Chapter 2622: Turmoil in the Heavenly Court
That night, the Book Sect was bustling with activity, with talented scholars and beautiful women gathering together.
Like east wind releasing blossoms overnight.
Phoenix flutes resounded, jade pots shimmered, and fish-dragon dances filled the night.
Zhang Ruochen and Nalan Danqing had changed their appearances, holding lanterns as they joined in. By the bonfire, they played pitch-pot with Confucian disciples, debated swordsmanship, composed poetry, and played chess, thoroughly enjoying the festive atmosphere.
When dawn broke, they returned to North Cliff.
Nalan Danqing gazed at the fading full moon in the sky and suddenly said, “It’s wonderful.”
“What’s wonderful?” Zhang Ruochen asked, his hands clasped behind his back as he followed her.
“The Lantern Festival is wonderful, this feeling is wonderful, the moon in the sky is wonderful, everything is wonderful. Zhang Ruochen, will you promise me one thing?”
“Not just one thing—ten things are fine.”
“Asking you to visit me every Lantern Festival is obviously impossible. Let’s make a thousand-year pact. Every thousand years, we must meet. How about setting it on the Lantern Festival?” Nalan Danqing said.
Zhang Ruochen felt a pang of melancholy. “A thousand years is too long…”
“But you will eventually return to the Hell Realm; you can’t come to the Book Sect often. And I am going to the Blood Heaven Tribe’s Wing World, separated by thousands of mountains and rivers and an endless sea of stars. The Yellow Spring Star River in the sky is too vast, dividing the Kunlun Realm and the Hell Realm,” Nalan Danqing said.
Indeed.
The distance between the Kunlun Realm and the Blood Heaven Tribe’s Wing World was not just a sea of stars—it was a separation of life and death, of hatred and enmity.
Even though Zhang Ruochen had never mentioned it, Nalan Danqing had long understood that he would definitely return to the Hell Realm.
“Alright, then a thousand years it is,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Nalan Danqing said, “If you don’t come to the Kunlun Realm to see me on the Lantern Festival a thousand years from now, I will go to the Hell Realm to find you. This pact will only be broken when you no longer wish to see me, or I no longer wish to see you. What do you think?”
“That day will never come! Perhaps I won’t even wait a thousand years before I can’t resist coming to see you. The next time we meet, I will definitely surpass you, the master of the zither,” Zhang Ruochen said.
In the bamboo forest, Wan Canglan walked toward them from the stone path. She shot Zhang Ruochen a cold glare before bidding farewell to Nalan Danqing, preparing to return to the Heavenly Court.
“Sister, wait. Could you tell me in detail about what happened in the Heavenly Court?” Nalan Danqing said.
Wan Canglan’s face lit up. “Danqing, have you changed your mind?”
“My state of mind has reached perfection. I should be able to break into the Ten Thousand Deaths, One Life Realm soon, so I can no longer stay in seclusion. I need to go out and move around. Let’s talk in my thatched cottage. Would you like to join us?” Nalan Danqing asked Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen was quite concerned about what had happened in the Heavenly Court, after all, Ling Feiyu, Xuanji Sword Saint, Luo Xu, Senior Brother Qingxiao, Senior Brother Jinyu, Senior Brother Luochen, and many other cultivators he cared about were all there.
The old woman guarding North Cliff had already brewed a pot of tea in the cottage.
Wan Canglan began her account: “It all started a month ago when Xu Xu, a Great Saint from the Blade God Realm, severely injured Ling Xiu, a Great Saint from the Kunlun Realm. This enraged Ling Feiyu, the sect leader of the Moon-Worshipping Cult.”
“In her fury, Ling Feiyu sought revenge for her father and challenged Xu Xu. She shattered his Saint Source and crippled his cultivation.”
“The Great Saints of the Blade God Realm immediately declared that either Ling Feiyu marry Xu Xu as a concubine to make amends, or they would take extreme measures to cripple Ling Feiyu’s cultivation.”
