Chapter 115 – I Myself Will Guard the Mortal Realm
A white moon, seen once in an eternity, rose in the Great Wilderness, illuminating the pupils of the living and the dead. Countless dead souls, skeletons, and surviving Wilderness Emissaries raised their heads in unison, all gazing up at this white moon. The moonlight shone on the faces of the dead souls, their indistinct features growing bewildered. The moonlight shone into the empty eye sockets of the skeletons, and they subconsciously reached for the white moon… They had wandered in the darkness for too long, so long they had forgotten what the sun and moon looked like. Only the Wilderness Emissaries screamed and fled.
Amidst the flurry of shattered bones, the white-robed Divine Lord spun, his great sleeves whirling. The sword in his hand had vanished; no one could see its form any longer, only the moonlight that enveloped him completely. He was the sword, he was the moon. He was the pristine clarity of heaven and earth. Dead souls evaporated in the moonlight, skeletons were pulverized, and all the hands reaching out from the black miasma—be they human, demon, or devil—were utterly destroyed.
Shattered bones fell like rustling leaves, as if an unprecedented snow was falling upon the Great Wilderness. The layers of flying snow propped up the full moon. At its most brilliant moment, the full moon was interrupted. Two giant hands that had once carried the sun seized the moon’s shadow from both sides. The sword formed from the twelve flying swords collided with it, striking out only a blinding, dark fire. The giant hands, amidst the shattered moonlight, suddenly clapped together, like catching a dancing snow butterfly, intending to crush Chou Bodeng in their palms.
“Divine Lord!”
Gui Guzi’s pupils shrank, and he took a step forward. The giant hands struck together with a sound like mountains colliding. The moon’s shadow completely disappeared. But it failed to catch the snow butterfly. The moment the mountains met, Chou Bodeng shot straight up, landing nimbly on the giant hands’ fingertips. His broken sword hung low, and his broad sleeves rustled down from his illusory, glowing white forearms, like the soft wings of a mayfly spirit settling in Chao City. He looked down and saw an old friend.
Kuafu.
The long-dead Kuafu was half-hidden in the gloom, his hair and beard matted, just as they were in the old days.
“Divine Lord…”
His dry, cracked lips moved, mumbling. Chou Bodeng was in a daze. In the original Kongsang, the night before they decided to build the North Star Pole, the Vermilion Bird had lit a bonfire. Kuafu, mocked by Mu Di for being a clumsy giant, was ordered to stay to one side. He didn’t get angry, but sat smiling by the Fusang Tree, one hand beating a drum, the other holding up the moon, asking, “Divine Lord, will you have some wine?”… A black shadow flashed past, striking him in the back.
He crashed into the putrid earth, then soared up from it, riding his sword forward. One shoulder was stained with blood. The putrid earth was pushed aside like heavy, turbid waves. Kuafu’s moon-holding hand sank deep into the bloody filth. He turned stiffly to look at Chou Bodeng, who had dodged the palm strike. This turn revealed his chest and abdomen, more than half of which had rotted away, his ribs crawling with demons and devils of all sizes, having become a breeding ground for the evil spirits of the Great Wilderness. Only his arms, shoulders, and head were still lifelike.
“Divine Lord, will you have some wine?”
Kuafu held up his palm, just as he had held up the moon in years past.
The Divine Lord spun and swung his sword.
The sword struck an old friend. A stream of aged blood splashed into the air. Kuafu’s head tumbled down, rolling into the foul earth of blood and rotten flesh. It rolled twice before settling squarely in the mud, facing the back of the white-robed Divine Lord. His lips moved in the mire, dull and honest, still repeating the question:
Divine Lord… will you have some wine?
