Chapter 789: Joke
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the Empire of Aurora, the glow from the steel temple under the palace burned everyone’s eyes and illuminated the impossible to hide motley of Bai Heng’s hair.
Even if a speck of darkness had appeared in the arrogant, artificial pure white, it still would have been this unsightly; it still would have been this… boundless and indistinct.
“Back to the matter at hand.” Bai Heng shook his head and sighed. “For such a long time, I have followed my own will. I have gone against the trend of the times, I have fooled around, and many people are curious: do I have any secrets that are not bound by the blood of Devas?”
Facing Tung w.a.n.g Kung and Yunlou Qingshu’s shocked expression, Bai Heng smiled happily.
“Yes, I do,” he nodded, then said seriously, “because I am not even a Deva.”
Tung w.a.n.g Kung’s face went blank, without even the slightest bit of anger or sadness, as if they had just lightly touched upon this topic. Countless rainbows flashed in his eyes, looking for a way to ruin the conversation.
But Yunlou Qingshu could not be as inhuman as a catastrophe.
His expression was marvelous.
First he was shocked, then stunned, and finally, he could not control his rage. His face tightened and he gritted his teeth.
The legitimacy of a deva that he had all along longed to have had been taken by him!
“You…you…”
“Ah, I have hidden this secret in my heart for many years.” Bai Heng put on an “embarra.s.sed” and “sorry” look. “Actually I was the illegitimate child of my mother and a stableboy, so I am only half Deva. She did all she could to cover this up. Although my father later found out that he had been cuckolded, it was a family scandal, and he couldn’t let it be made known. In any case, I made an easy scapegoat to be sent to the capital to die. After all, if n.o.body said anything, who would know? At that time, everyone knew that the young masters of the Bai family were the best at painting, but I just had to find a little bit of pigment in the palace to dye my hair. I’ve let you all down. I’m sorry.”
“No!” Yunlou Qingshu finally reacted. He stared at him. “The blessing of the dragon bloodline! What about the blessing of the dragon bloodline?”
“I had a transfusion of marrow,” Bai Heng answered naturally. He opened up his jacket to show his skinny body. “Not only that but look here. My heart is my fourth brother’s, my liver was at first my uncle’s, then switched out for my third brother’s. And here, look, I had to make an incision here, insert a tube, and then cut open my lungs. Fortunately, my home had a hygienic canister that could hold corpses and I was able to piece this together in six months. After taking so many painkillers, they no longer had any effect. Later, I became a recognized official of the Dragon Bloodline, but there had been no foundation for it from the beginning. At best, I can only be considered a ‘half-finished product.’”
Everyone let out a gasp when they saw Bai Heng’s chest.
It was not even a scar. After being cut open and st.i.tched open countless times, it had become completely fragmented.
No one could have imagined that Bai Heng, who had once been the regent, was hiding such a hideously withered body under his robes.
He was revealing himself at his ugliest, but Bai Heng’s eyes were proud. He grinned and laughed, revealing the grooves in his teeth. The drugs had already dissolved into his saliva, penetrated into his stomach, and had been carried through his veins all throughout his body.
“Look, I’ve taken regular antihormone injections and endured all kinds of side effects, like blood in your urine and periodic deterioration, as well as all kinds of inconvenience and pain. But as long as it can be destroyed by a bit of ‘bad blood medicine,’ it won’t even be as good as that of the country b.u.mpkin over there.”
He was a fake.
But in this, he was very pleased with himself.
This was Bai Heng’s strongest weapon.
It was by this that he had won the trust of the Yuan, Zhangsun and Liu families. The only thing that could destroy the Dragon Bloodlines was a fake like him.
Now, after a bit of “bad blood medicine” had removed his immunity to radiation, Bai Heng’s body had instantly been scarred by the high-intensity radiation.
A destruction that was taking place at the cellular level had taken hold of him.
Right now he looked fresh, but that was an illusion formed by a pile of gravel. Disaster and death had emerged from every cell and spread out, and there was no way to stop it.
In other words, he was dying.
But through his insignificant death, he was able to overwhelm the power of catastrophes.
“Congratulations, Tung w.a.n.g Kung, your plan failed,” he whispered. “Due to a mortal like me, who is not even a musician; a half-finished product who is not even a Deva.”
Just as he finished speaking the loud roar came to an abrupt end.
For a moment, everyone felt like they were falling into the abyss.
The world was collapsing towards the center of the steel temple.
Gravity seemed to be distorted, and countless rainbows emerged from the sea of aether, and immediately gathered into a vast and indistinct vortex with a clap of thunder.
A vortex.
An unprecedented amount of power gathered, and the pressure of this force seemed to drill a hole through the world.
