novelraw Chapter 2250 - 2217: Two Old Friends Awaken
Chapter 2250 - 2217: Two Old Friends Awaken
A living being, a living being slumbering within time.
This being had slept in the currents of time for untold years, deceiving countless powerhouses of the Phoenix Immortal Clan, deceiving countless powerhouses of the bird-type Immortal Clans, even deceiving a True Immortal!
This was truly inconceivable.
Even if the True Immortal had not carefully pried into it, then just by the pull of Cause and Effect alone, and the fluctuations of the Heavenly Dao Rules, she ought to have faintly sensed something. A True Immortal is merged into the Heavenly Dao, far too keen; let alone an Eight Tribulation Venerable, even a Quasi-Emperor under normal circumstances should be absolutely unable to hide from her within the territory under her rule.
Yet such a fact had indeed come to pass.
"In this Endless Starry Sky, in this River of years, just how many secrets are there that I, this Monarch, still do not know..."
Jiang Ding murmured.
Buzz!
At the movement of his thoughts, a faint, indistinct droplet of Destruction Membrane emerged upon the chirping sparrow, forming a film of water that wrapped the sparrow, cutting off this sparrow—which appeared once every thousand years—from all contact with the outside world, severing the outside world’s probing of Cause and Effect and Rules.
This step carried some risk, because he was beginning to affect external matter.
However, at the moment when the True Phoenix, with the majority of her Divine Soul Computational Power, began searching and scrutinizing the Heavenly Dao upheavals across the True Phoenix Star Domains, this kind of risk was very small.
If something really did happen, then that would simply be fate; there was nothing more to be said.
This layer of Destruction Membrane wrapped around the sparrow, piercing through layers of space, layers of Rules and Cause and Effect, and at last, with the extreme speed and sharpness of the Destruction Dao, broke through the concept of time and returned to the past.
Bang!
It was as if a dreamy bubble had been pricked.
Everything in that patch of space shattered like bubbles, twisting and rippling, transforming into seven-colored, variegated lights. Then, amid frenzied chaos, time sometimes reversed, revealing the time that had passed, sometimes sped up, revealing the time yet to come; the myriad changes were beyond description.
It was as though it were Chaos at the opening of heaven, when the concept of time did not yet exist.
No one knew how much time went by.
This chaotically shifting space finally stabilized, and a pitch-black coffin slowly floated out from within the space, savage and terrifying blood-reeking Evil Qi spreading in all directions.
"Oh?"
Jiang Ding slightly raised his brows, his gaze falling upon the coffin.
The coffin was jet-black throughout, covered with crisscrossing marks like a net of blood. The blood-net was more like blood vessels, with bright red things flowing within them; it looked vicious and terrifying, and at a glance one could tell it was an ultimate evil object of Diabolism.
Jiang Ding’s brow eased slightly.
He was not intending to stand upon some moral high ground and point fingers from above; this Star Domain was not under the shroud of his Tushan Law, and no matter what had happened, it should not be subject to his reproach.
However, that said, this Fellow Daoist truly was quite particular.
The blood and resentment condensed within this blood-vessel coffin were basically all the fresh blood and resentment of the Alien Race, and the quantity must be exceedingly vast, about the accumulation of the blood of the Life of many Great Thousand Worlds. He did not know how a single Human Race cultivator had gathered all this amidst so many powerful Sovereigns of the Divine Dao Demon Clan in this Star Domain.
Within that, there were bound to be many experiences that shook the heart and paled the face.
These things should have happened before the True Phoenix emerged into the world; otherwise he would surely have died.
Clang!
Jiang Ding flicked a finger, and a strand of Sword Qi swept across, opening a neat wound in this blood-vessel coffin, in an instant cutting through all the seals upon it.
Black mist billowed up, and many skulls, Fierce Ghosts, resentful spirits, and other calamitous fiends surfaced and vanished again.
