“Father! Please spare us. Your daughter already knows her mistake.”
Yan Hanyu knelt and crawled forward, her hands reaching for the saint spear piercing Mo Cuo’s chest. But the moment she touched it, a powerful energy wave erupted, hurling her more than ten zhang away. She fell to the ground like a straw figure.
Yan Wen was cold and merciless. He said, “Shameless spawn, spare you? Who will spare us? Who will spare the Tianchu Civilization?”
“Sizzle! Sizzle!”
Flame divine flowers scattered from the saint spear, refining Mo Cuo’s immortal saint body.
“Ah!”
Mo Cuo could no longer endure the pain piercing his soul spirit. He bit through his teeth, letting out a hoarse scream.
Then, trembling, he said, “Do not beg… beg them. I came here… never intending to leave alive… Living together is indeed something to crave… But dying together, is that not also a beautiful vow?”
When he saw Yan Hanyu’s cultivation crippled, living miserably like a prisoner, yet powerless to help, dying together was already the most beautiful thing Mo Cuo could imagine.
He believed Yan Hanyu was willing.
Luo Mingshu was Yan Hanyu’s mother. She wore a daoist robe, holding a whisk, holy radiance flowing around her. She silently watched this pair of devoted lovers. For a fleeting moment, her heart softened. She wanted to spare them, even let them go.
But she knew she could not make such a decision, nor did she have the power to protect them.
Even if she did, they could not leave the Tianchu Civilization.
“Fine, I will fulfil your wish!”
Yan Wen twisted the arm holding the saint spear fiercely. Immediately, dense cracks appeared on Mo Cuo’s immortal saint body. Saint blood flowed faster!
Yan Hanyu glanced at Luo Mingshu one last time, hoping her always-caring mother would intervene. Her eyes were filled with infinite longing and pleading.
But all she saw was her mother’s helpless face, eyes closed, as if afraid to meet her gaze.
Her final hope shattered. Yan Hanyu seemed to die inside. She stopped crying. Her gaze turned icy. Slowly, she supported her frail body and stood from the ground.
“Clang!”
“Clang!”
…
Dragging the chains on her body, she walked step by step towards Yan Wen and Mo Cuo, murmuring, “Dying together is the most beautiful vow in the world! It is only a pity that this vow came too early. But it does not matter. I knew this day would come eventually…”
She seized the saint spear in Yan Wen’s hand. “Father, why must you kill? Let us do it ourselves!”
This time, Yan Wen could not bear to blast her away again. Shocked by the coldness on her face, he stepped back twice.
As a father, how could he truly be heartless?
The ones to kill Yan Hanyu and Mo Cuo were not him, Yan Wen, but the rules of the universe, the pressure from Heaven and Hell, the will of all beings.
Though Yan Hanyu’s cultivation was crippled, she still possessed a great saint-level body. She pulled the saint spear from Mo Cuo’s body, squatted down, and embraced him.
Yan Hanyu stroked the wound on Mo Cuo’s chest. “Coming to the Tianchu Civilization was really foolish of you.”
“And returning to the Tianchu Civilization, was that not foolish of you?” Mo Cuo managed a difficult smile.
Yan Hanyu said, “But I am happy.”
“So am I.”
Mo Cuo circulated the saint qi in his body towards his saint source.
Both Yan Wen and Luo Mingshu were at the demi-god realm and could mobilise the arrays in the City Lord Mansion. Naturally, they feared no self-detonation from Mo Cuo. Their hearts ached, yet they were helpless.
“Whoosh!”
A brilliant divine light bloomed above their heads, suppressing the saint qi in Mo Cuo’s body.
Melodious divine sounds rang out. “If you cripple your own cultivation, this god can grant you both a path to life.”
Yan Wen and Luo Mingshu were greatly shocked. They quickly bowed towards the source of the divine light. “Greetings, Mother God!”
Joy and surprise filled them. Joy because Qing Shen had intervened, giving their daughter a chance to live. Surprise because Qing Shen disliked meddling in worldly affairs, yet today she would defy the world to save two cultivators the entire Tianchu Civilization wanted dead.
But Qing Shen had reason to intervene. She was Luo Mingshu’s birth mother, Yan Hanyu’s grandmother.
The cold, empty eyes of Yan Hanyu gradually regained light, like the sun slowly rising in winter. Overjoyed, she wept, kneeling towards the divine light. “Thank you, thank you, divine one, thank you, Grandmother…”
Qing Shen’s voice rang out again. “Are you willing to cripple your cultivation? From now on, live incognito with Hanyu in a place where no one knows you. This god will declare to the world that you have been executed.”
Mo Cuo supported his wounded body to stand, glanced at Yan Hanyu, then saluted Qing Shen.
“Crack!”
Shura murderous qi surged from him. The sound of his saint source shattering echoed. Instantly, his skin turned deathly pale. He nearly collapsed.