But in the musician’s perception, it seemed that an infinite glow appeared from within the shattered world.
Something descended.
From the higher dimensions, the gathered power of all aether, the source of all miracles, the starting point of all power, the prototype of all things emerged in the palace.
But it was so far away.
Even if you got as close as possible, you still could not touch it.
It was big enough to turn the world into dust, and beautiful enough to eclipse everything. After piercing through all insignificant things like time and s.p.a.ce, that which was called “The Originator” emerged.
With Chaoyue and Bai Xi as a vessel, and under the guidance of Taiyi and Zhaodang, it descended there.
But the naked human eye could not observe it at all; they could only infer its existence through the traces it left in the past.
It was the projection of the Holy Cauldron.
Once upon a time, humans had rewritten the artifacts created by The Originator.
Now its image emerged from the glow and covered Chaoyue and Bai Xi’s bodies, revealing traces of primitivity and change.
Everything was complete.
The opportunity that countless musicians had dreamt of for centuries had arrived.
But the central core was still silent.
After lacking the Bai family’s bloodline verification, it had refused all orders.
Everyone could only watch this opportunity pa.s.s them by, all of them anxious and pained. They watched the brief time flow by.
After this short-lived event, it once again disappeared into the depths of the realm of aether, into dimensions that humans could not reach…
“It’s so sad, isn’t it?” Bai Heng looked at Tung w.a.n.g Kung’s face and smiled mockingly. “The Originator has come and all you can do is watch. Doesn’t feel too good, does it? How about I tell you a joke…”
Before he had finished speaking, hoa.r.s.e laughter rang out.
It was Yunlou Qinshu.
“Hahahahaha!!!” After witnessing the end of his calculation and scheming, Yunlou Qinshu laughed uncontrollably. “It’s so amusing, it’s so funny, it’s so ironic! Regent w.a.n.g is a one-in-a-million talent, and he can actually achieve this level… This goes beyond expectations, bravo, bravo!”
“Well said, well said.” One of Bai Heng’s hands was resting on the chair, and he could barely cup his hands in thanks. “You’re not trying to find a better place to perch, are you Duke Yunlou?”
“That I am. I cannot force the heavens to change. Things have come to this, and I despise the backing of others. If I want a great patron, why not myself?” Yunlou Qinshou smiled and somehow unlocked the shackles on his left hand. He got up from his chair and looked all around the temple, then suddenly lifted his hand. “It’s unfortunate that Her Majesty and Regent w.a.n.g have used up all their tricks. The crane and the mussel fought, giving an old fisherman like me the chance to achieve victory.”
“What?” Bai Heng looked shocked. “You did not do this out of love, in order to resurrect your beloved wife?”
“Those were just words, don’t take them seriously.” Yunlou Qinshu waved his hand to dismiss the idea. “If you love beauties, Duke Bai, then after I ascend the throne, I’ll burn a couple of them for you.”
“Is this the start of your plan to take the throne?” Bai Heng snorted. “Unfortunately, a b.u.mpkin will always be a b.u.mpkin and can never be Emperor.”
Even at this point Bai Heng still called him a b.u.mpkin.
As a result, Yunlou Qinshu’s smile faded. Now that he knew he was a fake, being called a b.u.mpkin by him was ten times worse than before.
He narrowed his eyes at Bai Heng and waved. “Chaoyue, kill him.”
At that moment, in the center of the temple, the sleeping Yunlou Chaoyue suddenly began to tremble. At Yunlou Qinshu’s command, Yunlou Chaoyue, who had been immersed in a trance, was forcibly awakened from the depths of the Originator. Her eyes slowly opened.
Her eyes were empty.
They seemed to have enough s.p.a.ce in them to cover the entire magnificent world.
A vague figure slowly emerged from the Originator that had formed as it emerged from the Holy Cauldron, and cold killing intent emanated from it.
It was gruesome to the core.
But Bai Heng still smiled. “Where were we? Ah yes, a joke.” He slapped his knee and enthusiastically said, “Here’s the joke: once upon a time there was an ambitious b.u.mpkin. He thought he was extraordinary. He overreached himself and cast his greedy eyes upon the throne. Then…” Before he finished his sentence, the ear-piercing sound of sc.r.a.ping metal rang out.
Blood spewed forth, dyeing everything red.
“…he died,” said Bai Heng.
Yunlou Qinshu’s smile stiffened. He looked down and saw the large hole that had appeared in his chest. It was wide open, and a smoldering flame burned in the wound. Using his blood as fuel, it spread all throughout him, consuming him bit by bit.
He looked back in shock.
He looked at the shadow that had appeared from the projection of the Originator.
