Belongs to the Virtuous

Beyond the vault of heaven, an excruciating, shrill cry rang out, rippling across the entire Desolate Realm in an instant. Wei Yuan's heartbeat multiplied several times in a flash. Two jets of blood sprayed from his ears, leaving him deaf. Furthermore, his eyes swelled several times over, bulging almost entirely out of their sockets! Pressing both eyes with one hand, Wei Yuan fought with all his might before he managed to suppress the anomaly in his body. Even so, numerous boils had swollen across his skin, and many had already burst. Even Wei Yuan's Shaman physique could barely endure it, and many Power Shamans were utterly powerless to resist; their entire bodies suddenly exploded, turning into puddles of bloody water. Only after the shrill cry from beyond the heavens finally subsided did Wei Yuan press his eyeballs back into their sockets. The blood in his ears clotted, and rapid regeneration began, allowing him to gradually hear sounds that grew clearer and clearer. Looking around, he found that only half the Power Shamans who had been standing moments ago were still on their feet. Many corpses consisted of only lower torsos; their upper bodies, hollowed with internal cavities, had blown apart into patches of blood on the ground. The stump of the ruined Heavenly Pillar continuously gushed black-red liquid—whether blood or something else—cascading like a waterfall from heaven. It writhed as it retreated beyond the sky. The vault of heaven then began to slowly close, gradually sealing the wound, yet a dark-crimson patch remained in the air like a freshly healed scar. The place where the fourth Heavenly Pillar should have landed had transformed into a black-and-red ocean spanning ten thousand li. The dark, fleshy hue permeating the sky also receded; gradually, light returned to heaven and earth, and the temperature began to rise. The shrill cry from beyond the heavens seemed to inflict even greater harm upon the flame demons. Vast multitudes exploded to death, while the survivors retreated toward the Heavenly Pillars. The three Heavenly Pillars were no longer active; the first flame demons to flee back flew into openings on the pillars and began constructing outer shells to seal the holes. Those unable to return in time gathered outside the Heavenly Pillars, waiting to die in quiet, orderly formation. Outside each Heavenly Pillar stood more than ten million flame demons. They stood in silence, utterly motionless, like puppets drained of spirit stones. Supporting the heavily wounded Jiumu, Yanmo flew before Ronglong. At this moment, Ronglong's dragon head alone was larger than both of their Dharma bodies combined. Only after Jiumu called out several times did Ronglong barely open an eye. A colossal amber eye looked at them, finally showing a response. Yanmo immediately said, "Hold on a little longer. I'll go find the Ancestor of Steel at once. With its intervention, perhaps your life can be saved." Ronglong remained motionless, his voice echoing in the consciousness of Yanmo and Jiumu: "It is already too late. My mindscape world has begun to assimilate into the Desolate Realm. It was gained from the Desolate Realm, and in the end, it must be returned." In truth, both Yanmo and Jiumu had already seen that Ronglong's mindscape world was dispersing into heaven and earth; they were merely unwilling to give up hope. Attacks from the Heavenly Pillar tore wounds into flesh and assaulted the soul and divine consciousness simultaneously. A single hit meant that however many lacerations were inflicted upon the body, an equal number scarred the consciousness—and those scars would never heal. The flames across Ronglong's dragon body had gone out, his flesh and hide turning black like solidified magma. Yanmo gritted his teeth. "Perhaps we should still try." Ronglong seemed to chuckle softly. "I was originally just an ordinary Power Shaman. It was only because the Desolate Realm faced peril that heaven and earth made an exception, granting me strength and authority over this world. The circumstances made me; it was not because of any inherent brilliance on my part. Thus, there is no pity in my death. There are still many among the Power Shamans who are like me. "Though the new Heavenly Pillar has been eliminated, the old ones remain. I have merely bought some time for the Desolate Realm. From here on, it depends on you. Heaven and earth are supremely impartial; having dedicated myself to them, my harvest has been bountiful. First and foremost, I truly comprehended the Great Dao of heaven and earth—even if only for a