Chapter 1059: A Hundred Thousand Years of Despair
Ling Tianzun stood there quietly, as if only coming back to her senses after a long moment.
Suddenly, this unkempt girl let out a cheer and rushed over, snatching the hairpin from Qin Mu’s hand. She kicked him to the ground with a flying foot and proceeded to beat him savagely with punches and kicks.
The group of nitpickers riding their bamboo poles also charged forward, and the horse-riding bamboo-pole riders joined in, pounding Qin Mu relentlessly with a series of crackling thuds.
Yue Tianzun, Yan’er, and the others watched in stunned disbelief, while Long Qilin squinted his eyes, lying on the ground dozing off, completely ignoring the scene.
“Stealing my hairpin! I’ll teach you to steal my hairpin!” Ling Tianzun shouted as she struck. “Letting you sneak away! Letting you sneak back again! Do you know how long I’ve waited?”
Qin Mu curled up on the ground, clutching his head, repeatedly begging for mercy.
Still unsatisfied, Ling Tianzun continued her assault, furious. “Do you know how hard these years have been for me? After you left, everyone said I was wrong. Only I knew I was right, because you are the living proof!”
As she spoke and struck, her eyes reddened. She wept while continuing to beat Qin Mu.
“Everyone said I was crazy—even Yun, even Yue—they all believed I was wrong, that I could never succeed!”
“How I wished you were by my side, just to say one thing to me: ‘You are right!’”
“But you ran away! You vanished without a trace!”
“I’ll beat you to death!”
She threw herself onto Qin Mu, sobbing loudly like a girl who had been wronged for far too long. Yet her hand still clutched the peachwood hairpin tightly, while her other hand gripped Qin Mu’s collar, afraid he might disappear again.
Others might not understand this feeling, but Qin Mu deeply grasped the loneliness brought by setbacks and the world’s incomprehension.
At such times, all one needs is a fellow traveler’s affirmation—“You are right”—to muster the courage to press on through thorns and brambles.
Qin Mu had experienced this; Ling Tianzun had too.
Qin Mu had Long Qilin, who, even if he didn’t fully understand him, at least encouraged him.
Ling Tianzun had nothing.
Yue Tianzun helped her up, and Ling Tianzun buried her face in her shoulder, crying loudly, but her other hand still held onto Qin Mu’s sleeve.
Qin Mu brushed the footprints off his clothes and smiled. “If you hadn’t succeeded, how could I have returned?”
“I knew I would succeed!” Ling Tianzun said stubbornly.
Qin Mu laughed heartily, then, after his laughter subsided, said seriously, “You are right.”
“I know!”
After a long while, Ling Tianzun calmed down. She pushed Qin Mu aside and examined the peachwood hairpin over and over again. Yue Tianzun, meanwhile, pulled Qin Mu to a clean spot to drink tea—finding a clean place in Ling Tianzun’s courtyard was no easy feat.
But the little horses riding bamboo poles kept attacking Qin Mu’s legs and feet. He tried to shoo them away several times but failed, so he gave up.
Yan’er, along with the six men transformed from heavenly dragons, busied themselves cleaning Ling Tianzun’s room and courtyard, organizing the papers she had written and calculated.
“Yan’er, this scroll is arranged incorrectly,” Long Qilin said with a glance.
“Incorrect?” The little horses perked up, abandoning Qin Mu to charge at Long Qilin, beating him with a series of crackling thuds. Long Qilin continued sleeping, unmoved.
Yue Tianzun glanced at Qin Mu, then at Ling Tianzun, who was staring at the hairpin with a silly grin. She blinked and asked tentatively, “Mu, are you really from the future?”
Qin Mu took a sip of tea and nodded toward Yan’er. “In the future, you will take in this girl and name her Yan’er. Her mother will give birth to her and personally send her to you. She’ll fatten you up nicely.”
Yue Tianzun looked at Yan’er and laughed. “Nonsense! There’s no way I’d let her make me fat! So, in the future, did I give her to you?”
Qin Mu smiled faintly, set down his teacup, and asked, “Did Yun Tianzun go to the Heavenly Court to appeal?”
Yue Tianzun nodded, her gaze distant. “Not long after you disappeared, Hao Tianzun, under the orders of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, established the Half-God Heavenly Court, called the Longxiao Heavenly Court, to rule over all half-gods. The half-gods rose, especially in a place like the Primordial Realm. Their power grew and grew. The conflicts between humans and half-gods also increased. But humans were still weak, and even though they allied with other acquired races, they were still oppressed by the half-gods. These years have been hard.”
Qin Mu looked at her face. The once-frail Yue Tianzun had become much more resolute.
“We united the acquired races and fought countless battles against the half-gods. We lost more than we won.”
