Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: N/A
Chapter Title: The Rise of the Bright Heavenly Son
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Another half an hour passed.
Perfected Being Miaoyin finally exhausted her mana completely. Still thinking of fighting hand-to-hand with her physical body, she was at last tackled by a group of burly men and lost all power to resist.
“I—”
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Without a shred of mercy, long knives thrust through her lovely body one after another, bleeding her dry and draining her strength until she could no longer struggle.
Next, several burly men stepped forward, ropes in hand, binding her in an intricate hogtie. The rope was folded in half at the center, looped around her neck, threaded sequentially through the cleft of her breasts and over her collarbones, yanking her hands and feet behind her back, looping around her crotch to form a thick, sturdy tortoise-shell harness that ensured she couldn’t move a muscle.
“Mmph.” Perfected Being Miaoyin immediately let out a pained grunt.
Once finished, the remaining soldiers hoisted Perfected Being Miaoyin up and carried her to the cliff where Lu Yang waited, dumping her unceremoniously onto the ground.
“Immortal Master, the outer domain heavenly demon has been subdued!”
These [Disaster Victims], who had consumed the food qi insect eggs to defy their heavens-allotted fates, gazed at Lu Yang before them with earnest faces.
“Immortal Master, give us your orders!”
“Kill this outer domain heavenly demon, and Immortal Master will become the [Heavenly Son]! Then we can build a world where no one goes hungry!”
Perfected Being Miaoyin had never understood why the soldiers Lu Yang summoned were so utterly mad, charging forward relentlessly no matter how many fell. But to Lu Yang, this was the most natural thing in the world. No level of fanaticism could make one truly fearless of death—but faith could.
Lu Yang stepped out from the tea pavilion and looked down at Perfected Being Miaoyin.
“Yuantu... Isn’t there some misunderstanding here?”
Perfected Being Miaoyin forced a smile, but with her hair in wild disarray and her body caked in filth and blood, even her most beautiful smile came off as grotesque.
“No misunderstanding.”
Lu Yang’s expression remained impassive as he approached Perfected Being Miaoyin.
“Since Madam wanted me dead, it’s only fair for me to return the courtesy, no?”
“When did I ever want you dead?”
Perfected Being Miaoyin flatly refused to admit it, shaking her head at once.
“There must be a misunderstanding. Don’t believe me? Then dual cultivate with me—I know you can.”
“Dual cultivate with me, and you’ll know truth from lies.”
Her voice was frail and soft. She didn’t mind being harvested for her essence if it meant survival—and besides, she had a secret art to turn the tables mid-act.
Lu Yang stood upon hearing this.
But just as Perfected Being Miaoyin assumed he would come to harvest her, Lu Yang drew his sword and severed her lovely head with a single stroke.
“You really thought your feminine wiles could sway me?”
From the start, Lu Yang had never intended to harvest Perfected Being Miaoyin. Otherwise, true to his dislike of waste, he’d have had men line up outside long ago.
He could have harvested her, sure—but there was no point.
She had nothing he coveted, and he wasn’t one for women. Better to end her quickly and nip any future troubles in the bud.
‘As expected, I’m a good person at heart, after all.’
Lu Yang sighed inwardly, then gazed up at the sky, disappointment flickering in his eyes. The [Villager] life star that belonged to him showed no change.
‘Sure enough, it’s not that easy. No matter how dim they are, they wouldn’t just hand the supreme Sun-Moon Heavenly Son throne to me for offing Miaoyin. So I got played for a fool? Heaven and Earth won’t honor the deal? If that’s how it is... don’t blame me for flipping the table.’
As Lu Yang mulled this over—
Boom!
In an instant, the [Army-Commanding General] Chen Anmin beside him froze. Then a corona-like blaze of light erupted from his body.
The next moment, his life star began to transform.
High in the vault of heaven, Chen Anmin’s life star morphed into a fireball, swelling rapidly until it became a blazing, blinding sun too fierce to behold!
The [Bright Heavenly Son] life star—the supreme throne of the age!
Lu Yang, standing mere feet away, felt it most acutely. Before this presence, his mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation dissolved in a heartbeat!
He was just like Perfected Being Miaoyin moments ago: all ranks suppressed to near-oblivion, left with mana as impotent as rootless water. Such was the [Bright Heavenly Son]’s oppressive might—likely only late Foundation Establishment great perfected beings could hold onto any strength in its face!
“Imm... Immortal Master?”
Chen Anmin stared at Lu Yang in shock, only to realize the once-profoundly unfathomable Immortal Master now looked like nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
Not so impressive, after all?
As Chen Anmin stood stunned, Lu Yang narrowed his eyes, thinking:
‘What a bottom-of-the-barrel ploy—denying me, granting it to the man at my side instead?’
‘Declaring war, are we?’
At the thought, Lu Yang’s lips curved into a cold smirk.
But then Chen Anmin snapped to attention, whipping his head skyward and bellowing:
“Who’s there! Show yourself!”
What should have been a mortal’s shout, amplified by the [Bright Heavenly Son], boomed like a tiger’s roar entwined with a dragon’s cry. Soldiers nearby dropped to their knees, while an invisible force rent the air like tearing away a veil, exposing the figure lurking behind.
“Fellow Daoist lives up to his reputation.”
Lu Yang looked over, eyes sharpening. The intruder was a refined young man wearing a patently false smile of affability.
More striking still was his cultivation.
For a moment, even Lu Yang’s heart raced.
‘Late Foundation Establishment!?’
To levitate freely under [Bright Heavenly Son] suppression—by Lu Yang’s reckoning, at minimum late Foundation Establishment.
‘Good thing I’m cautious, mustering full lion-against-rabbit force and calling in every last fighting unit. Against a late-stage great perfected being, without hundreds of thousands linking life stars for suppression, we might not win—he could even turn the tables and slaughter us!’
“Greetings, Fellow Daoist Yuantu.”
Suo Huan cupped his hands toward Lu Yang with calm composure.
“This avatar of yours is a masterpiece, forging its own fate. Small wonder you dared such bold moves.”
Bribing [Ten Thousand Martial Realm] with earth vein qi.
Throwing in with [Ten Thousand Martial Realm], rallying troops to crush Perfected Being Miaoyin.
Operations like these—would no one think of them? Hardly. The Saint Sect had known of [Ten Thousand Martial Realm] for ages; surely someone had.
Yet why had no one acted?
Not worth the cost. Lu Yang might seem fine now, but returning to [Ten Thousand Martial Realm] meant certain heavenly punishment.
Two depart bearing earth baleful qi; one returns. By heaven and earth’s verdict: [loss]. Who else to punish? To dodge it, haul back far more realm heaven qi—enough for [profit] or [breakeven] judgment.
Heaven and earth judge by outcomes alone, not processes.
Dreading random heavenly punishment, realm-bound cultivators stuck to mutual aid—even Saint Sect members.
But Lu Yang was different.
Never mind his immortal fetus avatar’s self-contained fate, shielding his true body from tribulation. Even if it snagged him, he could handle it.
‘Bring back more realm heaven qi than I spent, and every issue vanishes.’
With that in mind, Lu Yang glanced sidelong at Chen Anmin, eyes narrowing at the radiant [Bright Heavenly Son] blazing upon him.