Four Saints

The sealing art disintegrated with startling suddenness—so sudden that apart from the caster, Tianye herself, none of the numerous powerhouses present sensed the slightest inkling of it beforehand, including Wen Xinyun and Luo Wei, who was augmented by dual arrays. There were no tremors, no explosions. The sealing lotus blooming between heaven and earth seemed seized by an invisible giant hand, twisting in the dead quiet. Was it a spell technique? Or Dao charm? They did not know, nor could they tell. The only thing they could be reasonably sure of was the identity of the person disrupting the sealing art. Except for Tianye and Tianyan, women affiliated with the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, most of those present were high-ranking members of the Sect Alliance who had lived through the previous era. The world was vast—so vast that over the past several decades, most of those present had never set eyes on the master of the Prime Minister's Manor. Yet the world was equally small—so small that any move he made, any policy he enacted, would be laid directly onto their desks. They had all lived through this reign of the Jiajing Restoration, witnessing Great Yan grow stronger step by step under the joint governance of the Emperor and the Prime Minister. Several decades was a long time, but compared to what these two had achieved, it felt all too brief. Whether it was the Tianhua Gate Coup before the ascension, the Dachao Rebellion and the Fall of the Two Kings afterward, or the Spreading of the Dao that thoroughly reshaped the landscape between the imperial court and the Sect Alliance... any single one of these was an epochal shift of a century, yet all had been realized hand in hand by the Emperor and the Prime Minister. It had been a magnificent era. An era where the brilliance of countless stars was eclipsed by those two rising suns. And so, having lived through this era, amidst those world-shaking strategies time and again, something had been quietly planted in their minds. An admiration transcending factional allegiance... and a fear born of it. A deathly silence began to spread. High in the vault of heaven, the disintegration of the sealing lotus was noiseless yet splendid. Under that invisible, titanic force, petal after petal inscribed with golden profound runes stretched out endlessly, streaking across the sky like rainbows before finally dispersing into smoke and ash. Three breaths. Not a long span of time, yet far from short for the figures gathered here. But everyone merely watched in silence. No one spoke, and no one lifted a finger to intervene. The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, the ancient former master of the world, invariably branded Xu Changtian as the Calamity of the Eternal Night. The contemporary Sect Alliance endorsed this designation, but only on the surface. The sword of a prior dynasty could not execute an official of the present. The era when sects ruled the world had long become a thing of the past, and the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's proclamation was nothing more than a scrap of waste paper. The Sect Alliance chose to agree with the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion because its proclamation was bound to pit them against the Chancellor's Manor. The alliance could leverage this righteous cause to bind their interests together, standing united against the behemoth known as the Chancellor's Manor—and against the Prime Minister of Great Yan, who stood atop this monstrous beast! Compared to Xu Changtian, the master of this dragon-embroidered black robe seemed far truer to the Calamity of the Eternal Night buried deep in the Sect Alliance's hearts. When the sealing lotus spanning the heavens dissipated entirely, the hand emerging from that dragon-embroidered black sleeve rested gently upon Xu Yuan's shoulder, seeking to pull his child away from this quagmire. But this time, Tianye moved. A pair of golden pupils radiated dazzling divine light. The instant that palm touched Xu Yuan's body, its time was likewise locked by that boundless might of the space technique, stiffening until it ground to a halt! Yet that lasted only an instant. Soon, the palm began to move again. He realized the immense strength of the woman opposite him, and he realized he could not forcibly pull Xu Yuan away. So this time it was no longer a drag. The Prime Minister of Great Yan and the former figure who had faced the tribulation began a clash of strength—using Xu Yuan's body as the vessel. Surging waves of source qi emanated from the palm, continually shattering the Dao charm of Aeon Art that arrested all things. Under these two titanic forces, Xu Yuan's body was constantly torn apart and constantly regenerated in rapid succession. Seeing this, Tianye's grave voice broke into an involuntary chuckle: "Hey, aren't you afraid he'll just die right here?" "..." The master of the dragon-embroidered black sleeve offered no answer. There was only the invisible pressure radiating from their contest of strength, forming halo after halo that went howling outward in all directions! Just at that moment, the deathly quiet of heaven and earth was broken by a faint sound. It was a grand beam of light. Originating from the halo-wreathed woman high in the heavens, it shot directly toward the clenched palm beneath the sleeve that had crossed ten thousand li. Wen Xinyun had chosen to strike after all. Tianye had said that due to unavoidable karma, their attempt to destroy the calamity ahead of time would suffer unprecedented backlash. Though she found the notion of karma utterly laughable, she had nonetheless prepared herself in her heart. Xu Yuan would never have dared to come alone without keeping cards up his sleeve. Perhaps a breakthrough in the heat of battle, like at Zhenxi Manor. Perhaps using the secret weapon, the Flowing Cloud Boots, to air-drop a military array right at the Sword Sect's mountain gate for a decapitation strike. No matter which scenario it might have been, Wen Xinyun believed she had contingencies in place. Yet such a crude, straightforward "backlash" still caught her completely off guard. She had not expected Xu Yinhe to come. In every sense, she had never expected it. The Sect Alliance's military arrays across the Hongnong region were already converging; the military array's mighty power upon Luo Wei was climbing steadily; and two Saints, she and Tianye, held the line at the Sword Sect's mountain gate. If this Prime Minister of Great Yan dared to show himself, killing him was merely a question of how high a price they would have to pay. With war looming, given the structure of the Chancellor's Manor, word of his death would easily trigger a collapse from the top down. For Xu Yuan, was this truly worth it? Wen Xinyun stared at the dragon-embroidered black sleeve fluttering in the breeze. She could not fathom it. Yet whether to boost morale or to make her stance clear, Wen Xinyun needed to strike right now. Not to mention, decades had passed since their last encounter. The power this Prime Minister of Great Yan possessed had long become an unknown to her. She needed this opportunity to test him and gather intelligence. The grand beam silently ripped across the sky. No one in this world could catch the speed of light. With his time frozen by Tianye, Xu Changtian could not inform Xu Yinhe of this beam in advance, meaning Xu Yinhe should have been unable to evade this lethal, unseen surprise attack. Yet the moment it reached that palm spanning ten thousand li, an abrupt change occurred! It was deflected. One foot before reaching the palm, the grand beam refracted slightly in an eerie manner, veering off toward the vast sea of forest below... It pierced an ancient tree, then bored unobstructed into the earth until it reached a critical threshold... A deafening tremor instantly shook the mountains and forests. Towering explosions and a sea of flames shattered the earth below, forming a blazing ocean of death upon the ground! At the sight, Wen Xinyun's eyes narrowed involuntarily. She could not decipher by what means he had deflected her lethal strike. The person on the other side of the spatial rift seemed somewhat surprised by such a technique as well, letting out an involuntary murmur of wonder: "Hm?" Yet after this murmur, he paid no further heed to the Sect Alliance assembly facing him like a mortal enemy. Instead, he spoke softly to an unknown person beside him: "Since you cannot rest easy leaving me to live on in this world alone, why not come along with me to the other side? One last time shoulder to shoulder before you and I meet our deaths." "..." Silence. The unshielded words rang clearly in everyone's ears. The stifling atmosphere made the air nearly congeal. Across the spatial rift, beside the master of the Prime Minister's Manor, there was actually someone else—someone spoken to in such a tone. Who could it be? Though no answer came immediately, everyone had already guessed the other person's identity. And the voice that followed confirmed their thoughts. It was a middle-aged man's voice, tinged with wry amusement: "Chancellor, did you make Zhen wait all these days just for this journey?"