by <unknown>
Tears rolled down the young man’s cheeks.
Even the normally boisterous Xin Huo had nothing to say as he viewed the scene in front of him through Zhong Yue’s eyes.
As soon as Zhong Yue’s tears dropped on the barrier, it rippled like a pool of clear water. All of a sudden, the skeletons inside of the barrier settled down.
The skeletons raised their heads up, revealing eye sockets on their glabella where the divine third eye would have been.
Then, from the divine third eye’s sockets, the Fuxi skeletons released bright divine rays that formed a light beam that pierced up into the sky.
Zhong Yue did not try to evade, standing steadfast on the ground as he became engulfed in the light.
Moments later, when the light faded away, Zhong Yue found himself sent out from the City of Nature again. This time, he was on a battlefield.
Torn banners fluttered with the wind. Divine weapons were strewn across the floor, and broken warships that crashed down from the sky littered the landscape.
Headless bodies and shattered corpses paved the ground and painted the land.
High up in the sky, hundreds of six-colored light wheels spun, resembling like the Six Paths Reincarnations.
These Six Path Reincarnations filled the sky, and there should’ve been some figures standing in front of the light wheels, but none could be seen.
Then, further away, Zhong Yue was startled to notice Mother Da Zhen.
She was in her insect form, it was a secondary body she had prepared for herself in the case she needed to give up on her old body. But the transition time between these bodies was also when she was at her most vulnerable. There was no way she could protect herself anymore if Zhong Yue wanted to kill her now.
But Zhong Yue moved his eyes away her to look further away. Mother Da Zhen was shocked and heaved a breath of relief after, “This brat, has he gone mad? Why would he let such a good chance slip away…”
Battles were taking place on the other side between the Fuxi and their enemies, and this was where Zhong Yue’s attention was currently directed.
Up high in the sky, huge hands extended out from the Six Paths Reincarnation wheels and slammed down. Along with the hands, many other divine weapons came down, slashing down at the Fuxi gods as well.
“Fuxi Clan!" An imposing voice reverberated the sky, “Your time has ended, your race is done. There is nothing you can do about it!”
“Give up and surrender yourselves!" another voice said.
“The Fuxi has lorded over the universe for too long, but even your Earth Order Era will eventually was bound to come to an end. Stop fighting and bow before us." It felt as if that voice alone could compel weaker individuals to unconditionally obey its every command.
“The Fuxi Celestial Race is defeated, there is not even a glimpse of hope left for you!" A lady’s sweet voice said, “From today onwards, there will be no more Fuxi. Swear your fealty, and you can continue living as the human race. We will not kill all of you…”
“The losers should bow before the winners, those who are defeated are in no place to negotiate. Bow down to us now!”
“Kneel!”
Many voices burst out from the high sky, “Heaven is kind and merciful, you will be spared from death! Lower your dignity and pride, kneel and you will survive. Are you all really going to fight to the bitter end?”
But no matter what words they spouted out, none of the Fuxi dignified it with a response. They all gritted their teeth and fought even harder in the battles.
“Then, I guess that leaves us with no choice. The Fuxi Clan will be wiped from existence."One of the voices sighed and said.
One after another, the Fuxi gods fell, and eventually, only a single Fuxi lady was left standing. She soon became surrounded by the enemies, and she soaked in the her enemies and of her own people.
“Kneel.”
The voice pressured on the lady again, “The 3,000 Six Paths Worlds have already been cleansed of Fuxi, you are the only one left. Kneel and we can let you go. This place will be yours to claim and you will spend the rest of your life in here. You are the last Fuxi alive, so we will let you live out your life with at least some dignity.”
The Fuxi lady raised her head and a contemptuous expression spread across her blood-stained face, she said, “In this world, no Fuxi will bend their knee! The only time we will do so is when we die fighting!”
Silence soon overcame the battlefield. Then, an indifferent voice said, “How stubborn, I don’t understand at all. Some of your allies have already sworn their loyalty to us. But you, why do you still persist? Is life not better than death, even if that life as one of subjugation?”
The words clearly struck a chord in her, she glared hatefully before bolting off into the sky. She was heading for the Six Paths Reincarnations and shot back loudly, “The Fuxi are never ones to bend the knee, the ones that do so ... are not Fuxi!”
Puck!
“There goes the last Fuxi, what a pity." A finger was seen casually pointing at her head and along with a soft sound of explosion, her decapitated body fell from the sky.
The light wheels in sets of six shuddered, it was as many magnificent existences were shaking their heads.
A deep sigh resounded the sky and it said, “If she knelt and conceded, we could have had some fun toying her.”
“Now, with the death of the last Fuxi, we can all ease our hearts. Nature, bury the corpses and seal them away. That way, they wouldn’t be able to do anything anymore, even after death.”
The Six Paths Reincarnations faded away. While suddenly, Mother Da Zhen leaped out and shouted loudly, “There is another Fuxi here! Don’t go, there is another young Fuxi here!”
The clouds darkened and a huge face was lowered down from the sky. It was the same face Zhong Yue had seen more than once.
