Chapter 646 - 641: The Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces, the Great Xia Dynasty

Chapter 646: Chapter 641: The Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces, the Great Xia Dynasty

The Celestial Domain, as the center of the Great Thousand Realms, possessed the most expansive territory in all the Great Thousand Realms.

The entire Celestial Domain was divided into one thousand provinces!

Myriad races lived within the Celestial Domain.

Of these one thousand provinces, the Human Race’s territory consisted of only ninety-nine. The remaining nine hundred and one provinces were firmly controlled by the other myriad races.

Ninety-nine provinces might seem like just a tenth of the total, but with myriad races inhabiting the Celestial Domain, the fact that the Human Race alone controlled such a share spoke volumes of their power and glory.

Weaker races, for instance, often had to pledge allegiance to stronger ones, possessing no territory of their own.

Within the Ninety-nine Provinces of the Human Race, the most formidable powers were known as the Three Dynasties and Five Institutes!

The Five Institutes were the Five Great Institutes. With their long and storied histories, they were holy lands that the younger generation across the Celestial Domain yearned to join. Only the absolute cream of the crop had ever been qualified to enter and become a member.

As for the Three Dynasties, they were the Three Great Dynasties.

The Great Xia Dynasty, the Great Wu Dynasty, and the Myriad Worlds Dynasty.

The history of the Three Great Dynasties was even more ancient than that of the Five Great Institutes. It was said that, for a time in the distant past, nearly all of the Human Race’s Ninety-nine Provinces had been under their rule.

In their heyday, the Three Great Dynasties were unprecedently powerful and boasted countless masters.

But what in this world can prosper forever? And who wouldn’t want to unify all under heaven, achieve a grand hegemony, and realize their ambitions?

For a time, the Three Great Dynasties were plagued by constant warfare. Each one vied to become the sole, supreme dynasty, ruling over the vast lands.

It was this internal strife that gave the other myriad races an opening. At its peak, the Human Race had reportedly controlled a territory of nearly two hundred provinces in the Celestial Domain.

But during that era, the internal wars of the Three Great Dynasties consumed too many of their experts. The Myriad Races seized the opportunity, launching a massive war. In the end, the Human Race lost nearly a hundred provinces, leaving them with only the ninety-nine they hold today.

The Five Great Institutes were established at precisely that time.

At the time, the Celestial Domain was home to countless sects in addition to the Three Great Dynasties. These sects banded together to form the Five Great Institutes.

The purpose of the Five Great Institutes was twofold: to cultivate new talent and to curb the infighting among the Three Great Dynasties.

Though the Three Great Dynasties today were a far cry from their peak, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. These three ancient powers still wielded terrifying influence. Each dynasty alone boasted over a hundred Kings!

That number was comparable to all the Kings in the entire East Sea combined.

Most importantly, it was rumored that the Three Great Dynasties possessed Saint’s Weapons left behind by their ancestors. These artifacts were their true foundation and greatest strength.

...

The Cyan-Scaled Eagle soared above the clouds, moving as fast as lightning.

The Cyan-Scaled Eagle now faintly exuded the imposing aura of a Qingtian Roc. Its body was covered in magnificent cyan feathers that, despite their softness, shimmered with a metallic luster.

Ning Jiang sat cross-legged on the Cyan-Scaled Eagle’s back, silently digesting the information about the Three Dynasties and Five Institutes.

Ning Jiang had learned of these matters from Golden Cicada before leaving the East Sea. After all, Golden Cicada had reached the Celestial King Realm while in the Celestial Domain and knew the place inside and out.

At this very moment, Ning Jiang was on the outskirts of the Celestial Domain, in a place called Xun Province.

Xun Province happened to fall within the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty. As one of the Three Great Dynasties, Great Xia had controlled over fifty provinces at its zenith. Though it was a far cry from its former glory, it still governed a vast territory of more than twenty provinces.

As for the Five Great Institutes, their status was more detached. They didn’t rule over any specific province or territory, but their influence across all of the Human Race’s Ninety-nine Provinces was not to be trifled with.

’The Great Xia Ancient Emperor Order.’

In his hand, Ning Jiang held a golden token. It was the size of his palm and radiated an extraordinary aura. The back was engraved with a magnificent landscape of rivers and mountains, while the front bore a single, domineering character: "Xia." It exuded an air of boundless imperial majesty.

This was something Golden Cicada had given him.

According to Golden Cicada, the Great Xia Dynasty had once received his aid back when he was in the Celestial Domain, and they had owed him a great favor ever since.

To repay the debt, the Ancient Emperor of Great Xia at the time had given Golden Cicada this Great Xia Ancient Emperor Order.

To see this order was to see the Ancient Emperor of Great Xia himself!

The Ancient Emperor had promised that whoever brought this token to him could make one request, and the Great Xia Dynasty would exhaust all its power to fulfill it.

’A thousand-year-old Great Xia Ancient Emperor Order... is it still valid today?’

Ning Jiang muttered to himself. The Ancient Emperor Order had been in Golden Cicada’s possession for over a thousand years.

A thousand years had passed; many things had changed. Would the Great Xia Dynasty even remember a promise made a millennium ago?

"You wait here for me. I’ll be right back."

Just then, the Cyan-Scaled Eagle passed over a giant city. With a single movement, Ning Jiang leaped from its back and descended toward the metropolis below.

He was a newcomer to the Celestial Domain and completely unfamiliar with his surroundings. Although Golden Cicada had told him about the region, a thousand years had passed. Who knew how much it might have changed?

For Ning Jiang, the most pressing matter was to buy a map of the Celestial Domain.

In a magnificent shop, Ning Jiang found what he was looking for.

There were two types of maps. The first, a map of the Human Race’s Ninety-nine Provinces, was priced at one hundred thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones. The second, a map of the Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces, was a hundred times more expensive, costing a staggering ten million Upper Grade Spirit Stones.

Ten million—a sum that many Earth Martial Realm experts couldn’t produce even if they sold everything they owned.

But Ning Jiang was no ordinary person. He had plundered the treasuries of the Seven Great Super Sects and had more Spirit Stones than he knew what to do with.

"Which map would you like, sir?" a beautiful maid by the counter asked.

"I’ll take the map of the Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces."

"Very good. That will be ten million Upper Grade Spirit Stones," the maid said, her voice sweet.

"Here are ten million Spirit Stones."

He took out a Storage Ring containing ten million Spirit Stones. After the maid inspected it and confirmed the amount was correct, she handed the map of the Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces to Ning Jiang.

The map of the Celestial Domain’s One Thousand Provinces wasn’t drawn on paper. Instead, it was created using the Power of Divine Sense and stored within a Jade Scroll.

The Jade Scroll was interwoven with light. It felt smooth and cool to the touch.

Ning Jiang channeled a stream of his Power of Divine Sense into the Jade Scroll. A moment later, he saw the map of the One Thousand Provinces materialize within. The map, woven from light and shadow, was astonishingly large—a full square *li* in area, roughly the size of a small lake.

A map of this size would have been incredibly inconvenient to carry if drawn on paper, which was why it had been stored in the Jade Scroll using a special refinement technique.