789 Joke (1/2)

In the Empire of Aurora, the glow from the steel temple under the palace burned everyone's eyes and illuminated the impossible to hide motley of Bai Heng's hair.

Even if a speck of darkness had appeared in the arrogant, artificial pure white, it still would have been this unsightly; it still would have been this… boundless and indistinct.

”Back to the matter at hand.” Bai Heng shook his head and sighed. ”For such a long time, I have followed my own will. I have gone against the trend of the times, I have fooled around, and many people are curious: do I have any secrets that are not bound by the blood of Devas?”

Facing Tung Wang Kung and Yunlou Qingshu's shocked expression, Bai Heng smiled happily.

”Yes, I do,” he nodded, then said seriously, ”because I am not even a Deva.”

Tung Wang Kung's face went blank, without even the slightest bit of anger or sadness, as if they had just lightly touched upon this topic. Countless rainbows flashed in his eyes, looking for a way to ruin the conversation.

But Yunlou Qingshu could not be as inhuman as a catastrophe.

His expression was marvelous.

First he was shocked, then stunned, and finally, he could not control his rage. His face tightened and he gritted his teeth.

The legitimacy of a deva that he had all along longed to have had been taken by him!

”You...you...”

”Ah, I have hidden this secret in my heart for many years.” Bai Heng put on an ”embarrassed” and ”sorry” look. ”Actually I was the illegitimate child of my mother and a stableboy, so I am only half Deva. She did all she could to cover this up. Although my father later found out that he had been cuckolded, it was a family scandal, and he couldn't let it be made known. In any case, I made an easy scapegoat to be sent to the capital to die. After all, if nobody said anything, who would know? At that time, everyone knew that the young masters of the Bai family were the best at painting, but I just had to find a little bit of pigment in the palace to dye my hair. I've let you all down. I'm sorry.”

”No!” Yunlou Qingshu finally reacted. He stared at him. ”The blessing of the dragon bloodline! What about the blessing of the dragon bloodline?”

”I had a transfusion of marrow,” Bai Heng answered naturally. He opened up his jacket to show his skinny body. ”Not only that but look here. My heart is my fourth brother's, my liver was at first my uncle's, then switched out for my third brother's. And here, look, I had to make an incision here, insert a tube, and then cut open my lungs. Fortunately, my home had a hygienic canister that could hold corpses and I was able to piece this together in six months. After taking so many painkillers, they no longer had any effect. Later, I became a recognized official of the Dragon Bloodline, but there had been no foundation for it from the beginning. At best, I can only be considered a 'half-finished product.'”

Everyone let out a gasp when they saw Bai Heng's chest.

It was not even a scar. After being cut open and stitched open countless times, it had become completely fragmented.

No one could have imagined that Bai Heng, who had once been the regent, was hiding such a hideously withered body under his robes.

He was revealing himself at his ugliest, but Bai Heng's eyes were proud. He grinned and laughed, revealing the grooves in his teeth. The drugs had already dissolved into his saliva, penetrated into his stomach, and had been carried through his veins all throughout his body.

”Look, I've taken regular antihormone injections and endured all kinds of side effects, like blood in your urine and periodic deterioration, as well as all kinds of inconvenience and pain. But as long as it can be destroyed by a bit of 'bad blood medicine,' it won't even be as good as that of the country bumpkin over there.”

He was a fake.

But in this, he was very pleased with himself.

This was Bai Heng's strongest weapon.

It was by this that he had won the trust of the Yuan, Zhangsun and Liu families. The only thing that could destroy the Dragon Bloodlines was a fake like him.

Now, after a bit of ”bad blood medicine” had removed his immunity to radiation, Bai Heng's body had instantly been scarred by the high-intensity radiation.

A destruction that was taking place at the cellular level had taken hold of him.

Right now he looked fresh, but that was an illusion formed by a pile of gravel. Disaster and death had emerged from every cell and spread out, and there was no way to stop it.

In other words, he was dying.

But through his insignificant death, he was able to overwhelm the power of catastrophes.

”Congratulations, Tung Wang Kung, your plan failed,” he whispered. ”Due to a mortal like me, who is not even a musician; a half-finished product who is not even a Deva.”

Just as he finished speaking the loud roar came to an abrupt end.

For a moment, everyone felt like they were falling into the abyss.

The world was collapsing towards the center of the steel temple.

Gravity seemed to be distorted, and countless rainbows emerged from the sea of aether, and immediately gathered into a vast and indistinct vortex with a clap of thunder.

A vortex.

An unprecedented amount of power gathered, and the pressure of this force seemed to drill a hole through the world.

But in the musician's perception, it seemed that an infinite glow appeared from within the shattered world.

Something descended.

From the higher dimensions, the gathered power of all aether, the source of all miracles, the starting point of all power, the prototype of all things emerged in the palace.

But it was so far away.

Even if you got as close as possible, you still could not touch it.

It was big enough to turn the world into dust, and beautiful enough to eclipse everything. After piercing through all insignificant things like time and space, that which was called ”The Originator” emerged.

With Chaoyue and Bai Xi as a vessel, and under the guidance of Taiyi and Zhaodang, it descended there.

But the naked human eye could not observe it at all; they could only infer its existence through the traces it left in the past.

It was the projection of the Holy Cauldron.

Once upon a time, humans had rewritten the artifacts created by The Originator.

Now its image emerged from the glow and covered Chaoyue and Bai Xi's bodies, revealing traces of primitivity and change.

Everything was complete.

The opportunity that countless musicians had dreamt of for centuries had arrived.

But the central core was still silent.

After lacking the Bai family's bloodline verification, it had refused all orders.

Everyone could only watch this opportunity pass them by, all of them anxious and pained. They watched the brief time flow by.

After this short-lived event, it once again disappeared into the depths of the realm of aether, into dimensions that humans could not reach…

”It's so sad, isn't it?” Bai Heng looked at Tung Wang Kung's face and smiled mockingly. ”The Originator has come and all you can do is watch. Doesn't feel too good, does it? How about I tell you a joke...”

Before he had finished speaking, hoarse laughter rang out.

It was Yunlou Qinshu.

”Hahahahaha!!!” After witnessing the end of his calculation and scheming, Yunlou Qinshu laughed uncontrollably. ”It's so amusing, it's so funny, it's so ironic! