Chapter 1602 — The Righteous Path of the World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"When a man is near death, his words are kind."
Lang Wan watched Gong Tianzun scatter into ash and smoke, and shook her head. "But even so, it cannot hide what you have done these million years, playing jackal to the tiger. One word urging others toward goodness cannot wipe away the evil you have wrought in all that time."
She returned to the Thirty-Three Heavens of Wuyou Township and said to Yan Yunxi, "Gong Tianzun is dead. Please ask Empress Yanxiu of Jingping to draw in the net and purge the foxes."
Yan Yunxi was shaken to the heart. She at once dispatched a deity to Jingping to carry the news to Ling Yuxiu.
More than twenty days later, Xiong Qi'er came to the capital of Jingping and was received by Ling Yuxiu.
She was the true power behind the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands, a figure of the same era as Ling Yuxiu. Though she was some ten years younger than Shen Mu, in the Western Lands her station and prestige stood even above Xu Shenghua's.
In its day the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands had been a holy land as renowned as the Heavenly Sacred Cult, the Daoist Sect, and Leiyin Temple. This holy land chose its mistress by selecting one whose Dao heart was pure, the younger the better, so that she might win the recognition of the Four Spirit Pearls.
As early as the age of eight, Xiong Qi'er had won the recognition of the Four Spirit Pearls and possessed power as mighty as a true god's, far stronger than Shen Mu had been in those days.
Through more than a century of bitter cultivation she had reached an exceedingly high level in her Dao heart; that was why, when the Great Emperor's borrowed body, Wei Shijie, was to be slain, Ling Yuxiu had chosen to ask her to act.
"Gong Tianzun was likewise one of great divine consciousness, but she is not the same as the Great Emperor."
Xiong Qi'er heard out the whole account and pondered a moment. "The Great Emperor did not dare come into contact with Jingping's newest fruits of reform, but Gong Tianzun's reincarnation body did. Her reincarnation, Tao Xiufang, commands vast divine powers and stands out among the younger generation of Jingping; her fame is great. Your Majesty, I can kill her, but it will be hard to truly kill her. Her illusion realm of divine consciousness will interfere with me, and she will seize the chance to flee."
Ling Yuxiu said, "Then whom do you think should go kill Tao Xiufang, if we are to have certainty enough?"
Xiong Qi'er said, "To kill Gong Tianzun, high combat strength is not necessarily enough. Whoever kills her must possess a still greater divine consciousness, one able to see through every illusion of hers. Therefore Dao Lord Lin Xuan, Zhankong Tathagata, and the Immortal King of Yujing, I fear, will none of them do; she could easily slip away from them. Divine Blade Luo and Zhe Huali are mighty indeed, but dealing with her divine consciousness would be difficult for them as well. So I recommend one man, whose divine consciousness is vast and whose divine powers are immeasurable, and who can break Gong Tianzun's reincarnation body. Only, this man is not in Jingping."
Ling Yuxiu's heart stirred faintly, and she smiled. "I know where he is. Wait two days."
Two days later, Xue Hu'er arrived at Shangjing. Ling Yuxiu explained the matter, and Xue Hu'er laughed. "So that is how it is. I will summon him."
"Thank you for the trouble, Ling'er."
Xue Hu'er set up an altar and performed the rites herself. The altar established a link with another world, and the sky split open, revealing an incomparably vast opening, at whose far end lay a boundless, endless domain.
A deep, resonant voice rang out, echoing back and forth above Shangjing: "Who is it that summons the godson of the supreme sovereign of the Beast Realm..."
"Pi!"
Xue Hu'er called out loudly, "I am your big sister!"