Its huge amount of power was contained by Chaoyue and Baixi, and it descended into the physical world. It was given character by Taiyi and Zhaodong, these two talents that were so strong they could almost break the rules of the universe. Finally, it appeared by using the most perfect gesture within their consciousnesses.
It was a distant and indistinct figure.
Chaoyue and Baixi, who had been divided into two before birth, merged into one here, forming a strange face that seemed familiar. It was the face that had been engraved in the deepest parts of their consciousnesses at the moment of their birth, the source of their bloodline and inheritance.
It was Yunlou Qinshu’s sister and wife—Yunlou Qingxue!
In but an instant, the devastating power crushed Yunlou Qinshu’s heart and lungs. It set him on fire, cruelly and deliberately giving him the harshest punishment.
He turned into ashes bit by bit in the flame.
“How can this…be?” Yunlou Qinshu looked at the pair of eyes in shock. He glimpsed at the bitterness and hatred within them. He screamed in the flames and fell to the ground twitching as he watched his limbs burn away, crumble, and turn to ash.
He took a long time to die.
“That’s the joke. Was it funny?” Bai Heng looked down on his miserable condition with pity. “You fool… You never understood how precious your daughter was.”
At this moment, Chaoyue and Bai Xi were being used as vessels for the Originator, which was almost equivalent to overlapping in the same place.
When Chaoyue awoke, Bai Xi’s will would naturally return.
The two of them had originally been one.
Moreover, at this moment, with the resonance of the Originator and the Dragon Bloodline, they were closer than ever before.
But that consciousness could only last for a moment in that infinite power.
However, Chaoyue, who had been deliberately cultivated into a puppet by Yunlou Qinshu, had no way to balance the explosive Bai Xi.
At that moment, after throwing off the suppression of the Dragon Bloodline, Bai Xi was finally able to retaliate against her biological father by adopting the face and posture of her own mother. Unfortunately, no matter how cruel the death sentence was, it was not enough to relieve the anger that she had held in her heart for so many years.
Bai Heng looked down upon Yunlou Qinshu’s tragic end from start to finish with cold eyes. He did not kick him while he was down, and he was not stupid enough to lend him a helping hand.
He just indifferently gave his final evaluation, “Stupid idiot.”
Yunlou Qinshu had been a fool.
He had been from the beginning.
Halfway through the rebellion, he had killed his father and forced his brother to leave. This was worth despising him for, but this was not what Bai Heng looked down on.
Bai Heng had done that himself.
He looked down on Yunlou Qinshu because he had no reason other than his ambition.
So he couldn’t even rebel very well.
But apart from a t.i.tle, he had not gained any inheritance, and even that t.i.tle was not guaranteed.
If he had had a bit of patience and had a bit of a chance to understand the inheritance of Deva blood, he would not have fallen as far as he had now.
He absolutely did not understand how valuable his daughter was!
No one knew how much fury and pity Bai Heng had felt when he had learned of the existence of Bai Xi from the mouth of Hermes. He wished he could smash Yunlou Qinshu’s corpse to pieces!
It was just… a reckless waste of resources!
Such a talented young girl smothered by him in her mother’s womb. He had destroyed her just because he feared the risk of dying young, in order to use a living legitimate son to exchange for a useless t.i.tle!
Was he still pleased with himself about this?
Go to h.e.l.l, you fool. You don’t know what you’ve done!
That the once in a lifetime, unprecedented talents of Taiyi and Zhaodang could appear once was already a blessing from heaven, much more so that they should both appear in the same child.
The dual talents of positivity and negativity in one body had not only never happened before; Bai Heng could predict it would never happen again!
Even after they were separated, their natural ability was still enough to let them become vessels for the Originator.
If they could be made whole again, they would definitely the individual closest to perfection since the birth of the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline!
In other words, the inheritance of the Nine Families only existed to bring about the existence of Chaoyue and Bai Xi!
For centuries, in order to completely control aether, avoid individual death humans and avoid continuity humans had not hesitated to implant music theory into the blood. It was pa.s.sed down through the generations where it continued and spread.
Finally, through internal mixing, it had created a true “Child of the Dragon!”
Compared to the Child of the Dragon, all other musicians were just inferior ma.s.s-produced products. They were not musicians who used and communicated with aether, and they were not a hub and a bridge between humans and aether; they were beings who had both a human and an aetheric nature. They had an aether, and were humans who could truly meld into it!
This was a way to follow the lesson that had been learned from past mistakes: “avoiding being betrayed by tools,” that had been first created by the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline.
If your tools betrayed you, then become the tool yourself, merging into one.
And when this had been close to success, it had been split into half-finished products by an idiot who thought himself clever…
Truly a great irony!
Bai Heng could almost imagine, if there really were so-called “Spirits in Heaven,” that pack of ghosts must be full of hatred!