Yue Tianzun smiled bitterly, fiddling with the teacup on the table. “It sounds like a struggle for territory and interests between half-gods and acquired races, but it’s really more like a division of spoils. But the ones dividing the spoils aren’t us—they’re the ancient gods. The reason we win more than we lose is that we’re unwilling to offer sacrifices to the ancient gods?”
Qin Mu’s heart stirred.
Yue Tianzun continued, “Every time we fought the half-gods, the various divine armies would hold blood sacrifices, offering to the ancient gods to beg them to descend and help us fight. Mu, you come from a later era. In your time, did they still use living beings as sacrifices to summon the ancient gods?”
Qin Mu shook his head.
“Guess what we used as sacrifices to those greedy ancient gods?” Yue Tianzun asked.
Qin Mu shook his head, his voice hoarse. “I don’t want to guess.”
“When people are in despair, they’ll do anything.”
Yue Tianzun drained her teacup in one gulp, but it burned her throat like strong liquor, making her cough. After a moment, she recovered and set down the cup with a sigh. “Too bad it’s not wine. Back then, when humanity was at its wit’s end, when the half-gods had pushed us to the Xiao Han Heavenly Court and attacked the Jade Capital City, we still made sacrifices to the ancient gods.”
Her voice grew rough. “The divine beings guarding the Xiao Han Heavenly Court sacrificed themselves—offered themselves like livestock, like food for the ancient gods. Then the ancient gods descended. But on Hao Tianzun’s side, they also sacrificed to the ancient gods, summoning another group. Guess what happened in that war?”
Before Qin Mu could answer, she laughed bitterly. “Both sides had ancient gods. Both sides fought with red eyes, with irreconcilable hatred! Everyone thought it would be an unimaginable bloodbath—but then the ancient gods from both sides negotiated! They played peacemakers!”
A fierce sneer twisted her face as she ground out the words through clenched teeth: “The two groups of ancient gods chatted amiably, talked things over, and then calmly set down a peace treaty. They told us to put aside our hatred and ordered the half-gods, who were about to conquer the Xiao Han Heavenly Court, to retreat! The half-gods couldn’t stand it—they grumbled and complained—until the ancient gods devoured a batch of them. Then they quietly withdrew. Only then did we realize…”
Her sneer deepened. “We were all food. All livestock. The entire Primordial Realm is a giant farm! Mu, this is a farm! We’re just livestock raised by the ancient gods! In the old days, they ate us directly. Now they’ve become civilized—they make us fight each other, forcing us to sacrifice ourselves to them!”
She seemed truly drunk on tea, collapsing onto the table and sobbing. “What kind of nonsense is ‘Tianzun’? What kind of ‘Divine Emperor’? What ‘Yun Heavenly Emperor’ or ‘Hao Heavenly Emperor’? They’re just lead sheep and hunting dogs! We’re the shepherds’ lead sheep and hunting dogs for the ancient gods! Mu, these years have been so hard…”
Qin Mu placed his hand on her shoulder and said gently, “I know. But I also know that in the future, the era of the ancient gods will end at your hands. They will never dare to do this again.”
“Really?” Yue Tianzun looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
Qin Mu nodded.
Yue Tianzun rallied her spirits, smoothed her slightly disheveled hair, and forced a smile. “This tea is too intoxicating. I lost my composure. Don’t mind me.”
Qin Mu smiled warmly. “Without you, there would be no us in the future.”
Yue Tianzun felt greatly comforted and encouraged. She continued, “Yun Tianzun has become an emperor—the first to achieve the Imperial Throne. But the ancient gods’ rule over the Primordial Realm and the myriad heavens is still deeply entrenched. Hao Tianzun’s talent is heaven-defying; he’s about to achieve the Imperial Throne too. This time, Yun Tianzun went to the Longhan Heavenly Court not only to complain about the half-gods’ bullying but also to meet Huo Tianzun.”
Qin Mu’s heart stirred again.
Yue Tianzun watched his expression. “He wants to use Huo Tianzun to establish contact with Hao Tianzun. Do you know what he plans to do?”
Qin Mu’s eye twitched. He nodded slightly, his voice hoarse. “Invite Huo Tianzun, Hao Tianzun, and even Langxuan Divine Emperor and Zu Shenwang to join the Heavenly Alliance and overthrow the ancient gods’ rule.”
Yue Tianzun nodded and smoothed her hair again. “Are we doing the right thing?”
Qin Mu’s eye twitched again. He wanted to tell her that if they did this, Yun Tianzun would die because of it. He wanted to tell her that the Heavenly Alliance would never be the same, falling into the hands of the half-gods.
