Chapter 661

– The Kindness of a Single Meal
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The clouds in the night sky were completely driven to the edge of the horizon. The stars were incomparably bright. The river water had risen from the earth and transformed into a mist dozens of li long that surrounded the Mausoleum of Books like a belt, with green lotus branches and pink lotus blossoms drifting in and out, a most beautiful sight.
Compared to this mystical beauty that seemed not part of this human world, the true human world was in incredible misery. The buildings in the southern part of the capital had either collapsed or been toppled over by the surging water. An uncountable number of people had died. Cries for help and sobs of pain rose and fell in turn. Although they were rendered indistinct by the distance, it still made those in the distance shudder in fear.
Those cultivation experts who had borrowed the darkness to surround the Mausoleum of Books had been even more affected by the aftershocks from the collision of the Green Leaf World and the Heavenly Tome Monolith. Some priests who were somewhat lacking in cultivation had been jolted to death and the elders and Guardians of the noble clans and sects had their own manner of injuries. The face of the girl called Mu Jiushi was snow-white, a trickle of blood hanging down from the corner of her lips. Her expression was now very gloomy, with none of its earlier brightness and cheer remaining. Only Mao Qiuyu, Wuqiong Bi, and Bie Yanghong were unaffected, as they stood in the middle of the lotuses and were able to use the pacifying and softening influence of the water to protect themselves.
The green leaf slowly drifted back into the night sky from the peak of the mausoleum. A massive gale seemed to stir up from nothing.
The crowd looked from the green leaf back to the peak to gaze upon the figure of the Tianhai Divine Empress with both fear and reverence mixed together, powerless to speak.
The Heavenly Tome Monoliths were very large, very upright and square. Logically speaking, there was no way to grip one in the hand.
But she had just so casually gripped a Heavenly Tome Monolith in her hand, or perhaps carried it.
The Pope’s Green Leaf was a real world and possessed an almost limitless weight, capable of crushing all things. Even the Frost God Spear or the Halving Blade could not resist it, but the Heavenly Tome Monoliths had descended to the world at the beginning of time. The blowing of the wind or the beating of the rain, the shifting of space or the passing of time—none of them could change their appearances. From this point, one could say that the Heavenly Tome Monoliths were close to eternal existences, indestructible existences. It was just like that famous fable in the Daoist scripture ‘On the Origin of Turtles’: what would happen when the impenetrable shield encountered the unstoppable spear?
Fables were fables and did not give a real answer. The first meeting of the green leaf and the Heavenly Tome Monolith also did not give a conclusion. Based on these observations, the Heavenly Tome Monoliths were the most suitable and most powerful weapons for resisting the Green Leaf World, but other than the Tianhai Divine Empress, who possessed such terrifying strength as to carry a Heavenly Tome Monolith in one’s hand as a weapon? And who had such an imposing manner as to dare think of using a Heavenly Tome Monolith as a weapon?
The world marveled at the changes this battle had wrought, but it was not yet over. It had just begun. The starlight once more refracted, space once more twisted, and the green leaf drifted once more to the peak of the Mausoleum of Books.
Rivers, mountains, and cities were all within. There was a cacophony of noises: the splitting of earth, the moving of mountains, the snapping of rivers, the second descent of a world.
The Tianhai Divine Empress carried the monolith and smashed it once more at the green leaf.
Unlike last time, there was no sound. Let alone all thunder from the beginning of time, there wasn’t even the dying chirp of an insect in the autumn rain, only a stillness.
This was because all weight, energy, and Qi were being perfectly transferred between the green leaf and the monolith, not a single strand being released into the world.
The peak of the Mausoleum of Books suddenly sank half a foot.
The Tianhai Divine Empress’s face paled, and a stream of blood flowed from her hand, staining a corner of the monolith red.
The Pope’s face paled even more and his Divine Crown now seemed caked in dust, the wrinkles on his face so deep as to seem like a yellow plateau which had seen no rain for one thousand years.
The belt of water several dozen li long around the Mausoleum of Books fell to the ground as a torrential rain.
The green leaf, like a moist piece of paper, stuck to the surface of the Heavenly Tome Monolith and incessantly shook, the surface of the leaf gradually tearing apart.
It was very obvious that in this clash of ultimate powers, the Tianhai Divine Empress had gained the advantage!
The two greatest masters of the Dao in the past one thousand years of the Orthodoxy’s history and the enigmatic monk from the other continent were all supreme experts on the level of Saints.
With a Heavenly Tome Monolith in hand, the Tianhai Divine Empress fought three separate battles with her body, soul, and Dao. Not only did she not fall behind, she was even faintly about to grasp victory in all three battles!
