Volume 5, Chapter 126 – Laid Bare

The golden Buddha existed for only an instant before vanishing.

Li Wenyu sat on the boat in a daze.

Her mind was in utter confusion. For the moment, she simply could not make sense of what the information she had just glimpsed was supposed to mean.

When Emperor Feng was speaking, was the one facing him that “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha”?

And taking the actual meaning of those words into account, along with the amount of information packed into them, did that mean the “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha” was actually the embodiment of Emperor Feng’s ideals? Had this evil Buddha always been a two-sided existence sharing the same essence as him?

So it was not that someone had deliberately sculpted the Buddha statues in the Buddha-realm to resemble Emperor Feng. That had always been the appearance the “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha” was meant to have?

At the thought, cold sweat soaked Li Wenyu’s back, and she quietly glanced over her shoulder at Bai Xiang.

Fortunately, the Xia Emperor was not looking her way at the moment.

…There is no way she did not notice the change in my emotions. But perhaps, in her view, this excitement was caused by the wooden boat and not worth spending the effort to question.

A quiet sigh of relief rose in her heart, and Li Wenyu continued thinking about what use this information might actually have.

In that case, if the “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha” is the embodiment of His Majesty the Xuandi’s ideals, perhaps the more radical part of those ideals, then this so-called Golden Light Temple ruin truly is a legacy left behind by the emperor of Great Xuan.

I carry His Majesty’s bloodline. I might actually have a chance to seize that inheritance from the Demon Lord.

But the problem is…

Li Wenyu shot Bai Xiang another glance and found her standing at the prow like a spear. No matter how the hazy lights and shadows in the void shifted, they could not draw even a trace of her attention.

The problem is Emperor Xiang… the Xia Emperor. She carries that same bloodline as well.

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Although, for now, that bloodline does not seem to have helped her much.

According to the Demon Lord, it had “practically been of no help at all.” It had even said that “the so-called blood of the Xuandi has nothing mysterious about it whatsoever. Those Divine-Might Golden Pupils and that inborn white hair do not come from bloodline inheritance at all. They are merely natural manifestations that appear once the strength of the soul reaches a certain level.”

But at a moment like this, having that proof of lineage should still make the inheritance inside the ruins more receptive.

So should I tell her what I saw…

No. No.

According to what those words implied, the death of the “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha” was not true death, and the death of His Majesty the Xuandi was not the end either.

Does that mean neither death was absolute?

Are they bound together in life and death? Could it be that destroying only one of them is useless, and that only by killing both at the same time can the concepts of the “Jiuluo Light-Feather Buddha” and the “Xuandi” truly be erased?

If that is the case, then His Majesty the Xuandi may not be dead at all!

Li Wenyu’s excitement rose slightly.

If… if His Majesty the Xuandi is not dead at all, then what is there for me to agonize over?

What choice is there to make? A question like that does not need any consideration at all. I swore long ago that I would give everything for the ideals of Great Xuan!

“Did you see it?”

At that moment, she heard Bai Xiang’s voice from the front.

It was still as cold and aloof as ever. Her tone rose and fell so little it was almost without fluctuation, like a snow lotus on an iceberg, like a blossom on a lonely peak. The instant one heard it, one felt that the owner of that voice stood impossibly far away, so distant that even a lifetime would not be enough to grasp the slightest part of her.

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“See… what?”

Li Wenyu raised her head and saw that Bai Xiang was still standing at the bow. But compared with the subtly guarded posture she had worn before, she had relaxed somewhat now. The skirt of her dress and her long sleeves streamed backward with inertia, making her waist look extraordinarily slender.

From behind, she could almost be called frail.

Before this woman rose to power, there had indeed been women in the history of the main world who had dominated a region, but most of them had been no more than brief flashes.

Compared with the heroes spread across those broader historical scrolls, with their broad shoulders and powerful backs, the silhouette of a woman like this could indeed only be called slight.

…Why am I thinking about this?

Shaking her head, Li Wenyu came back to herself, only to see a fair and slender hand extended before her.

She froze.

Then looked up.

She saw the empress of Great Xia gazing down at her. That peerlessly beautiful yet sacred face was still almost devoid of expression. Her lips merely moved as she said, “Take my hand.”

“I’ll show you.”

Instinctively, Li Wenyu believed her promise.

She took the hand Bai Xiang offered, and suddenly felt a layer of golden ripples spread across her vision like water, revealing a scene that could only be called magnificent.

It was birth.

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Across an incomparably vast land, life was being born and civilization was rising.

Buildings and pagodas were erected one after another. Chants and sutra-recitation rose and fell together. Even the clouds were shaped like auspicious omens.

And it was destruction.

The arrival of the Void Tribulation destroyed everything. That land shattered. The world was torn apart. Countless lives were crushed and annihilated in the process. Only a tiny number of lucky survivors were displaced along with scattered fragments of their homeland, falling into this void and gathering there to form ruin-realms that were broken, yet interdependent.

Is this what the Xia Emperor saw?

Is this her own ability, or are the prayer beads or this boat showing it to her?

Li Wenyu was profoundly shaken. She lowered her head again to look over the edge of the boat, only to find that the surface where the hull met the void was no longer empty. Familiar golden ripples were spreading there instead.

Layer after layer.

Ring after ring.

Within the ripples appeared five dilapidated Buddhist halls of differing sizes, some hidden inside mountains, others buried beneath shattered earth.

Yet regardless of where they stood, every one of those ruined Buddhist halls enshrined a brass Buddha statue radiating golden light.

Those statues were each connected to a band formed from golden specks. All five bands pierced through the barriers of the void and gathered in front of the prow into a golden waterway that grew broader and broader. Ahead of that waterway, they drew back a curtain of brilliant gold light, revealing a towering treasure hall that blazed with golden radiance and incomparable splendor.

Th-this is…?

Li Wenyu opened her mouth, too stunned to speak.

“As you can see, this is the final destination of our journey.”

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Bai Xiang released her hand and stepped off first when the wooden boat reached shore, setting foot on the land connected to the towering treasure hall.

Yet the image Li Wenyu was seeing did not change when Bai Xiang let go.

The ripples were still there.

The treasure hall was still there.

She could not understand what was happening.

This place felt as though… as though it were a sanctuary suddenly opened out of the void itself, something far beyond the reach of any human effort she could conceive.

“I’ve brought the sacrifice.”

Then she heard Bai Xiang speak those words.

The empress of Great Xia stood there on the shore with her hands hanging at her sides, looking up at the towering treasure hall blazing with golden light as her voice echoed through the void.

“You went to great lengths. You misled me, then used that information to stall for time. Most likely, you wanted to use Jiuli’s talent to devour the Buddha, while also claiming her flesh and blood as your own.”

“And all of that is because she is my birth mother.”

“Flesh and blood of the same origin is an indispensable part of the ritual.”

“You wanted to use this to recreate another me.”

“Am I right?”