The Divine Lord did not look back. He drew back his longsword, and a drop of blood from its tip splattered onto the space between his brows. Chou Bodeng tapped a foot on Kuafu’s demon-infested remains, and a golden divine fire ignited the corpse. The divine fire illuminated the gloom, making the way clear for a hundred li. The black shadow appeared to Chou Bodeng’s left. A palm and a sword collided again, and from the Netherworld City as the epicenter, invisible ripples spread outward, like layers of a black, heavy curtain billowing at once.
“Go,” Chou Bodeng said softly. The longsword suddenly split into twelve. The twelve flying swords, like bolts of golden lightning, instantly pierced the black shadow. As the sword split, the black shadow seized the opening Chou Bodeng had exposed and, using its palm as a blade, pierced through Chou Bodeng’s heart. A sword for a palm, another battle of certain death, a sword strike that disregarded his own life.
His heart pierced, Chou Bodeng simply said again, “Go.” Bright fire surged from his heart, instantly igniting both him and the black shadow. The black shadow let out a shrill howl and retreated hastily, trying to extinguish the divine fire on its body. However, the twelve flying swords that had pierced it suddenly let out a long, whistling cry, transforming into twelve horned dragons wreathed in golden flames. Their azure bodies blazed, spitting divine light, their crimson claws sharp as they seized the black shadow. The black shadow’s form swelled and shrank violently, at one moment a giant ten thousand zhang tall, at another an ant, but it could not break free from the twelve horned dragons.
“Insolence!!!”
It shrieked, its voice full of rage. The foul earth of rotten flesh and bones suddenly fell away. Chou Bodeng, his body a candle, stood on the ignited corpse of Kuafu as the entire Netherworld City plummeted into an abyss of unknown depths. The fall was so fast, the darkness so deep, that it seemed to have no end. The Wilderness Emissaries screamed in terror. They had lived in the Great Wilderness for so many years, but only now did they realize its true nature. It was darkness! An abyss! An endless chaos!
Falling rapidly. His sleeves were caught by the wind, and the bright, clean fire, along with his broad sleeves, floated upward in specks, like a swarm of fireflies dancing in a sunless ancient well. Chou Bodeng looked up, the sparks illuminating his pupils. He raised his hand, drawing on the firelight from the twelve flying swords. The firelight suddenly expanded, creating a brilliant golden sea of fire in the darkness, within which dragon shadows stirred golden winds and clouds.
And in this netherworld, he would stir the winds and clouds of the mortal realm. The twelve flying swords collided at once, the twelve horned dragons struck at once, passing through the black shadow’s cranium, straight up, converging into a dazzling sun. After the white moon shattered, a piercing golden sun rose in the Great Wilderness. The golden sun descended from the sky, completely engulfing the black shadow. The Netherworld City, which had been plummeting for ten thousand zhang, suddenly halted.
Some of the Wilderness Emissaries in the city could not withstand the terrifying impact and were instantly shattered into a mist of blood. Gui Guzi, who had managed to get up, had the peach wood nails in his seven orifices shattered, and the fire of his life soul began to burn uncontrollably. Yet he paid no mind to the fire on his body, but struggled to raise his head to look at the Divine Lord standing on the shoulder of the headless Kuafu. The Divine Lord’s two sleeves fluttered. One man, holding up the sun.
“Break,” Chou Bodeng said softly. The next moment, the golden sun and the black shadow exploded together in the void! For tens of thousands of li across the Twelve Continents, the black miasma that had reached the boundary of the mortal realm and the Great Wilderness suddenly boiled like a great cauldron, raged like the Cangming Sea, and stirred up monstrous waves, a black tide reaching for the heavens. Strangely, no matter how the black miasma boiled and surged, it could not cross the line. On the contrary, the netherworld rumbled, and the Divine Lord seemed trapped in a box with no way out.
After summoning the golden sun, Chou Bodeng staggered, nearly falling from Kuafu’s shoulder. Gui Guzi rushed over. White robes crumpled to the ground, Chou Bodeng knelt on Kuafu’s shoulder, which had been burned by the divine fire until only bronze-colored bone remained. He pressed one hand on the scorching hot bone and gently waved the other at Gui Guzi.
