Li Xizhi was deeply moved. Opening his mouth, he gently drew her into his embrace and said softly, “Xiao’er, if not for you, I would have perished in that sea long ago.”
His gentle, tender words immediately brought a sweet smile to Yang Xiao’er’s face. Wrapping her slender hands around his neck, she snuggled into his chest and murmured, “Don’t say such things. And please don’t blame my family for failing to send word to warn you… After all, our Purple Palace senior only recently passed away, and several of my brothers have been transferred away.”
Li Xizhi shook his head and hurriedly cautioned her, “This matter was most likely the doing of the Chi family. It must never be leaked. We must act as though it never happened at all. That is why I found an excuse to come to Mount Xiashan.”
He recounted the causes and consequences in detail, concealing only what lay within his qi sea. Yang Xiao’er was naturally clever, understood at once, and nodded. “All right, I understand.”
The two talked at length when, all of a sudden, they felt the mountain beneath their feet begin to tremble. In the sky, white qi surged upward, blanketing the cloud layer and condensing into myriad phantasms. White petals trailing smoke drifted downward with the clinking chime of colliding jade beads. A cold, serene voice echoed forth, seemingly arising out of the void—neither loud nor faint, yet manifesting clearly right beside their ears:
“I, Shangyuan, have this day verified my Dao in the North Sea, attaining the nature of ‘Yuzhen Sixty-Nine Merging with Void’ and ascending to the rank of True Monarch.”
The voice was not overwhelming, yet it caused both of them to rise, shock evident on their faces. The husband and wife exchanged a glance and hurriedly bowed, offering congratulations from afar:
“Respectful felicitations to True Monarch Shangyuan, True Monarch of Yuzhen Sixty-Nine Merging with Void!”
Across heaven and earth, all bowed to offer their greetings. At that moment, not only did every variety of human and demon across Mount Xiashan solemnly cup their hands in salute, but every figure with some cultivation across the inland and the Four Seas lifted their heads, reverently offering their congratulations.
That person truly had attained True Monarch…
Li Xizhi was a disciple of Qingchi’s immortal peak and was now on the verge of becoming a peak master himself, so he possessed some understanding of the Purple Palace and the Golden Core.
Over the years, not a few Real Persons had attempted to break through to the Golden Core—not to mention Chi Wei and Duanmu Kui of the State of Yue, as well as various humans and demons from the State of Wu and the outer seas—yet none had succeeded. Even Dongfang You, a descendant of the Dragon Lord with a terrifyingly profound foundation, had failed in his breakthrough, spectacularly dissolving into white clouds. Although Shangyuan had long been regarded as the foremost figure of the Purple Palace and the guests attending his ceremony were the most numerous in recent years, so many had claimed that title over countless generations; that he had truly achieved it still left all in astonishment.
Once one achieved the Golden Core, the golden nature would endure in the world: the physical body would last a thousand years, and the true spirit would persist through reincarnation, nearing indestructible and incorruptible. Furthermore, each Golden Core corresponded to a fruit position of heaven and earth; if one ascended to that seat, one wielded the methods of an immortal. Attaining the golden nature through the Golden Core—and even winning a fruit position—marked an extraordinary existence. Writing about them carelessly would incur the wrath of a True Monarch, so sects kept no detailed records, relying mostly on hearsay.
Mount Xiashan was a pillar-like peak rising straight from the seabed, its cliff faces smooth and fine, layered with brilliant bands of colored, glowing rosy light. Yang Xiao’er flew down to where Mount Xiashan met the sea. Seeing the waterline receding rapidly along the cliff face, she said gravely, “Husband, something terrible is happening. I fear Master Shangyuan has clashed with the Shakya cultivators.”
He stepped forward, somewhat hesitant. The couple rode the wind down from Mount Xiashan, drawing near the water’s surface that reflected the myriad rays of rosy light. Li Xizhi’s expression turned solemn, and Yang Xiao’er looked on with alarm. “Mount Xiashan is supposed to be the most stable…”
Sure enough, the highest tide mark on the cliff wall was already an inch higher than the waterline before their eyes. Li Xizhi examined it closely, looking extremely serious, and remarked, “No wonder the great demon was alarmed. The Heshui Sea is already the calmest of the Eastern Seas, and Mount Xiashan is a natural marvel where the ebb and flow of the tide ordinarily never varies by more than a finger’s width. If even the Heshui Sea has become like this, one can well imagine the state of the other seas!”
Yang Xiao’er grasped his hand, slightly anxious. Suddenly, the roar of the ocean surged, and the waves parted abruptly. A gargantuan creature rose from within—a grey-scaled beast!
The scaled beast had four stout, powerful limbs, each treading upon a cloud. Its torso was extraordinarily long, and its lengthy tail was densely packed with scales as broad as tables. Riding the clouds and mist at blinding speed, it let out a long, piercing howl.
“Greetings, Great Demon…”
The scaled beast circled once in the air, peered intently toward the north, and then, summoning the mist, sped off northward.
Li Xizhi gazed toward the north with worry. Beside him, Yang Xiao’er watched the Purple Palace great demon recede into the distance and whispered, “True Monarch Taiyue is actually that formidable.”
