333: Chapter 69: Meeting the Deity 333: Chapter 69: Meeting the Deity The final question left his lips.
The name Emperor Qi.
Slowly spread throughout the entire grand hall—
The smile on Zhong Wu’s face gradually stiffened.
The eyes of this silver-clad great general grew cold, merciless, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“I forgot to tell you earlier that a thousand years have passed.
Xie Xuanyi said calmly, “A thousand years passed…
People become smarter.
As a ruler seated on a throne, if you want to pretend to be a mere subject, it requires very good acting.
It’s just a pity that your acting is really too poor.”
Zhong Wu’s smiling expression completely disappeared.
“When talking about ‘regicide,’ the satisfaction in your eyes wasn’t fake.”
Xie Xuanyi lifted his head and surveyed the four shattered silver statues, speaking slowly, “But what a pity, what pleased you wasn’t successfully committing regicide, but that these four most capable and most likely to kill you turned their backs on you at the crucial moment and still didn’t succeed…
What pleased you was that from beginning to end, you always had a contingency in place.”
“…”
Zhong Wu said nothing more.
“You don’t know, some things can’t be faked.”
Xie Xuanyi said expressionlessly, “You are trapped in the imperial palace, trapped under the Great Yue Well, so you don’t know what the outside world is like.
You merely control your cavalry through a grand formation, patrolling the ruined city walls, and thus you have no idea…
just how intense the hatred for you from those Li Mei has become.”
“It’s precisely because you don’t know.”
“That you could casually say, the Path of Wishing is not always as you wish.”
Xie Xuanyi looked at the silver general masquerading as Zhong Wu with pity.
If he had entered the Great Yue Kingdom.
He would have gone straight into the Great Yue Well.
Perhaps.
He wouldn’t have realized the truth so quickly.
But…
He had lived for a time in Tiesuo Alley and had real, tangible interactions with those Li Mei, feeling their thoughts.
It was because Shan Man burned her blood, paying with her life,
That he was able to enter this place.
Was the Great Yue Kingdom overturned by the greed of nine million souls?
No matter what.
He did not believe, nor accept this answer.
Emperor Qi’s mistake was in portraying Zhong Wu as a “selfish” regicide.
In his view, these four generals turned against him to save themselves; had they not faced death, they surely would have continued to endure.
The error was a crude one.
But also a logical one.
The more one tries to “deceive” to cover something up,
The more one “fears” something.
Xie Xuanyi could feel Qing Li’s hatred for the figure on the throne.
He knew what Emperor Qi feared.
The Great Yue Well was sealed off.
The cavalry patrolled, killing all who might disrupt the ancient order.
What Emperor Qi feared was for outsiders to enter his Lifebound Cave Heaven, his body to be destroyed, and his already dying dharma body to be completely shattered.
The Dao collapses.
It needed only a gentle push.
Just as “Zhong Wu” had said earlier…
sometimes it takes but one straw to break the camel’s back.
And that straw was not the spear that pierced the throne.
But rather, the person who came here at this moment.
“If I’m not mistaken, if you pull out that spear now, the throne won’t collapse, but the flesh sitting upon the throne will shatter,” Xie Xuanyi said slowly.
“A thousand years ago, the power of the Ruyi Dao’s Tao Rules would have shattered with the fall of its master…
It’s just that over these thousand years, in order to survive, you’ve injected all the Tao Rules into this Lifebound Cave Heaven.
Why don’t you guess what wish you made with the ‘Ruyi Dao’?”
The mountain of corpses in front of the grand hall had not turned to skeletons even after a thousand years.
The mountain of corpses and sea of blood was still fresh.
The giant statues in the hall had developed only slight rust and had not collapsed.
Everything here was as fresh as yesterday.
“…Time freeze?”
Ao Ying, who was protecting Qing Li, spoke softly at this moment, her voice full of uncertainty.
The reason for her uncertainty was not that it was hard to guess,
But because…
Such a wish, if achieved, would be incredibly outrageous!
No one in this world can escape death or time.
Perhaps True Immortals are an exception.
But if Emperor Qi had truly been assassinated at the “very last step,” then this Ruyi Dao might have ascended to the level of a “True Immortal” Tao Rule!
Within such an entirely sealed, isolated Lifebound Cave Heaven, the power of a True Immortal might indeed achieve such an act against nature!
The Ruyi Dao, its lockdown of the cave heaven below the well.
Is a lockdown in all senses of the word.
Time was frozen, advancing at an exceptionally slow pace.
Which is why, even after a thousand years, royal blood had not yet filled the long stairs.
“Xie Zhen,”
“I underestimated you,” said Zhong Wu as his Divine Thought slowly changed, no longer the towering figure in silver armor.
He reverted to a wisp of fluorescence.
This wisp of light stood at the bottom of a thousand steps.
With his hands behind his back and his robes billowing, his features were blurred, and his fleeting light revealed countless faces speeding by, like overlapping, interchanging masks.
Xie Xuanyi had a sense of déjà vu.
It was as if he had returned to the moment he met the Holy Empress in the palace at night.
And as if it was when he saw the other shore in the Xuanshui Cave Heaven.
The Holy Empress’s face, the Primordial Master’s face, they were all the same.
This was one person.
Yet also a million people.
“It seems you’re not completely ignorant about the outside world,” Xie Xuanyi said with a light laugh.
He wasn’t surprised that Emperor Qi had called out his “name.”
This cave heaven might be sealed off,
But the protective national formation was still operating normally.
Those iron cavalries were as good as Emperor Qi’s own eyes.
That these eyes had seen him was not surprising.
