Volume 1, Chapter 519 – The Summit of Tian Mountain

Shi Lan was no longer lacking in source power, nor did she harbor any extra designs on this world.

This world gave her a feeling that overlapped with the homeland in her memories in far too many uncanny ways. It inevitably stirred some different emotions within her, and she could not bear to see this realm follow in Qiongluo’s footsteps.

Seeing this, Reincarnation said nothing more. By now, it could more or less understand Shi Lan’s way of thinking.

Not far away, a dense blood-light suddenly flared up. A three-chi divine sword hung in midair, and within it surged an extremely terrifying fluctuation of divine will. A bone-piercing wave of killing intent swept past, shielding the unconscious boy before Shi Lan within its protection.

Shi Lan’s gaze tightened as she slowly backed away. The sword’s aura was far from friendly, faintly warning her that if she had taken the jade booklet just now, her fate would likely have been grim.

In the blink of an eye, the group of black-armored generals in the distance had already been slaughtered to the last by that fiend holding twin halberds. The war chariot bearing the blood-red battle flag rumbled out of the void and slowly came to a stop in front of Shi Lan.

Cao Cao stepped out of the chariot. His gaze did not linger on Shi Lan in the slightest, instead locking onto the middle-aged man in black imperial robes in an instant. His expression changed slightly.

“Your Majesty!”

He wanted to move closer, but the moment he did, a wave of blood-red flames forced him back.

The divine patterns of mountains and rivers engraved upon the crimson divine sword were flashing violently, while a heavy killing intent flooded the surrounding land.

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“This humble general is the Great Han’s fourth-rank General Who Conquers the West. I came here to protect Your Majesty. May Chixiao discern the truth!”

Under the sword point, cold sweat seeped from Cao Cao’s brow. He retreated several steps, performed a great formal salute, and kowtowed in worship.

The divine sword Chixiao possessed spirit. It had once drunk the blood of a peerless fiend and contained a terrifying divinity, its killing intent incomparably heavy. If he showed even the slightest disrespect, he could be cut down on the spot beneath its blade.

But its sword spirit had always been asleep. To awaken it, one needed the life-soul precious blood of a direct imperial descendant. For the sword spirit to revive now meant that one of the direct imperial line had fallen.

Cao Cao raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the lifeless middle-aged man in the distance. A trace of shock flashed through his eyes.

The Emperor had fallen…

…

…

Shi Lan had never held much goodwill toward Cao Cao, nor was there any need for her to go up and speak with him. While Cao Cao was paying his respects, she withdrew from that battlefield.

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From the words “Your Majesty” in Cao Cao’s mouth, it was not hard to tell that the middle-aged man in imperial robes was the current Emperor Ling. That little boy was, in all likelihood, his son.

As for whether that boy’s fate would eventually follow the path she remembered, Shi Lan had no way of knowing, nor did she have the power to interfere. With half a Heart of Heaven in his possession and the protection of that divine sword, there were only a handful of people in this world capable of harming him. Presumably, he would not face much danger.

At this point, only one matter remained in Shi Lan’s heart: finding a burial place for Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu had originally belonged to this world, so letting his soul return to his homeland was naturally the most fitting choice.

Xiang Yu had passed on his double pupils to her, so there was, in the end, a karmic tie between them. Shi Lan had put considerable effort into this matter. She had even tried using her heavenly eye to sort through the earth’s qi veins and find him a suitable geomantic resting place, but in the end, she failed.

The nation-protecting Crimson Dragon had fallen not long ago, and the hidden qi veins of heaven and earth were in utter disorder. On top of that, warfires now blazed everywhere across the world. Countless geomancers and magi served their respective masters, using every method at their disposal to plunder qi veins on a massive scale in hopes of earning the merit of following the dragon.

And it was not just Shi Lan. For all practitioners skilled in feng shui and geomancy, finding an excellent burial ground in the current state of the world was by no means an easy task.

Whenever troubled times came, roadside bones and piled-up grave hills were common sights, and this had much to do with it.

