The icy surroundings were completely and utterly silent.
Patriarch Lan and the six elders immediately took notice of how Lu Lingzi had shifted the focus of his gaze. All of them were inwardly leery of this apprentice of a Grand Emperor. There was no doubt about it: Lu Lingzi was definitely the most spectacular chosen in the Devilbird holy land.
It was hard for most people to even grasp the depths of his scheming or the profundity of his thought process. Then there was the extremely mysterious devil-eye on his forehead. Not only did it allow him to have authority while only being a Smoldering God, but also, he could use it to unleash a terrifying magic.
In terms of cultivation base, he wasn’t the strongest of the Grand Emperor’s apprentices in the Lan Clan. But he was astonishing both in his aptitude and in his way of doing things. He also had a lot of powerful backers, and was even considered important by some of the most influential members of Devilbird high society.
Anyone who wanted to make a move against him would only do so with utmost caution. And doing something to him while he was in the holy land would be incredibly difficult.
The only reason the Lan Clan dared to make a move on him was that, because of the war, their species’ focus was on humankind, and they didn’t have time for ancillary issues. What was more, Patriarch Lan was an Imperial Sovereign, which lent a certain degree of safety to their efforts. But now... even though they had negated all of his contingency plans and created what seemed like a win-win situation for themselves, the fact remained that Lu Lingzi was just smiling and looking up at that pagoda above them.
The people from the Lan Clan felt their hearts pounding with foreboding.
As for Lan Yao, she really was Lu Lingzi’s daoist partner, and as such, she knew him better than most. As a result, her face fell, and she started breathing heavily. The sense of foreboding that everyone else sensed was even more intense within her, and in fact, based on what she knew of Lu Lingzi, she was certain things were about to turn ugly.
Yue Dong was reacting similarly; she felt incredibly uneasy. The two women quickly exchanged a glance, and then unhesitatingly turned to flee. All they could hope to do was put enough distance behind them that they might survive what was to come.
Meanwhile, as everyone looked up at the Sageheaven Pagoda, Erniu seemed puzzled.“What’re they looking at me for? What’s it supposed to mean? Am I one of his contingency plans? Or is he waiting for more dubbing from me?”
Erniu was about to continue speaking when Xu Qing took a step forward! In the blink of an eye, he was hovering outside of the pagoda! His sudden appearance on the scene instantly attracted the attention of the nervous group of people outside. All gazes shifted from the pagoda itself to Xu Qing.
Erniu felt confused. But then he thought about the look in Xu Qing’s eyes earlier, and suddenly had an idea of what might be going on. “Don’t tell me....”
Lan Yao looked more bewildered than ever. Yue Dong’s expression flickered. Patriarch Lan and the six elders felt even more uneasy than before, and they were frowning deeply.
Only Lu Lingzi was smiling just like before. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, “Are you my contingency plan?”
Xu Qing shook his head.
“Oh? Then why did you step out?” Lu Lingzi’s eyes glittered sharply as he sized up Xu Qing.
Xu Qing’s face was completely expressionless as he looked out of the barrier created by the bubble at Lu Lingzi.
“I’m not a match for you,” he said coolly. “But back when we clashed, I sensed something very interesting inside of you.
“You have some godfire fluctuations in you. They’re hidden deeply. If my godliness wasn’t dominant right now, I wouldn’t have noticed them. But right now, I’m a lot more sensitive to such things. Besides, I have a very unique fleshly body that also helps out.
“Put more precisely, my fleshly body can instinctively sense such fluctuations. The fluctuations are actually familiar to me. It took me a while to figure out why. But now I realize that the godfire in you comes from Empress Summer Departure of humankind.”
Xu Qing’s gaze was calm, but his words were like shocking bolts of lightning that crashed down everywhere.
Erniu’s eyes widened, but quickly went back to normal. Laughing heartily, he strolled out to hover next to Xu Qing. Trying to look as if he had known all along what was happening, he said, “Little Ah Qing is absolutely correct. That’s what I was just about to say.” Ɍ𝖆Ｎ𝐎ＢΕ𐌔
Lan Yao and Yue Dong continued to back up without pausing. Patriarch Lan and the six elders were visibly surprised.
