Su Huaiying, Zhang Zhizhou, and Mo Xu had all been tense, their thoughts racing with speculation, until they heard the name "Chen Kuang."
The instant it was spoken, all three of them, almost involuntarily, let out a sigh of relief.
Without realizing it, that name had become a kind of anchor of calm to everyone who knew him.
No matter how treacherous or impossible the situation, as long as it had something to do with him, there always seemed to be a sliver of hope.
Even so, they did not fully lower their guard.
After all, although Chen Kuang had repeatedly accomplished feats that defied common sense, they had never heard of him being connected to a true dragon.
Yu Xuelong had long since noticed their wary gazes. She glanced at the three of them, then suddenly dissolved into a swirl of white mist. In an instant, the storm dispersed and the skies cleared.
The massive white dragon vanished, replaced by a chubby little girl.
She looked as though she had been carved from snow and jade, her skin and hair pure white, her golden eyes dazzling. Draped over her shoulders was a tattered raincloak woven from shells, coral, and fish bones.
If Chen Kuang had been present, he would have recognized it at once. This was the raincloak she had worn back when she was still nothing more than a length of bamboo rope, before becoming a dragon. Every ornament adorning it was a treasure she had collected over the years.
She looked at the three humans, lifted her chin proudly, and said:
"Chen Kuang is my father. He told me to bring this monk to you."
Su Huaiying's eyes went wide. For the first time in many years, she completely lost her composure.
"Your father?!"
Yu Xuelong frowned.
"Why is it that every time I tell someone he's my father, they react like this? Is it really that strange?"
Strange? It was utterly absurd, absurd enough to overturn common sense itself!
That man had spent the past ten years playing music in the imperial palace. How could he possibly have a child?
What, with some lonely palace maid or concubine?
But even if that were the case, how could the child turn out to be a true dragon?
Another thought surfaced in Su Huaiying's mind.
"If he's gone and become someone else's father... then what about my mother?"
And then, almost without meaning to..
"...what about me?"
The tiny empress's heart was suddenly shrouded in a bitterness she could neither name nor understand.
Fortunately, while Su Huaiying spiraled into inner turmoil, Zhang Zhizhou seemed to grasp something. After a long moment of thought, realization struck him.
"I remember now," he murmured.
Zhang Zhizhou narrowed his eyes.
"Before I asked Chen Kuang to enter the Ancient Battlefield on my behalf, he made a strange request. He said he wanted to go to a river in the Yang Kingdom to 'take care of some business.'"
"At the time, I sensed that the river was saturated with powerful spiritual energy. It felt mysterious, but I didn't think too much of it."
"Now that I see you, I finally understand what that feeling was."
"He must have found you beneath that river, didn't he?"
Zhang Zhizhou could not help but sigh.
"He actually knew the site where a true dragon would be born..."
That was something even he could not calculate.
Hearing this, Su Huaiying and Mo Xu both came to an understanding.
Yu Xuelong, on the other hand, was completely confused. From her point of view, she was her father's blood descendant. Why did they keep saying he had "found" her?
Wasn't it obvious that she had been "born" from him?
But clearly, these humans did not understand, and she was too lazy to explain.
Since she was indeed acting on her father's orders, there was no longer any need to question her identity.
Mo Xu turned his gaze to Xiuxin.
"So the Pure Land branded you a traitor and issued a kill order because you learned the truth."
Xiuxin finally calmed herself. She pressed her palms together and bowed solemnly.
"Exactly."
She then recounted the entire sequence of events in detail, ending with a heavy sigh.
"At first, I thought he had been possessed by a Heavenly Demon, or that he was even the mastermind behind my downfall. Only after seeing all this did I realize that it was all part of his plan. He deliberately released me so that I could deliver the warning."
Su Huaiying asked, "And how is he now?"
Xiuxin replied gravely:
"If he truly were a Heavenly Demon, he would already be riding the winds and summoning the rain, revered, powerful, invincible. But he is not."
"So he walks on the edge of a blade with every step."
Zhang Zhizhou shook his head.
"He's probably used to it by now. Since he chose to remain in the Pure Land, he must have his reasons. We should focus on what we need to do."
Su Huaiying made a swift decision.
"The Yang Kingdom borders the Western Desert. If the Pure Land has become a nest of demons, we will be the first target. We must immediately unite the neighboring nations and establish a covert defensive line."
The Yang and Zhou Kingdoms, east and west, were the twin pillars of the Central Domain.
Now, with Mount Xunmi collapsed and the Zhou Dynasty's border defenses in ruins, nearly every major cultivator had been sent to the front lines.
The Yang Kingdom had only just exhausted itself in an unprecedented civil war.
If the Pure Land became another invasion route for the Night Barbarians, attacking from both sides, the consequences would be unimaginable.
That was likely why Chen Kuang had sent Xiuxin straight to Su Huaiying.
Mo Xu took a deep breath, finally understanding the ruthless cunning of the Night Barbarians.