fleeting moment, to hear the Dao in the morning is worth dying in the evening. And then there is this Heavenly Shaman seat..." Seeing Ronglong's voice grow fainter, Jiumu hurriedly asked, "Once you are gone, what will become of the Heavenly Shaman seat?" Ronglong said slowly, "...It belongs to the virtuous..." Yanmo and Jiumu exchanged bewildered glances, unable to comprehend what Ronglong meant. But by then, Ronglong, coiled around the fractured Heavenly Pillar, had solidified into a mountain range spanning the earth, giving no further reply. Suddenly, a wind arose. The wind swept in with a howl, gently caressing the colossal mountain range as though bidding it a final farewell. Then the wind drifted away, and heaven and earth fell into stillness. Fiery sunlight once more bathed the earth, licking at the freshly carved scars across the land. A deep weariness suddenly overcame Jiumu. "Let's go. There is still the aftermath to attend to. Many of the young ones might still be saved. It's just... there is something I don't understand..." Yanmo said, "If you don't understand, don't speak of it." "Why shouldn't I speak? The Ancestral Shaman can't hear us now anyway!" Jiumu gave a cold sneer and pointed toward the three distant Heavenly Pillars. "Those are blades—blades meant to harvest us! Over tens of millions of years, who knows how many young Power Shamans, how many brilliant lives have been thrown into them, yet we can never fill that bottomless pit! "In the Native Realm, we fight the Liao Clan, we fight the Humans, but the territory seized and the treasures claimed have nothing to do with us! We are pinned down here, waging an unwinnable war for tens of thousands of years! By what right?!" "Say no more," Yanmo tried to stop him. Yet Jiumu paid him no heed, pressing on: "The Ancestral Shaman is afraid! It fears that another Ancestor of Steel will emerge among our Power Shamans to divide its authority! For millions of years, ever since it merged with the Heavenly Dao, it hasn't permitted any Shaman to take even a sliver of its power! "All authority belongs to it! It does whatever it pleases, kills whomever it wants! Is this vast world the realm of the Shamans?! No! It belongs to the Ancestral Shaman alone! It is its personal property, completely detached from us!" "You—you've lost your mind!" "I haven't lost my mind! You know it full well in your own heart! You know where the authority of us Heavenly Shamans comes from. That is no authority of heaven and earth at all—it's nothing more than scraps tossed from the Ancestral Shaman's table! We treat the Ancestral Shaman as if it were heaven and earth! Look at Ronglong—that is how a Heavenly Shaman was always meant to be!" Yanmo remained silent for a long time before saying, "I know all of this, of course, but the system is not without its benefits. It became much easier to become a Heavenly Shaman, and candidates are numerous. When attaining Heavenly Shaman status, the heavenly tribulation is controllable, so the vast majority of candidates can pass through without genuine peril. The hierarchy of Heavenly Shamans is clearly defined, and the requirements are transparent; everyone only needs to work hard to meet them." Jiumu replied, "And so we became dogs fighting over bones, fixated only on clawing at each other, forgetting that all the bones originally belonged to us all." Yanmo shook his head. "As I said, it is not without benefits. Take you, for example—without this system, you would probably have perished in the heavenly tribulation long ago." Jiumu sighed. "I know that too. If the Ancestral Shaman weren't so hell-bent on exterminating the Power Shamans—if it had just let us catch our breath and left us a sliver of hope—I would have gladly remained its most loyal dog." Yanmo glared at him. "Judging from what you just said, you were born a rebel! Most loyal dog? Hah! Even if the Ancestral Shaman had treated you well, you would have found an excuse to revolt." Jiumu sighed, "That's truly not the case. I know myself well. As long as I could live in peace and drift through life awaiting death, I would never harbor disloyalty." "Then what about everything you just said..." Jiumu tossed a book to Yanmo. On its cover were four large characters: *Rebirth from the Abyss*. Yanmo opened it and saw the very first sentence: *Heaven and earth are of paramount importance, the Shamans come next, and the Ancestral Shaman ranks lowest.