Busy

Things were looking up—everything was finally looking up! The sacrificial temple was open, which meant the Holy Dynasty was within reach! With the sacrificial temple here, how could restoration fail? After enduring endless trials and tribulations, Duke Wuyou stood on the deck with his entourage, gazing out at the scenery within the Border Realm. The wind buffeted him, his robes and sashes fluttering, filling him with the exhilarating triumph of a swift gallop through the spring breeze. Regrettably, there was neither Chang'an nor blooming flowers before his eyes. There was only a world seemingly frozen in the apocalypse—a vast Border Realm of endlessly rising and falling seas of clouds. In the colossal void floated countless masses of earth, stone, and debris, utterly motionless despite the roaring gales sweeping through. Bolts of lightning crisscrossed the void, yet they seemed eternally suspended at that single moment, frozen midair like cast iron. Wisps of sparks shot from the flashes, hanging in the air and casting fragmented light. Heaven and earth were flipped upside down. Above them, where the sky should have been, stretched an eerie, rippling deep sea, shimmering like an apparition. Yet it exuded a chill that seeped into the bones, instilling an instinctive urge to flee. Far below, in the deepest reaches of the churning sea of dark clouds, countless speckles of raining will-o'-the-wisps rose from the abyss. After passing through myriad ruins, they plummeted toward the deep sea overhead. Dreamlike, surreal, and breathtakingly splendid. Duke Wuyou glanced behind him. Among his subordinates, someone immediately opened a cage, releasing a flock of sea birds they had captured earlier. In an instant, shrill screeches sounded one after another. The moment they flew off the deck and entered the Border Realm, all the birds scattered like headless flies, their flight erratic as they veered, plunged, and tumbled. Some inexplicably burst into clouds of blood and minced meat; others accidentally darted into the lightning, reduced to flying ash by the frozen bolts in an instant. Still others collided with the eerie phosphorescent fires rising from the abyss. The spark-like wisps instantly danced, closing in ravenously to burrow into the birds' bodies. Right after, they exploded with a roar, turning into even more phosphorescent fire that lunged toward every other living thing. Some even came hurtling straight toward the deck. *Snap!* Duke Wuyou flicked his finger. The will-o'-the-wisp exploded in midair, fragmenting into countless smaller motes of phosphorescence that drifted down like snow, permeating every available gap. Then they were blocked out by the repulsive force of Tianyuan. Crackling sounds echoed ceaselessly. On the deck, everyone's expression shifted, and every last person—including Shehri—took a step back. The Tianyuan repulsive field was actually being corroded. As though burning, a few motes of phosphorescence squirmed, continually pushing inward, though they soon flickered out one after another. For a moment, no one made a sound, everyone holding their breath. Even though they were unharmed... Right now within the Border Realm, the phosphorescent fires numbered far more than tens of thousands. They were virtually endless. If they provoked them... "Go around. Don't butt heads with these damned things." Duke Wuyou's expression darkened slightly. Though frustrated, he was not discouraged. This was the former sacrificial temple of the Empire, after all. How could it be entirely free of danger? High above the cloud sea, the colossal ship shrank its profile even further. Under careful direction, it maneuvered cautiously to avoid the phosphorescence and took a detour. Yet even taking detours could not spare them from the perils lurking in the shadows. Some areas appeared completely empty, yet when the ship sailed through, a massive gash tore open silently across the hull, as though striking an invisible blade. Elsewhere, while they were sailing smoothly, a gentle breeze blew in from afar across the deck. The unlucky bastard brushed by the breeze froze on the spot, turning to flying ash in an instant. The threat of tangible dangers was trouble enough, but these omenless perils were what truly made one's hair stand on end. What was worse, the countless colossal ruins and architectural fragments formed an utter labyrinth, leaving them with no discernible way out. The only thing they could rely on was the ancient document in Duke Wuyou's hand. The moment the document—stamped with the seal of the former Empire—entered the Border Realm, it broke free from his grip and rose into the air, transforming into a wisp of phantasmal light. Regardless of whether they could keep up, it began leading the way on its own. They could only exert every ounce of strength to follow. Several times, they were nearly shaken off and utterly lost because they had veered aside to evade hazards. By the time the massive ship finally navigated the labyrinth of thunder, phosphorescent fire, and debris to 'dock' at the most gargantuan island, everyone was soaked in cold sweat, feeling as if they had survived into another lifetime. Duke Wuyou's expression grew increasingly solemn. Just crossing the threshold had pushed the treasure ship—built through the painstaking efforts of generations of ancestors—to the brink of destruction, riddled with cracks. Fortunately, they had finally made landfall! After repeatedly confirming there was no danger, they stepped onto a port-like quay and ascended the 'great mountain' rising from the center of the cloud sea at the heart of the Border Realm! One could vaguely discern how majestic