"There are countless sects in this world. Even if people suspect that Mysterious Divine Path Sect has fallen, no one would ever doubt the Pure Land."
"If Chen Da-ge hadn't uncovered this scheme, the Pure Land would have fallen silently, and the Central Domain would have been trapped like a turtle in a jar."
Zhang Zhizhou's expression grew solemn.
"Just a few days ago, the Zhou court sent word that the front lines were in dire straits. The Night Barbarian King has personally taken the field. Reinforcements have suffered heavy losses, and they have been forced to request aid from Saints of every nation."
Su Huaiying already knew this. At the time, she had even sneered.
"Requesting aid? Why doesn't Ji Chengtian send the Eastern Sovereign himself?"
The reincarnation of the Eastern Sovereign had been missing for years, that was a fact known to all.
Thus, the Zhou Dynasty only dispatched Yan Taiyi, the Supreme Elder of the San Jie Sect.
Ji Chengtian's excuse was simple: the Eastern Sovereign's whereabouts were unknown, so they had no choice but to seek help elsewhere.
To make the matter more convincing, Ji Chengtian even brought forth the long retired Sword Saint, Pei Hanzheng.
Yes, that same Pei Hanzheng who had vanished for years and was widely believed to be dead.
It turned out that the legendary swordsman, wielder of the famed blade "Good Sword," had been living in hiding as an old beggar.
For reasons unknown, Pei Hanzheng had refused to reclaim his identity all these years.
Yet now, Ji Chengtian had dragged him back into the open.
With Pei Hanzheng stepping forward, there was no longer any excuse for other Saints to remain idle.
Aside from sect leaders and masters, the two most eye catching arrivals were the Sage of Literature, Master Fuzi, emerging from the Mountain of Liberty, and the Sage of Music, Xi Mengquan, who had once shattered the world's mountain and river harmonics with a single melody.
Yes, the elusive Sage of Music, Xi Mengquan, half of Chen Kuang's mysterious tutelage, had also appeared on the Northern Plains battlefield, accompanied by a mighty Kunpeng.
Meanwhile, the Sage of Devotion, Lu Zhexuan, refused to leave the Liang Kingdom, while Lin Qingya, the Wu Wei Saint of the Mysterious Divine Path Sect, was reportedly seen riding his deer backward, leaping straight into the heart of battle.
The convergence of so many Saints sent shockwaves throughout the realm.
At the same time, public opinion pushed the Yang Kingdom directly onto the pyre.
Originally, Su Huaiying had planned that once Mo Xu emerged from seclusion, she would send him to the front lines, and at the same time release Princess Wangshu, who had been suppressed by the weight of national destiny.
Su Huaiying had spoken with her long ago. Although sealed, the princess was not cut off from the world. She was deeply disappointed in the current generation of the Wen clan, but her heart still belonged to the nation and its people.
Su Huaiying had even unearthed ancestral records, claiming that her great-great-great-grandmother had once been a princess of Yang who married into the royal house, thus making Wangshu, by some stretch, a legitimate heir.
Wangshu saw through the fabrication immediately.
But in this desperate hour, with the nation teetering on the brink and fate in disarray, she chose to agree.
That had been the original plan.
Now, however, with every Saint's attention focused on the Northern Plains, an ambush against the hollowed rear would be catastrophic.
Su Huaiying sneered coldly.
"Now it seems... Ji Chengtian's true intentions are harder to read than ever."
She decided at once.
Wangshu Yuanjun, Mo Xu, and Yu Xuelong would remain in the Yang Kingdom while she constructed the defensive line. Zhang Zhizhou would contact his master.
There was still one crucial person left: Qi Sibai of the Heavenly Observatory Division.
The same Qi Sibai who had once helped Chen Kuang in Ji Shao Prefecture, only to have his divination intercepted and his destiny seized by Chen Kuang himself.
Now a frontline fighter against the Night Barbarians, Qi Sibai's cultivation was only at the Moon Embracing Realm. His achievements were unremarkable, his ranking on the Canglang Rankings a respectable but unexceptional thirty fourth.
But there was one thing that only he could do.
He bore the name of the Heavenly Observatory Division.
Everyone in the Central Domain knew that the Heavenly Observatory Division could "see fate."
Even if it sounded like superstition, all major sects accepted it.
In ancient times, the Heavenly Observatory Division had predicted the fall of the Human Emperor.
Now, no matter who accused the Pure Land, the claim would first be met with doubt, wasting precious time.
But if Qi Sibai made the declaration...
People's hearts would tremble.
And if a Saint stood behind him, the message would carry near unquestionable authority.
...
Endless slaughter.
Qi Sibai picked up a longsword from the ground, rose once more, and looked toward the horizon where the Night Barbarians' banners stretched endlessly.
The wind roared in his ears, and for a moment, he felt dazed.
"Why does it feel like they never end?"
That question had haunted him since he arrived on the Northern Plains battlefield.
Deep down, everyone knew the answer.
The Night Barbarians fed on human flesh. As long as war continued and people kept dying, they would multiply at a terrifying rate.