Relying on the talisman seed within his body, Li Xizhi was not overwhelmed by the far-off aura. Racing against time to commit everything to memory, he looked north and saw a radiant comet tumble from the heavens, tracing an arc across the firmament toward the north before plunging into the North Sea. He observed it carefully for a while, having never seen such a celestial body before. Gauging the astronomical divisions, he noted three auxiliary stars trailing behind it, of which only one was lit.
*One of the three…*
With the aid of the clear qi, he could roughly discern the distant panorama. After waiting only a few breaths, the celestial stars shifted, and another blazed blindingly, bursting with a white radiance tinged with crimson. Far away, a colossal figure flashed into view—it seemed to possess eight arms, brandishing lotus-shaped magical implements.
*Could it be a Shakya cultivator?* he wondered.
Yet that figure truly appeared for only a fleeting instant before emerald light flashed, the comet plummeted, red-and-white stars burned searing hot, and brown radiance flowed. That eight-armed figure instantly collapsed like a punctured bladder, exploding into a sky full of golden qi. The comet’s light was terrifyingly fierce, seemingly brimming with towering rage, cleanly shearing away even the dispersing golden qi across the heavens. The tangled rays of light clashed with such fury that even the mountain beneath their feet shuddered.
No sooner had the comet fallen than the Great White Star began to flicker like an eye continually opening and shutting, rapidly pulsing with flowing emerald brilliance in what seemed to be a desperate struggle. Watching up to this point, even with the clear qi preserving his awareness, Li Xizhi’s eyes stung so intensely that tears poured down; fearing that looking any longer would shatter his ocular technique, he had no choice but to lower his gaze.
Wiping away his tears, he rested briefly. The sky had darkened, a pitch-black void emerging in the north, while meteorites streaked across the sky, trailing plumes of flame from the north. Having watched earlier, Li Xizhi had already anticipated this, yet he could not speak of it to his wife. He shook his head in silence, watching the meteorites rain down into the sea and across the Four Seas.
“A clash of Golden Cores!”
“Truly an upheaval of heaven and earth.”
Li Xizhi sighed heavily, deeply moved in his heart. The rosy light in his hands rose, still seeming somewhat unbelievable. He looked back at Yang Xiao’er, who wore an equally shocked expression.
Li Xizhi shook his head, and together they rode the wind back up the mountain, his heart heavy with concern. “I wonder how things are at home…”
Beside him, Yang Xiao’er shared the same anxious expression. “The ancestor broke through to the Purple Palace, yet encountered such a catastrophic change in heaven and earth. Who knows if it was affected!”
***
In the North Sea.
When Li Xuanfeng awoke, the sky was dim. Opening his eyes toward the horizon, the stars and moon hung quietly in the heavens. The earlier azure sea and celestial dome had vanished, and the comet was nowhere to be seen. Everything that had manifested had dissolved into nothingness, leaving only faint black shadows of varying sizes drifting among the stars in the distant north, casting a pall over the moonlight and starlight.
His vision was blurred, shrouded in a half-dreaming, half-waking haze, leaving him unable to distinguish the scene before him. Only when the talisman seed in his qi sea pulsed gently, sending a rush of clear qi to his mind, did he gradually regain his senses. Struggling twice, he sat up. A faint voice drifted from beside him:
“It’s Yuansu.”
Recognizing the voice, Li Xuanfeng turned his head. Yuansu sat quietly by his side. That earlier sight of his face streaked with tears of blue-green blood seemed like an illusion; before him remained that clean, round face, sitting leisurely at his side.
Li Xuanfeng slowly lifted his arm. More than half of his golden armor had turned a brilliant, gleaming white, shining brightly; the iron hooks originally linking the armor plates had entirely dissolved, leaving half his body immobilized. Noticing his look, Yuansu smiled and said, “True Monarch Jinyi Taiyuan Shangqing of the Jinyu Sect intervened. Your cultivation and armor were stirred. The armor was originally forged mostly of Dark Hook Mystic Gold, but a large portion has transformed into White Lake Origin Gold. It will need to be reforged.”
Li Xuanfeng hurriedly lowered his head and murmured, “Earlier, when the True Monarch struck so suddenly, I failed to rein in my emotions and felt a momentary pang of hatred. As a result, the golden nature backlashed against me, nearly turning me into cave-spring water.”
Yuansu let out a hearty laugh and said softly, “One does not dare harbor hatred, Xuanfeng.”
Though Yuansu spoke lightly, seeing that he had reached the very limit of his lifespan, he had likely ceased to care much about his own life. Li Xuanfeng bowed his head in assent, noticing that the reef beneath Yuansu’s white robe had already turned an emerald green.
Seeing that Yuansu was in high spirits and looked entirely at ease, Li Xuanfeng asked in a low voice, “May I ask, Real Person, did the True Monarchs decide a victor?”
“How could it happen so quickly? Only a few True Monarchs revealed a glimpse of their scales and claws to trade blows once in the North Sea. I couldn't see too clearly either; I only saw them battle for less than half an hour. A northern Shakya cultivator intervened—perhaps a dharma manifestation—and True Monarch Taiyue gifted him a sword strike, sending him scurrying off.”