He wanted even more to tell her that it was precisely because of today’s decisions by Yun Tianzun and Yue Tianzun that the Heavenly Alliance would replace the ancient gods and become a terrifying ruler!
But when he opened his mouth, the words wouldn’t come out.
He couldn’t tell them.
No matter how terrifying the future Heavenly Alliance might be, it was still not as terrible as the current ancient gods. Allying with Hao Tianzun and the others now was actually the best choice for humanity in this era.
If he broke this alliance, the era of the ancient gods would continue, and the Primordial Realm and the myriad heavens would remain a giant farm!
A fellow traveler is someone who stands by your side and tells you you’re doing the right thing.
Yet Qin Mu found this sentence incredibly hard to say.
“You’re doing the right thing,” he said calmly.
Yue Tianzun smiled. “You’re from the future. If you think we’re doing the right thing, then it seems we will succeed. Thank you, Mu.”
She stood up and laughed. “The courtyard is clean now. Yan’er, come here. Pick up your lantern and follow your young master for a walk.”
Yan’er appeared before her like a whirlwind, her eyes sparkling. “Call me big sister!”
Yue Tianzun grabbed her ear and said fiercely, “What did you say?”
Yan’er finally behaved, picked up her lantern, and woke Long Qilin. Long Qilin, still being beaten by the little horses, yawned and stood up, shaking them off.
“Chief, where are we going?” he asked curiously, with a swarm of bamboo-pole horses chasing after him, biting his tail.
Qin Mu looked at Yue Tianzun, who smiled. “Recently, there have been some incidents on the human border. Some half-gods keep sneaking into human territory, seemingly searching for something. I didn’t go to the Heavenly Court with Yun Tianzun because I wanted to see what they’re looking for. Since you’re here today, Mu, let’s go together and see what tricks they’re up to!”
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Alright. I’ll wait until Yun Tianzun returns, talk with him, and then leave. Let’s use my carriage—it’s fast.”
“Sister Ling, want to come along?” Qin Mu asked.
Ling Tianzun rushed over and shoved the hairpin into Qin Mu’s hands. “Of course! Wait a moment!”
She suddenly remembered something, called Yue Tianzun over, and whispered, “I haven’t been out in years. I feel a bit nervous. Help me freshen up and dress.”
Yue Tianzun was amused. “Sis, do you even remember you’re a woman?”
“Stop teasing. If I go out looking like this, I’ll embarrass you.”
The two girls went to freshen up, but Ling Tianzun had no spare clothes. Yue Tianzun fetched some garments and accessories from her own palace. Ling Tianzun found them uncomfortable to wear but gritted her teeth and came out anyway.
Qin Mu’s eyes lit up. “Sister Ling and Sister Yue, you look beautiful.”
Yue Tianzun blushed slightly, but Ling Tianzun complained about the clothes being too cumbersome—the skirt too long, the sleeves too wide, getting in the way.
They boarded the Heavenly Dragon Carriage and headed toward the human border. Yue Tianzun opened the window and looked down. “Recently, half-gods have been appearing and disappearing, always coming here, as if searching for someone. I’ve sent people to investigate. We should have news soon.”
They arrived at a small border town and descended. The town was mostly filled with mortals, with few cultivators.
The Xiao Han Heavenly Court was prosperous, but the humans in the Primordial Realm were still impoverished—though better than in the early Longhan era, barely able to make a living.
Half-gods could be seen on the human border. As Qin Mu and the others descended, the sky suddenly darkened. Qin Mu looked up and saw a massive bird with blue-golden wings flying in from afar, blocking the setting sun.
The bird flew while crying mournfully, “Dahong! Dahong!”
“A flood is coming!” The townspeople panicked, scattering in all directions.
The great bird landed not far from the town, crouching like a sudden mountain. On its back was a divine palace. Tied to a pillar outside the palace was a man, his chest bare, a large spear stuck in his chest, barely alive.
Yue Tianzun was about to approach and ask, but Qin Mu raised his hand to stop her. He shook his head. “I know the person in the palace. The one tied to the pillar isn’t a good person either. Let them be.”
A woman emerged from the palace, holding a long whip. She lashed the man tied to the pillar viciously, leaving him covered in wounds.
Still unsatisfied, she took out a curved knife, cut flesh from the man’s chest, pried open his mouth, and forced him to eat his own flesh.
“I’ve heard of them!” Yue Tianzun exclaimed in surprise. “I’ve long heard of this strange pair in the Primordial Realm—the woman comes out every day to beat the man, torturing him in every way. Today, I finally see them.”
Just then, the divine being sent to investigate returned, bowed to Yue Tianzun and Ling Tianzun, and reported, “Disciple has learned that the half-gods are searching for someone named Achou.”