“Envoys from the Heavenly Palace rushed to mediate, but the Blade God Realm refused to back down, claiming that since both sides were subordinate mortal realms of the Heavenly Court, Ling Feiyu’s actions were too ruthless and she had to pay the price and make amends.”
“Subsequently, ten Great Saints from the Blade God Realm stepped forward to challenge Ling Feiyu one after another.”
“Although Ling Feiyu was strong, the Blade God Realm had even more experts. In the end, she was defeated by the Blade God Realm Great Saint Canghai Yishu, suffering twenty-seven sword wounds, and her Saint Soul was nearly shattered.”
At this point, Wan Canglan clearly sensed a chill in the air.
She continued, “During that battle, Shang Zihong and Michael were watching from the sidelines. Everyone could see that Canghai Yishu’s cultivation far surpassed Ling Feiyu’s. The reason he struck her twenty-seven times was merely to toy with her and humiliate her, while also provoking the Great Saints of the Kunlun Realm.”
“When a woman from the Kunlun Realm was treated so harshly, the other Great Saints naturally couldn’t stand idly by.”
“Great Saints Luo Xu and Luo Chen stepped forward, but Canghai Yishu stopped hiding his strength. With a single strike each, he cleaved the undying Saint Bodies of Luo Xu and Luo Chen in two, mocking that the Kunlun Realm had no one who could withstand even one blow from him.”
“If Tai Shang’s avatar hadn’t arrived in time, Luo Xu and Luo Chen would have likely fallen.”
“But because of this, Canghai Yishu grew even more arrogant. He taunted that the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm would forever live under Tai Shang’s protection, that they were nothing but incompetents—weak and fragile. He declared that unless Ling Feiyu married Xu Xu as a concubine, the Blade God Realm would continue to fight until no one in the Kunlun Realm dared to accept the challenge, until they all became cowards hiding in their shells. They would fight until the Kunlun Realm lost all its sacred territories and was driven back to the mortal realm.”
“Everyone knew this was a scheme by Shang Zihong and Michael, using Canghai Yishu as their blade to deliberately provoke the Great Saints of the Kunlun Realm.”
“But being insulted to such an extent, how could the Great Saints of the Kunlun Realm endure it? So, Bookworm stepped forward!”
“In that battle, Bookworm was forced to break through to the Undying Realm. Yet even so, he could only manage a draw with Canghai Yishu.”
Nalan Danqing asked, “Who is this Canghai Yishu? Why have I never heard his name before?”
“He is said to be a member of the Demigod Project,” Wan Canglan said.
Zhang Ruochen toyed with his teacup, his expression dark and uncertain. “What is the Demigod Project?”
Wan Canglan said, “A thousand years ago, the Saint King realm cultivators of the Heavenly Realm Faction suffered heavy losses in the Kunlun Realm, creating a gap in their ranks. At first, the gods of the Heavenly Realm Faction didn’t take it seriously, believing that a new generation of prodigies would naturally rise within a hundred years.”
“But over the following centuries, they gradually discovered that while many new prodigies emerged, they could hardly compare to the golden generation of a thousand years ago. If the situation continued like this, their power in the mortal world would decline significantly over the next few thousand years.”
“Besides this internal reason, there was also an external one.”
“In the past millennium, the Hell Realm has produced an abundance of geniuses. Especially during the Heaven Hunting Battle a thousand years ago, a large number of extraordinary Great Saints emerged. Some gained opportunities from the Heaven Hunting Battlefield, others from the Origin Divine Temple. Over the following centuries, they grew rapidly, putting immense pressure on all the realms of the Heavenly Court.”
“To change this state of internal and external troubles, five hundred years ago, the Heavenly Realm Faction launched the Demigod Project.”
“The so-called Demigod Project involved selecting a group of the most outstanding young Saint Kings and Great Saints for secret training. They were provided with the best cultivation resources, the best teachers, and the best methods of training.”
