Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 72: The End of Fate

Chapter 72: The End of Fate

“The Heavenly Court?” A look flashed through Xu Disheng’s eyes.

“Perhaps it’s best not to speak carelessly of the Heavenly Court,” ‘Xi Jingshan’ lightly shook its head and continued, “The Heavenly Court has something called the Heaven Supervisory Department, which supervises all living beings of the Three Heavens and Nine Realms. Any time the words ‘Heaven Realm’ or ‘Heavenly Court’ are mentioned, the Heaven Supervisory Department will always be able to perceive it. It’s just that they ordinarily wouldn’t pay ants like us any mind.”

Xu Disheng’s long, slender fingers twisted into a hand seal, activating the Amassing Water Technique. Inside of the waterless zone created by the Parting Water Pearl, three spheres of water appeared, lightly splashing onto the heads of Li Dan and the others, waking them up.

Li Dan and the white-clothed girl were the first to wake up. Seeing Xu Disheng and ‘Xi Jingshan’ communicating, they had a hard time understanding what was going on. They stood behind Xu Disheng, acting in a guarded manner against ‘Xi Jingshan’.

Yuan Qi woke up last. When he saw what was going on, an expression of alarm flashed across his face as he pointed at ‘Xi Jingshan’ and shouted, “Senior Martial Brother Xu! That’s a ghost! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Upon receiving such a cold reception, ‘Xi Jingshan’ didn’t say anything, but Xu Disheng furrowed his brow and took the other 30 spirit stones, placing them in Li Dan’s arms. “That’s Xi Jingshan. Earlier, you all just didn’t see clearly. Tidy up and we’ll go back to the Sacred Sect and report in.”

Yuan Qi wanted to say more, but after ‘Xi Jingshan’ swept a cold gaze over him, he swallowed his words. He grumbled and followed after Xu Disheng, not daring to look at him again.

The disciples all knew that something was fishy about ‘Xi Jingshan’, but Xu Disheng had already spoken his part, so they had no way of bringing the matter up again. They could only follow Xu Disheng closely while staying as far away as they could from ‘Xi Jingshan’.

The Jade Water Divine Palace was already completely exhausted of spiritual energy, in a state of utter disrepair. Aside from that tiny bit of spirit vein remaining, there would be no other reason left for them to stay here.

When they held the Parting Water Pearl and made it to the edge of the lakebed, the surrounding waters suddenly turned muddy. The water outside of the waterless space created by the Parting Water Pearl began to roil, and it became difficult to see much of anything.

Xu Disheng’s eyebrows furrowed as he calmly perceived his surroundings. In the surrounding water, there were several yao energy signatures rapidly approaching. Aside from the extremely powerful serpent monster, there were two somewhat weaker yao energy signatures.

In the next moment, a loud splash rang out, and the water tumbled and burst as a sinister maw extended into the waterless space. The serpent monster’s frightening upper body, which was well over 4 meters thick, was revealed, brimming with yao energy.

Shortly after, two greenish-black monsters with human heads and fish bodies also charged into the waterless space and stood next to the serpent monster.

The serpent monster looked at ‘Xi Jingshan’, and pure, unadulterated resentment dripped from the serpent monster’s tone as it roared loudly in its deep, low voice, causing everyone’s ears to vibrate. “After well over ten thousand years have passed, I never would’ve thought that you had survived on in this world!”

The face of ‘Xi Jingshan’ remained natural as it said flatly, “Aren’t you, the last living Monster General, also alive after all? In these years, the Jade Water Domain is over a thousand times smaller than before, and the spiritual energy in the Divine Palace is practically exhausted to depletion. You and these several other monsters are merely existing and can’t even fill your bellies. Perhaps you will all be forever unable to undergo Transformation at this rate. Truly, such pitiful existences.”

One of the fish monsters at the side said in a low, muffled voice, “Although I hadn’t advanced to the rank of monster soldier, I heard that at the time after the war, a spirit with boundless resentment was born and transformed into an Evil Spirit. Later, it was transformed by Monster King Lingche, but I really never expected that it would survive until now.”