“Your conspiracy with the Heaven Beyond Heavens, what does it amount to?”
He laughed softly at the darkness of the void.
“You’re courting death!”
A booming roar came from all directions, and in the not-yet-dissipated golden light, a face suddenly appeared. A giant face, a thousand zhang high and wide, that wrapped all around. The giant face finally had features, but upon closer inspection, it was composed of an infinite number of faces, each one twisting, flowing, and raging. It was truly, unprecedentedly enraged. The corporeal form it had painstakingly condensed had been almost completely destroyed by Chou Bodeng’s sword! Millennia of effort, nearly turned to nothing!
Just as its voice fell, it suddenly turned its head to look in a certain direction in the mortal realm. Gui Guzi was a step behind it, but he too quickly turned his head, looking toward that place…
Kongsang!
***
Kongsang was in chaos. The sun-dials and moon-wheels on the Fusang Divine Tree sparked with ominous lightning. Beneath the vast mulberry wood, the Heaven-Herding Clans of the Hundred Clans were in disarray. Just a few hours ago, in the Kongsang ancestral hall, the life tablets of all the clan heads who had gone to Yongzhou to participate in the siege had simultaneously shattered into dust! The remaining Heaven-Herding Clans couldn’t imagine who could have so decisively slain thirty-six clan heads. One must know, those thirty-six clan heads corresponded to thirty-six warrior High Gods!
A great sense of unease and panic swept through Kongsang. Some of the Heaven-Herding Clans who had not been very supportive of the siege were now filled with regret. Some of the younger Chronicler Officials whispered among themselves, talking about something the clan heads had forbidden them to speak of. A few months ago, an old Chronicler Official in Kongsang had died. He died on the night the Great Wilderness expanded in Zhunan. That day, Kongsang had held a ritual to calibrate the sun, attempting to forcibly guide the Golden Crow back to the second quadrant. However, the sun’s orbit and the moon’s track had already meshed, indicating that the Celestial Orbit had been disrupted even before Taiyi severed the rope. Many Chronicler Officials knew this, but each was responsible for a limited number of sun-dials and moon-wheels. Since the clan heads said nothing, they didn’t know what had happened.
The sun’s orbit and moon’s track were meshed, and the celestial track should not have been pulled further, but the clan heads had given the order, and the Chronicler Officials dared not object. Only one elderly Chronicler Official stepped out from the crowd and spoke his mind. The old Chronicler Official’s cultivation was not high, but his knowledge of calendar science was excellent, and he had many students. His students watched as he was killed, but terrified of the clan heads’ authority, they dared not say a word for him.
The teacher who had spoken out was thrown from the observation pillar and fell into the mud. Afterward, his students, risking punishment from the clan heads, secretly went to collect his body, only to find that he had not died immediately after his internal organs were shredded by sword qi. Instead, he had struggled to crawl a long distance toward the pillar. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, no one would have believed that an old man could crawl so far on the brink of death. At the base of the pillar, he had carved two final lines with his fingers:
Without rectifying oneself, one is unworthy of herding the heavens.
Heaven will surely destroy them.
This matter was quickly reported to the Taiyu Clan Head by a sycophant. The Taiyu Clan Head was furious. Not only did he personally take his sword to erase the carving on the pillar, but he also ordered all the students who had collected the old Chronicler Official’s body to be beaten to death. After that, no disciple of the Hundred Clans dared to discuss the matter again. Until today, when the clan heads who had gone to Yongzhou died overnight. The two lines the old Chronicler Official had carved could no longer be suppressed and spread throughout Kongsang in a single night.