It was none other than Patriarch Nature.
“Huh? It’s this brat again!" Patriarch Nature’s face was filled with surprise as he stared inquisitively at Zhong Yue. He ignored Mother Da Zhen and said while smiling, It's you again, little one. I am surprised, how are you still alive after everything that happened? But well, that doesn’t matter much anymore, you will die here now!”
A huge hand fell from the sky and reached for him, but Zhong Yue was placid. He stood still and waited for the huge hand to come at him.
“Finally, I have seen everything now…" Zhong Yue mumbled.
As soon as he finished mumbling, a burst of light swallowed everything away.
“I have finally seen through the mysteries of this city," Zhong Yue raised his head and stood stil as he stared at the sky of the City of Nature.
Rays flashed across his eyes and a cold expression radiated across his face. A distance away from him, Mother Da Zhen was sent back as well. As soon as she noticed Zhong Yue just a distance away from her, she gave a shriek cry before bolting away in fear.
“Da Zhen, I must thank you." Zhong Yue murmured, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to see through the mysteries of this city. As my token of gratitude, I will let you live for a little longer, you will be able to bear witness to the mysteries are revealed…”
Chapter 565: Do You Plead Guilty? |
In the pit, the Fuxi skeletons were dead quiet. Their heads were raised and their vacant eye sockets were staring at Zhong Yue.
They were already dead, but they seemed oblivious to that fact. They were still trying to escape, trying to fight!
Or to be precise, someone wanted them to do so, someone evil.
This evil existence knew the Fuxi died with deep resentment in their hearts. Even after death, their wills would linger in their bones and power in their skeletons would continue to fight even after death. Thus, the Fuxi skeletons were gathered together, and sealed in a pit so that their hatred and spiritual energy could be extracted.
The Fuxi Clan gods weren’t even spared from their suffering even after death, they weren’t even able to rest in peace. It was t
ruly a tragic fate…
“I will save you all, my people. I promise you I will." Zhong Yue stood up and walked away as he mumbled, “Now that I am here, you will be able to rest in peace…”
Mother Da Zhen was not far away from Zhong Yue, she was following him while glancing around in fright. Even the sound of a gentle breeze was enough to scare her into hiding.
The strange events in the city had traumatized her. Although she knew that Zhong Yue was her enemy, she still chose to stay closer to Zhong Yue, as that gave her a sense of security.
After all, it was the unknown that struck the greatest fear in one’s soul.
The strange and peculiar experiences she been through in the city made her to lose confidence. But what she gained, however, was the knowledge of the existence of an unknown force that lingers in this damned city.
But now, even with her being a god, her dignity as one was nowhere to be found!
Zhong Yue moved past the pit and strode toward the center of the City of Nature. Along the way, he was counting softly, “One, two, three, four… there should be five and six as well. Many of the gods under the Bi Xie Celestial Emperor died along the way, but the true calamity was still in the center of the city. There, they triggered something and that was what killed them all. Then, it meant that, they must been to six…”
“I should be in one now, then the first strange occurrence should be two, then back to one, then three then one, four and one again. So, the next to come should be five.”
Mother Da Zhen was not far away, she heard him mumbling and was puzzled, “He’s really gone mad? What one, two, three, four, five and six? Why is he counting simple numbers and what is he talking about? Did the horrible deaths of his people make him lose his mind? What a sad child, if we live through this, I promise you I will treat you nicely, making you the vessel for my best insects…”
They were drawing nearer to the city square and the roads around were like a maze, it was as if they were walking inside of a giant’s intestines, or maybe they really are.
There was a series of faint drumming noises, growing louder as they walked closer. Even the surroundings were shuddering along with the noises.
“Five, it is coming!”
Zhong Yue slowed his pace and glanced around, there were many huge skeletons around them.
These skeletons were the gods under Bi Xie Celestial Emperor’s commands. They died here along the streets while running away from the city square.
Just how strong were the gods?
Despite their strength, they were still like children in the face of the unknown existence in the city. All of their cultivation was sucked dry from them, their flesh rotted away and their spiritual energy was extracted out away from the skeletons, leaving them as nothing but a pile of fragile bones.
They couldn’t even escape and died in the city, dying without a glimpse of hope.
Zhong Yue could tell just how terrified the gods were from the skeletons as their skulls were distorted from the terrified expressions on their faces before death. Some of their jaws were opened incredibly wide, these were the gods that shouted and died in despair and there were some that gritted their teeth so hard that it shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile, there was a few that sat in the lotus position, they accepted their fate and died in peace while some others tried to fight back, but their efforts were clearly in vain.
Zhong Yue glanced around and tried to find any useful hints from the skeletons. Moments later, a golden glint caught his attention — it was a book.
The book was forged from divine gold, but the spiritual energy had long disappeared. It was nothing more than just ordinary gold. However, the words in it remained, it was written in the common language between the gods, recording everything they had encountered in the City of Nature.
