384: Chapter 99: He, She_2 384: Chapter 99: He, She_2 Perhaps it was a leaf, a grain of sand, a drop of water…
But it could not possibly be a human.
Humans die.
But mountains and rocks do not.
The “Observer” of the Great Yue Kingdom for this past millennium was the Black Evil that enveloped the heavens.
Xie Xuanyi took the evil qi passed to him by Qing Li, and entered into an extremely realistic illusion.
He seemed to have come to the Snow Mountain a thousand years ago, transforming into a carefree breeze, when the Great Yue Kingdom had not yet fallen into ruin, nestled deep in the Snow Mountain of the Northern Border, surrounded by mountains, with magnificent scenery.
Because the kings of past generations were proficient in formation arts, this ancient country always kept to itself, scarcely interacting with the outside world.
The Great Yue Kingdom should have remained so.
Until Emperor Qi appeared, shattering the tranquility of this ancient nation—
Emperor Qi possessed brilliant strategies, stunning abilities, and overwhelming talents.
At a young age, he had achieved the realm of the Yang God!
Having such a ruler was a stroke of fortune for the Great Yue Kingdom.
In his youth, Emperor Qi led campaigns east and west, taking the iron cavalry of the Great Yue Kingdom to carve out a distinguished reputation in an era when primordial energy was depleted.
The territories occupied by the Great Yue Kingdom were lands coveted by the Demon Race…
but thanks to Emperor Qi’s presence, these great demons did not dare to offend and kept their distance.
The Ruyi Dao was indeed a top-tier route.
Originally barren, the Great Yue Kingdom had, because of Emperor Qi’s “Dao,” once entered an era of prosperity that comes once in a millennium.
Unfortunately.
Emperor Qi was too intelligent, too powerful.
To reach the peak of the realm of the Yang God, numerous supreme geniuses would need a lifetime.
Emperor Qi took less than a hundred years to stand at the highest peak of the mountain.
The higher one stands, the farther one sees.
The greater the ambition, the more insane one becomes.
After reaching the pinnacle, Emperor Qi modified the ancient formations of the Great Yue Kingdom.
However, Emperor Qi’s modifications…
were not meant to unlock the shackles that bounded the Great Yue Kingdom and to let the iron cavalry march into the wider world.
On the contrary.
He completely locked down the formation, preventing everyone in the Great Yue Kingdom from leaving.
Because of the “Ruyi Dao,” the resources within the Great Yue Kingdom did not rely on the external world.
After Emperor Qi locked down the formation, he began his plan…
The first thing he did was to sink the Great Yue Kingdom underground!
The reason for this was simple.
His life had been full of epic waves, and he had almost accomplished everything he wanted to do.
Now, only one thing remained.
That was to achieve the feat of ascending in the wrong era!
The first step in this feat was to lock down the formation and then incorporate the Great Yue Kingdom into his own Ruyi Cave Heaven…
And then.
To use the Ruyi Dao to replace the Heavenly Dao!
In the end, with the tactics of “Stealing Heaven and Changing Day,” to fulfill all conditions needed for ascension, await for one’s own Dao to contend with the Heavenly Dao, and then see the light of day again, to rival the sun and moon, to live as long as heaven and earth!
However, to ascend, merely relying on the lives of nine million loyal subjects was not enough!
At the very least, it required a “pure-blooded Dragon Descendant,” preferably a “True Dragon”!
This was actually quite an absurd matter.
The year Emperor Qi was born, the primordial energy of the world had already begun to deplete.
Dragon Descendants were extremely rare, pure-blooded Dragon Descendants even more so…
As for True Dragons, it was utterly preposterous—why bother ascending if one could subdue a True Dragon?
Legend had it that when a True Dragon was born into the world, even just newly hatched, due to its bloodline, it possessed the strength of the “Yang God” realm.
As it aged, so long as it passed through the Reincarnation Tribulation, it could rival a True Immortal.
What trapped Emperor Qi.
Was actually the step of finding a “True Dragon.”
But…
this did not stump him.
Emperor Qi truly was a talent seen once in a generation, and he thought of the “Ruyi Dao” he cultivated…
and devised an extremely insane plan.
The human heart is like water; it can carry the boat of Ruyi.
He wanted to use the lives of nine million citizens, along with a high platform engraved with Ruyi Dao Patterns, with the power of grand Dao ambitions, to forcibly “summon” a True Dragon juvenile, to meet the final requirement for ascension, kill the True Dragon, and thereby accumulate enough fortune!
And so…
There was the subsequent tyrannical act of laboring the people and exhausting their resources to construct the high platform.
From that moment on.
Emperor Qi set foot on a path of no return.