Beneath the Fusang Tree. In the ancient sacrificial chamber, which was normally forbidden to all but the heads of the major clans, all the Hundred Clan heads currently in Kongsang had gathered. They knelt before a nine-tiered altar. The ceiling of the sacrificial chamber was high and distant, engraved with the orbits of the sun and moon, tapering upward until only a single hole remained. A single hole to peek at the sky, a single slit to communicate with the world beyond. It was the existence of this hole that allowed the successive clan heads of Kongsang to have the possibility of ascending beyond the heavens and becoming gods. And historically, the divine edicts from the Heaven Beyond Heavens also descended through this small hole.
The clan heads waited anxiously for a divine edict from the Heaven Beyond Heavens. The simultaneous death of thirty-seven major clan heads filled them with unprecedented terror! Finally. A ball of flowing fire shot down. It landed on the altar, burning a line of words into it. The clan heads were overjoyed and hurried forward to look. Upon seeing it, all their faces changed. The divine edict burned by the flowing fire consisted of only six simple words:
Disrupt the Celestial Orbit, cast down the sun and moon!
“This?!”
A clan head cried out in horror. Even though the Hundred Clans of Kongsang were well aware that the Heaven Beyond Heavens was stealing the mortal realm’s destiny, and had even profited greatly from it, to the point of sparing no effort in the pursuit of the Divine Lord… but to disrupt the Celestial Orbit, to cast down the sun and moon… this, this would completely destroy the entire mortal realm! When the nest is overturned, how can any egg remain intact?
As they were still in shock and doubt, a second ball of flowing fire crashed down. The second divine edict had many more words, each one shocking to the eye.
“Shi Wuluo is the Heavenly Dao, he hates Kongsang… he will surely kill you…”
The clan head who had spoken earlier muttered the last line, feeling dizzy. All the clan heads were pale, their faces as white as sheets. Some even collapsed to the ground. A great terror filled the entire ancient sacrificial chamber… Shi Wuluo was the Heavenly Dao. Didn’t that mean that all their actions over the years, which they thought had been hidden from the heavens, had been clearly seen all along… It was over, everything was over…
A chill crept up their spines. In the deathly silence, someone suddenly stood up and drew his sword: “Everyone! Heaven wants to kill us! How can we just accept death?!”
Their gazes met. The flames in the bronze lamps flickered, casting their faces in shifting light and shadow. Finally, someone responded in a cold voice: “If Heaven wants to kill me, I will first kill Heaven!”
Rather than wait for Shi Wuluo to return from his conquest of the Heaven Beyond Heavens and destroy Kongsang, they would strike first! They would assist the Heaven Beyond Heavens in severing the Heavenly Dao! As for the fall of the sun and moon, and the survival of the Twelve Continents… if the Heavenly Dao perished, the Heaven Beyond Heavens could naturally return to the mortal realm. The High Gods would surely protect Kongsang from destruction! Kongsang’s survival was imminent; how could they afford to be soft-hearted?
The bronze doors of the ancient sacrificial chamber swung open. The clan heads walked out with their swords, about to strike the bronze bell to summon the Chronicler Officials and alter the Celestial Orbit. Just then, a bronze horn sounded first. To many disciples of Kongsang, this sound was very unfamiliar; they had never heard it before. However, upon hearing it, the faces of some of the elderly Heaven-Herding Clans changed drastically! Three thousand years ago, the same horn had sounded, echoing through the sky. That time, it was…
Taiyi attacking Kongsang!
Bright purple, branch-shaped lightning, like a battle of dragons, rolled through the flowing clouds of the divine Fusang Tree, illuminating the east.
“There!!!”
A disciple of the Hundred Clans, patrolling the sun-dials on the Fusang Tree, screamed in terror. His pupils reflected the countless flying boats breaking through the dark clouds. The falcon wings of the flying boats were wreathed in lightning, numbering in the hundreds, even thousands. So many flying boats could only mean a joint effort by the immortal sects, or a single sect putting forth its full strength! But with the High Gods of the Heaven Beyond Heavens covering the sky with one hand, and the Twelve Continents surging with miasma fog, the immortal sects were too busy protecting themselves. How could they possibly launch a full-scale attack on Kongsang? Who would dare to risk their millennia-old foundation?
