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Chapter 549: Jadelight
🕑 Added 2024-12-27 14:00:10 +0000 UTCTianyi’s breath hitched. ‘I knew it.’
When his conduit sneaked into the Crystal Palace to kill San Jiuling, he had noticed a certain gaze. It was from someone he had never seen before, but it felt familiar in a way. The only two other people Tianyi had felt the same sensation from were the Sūryaḥ Buddha and the Concealed Emperor.
From that moment, Tianyi suspected that there was a divinity backing the Demon Clan. For some reason, the oppression disappeared, and he successfully ended San Jiuling’s life. However, for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why the Demon Clan’s divinity did not take action.
It wasn’t until now that Tianyi identified the source of that oppression.
“Perfected Huanglong!” Demon Emperor Redraco called out. He, along with the other demons, bowed respectfully.
Tianyi felt as if a bomb had exploded in his mind. ‘Perfected Huanglong? Isn’t that one of the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning’s disciple, one of the Twelve Golden Immortals? Is he someone who took up that title, an inheritor, or the original?’
He didn’t think the dragon was an imposter. The Immortal Court cited its inheritance from the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning as justification for its rule over the Primordial Realm. Now that an actual disciple of the Jade Pure Heavenly Lord appeared, he felt a bit awkward.
Of course, Tianyi could be the only one that felt that way. It would not be the first time a person or force claimed legitimacy through being a descendant. Equally likely was that the others did not have the confidence to stay alive in front of a divinity. After all, why would they think about whether or not Perfected Huanglong would find trouble with them over their proclaimed status, when all they were thinking about was how to survive?
Tianyi frowned. He looked back to see the seal formed by Shangri-La break, exposing the dormant Black Tortoise. The divine beast’s size had decreased, but it was still massive nonetheless. The tortoise disappeared and when it reappeared; he was already next to Perfected Huanglong.
‘His mastery of the Law of Space has exceeded my mastery over the Law of Spacetime,’ Tianyi concluded. He felt the fluctuations of space, but not time. Still, he was not that surprised. If the yellow dragon was the Perfected Huanglong from the myths, it wouldn’t be strange no matter what mastery of law he showed.
The Black Tortoise’s dull eyes regained their clarity. He blinked a bit and finally noticed his situation. He bowed his head to the yellow dragon. “Thank you, Huanglong.”
Tianyi was even more sure that the yellow dragon was Perfected Huanglong from the myths. If he wasn’t, then the Black Tortoise, the only member of the Four Divine Beast to survive from the primordial era, would not have directly called him Huanglong. Calling him Perfected Huanglong would not dispel the suspicions. Only if Xuanwu called the yellow dragon a different name would Tianyi think the yellow dragon was not the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning’s disciple.
No one knew what method the yellow dragon divinity used to stop the decline of the Black Tortoise’s soul, but they did not have the luxury of questioning either because the pressure exuding from Perfected Huanglong intensified as his eyes scanned the humans. He finally stopped on Tianyi, causing him to feel like he was sweating buckets, even though it was no longer physically possible for him.
Tianyi didn’t fear for his life, but he needed to assure Daoyi’s life. The conduit he left on Daoyi was not strong enough to open a portal in the presence of a divinity. Only his level three conduit could.
The morale of the humans plummeted to the abyss, while it was the exact opposite for the demons.
Demon Emperor Redraco didn’t know why Perfected Huanglong was so unwilling to take action before this, or even the previous wars with the humans, but now that he finally appeared, Demon Emperor Redraco knew that the Demon Clan’s victory was all but assured. Once the divine dragon killed all the humans here, the Demon Clan would move and hide their Divine Beast Pseudo System, waiting to restore their strength so they could exact revenge on the Primordial and Numinous Realms.
Emperor Southsword gritted his teeth. His body was trembling, but he glared unyieldingly at Perfected Huanglong and forced his body to stand straight. Many other sword monarchs had already buckled under the pressure, falling to their knees in the void. Those that hadn’t were hunched over despite their efforts. Their heart was willing, but their body was weak.
‘Dammit, if only the Numinous Sword Sect had a divinity!’ Emperor Southsword thought in despair. He had already prepared himself for death, but even in death, he was unwilling to bow.
Unnoticed by Emperor Southsword, Bao Ling stood calmly in the void. He was still hugging his sword, his eyes calm and unperturbed. It was as if the pressure emitted by Perfected Huanglong did not exist in his world.
Aside from Bao Ling, there was another person who remained calm. He was Minister Everpast. When the divine yellow dragon appeared, he only showed a modicum of shock. He was more surprised by Perfected Huanglong’s advent, rather than his existence.
As if sensing something, Minister Everpast looked up.
White light cascaded down onto the humans, freeing them from the divine dragon’s pressure. The light continued to flow, but once it reached a certain point, an earthen yellow barrier obstructed it, preventing it from shrouding the demons.
A colossal humanoid wearing imperial jade green robes arrived. All the immortals present added up could not compare to him in mass or height, but compared to the divine yellow dragon, he looked tiny. The aura he emitted, however, was not one whit inferior to the dragon.
With the pressure gone, Minister Everpast took the lead in kneeling. “We welcome the Concealed Emperor.”
Although many members of the Immortal Court heard of the Concealed Emperor, few had met him. For most of them, this was the first time. Few foolish people could cultivate to reach the Immortal Realm. They all soon realized that the Concealed Emperor was not an immortal emperor, but a divinity just like Perfected Huanglong.
