Volume 4, Chapter 80 – A Leak in the Heavens (Two-in-One)

The Silver-Shuttle Vessel cut through the sky, drawing a silver-white streak beneath the blood-red canopy. Above the vessel, a torn opening appeared, as if a great hole had been ripped open in the void itself, constantly spewing multicolored radiance out of a black cavity.

As that seven-colored radiance fell into the minor world of Shenwu Heaven, the instant it came into contact with sunlight, air, and moisture, it transformed into countless bizarre things. Some were monsters resembling humans, tigers, dogs, birds, snakes, and insects, every one of them covered in huge tumors and pustules. Others were simply shattered scraps of metal, chunks of stone, pus, and bones. It was as if some gigantic garbage truck outside were dumping trash into the place, and the density of the invading elements was absurdly high.

Bai Xiang naturally knew this was abnormal. Earlier, when she held the Tianxuan Sword, she had also been able to cut open the qi-heavens of Shenwu Heaven. That part was not difficult. At the time, wailing winds mixed with seven-colored radiance had flowed in as well.

She knew what that seven-colored radiance was. It was part of the chaotic gale currents, the pollution carried within them. It contained not only all kinds of radiation and rays, but also the bodies of sentient beings that had died and fallen into the void, along with their soul-energy and bones.

But even if the qi-heavens of Shenwu Heaven were already extremely fragile, fragile enough to collapse into a hole this large, it still should not have let this many things pour in all at once.

She immediately looked toward He Xian and Zhu Canghai, only to hear He Xian say, “It shouldn’t be like this under normal circumstances… holy heavens… someone must have damaged it on purpose! Not only did they pierce the structure of the qi-heavens, they deliberately drew in even more chaotic gale currents! They want to destroy this place!”

On the face of it, that logic clearly did not hold up either. If Shenwu Heaven truly had, as the two of them claimed, “fallen completely under the control of Cloud Tower,” then before finding that specific treasure, Cloud Tower had no reason to destroy it ahead of time.

“It can only be another group,” Zhu Canghai said, his face dark as water. “Cloud Tower actually let news leak out?”

The two of them were over there in disbelief, unable to accept it, but Bai Xiang already had her own thoughts.

Most likely, it had not been leaked from Cloud Tower’s side at all, but from Maozhou. Something there had stolen the coordinate data of Shenwu Heaven through dreams.

“In the Void Realm, are there any major powers besides the Sacred Court and Blood Soul Heaven,” Bai Xiang asked again, repeating the same question she had once asked Sun Yaoming and the others, “for example, forces with deep-set eyes that worship some special god or demon? Do any actually exist?”

“If you’re asking whether there are tribes with religious beliefs, then yes, absolutely, and there are a lot of them,” Zhu Canghai said, staring at her blankly. “But major powers…”

In truth, he did not really understand what Bai Xiang meant.

There really were countless Illusory Realm minor worlds and all kinds of factions in the Void Realm, and quite a few of them truly did qualify as “major powers” or “top-tier powers.”

But if you were using the Sacred Court and Blood Soul Heaven as the standard for comparison, then there really was nothing on that level.

By Zhu Canghai’s own admittedly shallow experience, he had only heard a few rumors, and even those were things he had heard other people spouting off while he was on trading runs. They said things like great powers were now in seclusion, Saints rarely emerged, and if this were the ancient era, then any famous figure could casually come out and smash the Void Realm apart. Back then, he had foolishly believed it and thought those ancient factions and ancient clans really were incredible.

But after thinking it over later, why had those forces gone into hiding? Was it not because every last act of resistance had been bloodily suppressed by the Sacred Court?

As for whether great powers had truly hidden themselves away or whether Saints truly appeared only rarely, he genuinely did not know, and it was not something Zhu Canghai needed to concern himself with. All he knew was that in the current Void Realm, there should be no one capable of defying the decrees of the Sacred Court, not even the much-feared Blood Soul Heaven.

Blood Soul Heaven had eight divisions under its command: the Blood Division, Soul Division, Law Division, Military Division, Works Division, Transport Division, Hidden Division, and Intelligence Division. Some of those divisions, considered on their own, were already behemoth powers in the Void Realm, with countless followers and innumerable hidden agents. But even so, Blood Soul Heaven still did not dare behave too recklessly in the Void Realm. The fact that they still had to care about the Sacred Court alone showed how terrifying the Sacred Court’s power truly was.

After hearing Zhu Canghai’s description, Bai Xiang also frowned.

If what he said was true, then those westerners from the “Council” had no real background or roots in the Upper Realm.

