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Chapter 46.1: Heaven and Earth Become One with the Divine

The imperial city of Yao Kingdom—its gates tightly shut, the wonton stall by the roadside empty of all people, tables and chairs scattered across the ground.

Chen Moqing and Cang Shun stood shoulder to shoulder, looking down upon the imperial city from high in the sky. Few pedestrians moved through the streets; only a handful of soldiers moved back and forth through the lanes and alleys, searching for something.

At the Yue family estate, the main gate stood tightly shut. From behind that single door came the faint sound of weeping.

"Auntie, you can't leave. If you leave, what are we supposed to do? Who are you going to give this vast Yue family to..."

Yue Jianjiang knelt before the bed, wailing and wiping at his face. On the bed, Madam Yue—Yue Jianxi—drifted in and out of consciousness, her breath faint, her life clearly hanging by a thread.

Outside the bedroom, Aunt Lan had been blocked at the door by several members of the Yue family whom Yue Jianjiang had brought along. Furious and desperate, she wept openly with rage: "You pack of beasts, worse than pigs and dogs! Madam has never treated any of you poorly in her life, and yet you won't even let a physician through the door, this is nothing but murder for the sake of fortune!"

Yue Jianjiang paid her no mind at all, only gripping Madam Yue's shoulders, his eyes glazed and staring: "Auntie, say it! Who is the head of the Yue family! Is it me? Tell me now!"

Boom!

The bedroom door was shattered by a tremendous force. Yue Jianjiang's body flew backward like a torn sack, and along with him, the several Yue family members blocking the doorway were sent flying more than ten zhang, slamming into the courtyard wall and instantly leaving deep, human-shaped craters.

The wall crumbled, and broken stone and roof tiles rained down upon them from above. They convulsed, vomiting mouthfuls of fresh blood, and within moments fell unconscious—even those who did not die on the spot were left with most of their life force destroyed.

Aunt Lan stared, mouth agape, as amid the dust filling the courtyard, a figure in moon-white robes untouched by any speck of dust descended before her—a young man cradling a small white tiger in his arms, stepping over the threshold in a single stride.

"...An immortal! You must be an immortal!" Aunt Lan hurried forward, rushing into the room and kneeling beside Madam Yue's bed, "Could you please summon a physician for our Madam? She's slipping away!"

Chen Moqing gazed silently at the dying Madam Yue and set down a bottle of pills.

Aunt Lan, eyes brimming with hot tears, fed the pill to Madam Yue, who no longer had the strength to swallow on her own. Fortunately, the moment the pill entered her mouth it dissolved into a stream of warmth. Madam Yue began to cough—faint at first, but growing steadily clearer, until at last she was able to sit up entirely on her own.

Even a withered tree returning to spring could not surpass this, Aunt Lan thought, utterly stunned. A faint light rose in Madam Yue's dim eyes, and she looked up at the young immortal before her: "May I ask... are you a fellow disciple or elder of Shuang'er's?"

"Junior Sister Yue asked me to bring you a message."

Cang Shun lay curled in Chen Moqing's arms and listened to the young human's clear, calm, unhurried voice.

"She will be traveling far with her sect to temper herself through experience. The road ahead is long, and there is no fixed date for her return. She hopes her mother will not worry for her daughter's sake, and asks that you eat well and dress warmly."

"This is the pill she has left for you. May you live free of illness and misfortune, and enjoy a long life of a hundred years."

Still soft-hearted, as ever.

Cang Shun thought quietly to himself.

But then—if he showed no warmth toward anything at all, he wouldn't be who he was.

...

Over the imperial palace of Yao Kingdom, the sky hung dark and dim, black clouds pressing down upon the city.

The ruler of Yao Kingdom gazed with a grim expression at Prince Ning standing before him, who stood smiling with his hands clasped behind his back, several cultivators standing at his side.

"Imperial Brother, the greater situation is already lost, please abdicate the throne."

The ruler of Yao Kingdom spoke slowly: "I have never treated you poorly in all these years... if I hand the throne over to you, will you spare my life?"

Prince Ning agreed at once: "Naturally. As for becoming Retired Emperor, though, you can forget about that. Change your name, hide your identity, and live out your days as an idle prince."

The ruler of Yao Kingdom said nothing. Instead, under Prince Ning's watchful gaze, he slowly took a step forward.

The ground trembled, and a crimson-red array abruptly spread out across the floor, its blood-like light splashing across the face of everyone present.

"Damn it! The Heaven-Ascending Array still isn't fully complete, what are you doing!"

Amid Prince Ning's furious shout, the ruler of Yao Kingdom spread his arms wide with a cold smile: "You are my only blood brother, and I don't mind letting you have the throne—but the position of immortal ascension, that must be mine!"

He raised his head to the sky, his voice deep and heavy, meant to reach the heavens above: "Array, rise, ascend to the heavens!"

The crimson array flared brilliantly, and within it, a moon-white true dragon soared high into the air, its furious eyes surveying the world below as though ruling over all creation—but in the very next instant, the white dragon seemed to be struck by an invisible slap, crashing down before the palace hall, twitching a few times like a loach before going still.

"...What?!"

Everyone within the hall stared in shock, and hurried outside to look around.

Dark clouds pressed heavily down upon the palace hall's golden glazed tiles, and there, standing atop the owl's-tail ridge ornament on the main roof beam, was a figure in long, flowing white robes, snow-colored garments billowing, black hair flying wild, his back to the dim and gloomy sky—like a bolt of thunder split down from heaven itself.

On his shoulder sat a small snow-white beast, round and fluffy in appearance, yet its pair of crimson beast-eyes burned bright, cold enough to send a chill through anyone who looked upon it.

Prince Ning's eyes narrowed, and he stumbled back several steps, though he still spoke aloud: "Where did this cultivator come from, overestimating his own strength! Seize him for me!"

The several Foundation Establishment cultivators at his side wore expressions of mockery and stepped forward calmly to confront him—only to see the young cultivator's figure remain utterly still, his wide moon-white sleeves merely stirring in the wind—

Thud!

Every single Foundation Establishment cultivator dropped to their knees, trembling like sieves, their faces drained of all color in shock.

Golden Core cultivation?!

The very cultivators who had worn expressions of disdain just moments before immediately began begging for mercy: "Spare us, immortal! Spare us, immortal!"

It was not only them—Prince Ning and the ruler of Yao Kingdom were also utterly unable to bear that mountain-and-sea-like pressure, collapsing to their knees, cold sweat pouring down, able to catch only a glimpse from the corner of their eyes of that immortal's crane-feather-like white robes.

High in the sky, Chen Moqing lowered his gaze, coldly surveying the great array that covered the imperial palace.

Within senior Xingyun's illusory realm, he had been unable to sense the specifics of this array, nor alter it—but now, in the real world, the true array lay fully laid out before his eyes, every single line and thread of its pattern utterly clear, taken in at a single glance.

He raised his sleeve, his slender fingers descending lightly, tapping a single point—the array's eye.

In that instant, the great array shook violently. The true dragon that had just soared up from within the array let out a mournful cry, and both the ruler of Yao Kingdom and Prince Ning writhed on the ground in agony, screaming without end.

It felt as though an invisible hand had reached into them and torn away something unseen—something that had once belonged to them, now forcibly seized away!

Their screams rang out close at hand, yet the young cultivator's dark, sunken eyes showed not the slightest ripple. His slender fingers tapped once more.

With a mere turn of his hand, the great array reversed! The crimson red within the array faded away, rapidly staining over with gold, spinning backward in a single revolution—and in an instant, it collapsed entirely!

The fortune and fate that had been trapped in this place for five hundred years surged straight up into the heavens, sweeping aside the gloomy black clouds and revealing a boundless clear sky. Sunlight poured down, gilding the palace halls in shimmering gold, and a rain of drifting golden light scattered down across the entire land of Yao Kingdom.

"Heavens! What is this?"

"My whole body feels weightless... is this the immortal bestowing blessings upon us!"

