Chapter 505 - Leviathan Roars (II)

Chapter 505

Leviathan Roars (II)

Han Yimu was heaving.

The woman lied to him!

The distance to the sect was at least thirty days by horse!

... it wasn't because he got lost about halfway there and wandered for a while mindlessly until he stumbled upon a Disciple of said sect who agreed to escort him if he gave her a pat on the head.

That exchange left him a bit scarred, but he persisted; even as they travelled and she asked beyond insane questions, such as 'What is your favorite part of a body to lick?', he persisted because he had no other choice!

They traversed the unchanging scape rather slowly, as she was barely in the Spirit Manifestation Realm despite being probably older than him. Alas, that was the dual difference of talent and resources; even if he were all but 'abandoned' by his Sect, he was still living like a king compared to most people here.

Just the natural Qi alone made a tremendous difference. If he tried cultivating here, he would have to spend half the time simply purifying the Qi, taking in only about a tenth in the process compared to nine-tenths in the Upper Realm.

"We're here!" she announced as Han Yimu felt the kind of joy that had eluded him for a long while.

He'd reached the top of the hill just the moment before her and looked over, seeing the stretch of buildings arise from the otherwise brown landscape. They were quite pleasant, with an added mix of shamanic architecture that he'd seen in the Upper Realm on occasion. Ringed buildings with carved terraces transformed into long hallways.

Most, however, were still tall, terraced pavilions, though his eyes immediately wandered to the sphere of fire. Technically, he was not supposed to see it, as the Sect's formation array was cloaking it, but it was of a rather low level, hardly a challenge for him.

"Are you coming?"

"Yes, yes..."

He followed along, descending; that sphere... was odd. The shape, the size, the uneven energy it was exuding, the faint traces of Life Qi shuttling between the layers... he half-suspected that there was someone or something alive in there.

They reached the main gates--an arched entrance that feathered out into a pair of flaming wings in the shape of a wall, curling back around the sect--rather quickly, with the girl simply passing through and waving him goodbye while he was stopped by a pair of guards.

"What business do you have here?" one of the guards asked; he was merely at the Revolving Core Realm and was just shy of two centuries old, it seemed like.

"I, uh, I really don't?" he said somewhat awkwardly. "I just need directions to the Eternal Mountain..."

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"..." the pair looked at him oddly for a moment. "Why?"

"I just have some business there."

"Hm. I'd recommend you delay that business," the man said. "Eternal Mountain is currently... struggling, and going there is dangerous." Han Yimu was fairly surprised; it was genuine advice, one wholly shorn of malice, something he wasn't accustomed to.

"... thank you," he said, smiling faintly. "But I'm afraid I have no choice. I was sent here to investigate precisely that struggle."

"Huh? Y-y-you... you're the Envoy!!" the man exclaimed in relative horror as they both winced and pulled back. It wasn't unordinary; every other time he'd come down here, the reactions were exactly the same when the people learned he was from above. "F-forgive my discourtesy, please!!" He bowed full ninety degrees, arms pressed into his sides. "I failed to recognize your divinity!"

"... it's fine," Han Yimu sighed silently. There was a reason the man was so 'respectful', and it had nothing to do with Han Yimu himself.

Rather, most of those who come from above hardly ever pay much heed to their actions--they kill, destroy, and harm wantonly, as few, if any, consider people here anything more than subhuman.

The stories must have spread, and now, any time these people encounter someone from the Upper Realm, they all but prostate, hoping to survive.

"What are you doing! Quickly, go inform the Sect Master that we have an important guest!"

"It's fine, you two." Han Yimu felt his soul tense up as the voice trailed out; he rapidly looked to the side where he saw a woman appear out of thin air. She was apprehensively beautiful, but the kind of beauty that he knew was like a venom. "Why don't you two go on a short break, and I will escort our guest here?"

"Y-yes, Archmaster!" the two men sped off as though saved by an angel, leaving behind an awkward silence.

Han Yimu felt extreme oppression from the other person, which meant that they had reached either the Imperial Realm or were at least a foot in it. Though his Sect had dozens of people in the Imperial Realm, it was still a rather desired threshold, one that even he was unlikely to cross for centuries, if not longer.

"Since they sent a child," she said. "They likely do not care what happened here."

"..." he couldn't exactly refute; after all, they literally pulled names out at random as to who would go.

"Enduring arrogance and hubris," she sighed. "It really might be heaven's undoing, in the end."

"!!!" Han Yimu's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the woman in horror; though the Court had dissenters, even up above nobody dared decry it this openly.

"My, did I shock you?" she smiled rather sweetly, her thin eyebrows curling up. "Don't worry. They can't hear us here. You are just in time, however."

"Just in time?"

"Hm," she said as her eyes wandered sideways toward the center, where the roaring sphere of fire was. "A Phoenix is about to be reborn."

"... what?"

"Stay a while," she said. "Not merely for the show, but there is somebody here who might have the means of unbreaking you."

"!!!"

Just as Han Yimu was about to ask how she knew, he felt the blood in him freeze; it was a singular wave of Qi, so thin it barely registered. It was likely that only he and this woman even felt it, which made it that more terrifying.

He had a sudden urge to kneel down and kowtow, to beg and plead for his life; there was the kind of resonance in Qi that left him beyond breathless, the kind that he only ever read about in the books.

Divine Qi.

Qi reserved for the highest order of Divine Beasts, those of the direct lineage of the species. And, if the woman's words were true, this was Qi of a Divine Phoenix. A trace amount invisible to the eye, with no effect on the world at large, was enough to make him bow.

It happened a mere moment later--the sphere shattered and burst into a pillar of flames that shot up into the sky like an ascending god. With it, a roar bellowed. A roar so primal that it froze time itself, that it halted the movement of Qi within ten thousand miles, that it made Han Yimu spew blood from every pore in his body.

Just as he thought he was going to die, a woman gently waved her hand as a warm current of Qi swept out from her fingertips, healing him immediately.

A mirage of a beast appeared in the pillar of flames--burning wings jutted out on either side, flanking the visage of the Divine Phoenix.

Beautiful and eternal.