Li Xuanfeng narrowed his eyes. Even though he had magnified the might of the Golden Core again and again in his mind, he remained terrified by the True Monarch’s power, asking hoarsely, “True Monarch Taiyue is actually that formidable?”
“There is no comparison. Both the immortal and demonic paths have produced multiple Dao Wombs. In primordial antiquity, the Dao Wombs led the battles. The Shakya cultivators, after all, possess only a few World-Honored Ones. Nowadays they hold the north, holed up in the Shakya lands where no one can touch them. But if they dare come out to stir trouble, nothing is certain. After all, this is an internal affair of the Qingsong lineage and the Immortal Mansion’s edicts. Even though it has dispersed now, they were colleagues in the past. Even Dragon Lord Xiyang came only by virtue of a shared origin. How could Shakya cultivators be permitted to interfere?”
Yuansu pondered for a moment, then added softly, “Master Shangyuan has always hated evil like an enemy; how could the northern Shakya cultivators tolerate him? In our path, at least three lineages despise him to the core. After all the scheming, Xiao Xianyou, Zhang Qiushui, Chi Wei, and Zipei were all drawn onto the board. At first, one thought they merely admired one another’s talents, but in the end, it was the Golden Core’s calculation. Only thus could it be executed without a trace.”
Li Xuanfeng asked, “I heard the Yuzhen fruit position was vacant. Does this mean that with Master Shangyuan’s breakthrough, he can ascend to the seat and become the Lord of Yuzhen?”
“One of three…”
“Eh?”
“Not to mention…” Yuansu paused, looking quietly at the black void in the distant sky, and said, “Do not underestimate them. The several great wars between immortals and demons reduced the inland to only ten or twenty percent of its original size, and the outer seas lost the greater half. How vast was the world back then!”
As he spoke, Li Xuanfeng noticed that within the span of burning a single stick of incense, the tide line on the reef had risen by two inches. Yuansu smiled and said, “The waters of the Four Seas fall into the Earth Abyss and rise again. When holes were torn in the heavenly canopy, seawater fell prematurely. Those holes in the sky are constantly pouring water down, filling the North Sea. The True Monarchs fought for several days, punching several windows through the sky of the North Sea, and then ascended into the Great Void.”
He pointed toward the pitch-black expanse of the northern sky to draw Li Xuanfeng’s attention. Li Xuanfeng squinted and saw large and small black holes dotting the stars, which he had found bizarre earlier.
“At present, the sea level of the North Sea is still continuously rising, while the other three seas are slowly receding.”
Li Xuanfeng asked softly, “Then what do we do now?”
Yuansu paused, gazing quietly at the black void in the distant sky, and replied, “Wait.”
Li Xuanfeng saw tears fall from Yuansu’s eyes, dripping onto the reef with crisp, pattering clicks. Yuansu continued, seemingly in high spirits, and said with a smile, “Xuanfeng, I brought nothing with me this time; I only wanted to give Situ Huo a few slaps across the face, so I brought along the Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal.”
He untied the small, pale-golden seal from his waist and placed it into Li Xuanfeng’s frozen, immobile right hand, chuckling, “This seal was given to me by Jiangqun. Chi Wei was envious of it for a long time. Back then, the few of us were still carefree. Chi Wei dared say anything, claiming this seal looked impressive and was bound to draw attention, which he liked best. I am about to pass away. Puyu saw it long ago, but found it awkward to say plainly to my face, so he made up an excuse. Calculating the time, the hour is near.”
Having said this, Yuansu slowly lowered his eyelids, closing his eyes as if weary.
The mournful sound of a flute drifted from Yuansu, echoing melodiously through the air. Leaning close to Li Xuanfeng, he whispered into his ear…
Li Xuanfeng looked down at the hem of his robe. The flute music in the sky grew more intense. Before him, Yuansu dissolved into a pool of clear water and vanished. The North Sea waters beneath the reef gave a mournful roar, and the ground rumbled beneath their feet. The entire sea was rising rapidly. The spot where Yuansu had passed away sank inward into unseen darkness. After ten breaths, an azure spring burst forth with a crash!
The spring water surged high into the sky before showering down like rain. In an instant, misty spray spread with the sea breeze, blanketing a hundred li in azure mist.
Li Xuanfeng removed his armor, placed it into his storage bag, and looked up. Five or six figures hovered in the sky—men, women, old, and young—each treading upon the colorful light of divine abilities in diverse hues. He vaguely recognized Xiao Chuting and Real Person Puyu, both bowing their heads solemnly. Another possessed a seasoned, hardened countenance, his stern face impassive, wearing the uniform of the Qingchi Sect. The remaining two were fairy maidens: one dressed in gold and wearing a veiled bamboo hat with hanging white gauze that hid her face; the other a female cultivator in purple, tilting her head in thought.
Holding that Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal, Li Xuanfeng knelt silently before the spring, his head bowed. The figures in the sky remained mute. Li Xuanfeng simply waited, reflecting coldly in his heart.
Chapter 526