Chapter 124 - 86: Fateful Showdown (Part 2)
Chapter 124: Chapter 86: Fateful Showdown (Part 2)
’The Xuanyang Sect is adjacent to the Demon Monster Mountain Range. There’s a place there called Cloud Concealment Mountain. Take it and trade it for some longevity.’
’Perhaps.’
’Xuan isn’t wrong, either. He chose the righteous path his heart desired. It is the road he walks, fueled by the vigor of youth...’
Su Chen was gone.
He left behind only the man in the Crimson Robe, the most powerful figure in the Great Zhou Inner Court, the revered Lord Seal Master, sobbing his heart out.
Yum Zhong clutched the brocade box, his voice hoarse.
"Why... why is everything changing..."
"The dynasties are changing."
"And the people are changing, too."
His back a desolate figure, he returned to the Imperial Palace.
「That night.」
The moon was bright and the stars were clear. Deep within the palace, Jie was ascending to a higher stage of the Immortal Path. The flourishing fortune of the Great Unified Dynasty swirled around him like crimson clouds, and his Glazed Spiritual Eyes continuously absorbed it, drawing it in like a terrifying Earth Spiritual Root...
’I’m almost there!’
’The Heaven-Reaching Immortal Path I have chosen.’
’I am right. I will ultimately stand at the very end of the Immortal Path...’
Jie laughed, a laugh of pure joy.
PTUI!
But the next instant.
His Spiritual Eyes saw an utterly unbelievable sight.
The Dynasty’s fortune was roiling, transforming into a colossal golden dragon shadow that propped up the sky. Where the dragon coiled, a celestial staircase forged from fortune appeared. Illusory figures stood upon its Dao Platforms—one hundred of them in total!
At that moment, on the seventieth Dao Platform, a few phantoms were scattered about. One of them suddenly turned its head—it was his own face.
"This is..."
Jie was in disbelief.
At that moment, he snapped his gaze upward, looking toward the end of the staircase of fortune.
There, he was stunned to see an illusory figure with its eyes closed, already standing on the one-hundredth Dao Platform—the one that represented the pinnacle of the Royal Race’s cultivation, the Ascension to Immortality.
This figure wore a Black Dragon Emperor Robe!
Around him, motes of light and shadow from the Sun, Moon, and Star Wheel swirled. Each mote could effortlessly annihilate a Sub-Innate being, or even an Innate one...
And what’s more, the dragon of fortune representing the Five Hundred Years of Great Yu was protecting him!
His name was Great Yu Yue.
The last emperor of Great Yu from the legends—the incompetent one who led his dynasty to ruin!
It turned out...
...he had already reached the summit.
’The Royal Race’s cultivation path... it’s a dead end!’
’So...’
’Someone has already reached the top!’
’It’s just that... he hasn’t woken up yet...’
’If I continue, once the Immortal Path reaches the Ninth Layer, he will awaken. Then, all Royal Race Cultivators in this era will die! When he awakens, I will die too. Everyone in this world who seeks to climb to the peak of the Royal Race’s cultivation... they will all die...’
His body trembled as he stumbled backward, not stopping until he hit the palace wall and collapsed powerlessly to the floor.
’So it was a dead end all along?’
’What in the world have I been chasing?’
At that very moment.
"Void..."
A black shadow approached, seeming to emerge from the Abyss beneath the Heaven-Ascension Tower. It headed straight for Jie and dissolved into a roiling black mist, from which only a pair of blood-red eyes stared out. The eyes gazed at Jie’s brilliant Spiritual Eyes, and what should have been a savage glare held a hint of tenderness, as if lost in recollection.
"The end of the Immortal Path... In truth, you reached it long ago."
"Moreover."
"You are a Peak existence, standing at the very end, one unlike any before!"
The black shadow came to Jie’s side, its words both a narration and a reminiscence.
"Who are you?"
"How dare you spy on me!"
Jie was utterly furious. A terrifying Immortal Skill began to form in his palm. All around the palace, shadowy figures flickered into view, each exuding an extraordinary aura. There were those at the First-Grade Peak, Acquired Grandmasters, and even the terrifying presence of several Sub-Innate beings.
But they were all steel puppets, or perhaps merely scarecrows put up for show.
"Have you ever heard of the Ten Lives Body?"
The black shadow walked closer.
Yet the powerful puppets, born of terrifying Immortal Skills, remained utterly still, as if frozen in place by a Body Fixing Skill.
Just like that.
The black shadow reached out a finger and touched the spot between Jie’s eyebrows.
"My name is Zhuo. My dearest friend, in one more lifetime, you will reawaken and remember everything..."
"As for this so-called Dynasty, just let it drift away with the wind..."
HUMMM!
With the touch of that finger.
At that moment, Jie’s Glazed Spiritual Eyes burst with an unprecedented light. Countless unfamiliar memories flooded his mind, and he seemed to become a different person entirely.
「After a long moment.」
Jie rose to his feet and gazed out at the Human World.
"The Human World is but a hazy dream."
"So... a thousand years have already passed?"
"I was never meant to be an Emperor. Let it all end!"
...
...
「That night.」
Ye Xuan entered the Imperial Palace late at night and had a long conversation with the Emperor. Jie laughed heartily, and from that day forward, the position of Great Zhou Imperial Court Seal Master changed hands.
Ye Xuan once again took control of the Inner Palace.
News spread throughout the land.
「That very night.」
This newly appointed Seal Master of the court took prepared evidence of their crimes and began a bloody purge of all civil and military officials originating from Old Liang. In their place, he brazenly promoted convicted criminals from Old Zhou, men known for their hatred of the Liang People, unleashing a reign of terror upon the court.
A good official? But a Liang Person!
Kill!
A convicted criminal! A Zhou Person!
Promote!
In an instant.
Heads began to roll, falling one after another.
The Beheading Platform in the Imperial City’s market was piled high with heads.
Even worse.
Rumors spread among the common folk that Emperor Jie intended to overturn the policies of the Xuanlong Emperor. He planned to imitate the Flame Emperor, perhaps even become a second Flame Emperor, and bring back a world where the Zhou People were first-class citizens and the Liang People second-class!
’It’s fake.’
’Jie... although I have my grievances with him, he isn’t that kind of person.’
’He is no Flame Emperor...’
Su Chen murmured when he heard the news.
However.
The turmoil in the imperial court only grew more intense.
It even.
Began to ripple out among the common people.
A rider on a swift horse galloped out from the Imperial Palace. Just as he was about to leave the Imperial City and head toward the lands of Old Zhou, he was intercepted by a First-Grade Minor Grandmaster. The news that followed shocked the entire world.
"Emperor Jie is going to redeem the Flame Emperor’s name!"
"Moreover."
"He intends to relocate tens of millions of Zhou People here to the Liang Territory and, in their place, force tens of millions of Liang People to trek a thousand li into exile in the Old Zhou Land..."