“What’s wrong? Still upset about that matter from the past?” On a small, crystal-clear jade table was arranged a set of white porcelain tea ware. The tea water was bubbling with a “gudu gudu” sound. Jiang Yang’s fingers were long and slender. She picked up a small cup and handed it to the Heavenly Emperor, then asked unhurriedly.
The Heavenly Emperor sat opposite her. Hearing this, he raised his eyes, took the clear tea, gently blew on the rim of the cup, took a sip, but didn’t answer.
Jiang Yang seemed accustomed to it. She wasn’t annoyed. The corner of her mouth curved up slightly as she continued fiddling with her treasured set: boiling the tea, steeping it, then inviting the Heavenly Emperor to drink again. The curtains before the hall were blown back and forth by the wind. Outside, the lotus pond started chirping again, while the sound of strings and pipes seemed even more melodious.
Finally, the Heavenly Emperor spoke.
“A Yang.” His voice was very soft, as if talking to himself.
The woman’s eyes remained on the teacup. She responded lowly, “Hm?”
“I sent someone to Kunlun Mountain a few days ago.”
“You still cannot let it go?”
“It’s not that I can’t let it go, A Yang,” The Heavenly Emperor lowered his head. His thumb and index finger rubbed together, fidgeting with the corner of his robe. His entire being radiated an unbearable anxiety. “It’s that you don’t know.”
Contrary to expectation, he did not get a response from Jiang Yang.
The Heavenly Emperor looked up and directly met Jiang Yang’s gaze. Her features weren’t overly delicate, but her skin was extremely fair while her brows and eyes were intensely dark. At a glance, this contrast was particularly striking, especially when she stared at someone, making her look especially focused and earnest.
The Heavenly Emperor’s heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
Jiang Yang: “What don’t I know? She died long ago, didn’t she? We personally watched her be burned to death on the Demon-Suppressing Platform back then. You even confirmed it yourself. Don’t worry needlessly anymore, A Jun.”
She paused, then continued, “You are the Heavenly Emperor. What you need to do is govern the Three Realms well. Don’t waste your spirit on these insignificant matters. If there is anything that needs doing, I will go in your place. It’s always better to entrust things to someone trusted than an outsider.”
“Or is it… that you don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that,” the Heavenly Emperor denied quickly.
He abruptly stood up. Only then did Jiang Yang frown—almost imperceptibly. A vexed expression flashed across her face, hidden from the Heavenly Emperor’s view. Then she said calmly, “Are you leaving again? Shall I have someone escort you out?”
The Heavenly Emperor didn’t answer. He started pacing back and forth in the room, seeming even more anxious than when he arrived. Jiang Yang also straightened up. As if no one else were there, she began putting away the teacups one by one. Her movements were exceptionally slow. By the time she put away the last cup, she had gotten the result she was waiting for.
The Heavenly Emperor’s lips were pressed tightly together, as if he had just made an extremely dangerous decision. Sure enough, the first words out of his mouth were earth-shattering: “That demon is not dead.”
Jiang Yang’s hands first paused. Then her pupils constricted slightly before she shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“A Yang, I’m telling the truth. Otherwise, why would I have no peace day and night all these years, living in constant fear!”
“You’re confused.”
“I am not confused. I’ll take you somewhere.”
“Where to?”
The Heavenly Emperor grabbed Jiang Yang’s hand. “Just come with me.”
Looking at the back of the emperor who had lost his usual composure, Jiang Yang gently pulled her hand back. The Heavenly Emperor turned around. Jiang Yang said, “I’ll follow you.”
The two of them rode a cloud together, crossing who knows how many heavens, traversing ranges of mountains. There is no dawn or dusk in heaven, but Jiang Yang calculated with her fingers; they had traveled for at least a day and a night. Their surroundings were an endless expanse of white. The Heavenly Emperor held a glowing treasure in his palm, resembling a mortal compass. He led Jiang Yang left and right through this white expanse and finally stopped at a place.
He pressed his palm to his forehead and slowly drew out a short sword glowing with a deep orange light. He chanted under his breath. Suddenly, a massive Eight Trigrams Haotian Mirror appeared before Jiang Yang, emitting a dazzling light.
The Heavenly Emperor formed a barrier around himself, enclosing the Eight Trigrams Haotian Mirror within it.
A long time passed.
Click— clack—
The yin and yang of the Eight Trigrams slowly parted to the two sides. Beads of sweat had already formed on the Heavenly Emperor’s face. He nodded his chin towards the inside of the door, signaling Jiang Yang to follow him in. Jiang Yang lifted her leg. As she entered, she glanced over. The short sword was embedded in a groove at the very top of the mirror.
If there was any difference between inside and outside this door, it was that the fog inside was even thicker than outside. The Heavenly Emperor’s compass was useless now. He relied on his memory, walking straight in one direction.
Jiang Yang finally couldn’t resist asking, “Where exactly are you taking me?”
“To see that demon.”
“Then what is this place?”