… …

The Heavenly Court was one of the Three Great Heaven Realms, which were also called the Three Heavens. They were positioned above the Nine Realms, and were as old as heaven and earth itself, prevailing through countless calamities.

In the House of the Celestial Sovereign, in the Heavenly Court…

Inside of the vast, majestic divine mansion of Divine Lord Gou Chen, there were several Divine Lords sitting in the seats of honor, talking and laughing amongst each other.

In the Heavenly Court, there were 72 domains, and there was a Divine House in control of each, with around a dozen Divine Lords in charge respectively. There were countless deities of varying ranks beneath them, each possessing their own duty in their respective departments.

In the Tianyu Domain, today was the day that Divine Lord Mingxi’s little princess was to be married off. Marital relations between deities was common, so there weren’t many overly complicated customs surrounding it.

Although the Tianyu Domain and the Domain of the Celestial Sovereign were large, only a few Divine Lords showed up. But of the deities of the two Houses, a large majority showed up.

(TL: House/Domain of the Celestial Lord → House/Domain of the Celestial Sovereign. Also, Divine General Gou Chen → Divine Lord Gou Chen, since it turns out that Divine Generals and Divine Lords are different existences.)

The princess was standing at Divine Lord Gou Chen’s side. She had an anxious look as she kept looking towards the outside of the divine mansion, at the far off horizon, as if she were waiting for someone.

“I am a maid of Divine Lord Mingxi’s princess. I’m a little late, but could you please let me in? I have a gift for the princess,” a white-clothed woman who was standing outside Gou Chen’s divine mansion said with a begging tone in her voice. She knew that the Divine Domain’s rules were strict and insurmountable. But the spirituality of this Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern in her hands, which had been created from ten thousand years of snow, was slowly fading. If she waited until after the princess’s wedding to refine it, its effectiveness would drop by a lot.

“You do know that this is the Divine Mansion of Divine Lord Gou Chen? The time has already passed, so be obedient and go back and wait,” one of the Divine Lords reprimanded coldly, waving the maid away.

Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion was vast and expansive, and was one of the greatest Divine Mansions in the Domain of the Celestial Sovereign. The gate was over 300 meters tall, and there were several thousand celestial soldiers in front of it, heavily guarding the gate with utmost loyalty.

The white-clothed woman was disheartened, and she looked down sadly at the Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern in her hands as its spirituality slowly disappeared into heaven and earth.

Seeing that she wasn’t saying anything, the tone of that Divine Lord who just spoke became even more severe as he said, “Maid, don’t stand in front of the gate of this Divine Mansion. This is an extremely noble place. How can a maid like you loiter around in front of it? Withdraw right this instant!”

Although the princess’s charming face had a smile on it as she went along with the laughter of Divine Lord Gou Chen and the other Divine Lords, she anxiously thought in her heart, “Lingche, that silly servant girl. She didn’t come for ages, and now that she’s finally here, she’s getting blocked outside of Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion. With all these esteemed Divine Lords here, I can’t speak up. I can only wait for a suitable time to send people to take a look.”

The maid Lingche found a corner on the edge of the boundless expanse of Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion and waited in silence. Shortly after, she suddenly heard divine tones ringing in her ears as a rare fragrance filled the air.

She lifted her gaze and saw that there was an extremely luxurious cloud chariot landing in front of the Divine Mansion, led by three qilins. The chariot was accompanied by countless celestial soldiers and several hundred maids flying through the sky, sprinkling spiritual flowers everywhere. In the places where the spiritual flowers landed, life would take root and grow into divine trees in the blink of an eye, bearing spirit fruits.

To all of the people here, this spectacle was no strange sight. But if there were people from the Human Realm here, just by breathing in, they could extend their lifespan by 8,000 years, and simply eating one of the spirit fruits would give them an additional 1,600 years without question.

The magnificent gate before Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion rumbled open, and the several Divine Generals led the many deities by example, respectfully bowing in welcome.

It was none other than the Almighty Lordship who ruled over the House of the Celestial Sovereign, Celestial Sovereign Taiyi. While Gou Chen was one of the top deities in the House of the Celestial Sovereign, the Almighty Lordship coming here personally was giving Gou Chen plenty of face.

