Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
“Whoever dares to enter Ziwei Palace without permission will be killed at once.”
Martial Saint Canglan, one of the Nine Heavenly Maidens, rose up from the lakeside.
Her battle power ranked No.1 among the Nine Heavenly Maidens, and she was a bodyguard of the Empress. She had put on Pheonix-fire Saint Armor and held the Fentian Sword in her hand. She had a supple and graceful figure, her brows and eyes like those from paintings. She was extremely beautiful. Her scarlett hair was like fire. Looking from afar, she was like a Martial G.o.d of unrivalled beauty.
Other saints in Ziwei Palace all stood out and took the forms of human shadows. Some of them s.h.i.+ned like gold, some burned like flames and some gave out gorgeous rays of light.
Palms, saint weapons and rays of thunder and lightning were all thrown to attack the white hair woman from afar.
It was their responsibility to not let an intruder enter Ziwei Palace without permission. Now they had to try everything they could to make up for it and kill the enemy before she could enter Saint Palace Yuanchu.
The white haired woman stood above the clouds. Her skin was fair, her eyes were ethereal, her neck was slender, which gave an extraordinary temperament like a Fairy Lingbo from heaven.
She looked at the attacks from the saints of Ziwei Palace silently, and stopped blowing her xiao.
She pinched xiao gently with one soft hand and pointed to the front.
With a boom, heaven and earth all took a fierce quake as if they were going to flip over. All attacks were crashed by a strand of invisible power and flew to all sides.
Instantly, countless well-known saints in Ziwei Palace spit blood and pa.s.sed out.
Martial Saint Canglan fell from midair and was covered with blood. She was about to fall in the heaven lake.
“Hua–”
Saint Lady raised one fine hand, and threw Saint Book Ruzu to catch the body of Martial Saint Canglan and take her back.
The white haired woman stopped attacking and walking. Her eyes were as deep as two universes and she stared at the Empress, who was sitting beside the heaven lake.
The Empress seemed to be very calm and her look didn't change a bit. She just said lightly, “Lanyou, I haven't seen you in 100 years.”
“It's 130 years and 44 days,” the white haired woman replied.
The Empress remained silent for a while and said, “You've challenged me every 100 years, and every time you have failed.”
“So what? As long as I'm still alive, I am going to kill you.”
Coldness came out from the Empress's body. Fluffy snow fell from the sky in a full moon night.
Snowflakes poured down like a waterfall.
And it showed how furious the Empress was.
“The reason you are still alive is that I didn't want to kill you then. Last time I told you this: If you come here again, I will not spare your life.”
“Are you still able to fight now?”
The hair of the white haired woman danced like willow catkins even though there was no wind at all.
She was the only one who dared to face the Empress without fear or panic, nor surrender.
The Empress pressed her red lips and made a breathtakingly beautiful but cold smile. She said, “You would believe that I can no longer fight?”
After a while thte Empress added, “I thought you would have become smarter after 800 years. But you are still so stupid.”
“Is that so?” said the white haired woman.
“No one dared to burst in Ziwei Palace but you. Isn't that called stupidity?”
The power of the Empress's Qi was so strong that divine light and Qi of sunglow filled the s.p.a.ce, as if the whole Central Region was lit by her divine light.
She didn't look like the person who was trying to avoid the Way of Heaven.
The white haired woman said lightly, “Other people are afraid of death, that's why they won't come. But I dared to come, for my heart already died 800 years ago and I fear death no more. I'm still alive because you are still alive. It doesn't matter whether you can fight or not, whether you are avoiding the Way of Heaven or not, I was going to come here today. Chi Yao, let me ask you a question: do you still remember Zhang Ruochen from 800 years ago?”
The name “Zhang Ruochen” gave a shudder to Saint Lady standing behind the Empress. She couldn't help but to look at the Empress and say to herself, “Could it be that the Empress did have extraordinary connections with the Crown Prince of the Sacred Central Empire 800 years ago?”
After Chi Yao came to the throne, she had issued a secret decree to destroy all books about Zhang Ruochen. Fewer and fewer books about the Crown Prince of the Sacred Central Empire were left today.
The Empress appeared to be very calm, and she laughed. “Zhang Ruochen…a name from so long ago. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgetten who he was.”
“You refuse to face it on purpose, don't you? If you really don't remember who he was, why should you personally issue a decree to capture a person who happens to have the same name as him? You still feel uneasy after 800 years, don't you? That's why you are so afraid that you don't want even a person with the same name to survive. Am I right?”