These methods could, in an instant, annihilate an Eight Tribulation Venerable, and could even, if caught unawares, seriously injure a Quasi-Emperor; the inheritance and means were by no means ordinary.
However, under this strand of Sword Qi, they were like illusions, incapable of stirring up any commotion.
The entire network of blood vessels upon the coffin shed away, and the pitch-black lid slowly opened, revealing within a young man of graceful bearing and handsome features, who at a glance looked like a lofty, refined cultivator of the Dao, lying in the coffin, not knowing how long he had slept.
Jiang Ding gazed quietly.
The eyelids of this graceful young man trembled once, and he slowly opened his eyes.
At first, his eyes were hazy; he had slept too long, even his Divine Soul had gone stiff and could not function.
After a long time, a few sparks of starlight appeared within his Sea of Consciousness; thought-strands like arcs of lightning began to circulate within his Sea of Consciousness, slowly recovering a sliver of capacity for thought. His hazy, blurred eyes gradually grew clear.
He saw, not far away, a green-clothed youth quietly watching him.
This youth wore a Longsword at his waist, his gaze indifferent, and from his body emanated an Aura of Transcendence that could not be hidden, as if he were a Banished Immortal descending from above the Nine Heavens into the human world, ready to ascend in feathered flight at any moment.
The graceful young man’s pupils subconsciously contracted.
In that instant, his Sea of Consciousness seemed to be struck by a tremendous stimulus; arcs of lightning-like sparks of starlight circulated at a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold speed, and he very quickly recovered most of his lucidity.
"My respects,"
"Heavenly Monarch!"
The graceful young man—the Great Love Venerable—ignored the pain of his body just having awakened and bowed deeply.
Jiang Ding’s eyes moved slightly.
Heavenly Monarch.
This form of address had not been used by anyone for who knew how many years.
It belonged to an extremely distant past, when he himself was still at Nascent Soul or in the Divinity Transformation Stage; it was a title used only by old comrades from within the River of time, just like "old squad leader," "old company commander," carrying a different kind of emotion.
"Great Love Daoist Friend, likewise, it has been a long time."
Jiang Ding’s gaze grew a bit gentler.
He nodded slightly in return, and before the other could reply, said, "Fellow Daoist has slept for many days; there is no need for such excessive ceremony. You need only focus on recuperating."
His tone was still fairly mild.
After all, the Great Love Venerable had not violated the Tushan Law and had not infringed upon his interests, so for the moment there was no hostile stance between them, even if the other possessed not insignificant secrets or even opportunities.
But that was unimportant.
As long as he had not violated the Tushan Law, it was fine.
"Yes, Heavenly Monarch."
The Great Love Venerable let out a breath of relief in his heart, withdrawing the carefully prepared words of explanation in advance.
No asking why.
No curiosity.
Not even any interest in you.
The other’s credibility and stance were indeed as consistent as ever; his choice in those years had not been wrong.
The Great Love Venerable sat cross-legged, taking out Spirit Stones to restore his stiff meridians and Divine Soul; his slumbering body began to recover bit by bit.
"Since Fellow Daoist is here,"
"then Han should be here as well."
Jiang Ding spoke to himself.
Through the fetters of Cause and Effect he quickly locked onto his target: an evergreen ivy within a Minor Thousand World, dark-green vines coiling around a tree as thick as a bowl. This evergreen ivy had already passed through three springs and autumns, and was expected to naturally die in another six springs and autumns, or else perish through external force.
It appeared to be a very ordinary evergreen ivy.
This was not because the perception of the Supreme Great Sun Sword Fairy exceeded that of the True Phoenix by so much, but because this was something the other had deliberately left behind countless ten-thousands of years before entering slumber, for him to see, hoping that someone in the future could awaken him.
"Han,"
"Han, it turns out you walk the path of the Six Dao Reincarnation; I had thought it was the Great Dao of Qingmu..."
Jiang Ding let out a soft sigh.