Chapter 652 – White Moonlight (2/2)
He stood before the Divine Path, his left hand holding his sheath and his right holding a sword. Although he was just one man, an entire army seemed to stand there.
”When His Majesty Taizong returned to the sea of stars, you once swore an oath that you would not enter the Divine for your entire life.”
Zhu Luo did not pay any attention to the gradually deepening wound on his abdomen. Staring at Han Qing, he asked, ”Now that you have broken your oath, how can you have the face to meet His Majesty in the future?”
Besides Zhu Luo, Guan Xingke, Bie Yanghong, and other experts of the Divine Domain, no one else knew of this matter, nor did anyone understand why Emperor Taizong, on the verge of death, had made Han Qing swear this sort of oath.
Even the Qiushan clan head did not know of this secret. His face turned pensive.
Han Qing was silent, not responding to Zhu Luo's words. The shadow of his helmet obscured his face, making the expression on his face a mystery.
”The old men of the past, those old-fashioned oaths—none of it is important.”
Zhu Luo sorrowfully sighed and continued, ”That's right, in Xunyang City, even I broke my oath to the starry sky and attacked Wang Po, so what right do I have to demand anything from you?”
Saying this, he slowly seated himself back on his wheelchair and then slowly closed his eyes.
The blood seeping from the wound on his abdomen suddenly began to change color. It became sparkling and translucent as if mixed with the fragments of many crystals.
This crystalline blood dissolved in the night wind, transforming into countless specks of splendorous light.
His body also transformed into countless specks of splendorous light, just like that moon that was hanging over the snowy plains of the demons several centuries ago.
This light was gradually scattered in the wind, drifting away in all directions until nothing remained.
Only a vacant wheelchair remained.
.……
……
.……
……
Zhu Luo had died.
Regardless of what evaluation the common people had of him, especially after that rainy night in Xunyang City, he had still been a major personage of the continent.
Although he had been handed consecutive miserable defeats by the Holy Maiden of the south and Su Li, he was still a supreme expert of the Divine Domain, a grandmaster of humanity.
When he was young, he had gone several times to the snowy plains of the north and achieved enormous merit, was able to compose poems while drinking, and was an extremely confident and easygoing person, the idol of multitudes.
When all was said and done, he was the Sect Master of the Emotion-Severing Sect, the patriarch of one of Tianliang County's most prestigious clans, and a Storm of the Eight Directions.
Under normal circumstances, the death of such a major figure was certain to be a major event that shook the entire continent.
Tonight, his death seemed ordinary.
Not merely because he had died too calmly, but more because when many people saw his death, their reactions were not very exaggerated.
This was a sign that everyone had already mentally prepared themselves for the fact that these sorts of events would continue, these sorts of scenes would continue to appear.
It was inevitable that more experts of the Divine Domain would die.
They just didn't know if it would be another of the Storms of the Eight Directions or the Saint at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books.
Tonight was truly a terrifying night.
……
……
Clap.
The sheath in Han Qing's hands fell to his feet, splashing water about.
The turbid waters in the canal jumped up as well then fell back down, returning to stillness, not daring to move.
Two extremely profound eyes peered out of the gloom under the helmet and looked around the Mausoleum of Books.
A voice also came out from the gloom, transmitted to all of the Mausoleum of Books.
”All who step upon the Divine Path will die.”
This was the order the Tianhai Divine Empress had given him before bringing Chen Changsheng to the summit of the Mausoleum of Books.
No one dared to respond, leaving only silence.
Guan Xingke silently gazed at the empty wheelchair. At some point, his bamboo hat had been removed, revealing his ordinary and unremarkable face.
Bie Yanghong had a solemn look on his face. Wuqiong Bi stood at his side, the horsetail whisk resting in the crook of her arm still drooping down to her waist. Her hands clenched extremely tight until they were pale.
Although Zhu Luo had been heavily injured, he was still one of the Eight Storms.
And if what Han Qing said was true, that he had only stepped into the Divine Domain no more than two years ago, then logically speaking, his understanding and control of the world's laws and principles should have been far inferior to Zhu Luo's.
Yet he had only used one strike to kill Zhu Luo.
This was a fact that they found very difficult to accept, that caused their hearts to somewhat sink.
But no matter how difficult it was to accept the fact, it had already occurred. That which should be done still needed to be done.
The three Storms could already vaguely perceive that the Divine Empress's soul was already somewhere else—only her person was still standing on the Mausoleum of Books. Moreover, she had just suffered a drop in cultivation from helping Chen Changsheng defy the heavens and change fate, and had even suffered a psychological assault from learning the fact that Chen Changsheng was not Crown Prince Zhaoming. It could be said that she was at her weakest state in the past two-hundred-plus years.
This also meant that now was the time with the greatest chance for the Divine Empress to be defeated.
They could not miss out on this chance.
If they wanted to step on the Divine Path and battle with the Tianhai Divine Empress, they first had to defeat Divine General Han Qing at its base.
Moreover, others did not know, but they knew of Han Qing's greatest secret and so they yearned even more for Han Qing to die.
Wuqiong Bi's expression grew increasingly nervous, a hint of fear occasionally flashing across her eyes, ultimately replaced by madness.
She who was evaluated by the Divine Empress as being foolish and incompetent, almost an idiot, was still an expert of the Divine Domain. Her Dao heart might suffer setbacks occasionally, but they could not completely influence her mind.
”Han Qing must have been injured. This is our chance. Let's quickly ascend!” she sternly said to Bie Yanghong.
The small flower tied to his pinkie finger lightly swayed, seeming to follow its own cadence. As it bobbed in the wind, it seemed very beautiful.
Bie Yanghong was silent, not complying with his wife's words.
The rain had long since stopped. The clouds had parted and the stars glimmered. Suddenly, the vast sky of stars seemed to grow brighter.
It gave the feeling that all the stars in the sky had drawn closer to the ground.
By the wheelchair, Guan Xingke's figure was no longer there, only his bamboo hat in the rainwater.
The innumerable stars in the sky, seeming both real and fake, came to the Mausoleum of Books, sweeping towards where Han Qing stood along with that figure.
Han Qing slightly raised his head, and that face which had been obscured in the gloom of his helmet for six hundred years was finally illuminated by the starlight.
It was an incomparably elderly face.