Accompanied by the completion of the high platform and the start of the grand ceremony, this utterly mad man ascended to the highest point on the Dragon Platform, using the Ruyi Dao to summon the winds and the thunder, and finally welcomed the arrival of the “True Dragon.”
The only variable.
Was that Emperor Qi underestimated the “True Dragon’s” strength.
Even though this True Dragon was not yet mature, the combat power it unleashed far exceeded his expectations, and the nation’s efforts to eradicate it…
ultimately ended in failure.
The Great Yue Kingdom rose because of him, and also perished because of him.
Success is due to Ruyi Dao, and failure is also due to Ruyi Dao.
…
…
Black Evil, dissipating like smoke, wafts away gradually.
Xie Xuanyi’s expression was complex as he opened his eyes.
Thanks to Qing Li’s Heavenly Person’s Means, he had watched this lengthy history, yet only a dozen breaths had passed.
“This is the story of the Great Yue Kingdom.”
Qing Li smiled and asked, “What do you think?”
Xie Xuanyi sighed lightly, immersed in the sorrowful past, and murmured softly, “So…
my guess was not wrong…”
Qing Li did not belong to this era.
She was a “sacrifice” dragged into the Great Yue Kingdom by the Ruyi Dao by force.
Precisely because of this,
Even if Qing Li won this great war, she would have to return.
Because she never belonged here in the first place.
As the Great Yue Kingdom saw the light of day again, she was bound to have her soul scattered.
“You guessed correctly.”
Qing Li nodded, “I come from…
a very distant past.”
No wonder the figure that sat withered on the throne of the Great Yue Kingdom’s palace emanated such a profound loneliness.
…
Xie Xuanyi looked toward Lu Yuzhen.
That White Robed Taoist, excluded by the True Dragon Dao Rules, was now idly sitting cross-legged on the paper cloud puff, resting his cheek in his hand while waiting for their conversation to end…
Although Lord Lu was blocked by the Tao Rules from seeing inside, at this moment, it was as if he somehow sensed something, smiling and nodding in the direction of Xie Xuanyi, even raising an eyebrow.
Xie Xuanyi furrowed his brows.
If he remembered correctly, when previously probing into Lu Yuzhen’s origins, he had been teasingly told that after watching this battle against the dragons, he might be able to guess something.
“I feel a similar aura on him.”
Qing Li also looked at Lord Lu.
She spoke slowly, “He is a very peculiar person; he probably also does not belong to this era.”
From the North Sea Tomb to the Great Yue Kingdom,
Xie Xuanyi could feel that Lu Yuzhen seemed to have been wandering this world for many years.
Not of this era?
It seemed that only this explanation could make sense of how the Paperman Sect managed to pacify and conquer the South Border in just a mere ten years.
“There’s not much time left.”
Qing Li shifted the topic back, half of her attire was already feathering away, and her True Dragon Dharma Body was becoming a faint wisp of blue smoke.
“Have you decided how you wish to use the power of Ruyi Dao?”
“What is your…
frivolous wish?”
She extended her palm, and the Ruyi Fish that was imprisoned in the center wanted to break free and return to the world multiple times but was repeatedly stopped by the True Dragon Dao Rules.
“I once knew a Phoenix Blood Descendant who, to avoid Divine Soul Sealing, divided her soul in two.”
Xie Xuanyi spoke softly, “Divine Soul Sealing…
only recognizes the true body…”
“Taking advantage through a loophole, but it is feasible.”
Qing Li understood Xie Xuanyi’s intention halfway through the conversation.
She looked towards the young man in black and sighed, “Do you intend to utilize the power of Ruyi Dao to make a wish for ‘her’ to stay in this world?”
“Correct, that’s my ‘frivolous wish’.”
Xie Xuanyi lifted his head, his expression resolute, “Even if it’s just a wisp of soul, at the very least it won’t be eradicated completely…”
He had already witnessed too many of the Great Yue Kingdom’s beings returning to the void.
If using this Ruyi Dao power could save the mute girl…
Then the Divine Fruit was unneeded.
“The Dao of Life and Death is the highest iron law of this world, this realm, undeniable, untouchable.”
Qing Li shook her head.
She said helplessly, “If Ruyi Dao could retain those who have passed, then why would Emperor Qi have paid such a tragic price…
undoubtedly attempting Ascending?”
Xie Xuanyi still wasn’t giving up.
He took out that drop of Undying Spring from between his brows.
The misty vapors clustered in his palm.
It formed a stark contrast with the restless fish.
Although trapped by the True Dragon, the Ruyi Dao desperately yearned to leap towards the Undying Spring in Xie Xuanyi’s palm…
Xie Xuanyi asked seriously, word by word.
“What if…
it’s combined with this?”