Chapter 677: Awakenings and Rising to Prominence
As the words of Xu Qing and the Captain echoed out for all to hear, the two of them entered the lake-like surface of the mirror. They entered Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, where, like gods, they looked down on anything and everything. The mountain trembled as they erased the sealing blockade created by the traitorous First and Fifth Vice-Bishops.
Xu Qing and the Captain were now truly the Archbishops of Moonrebel. Given the extent of their power, they could easily overturn anything done by the vice-bishops. As rumbling filled the mountain in the mirror, temples started lighting up. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of beams of light shot up, creating a dazzling display. It was like hundreds of thousands of stars creating a gigantic sea. It was a magnificent scene that could shake mountains and rock the cosmos.
There were also pulses of astonishing energy that surged from the hundreds of thousands of temples, terrifying shockwaves that spread out to affect the outside world.
Crimson Mother’s mortal husk, which had created its own heaven and earth, was unable to shrink down any further. It could not devour anything! It was being resisted by the power of the Moonrebel Congregation. This was the might of the congregation’s reserve power.
The words spoken by Xu Qing and the Captain didn’t just spread out underneath Crimson Mother’s mortal husk. They drifted out to the sea of blood beyond, and into the dome of heaven to eventually echo in all of the Moonrite Region.
When they said ‘all of the statues,’ they meant the cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation. And when they said ‘make their way back,’ it referred to them returning to the Moonrebel Congregation.
In the blink of an eye, the resistance army in the Bitter Life Mountains felt like they were being torn apart from the inside as their bodies, completely beyond their own control, blurred until they became illusory.
It was as if some supreme force locked onto all of those cultivators and became a summoning force that whisked them away regardless of where they were or the level of their cultivation base. One cultivator after another turned illusory and then vanished. When they reappeared, they were in the Moonrebel Congregation in their personal temples. There, they opened their eyes as statues, their facial expressions full of spirit and vigor.
Included among that group was Fourth Vice-Bishop, who was also taken away to appear in his vice-bishop’s temple.
The same type of thing happened everywhere. In the east of the Moonrite Region, as Duanmu Zang lay struggling to breathe, his eyes opened. Then his face became a mask of disbelief as he heard the words spoken by Xu Qing and the Captain. He blurred, then disappeared, to reappear inside the Moonrebel Congregation.All Moonrebel cultivators experienced the same thing, regardless of where they were located or how badly they were injured. As long as they weren’t dead, they were summoned.
It was especially dramatic in the north, where Third Vice-Bishop and his hundreds of thousands of subordinates all looked around with visible shock. They had no idea what exactly was going on, but they all heard those words spoken into their minds. Then all of them, including Third Vice-Bishop, vanished. When they reappeared, they were in their temples in the Moonrebel Congregation.
All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but the reality was that it happened in the mere blink of an eye. Then, the doors on all of the temples on the mountain slowly opened. Hundreds of thousands of statues all stepped off of the altars in their temples and walked out of the doors. Each statue was a different size and shape, but each was extremely impressive. All were reacting with surging emotions including: shock, confusion, apprehension, and excitement.
It was the same with the vice-bishops’ temples. Fourth Vice-Bishop opened the door of his temple and stepped out as a mighty divine likeness, radiating scintillating light. Next to his temple was Third Vice-Bishop’s temple. That temple’s door opened, and a divine likeness stepped out that resembled a furious vajra warrior, pulsing with terrifying pressure. That said, Third Vice-Bishop was clearly a lot more surprised than Fourth Vice-Bishop.
First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop, as well as all their traitorous Moonrebel followers, were unable to escape the effects, and were forced to return to the congregation. As the temple doors of the traitorous vice-bishops opened, they stepped out, their expressions blank. To them, this development was simply too unexpected and sudden. Their arrival caused an instant surge of rage and killing intent from everyone else.
However, no one acted on such impulses. And that was because there was something else that drew the attention of all the Moonrebel cultivators. Paramount Temple.
Without any prior plan, everyone simultaneously looked up toward the top of the mountain.
The door of Paramount Temple was open, sending dazzling light out in all directions. It was almost like a sun. Within that sun were two figures who seemed capable of propping up heaven and earth, and were automatically worthy of esteem.
As they looked down, the statues felt their minds reeling. Bowing their heads, the statues all said, “Greetings, Archbishops of Moonrebel!”
Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain said, “ Gods are by no means eternal; hope exists from time immemorial and into forever! On this day, the Red Moon Cathedral’s invasion is going to be the time for the Moonrebel Congregation to rise to prominence!”
The Captain waved his right hand out with force, and the entire mountain shook as it expanded in size. Its true form, which still hovered in the Bitter Life Mountains, did the same.
The mirror transformed, emitting deafening sounds as it grew larger. It took only a moment for it to make contact with Crimson Mother’s mortal husk. They slammed into each other, and the deafening crash was like two entire worlds smashing against each other. Heaven and earth shook. The air shattered.