Judging only from the scattered memories provided by the Yiin angel, these people had gathered together through faith, and the object of that faith was the “Augu God.”

But if something like an Augu God was treated as a god or Buddha in foreign culture, then within Yu culture, it ought to be an ancient demon, shouldn’t it?

That appearance, that image, almost certainly marked it as an ancient demon.

Which meant that the Augu pantheon, the so-called Augu gods, was in fact an ancient demon race. This “Council” was either acting in secret under the orders of that ancient demon race, or that ancient demon race had already perished and vanished, and all of the Council’s sneaking and scheming was meant to revive them.

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After thinking it over, Bai Xiang felt the truth was probably closer to the latter possibility.

The reason was simple. Those people clearly understood only bits and pieces of the cultivators’ world and some of its rules. If there were really a bunch of old undying monsters behind them, then there was no way they would have failed to tell them all of this.

At the very least, that Yiin angel should not have failed to recognize me.

Spreading out her senses to observe the Loss of Order chaos outside the vessel, watching those twisted shadowy figures flicker in and out beneath the blood-red radiance, at times taking shape and soaring through the sky, at times sinking into the shadows of the air, Bai Xiang’s thoughts raced.

Anyone capable of damaging the structure of the qi-heavens had to be at least someone who had condensed a spirit pool, in other words, a Venerable-level figure.

Because no matter how weak Shenwu Heaven had become, it still lay beneath the spirit pool rule that had once covered the Wu Emperor. More than that, the Wu Emperor’s spirit pool was so special that Shenwu Heaven could practically be said to be the Wu Emperor himself. That meant the only thing capable of interfering with and damaging the qi-heavens of Shenwu Heaven was another spirit pool rule.

A figure like that would already be rare in any single Upper Realm faction. For the Council, such a person should have been even more precious.

So even if one assumed the Council had glimpsed the coordinates of Shenwu Heaven through Hannah’s dream, why would they be willing to send such strength here?

And why be so decisive, choosing the moment they arrived to accelerate the destruction of Shenwu Heaven?

It was not normal.

In Bai Xiang’s estimation, either she had guessed wrong and someone else had damaged the structure of the qi-heavens, not those westerners from the Council at all.

Or these people really were behind it, in which case they must have had a very deep understanding of Shenwu Heaven.

They most likely knew exactly what kind of treasure was buried here and how to snatch it away.

“Faster.” Bai Xiang frowned and looked at He Xian.

The timing had been chosen far too well.

She suspected something might have changed in the underground pit beneath the imperial palace.

…

At the same time, beneath the sudden upheaval in the sky, an even deeper Loss of Order was erupting within the settlements built by sentient beings atop the vast floating islands of earth-veins in Shenwu Heaven.

Without any warning, pedestrians on the streets began tearing open their own flesh one after another, their bodies bursting apart.

Some turned directly into pus and were absorbed by the soil. Some became puddles of pus that transformed into slime-like living things, writhing in empty air. Others left behind scraps of bone, flesh, and organs, only to be invaded and fused by those hazy shadows beneath the shining seven-colored radiance. One after another, they warped and mutated, trying to turn into whatever form those shadows revealed under the light.

When one person’s flesh and mass were not enough, they sought more mass elsewhere. Flesh, bones, pus, soil—it would take anything. They refused nothing, like a pack of starving scavengers hunting and fighting over prey. Everywhere they went became a bloody purgatory, full of fused corpse-demons and indescribable twisted monsters.

“Ah!”

“What is that…?!”

“Who am I… who am I really…?”

“How many years have I drifted through the void… how many years was it…?”

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“Hahaha, Azure Sea! I’m back! I’m back!!!”

All the corpse-demons writhed their mouths at once and emitted indistinct mutterings. Wherever the sound waves passed, soil and wood alike were distorted. At times tentacles burst out and thrashed wildly through the air. At times things floated up, then dropped back down, floated up again, then dropped again…

No sentient being could escape. Even inanimate objects found it difficult to survive untouched under that interference.

And amid that whole series of Loss of Order manifestations, there was one figure that stood utterly apart.

Its form gradually emerged. Wrapped beneath a broad cloak was a frail body of straw. It carried on its shoulder a tool that resembled both a hoe and a sickle, held a short whip in one hand, and was surrounded by at least several thousand sheep. Enveloped by the flock, it kept advancing eastward.

It was not that no other Loss of Order phenomenon tried to interfere with it or pollute it.

But no matter what kind of disorder it was, whether divine soul invasion or flesh corpse-demons manipulating the material world to block its path, none of it had any effect on the scarecrow.