But in this world, there really was one who dared. Lightning illuminated their faces, some young, some old, but all resolute. Their Daoist robes billowed in the strong wind, and the same two words were engraved on their waist tokens:
Taiyi.
Amidst the sound of the horn, a clan head of the Hundred Clans soared into the air and demanded, “Taiyi! Are you trying to tear up the pact between the immortal sects?!”
Jun Changwei sat cross-legged on the foremost flying boat, the strong wind billowing his sleeves. He turned his head and glanced in the direction of Chao City in Yongzhou. The pillar of light connecting heaven and earth there had not yet dissipated and was still faintly visible… Although he hadn’t said anything, and he and Shi Wuluo hadn’t even met when the latter left Zhunan, from that moment on, an unspoken understanding had formed between them. The Heavenly Dao ascends the Heavenly Staircase. Taiyi attacks Kongsang. Now, apart from the eighty-one elders who had gone to the Cangming Sea to intercept the Thirty-Six Islands, every peak and lineage of Taiyi, from the elders to the disciples, had entered the battlefield.
“…Taiyi! Do you truly disregard your millennia-old foundation?!”
A thousand boats did not stop. Thunder rolled over Kongsang.
“If not for the Divine Lord, how could there be a Taiyi?”
Jun Changwei leaped down.
“Kill!”
Ten thousand swords soared into the air.
***
The sun and moon of the mortal realm had not yet fallen. The giant face slowly withdrew its gaze. The existence of the Heavenly Dao was a great threat to both the Great Wilderness and the Heaven Beyond Heavens. That was precisely why it had joined forces with the Heaven Beyond Heavens, setting up a series of interlocking conspiracies. The Great Wilderness used Soul Threads to draw on the Divine Lord’s karmic obstruction, putting his life on the line and thus forcing Shi Wuluo, as the Heavenly Dao, to expose himself. The Heaven Beyond Heavens set up a formation to ambush the Heavenly Dao, while it launched the Desolate Calamity, attacking the Twelve Continents to weaken the Heavenly Dao. But just as the Heaven Beyond Heavens had its own plans to return to the mortal realm, the Great Wilderness also had its secrets… As a fellow Nether Spirit born of destiny, it could guess Shi Wuluo’s strength better than the Heaven Beyond Heavens could! The thirty-six warrior High Gods alone could never kill Shi Wuluo. And to reclaim the merit for the Divine Lord, Shi Wuluo would definitely ascend the Heavenly Staircase.
Given the ways of the Heaven Beyond Heavens, when things got critical, they would most likely order Kongsang to cast down the sun and moon and disrupt the Celestial Orbit, thereby dealing a heavy blow to the mortal realm. The Great Wilderness could then take advantage of the chaos in the Twelve Continents to once again obscure the Twelve Continents, just as it had at the end of the Middle Antiquity. Right now, if it were to fully assist Kongsang, it had an eighty percent chance of success. But that would mean giving up the Divine Lord’s living soul, which it had trapped. As long as it devoured the Divine Lord’s living soul, it could have a true physical form! This was even more tempting than the Twelve Continents.
The giant face’s expression was uncertain. On the bronze skeleton of Kuafu, Chou Bodeng slowly rose, his fingertips hidden under his sleeves trembling slightly.
“Weren’t you trying to devour me?”
Chou Bodeng finally stood up straight, his fingertips dripping blood, a smile on his lips.
“Come!”
“I always thought this battle should be between me and the Heavenly Dao…” the giant face said coldly. “I’m so jealous.”
One was the Heavenly Dao, the other the Netherworld. Both were specks of consciousness born of destiny, so how could the Heavenly Dao be so lucky? It was so much weaker than it, born so much later, yet it had the white-robed Divine Lord to open up the four poles and cast the cauldrons for the Twelve Continents. It had countless cities without doing anything. They were both specks of Nether Spirit, so how was it that when it tried to gain a physical form, all it could conjure was a blurry pseudo-form, while the Heavenly Dao was normal and handsome?
