Chapter 61: Paying Respects to the Master
Escape?
Indeed, it was an escape.
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign burned her remaining lifeforce, transforming it into the last strength of her flight, fleeing toward the northwest, where the Pure Land of Brahma Sound lay.
But her wounded, battered body had so little vitality left to burn.
Soon, she was spent, plummeting from the sky, her ravaged form smashing a deep crater into the ground.
Yet the Blood Phoenix Sovereign was not dead!
She had relinquished the dignity of a sovereign, chosen flight over a warrior’s honorable demise, because a sliver of hope remained!
That hope did not reside in herself—the Blood Phoenix’s own fate was sealed; Lü Chunqiu had not misjudged, her life was already forfeit!
But among the ten sovereigns of the Pure Land of Brahma Sound, each possessed astonishing, miraculous secret arts.
One among them—the Sovereign of Qingqiu.
If she intervened, she could extend the Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s life by fifty years!
Though such a secret art came at a tremendous cost, the Blood Phoenix Sovereign was unconcerned; the Qingqiu Sovereign would certainly rescue her.
This was not because she and Qingqiu were close in private. In fact, of the ten sovereigns, Qingqiu was the most aloof; she had no friends in the Pure Land, spending her days in solitary cultivation.
Qingqiu’s cool detachment was what the Blood Phoenix Sovereign disliked most. To speak plainly, she actually despised Qingqiu.
Another reason for her dislike was that Qingqiu ranked ninth among the ten sovereigns, just above the Blood Phoenix, oppressing her with that slight difference.
Yet the Pure Land had an iron rule: Master and disciple are as mother and child, peers are as sisters.
The ten sovereigns of the Pure Land must regard each other as sworn sisters.
Unity was paramount above all else in the Pure Land of Brahma Sound!
“As long as I send the distress signal, Qingqiu Sovereign must save me...”
“Fifty years of life—too short, far from enough for me to reach the Tribulation stage. Ascending to immortality is already a lost hope…”
“But it’s enough for revenge!”
“Let me recover for ten years, then I’ll come to Great Chu and settle accounts with Fan Li! In ten years, how much can a Body Refining stage cultivator possibly progress?”
“I will have my vengeance!”
Her gaze was poisonous with resentment. Her right hand severed, she could only summon a jade disc with her trembling left hand.
Here at the northwest border of Great Chu, the land was desolate—a temporary safe haven.
Crush the jade disc, and the Pure Land would soon receive the message and respond.
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s remaining half-day of life was enough to await Qingqiu Sovereign’s arrival!
“Come... someone... let Qingqiu come... I’m dying…”
---
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign whispered into the jade disc, then crushed it.
A fist-sized red light emerged, paused briefly, then shot toward the direction of the Pure Land of Brahma Sound.
The red light was swift, disappearing from her sight in an instant!
The next moment, a figure of ethereal beauty descended.
The newcomer was a stunning woman; her graceful form and elegant stride bore witness to her beauty.
Yet the Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s face twisted in fury!
Rescue could not have arrived so quickly!
It was clear the newcomer had been waiting nearby, lying in ambush.
Such an ambush could hardly be friendly…
“Heh heh heh, my luck is not so good. Only when I saw the red light from your jade disc could I pinpoint your location.”
“But that’s how it is; even knowing you’d flee toward the Pure Land, it still takes luck to catch you.”
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign, recognizing the newcomer, showed confusion amidst her anger.
“You are Qingqiu’s disciple... Princess Liu Man of Han?”
Princess Changle smiled radiantly, offering the sovereign the formal salute of a disciple.
“Greetings, Sovereign. I, Liu Man, pay my respects.”
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s anger flared.
“You, one of Han’s three ministers, dare attack me, and now you lie in wait here—what is your purpose?”
“Liu Man, have you forgotten you are also of the Pure Land? How dare you defy its iron rule, plotting to betray your master and ancestors?!”
“Just wait until your teacher Qingqiu arrives and see how she disciplines you!”
Her rage was outward, but inwardly she lamented.
She had no strength left, and could only await rescue.
Yet Qingqiu Sovereign would not arrive for a while, and she encountered Princess Changle first.
All she could do was stall for time, lest the princess act prematurely.
“How could it be so? I, a dignified Pure Land Sovereign, first entrapped by a Body Refining weakling, nearly slain, and now blocked by a junior of the Pure Land? Has the order of the world been utterly overturned?”
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign grew ever more aggrieved, her fury and sorrow surging.
But to delay, she spoke gently.
“Liu Man, I do not interfere in the affairs of Chu and Han. The three Han ministers attacking me must have their own reasons; I do not blame you. But you must not compound your errors. You have great promise—a thousand years hence, you will surely have a seat among the ten sovereigns of the Pure Land…”
Suddenly—
Before her words were finished, she saw a delicate, seemingly fragile hand thrust into her chest.
---
That jade hand pierced her torso, emerging from her back, clutching a barely beating heart.
A dull, explosive sound—her heart was crushed.
The Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s face froze in disbelief, then her body collapsed limply.
“How foolish you are. The Fan clan holds sway over Great Chu. To destroy the Fan clan is to oppose the entire strength of Great Chu.”
“No meticulous planning, just relying on brute power, dreaming of sweeping through by force?”
“Did you really think, because the three secular nations lack high-level cultivators, that the hidden sects could oppress them at will? The strength of a nation is not comparable to a few hundred cultivators of a sect.”
“Utterly foolish…”
Princess Changle looked at the dead sovereign, her gaze laced with faint mockery.
High-level practitioners? Apart from their cultivation, they were a mess in all other matters—sometimes beneath even ordinary people.
“Why is the Emperor Jiajing called the foremost in the world? Not only for his high-grade cultivation, but also his command of a nation’s strength.”
“What of Han’s Dong Zhuo, newly entered the Grandmaster stage? Even the first sovereign of the Pure Land would not wish to provoke him.”
Princess Changle casually unleashed a chill, instantly freezing the Blood Phoenix Sovereign’s corpse into an ice sculpture.
With a careless kick, the statue shattered, breaking into fragments, mixing with the earth.
A generation’s Pure Land Sovereign, perished in such a manner—broken into dust.
Princess Changle smiled at the sight. “Fan is even more remarkable than I expected. He truly deserves to be my man. Yet, for the sake of the world, I could even relinquish my sovereign’s inheritance. Fan must continue to strive, or my heart may change…”
As she spoke, Princess Changle seemed to sense something.
Her playful expression vanished, replaced by silence and solemnity.
She turned slowly, to find a woman in plain blue, her beauty unadorned, standing quietly behind her.
No powder or paint, yet nothing could diminish her stunning appearance.
She possessed an innate allure, as if she could captivate souls. Yet her cool, indifferent gaze proved this charm was not deliberately wielded.
Fate decreed she should beguile all, but she disdained to do so.
Princess Changle bowed deeply.
“Disciple Liu Man pays respect to Master.”