* "Let's go. We should figure out how to deal with the Ancestral Shaman's punishment first." Jiumu flew toward where they had come from, forgetting to ask for the book back. Yanmo's divine consciousness swept through the entire volume. He then let the book drop, allowing it to vanish into the mountain range formed from Ronglong's body, before flying off after Jiumu. The two Heavenly Shamans departed the way they had come, bound for wherever they were meant to go. ... At Fengmang Fortress, Wei Yuan dragged his exhausted body back into his room. That the house had not collapsed was a miracle in itself. Surveying the interior, he intended to pack a few things and leave. After such a cataclysm, Fengmang was no longer tenable, though where to go, he did not yet know. Looking at the books filling the room, Wei Yuan finally realized what he needed to pack. He gathered everything Ronglong had written, sparing not even the drafts. As for the rest, he intended to burn it all to ash in a blaze. Just then, Ronglong's voice rang out behind him: "Don't burn them!" Wei Yuan turned around and saw Ronglong standing behind him, looking just as he had when they studied mathematics together. Ronglong said, "Leave these behind for the Power Shamans. That way, they might discover better ways to smelt steel and forge their own armor in the future, allowing more Power Shamans to survive. This is immense merit, far more important than leaving them a few immortal artifacts." "All right." Wei Yuan retracted his true fire and looked at Ronglong in bewilderment. "Aren't... aren't you dead? I clearly sensed your mindscape world disperse back into heaven and earth earlier!" Ronglong replied, "Yet you don't seem sorrowful in the least?" Wei Yuan shrugged. "I have to flee for my life and survive first before I've earned the right to grieve at my leisure." "Bullshit!" Ronglong hurled the vulgarity right in Wei Yuan's face, shaking his head in agonizing grief. "You simply couldn't care less! A hero like me—how did I end up getting stuck with a heartless, ungrateful wretch like you!" Wei Yuan stared at the Ronglong before him, somewhat bewildered. Divine light flickered in his eyes as he attempted to discern what kind of entity this was. Ronglong snapped irritably, "Of course it's me! Who else could impersonate me? Even if they could replicate my appearance and divine consciousness, could they possess my methods? Here, take this problem. Work on it first. I'll give you half an hour to see if you can even understand the question." Looking at the deceptively simple problem before him, Wei Yuan turned ashen. With problems like this, fewer words always meant greater trouble. Now he was finally convinced: the one before him was unmistakably Ronglong. "Aren't you dead?" Wei Yuan asked once more, finding it difficult to believe. "Of course I am dead." Ronglong's body suddenly turned translucent. Only then did Wei Yuan realize that the Ronglong before him was actually a sliver of innate spirituality. Ronglong sighed. "I don't understand why this transformation occurred either. Perhaps it's because of this thing." As he spoke, an unremarkable longsword appeared in Ronglong's hand. Wei Yuan leapt up, crying out in shock, "The Dao Sword! It's been in your hands all along?! Y-You turned into a sword-wielding immortal?!" Ronglong sighed again. "It seems so. Now is not the time to talk. Before the Desolate Realm seals itself completely, we must leave." With a flick of Ronglong's finger, a teleportation array materialized before Wei Yuan. "Step inside, and you'll break free from the Desolate Realm. Then you can take your time finding the path back to the Native Realm. It's quite close and not hard to locate; it just takes a bit of time." Wei Yuan looked around, his expression suddenly shifting. Far in the distance, a terrifyingly frigid will surged forward, sweeping across the entire Desolate Realm with overwhelming force! Without time to think, Wei Yuan instinctively knew that being touched by that will would spell disaster. He leapt up and dashed into the teleportation portal. The terrifying will flooded into the room, finding nothing. Faint echoes still lingered in the air. "...The Heavenly Shaman seat I left behind—any interest?" "I'm human! Humans and Shamans are different. How could I inherit the seat of a Heavenly Shaman?" "A human is born of a human mother, and a Shaman is born of a Shaman mother—that is the true meaning of heaven and earth, and that is what connects them!" "...Brother, be serious! What are the requirements for this Heavenly Shaman seat?" "The things of heaven and earth belong to the virtuous." Wei Yuan fell silent. "What are you thinking?" "I was wondering whether I should change my name. Hmm... Wei Youde—what do you think?"