“It is said that members of the Demigod Project could freely enter the Time Divine Temple, Space Divine Temple, and Radiant Divine Temple for cultivation. At least three gods were guaranteed to be present at all times to give lectures and answer questions.”
“There were also countless rewards, including Emperor-grade Sacred Pills and Supreme Sacred Artifacts.”
“This group of cultivators involved in the Demigod Project had been missing for five hundred years. On the eve of the Mortal World Assembly, a previously unknown figure like Canghai Yishu had already caused a great stir in the Heavenly Court. No one knew what heights had been reached by cultivators like Shang Zihong, Michael, Zhou Yu, and Fairy Guna, who had been famous for a thousand years.”
“Moreover, the Heavenly Court also had the old-school Great Saint Triumvirate, ranked high on the ‘Mortal World Peerless List,’ with unfathomable strength.”
In terms of foundation, the current Kunlun Realm was a hundred times inferior to the Heavenly Realm.
After a hundred thousand years of development, the Heavenly Realm’s cultivation resources and number of gods were numbers that mortal cultivators couldn’t even imagine. How could the Kunlun Realm, which had been in decline for a hundred thousand years, compare?
In terms of the number of geniuses, even if the Kunlun Realm had survivors from the medieval period, compared to the entire Heavenly Realm Faction, they were still worlds apart.
The Heavenly Realm Faction could pour vast resources into mobilizing the three eternal divine temples—Time Divine Temple, Space Divine Temple, and Radiant Divine Temple—as well as the Divine Sky Divine Temple, Blood Sea Hidden Heaven Divine Temple, Blade God Divine Temple, and other divine temples, to concentrate on training young Great Saints.
The Kunlun Realm could not do the same, so naturally, their cultivation speed was incomparable.
One was the supreme realm that had dominated the Western Universe for a hundred thousand years; the other was a great world that had been in decline for a hundred thousand years and had only revived for a millennium. The gap between them was like heaven and earth.
Wan Canglan said, “Although Bookworm broke through to the Undying Realm, the Blade God Realm still showed no intention of stopping. They claimed that in the near future, they would challenge the lords of the various sacred territories of the Kunlun Realm. Unless Ling Feiyu agreed to marry Xu Xu as a concubine, they would not let the matter rest and would fight to the end. If the situation weren’t so dire, I wouldn’t have come to find you.”
Nalan Danqing glanced at Zhang Ruochen and said, “The Blade God Realm knows this is impossible, yet they still press so aggressively. Their intentions are vicious.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “First, they provoke an incident, then anger the opponent, and finally use a borrowed knife to kill. This is Shang Zihong’s style! Shang Zihong is skilled in using open schemes. Even if you know it’s a trap, you have to jump in. Once you compromise, you lose not just your life, but your face.”
“Tai Shang has only recently returned, allowing the Kunlun Realm to develop and grow under relatively fair conditions. If the Great Saints of the Kunlun Realm compromise, they would not only lose their own face but also Tai Shang’s. From then on, they would never be able to hold their heads high in the Heavenly Court.”
“Do you know Shang Zihong?” Wan Canglan asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, “We have quite a bit of history.”
Wan Canglan snorted coldly.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Shang Zihong’s open scheme is actually easy to break.”
“You say it so simply. This is not just an open scheme—it’s a clash of strength. The Heavenly Realm’s ultimate goal is still to suppress the Kunlun Realm and prevent its rise,” Wan Canglan said.
Zhang Ruochen drained his cup of tea and said, “To break an open scheme, you only need to repay in kind. As for strength, yes, the Kunlun Realm’s current strength is far inferior to the Heavenly Realm’s, and even far inferior to the Blade God Realm’s. But if the Heavenly Realm can use the Blade God Realm as a blade, why can’t the Kunlun Realm borrow a blade as well?”
“Which blade?” Wan Canglan asked.
Zhang Ruochen gazed at the Yellow Spring Star River beyond the sky and said, “The sharpest blade in the mortal world.”