Chapter 094: The Balance Is Shattered

Murong Jingtian had not even caught the last three words Liu Qingyi had spoken when a flicker of black flame appeared before his eyes. In the next instant, his head rolled from his shoulders.

The strip of silk around Liu Qingyi’s neck had become a long sword of black blade, wrapped in black fire, whirling through the hall. To ordinary eyes the blade itself could not be seen; only the leaping black flames were visible.

In an instant, the five pampered young men in the hall, along with Murong Jingtian’s mistress, met the same fate as Murong Jingtian himself: their heads parted from their bodies.

One of the wealthy young men had just raised a cup of wine to his lips, but before he could drink, the liquor spilled instead into the throat that had already been cut open...

When Liu Qingyi stepped out of the manor, all twenty-seven people inside, servants included, were dead. Whether innocent or guilty, whether deserving death or not, none had survived.

She understood clearly that from this moment on, her hands were stained with blood.

Then, suddenly, the heavens opened, and a torrential rain came pouring down.

She lifted her face to the downpour.

Her mother was dead, and that night the Murong Qingyi who had once endured every insult without ever fighting back had died as well.

In truth, she had once wondered why the family head had not waited until she reached Cloud City to hand her her mother’s final letter in person, but instead had sent it to Rock City.

Only after hearing Murong Jingtian’s words before his death did she understand: even the family head had always despised her, his granddaughter, and had not wanted to see her again. That was why he had chosen to send the letter to Rock City.

At that moment, she silently swore in her heart:

From this day forth, aside from her benefactor, Song Ye, whomever dared to bully her would be repaid in the harshest of ways.

...

Two months later, in Rock City.

There was now one final month before the princess’s wedding.

For the sake of the princess’s reputation, Qin Xuanxi would not come to Song Ye’s courtyard again before the marriage.

Two members of the Purple Jade Guard had been stationed at the entrance of the courtyard to protect Song Ye’s safety.

After all, times had changed. From the day Song Ye and the princess’s wedding date was formally set, his life had become incomparably precious.

Now that Song Ye was the betrothed consort, it was no longer fitting for him to continue working as a yamen clerk.

Song Ye had tried, of his own accord, to go to the magistrate’s office as usual to report for duty, but Governor Wang Demao had earnestly begged him to stay home and rest well, while his pay and provisions would still be issued on time.

Song Ye, in his former world, had never met such a splendid superior who begged him not to come to work while still paying his salary all the same.

Seeing that Wang Demao was almost ready to kneel and plead with him, Song Ye had no choice but not to make things difficult for him. He returned home obediently and prepared to “marry” into the House of Prince Xiang, where from then on he would live by eating the easy life.

During this period, Song Ye became the object of the fiercest envy, jealousy, and resentment among the men of Rock City.

After all, in everyone’s eyes, he was nothing more than an unremarkable petty clerk apart from having a somewhat handsome face. Yet this very clerk would, in just one month, transform into the prince-consort, a true dragon among men.

But Song Ye understood the matter all too well: he might not necessarily get to enjoy this soft life as prince-consort. After all, only he knew that Qin Xuanxi was not truly the princess.

And even now, Song Ye still did not know the real purpose behind Qin Xuanxi’s impersonation of the princess and her marriage to him.

But he thought the day the truth would be revealed was not far off.

After all, in one month they would be holding the grand wedding at the House of Prince Xiang.

Song Ye also held an invitation card, and he glanced at the wedding date printed upon it—

The fifteenth day of the fifth month in the seventy-eighth year of the Reign of Xuan Ying.

...

Mystic Machine Mountain.

Mystic Machine Mountain was a sacred land of the Immortal Sect. Anyone who aspired to become an exalted immortal sovereign with a title had first to pass the Immortal Sovereign Trial upon this mountain.

Today, the old founder of the Immortal Sect, Guo Zeyang, sat beneath an unnamed tree at the summit of Mystic Machine Mountain.

The leaves of this tree were entirely white.

Before Guo Zeyang stood a giant rock shaped naturally like a stone table. Upon it were placed two cups of wine: one for him, and the other for an honored guest soon to arrive.

“Guo Zeyang, this year you seem to have arrived a quarter of an hour earlier than last year.”

A little girl’s voice suddenly sounded from the void, and at once a massive black shadow came into being out of nowhere.

From within the shadow, a little girl in a white long robe and a futou cap slowly stepped out, standing upon empty air.

If anyone else saw her, they would never guess that this girl, dressed as a boy and appearing no more than eleven or twelve years old, was in fact the old founder of the Demon Sect, Wei Bulie.

“Today the weather is good, so this old man came a quarter of an hour early to enjoy the cool wind atop the mountain. Brother Bulie, this cup of wine was especially set aside for you,” Guo Zeyang said with a faint smile.

Though Wei Bulie was female, Guo Zeyang still addressed her as a brother.

Wei Bulie took the cup from the stone table into her hand, raised it, and drank it dry in a single gulp. Then the empty cup in her hand crumbled to dust.

“This wine of yours is not even as good as the one from a hundred years ago. The wine you prepare for this sovereign grows worse by the year. I think that in the next hundred years, there will be no need for me to come here and meet with you again,” Wei Bulie said with a slight furrow in her brows.

Having drunk a wine that did not satisfy her, she seemed somewhat displeased.

“Brother Bulie, do not take offense. You should know that precisely because we meet in private once every hundred years, the Immortal and Demon realms have maintained peace for more than three thousand years,” Guo Zeyang said, his eyes narrowing slightly. “In my view, Brother Bulie surely does not wish to see war break out between the two realms again.”

Wei Bulie remained silent, which counted as agreement with Guo Zeyang’s view.

Historical records note that the Immortal and Demon realms have fought five great wars in total. Each time, the conflict was unimaginably brutal, with countless deaths and injuries on both sides, and the lands became a hell of ruin and suffering.

Each time such a war erupted, many great kingdoms, along with many sects and noble clans, vanished utterly in its flames.

The fifth great war between Immortal and Demon occurred only a little more than three thousand years ago. It was only after that war that the present mortal world gradually took shape, with seven kingdoms standing in balance.

Of course, these seven so-called great kingdoms were exceedingly fragile in the contest between Immortals and Demons. If a sixth war were ever to begin, they could be destroyed at any moment.

“Brother Bulie, you should also know that the most important thing in preserving peace between the two realms and preventing renewed war is balance.”

Guo Zeyang continued with his eyes half-closed. “As long as the equilibrium of power between our Immortal and Demon realms is not broken, then neither our Immortal cultivation world nor your Demon cultivation world would dare to recklessly ignite conflict.”

“Unfortunately, this old man sees that over these past hundred years, that balance has been slowly eroding.”

“And the one breaking it is none other than Qin Xuanxi, the lord of the Abyssal Heaven Sect in your Demon cultivation world.”

“Our Immortal cultivation world has not produced a single Emperor Immortal Sovereign for three thousand years, yet a hundred years ago, your Demon cultivation world gave rise to Qin Xuanxi, an Emperor Demon Sovereign.”

An Emperor Immortal Sovereign was an immortal sovereign whose cultivation had reached the ninth level of the Emperor Soul Realm, the peak of the path.

Likewise, an Emperor Demon Sovereign referred to a demon sovereign whose cultivation had reached the ninth level of the Emperor Sovereign, Primordial Demon Realm.

“Thus, the balance between Immortals and Demons has been broken!” Guo Zeyang said, shaking his head helplessly.