Chapter 804: Seven Elements of Red Crown
Chapter 804: Chapter 804: Seven Elements of Red Crown
“What are you saying?” Fang Lin asked coldly, his expression somewhat grave.
The woman playing the zither, however, stared blankly at Fang Lin, her figure becoming ethereal, as if a gust of wind could scatter her form into nothingness.
Seeing this scene, Fang Lin knew that this woman was not a living person but likely just a remnant soul left behind by a strong individual from the past glory of Red Crown Pill City.
“Has this world deteriorated so much? Has someone like you also turned into this?” the woman playing the zither said with a trembling voice.
Fang Lin remained silent, offering no reply.
“Being a soul as well, I can see your soul. I don’t know what has happened, but your arrival in Red Crown Pill City may well be my complete liberation,” the woman said, a faint smile appearing on her face.
The woman then began to pluck the zither strings again, but this time, it was not to do anything to Fang Lin.
The zither music was harmonious, as if recounting a tale from the past, and as the melody gradually changed, Fang Lin also saw many events of bygone days.
Fang Lin had not expected that his own past had even the slightest connection to the history of Red Crown Pill City.
In his days at Pill Saint Palace, he was ambitious and progressive, eventually stepping into the Pill Sovereign Realm witnessed by all under heaven.
That was the most glorious period of his life, and the pill refiners who witnessed his ascension to the Pill Sovereign gained immensely as well.
“Someday, I want to be just as formidable as him.” Back then, Fang Lin didn’t know that a little girl, upon seeing him achieve the Pill Sovereign, was waving her tiny fists, telling her own pill refiner parents.
Her parents simply smiled, patted her head, and did not take it to heart.
Later on, this little girl became a very skilled pill refiner and met six other like-minded friends.
These seven individuals together established Red Crown Pill City, which initially started as a humble and weak Alchemy Tao force, but as they worked hard together, Red Crown Pill City grew continuously, gradually becoming a famous Alchemy Tao force.
Perhaps compared to behemoths like Pill Saint Palace, Red Crown Pill City was insignificant, but it was their shared labor of love. For them, it was more precious than their own lives.
At its zenith, Red Crown Pill City attracted many pill refiners from all over the world, and its seven founders were called the Seven Elements of Red Crown by the pill refiners of that time.
Time is always so ruthless; it can destroy everything, and make any radiant existence vanish into the ether.
Red Crown Pill City was no exception.
Despite being peaceful, the flames of war still reached Red Crown Pill City. Demon beasts attacked, and with the dramatic changes of the era, Red Crown Pill City suffered a severe blow.
Six of the Seven Elements died in battle, leaving only that once young girl, struggling desperately with her feeble strength to maintain Red Crown Pill City.
In the end, she too fell. However, she remained attached to Red Crown Pill City. Perhaps out of a reluctance to let go, a remnant of her soul stayed within this stone pillar, never departing for tens of thousands of years.
The world changes; the once Red Crown Pill City had become an ancient, dilapidated ghost town, nearly buried by yellow sand. The girl who once sat on the city walls playing the zither with a beautiful smile, now a lone ghostly spirit guarding the empty city.
Until today, when the woman playing the zither saw Fang Lin.
Perhaps it was fate. As a child, the woman playing the zither saw Fang Lin’s moment of becoming a Pill Sovereign, which set her resolve, leading to the later creation of Red Crown Pill City.
And after countless years had passed, Fang Lin came to this Red Crown Pill City, where the child of yore had become a wandering ghost, and the once dazzling Pill Sovereign had lost all the radiance he once had.
The music of the lute faded, and Fang Lin took a deep breath, finally coming to know the origins of this Red Crown Pill City and the lady who had been playing the lute.
“The Seven Elements of Red Crown, I’ve heard of them,” Fang Lin said, although he had paid little attention to the outside world after becoming a Pill Sovereign, he had indeed heard of the fame of the Seven Elements of Red Crown.
“Unfortunately, only I remain of the Seven Elements, and I am but a lingering ghost. This city is ultimately lost,” the woman with the lute said with a laugh, a laugh that was mournful, a laugh filled with desolation.
Fang Lin sighed, feeling deeply moved. This once-glorious Red Crown Pill City was so similar to the Pill Saint Palace of the past.
No matter how powerful the force, it could not withstand the merciless entity that was time, and in the end, it perished.
“Does guarding this deserted city still hold meaning for you? Why not let go? Why not be liberated?” Fang Lin asked.
The woman with the lute looked at Fang Lin and gently shook her head, “I have dedicated everything to Red Crown Pill City, even though everything has changed, I still need to guard it until the city has completely perished, until my soul has utterly dissipated.”
Fang Lin’s heart was shaken, he had not expected the woman with the lute to harbor such profound emotions for Red Crown Pill City.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!!
Just at that moment, the entirety of Red Crown Pill City began to collapse.
The collapse came without warning, the destruction was complete and unexpected.
Fang Lin was shocked, while the woman with the lute revealed an expression of madness.
“No!!!!” She screamed, trying to stop the collapse of Red Crown Pill City, but she was powerless; it was as though an unseen force was hastening the complete obliteration of the city.
Fang Lin glanced back and noticed that Huang Yao, Mu Fanzi, and the others had vanished, which made him frown.
But then, something astonishing happened. As the ancient Red Crown Pill City was falling, the six damaged pillars began to emit light, undergoing repair.
The woman with the lute watched the scene, her face full of disbelief. Those six pillars, representing her six close friends, had been destroyed for many years, so why were they being restored now?
When the six pillars appeared whole and intact once more, six vague figures materialized above them, each with a distinct shape, but without exception, all of them turned their attention to the woman with the lute.
“Seventh sister, after all these years, have you still not moved on?” one of the figures asked.
The woman with the lute wept, never having imagined that she would see these six again, after so many years had passed.
“Haven’t you also remained?” she said.
The six were silent, then turned their gaze to Fang Lin and offered him a cupped-fist salute, “Pill Sovereign Fang, we greet you.”
Fang Lin nodded his head, recognizing the six figures before him, along with the woman with the lute, as the Seven Elements of Red Crown of yesteryear.
“It’s you! You want to destroy this city!” the woman with the lute suddenly shouted.
The six shook their heads and reached out to the woman with the lute, “It is not us, but rather the city itself that has brought about its own doom. It no longer wishes to have you guard it alone, hoping that you might find liberation.”