“This is my country; of course, I know everything,” said Emperor Qi, his face constantly changing, but his gaze remained unchanged: cold and aloof, arrogant and haughty.
In the year of waning fortune, he, with his own strength, refined the souls of nine million beings.
If it were not for the final betrayal.
Perhaps he would have already succeeded in attaining the Way of the “True Immortal”!
Such a man, is entitled to pride.
“People are long dead, the country is no longer a country.”
Xie Xuanyi shook his head and said calmly, “Get yourself a bronze mirror and take a look, you are no longer the supreme emperor, just a struggling remnant soul…
Do you really believe that the so-called Ruyi Dao can completely freeze time?”
The smile on Emperor Qi’s face stiffened.
Because Xie Xuanyi was not wrong.
The blood upon the throne was still flowing, albeit very slowly.
In other words.
Even without outsiders, if everything in this Lifebound Cave Heaven remained unchanged, Emperor Qi would still die.
Under such circumstances.
A thousand years or a moment, makes no difference.
“Xie Zhen…there is no need for us to be enemies.”
Emperor Qi took a deep breath, and even though the words of Xie Xuanyi stung him, he didn’t lash out.
As the ruler who wielded the Ruyi Dao.
No one was clearer than he about what human nature entailed.
The words Emperor Qi had just spoken as Zhong Wu…the fickleness of human nature was true, as was the insatiable nature of desire.
“Did you just say you want the ‘Divine Fruit’?”
Emperor Qi stretched out his palm.
In the void, countless Tao Rules soared, entwining.
The dark night sky was illuminated by light, innumerable threads of Ruyi Dao rules converged in Emperor Qi’s palm, forming a miniature vortex.
Xie Xuanyi watched calmly as the scenes within the vortex unfolded.
Indeed.
This was the very “creation” he had seen years ago.
So…
One can face one’s innermost self deep within the Great Yue Well.
That was the very principle.
The Ruyi Dao practiced by Emperor Qi had sealed this Lifebound Cave Heaven, which also caused the phenomenon of observing different sights in the Great Yue Well.
The Divine Fruit is fake.
But it could also be real.
The Ruyi Dao capable of sealing the time and space of this well-bottom Cave Heaven was already close to that of the True Immortal level.
Xie Xuanyi believed that such a level of Ruyi Dao could certainly condense a Divine Fruit.
“This is a genuine ‘Divine Fruit.’ Just nod your head, and I can gift it to you.”
Emperor Qi’s features slowly changed, as he gazed into Xie Xuanyi’s eyes, the face finally softened, and his voice became gentle as a spring breeze.
He looked at Xie Xuanyi, revealing a kind smile.
“Finally, I see you…”
Xie Xuanyi smiled too.
He looked at the fruit, with a complex expression in his eyes.
After treading over mountains and through waters.
This reunion came after many years.
After two lifetimes.
To truly face what one’s heart most desires…
turned out to be such a feeling.
If standing by the edge of the Great Yue Well.
One could only gaze upon the moon at the well’s bottom, the flower in the water.
But if one were to leap into the well, one could personally witness dreams manifest into reality, within arm’s reach.
“Is this the legendary ‘Divine Fruit’?”
Ao Ying, guarding Qing Li, felt moved.
Even from dozens of feet away, she could feel the power of the Tao Rules emanating from this Divine Fruit…
Such a divine item, if swallowed…
For someone as naturally gifted and stunning as Xie Zhen, surely one could immediately form a Divine Embryo?
She looked down, her expression somewhat worried.
Qing Li still wore a blank expression, like a chunk of elm burl.
For some reason, the child who was perfectly fine before now appeared as though his soul truly had left his body, staring blankly, his eyes fixated on the throne, not yet snapping back to reality.
“To obtain this ‘Divine Fruit’ is quite simple.”
Emperor Qi gazed into Xie Xuanyi’s eyes, slowly articulating each word: “Kill those two Dragon Descendants behind you.”
“???”
Upon hearing these words.
The unease in Ao Ying’s Heart Lake instantly magnified hundreds of times.
She saw.
Xie Xuanyi slowly turned his head, looking back at her.
In his glabella, the Golden Cave Heaven let out a low Sword Sound.
“Kill them and I can have the Divine Fruit?”
Xie Xuanyi smiled softly, glanced at Ao Ying, then turned his gaze back to Emperor Qi.
“Correct.”
Emperor Qi spoke solemnly: “You have come from a Corpse Mountain of blood, unfazed, surely having killed many…
Killing two Dragon Descendants should not be difficult for you, should it?”
“Of course not.”
Xie Xuanyi nodded, smiling, and said, “Killing is what I do best.”
As the words fell.
The next moment.
Sword Qi burst forth, a streak of golden light surged out with explosive force.
That golden light moved with incredible velocity, streaking out and swiftly retracting—
All in the blink of an eye.
“…?”
Emperor Qi looked down at his own chest in disbelief.
This remnant thought of the body, although only a wisp of a Divine Thought from the true self upon the throne, was still powerful, far beyond what the Cave Heaven could touch, and yet it had been pierced through by a single sword, a slender hole opened in the chest!
“Yin God Peak, nearing the Divine Soul Power of the Yang God?”
Emperor Qi’s complexion turned pale, and he looked, somewhat confusedly, at the black-robed youth before him who appeared no more than sixteen or seventeen.
Xie Xuanyi no longer concealed the Chen Ke.
The golden sword hung high above his head.
The Rule of Destruction, condensed to ninety percent, turned into pitch-black lightning, winding around his sleeves.
He slowly spoke, word by word, saying, “I forgot to tell you, I, too, am a deposer of kings.”
…
…
(Three updates today are complete.
The next update is before 12 noon tomorrow.)