It was from a courier of the West Barren divine court, a historiographer that recorded everything that happened in their journey and expedition with great detail.
Zhong Yue read the book and found many useful clues from it.
The gods had indeed explored many ancient secrets buried in the passage of time.
One of these secrets was that they were under a heavenly decree to exterminate the rebels.
Here, they were faced with strong resistance from the natives of Ancestral Star and the rebels but were still able to successfully execute the order with the help of many strong figures—the rebels were exterminated and the curtain was raised for the rise of a new era, a new world.
However in the last battle, the resistance from the rebels was too great that Patriarch Nature was gravely wounded and the army of gods suffered a great loss as well.
Furthermore, the extermination of the rebels was too sensitive an issue. If the universe were to find out about it, the related faction would be pressured greatly. Thus, that great existence didn’t allow the gods to live on to tell the tale, even Patriarch Nature was no exception.
So the surviving gods were left on the Ancestral Star to bury themselves with the rebels.
As for Patriarch Nature, that great existence’s own son, he had killed and used himself as the last seal to suppress the rebels even after death.
Who is this great existence that sent Patriarch Nature? The rebels they had been referring to was no doubt the Fuxi Celestial Race, but why did they say it is not honorable to exterminate the ‘rebels’?
Zhong Yue was puzzled. Exterminating the Fuxi rebels would grant Patriarch Nature and his army with a great war contribution, but why were they not rewarded and instead, demanded to die as well?
What was even more puzzling was that all of the gods and Patriarch Nature were willing to follow the order this order to prevent the secret from leaking.
‘The honor and glory of an eternal empire is often built atop a mountain of corpses.’ The golden book summarized in the end.
The book also recorded that they fought in the battlefield, it was as if they time travelled back to the ancient Dark Age and battled in the war. Many of them were killed.
Zhong Yue was bestirred, he carefully read through the book.
Some of the gods were sent to the middle of the heated war, they fought with their lives and died from the hands of the gods; some were sent to the sides of the captivated war prisoners, they were captured and planted with the divine herbs, eventually dying in the end.
The third time, they met and clashed directly with the strong figures, more than half of the surviving gods died on the spot.
The fourth time, they boarded an underground bridge, below them was a spooky river with mysterious creatures swimming in it. They even saw the faces of their dead friends in the water.
The spooky river billowed over violently and carried them away. When they stood back on their feet and opened their eyes, they were already in a grand palace. A jury was sitting in the center of the palace and they were put to trial. Many of them were deemed guilty and sentenced to death on the spot.
After that, they suddenly return back in the city.
The surviving gods continued traipsing to the center of the city. There, they found another City of Nature.
That was where the records stopped, whatever had happened next wasn’t recorded anymore.
They found another City of Nature and died in the last strange incident…, Zhong Yue closed the book and pondered, The fifth incident recorded in the golden book was actually the sixth one. The bizarre light rays from the underground is also another strange occurrence, which they failed to notice. As for the underground bridge they are talking about, it should be at…
He raised his head and saw an underground tunnel in front of him. There were the cold breezes blowing out from the hole which was actually the mouth of an ancient statue.
The statue was a beast with a peculiar appearance. It had the body of a sheep, face of a human, and the teeth of a tiger.
Zhong Yue looked at it for a few moments, then walked into its mouth and down the stairs. Soon after, he could hear the sound of wa
ter and spotted a narrow bridge that was built across the sides of a river.
His vision was heavily obstructed in the City of Nature, the furthest he could see was only half of the river’s width,leaving him with no idea as to how wide the river was.
The same went for the bridge. Half of it was swallowed in the dark, making it to appear as if it was inexplicably hanging unsupported in mid air, resembling a direct path into the mouth of a dark beast — it was a truly eerie sight.
The only one that followed me here is Mother Da Zhen, with her still alive now, I shouldn’t be seeing any faces of the dead in the river, should I?
Zhong Yue thought and he walked onto the bridge, heading toward the other end.
Hua-la—
The spooky river started billowing harder, the water current flowed faster and the waves were higher. There were also some shadowy figures looming in the waters!
All of a sudden, Zhong Yue’s body shuddered. He saw a face slowly floating up from the water.
It was the face of an old man—the old Fuxi that told him to not be afraid in the desert!
Immediately after, the faces of the Fuxi gods followed behind. They were the Fuxi gods he had encountered in the strange incidents before!
They were struggling in the river, raising their hands up and reaching out for Zhong Yue.
The water waves surged higher and their hands could then reach closer to him. Zhong Yue was then able to to clearly see their faces when the water waves gushed higher into the air.
Abruptly, a huge wave gushed over, but Zhong Yue never tried to move at all, he stood still allowing the many hands to grab onto him as he was swallowed by the river water.
Zhong Yue was washed away from the bridge.
“Do you plead guilty?”
Before Zhong Yue opened his eyes, a solemn and sonorous voice rumbled in his ears. He opened his third eye and saw the grand palace the golden book mentioned. The ancient statue he saw before was sitting in the center as the jury and beneath it were the atmans of the Fuxi gods.