and magnificent this entire 'mountain' must have been when the Border Realm was whole—it likely spanned the entire realm. Countless buildings stood in dense rows, rising tier upon tier to enshrine the solemn temple at the summit. Looking up at it was enough to inspire reverence in any pilgrim. Compared to such grandeur, human existence was smaller than mere dust. However, after undergoing earth-shattering cataclysms, not even a tenth of its former scale remained. The structures were everywhere ruined and weathered, to say nothing of human presence. Only an eerie, empty city was left. "Rest assured. This is where pilgrims entered the city in the past. With the document, no dangers will be triggered." Duke Wuyou beckoned, recalling the document hovering before the colossal archway, and stepped onto the ground first, entirely unharmed. Standing upon the plaza, of which only half remained, all the outsiders tilted their heads back. Gazing up at the hundreds-of-meters-tall archway and the myriad decorations that remained breathtakingly luxurious despite the ravages of time, they could not help holding their breath. It felt like arriving in the homeland of giants. Vast—so vast it was unsettling. Yet everything in sight, from the paving stones underfoot to the stone carvings in the square and every single structure, was crafted with unbelievable exquisite detail. Even the seams between the stone bricks were gilded with brilliant gold. Every flagstone beneath their feet was carved with intricate floral motifs. Though four or five centuries of dust had settled over them, their beauty remained suffocating. No telling how many people had spent countless ages pouring every drop of their blood and energy into tirelessly perfecting every last detail, dedicating their entire lives and spanning dozens of generations to give everything for this grand undertaking. In the end, it had merely produced a few bricks at the entrance of this sacrificial temple. None of them had witnessed the Eternal Empire at its zenith, but this sheer extravagance and material wealth alone was enough to provoke an instinctive shudder. Simply restraining oneself from prying off a couple of bricks was already an achievement. Mainly, they feared dying—who knew what consequences prying one loose might trigger? Moreover, the countless buildings before them had already devolved into utter chaos, like a Rubik's cube twisted out of order. Jumbled, topsy-turvy, and messily cobbled together, they were even shifting at a visible rate before the outsiders' very eyes... The twisted, aberrant power of Tianyuan had long since permeated every corner. If one were caught up in it by mistake, ghost knew what they would turn into. After all, a glaring cautionary tale was already displayed right before them—the 'locals' of this realm! Among the broken, warped buildings, on the roadways, and behind rifts and windows, vague, shadowy silhouettes could faintly be seen. They looked like shadows that had detached from the ground to replace the originals. Flickering, twitching, appearing and vanishing. Some sat motionless in place; others crawled about contorting and flailing as if dancing; still others appeared and disappeared without warning. They seemed like residual silhouettes of scenes that had once played out here. And some... as if hanged from rafters, had left the ground and were suspended by black threads, rising into the sky and plunging toward that eerie, dark deep sea overhead. As they swayed with the wind, faint laughter and praises drifted on the breeze, echoing endlessly. "What... what is this..." Among the crowd, a corrupted individual dressed as an ascetic monk with a bare shoulder merely caught a glimpse of the scene and felt a searing agony in his eyes. Bloody tears streamed uncontrollably from his pale-gold pupils, followed immediately by total darkness—he could see nothing! He wailed in futility, curling into a ball. He tried to reach out for help, but the people beside him scattered warily. Even when his companions tried to assist, Duke Wuyou stepped between them. Until the wailing abruptly ceased. The man's body had shriveled into a husk, as though an invisible entity had drained every drop of his life and blood. In the instant before death, he had actually assumed a kowtowing posture of worship. *Crack!* With a crisp snap, something squirmed beneath his bare back, tearing through the dried corpse. The dead man's face, bearing a bizarre smile, actually rose from the fissure in his spine. Then, before everyone's horrified eyes, trailing tentacles unfurled beneath the face... A bizarre human face like a jellyfish, wearing a blissful smile, slowly drifted into the sky. Without sparing a glance at its former shell, it laughed with boundless piety and merged into the holy hymns and praises in the heavens. "Duke Wuyou, what is the meaning of this!" The leader of the monks frowned. "Didn't you say it was safe here?" "Courting death!" Duke Wuyou cast an expressionless glance at the corrupted who did not belong to his personal retinue. "I warned you: don't look around recklessly, and don't touch anything! "Did you think you were the only ones with Eyes of Aether?" He gave a final warning: "The solemnity of the sacrificial temple's domain is equal to the imperial palace itself. No transgression will be tolerated. Understand?!" Silence fell, and no one raised any further objections. Even if they had wanted to, they couldn't; the contract of the Tower had already been signed. Besides, without Duke Wuyou's guidance, every last one of them would likely die here without ever finding a way out. Even Duke Wuyou, walking at the very front, looked as if he