough to nourish the divine self has only been able to prolong Jiang Bai's life for a hundred years.

The experiment of condensing immortal essence from the origin of all living beings was also very slow. It took a thousand years to condense immortal essence the size of a fingernail, which was less than what Supreme Mu Ming had left behind.

The experiment of using the origin of all living beings to evolve chaotic blood also progressed slowly, so much so that Jiang Bai had to learn from Ye Fan in the original work, using himself as a furnace to nurture the Hundred Scriptures and evolve towards the Great Dao of Chaos, and then evolve into a chaotic body.

Coincidentally, the various imperial scriptures that Jiang Bai wrote for all living beings in the universe became his nourishment.

To speed things up, Jiang Bai also practiced the Amitabha Buddha's scriptures.

The reason Jiang Bai left the courtyard today was that his old friend was about to pass away.

The Ayur Plateau is a plateau located in the western desert. It is sealed by ice and snow all year round, but at its feet lies a continuous desert.

The scenery is quite unique.

This place was rarely visited in the past, but today it was bustling with activity, as many Buddhist saints gathered here, and Buddhist followers were also worshipping at the foot of the mountain.

This is because a Bodhisattva will be expounding the Dharma here today.

Jiang Bai appeared in front of Shi Jue; the two of them had not seen each other for three hundred years.

Shijue was still as beautiful as a flower, showing no signs of being nine thousand years old.

"The Vermilion Bird Immortality Elixir has already yielded results. You are one of the few old friends I know, so you can live forever." Jiang Bai's eyes were filled with complex emotions.

He had almost no friends. Shijue was his contemporary and the person he had communicated with the most over the past thousand years, so he could be considered a close friend.

Shijue clasped his hands together and said softly, "Great Emperor, I have existed in this world for nine thousand years and have witnessed its splendor. I do not wish to continue existing."

As Shijue finished speaking, a soft white light emanated from her body.

A white light rose into the sky, turning into a rain of light that blanketed the entire Ayurvedic plateau.

As the ice and snow melt, patches of life emerge in the desert at the foot of the mountains.

“I was born and raised in the Western Desert. I once used the power of the thoughts of the beings in the Western Desert to cultivate myself. Today, I should return everything to the Western Desert. May the Western Desert prosper in the future, and may my Buddhas and immortals enjoy eternal blessings.”

Shijue's voice drifted across the entire Western Desert with the sound of the wind.

The Buddhist saints on the Ayurvedic Plateau chanted in unison the name of the Bodhisattva of World Awakening.

Buddhists at the foot of the Ayurveda are also chanting the Bodhisattva's compassion.

A shower of light fell into Jiang Bai's hand, condensing into a point of life essence, emanating the aura of Shi Jue. "Nine thousand years ago, I first saw you on the ancient starry road, and I harbored murderous intent, deliberately revealing your whereabouts."

"Looking back, we had no grudges against each other, yet I harmed you in this way, which was wrong of me."

"But for some reason, I was filled with resentment the first time I saw you."

“I don’t think it was my fault, but I did commit a murder. I’ll take this bit of life essence as compensation for my apology to you.”

Of course it's not your fault, it's just bad luck on my part.

Jiang Bai sealed away the life essence left behind by Shi Jue, and sighed inwardly.

His unfortunate constitution has only improved somewhat now that he has attained enlightenment.

Shaking his head, Jiang Bai returned to Amitabha Buddha's courtyard. The same god he worshipped was simultaneously evolving the Chaos Blood with one hand and using his divine power to restore the transactions of all living beings.

Jiang Bai took the divine furnace that was evolving the chaotic blood, integrated Shi Jue's life essence into it, sat cross-legged and began to observe and deduce within his body.

As Jiang Bai continued his deductions, a rumbling sound emanated from his body.

Three thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye. The ancient starry road has become desolate. The geniuses who once hoped to prove their Dao are limited by their aptitude and the Great Dao, and they all stop at the Great Sage and Quasi-Emperor levels. Few of them have reached the ninth level of Quasi-Emperor, but none of them have chosen to seal themselves off.

Looking at their own age, they felt that even if they lived in a different era, they might not be able to attain enlightenment, ultimately lacking the qualifications to do so.

Unlike the gloom of the elderly, some young people, carrying the Great Emperor's Scriptures they had exchanged with Jiang Bai, embarked on the ancient road through the starry sky.

They felt they could achieve great things because they had better resources and a better future.

These young prodigies also symbolize a portion of the universe's perception of Jiang Bai: the Human King is a great person.

Because of the King's selfless dedication, they only need to contribute their faith and a little bit of their essence to obtain a treasure that is hard to come by.

Because of the King's magnanimity, they only need to contribute their faith and a little bit of their essence to give their families a powerful inheritance and a sacred land worthy of being passed down.

Yes, Jiang Bai also accepts the task of helping others evolve sacred cultivation sites.

It can be said that Jiang Bai would take on any job in order to collect the essence of all living beings, condense the immortal essence, and evolve the chaotic blood.

As Jiang Bai's reputation grew, he received countless amounts of faith power even without making any transactions.

Jiang Bai poured all this power of faith into the Faith God and the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

This made Jiang Bai's faith in God even stronger, and he began to possess some of the combat power of a Great Emperor, causing the Myriad Soul Banner to begin evolving into a Celestial Artifact.

As for the power of faith that Jiang Bai absorbed through his own health cultivation, it was the purest, without any impurities.

On this day, as Jiang Bai was evolving the Chaos Blood and nurturing the Hundred Scriptures within his body in an attempt to evolve the Chaos Body, his God of Faith suddenly emitted a surging light.

It was a sudden, immense force of faith.

"It was sent by the Celestial Venerable of Immortality," Faith God said to Jiang Bai with a solemn expression.

The strength of faith power also varies depending on a person's strength; the supreme level is the strongest.

However, Jiang Bai's Ten Thousand Souls Banner still bears the mark of the Eternal Heavenly Venerable, who was also the Supreme Being of the Forbidden Zone who hunted him down.

“He wants to make a deal with you,” I, the believer, spoke again.

(End of this chapter)