"Father! Mother's stopped coughing! Mother's illness is cured!"

"Sister! You're awake? You've been unconscious for three years!"

Across the land of Yao Kingdom, every single commoner was bathed in that rain of gold. None of them understood what had happened—they only felt as though they had been soaking in a warm spring in the depths of bitter winter. Those with minor illnesses were healed on the spot, those with severe illnesses found relief, and those already in good health felt as light and nimble as swallows. No small number of people dropped to their knees, crying out "Immortal!" in overwhelming emotion.

Cang Shun stood perched on Chen Moqing's shoulder, his slender tail sweeping gently past the side of his face.

For a great master of the array path, altering the array of an entire kingdom was as effortless as turning his hand.

All the fortune that the royal family had seized was now returned to the people of Yao Kingdom.

The ruler of Yao Kingdom collapsed to the ground, his eyes nearly splitting with rage: "What quarrel does Yao Kingdom have with any immortal! Why destroy the very foundation of my kingdom!"

"The foundation of your kingdom?" The immortal's dark, deep eyes filled with mockery as he looked upon him, "This is nothing but your royal family's shameless private greed."

Throughout Yao Kingdom, whether newborn infant or elder in their twilight years, every single person's fortune had been drawn from all corners of the land and funneled into the palace array.

The very reason Madam Yue's health had continued to decline, even when nourished with spiritual energy, was precisely because her closeness to the royal family meant her fortune had been continuously siphoned away by them.

Before this so-called "Heaven-Ascending Array" was completed, the people of Yao Kingdom had still remained safe and unharmed—but once the array was activated, the fortune of the entire kingdom would converge upon the single person at the array's eye, allowing that one person to ascend to the Nascent Soul stage in an instant, at the cost of an entire nation's death.

"To seize what belongs to others always comes at a price."

The immortal's voice fell like an icicle dropping in winter, chilling the ruler of Yao Kingdom to the bone. His body went limp, collapsing face-down on the ground, his dragon crown falling loose: "Immortal! We know our wrongs! If you kill us, Yao Kingdom will surely fall into chaos, where will thirty million people turn—"

They wailed and begged for mercy, laying out the pros and cons, hoping only that the immortal would spare their lives—yet the only response they received was the immortal's ice-cold gaze:

"When you sacrificed your own people, seizing their fortune without restraint, did you ever once care whether they lived or died?"

——Ji Duanxue had never expected that leading her troops through the palace's hidden passage would bring her face to face with a scene such as this.

Beneath the clear, bright sky, the immortal in black hair and white robes stood suspended in midair, raising a single finger to decide life and death.

The ruler of Yao Kingdom, Prince Ning, and several unfamiliar cultivators fell like discarded weeds, having left behind no glorious name in life—though at least in death, no blood was spilled to stain the long stone steps before the palace hall.

The immortal in midair cast a light, indifferent glance downward. Ji Duanxue raised a hand, signaling the soldiers behind her not to move, then cupped her fists and bowed deeply toward the sky, "Immortal, my name is Ji Duanxue, a border-guarding general of Yao Kingdom. I have come to save my father."

"My father discovered the palace array and was framed with the charge of treason because of it. The Ji family has guarded the border for a hundred years, we may die in battle, but we will not die in disgrace."

Her words rang out clear and firm, and behind her, the iron-armored soldiers gripped their blades tightly, their backs unbent even as they faced the immortal.

Chen Moqing gazed at that pair of familiar-seeming brows and eyes, and was reminded of the eldest senior sister of Changyao Sect, of how she had once looked drawing her long sword to spar with him.

The immortal did not respond for a long while. Ji Duanxue's expression did not waver, nor did she lower her head.

Then, she saw the immortal's wide sleeve stir gently, as though a light breeze had brushed past her face, and a bottle of pills had already appeared before her.

Ji Duanxue caught the pill without the slightest hesitation, letting out a bright, clear laugh: "Thank you, Immortal!"

She raised her eyes once more, only to see the sky above the palace washed clean and blue, a gentle, pleasant breeze drifting past—no immortal to be found anywhere.

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