If a soul-shadow tried to approach it, it merely lifted its head and inhaled, and the shadow was drawn into a slit between the straw, vanishing without leaving behind the slightest trace.

If a flesh corpse-demon tried to block its way, it would pull a wool-covered sheepskin from beneath its cloak and cast it over the corpse-demon’s head.

It did not matter whether the corpse-demon was the size of a child or the size of a hill. Once covered, there was only one path left to it: to become a sheep, be assimilated into the flock, and follow along blankly with it.

This kind of pollution was taking place almost simultaneously in every corner of Shenwu Heaven. Under the interference of Loss of Order, its lifespan was shrinking rapidly. It would not even last a week and could collapse and perish at any moment.

And just then, under the blood-red heavens near the eastern imperial palace, two figures met up and sped toward the palace.

“Well done!” The red-haired girl gave Alos a thumbs-up from the front. “That was fast. You’re way more capable than expected!”

“I thought that even if that old thing had been imprisoned, he still wouldn’t be easy to deal with. I didn’t expect it to be this easy to break open the qi-heavens.” Alos only frowned slightly, not looking especially pleased.

His caution was famous within the organization. Any abnormality was worth examining in his eyes, so at this moment he could not help suspecting a trap.

“What’s there to be afraid of?” The red-haired girl slapped her flat chest hard. “We’re two against one. Count the Shepherd and it’s three against one. No matter what schemes he has, what kind of trouble can he really stir up?”

“These Mo-Yu people cannot be underestimated,” Alos said coldly. “Move faster. Before this situation is discovered by more of the Mo-Yu people, we grab the thing and leave!”

“Mm!”

After that response, the red-haired girl fell silent. She and Alos accelerated together and charged into the Shenwu Imperial Palace, only to find that the magnificent palace complex had already turned into a bloody monster.

This was not exaggeration. It was literal.

As if some great power had interfered with and rewritten the structure of matter itself, the wooden beams, supporting pillars, jade carvings, gold inlay, and glazed tiles… all of it had turned into living flesh under the influence of Loss of Order. Dense rows of sharp teeth tore out along every doorframe and windowsill, while countless tentacles, like mucus-slick tongues, sprouted from roof beams, corridor pillars, and even the stone ground.

Even as the two of them flew through it, they had to take extra care to avoid contact, making sure their bodies touched none of it.

“With things in this much chaos… even if the Demon Court conquest-generals came here to investigate, it’d still be hard for them to trace our origins.” The red-haired girl could not help speaking again, turning to the young man beside her with a smug look. “Even if they suspect anything, they’ll only think Blood Soul Heaven did it. We can hide off to the side and watch them fight. Let the dogs bite each other!”

But Alos gave no reply. He remained taciturn, only turning his head from time to time to observe the surroundings, his expression growing more and more grave.

“Something’s wrong!” He suddenly stopped in midair above one of the great halls and grabbed the girl beside him. “…Don’t you think we’ve been flying too long?”

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“Huh?” The red-haired girl froze for a moment, then suddenly realized it as well. According to the palace map they had gotten earlier, they should have reached the rear section long ago. They should already have been able to see that huge hole.

But in reality, after more than ten minutes, they were still circling among the palace buildings. That was obviously not normal.

“An Illusory God?” Her eyes twitched. What kind of person could drag them into an Illusory God field without their noticing?

She had not even realized when the influence began.

“How strange. There are actually defective alien breeds here.”

As the vast echo rolled out, Alos and the girl looked up and saw, in the very center of the great hall, a space opening amid the mass of bloody flesh and barbed tentacles. The tentacles gradually parted to reveal a black-robed man.

The man had long black hair, and from the exact center of his hairline on his forehead ran a streak of white, as though his hair had been highlighted, trailing all the way to the end. His features were so beautiful they seemed almost feminine, yet his gaze was icy as he sat upon a dragon throne woven from tentacles.

“Is this the guard they left behind?” the red-haired girl muttered as she looked up at him. “Doesn’t he look a little too hard to deal with…?”

“Answer me.” The black-robed man looked down at them from above. “Who informed you? Who told you there was profit to be found here?”

At first, his voice sounded normal enough. But the farther it went, the louder it became, until by the end it boomed like an overwhelming bell. Alos and the girl beside him both instinctively clapped their hands over their ears, pain appearing on their faces.

“Is that… is that really the kind of thing a broken-down guard like you gets to ask?” The girl gritted her teeth and kept talking tough, glaring angrily at the man above while holding her ears. “And what do you mean, defective alien breed? You really have taken the arrogance of the Mo-Yu people to the extreme!”

“Arrogance?” The black-robed man curled his lips. “You’re wrong. I’m speaking from a completely objective perspective.”

“You alien races love talking about civilization and advancement when you’re rising. But when the time truly comes to change, when it comes time to choose a branch of evolution, you lose your nerve and shrink back. You would rather bury yourselves in your own graves and watch time settle into dust.”

“If that doesn’t make you defective products, then what does?” His voice rose again. “What meaning is there in chasing former glory? You are nothing but trash obsessed with the dim shadows of the past, trying to seek a lost sword by carving a mark into a boat in the river of time!”

The moment the word “sword” fell, everything in that Illusory God field changed in an instant. Streaks of tentacles lashed toward the two of them. Midway, they abruptly transformed from flesh into metal, their tips turning into sword points as they stabbed at Alos and the girl in midair.

Did you think we were actually that relaxed, standing around chatting through all that nonsense?

Alos pressed his palms together. At once, the same seven-colored radiance found in the chaotic gale currents burst from his body, and he let out a low roar. “Tina!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know!” the red-haired girl shouted impatiently. Putting on a show, she also formed some completely nonsensical hand seal just to look cool and barked, “Break!”

Crack!!!

At her shout, a fissure in space spread outward from the center of her hand seal, expanding like shattered glass into a web of cracks. One of those cracks passed directly beneath the black-robed man’s feet, extending all the way into the depths of the earth-veins, into places the naked eye could not possibly follow.

“You…?” The black-robed man’s expression changed. He could no longer force himself to maintain the illusion. All of its scenery shattered along the spatial crack with sharp cracking sounds, like a glass mirror exploding into powder.

The moment the illusion collapsed, the true material world revealed itself… They were still within the grounds of the Shenwu Imperial Palace, yes, but now they were already inside the underground pit. Along the edges of the surrounding rock walls, endless slick tentacles were also bursting forth, accompanied by a mad proliferation of all kinds of animal hands, feet, eyes, teeth, and other chaotic organs. At this rate, the pit would not take long to fill completely.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

The black-robed man, Montian, was now floating stiffly in midair. While glaring at the two before him, he kept glancing downward from time to time, and a trace of fear showed in his eyes.

“Of course we do.” The red-haired girl, Tina, rocked her head smugly. “By using Void Demons to interfere with and pollute most of the sentient beings in this world, we damage the stability of your seal. That lets us release the ‘treasure’ you’ve imprisoned here…”

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“That is correct.”

At this point, Montian suddenly recovered his calm and spoke again in that cold voice.

“But do you know what that ‘treasure’ actually is?”

Hm?

The moment he said that, both Alos and Tina froze.

After a pause, Alos frowned and probed, “Isn’t it… an Order-Preserving Treasure… the essence left behind by those things?”

The reason they had mobilized so heavily, risking everything to smuggle themselves in here, was precisely because the inherited murals of the Augu Temple contained records concerning the “Order-Preserving Treasure.”

The origins of the history of the main world could no longer be traced clearly. Its true roots lay in the Void Tribulations. Round after round of Void Tribulation interference had forcibly scraped away the very surface of the main world, casting those layers into the void, where they became worlds of their own. Only after an unknowable span of billions of years had the current situation taken shape.

Each time a Void Tribulation descended and interfered, it completely shattered the civilization and order nurtured by the main world. In that process, it was not only countless sentient beings that were injured or killed. The main world’s “order” was also gravely damaged.

That too could be scraped away.

Tangible things were interfered with by tangible means.

Intangible things were interfered with by intangible means.

And part of that scraped-away order would crystallize within the void. That was what they called an “Order-Preserving Treasure,” and according to the murals, it was a supreme treasure connected to “becoming a god” — or in the terms of the Mo-Yu people, a treasure tied to the secret of “ascending to sainthood.”

Such a supreme treasure was extraordinarily difficult to find. It was the kind of thing that even in their dreams they would never dare hope for.

After obtaining information on Shenwu Heaven, they had verified a great deal of related material, including Shenwu Heaven’s geography and how the concept of “Wu earth” had formed. In the end, they concluded that the ruler here, the Mo-Yu person called the Wu Emperor, should possess a tiny fragment torn from the void through the interference of an Order-Preserving Treasure.

…Shouldn’t that have been the case?

“Ignorant!”

At those words, Montian’s face twisted, and in his fury he actually laughed instead, baring his teeth.

“You don’t even know what it is you’re plotting to seize, and yet you dared to try to gaze directly at its radiance…”

“Now it has awakened.”

“And beside it is a spirit pool that stopped wanting to live long ago, one filled with grievance and fury toward everything.”

“Tell me.”

“How do you plan to survive what comes next?”