Chapter 1006: The Holy Lands War Begins
Xu Qing and Erniu hadn’t hesitated for a moment to send the dharmaboat speeding off into the distance. The blessing of Yu Liuchen’s god power provided a measure of protection, and also boosted the ship’s speed. As a result, they were already a great distance away from that area of the sea. However, the lingering fluctuations of the story spoken by Yu Liuchen still reached them, immediately filling them with an intense sensation of deadly crisis!
Focusing inwardly, Xu Qing sent his cultivation base into full rotation, unleashing all of his godsource to bolster the dharmaboat. Erniu was also fully aware that the more distance they covered, the safer they would be, so he held nothing back to keep the defenses going. After all, they were dealing with a former True God, an entity on the same level as a Summer Immortal!
Thanks to their efforts, it was despite the viscous nature of the outer sea water that the dharmaboat got farther and farther away with every instant that passed.
Far behind them, the sea water beneath Yu Liuchen, which was in reality extremely heavy, suddenly exploded up into the air. As it did, a devilish, illusory, and gruish figure shot out of the sea.
The moment it appeared, Xu Qing and Erniu, despite being off in the distance, shook violently from head to toe. Blood sprayed out of both of their mouths as, all while reeling in astonishment, they tried to flee even faster. At the same time, they used their own ways of looking back to see what was happening.
Far in the distance, they saw that superlatively large figure rising up, so huge it could connect heaven to earth. Its physical appearance was that of a half-rotten corpse, pulsing with a strong aura of death. It was grayish-white, and definitely did not look human! Instead, it looked like some sort of humanoid lizard!
The moment it was out in the open, lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Winds screamed as the gruish figure emanated terrifying fluctuations. The sky rippled, and huge waves rolled out over the surface of the water.
Even more gruish was that the figure’s head wasn’t growing off its body. Instead, the figure held its own head in its right hand! As for its other hand, it held an enormous black candle that burned with a black flame. Despite its extremely bizarre appearance, for some unknown reason, it gave off an extremely holy sensation.
Xu Qing and Erniu weren’t able to continue looking for more than a brief moment before their eyes literally exploded. Both of them had amazing healing powers, yet right now, those powers were working sluggishly. What was more, after losing their eyes, they felt as if all senses of observation had been removed. Turning their heads to face forward, they used instinct alone to flee off into the distance.
However, Yu Liuchen hovered in the air, hīs blood-red robe spreading out in all directions over the great sea, causing both the water and the sky to turn bright red. Hīs eyes shone with shining, golden light, all while hīs godly might pulsed around hīm.
This was something that surpassed the Flawless God level. This was... Altar God!
Altar Gods had solitary godly authority! As Yu Liuchen looked down, godly authority spread out.
The karma in the story caused the Brilliant Heaven True God who had returned to weaken visibly. That weakness stretched down into the substructure of this True God. Hē had faced countless dangers on hīs return trip. Although hē had resolved them one after another, in the end, much of hīs essence had dissipated. After returning, hīs godly might was weak. Hīs god power was low. As a result, hē had planned to hole up and recover. But before that could happen, hē had been dragged out into this situation. Most importantly of all was that hīs will had not fully awoken. After all, hē had been dead!
Yu Liuchen had targeted hīm during hīs awakening process, and as a result, hē had forgotten some fifty to sixty percent of hīs true name.
Thus, Yu Liuchen went all out.
As the golden light shone, the returned god acted just as the story had stated. Rumbling sounds echoed out from hīs body as hē started collapsing. Yet an instant later, though that collapse was continuing, hē let loose a howl that could rip apart heaven, causing wild colors to flash as his rotting godly authority began to shine. Unfortunately, hē was still stuck in the story!
Yu Liuchen had prepared well for this moment, and sent all of the blood-red color in the area rushing toward the god to devour hīm.
Of course, the devouring was foreordained to fail, because the story didn’t describe that happening. After some time passed, a shrill cry echoed out as the red color was shredded to pieces, and the returned god burst out of it and raced toward the depths of the Forbidden Sea.
Hīs will had not yet fully awoken, and hē was only continuing to forget hīs true name. As for this attempt to escape, it was an instinct... that came from the description in the story.
“It’s all in the story. And I decided long ago that you are going to be the main character of my choosing. Your story will be the most beautiful story told during this, the first half of my life.”
Yu Liuchen licked hīs lips, looked at the fleeing god, and then took a step forward. Hē was prepared for this chase to last for 137 days. It couldn’t be one more day than that, nor one less day. It was only on the 137th day that hē could devour the returned god, and then extract the forgotten true name from the corpse.
In doing that... Yu Liuchen could replace this god! And then hīs story would achieve the most beautiful of endings. After all, hē had told this story to completion. Therefore, upon bringing hīs cultivation base back to its peak, hē had advanced another step toward making True God a reality.
“True God....”
Yu Liuchen’s redness swept through the sky over the sea, and off into the distance.
***
Elsewhere on the great sea, Erniu’s eye cavities were slowly filling in with flesh.
