Chapter 800 - Back Then (2)
Before he’d finished speaking, a rainbow bridge descended from the heavens, forming smack dab in the middle of the Beast Region.
A man standing on the bridge came into view. He clasped a folding fan in his hands as he strolled leisurely downward.
“Yellow Emperor, what have you decided?” the man skipped the customary greetings and started directly with a question. The robed man frowned, but after a moment’s hesitation bowed slightly.
“Divine Emissary.”
The man the Yellow Emperor had just called ‘Divine Emissary’ nodded indifferently, and took a few steps forward.
The onlookers all knelt on one knee and greeted him reverently.
“At ease.”
The emissary subtly raised his right hand into the air and lifted the kneeling men and beasts from the ground.
“Before I descended to the lower realms, I never considered that it might be your wedding day. Coming here now is obviously ruining the atmosphere. But… even though I’m ruining the atmosphere, I still have to ask. What have you decided?”
The red-robed woman lifted her veil and glanced at the man beside her. It was obvious from her uncertain expression that she had no idea what was going on. What exactly had happened between her man and the divine emissary?
The Yellow Emperor was silent for a while, then sighed lightly. “Divine Emissary, you’re forcing my hand.”
“Oh?” the Divine Emissary raised an eyebrow, eyes glinting with cool laughter. “It seems you won’t agree, but do your words represent the will of the Immortal Region?”
Silence.
“I can see that you’re not so sure either,” laughed the Divine Emissary. “Fortunately, I just stopped over in the Immortal Region for a bit and brought some of the higher-ups here with me.”
Swoosh.
He waved his fan, and a group of seven or eight men and women appeared before their very eyes.
Seeing them, the Yellow Emperor frowned even more deeply. His heart filled with inexplicable foreboding.
“Yellow Emperor,” they said, bowing to him.
“If you’re here to congratulate me, you could’ve just waited at the Immortal Region. We’re having the wedding banquet there; what need was there to come all the way here?”
“We……”
Sensing the Yellow Emperor’s grave demeanor, they suddenly found themselves unable to speak.
They subconsciously glanced at the Divine Emissary, who laughed lightly.
“Repeat what you said to me back in the Immortal Region. There’s no need to worry about what he’ll do to you. With me here, even if his methods are extraordinary, he’s nothing but an ant.”
“Do you dare say that again?” the armored warrior bellowed in fury, but Xingtian stepped forward and smiled sinisterly at him.
“What gall, Changxian. Are you trying to disrespect the Divine Emissary?”
“Xingtian, do you know what they’re really trying to do here?”
Changxian roared. He’d always been by the Yellow Emperor’s side, so he understood many things that outsiders were unaware of.
The people of the G.o.d Realm wanted the Yellow Emperor’s life.
After his outburst, he fixed his gaze back onto those higher-ups from the Immortal Region.
“Go on. What exactly was it that you said to the Divine Emissary earlier? If what you say displeases me, I’ll have your heads.”
Changxian wasn’t normally a vulgar person, but now that the Yellow Emperor was threatened, his loyalty made it impossible for him to talk to them calmly.
Gulp.
One of the higher-ups felt his adam’s apple bob nervously. He stealthily glanced back at the Divine Emissary, only to find that he was looking directly back at him.
He steeled himself and began to speak. “Please…. Yellow Emperor, please abdicate in exchange for eternal peace and prosperity in the Immortal Region.”
Since someone had started, the others hardened their faces, bowed, then said one after the other, “Yellow Emperor, please abdicate in exchange for eternal peace and prosperity in the Immortal region.”
“Yellow Emperor, please abdicate in exchange for eternal peace and prosperity in the Immortal region.”
“Yellow Emperor, please abdicate in exchange for eternal peace and prosperity in the Immortal region.”
……
Bamp.
It wasn’t just them. The honor guard knelt motionlessly on the ground as well. Given their status they shouldn’t have known about something like this, but now even they repeated those same words...
“Divine Emissary!”
The Yellow Emperor’s tone had grown fierce, but the Divine Emissary still only smiled calmly.
“Yellow Emperor, this is the will of the majority. What else do you have to say for yourself? From what I know of your Immortal Region, you’ve always been fastidious about democracy. This group includes over half of your high-ranked decision-makers, so you must abdicate.
“The will of the majority?
He looked coldly over the crowd, lips curled into an inquisitive smile as he looked them over, these officials he himself had promoted.
“Tell me the truth. Did the Divine Emissary push you to say these things or is this the outcome of your own deliberations?”
“Our… our own deliberations.”
“Lord, this has to be just these cowards’ decision, the people of the immortal region couldn’t possibly discard you like this,” said Changxian hurriedly.
“That’s most likely not the case,” said the Yellow Emperor gravely, voice tinged with bitterness. “The Divine Emissary has been here for a full fifteen minutes; there’s no way the leaders of the Immortal Region haven’t sensed him yet. That they haven’t shown up yet makes their position clear. My future… My future in the immortal region has been thrown away”
“Lord!”
“No need to say anymore,” said the Yellow Emperor with a smile, reaching out to cut Changxian off. “They’ve done well. The Immortal Region is newly formed, and is still small and insignificant amongst the nine provinces. I arrogantly provoked the G.o.d Realm. That was my mistake. If I had broken through earlier, things would be fine but…. I haven’t. Since that’s the case, I ought to pay the price and exchange my life for eternal peace and prosperity in the Immortal Region. It’s truly not such a bad deal.”
“Lord!”
Changxian’s face brimmed with anxiety. The Yellow Emperor reached out and patted his shoulder.
“Five hundred years ago we fought the war against Chiyou,” he said, "Of the generals who followed me into battle, only you remain. When I think of the battlefield from back then, it seems as if it were just yesterday.”
“My Lord, following you has been my great fortune,” said Changxian.
The Yellow Emperor nodded back with a smile, then turned the red-robed woman beside him.
He reached out his hand and caressed her peerlessly beautiful face. His eyes were like deep pools, his gaze filled with doting and love.
They didn’t speak, but their eyes communicated far more than words possibly could.
A full fifteen minutes pa.s.sed before he took his hand from her cheek.
He solemnly adjusted his robes, gaze pointed and expression grave, and walked towards the Divine Emissary.
Roar……
Countless savage beasts materialized behind the Divine Emissary, their eyes glinting with bloodthirsty light.
They opened their jaws wide, drop after drop of viscous falling from their mouths and onto the ground.
He looked the leaders of the Immortal Region over coldly, then pa.s.sed them by. Then he brushed past the emissary and the crowd.
He……
The Yellow Emperor, Xuan-Yuan.
Step after step, he pressed forward, each movement decisive. Nevertheless, his bleak silhouette was indescribably forlorn.
In the end, he’d been abandoned.
He then came to a stop, looking intently at the ferocious beasts, and stood his ground.
The savage horde sensed his presence, and attacked in a roaring swarm.