With no other choice, Shi Lan could only follow the waterways upstream toward this world’s highest peak, “Tian Mountain.”

Where there was a great mountain, there would be a dragon vein. Its terrain and natural formation were uniquely favored by heaven, far superior to the ordinary plains.

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Tian Mountain lay in the far south of the Nine Provinces, extremely far from Shi Lan’s current location.

With the awakening of this world’s Heavenly Dao drawing ever nearer, Shi Lan dared not slack off in the slightest. Traveling day and night, she spent three full days before finally reaching the foot of Tian Mountain.

Along the way, she heard a great deal of news. The most significant was that Emperor Ling had died. His young son, Liu Xie, had inherited the throne under the support of a host of civil and military officials led by Cao Cao. Holding the Tiansi Jade Booklet and protected by the divine sword Chixiao, he had gathered a large number of heroes and outstanding figures around him. He truly seemed to have gained something of the bearing of a Son of Heaven.

There were still many in the world who held hope for the Great Han. The Tiansi Jade Booklet in Liu Xie’s hands was an extremely important bargaining chip. Back then, the new emperor Wang Mang had fought the whole world alone, his momentum so overwhelming it nearly devoured the dragon and shattered the Great Han’s fortune, yet in the end he still fell to Emperor Guangwu.

Since Emperor Guangwu had left behind the words that this book could save the Great Han from fire and flood, then that could not be wrong.

In the divine capital Luoyang, the various warlords had failed to find the nation-protecting Dragon Seal. Rumors spread throughout the world that it had already been stolen by Lü Bu. As a result, Lü Bu was frantically hunted down by the warlords and, left with no other choice, fled far beyond the frontier.

The Zhuge clan and the Sima family had suddenly gone to war, engaging in a bloody battle across the Longchuan region. These two great families, which had dominated the world for ages, seemed to have truly fought with real fury. Countless magi had fallen, and both sides were nearly shattered, with their clan descendants scattered and drifting across the four seas.

Compared with all this, the news that Liu Bei had launched a surprise strike on Jizhou and clashed fiercely with the Yuan clan, slaughtering a million, with blood flowing enough to float the oars, barely caused any stir at all. At this time, such wars were by no means rare in the Nine Provinces.

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Shi Lan gathered her thoughts and lifted her eyes toward the towering mountain before her.

The majestic mountain range stretched across the world, propping up heaven and earth, its summit capped in snow like white jade. Standing at the foot of the mountain, Shi Lan already felt a piercingly cold current. Anyone with weak blood and qi would be utterly unable to survive here.

Moreover, the surrounding area seemed to contain some kind of natural formation that forbade all living beings from flying across it. One could only climb the mountain step by step.

There were far too many legends about Tian Mountain in this world. In ancient times, this place had supposedly been the entrance leading to the Heavenly Court, and the Jade Pool was said to lie somewhere on the summit of Tian Mountain.

Climbing upward along the steep cliff face, Shi Lan pressed on against the freezing current pouring down from the peak. From below, the mountain had not looked especially tall, but several hours later, she still had not seen the summit. It was as if it had no end.

Shi Lan harbored no distracting thoughts. She simply kept moving forward with her head lowered. There were no fluctuations from any formation in the surroundings, and even the circulation of heaven and earth essence reflected in her double pupils showed no abnormalities. That was enough to prove there was no danger here. The only explanation was that space itself had been folded.

Only after a full cycle of sun and moon did Shi Lan finally catch sight of the summit. By then, her face was nearly bloodless, her eyelashes white with frost, and her clothes had long since been covered in a thick layer of rime. Even with her blood and qi circulating nonstop all along the way, it had still been difficult to resist the biting cold, which was almost enough to freeze and wound the soul itself.

The summit was still a land of bitter cold. It spanned no more than a hundred li across and was covered in ice and snow of unknown depth, many zhang deep. Shi Lan swept her gaze over it and spotted more than a dozen figures.

The moment she saw their appearances clearly, Shi Lan’s pupils contracted.