Most of the sword immortals also knelt and thanked the Concealed Emperor. Only a few, like Bao Ling, remained still. However, they did not remain unperturbed, like Emperor Southsword.
‘Dammit, dammit! How is this possible?!’ Even someone who experienced wind and rain like him couldn’t remain calm at this revelation. The appearance of the divine dragon was already shocking enough, but it was possible that Perfected Huanglong used a method akin to the Black Tortoise. Only, he was more successful than his counterpart and managed to regain his divinity.
Such a divinity would take millions of years to regain their full strength, according to the knowledge the Numinous Sword Sect gained. The Numinous Sword Sect still had the confidence to withstand such a divinity’s attack, especially with their trump card. If that failed, they could ally with the Immortal Court, but if the Immortal Court had their own divinity, why would they choose to cooperate with the Numinous Sword Sect over the Demon Clan?
Just because they were both humans? Don’t make him laugh.
The goddess who created the humans was a demon. If that was taken into consideration, humans could be considered a subspecies of demons. Ones born with weaker bodies but with spirituality.
Emperor Southsword had thought the Numinous Sword Sect and Immortal Court were on equal footing, but now he knew that was anything but the truth. He knew that the Concealed Emperor appeared before the founding era of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Before, he had thought the Concealed Emperor was a title, one passed down from successor to successor.
It was impossible for an immortal to live millions of years in the contemporary era, even an immortal sovereign. Now it made sense. The Concealed Emperor wasn’t an immortal but a divinity all along?
Now comes the question, why did he hide his appearance until now? For that matter, why did Perfected Huanglong also hide his appearance until now?
Even if they won the war against the Demon Clan, Emperor Southsword could foresee the difficult situation of the Numinous Sword Sect in the future. The Numinous Sword Sect had always thought they would produce a divinity before the Immortal Court, but it seemed that they needed to pour all their efforts into producing a divinity.
Even a Divinity of Faith was fine, as long as they had someone capable of countering the Concealed Emperor.
The Concealed Emperor paid no heed to the immortals and smiled at Perfected Huanglong like an old friend. “Junior Brother, the Demon Clan lost.”
“Hmpf, don’t call me Junior Brother, you mere clone,” Perfected Huanglong said.
“I am indeed a clone, but I still share the same origin as the Main Body, your senior brother,” the Concealed Emperor said.
“That doesn’t make you my senior brother, Jadelight. Enough, I want Senior Brother to come out and speak to me.”
The Concealed Emperor didn’t show any emotion at Perfected Huanglong’s words. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. The Main Body has fallen with the Immortal Court at the end of the primordial era.”
A melancholic silence pervaded the two’s surroundings. After their first sentence, both of them sealed the surroundings so that the immortals and demons below them could not listen in on their conversation.
“In the end, even he fell, leaving only behind you, the former Jade Emperor,” Perfected Huanglong said, his gaze boring into the Concealed Emperor.
“Although I survived, I’m but a shade of my former self without the blessing of the Immortal Court,” the Concealed Emperor admitted. “I have to congratulate you. Now that you’ve managed to free yourself from the shackles of immortal godhood, it’s only a matter of time before you regain your former power and rise even higher. Still, I should still possess enough power to equal the current you.”
Silence remained between the two, but sparks clashed. It seemed to be able to light the tense atmosphere and cause an explosion at any moment.
“That remains to be seen,” Perfected Huanglong said, fighting intent spilling out from his dragon eyes. “Even if my power is restricted, my flesh has not regressed with my essence.”
“Be that as it may, have you forgotten that when the two of us are occupied, the immortals and demons will fight it out? Even if you freed and saved Xuanwu’s life, do you think it will change the end result? You are only prolonging the inevitable,” the Concealed Emperor said.
Perfected Huanglong stayed silent. Finally, he spoke. “I should have killed the Nine Heavens Emperor when I had the chance.”
“Even if you killed his incarnation, it would do nothing. He has countless incarnations, and even divinities like us can’t accurately sense him if he wants to hide. He’s not even entangled by causality. In fact, I doubt Master could kill him even if he erased all of that boy’s incarnations,” the Concealed Emperor said.
The silence lengthened between the two as Perfected Huanglong tried to think of a way to overturn the situation, but nothing he thought of would work. And the Concealed Emperor was happy to let Perfected Huanglong ruminate over his choices. He believed the divine dragon would concede.
“If the Demon Clan surrenders, what will happen?”
The Concealed Emperor smiled. He knew that Perfected Huanglong didn’t have too much feelings for the Demon Clan, or rather, the True Dragon Clan. The Dragon Clan expelled him before he became a disciple of the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning. Besides, comparing the current dragons to the dragons in the beginning of the primordial era was like comparing a chicken to a tyrannosaurus. They may share a link, but they could no longer be considered the same species.
Rather than a sense of belonging, Perfected Huanglong wanted to use the Demon Clan for his own ends, a force controlled by him alone.
“The Immortal Court and Numinous Sword Sect will each take forty-five percent of the Demon Clan’s entire wealth. You will keep ten percent. As for the demons, as long as they surrender, they can join either force.”
“Oh?” Perfected Huanglong uttered. “What if I join the Numinous Sword Sect and oppose you?”
Comments
Duy
Damn so out of five major factions, only the numinous sword sect has no divinity
Zaim İpek
Interesting.
