“My lord, do you see the Divine Emissary’s humiliated expression?” Changxian indicated towards the emissary with a smile.
Even under these circ.u.mstances, he was able to split his attention and watch the emissary. Obviously the pressure from the beastman horde was already negligible.
“Don’t get complacent.”
The Yellow Emperor swung his blade, sword light obliterating a line of charging beastmen.
“All lands beneath the heavens belong to the emperor, everyone beneath the heavens serves him. He’s just a servant of the G.o.d Realm, but he still thinks can get come down here and order us around?” said Changxian. “Those people from the Immortal Region need a good beating too.”
“They really do.”
As he thought of them and what they’d asked of him, he felt a wave of distress in his heart.
He’d promoted more than half of those supreme figures of the Immortal Regions himself. Some had a knack for governance, others had shocking innate gifts. As a lover of talent, he’d recruited them to the Immortal Region.
He’d wanted to rely on them to rule the world and strive for eternal peace.
And yet, things had turned out like this.
Rumble.
Sudden lightning rumbled through the sky. The Yellow Emperor and Changxian looked up and saw dense layers of clouds as dark as undiluted ink.
The clouds rumbled with terrifying thunder.
“Those clouds are strange. Xuan-Yuan, you have to be careful,” transmitted the red-robed woman. Her nine white tails waved about as she focused on the thunderclouds, expression grim.
The Yellow Emperor subconsciously glanced at the Divine Emissary, only to find that his former nervousness had disappeared without a trace.
“It seems like this is the emissary’s back-up plan. He’s sending tribulation lightning. That’s fine, I’ll be interested to see exactly how strong lightning punishments really are.”
Bang.
His right leg stomped against the earth as he leaped into the air.
He looked into the clouds indifferently, his eyes contemptuous of all creation, his lips curling upward into a smile.
“You’re seeking death,” snorted the Divine Emissary through squinted eyes.
Up in the sky, the first bolt of lightning came cras.h.i.+ng down.
Rumble.
The Yellow Emperor’s body was bathed in electricity.
He used his body alone to resist the lightning. Electricity flooded off him in all four directions.
Just the leftover power was enough to make the onlookers’ hair stand on end and their skin numb, but the Yellow Emperor faced it directly, laughing uproariously, expression overflowing with contempt.
Boom.
Crack!
Bolt after bolt of lightning bathed his body, its rapid pace leaving even the Divine Emissary dumbstruck.
Up in the sky, the Yellow Emperor let the heavenly lightning pour over him. He hadn’t retreated even half a step.
“He really is a hero of his generation!”
Even the Divine Emissary couldn’t help but sigh in praise. This sort of heavenly lightning usually only appeared during Divine Bestowal. The Yellow Emperor was using his mortal, fleshly body alone to block it; he was truly heroic.
But even if he was a hero, someone who’d offended the G.o.d Realm….
Couldn’t be allowed to live.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The lightning struck without pause. Eventually, the Yellow Emperor’s contempt was replaced with exhaustion
He had no opportunity to recover his spiritual strength and each strike was stronger than the one before. As the seventieth bolt struck, he finally coughed up a mouthful of heart’s blood.
Another bolt came struck and the Yellow Emperor crashed hard into the earth, his legs unsteady.
“My Lord.”
Roar……
The beastman horde had been biding its time and chose this moment to launch their attack. Changxian forcibly s.h.i.+elded the Yellow Emperor with his body, and soon his back was covered in claw-marks.
Cough.
With a deep grunt, Changxian hacked up a mouthful of blood. He forcefully suppressed another cough rising up at the back of his throat, grit his teeth, then turned and pierced through a beastman’s chest.
“Scram, beast.”
“Xuan-yuan.”
The red-robed woman descended hurriedly and rushed to his side. A brilliant glow emanated from her hands as she reached out and pressed between his eyes.
“Here, I’ll heal you now.”
Rumble.
“Cursed heavens, don’t even think about hurting my master.”
Woosh.
Changxian, still grasping his weapon, leaped directly into the sky and waved the golden halberd in the air.
“You can’t.”
The weakened Yellow Emperor cried out as he saw this. Changxian was obviously trying to turn himself into a lightning rod to help block the tribulation.
But having experienced the tribulation lightning firsthand, he knew better than anyone that Changxian wouldn’t be able to take it.
Bzzzz……
Lightning traveled through the halberd and poured into Changxian’s body.
“……”
The lightning flooded into him, destroying his organs and leaving his energy in utter disarray.
Cough.
He could no longer restrain himself; he coughed up another mouthful of blood.
Rumble.
Another bolt fell from the sky.
Cough.
And another.
And another.
Changxian still grasped his halberd. He had truly used his own weapon as a lightning rod to protect his emperor, and his own life to forcefully resist the tribulation.
Bam.
He fell to the ground.
Changxian’s breathing was no longer audible. The Yellow Emperor’s entire body was drenched in blood, yet he knelt beside him and clasped his hand.
“Brother.”
Rumble.
Another bolt of lightning reverberated through the sky. All they felt in response was….
Utter despair.
“Divine Emissary, I agree to your conditions. I’ll do whatever the G.o.d Realm wants, just please let Lil’ Yan and Changxian go.”
“That’s unacceptable,” said the emissary, shaking his head. “The two of them both defied the G.o.d Realm’s authority. They must be put to death.”
“You……”
“My Lord, he’s just a lackey. Why even bother with him?” Changxian laughed uproariously, blood flowing in an unending stream from his mouth. Then he saw the yet another bolt of lightning descending from above.
“Don’t even think of hurting my master.”
Although Changxian’s life force was like a candle flickering in the wind, he somehow dredged up another burst of power, clenched his halberd, and leaped into the air.
Heavenly lightning poured into his body.
Entire body convulsing, Changxian called out the last sentence he’d ever utter.
“Boss, hurry up and run!”
“Changxian!” the Yellow Emperor called out hoa.r.s.ely, eyes bloodshot. He could only watch as the lightning’s intense power poured into Changxian, who transformed into specks of light and dispersed across the land and into the air.
“Brother!”
Rumble.
The heavenly lightning still didn’t stop.
A red silhouette flew past the Yellow Emperor….
“Lil’ Yan, don’t do it.”
“It looks like it’s up to me to help you block the rest of the lightning,” smiled the woman in red. “The heavens wish to smite my lord, so I’ll follow him to the grave.”
Then, she fixed her gaze onto the young woman by the entrance to the Nine-tailed Fox Clan’s mountain.
Her rosy lips trembled…..
Boom!
“Big sister!”
Back at the present-day Nine-tailed Fox Clan back mountain, Su Liu’er called out. She reached forward in a desperate attempt to pull Su Yan from the lightning.
“You can’t go in there,” said Lady Nuwa. She forcefully restrained Su Liu’er, who could only struggle as her eyes filled with tears.
“Big Sister!”
It was happening again…..
Back then it had been just like this.
She’d hated herself for so long, hated her former weakness, hated that she couldn’t help her sister resist the heavenly lightning.
From that moment on, she’d bitterly researched the art of ice magic.
Three hundred years…..
The head of the Nine-tailed Fox Clan, the Empress Su Liu’er stood far above all others.
With a turn of her hand, she produced clouds, with another, rain. She was revered by all.
She loathed the immortal region and distrusted the heavens.
She longed for the day she’d be able to shatter those heavens with her own hands and turn the G.o.d Realm upside-down.
She longed to one day stand before her sister, no longer a child, but rather someone she could rely on.
But……
It was happening again.
She’d woken up in a panic after dreaming of this exact scene hundreds of times, even thousands of times, but now it was truly playing out again before her very eyes.
It was as if a heart demon were swallowing her mind and soul.
“Big Sister……”
Gradually, Su Liu’er’s shouts transformed into howls, her pale blue eyes reddened, and her pure white tails turned the color of blood.
“Yellow Emperor, this… it’s all your fault!”