Chapter 367: Separation in Life (Part 2)

Chapter 367 -141: Separation in Life (Part 2)

…

“SCREECH!”

The Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh let out a clear cry, beat its wings, and soared high into the sky.

“What’s that? The thirty-year mark is almost here, so I should remember to let you go find a mate? Alright, alright. I’m an old man now, would I lie to people… no, lie to a bird?!”

Fang Rui muttered to himself, resolving to find a replacement for the Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh within the next year or so.

After all, he wasn’t some kind of Demon, forcing this family of Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurghs to serve him for generations to come, just for his own endless amusement.

‘—And more importantly: how is a single female Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh supposed to serve me for generations anyway?!’

High above the clouds.

Fang Rui shook his head and took out a token he had sealed and buried years ago. The two words ‘Four Symbols’ were inscribed on it, glowing with a brilliant light.

It was the Four Symbols Order!

—This was one of the spoils he had acquired after killing Bao Sichun in the Deceit Domain at Two Realms Mountain.

“With the Four Symbols Order, I can temporarily control the Innate Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Four Symbols Banner. By borrowing a sliver of my status from the panel and powering it with the Chaos Dragon Pearl Origin, this Divination may just be able to fathom the heavens and the earth.”

Fang Rui murmured, and with a flick of his wrist, tossed the token toward Shangluo City below.

VMMMM!

The Four Symbols Order dissolved into light and shattered in mid-air.

Instantly, he felt a connection form between himself and the Innate Supreme Treasure within Shangluo City, the Chaos Four Symbols Banner. He now had temporary, basic administrative rights, allowing him to control it to a certain extent.

‘Moving the Chaos Four Symbols Banner itself is impossible, and even borrowing its power to attack would be difficult. But auxiliary functions like altering the weather or performing Divination should be possible.’

Fang Rui carefully savored the connection, then drew upon all his remaining Chaos Dragon Pearl Origin to power the artifact.

WHOOSH!

High above Shangluo City, outside the spherical curtain of light, the phantom images of the Cyan Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise that patrolled the skies suddenly let out a roar as their bodies erupted in blazing, incandescent flames.

At that moment, their forms became almost corporeal, astonishingly lifelike.

“Boundless Qian and Kun, Heaven and Earth, lend me your power! Haste!”

Fang Rui formed a hand seal, sending out streams of Spiritual Light.

BOOM!

The four spirits circled as phantom images of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams appeared, and a massive pillar of light connected the heavens and the earth.

A moment later, amidst a surge of chaotic light, a series of images began to appear: a smear of crimson tainting the sun and moon, a strange presence descending, and all living things plunged into misery and suffering… 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

“This Divination felt divinely assisted; the whole process went even more smoothly than I’d imagined.”

“However,”

Fang Rui’s expression turned grim. “The result of the Divination: Greatly Inauspicious. The time frame is between five hundred and eight hundred years from now.”

“In other words, without my intervention, in as little as five hundred years or as many as eight hundred, the strange aura pervading the world will become dense enough to tear open the gateway to our world.”

‘Oh, Great Yu, Great Yu… I gave you a chance to step up, but you’re just useless!’

If Great Yu could defend the world, he wouldn’t have to go to all this trouble and intervene personally.

But Great Yu just wasn’t up to the task!

“Since you can’t do it, then get out of the way and let me. Saint Emperor Yu himself said it: the capable rise, the weak fall!”

“To initiate the Tribulation, save the world, and decide the fate of all—I will bear this burden alone!”

Fang Rui’s voice was like jade and gold.

This was not born from a sense of responsibility, but from necessity.

According to the Divination, the ‘Sky’s Collapse’ was still several hundred, or even a thousand, years away.

For an ordinary person, this was an eternity. They would never see it in their lifetime. After they were dead, why would they care if the world was consumed by a great flood?

But as an Immortal, he couldn’t afford to think that way.

‘Saving the world is saving myself! Besides, the True Spirits of Mother, Third Sister, Ling’Er, and Nannan are all in this world.’

‘Furthermore, it’s not without its benefits. Initiating a Tribulation means a flood of Tribulation Points, not to mention what I’d get if I actually succeed in saving the world…’

‘To save the world, I first have to deal with Great Yu!’

Fang Rui saw it clearly: Great Yu’s problems were too deep-seated to fix. The Royal Family, the Noble Families—the entire upper echelon was held hostage by their own interests. Internal reform was utterly hopeless.

—Yu Qian was a prime example!

‘The only way is to build something new from the ground up, to scrape the poison from the bone in a revolution that starts from the bottom.’

‘Great Yu, I am your Tribulation!’

Fang Rui flicked his sleeves. His robes billowed, his aura magnificent, as if he had been cleansed of all worldly ties—a sword drawn from its sheath.

And in fact, this was the case.

He had severed his mortal connections, let go of his attachments, and laid dormant for a century… An idiom says a bird can remain silent for ten years, only to shock the world with a single cry. What, then, of a century’s accumulation?

It could be said that in this moment, Fang Rui—detached, without attachments, and looking down upon the world—had almost no weaknesses. He already possessed a hint of the grace of a future Lord of Tribulation!

‘True, over thousands of years, Great Yu has become deeply entrenched and unshakable. But I am an Immortal!’

‘If one lifetime isn’t enough, I’ll use two, or three! I’d like to see just how many generations it takes to plot against a nation!’

‘To struggle against the heavens is endless joy; to struggle against the earth is endless joy; and to struggle against humanity is the greatest joy of all!’

Fang Rui gazed down at the cities scattered like stars below, then patted his Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh to fly higher. “The world is a chessboard, and I, Fang Rui, enter the game today as a Chess Player!”

…

The massive celestial phenomenon caused by Fang Rui’s Divination startled everyone in Shangluo, even rousing the city’s Guardian Master from his secluded meditation.

“Senior! Senior!”

In just a dozen breaths’ time, the Guardian Master of Shangluo flew into the sky and called out, “Senior, was it you who was performing a Divination with the Chaos Four Symbols Banner just now?”

However, Fang Rui had no time for chitchat. He simply ignored the man and flew far away on his Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh.

Below, the Guardian Master of Shangluo didn’t get angry at all. Instead, he slapped his thigh in sudden realization. “Of course! This is exactly how it should be!”

“I knew it! The sheer power of that phenomenon just now didn’t seem like the work of a Master, but rather a Profound Monarch. Now it looks like I was pretty much on the mark.”

“Only a Profound Monarch would have a temper like that!”

He muttered, speculating to himself, “Which True Monarch could it be? The one from the Royal Family? Or perhaps Yunlan Profound Monarch from the Purple Cloud Pavilion?”