“But it doesn’t matter anymore…”
The next moment, the giant face composed of countless faces suddenly disintegrated.
“Everything he has is destined to be mine!”
The darkness tightened again! Oppressive! At that moment, the Great Wilderness completely abandoned its physical form… As long as it could devour the Divine Lord’s soul, it could naturally create the most perfect physical form in the world! The moment it abandoned its form, the pressure in this space increased dramatically. All the surviving Wilderness Emissaries, along with Gui Guzi, were directly crushed into dust by this terrifying pressure!
Countless chains formed of black mist shot out from all directions toward the white-robed Divine Lord, forming an inescapable net. But the Divine Lord had no intention of escaping! There was no time for sorrow, no time for hesitation.
“Come on.”
He said softly, his white robes fluttering as he charged forward.
One speck of vital essence, ten parts crimson blood.
I am here. If you want to kill me, then come!
***
The scarlet saber swung horizontally, creating a crimson moon. The blood of the heavenly gods stained nearly sixty thousand steps. The red-robed High Gods at the end of the Heavenly Staircase could no longer watch coldly from the sidelines… They had thought that Shi Wuluo’s attempt to fight the entire Heaven Beyond Heavens by himself was arrogant, a death wish. Even without the Ancient Emperors’ intervention, the ninety thousand heavenly gods would eventually wear him down. He would surely die by the time he reached the twentieth thousand step. However, Shi Wuluo did not stop at the twentieth thousand step as they had expected. After ascending the twentieth thousand step, Shi Wuluo’s aura underwent a strange change, beginning to surge in a way they could not have imagined!
A hundred steps! A thousand steps! Wherever the scarlet saber passed, the blood of heavenly gods splattered. The more heavenly gods died at his hand, the more terrifying he became. For the heavenly gods, everything had already exceeded their comprehension. They could no longer look down with arrogance, no longer sit high in the clouds. The Lower Gods who had been promoted from the Hundred Clans had all been slain, and more than half of the Mid-Heaven Gods were also dead or injured. The High Gods, casting aside their dignity, all attacked at once. Ten thousand gods to kill one man. The blood had already overflowed the Heavenly Staircase, staining the sea of clouds red.
One slash. A bell shattered, a cauldron rang. Shi Wuluo had just pulled his saber from one god’s chest when he slit another’s throat. Another spearpoint pierced his shoulder, but he seemed to have completely disregarded everything, paying no price, racing against time to accomplish something before something else happened. The scarlet saber had not yet been withdrawn. Shi Wuluo directly rammed his shoulder into the spear-wielding god. The god had no time to retreat and was sent crashing with him, shattering the gate-tower of the sixtieth thousand step. The gate-tower collapsed, and thirty heavenly gods followed close behind to kill him. The moment their swords and sabers fell, a red light edged with black ink suddenly shot out. It circled once, and the heads of thirty heavenly gods flew high into the air, blood gushing like a waterfall.
Staining the sea of clouds for ten thousand li.
“Not good!!”
The red-robed High God saw that blade light and, with a sudden realization, cried out in alarm. “He has already…”
The next moment, the scarlet saber, its edge now seeping black mist, pierced his throat. The hilt was held in a pale hand. Wisps of black qi continuously poured out from the jet-black sleeves embroidered with corner patterns, curling with the wind… The scarlet saber was withdrawn, and fresh blood splattered onto Shi Wuluo’s pale face. Black robes, bloody saber, an aura of malevolence. Like an evil spirit, like a demon. The ten thousand gods were terrified.
A giant, crimson-gold palm reached out from the highest point of the celestial sea of clouds, descending toward Shi Wuluo, who stood on the sixtieth thousand step. He leaped into the air, spun, and his scarlet saber slashed toward the first Ancient Emperor to finally reveal himself, the Red Emperor Gu Yu. His sleeves dripped with blood.