“I might have lost my senses, but I still have a premonition that Ol’ Pappy Yu is going to succeed at becoming a True God. The ol’ punk’s godly authority is really far too gruish. That said, Ol’ Pappy Yu is just too stingy! He was using us as bait, and in the end, he hooked the fish! Yet he didn’t give us even a single thing to keep as a souvenir.”
Xu Qing didn’t reply. His eyes had also exploded, but he was recovering faster than Erniu. He could already see a bit of their surroundings, and his other senses were recovering quickly. He pushed the dharmaboat onward with a bit more speed.
“Am I right, little Ah Qing?” Erniu said. He clearly wasn’t very happy.
“Yeah,” Xu Qing replied perfunctorily. “Too stingy.”
Erniu had the habit of not paying much attention to the tone Xu Qing used, and thus he ignored his perfunctory tone. After a moment of thought, he apparently made a decision. “That said, now that I think about it, this experience actually taught us a lot about how to hook fish. In the future, if we ever have a chance, we could find some bait of our own, and go on our own fishing expedition!”
As Xu Qing piloted the dharmaboat onward, he casually asked, “What kind of bait are you talking about? And what kind of fish?”
Erniu flashed a pleased look. “There’s almost too much to choose from when it comes to bait. How about Ningyan? Little Jianjian would work well also. As for what fish to target... well I need to put some thought into that. Have any suggestions, Little Ah Qing?”
Xu Qing shook his head and was about to say something when, all of a sudden, his expression flickered, and he looked at the distant sky ahead of them. His pupils constricted.
Erniu’s eyes hadn’t recovered yet, so he couldn’t see anything. Upon noticing that Xu Qing wasn’t responding to him, he inquisitively asked, “What’s up? Are you really bullying poor old me who has no eyes?”
Voice grim, Xu Qing said, “Eldest Brother... the sky over the inner sea is on fire.”
Reflected within his pupils was the sea of flames visible in the distance.
***
In the Summer Departure calendar of humankind, at the end of the first year of the imperial reign, burning flames fell from the sky and spread to the east, west, south and north of Revered Ancient. The fire came from the starry sky, whipping a starry tempest into a storm of flames. It came as sixteen majestic celestial-level holy lands came to Revered Ancient.
The holy lands were built by the emperors who left years ago with Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Every species who left had one of their own.
In the tens of thousands of years that passed since the departure, some of them faded into decay, while some were absorbed by others. As a result, there were fewer now than in the early days. For various reasons, emperors who had established the original holy lands began to perish or go missing. As a result, a classification system for holy lands was established.
Heavenly. Earthly. Celestial. Terrestrial.
The difference between each of the four categories was as great as the difference between heaven and earth. The terrestrial-level holy lands didn’t have any cultivators who were Grand Emperors. But every celestial-level one... did have a Grand Emperor! And those which were in the earthly-level had more than one!
After all, in the ancient past, although Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had conquered Revered Ancient, that didn’t mean that humans were the only species that occupied the mainland. Species dotted the lands like trees in a forest. Not all species had a Grand Emperor, but those who left with Dark Serenity to establish holy lands beyond the heavens all did.
As of now, species that had left countless years ago were returning. Among them were sixteen celestial-level holy lands that were following the terrestrial-level ones that had already come to Revered Ancient.
In each of the cardinal directions of Revered Ancient, the east, west, south and north, there were four!
Astonishingly, three of them appeared in the sky over the lands of the Firemoon Darkheavens in the east. As for the fourth, it arrived... in the Imperial Region of humankind, right outside the imperial capital!
The arrival of these new holy lands played out completely differently than when the terrestrial-level holy lands had come. These sixteen celestial-level holy lands did one thing upon their arrival: they waged war! And now, the terrestrial-level holy lands didn’t need to put on a front, and they also went on the offensive.
It was in the first year of the reign of Summer Departure that war broke out. It wasn’t an unexpected turn of events to the species of Revered Ancient. Many species were prepared for it, and that was especially true in the east. They had revealed their true intentions thanks to the search for Xu Qing.
In addition, considering that the terrestrial-level holy lands had been driven out of the east, the humans and Firemoons didn’t have to scramble to react. They were ready. The united forces of the east demarcated heaven and earth, thus ensuring that the flames of war didn’t affect the majority of the lands below.
It was around that time that Xu Qing and Erniu approached the inner sea after their ordeal in the Primeval Sea.
***
In Fardark County, outside of the Imperial Region of humankind, a figure shot at top speed toward human territory. He was in extremely bad shape, with his aura unstable. He had numerous internal injuries, and yet, he had seven or eight heads hanging from a rope tied to his waist.
Those two whores Lan Yao and Yue Dong just won’t stop chasing me!
This person looked exhausted and also anxious. Yet despite that, he still looked as deadly as a viper.
And I can’t believe that the Devilbird holy land is one of the ones that arrived here in human territory.
Lan Yao’s clan is extremely powerful in the Devilbird holy land. And her husband is an apprentice of their Grand Emperor! The arrival of this holy land might as well be a death sentence for me.
In that case... I’m going to be worth more than ever to the locals. After all, the Devilbird holy land has a lot of secrets, and I know them all. Since they want to kill me, then my best bet is to seek asylum with the humans, and sell out the damned holy land!
Feng Lintao’s eyes glittered with crafty light as he accelerated.