Moments later, Yan Hanyu supported the gravely injured Mo Cuo into the hall, kneeling before Qing Shen.
“Crack!”
The sound of breaking rang out. Yan Hanyu looked down to see the chains on her body severed by a divine light.
Then, a vast life force surged into her and Mo Cuo’s bodies. Their pained and exhausted forms felt like a desert irrigated by spiritual springs. In an instant, they became relaxed, comfortable, full of vitality, as if never injured.
They looked up to see a young man in a daoist robe seated on the chair.
Mo Cuo exclaimed in shock, “It is you, Zhang Ruochen. No, Realm Venerable Ruochen…”
“Thank you, Realm Venerable Ruochen, for healing us.”
Though shocked and full of questions, with their current status, how dare they ask?
Zhang Ruochen was no longer the great saint targeted by Hell Realm forces on the Hunting Heaven Battlefield. He had become a realm venerable shaking the world, divine envoy of Tianmu.
He could stand equal with great gods.
Zhang Ruochen smiled. “Rise. From now on, you two will follow me! Though you lose your cultivation, you need not involve yourselves in Heaven and Hell’s rights and wrongs. To depend on the one you love, I truly envy you.”
Qing Shen stood in the divine mist, silent.
She truly could not fathom Zhang Ruochen. Why, as a god, would he save two cultivators completely unrelated to him?
In the eyes of most gods, those below divinity were ants.
Even their own children, aside from the most outstanding few, were no different from ants.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze fixed on Mo Cuo. His heart stirred slightly. “You entered the Tianchu Civilization with the Shura clan army, right?”
“Yes,” Mo Cuo said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Have the Shura clan gods all left the Tianchu Civilization? Or have you noticed anything strange?”
Since the Death Clan’s Heavenly God Priest and the Luocha clan gods were lurking,
Zhang Ruochen guessed other major Hell Realm clans likely had gods involved in tonight’s events.
But he held little hope. With Mo Cuo’s great saint cultivation, he could not know such secrets or contact gods.
“Matters of gods, Mo Cuo does not know,” Mo Cuo said.
Zhang Ruochen and Qing Shen exchanged glances, both showing disappointment.
Suddenly, Mo Cuo recalled something. “However… on my way secretly to Doushuai City, in a sea area, I sensed residual aura from a Shura clan god. My sensing ability has always been strong. I can detect many clues from subtle signs.”
“Merely residual aura from a Shura clan god. When the Hell Realm army invaded, spatial cracks were everywhere,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Mo Cuo said, “Besides the Shura clan god’s aura, there was also a Heaven god’s aura, very faint, likely deliberately erased. But some merged into the water and lingered.”
Qing Shen’s expression shifted greatly. She quickly asked, “Which Heaven god’s aura?”
Mo Cuo shook his head, indicating he did not know. “I only smelled a faint peach blossom fragrance!”
“Peach blossom?”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes lit up. “Someone from the Heaven Assassination Organization?”
Qing Shen said, “Impossible! If a god from the Heaven Assassination Organization came to Doushuai City, with our clan’s control over the Tianchu Civilization, there would be some news. Unless, like you, they had a mental power expert above ninetieth order helping. But how could that be?”
Zhang Ruochen’s face darkened deeply. “There is another god also connected to peach blossoms.”
“You mean…”
Qing Shen had thought of that god. Her face changed dramatically, for that god was currently at the Fire Seed Conference venue.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Lord Lan from the Cha Realm. Legend says his true form is a peach mountain.”
“I will see Jincheng immediately and have him use divine arrays to suppress Lord Lan. Even if wrong, we cannot let Lord Lan and Hell Realm gods ruin the Fire Seed Conference. The consequences are too grave. No one knows what destructive means the Hell Realm gods brought.”
Zhang Ruochen stopped Qing Shen. “We are only speculating Lord Lan based on peach blossom fragrance. No one knows if he truly contacted Shura clan gods. Suppressing him directly would not only incite public anger but alert the enemy. There may be more than one god at the Fire Seed Conference secretly aligned with the Hell Realm.”
“What is City Lord Zhang’s wise plan?” Qing Shen was urgent, unwilling to wait a moment.
Zhang Ruochen said, “I will probe him!”
“How? What if you are exposed?” Qing Shen asked.
Zhang Ruochen donned the mask painted by Taishang again, transforming into Daoist Yellow Ox. “I believe no one at the Fire Seed Conference can see through my true identity. Yiman, I need all records on Lord Lan from the moment he gained sentience. How soon can you get them?”
“Madam Realm Venerable anticipated Your Excellency would use the Twelve Booths’ intelligence system. I have already compiled records on all gods who came to the Tianchu Civilization.”
“This is Lord Lan’s!”
Yiman presented a jade book with both hands to Zhang Ruochen.