were facing a formidable enemy. Bypassing numerous lingering shadows, he deciphered the texts and markings along the road, falling into hesitation from time to time, occasionally turning back without warning after walking a stretch. After a long while, they had only advanced through a few streets. Beneath the bizarre power of the sacrificial temple, not only were gravity and natural laws distorted, but even time itself seemed warped. Amid gasps of astonishment, someone looked up toward another fork in the road, blanching in horror. They saw another group walking out from that path, completely oblivious—their appearances and attire matched their own from a quarter of an hour ago! Unfortunately, someone failed to pay attention and stepped over a boundary onto the steps of a building. In an instant, half his body vanished, crushed into a pulp of mangled meat by an invisible force! The Law of Tianyuan was even entangled within the wound, preventing recovery. Yet despite this, Duke Wuyou's expression grew increasingly excited. As they drew closer to the sacrificial temple atop the mountain, his eyes burned with fanatical fervor. The sacrificial temple—the Empire's temple for offering sacrifices to Heaven! Every specification was modeled after the imperial palace, and all its designs and provisions were aligned with an imperial mausoleum! In truth, this was a tomb. Except the one buried here was not an emperor, but an enemy the Eternal Empire had exerted the entire nation's might to combat even at the height of its prosperity! They had mobilized the power of the entire realm, resorting to every conceivable measure to completely annihilate the enemy, erasing even every record so that all traces would vanish from the world! Even when the foe was so powerful that their bones could not be ground to dust after death, the Empire had built a sacrificial temple to suppress them, trampling the enemy's remains beneath the Empire for all eternity. They had even turned them into one of the fulcrums for the Tower of Tianyuan—the Tower of Tianyuan that once commanded the entire world could not have possessed only a single main body. One could even say its main body was the Empire that covered the entire Mid-Continent and ruled the world! Had they succeeded, the world today would likely still be under the Empire's dominion, truly rendered eternal! Alas, when success was nearly within grasp, the Tower of Tianyuan snapped in two. Even the Emperor fell along with the broken tower beyond the mortal realm, smashing out what was now the Vortex. In the ninety years of chaos that followed, the world was once again submerged in destruction. The glory hailed as eternal vanished in a mere dozen years. *Nobles' bones were crushed beneath hooves on imperial avenues, and the inner treasury burned to brocade ash.* Under retaliatory purges from all sides, the Emperor's direct bloodline was thoroughly severed. Countless treasures and inheritances were scattered to the four winds before anyone could even gather them. A collateral imperial branch that had inherited the title of Duke Wuyou had luckily disguised their identities and escaped the catastrophe, eventually carving out a new foundation in the Thousand Islands and the Mid-Continent by relying on the former Empire's assets—and the secret capable of reviving the Empire! Before the Tower of Tianyuan was fully completed, the Emperor had secretly issued a posthumous edict—even if the grand undertaking fell short, a chance at restoration would be left for posterity. On the very day the Tower of Tianyuan snapped, guards had secretly carried the Imperial Seal of the Realm to the sacrificial temple, locking its gates entirely to await the appointed hour. Unfortunately, with the collapse of the Tower of Tianyuan, this place—serving as a fulcrum—had also been disrupted and warped beyond recognition. The imperial clan had withered, and the titles of Changle, Anguo, Wuyou, and others had all changed hands. The true blood had thinned to the point that opening the door was nearly impossible. If one were truly to judge by pedigree, they weren't even as pure as the artificial humans of the current Southern Continent's Empire! But what did that matter? These days, who didn't possess a sliver of imperial blood? Even back then, people with imperial blood were probably more numerous than dogs in the street. The average reign of past emperors was three hundred years, with countless consorts; having a hundred sons and a thousand grandsons could practically be considered ascetic restraint. The imperial clan's genealogies only recorded descendants within two generations. Besides, succession to the throne had never been determined by birth order, nor was it passed along lines of closeness. Bloodline was merely a threshold—whether it was thin or thick mattered not in the least. As long as one possessed talent, one could secure the position of elector! As long as one obtained the recognition of the Imperial Seal of the Realm, who would dare say they were not of the direct line?! With the Imperial Seal of the Realm in hand, one could command the Law of Tianyuan left behind by the Empire, activate the remnant half of the Empire's former Heavenly Pillar, control all the fulcrums, and open or close the Vortex with a single thought! Imagining the scene of rebuilding the Empire and ascending the throne as emperor, a slight flush of joy surfaced on Duke Wuyou's face, and he almost couldn't resist humming a tune. But then, his expression shifted drastically! A piercing shriek suddenly rang out. Amid their silent march, the flickering residual shadows along both sides of the street altered without warning. A