Xu Qing’s voice didn’t contain any emotion at all as he continued speaking. “You have godfire from Empress Summer Departure, and the only way you could have that is if the empress gave it to you personally.
“I’m currently on a mission from the empress to capture Lan Yao.... Except that, given who the empress is, I can’t imagine shē would ever care about someone as unimportant as Lan Yao. It seems a lot more likely that this entire thing was a much more complicated fishing expedition. Feng Lintao is bait. Lan Yao is bait. You are also bait. And the fish is the entire Lan Clan.
“There has never been an explanation about how humankind got so many sensitive intelligence reports about the Devilbird holy land. Although the empress made it seem like Feng Lintao was responsible, the reality is… that Feng Lintao isn’t important enough to have access to most of those intelligence reports. They had to have come from another party that’s working with the empress.”
It was another rare occasion in which Xu Qing spoke a lot. His words were like an icy wind that concluded with the following statement.
“And thus, your contingency plan isn’t me. It’s the empress.”
The words were as momentous as a massive wave smashing into the earth.
Patriarch Lan sent his divine will out in all directions. And instead of attacking Lu Lingzi, he shot up into the sky and reached out to tear open a rift. The six elders unleashed their cultivation bases. Looking around vigilantly, they flew up into the air to assist. Xu Qing’s explanation rang true to all of them, and thus, their main goal now was just to get free of this area and return to their holy land. If they got stuck here, and the empress really showed up, then the consequences would be unthinkable. The devil-eye was important, but not more important than their own survival.
What was more, if Lu Lingzi was really working with the humans, and they could prove it, then they wouldn’t need any scheme to get the devil-eye. The Lan Clan would be able to find an above-board reason to take it.
Xu Qing didn’t care what they were doing. Nor did Lu Lingzi.
In fact, Lu Lingzi was looking at Xu Qing with praise in his eyes. “Just what I would expect of the top chosen of humankind. No wonder the empress sent you to help me. Shē promised not to reveal my secrets to anyone. Originally, I thought shē might have gone back on hēr word and told you.”
Xu Qing shook his head. “The empress never said anything. Also, there’s another reason I spoke up; there are now plenty of fish around here. Besides, if I was wrong about everything, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
With that, Xu Qing took out the jade slip of light that the empress had given him.
Erniu looked on in anticipation. Lu Lingzi smiled. The people from the Lan Clan fled desperately toward the rift Patriarch Lan was trying to open. Right then...
Xu Qing crushed the light-jade!
A crisp sound rang out over the ice plains. Heaven and earth turned pitch-black! It was as if a god had extinguished all the lamps in Revered Ancient, temporarily taking away all of the light there. Despite it being the middle of the day, it was now as dark as night. The only light came from that shattered jade slip, which sent pure white brightness out in all directions.
It was like the explosive light of a Dawning Sun! A scintillating, glowing sea spread out, shaking the dome of heaven.
And then, from within that source of dazzling light, a god appeared! The god wore an imperial robe and an imperial crown, and was surrounded by the destiny aura of humankind, as well as a godly aura as tempestuous as a storm. The moment shē arrived, hēr influence affected both time and space. They became like the background to hēr brilliance.
Because Patriarch Lan needed the rift to be stable, he couldn’t move at all, and just hovered in place trembling. Off to the side, the six elders’ were trembling down to their souls. In the distance, Lan Yao and Yue Dong were as immobile as statues, and were filled with infinite terror.
All living beings were being affected by hēr. The dazzling figure was, of course, none other than Empress Summer Departure. Shē took a step forward and arrived in front of Xu Qing. Shē opened hēr eyes. Boundless light flowed from within them, turning the darkness of night into the brilliance of dawn. Where that light went, all of the gloom in heaven and earth turned into radiance.
“You did well,” the empress said to Xu Qing.
