Chapter 2513: Cruel, Yet Helpless
A single ceasefire agreement could not restrain the dead spirits who worshipped death and destruction, nor could it make the cultivators of the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms set aside their blood feuds.
Both sides would inevitably continue to fight, but the scale of the battles had been greatly reduced.
Over the past hundred thousand years, the current pattern of the Merit Battlefield had formed.
The specific contents of the ceasefire agreement were likely known only to the gods.
Haitang Popo continued, "A thousand years of war left the gods of the Kunlun Realm almost entirely fallen, plummeting from the clouds into the abyss. The world was riddled with holes and scars. It was Xumi Saint Monk who used his last divine power to seal those world holes, thereby protecting the few survivors left in the realm."
Zhang Ruochen had many questions in his heart. "After Saint Monk fell, the Heavenly Court and Hell signed a ceasefire agreement. Is that why the Kunlun Realm was no longer attacked by the gods of Hell?"
"The Kunlun Realm is the largest world standing between Hell and the Heavenly Court. If it were destroyed, it would be like breaching the gateway. Naturally, the Heavenly Court wanted to preserve the Kunlun Realm," said Haitang Popo.
Zhang Ruochen nodded slightly, finally understanding.
Xumi Saint Monk was indeed extremely powerful, but Hell also had many strong beings. If they had truly wanted to forcefully attack the Kunlun Realm, they could have eventually broken through the divine power protecting it.
The only explanation was that the ceasefire agreement must have included a clause forbidding the gods of Hell from continuing their assault on the Kunlun Realm.
The gods of the Kunlun Realm were almost entirely dead. To both the Black Hand and Hell, it no longer posed any threat.
It was like...
A dead world.
All that remained were the Kunlun Realm's divine artifacts, cultivation techniques, ancient divine relics... these treasures.
Thus, at that time, in the eyes of the Heavenly Court and Hell, the Kunlun Realm was not a world but a treasure vault.
A treasure vault that could not yet be opened.
Once the vault was opened, the battle between the Heavenly Court and Hell would inevitably resume—something neither side wanted.
It was Xumi Saint Monk who had placed a lock on this vault, preventing cultivators from various factions from easily entering.
A hundred thousand years later, that lock had rusted and lost its effect.
The Heavenly Court and Hell had recuperated, recovering some of their strength, and so began entering the vault to seize treasures. Of course, some Heavenly Court cultivators regarded the Kunlun Realm as a fortress against Hell, going there to wage war rather than to act as bandits.
Zhang Ruochen said, "What was the situation in the Kunlun Realm at that time?"
Haitang Popo said, "The gods had all fallen, the World Spirit Root had been severed, the rules of heaven and earth were shattered in the divine war, divine veins and saintly veins had dried up, and the sacred qi of the world had vanished. All sacred lands and divine lands were hidden away by Xumi Saint Monk using spatial power as he lay dying. The Kunlun Realm then entered an era of dark chaos that lasted tens of thousands of years."
"During that dark chaos, even the few remaining Great Saints perished."
"Without the World Spirit Root and with the deterioration of the cultivation environment, reaching the Saint realm became as difficult as ascending to heaven. To reach the Great Saint realm, one had to be a prodigy unmatched in ten thousand—only then was it possible. For example, the Heavenly Mandate Great Emperor seventy thousand years ago."
"Or, eight hundred years ago, the Nine Emperors and Three Empresses."
Zhang Ruochen shook his head with a bitter smile, feeling that the world was so absurd and laughable.
The gods of the Kunlun Realm had fallen, and the surviving cultivators, instead of uniting to overcome the crisis, had turned to killing and strife.
That was human nature!
It was like a nation whose leadership had been completely wiped out—chaos was inevitable.
That was human nature!
Without the restraint of rules, human greed and the darkness within the heart would be unleashed without restraint.
Goodness was limited.
Evil had no bottom line.
Desire was like a sea of sin, like an abyss—either overwhelming or impossible to fill.
Who was wrong?
No one was wrong. It was the era that was wrong, the fault of this great age.
Born into such an age, one either cultivated to become a god, using overwhelming power to change everything and establish new rules, or one could only drift with the current, helplessly pushed forward by the tide of the times.
But with the rules missing and the World Spirit Root severed, the Kunlun Realm could no longer produce gods.
Haitang Popo said, "The chaos in the Kunlun Realm—the infighting among major powers and various races—continued until eight hundred years ago. In the end, Empress Chi Yao used her absolute strength to unify the human race and suppress the barbarian wilderness, ushering in several centuries of prosperity. Though these centuries were not entirely peaceful, compared to before, they were merely minor skirmishes."
Zhang Ruochen gazed at the starry sky, his voice devoid of emotion. "I understand that unification brings stability, but was there no more peaceful way? Do you know how much bloodshed Chi Yao caused when she established the First Central Empire? How many innocent people died? How many were displaced?"
"Unless a god emerges, there is no peaceful way to achieve unification," said Haitang Popo.
Zhang Ruochen said, "At the very least, the war between the Sacred Bright Central Empire and the Chiqing Central Empire should not have happened. My father and Emperor Qing were close friends."
"Emperors are merely the leaders of these two nations; they do not represent the ministers and the people. It is difficult enough to unify the thoughts of two people. How can one unify the thoughts of ten thousand, or a hundred million people? Historically, there has never been a unification of two nations without war," said Haitang Popo.
Zhang Ruochen said, "So this is the truth behind Chi Yao killing me? She was only fourteen then. Did she understand all this?"
"Of course, that is not the truth."