“But although Yunlou Qinshu was stupid, he at least did me a favor,” said Bai Heng. He plucked a steel wire out of his hair and dextrously undid his lock, making him able to move his body. As the phantom pain burned through him, his body seemed to be restored to its original state.
However, this was merely the final radiance of a setting sun.
His human vitality had already been cut off from its very source.
It was not like a tree had been cut down. It was that every branch, every leaf, and every inch of the trunk had lost its vitality. Even if he could maintain the integrity of his body through inertia, he could tell that in a few days he would be nothing more than rotting meat.
But now he looked radiant.
Excellent.
He kicked aside the still burning Yunlou Qinshu with one foot. Bai Heng walked towards the Empress. “If he hadn’t jumped out first, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have dared to determine if Duke w.a.n.g was here… I guess that he has already used all his energy to invade the central core and try to take control of it?”
In the silence, the person on the throne opened her eyes. She was no longer as indifferent and cold as before, but human color began to flow back to her face.
It was like she was waking from a dream.
“Is that Bai Heng?” she asked.
“Mhm, it’s me.” Bai Heng nodded and walked in front of her. He bent down and studied her face. “The guilty minister has come to see Her Majesty.”
The Empress smiled wearily. “What about Yunlou Qinshu?”
Bai Heng pointed at him. “Where he is it’s quite hot. Is there anything wrong with you, Your Majesty?”
“It looks like you won? Alright.” The Empress looked at Bai Heng and smiled tiredly. “Did you do all of this to become Emperor?”
Bai Heng shook his head and smiled. “I don’t want the throne, Your Majesty. Why do you still not understand?” His eyes were full of sorrow. “If I wanted that chair, you wouldn’t have had a chance. I just wanted to free you from this cage. Do you still not understand? You were driven by a catastrophe for so many years, thinking I was your greatest enemy. But I was not the one imprisoning you, it was everything that you had…”
Bai Heng reached out and stroked her white hair. Finally, he looked into her shocked eyes.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you die,” he said. “I’ll let you live.”
He would truly let her live like a human being!
As he spoke, a vague alchemy array lit up on Bai Xi’s body. It was the lock that Hermes had forged.
Now, at Bai Heng’s call, the alchemy array around Bai Xi’s body started up. Now, the array that had grown alongside her muscles, bones, and organs began to come off on its own.
It was like leaves drifting down from a branch.
The array that was as huge and complicated as a nervous system was cleverly and subtly drawn off of Bai Xi’s body without the slightest bit of pain.
She no longer needed anything to seal away her talents.
And now, the array floated through the air. It drew upon the aether and began to proliferate on its own.
If the original array was like an entire nervous system, now music theory and arrays flowed through it endlessly.
It was expanding.
It was restoring its original appearance.
It was a miracle, like the smallest particle of dust expanding to consume the whole world.
The masterpiece of the alchemical arts was reoccuring here.
Finally, the end of the huge array stretched out inextricably, and connected to every one of the Empress’s ganglions, making her instantly fall into a trance.
“What… is this?”
In front of her, Bai Heng smiled as he guided the array’s expansion. It was like he had already practiced this thousands of times, and he was both familiar with it and careful.
“15 years ago, the Emperor turned you into a machine for the Empire of Aurora, a puppet that only lived for its mission. For so many years I have tried to find a way to restore you to your original state. Unfortunately, with my meager talent, it is impossible to match up to a catastrophe… Fortunately, where there’s a will there’s a way.”
At that moment, countless arrays were bundled up in his hands. They formed into a line and pointed at the Empress’s heart.
“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered. “Hermes’s humanization technique is hidden in here.”
In that instant, countless alchemy arrays followed Bai Heng’s movements and pierced through the Empress from above the throne.
A mournful cry burst forth.
It was like 15 years of sorrow crying out in pain.
Numerous forgotten memories rushed out of the darkness. In the end, they settled at the last moment where there was still heat.
The old Emperor had cut open her chest and implanted a ghost within her.
“After this,” the dying old man’s eyes flashed with madness, “you will be the new Empress.”
The memory came to an abrupt end, and the roar stopped.
It was Tung w.a.n.g Kung.
After breaking through the Firewall, Tung w.a.n.g Kung, who was only one step away from his destination, howled with rage. He truly seemed like a “man” of virtue. He shouted with all the anger and unwillingness of a man of talent, “Bai Heng!!”
“Yes, it’s me.” Bai Heng smiled as the alchemy array penetrated the Empress’s body inch by inch. “Such an exquisite pain, this is a precious experience for a man of talent. It roars and snarls like a human being.” He gave a cold farewell, “Here is the gift that Hermes left for you before his death!”
At that moment, a blazing light rose into the sky.
Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes from his long dream.