The white haired woman stepped forward and soon arrived at the side of heaven lake. She stood across the lake to face the Empress.
Both of them were unrivalled beauties. One of them was the Empress of Kunlun's Field, the other was Saint Elder of Sacred Central Crypt. Sadly they were enemies at the moment and were about to fight at any moment.
The Empress kept silent for a while and said, “Lanyou, I don't want to kill you. After all, only a few of our generation have survived. Go back today, don't push me.”
“I am here to avenge him. If I die here, it's a worth death. But if I am lucky enough to kill you, it's what you deserve.”
Determination could be seen from the eyes of the white haired woman, as if she never thought she could survive and leave Ziwei Palace alive. She kept walking toward the Empress at the lakeside. She stepped into the lake and walked on the water's surface, making fine and close ripples.
The Empress closed her eyes. Her beautiful eyeliner and long and curved eyelashes could be seen. After a while, she said, “What if he survived?”
Hearing this word, the powerful Qi condensed by the white haired woman immediately broke down. And the determined look in her eyes disappeared as well.
She stopped and stared at the Empress, not far away.
But the Empress had closed her eyes and couldn't see her facial expression.
“What do you mean?” asked the white haired woman.
“Nothing. I just asked you a question. You can answer me, or not.” The Empress opened her eyes again to look at the white haired woman, and appeared to be extremely peaceful.
“I don't buy it. You must mean something else.”
The white haired woman gathered another strand of powerful Qi. Colorful sunglows gushed out from her back and turned into a shadow of a peac.o.c.k which was more than hundreds of kilometers long.
All monks in Central Emperor City saw the peac.o.c.k shadow over their heads at the moment. They worried that some ancient divine beasts had come.
Only those who had lived more than hundreds of years had recognized the ident.i.ty of the peac.o.c.k shadow and raced to Ziwei Palace.
The Empress said, “If you think so, I can say nothing to change your mind. I just wanna know, do you still dare to fight now?”
Sometimes, people had to be obsessed with something to be fearless of death.
Once the obsession wavered, the determination would no longer exist.
Saint Lady bit her lips lightly while staring at the white haired woman standing at the center of heaven lake. She could perceive that the murderous Qi of the white haired woman was still powerful, but the determination to die no longer existed in her eyes.
Only by then did Saint Lady become sure that the white haired lady was going to retreat.
The white haired lady fell into contemplation. Suddenly something occurred to her, and she gave a scary look.
Shortly, she raised her head again and stared at the Empress. “Chi Yao, after I see him, I will come back again.”
She left them while her voice was still circling over heaven lake. No one could see her trace.
“After practicing for 800 years, she still cares a lot about death. What's the difference between her mindset and that of a common person?”
Empress said this to herself and looked at the water in the lake. She put on a sneer, but no one knew who she was sneering at.
Saint Lady said softly, “I've learned that Wan Zhaoyi has personally gone to Yuan Mansion, and commanded several powerful figures to capture Zhang Ruochen on a large scale.”
“Wan Zhaoyi didn't do it well, he has to make up for it,” said the Empress. “You should go to Yuan Mansion too, and bring this verbal order to him. If he couldn't capture Zhang Ruochen within three months, I will convict him for treason. He can choose his way to die.”
“Yes, Empress.”
Saint Lady made a salute with hands folded and retreated.
In Qingli County, Yuan Mansion.
Zhang Ruochen had used the saint decree to run hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, during which he had changed his direction three times in a row. Even he couldn't tell where he was now and couldn't go on any longer, so he stopped there.
Zhang Ruochen was severely wounded. His robes were soaked with blood and he almost pa.s.sed out.
Blackie carried Zhang Ruochen on its back and entered a green mountain. It found a cave halfway up the mountain and went inside to conceal their trace.
After they entered the cave, Zhang Ruochen propped himself up into a sitting position with strong spiritual power. He ate a Recovering Pill and operated exercises to refine the pill and cure his wounds.
Although Li Min was seriously injured as well, she was just an ordinary monk and with only one pill she had recovered completely.
The stronger one's body was, the less likely he would get hurt. And once he was hurt from the outside, he would soon cure himself.
But once powerful monks were hurt from the inside, it would be much harder for them to recover than it was for ordinary monks.
Zhang Ruochen spent two hours to refine a Seventh-cla.s.s Recovering Pill to barely suppress his wounds.