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen's emotions were greatly stirred, Haitang Popo did not rush to continue.
Zhang Ruochen calmed down. "Did all the gods of the Kunlun Realm truly fall? Not a single one survived? Why is the Dragon Lord still alive? Why did he not come out to take charge?"
Haitang Popo said, "No one knew the Dragon Lord was still alive. Besides, the Dragon Lord could only be considered half a cultivator of the Kunlun Realm. Even if he were alive, everyone thought he had returned to the Divine Dragon Realm. Why would he stay in the broken and ruined Kunlun? In truth, the Dragon Lord was gravely wounded in the war of a hundred thousand years ago, his divine power nearly exhausted, and he had been in deep slumber all along."
"Perhaps other gods of the Kunlun Realm survived, but they could not reveal themselves."
"Why?" asked Zhang Ruochen.
Haitang Popo stared at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Because of Hell, the Black Hand, and the traitors?"
"Exactly. You should also know that cultivators from Hell can still enter the Kunlun Realm through the world holes, but with severe restrictions on their cultivation level," said Haitang Popo.
Zhang Ruochen naturally knew this.
The Undying Blood Clan's Underworld King and Xue Hou had entered the Kunlun Realm through world holes.
Also, there was the dead clan cultivator he had encountered at the Celestial Machine Mountain.
And there were even rumors of Hell's divine artifact, the Soul-Devouring Lamp, roaming the Kunlun Realm, forcing the Kunlun Realm's supreme sacred artifacts and divine artifact spirits to go into hiding.
The battle between the Kunlun Realm and Hell had never ceased.
Zhang Ruochen suspected that the era of dark chaos in the Kunlun Realm was inextricably linked to the cultivators of Hell.
Haitang Popo said, "If news that gods still lived in the Kunlun Realm reached Hell and the Heavenly Court, would they still regard it as a dead world, a treasure vault? They would surely think that the Kunlun Realm was not truly dead and would seek revenge in the future, leaving it no time to recover."
"Hell could not sit still, and neither could the Black Hand."
"Don't wait until a hundred thousand years from now; even ninety thousand years ago, the Kunlun Realm would have been destroyed."
"A hundred thousand years—at least we have waited until the new World Spirit Root became a god, until the Dragon Lord awakened. Those gods who may not have died also needed a hundred thousand years to heal their wounds and restore their divine power."
"If we can rescue the Island Lord, the future of the Kunlun Realm can be anticipated."
Zhang Ruochen laughed self-deprecatingly. "So, to steal this hundred thousand years, you began laying the groundwork eight hundred years ago to unify the Kunlun Realm? And the person chosen was Chi Yao. Am I right?"
Haitang Popo said, "In truth, you were our first choice."
"What did you say?" Zhang Ruochen's heart trembled slightly.
Haitang Popo said, "The Kunlun Realm had many sleepers, left over from various eras of the Middle Ages. A very few of them had awakened a thousand years ago. For example, your grandmaster—your father's master—the Yuanfa Dao Ancestor of the Liangyi Sect."
"Among this batch of awakened ones, almost all were top-tier Great Saints. They did not show themselves but began to take charge, cultivating disciples who could appear on the surface."
"Do you know the Blood Clan Secret Scroll? It was developed by them specifically to deal with the Undying Blood Clan. Of course, it might also have been developed by gods of the Middle Ages, merely preserved in their hands."
Zhang Ruochen suddenly understood.
The Blood Clan Secret Scroll contained things like the "Blood-Suppressing Talisman."
A Great Saint-level Blood-Suppressing Talisman could suppress a Great Saint of the Undying Blood Clan.
At the time, Emperor Ming had publicly claimed that the Blood Clan Secret Scroll was developed by Shangguan Que and a group of saints from the Sacred Bright Central Empire. Zhang Ruochen had always harbored doubts.
Now, it all made sense.
Haitang Popo said, "At that time, your talent surpassed Chi Yao's, so they chose you to unify the Kunlun Realm. But... your possession of half Undying Blood Clan bloodline was thus exposed."
The atmosphere instantly became oppressive.
Although Haitang Popo did not continue, Zhang Ruochen could already imagine what would happen next.
The Kunlun Realm and Hell had a deep-seated hatred, especially for those awakened from the Middle Ages—they were irreconcilable, their enmity as deep as the sea.
What did it mean that the person they had chosen had the bloodline of the Undying Blood Clan?
The emperor of the Sacred Bright Central Empire, someone who could access the secrets of the Kunlun Realm, had a bedmate who was the Xue Hou of the Undying Blood Clan. The Kunlun Realm faced imminent catastrophe.
Xue Hou had to die.
The bastard child of the Undying Blood Clan also had to die.
Haitang Popo said, "Do you now understand your father's predicament back then? He had no choice. He had to kill your mother. If he did not act, Yuanfa Dao Ancestor and the others would. In the end, your father cast your mother into the Endless Abyss."
"You were also supposed to die. Your father pleaded for you, but it was useless. The hatred between the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm and the Undying Blood Clan was too deep!"
Zhang Ruochen fell silent. After a long time, he asked, "Then why did I survive?"
"It was Xumi Saint Monk, who had arrived from the future, who saved you. He said, 'An infant knows neither evil nor good; one cannot be condemned by bloodline. To guide them toward good is Buddha. To guide them toward evil is demon. Hell is in the heart, not in the Hell Realm.'"
"I am not very clear about what happened afterward. The next time I received news, it was when the Sacred Bright Central Empire was destroyed. I was furious at the time, because in the Middle Ages, I had promised a god of your Zhang Clan to protect the Zhang family."