***
Blood fell in a line. A hundred chains, two hundred chains, three hundred, four hundred… Chou Bodeng’s divine soul suddenly shattered, then suddenly re-formed. In this way, he passed directly through the countless crisscrossing chains of mist, advancing through the darkness at a terrifying speed. With each shatter and re-formation, handfuls of fresh blood fell into the netherworld. White robes, then white robes again, then white robes became blood.
“Madman!”
The rumbling voice of the Great Wilderness came from all directions.
“You’re mad!”
Its voice was first enraged, then fearful.
“Stop!”
“Stop! I’ll let you go!”
“I can join forces with you against the Heaven Beyond Heavens!”
“…”
Its voice was already pleading, but Chou Bodeng remained deaf to it, still pressing forward, never changing his direction no matter how the voice shifted left or right.
“No—”
The voice of the Great Wilderness suddenly became extremely shrill. Chou Bodeng’s broad sleeves fluttered, dripping with blood. He broke through the final chains. Forming a sword with his fingers, Chou Bodeng pointed directly at a deeply hidden face of a dead soul. A drop of blood welled up from his fingertip, like a spark, and landed on the center of the dead soul’s forehead. The dead soul struggled violently, trying with all its might to escape. But then, all the blood that had previously fallen into the gloom ignited at once.
Golden light extended in the darkness, crisscrossing, twisting like a serpent. Finally, it converged into a single beam and shot down from the sky. The struggling of the “dead soul” ceased. It solidified into a golden mask, frozen in mid-air. Chou Bodeng’s fingers slowly lowered. …Whether it was the Heavenly Dao of the mortal realm or the Netherworld of the Great Wilderness, as formless Daos, their consciousness needed something to attach to in order to gain a physical form, just like the Shamanistic Nuo Mask he had made for A Luo, or the dead soul the Netherworld had possessed. When a formless Dao wished to create a body, its anchor could not be changed, could not be moved.
The Great Wilderness wanted to devour him so badly that its anchor soul had lingered, attempting to completely consume his divine soul. But since he had dared to enter the Great Wilderness, how could he have no confidence at all? He had taught the Heavenly Dao himself; no one in this world understood the Nether Spirits born of destiny better than he did. Only he could enter the Great Wilderness and seal the Netherworld.
“A great dream of three thousand years, I myself will guard the mortal realm.”
He said in a low voice. The black miasma at the borders of the Twelve Continents began to slowly recede, back to its original boundary line.
***
The Great Wilderness was dim and obscure, the gloom unformed. No up or down, no left or right, no front or back, the four cardinal directions were in chaos, filled with specters—a bone-chilling cold unimaginable to the living. Yet today, a space in the gloom was illuminated by the soul fire of the bright god. Red robes and sleeves hung down. Chou Bodeng landed on Kuafu’s bronze shoulder bone and sat down. He couldn’t be too far from the sealed Netherworld, otherwise he would have gone to find the head he had cut off Kuafu.
“Sorry.”
He gently patted Kuafu’s shoulder, just like he had long ago.
Alright. He should get some proper sleep… In his dreams, there should be Cloud City, the original Kongsang, and also a fool named A Luo… Chou Bodeng remembered the first night he met the desolation-trekking team and couldn’t help but smile softly. If he hadn’t called out to him that night, he really would have stood guard by the campfire all night, wouldn’t he?
“How can you be so foolish?”
Chou Bodeng asked softly. He turned his head and glanced in the direction of Yongzhou… The campfire by the carriage was actually very warm. But he couldn’t say it.
“Let me watch over you,” he smiled silently, his eyelashes slowly lowering. “For another three thousand years.”
Any longer than that, and he couldn’t do it. His voice grew softer and softer, until it was inaudible. The red robes disintegrated, scattering into specks of stardust. The Divine Lord died for the third time. He died for peace.