Such an overbearing display, such power! No matter what the final result was, everyone was forced to admit that she was the supreme expert under the starry sky!
……
……
The highest point was the peak and someone at the strongest point could no longer get any more powerful. The Phoenix danced amongst the nine heavens, but it would ultimately have to descend.
The Tianhai Divine Empress’s battle with these three Saints had reached its most critical point. She had displayed a nigh unimaginable level of strength, and also her complete strength.
This also meant that she could not produce an even more inconceivable method.
Bie Yanghong clearly understood this argument. He knew that the moment he had been waiting for had finally come.
He glanced at Wuqiong Bi and then the string tied to his finger began to snap, inch by inch.
With a pale complexion, Wuqiong Bi wildly waved the horsetail whisk in her hands, gathering the several dozen snapped pieces of string within it.
This Qi of silent extinction that seemed like the cold waves of some dead sea was suddenly mixed with a vivid Qi of life. These two utterly different Qis not only did not attack each other, but instead, in an extremely short amount of time, truly fused with each other, producing an indescribably ancient aura.
Life and extinction had originally been two sides of the same coin. Only when they interacted with each other would the true face of the world be revealed.
The lotus leaves incessantly swayed, the lotus blossoms in chaos within. A strand of Qi madly charged up the Divine Path, imbued with a power beyond compare. The space in front of the Mausoleum of Books was pervaded by an ancient aura.
They were the only couple amongst the Storms of the Eight Directions. It could also be said that in the entire world, no couple other than the White Emperor couple was stronger than them.
When they truly joined hands and unleashed their most powerful attack, even someone as strong as the Tianhai Divine Empress had to treat them with caution.
But right now, all the Tianhai Divine Empress’s strength was in the Heavenly Tome Monolith, her Daoist technique was in Luoyang, and her soul was tens of thousands of li away, so how could she deal with it?
Deep within the lotus sea was a ruin. There was once a pavilion here, at the base of the Divine Path. Anything that wished to step upon the Divine Path, whether man or Qi, needed to pass through here.
When Bie Yanghong and Wuqiong Bi’s ancient aura swept towards this place, a sigh could be heard.
This sigh was similarly brimming with an ancient aura. It seemed very disappointed and frustrated.
A hand gripped a pitch-black spear.
A violent gale stirred in the Mausoleum of Books and the lotus sea began to ripple, the lotus leaves swaying and casting pearl-like drops of water into the sky.
This spear was not as ordinary as it appeared. It was the strongest spear in the world, even the strongest divine weapon in the past one thousand years.
Han Qing gripped the spear and pointed it into the depths of the darkness.
A bleak autumn wind swept through.
Everything in the world must wither.
In the depths of the lotus sea, Bie Yanghong and Wuqiong Bi groaned.
Han Qing indifferently gazed in their direction. He did not speak, nor did he look to his feet.
At his feet was a lunchbox.
The rice, green peppers, and dried meat had long since been completely consumed. At the moment, the only thing present was some water, swishing about.
Wherever the spear pointed, the green leaves of the lotus would wither away like some hungry ghost was tied to their yellowed stalks.
He gazed at the swiftly wilting lotus sea, thinking of how, many years ago, he had walked from the north, encountering many corpses on his journey.
The people of his race and humans were very different, but when starving to death, they strangely became rather similar, perhaps because they all dried up and withered away.
He had not starved to death, but he was about to become a ghost—his eyes were greener than those of the wolf mounts, and he was so thin that only skin and bones remained.
Just when he believed that he would never walk out of the snowy plains, he encountered His Majesty.
His Majesty had a very warm expression, but a soaring countenance. His words were concise and forceful.
His Majesty asked,
Han Qing, are you hungry?

Han Qing nodded.
His Majesty said to Han Qing,
Then follow me from now on and you will have your fill of wine and meat.

Han Qing thought for a very long time and then nodded.
……
……
After one thousand years.
Gazing at the lotus sea, at those withering lotus leaves and lotus blossoms like hanged ghosts, hungry ghosts, drowned ghosts, Han Qing nodded his head once more.
Then he stirred up all the power in his body and cast the spear!
The spear howled through the air, startling the heavens and earth, ghosts and gods weeping at its sound.
Before the spear, the lotus blossoms dispersed, the entire world withered, life and death became one.
The spear was like a boat breaking through the water, a stalk of grass breaking through a shadow, an arrow breaking through the clouds, straight through the center of the sky.
Where was it going?
The depths of the lotus sea?
Into the green leaf?
The old monastery of the ancient capital or the old temple tens of thousands of li away?