Before Crimson Mother reached godly ascension, hēr mortal husk was driven by obsession and extreme gruishness. The Moonrebel Congregation was actually the precious treasure of an Imperial Sovereign, and contained his pre-death will and might. The clash sent out shockwaves that created a region-wide tempest, causing the dome of heaven to shake and all the lands to tremble.
Outside of Crimson Mother’s mortal husk, the cathedral cultivators could not hide their surprise.
The pontiff’s face was extremely grim; he was initially inclined to bolster the mortal husk, but in the end, decided not to. Only the godchild could truly exercise that level of control, and unseal it to reveal its ultimate form. As the pontiff, he could use his own faith plus a unique type of magic to influence the mortal husk. But it was only a relatively simple act of unleashing it. He didn’t qualify to unseal it. Previously, he hadn’t seen any need to unseal the mortal husk and reveal its final form. He should have been able to carry out his plan without that. Yet not even the pontiff could ever have guessed that instead of waiting for the Heir Apparent to show up, he should have realized he was waiting for the Archbishops of Moonrebel to come forth! It completely surpassed his powers of prediction.
And thus, the mirror continued to wrest control away from the mortal husk, which rippled outward, quickly revealing the part of the Bitter Life Mountains that had been devoured. The living beings in the mountain had been delivered from oppression.
The Mirror of Moonrebel was not restricted by the mortal husk, and continued expanding, quickly covering the sky for tens of thousands of meters, and spreading out over the sea of blood. Within that area, the mirror sent out fluctuations, and the Moonrebel Congregation glittered brightly.
The cathedral cultivators watching all of this were stunned. The pontiff’s eyes flickered with killing intent.
“Eradicate all Moonrebel cultivators!”
As the words reached the ears of the cathedral cultivators atop the sea of blood, their cultivation bases and killing intent surged, and they rushed toward the mirror overhead. Based on their estimation, though Crimson Mother’s mortal husk was in retreat, there was still a huge disparity in the strength of the two forces.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing stood next to the Captain outside of Paramount Temple. His expression was the same as ever. He didn’t look alarmed. Now that he was one of the Archbishops of Moonrebel, information poured into his mind. A moment later, he opened his eyes.
“I hereby call on the name of Moonrebel to strip all command powers from First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop. All traitorous cultivators are to be punished. And we have a whole group of people waiting in the mirror lake.”
First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop shivered as their statues dimmed, and their auras grew incredibly weak. It was as if some invisible force had caused them to deteriorate. Apparently, Xu Qing’s orders, once given, would be strictly enforced. The two traitorous Void Returning vice-bishops were both shaken and furious. Not willing to resign themselves to their fate, they howled and raced toward Xu Qing and the Captain. Yet before they could move hardly an inch, they were sealed with ice and turned into sculptures. Then the lake water beneath them rippled, and they were devoured. Vanished without a trace. Also turned into ice sculptures were all of their fellow traitors.
When the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators saw that, their hearts filled with reverence, and they bowed their heads.
Looking around, Xu Qing continued, “I hereby call on the name of Moonrebel to suppress all injuries, subdue all curses, and prolong life force and turn it into a tribulation of death!”
When the words left his mouth, the Moonrebel Congregation’s mountain shook, like it had when Xu Qing and the Captain were blessed. Power that had been building up for years erupted out and rushed into the bodies of the Moonrebel cultivators.
Rumbling sounds echoed out as hundreds of thousands of cultivators felt their wounds being suppressed and their curses being subdued.
“Dispel the Moonrebel seal; release the battle prowess of antiquity; any who die will be reborn in the Moonrebel Congregation, eternally indestructible!”
As Xu Qing’s eyes shone, the entire Moonrebel Congregation trembled, and all of the statues looked around with spirited expressions as they were augmented.
The statues were like out-of-body incarnations, or suits of armor. On a substructural level, they were extensions of the Moonrebel Congregation, and thus, contained the terrifying power of the congregation.
As Xu Qing undid the Moonrebel seal, and released the power, the statues erupted with terrifying battle prowess.
“Kill them!” Xu Qing shouted, and the statues shot toward the cathedral cultivators, bursting with an ancient aura, with the will of Moonrebel, and with the desire to exact revenge. A great battle began. Even the spirit automaton strode forth, then shot toward the pontiff. In the shortest of moments, the shocking sound of combat, slaughter, and magical techniques grew deafening.
Looking out at the fighting, Xu Qing said, “I hereby pronounce an amnesty to all cultivators from this epoch who failed the archbishop trial!”
Ripples sprang into being in front of him, whereupon numerous ice sculptures representing various species appeared in front of him and the Captain as their true selves.
Thanks to Xu Qing’s amnesty, the ice started cracking, and then a terrifying aura erupted out.