The moment the words echoed out, the human nature that had vanished from Xu Qing came back. He took a deep breath, clasped hands, and bowed. Erniu blinked a few times and then quickly clasped hands and bowed.
The empress looked in the direction of Lu Lingzi.
“Greetings, Empress,” he said solemnly. “Your humble servant accomplished his mission smoothly. I managed to lure out Patriarch Lan and six core elders.”
With that, he bowed deeply at the waist.
The empress nodded. Just as Xu Qing had said, hēr goal wasn’t the measly Lan Yao. Shē wanted to snag the core experts from Lan Yao’s entire clan. Only by refining their entire bloodline could shē reach out to their Grand Emperor who had supposedly perished.
The truth was that shē had been working with that Grand Emperor’s apprentice for a long time now. And the reason humankind had achieved so much success was that this very person had provided so many intelligence reports.
Now that everything was coming together, the empress coolly said, “And now, I’ll give you that which you requested.”
The empress waved a hand, and a stream of godfire appeared in hēr hand, which then flew toward Lu Lingzi.
Lu Lingzi immediately inhaled it. His eyes then burned as if with fire. Everything he had done, including betraying the holy lands... was for the sake of godfire!
It would seem to any observer that he had been working hard for the sake of his Master’s legacy. But the reality was that after coming to Revered Ancient and learning about what Empress Summer Departure had done, his desire had shifted. He no longer cared about the Grand Emperor’s legacy. He wanted the seed of a fire that could propel him to godly ascension! He wanted to become a god!
As far as he was concerned, his own future was the only important thing. That was why he hadn’t joined the war effort. He didn’t care about Revered Ancient or the holy lands. He didn’t want to become cannon fodder in what was essentially meaningless slaughter. It was for personal interests that he had decided to leave the holy lands and strive for godly ascension.
After becoming a god, he could travel far and wide however he wished. After all, this was a universe of gods! Leaving the cultivator system and becoming a god was obviously the best choice!
Originally, he’d never had any reason to believe he could do something like that. But then the empress found him and gave him hope! As the only cultivator who had successfully become a god, the empress gave him a type of hope that defied description. That was what led to all of the events that took place in the war up to this point.
Lu Lingzi took a deep breath. After accepting the godfire, he again bowed to the empress. Then he turned and sped off into the distance. As he left, the ice plains filled with a sea of light.
Within that light, the empress walked toward Patriarch Lan.
Patriarch Lan reeled with astonishment. The teleportation rift was open right in front of him, yet he couldn’t move an inch. He could only watch as the empress neared. Immense pressure weighed down on him, and a terrifying aura caused him to shake visibly. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t do anything to a cultivation base power that surpassed him in a way that defied measure.
The empress reached out and gently touched him.
Despair shone in Patriarch Lan’s eyes. Light surrounded him, and then he became a part of the light. Empress Summer Departure took the light back. After, the empress looked calmly at the six elders. Their souls went dim. The empress’s gaze caused them to melt. An instant later, all traces of their existence had been erased.
Next was Lan Yao. The empress took her away.
Before leaving, the empress spoke to Xu Qing and Erniu. “Yue Dong has an immortal skill. Feng Lintao’s soul has a legacy. The two of them are your compensation for this mission.
“Revered Ancient is currently in chaos. Things are complicated. The two of you don’t need to get too involved in the war. Find a quiet place somewhere to seek enlightenment of the immortal skill and the legacy.”
The words faded away. Heaven and earth returned to normal. The empress was gone.
Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the unconscious Yue Dong off in the distance. Meanwhile, Erniu looked suspiciously at the horizon for a time.
“Little Ah Qing,” he said quietly, “why do I get the feeling something is off about the empress? Why was she being so talkative? And why did it seem like she was trying to send us away...? Could it be that she’s doing the same thing the old man did back then? You know, sending us off so she can hog all the loot?”[1]
1. Just want to clarify that Erniu does not use the divine pronoun when talking about the empress. I do not think that’s a mistake on the author’s part (although I suppose it could be). Take it for what you will.... ☜