Even a single survivor could consume the dead and give birth to an entire tribe.
And here, there were tens of millions.
That was why the fall of Mount Xunmi was so catastrophic.
As long as the Night Barbarians could not cross the mountain, the Central Domain only had to face their vanguard.
This was how the realm had survived for ten thousand years.
But now... Mount Xunmi had fallen.
Qi Sibai looked into the distance.
The towering mountain range had collapsed into rolling hills, now crowned with fluttering banners and countless corpses.
It was no longer a barrier against the tide.
He sighed.
Who could have imagined that Mount Xunmi would fall?
Once, the Human Emperor had sealed it with ancient Celestial Vastness Realm techniques, beyond even the Saints.
Yet it had still collapsed.
Perhaps... it was not without reason.
Qi Sibai recalled the message his master had left him before his death.
"The Heavenly Demons are cunning. They intend to use humans to sow discord among humans."
Qi Sibai had asked at once, "Is this a dead end, or is there a way out?"
His master replied,
"There is a way. Humans also possess wisdom. One can slay demons with demons."
For days, Qi Sibai had pondered those words.
Slay demons with demons? How?
Could he turn the Seventy Two Tribes to their side?
Impossible.
The Night Barbarians were born to devour humans. Their nature was irreconcilable. To them, humans were livestock.
Just as cattle could never persuade humans, humans could never sway the Night Barbarians.
And yet, the lines continued to retreat. Only after the Saints entered the battlefield did the tide begin to turn.
Even so, the Night Barbarians, nurtured by blood soaked war, grew stronger by the day.
Besides King Ahos himself, there were already four more figures at the Daoist Shore Realm.
Each was a priest of a Night Barbarian tribe.
And legend said this was not their limit.
Behind them lurked even older monsters, perhaps survivors from the Celestial Vastness Realm era.
For countless years, they had hidden in the Northern Plains, sharpening their blades in the dark.
Now, they were ready to plunge them into the heart of the Central Domain.
Rumble!
Another deafening roar shook the battlefield.
With Saints now active, the entire front teetered on collapse. Such tremors were no longer rare.
Qi Sibai's heart jolted. He sensed someone reaching out to him.
He took out a transmission jade slip, a channel used only by his sect.
But the one contacting him was neither disciple nor master.
And yet... not a stranger.
"Zhang Zhizhou?"
Qi Sibai made a quick calculation and frowned.
He was friends with Lin Eryou, so he naturally knew Zhang Zhizhou, the senior brother of Liberty Mountain, that madman obsessed with seeking a once in a lifetime emperor.
They knew of each other, but rarely spoke.
Why would Zhang Zhizhou borrow a Heavenly Observatory jade slip now?
Qi Sibai closed his eyes and received the message.
Surprise flashed across his face, then solemnity.
He sat down on the spot and began divining.
After a long while, Qi Sibai opened his eyes and looked up at the starless sky, where several stars had just gone dark.
No one else noticed.
But for the first time in seventeen thousand years, the lone disciple of the Heavenly Observatory Division once again glimpsed the threads of destiny.
He stared for a long time, then brushed the dust from himself and stood, smiling bitterly.
"So that was my fate all along. Right before my eyes, yet always just out of reach."
A few days later...
A chilling prophecy spread across the Northern Plains, spoken by Qi Sibai, the last heir of the Heavenly Observatory Division.
"The Heavenly Demons are cunning. They use humans to divide humans. Beneath the Bodhi Tree, Buddha shall slay Buddha."
The meaning was unmistakable.
It pointed directly at the Pure Land.
The backlash was immediate. Thousands of cultivators had once benefited from the Pure Land. Disbelief and denial surged like a storm.
But the Heavenly Observatory Division was too special.
Even though it had nearly vanished over the past millennium, even with only one disciple remaining, its mystique had never faded.
And now, Master Fuzi, the Sage of Literature, stepped forward to endorse the claim.
But the demons hidden among the cultivators were even more terrifying.
The very next day, a disciple of the Pure Land, no, a Heavenly Demon, exposed himself and committed suicide.
Before dying, he sneered,
"Could you tell I was a demon? If not, how can you be sure the others aren't? Even the Three Great Chan Masters were possessed. If Saints can fall, who among you is truly safe?"
Everyone present turned pale.
If not for the presence of the Saints, the panic would have been far worse.
But now... even the Saints were no longer symbols of safety.
They had become harbingers of fear.
...
"How clever," Shen Xingzhu murmured.
Her face was youthful and bright, yet eerily still, not even her brows twitching.
She had not switched back yet. This was still her sister Shen Meinan's body.
She looked toward the drowned city ahead, buried beneath a storm of snow and ice. Night Barbarian war banners snapped violently in the wind.
Her gaze was as cold as steel.
"But this time... I won't gamble on anyone's heart again."
"Wherever you came from... I will bury you there."
Shen Xingzhu drew her sword. As the blade scraped across the snow covered ground, it carved out a long, reversed trail.