bizarre, writhing shadow crawling along the ground suddenly lunged forward. It brushed against the fluttering hem of someone's robe... In an instant, the crawling shadow recoiled as if struck by lightning. Opening its mouth, it let out a deafening screech, its shrill voice carrying an eerie force that made everyone's vision blur. Amid the screech, all the residual shadows seemed to awaken, snapping their heads around to look at them. Red eyes ignited across those indistinct faces. The skeletal shadows suspended in the sky by black threads burst into raucous laughter as if infected, flailing wildly. The corrupted one whose hem had been brushed was a hunched old man. His expression contorted violently, twitching uncontrollably as he felt an eerie power lock onto him, impossible to resist. In sheer terror, he ignored Duke Wuyou's orders and instinctively turned to flee at top speed. "Idiot!" Duke Wuyou was infuriated, but it was already too late. Pitch-black threads rose from the flagstones below, coiling around the old man and burrowing into his soul. "*Guh—guh—*" Before everyone's shocked eyes, the old man lost all color within a few short seconds. Even his flesh and soul turned into a dim shadow, hoisted upside down into the heavens by the black threads. And not just that old man—all the shadows surged forward like a disturbed hornet's nest, writhing and twisting as they searched meticulously. Scrutinizing thoroughly. Seeking any outsider who dared trespass against the laws without an imperial edict! The shadow of the old man that had just been strung up to the sky shrieked as well. A pair of crimson eyes ignited as he looked down at them. From afar, he pointed a finger straight at them! A lightning-fast betrayal! "Nobody attack!" Duke Wuyou roared resolutely amid the chaos. "Group around me!" Shehri stuck close without hesitation, and the others scrambled to encircle Duke Wuyou, wishing they could bury him under a dogpile of men. Yet a dogpile of men was useless. Seeing the shadows drawing closer and closer, panic erupted once more. Amid the crush, Duke Wuyou finally opened a brocade box retrieved from his robes, reverently lifting out something that looked like half a rusted, broken iron rod. With the infusion of spiritus and the transformation of the Law of Tianyuan, the broken rod swiftly extended. A faint shimmer stretched out from the severed ends at both sides, forming a magnificent and imposing ceremonial staff. He slammed it down toward the ground! Instantly, a golden ripple spread out, enveloping everyone present. The moment they touched the ripple, all the bizarre shadows froze in place. Then, without a moment's hesitation, they fell to their knees and kowtowed in veneration! Awed by this ceremonial staff once borne by the imperial guards, they dared not offend. Yet the light flickered, unsustainable. It was dissipating at a rate visible to the naked eye— Meanwhile, the densely packed shadows remained prostrate on the ground, ceaselessly kowtowing with piety, showing not the slightest intention of dispersing. As the staff's light dimmed, the faces of the shadows furthest away showed faint signs of crimson resurfacing. "Duke Wuyou, what do we do?" someone asked, terrified. "Should we... fly across?" "Are you looking to die?!" Duke Wuyou was practically laughed out of his wits by anger. "The sacrificial temple is regarded as the Emperor's mausoleum! "Within three hundred li of the Imperial Presence, anyone who dares not bow shall have both feet severed and eyes gouged out; anyone who dares peek at the Heavenly Countenance shall be beheaded; anyone who dares take flight or land without an edict shall have their clan exterminated to the third degree!" The one who made the suggestion stiffened, then asked blankly, "Then what do we do?" "Walk!" Duke Wuyou's expression twitched as he forced the word through gritted teeth, then warned, "Follow me closely and walk slowly. Don't startle those damned things again, understand?!" With that, he rolled up his sleeves and pant legs, tucked the ceremonial staff under his arm, hunched his body sideways, and began scrambling awkwardly like a turtle, picking footholds in the gaps between the countless prostrate shadows. Behind him, everyone watched this display with twitching expressions. Lowering their heads, they formed a line, shouldered their numerous crates and supplies, and began closely following along, forming a long, meandering dragon... *** "Hm? What the hell is that racket?" At that moment, halfway up the sacrificial temple's mountain, inside a grand hall of unknown purpose, Ji Jue turned his head in confusion, looking toward the source of the shrieking. He couldn't see a thing. Soon, he withdrew his gaze without any interest. His hands nimbly flipped the meat skewers on the grill while the other hand sprinkled cumin and chili powder. He didn't forget to turn back and continue the conversation with his new local friends: "Hey, let me tell you, the folks from our old Empire were the real deal—just this flavor, authentic!" Regrettably, the shadows that had originally stood beside him had never reacted no matter how he nudged them or draped his arms over their shoulders, maintaining an aloof, aristocratic chill. Instead, upon hearing the screech just now, they had leaped up as if hopped up on stimulants and poured out in full force, ditching the enthusiastic tourist without paying him the slightest heed. All one could say was that the local syndicate had terrible manners. "Go on, get busy, get busy." Ji Jue sighed, shaking his head in regret as he took a bite of a sizzling, oil-dripping skewer. "Busy, everyone's busy—" Being busy was a good thing.