“Princess…” The maid Lingche gazed at the princess at Divine Lord Gou Chen’s side far off in the distance, then looked down at the Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern, which had already lost more than half of its spirituality.

The Guixue Area of the Human Realm had accumulated snow for ten thousand years, untouched for many an age. Lingche had spent several years gathering all of the snow in the area to produce this Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern to give to the princess as a gift.

Since she was little, the princess had always liked ice and snow, and she would often talk about the Guixue Area of the Human Realm. Because she was the treasured princess of Divine Lord Mingxi, she could hardly leave the Divine Mansion to play, much less leave the realm of the Heavenly Court.

When the news came out that the princess was going to be engaged, the maid Lingche had been constantly worrying about the matter, and quietly stole away to the Human Realm. After several years of arduous effort, gathering the snow sheet by sheet, she was finally able to make the Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern.

But as long as the princess was happy and content, a little suffering on her part was nothing.

The maid Lingche gritted her teeth and flew into the sky, appearing in front of the gate of the Divine House in a flash. She held up the Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern in her hand, but just as she was about to speak, she found herself unable to produce any sound. Unknowingly, someone had activated a technique and sealed her speech. She could only stand there rooted in place, panicked and lost.

That Divine Lord who had been warding her away from the gate retracted his technique. His expression became extremely ugly, but he didn’t dare to say anything in front of the presence before him as he stood there with his head lowered. He inwardly scolded Lingche a million times over, regretting that he didn’t thoroughly drive her away earlier.

Celestial Sovereign Taiyi was the ruler of an entire Domain of the Heavenly Court, had around a dozen Divine Generals subordinate to him, and possessed an all-knowing power of creation over all natural things.

He had long noticed the existence of a maid in a strange state in the corner of Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion, but he only saw her as a speck of dust.

But naturally, reminiscent of what would happen if a speck of dust were to fly onto one’s face, Celestial Sovereign Taiyi imperceptibly creased his brow in a nearly unnoticeable manner before following Divine Lord Gou Chen and the other deities into the Divine Mansion.

Just what existences were these Divine Lords? One of the Divine Lords lagged a bit behind and didn’t enter along with them. He glared loathingly at Lingche, who had been frozen into inaction, then said coldly to the celestial general guarding the gate, “What a blatant failure of etiquette in the face of the Celestial Sovereign’s graceful presence! Today, I will discipline you all on Gou Chen’s behalf. You and the other three thousand celestial soldiers guarding this gate will accept your punishment and be demoted by one rank.”

The celestial general lowered his head in compliance, not daring to speak.

As this Divine Lord walked into Gou Chen’s Divine Mansion, his voice was lightly projected, “Strip this discourteous, ignorant maid of her position and banish her to the Human Realm as a demon, never to achieve enlightenment for eternity.”

… …

Bai Tong’s entire body became even more transparent, as if he was about to transform into white light and disappear. Seeing the elegant and attractive female monster in front of him, Bai Tong smiled and said, “They were all calling me naive and childish. Only now do I realize that from beginning to end, I was just a snowflake all along.”

Lingche sighed, bending over to rub Bai Tong’s soft, white hair as she pulled him into her embrace.

Bai Tong was hungry for the warmth of her embrace wrapped around his head. He closed his eyes, not wishing to see the ruins of the Divine Palace around him any longer. “Since my birth, I was always completely kindhearted, trusting those by my side. In the end, every one of them turned their backs on me. Or perhaps, I wasn’t even supposed to exist in this world in the first place,” Bai Tong muttered quietly.

He didn’t say anything after that as he nestled his head deeper into her arms. He enjoyed the warmth that he had never experienced before, as his body gradually turned into white light and dissipated.

In those years, Lingche had wandered past many places and seen many landscapes of the Human Realm. One time, when she was passing through the Shan Mountain, she vaguely felt the aura of the Liuli Crystal Snowflake Lantern and tracked it down.

Upon arriving here, the entire place was already dyed in blood, and the war had just passed. Countless monsters met tragic fates, and the lingering resentment condensed into a ghostly fog, giving rise to evil spirits.

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