The Heavenly Emperor stopped. He closed his eyes, tilting his ear as if listening for movement within the deep clouds. He only reconfirmed his direction after a long while and replied, “This is the Chaos Realm.”
“I heard from Father and Mother that back when Pangu the Great God cleaved heaven and earth with his axe, he didn’t completely separate them. Some places remained stuck together. The places where heaven and earth, yin and yang intersect, are called the Chaos Realm. I don’t even know exactly where this is in the universe. I just know Mother brought me here back then, and I’ve always remembered it.”
He abruptly stopped speaking and said solemnly, “A Yang, we’re here.”
“There’s nothing here…” Jiang Yang’s expression suddenly changed too. Within the hazy fog, there seemed to be something, towering high above them. Even without seeing its full form, the pressure of that thing still inspired an irresistible reverence and fear from deep within her heart. Jiang Yang’s knees went weak, and she almost knelt.
The Heavenly Emperor sighed and said softly, “Do you feel it?”
“Wha… what?”
“It’s that demon.” The Heavenly Emperor raised his hand and gently swept his long sleeve through the chaos. The clouds briefly dispersed for a moment, revealing what the thing actually was: “Do you feel a powerful urge to kneel, an uncontrollable desire within your heart to submit to her? Even I, before this demon, am utterly insignificant. Forty thousand years have passed. Every time I see her, I feel like a mere ant. How can an ant shake a great tree?”
It was a gigantic skeleton of the Canine Race, unimaginably huge. The Heavenly Emperor and Jiang Yang were now standing at its foot, not even comparable to a single toe bone. Its skull was ghastly, its long, sharp fangs exposed, its bones imposing. It lay quietly within this Chaos Realm, like a slumbering giant beast, poised to lunge out at any moment.
“‘How can an ant shake a great tree?'” The Heavenly Emperor repeated in a low voice. He raised his head high, looking directly into its empty, disdainful gaze. Suddenly, he laughed coldly and said fiercely, “I will try to shake that tree! Didn’t this very tree fall by my hand all those years ago?”
“This is her corpse? But I remember back then, didn’t we…” Jiang Yang’s heart was filled with dread. In a trembling voice only they could hear, she said, “Didn’t we eat her flesh and blood? By all rights… by all rights, her body and soul should have been completely destroyed.”
“I wish that were so. But the truth is: not only did her skeleton remain, but half of her spirit also escaped,” The Heavenly Emperor sighed, then ground out resentfully: “Do you remember the red light that burst from the lotus on her forehead that day? That was her spirit. I only managed to capture half of it. I don’t know where the other half fled to. It was my carelessness. Also, the Primordial Great Fire burned for three full months. We did consume the flesh that sloughed off, but her bones simply wouldn’t burn no matter what. In the end, I had no choice but to seal her remains here in the Chaos Realm.”
“That person on Kunlun Mountain had a deep friendship with her in the past. That’s why I sent Du Heng to Kunlun Mountain, to check for traces of her spirit.”
“Du Heng?”
The Heavenly Emperor waved his hand dismissively. “Just an unknown minor Star Lord. When he ascended ten thousand years ago, I placed him in the Hundred Flowers Valley. There’s a seal related to this demon there. He carries the scent of that seal. If he encountered her, there would definitely be something unusual. But… after hearing his report, it seems there was nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Could that person on Kunlun Mountain have used some trick?”
“That possibility can’t be ruled out.”
Jiang Yang suddenly turned her head and gave the Heavenly Emperor a sly, meaningful smile. “A Jun, you’ve kept this bottled up for so many years. How come you couldn’t hold it in today and brought me to this place? I was a demon too, once. Aren’t you afraid I’ll set this demon free?”
The Heavenly Emperor, coaxed by her smile, relaxed slightly and also smiled. “Though you are a demon, the effort you put into subduing her back then was probably the greatest in the entire Heavenly Court. You almost lost your life over it. Besides, with forty thousand years of friendship between us, who else can I trust but you?”
“Moreover…” The Heavenly Emperor turned to look at the skeletal remains, once again veiled by the fog, and said enigmatically, “No one can undo this seal. For the final barrier, someone will block it for me.”
Jiang Yang knew this expression of the Heavenly Emperor’s meant he wouldn’t say more. They spoke briefly about past matters in the Chaos Realm before returning to the Purple Bloom Hall in the Thirty-Second Heaven. She reached into the bookshelf in her chamber, twisted something a few times, and a hidden compartment appeared on the wall, containing a piece of priceless jade.
Jiang Yang formed overlapping hand seals. A hidden compartment behind the hidden compartment was opened. Finally, she retrieved a scroll.
She unfurled the scroll, and her form turned into a beam of blue light as she dove inside.
There was a woman’s back: tall, graceful, in white boots and a white fur cloak, her long hair trailing on the ground.
Only after Jiang Yang entered did the person slowly turn around. She was actually a very young, very beautiful woman with her hair loose. In the center of her forehead was a red marking—the shape of a lotus flower.
Jiang Yang bowed her head slightly and said respectfully, “My King.”
The woman slowly smiled.
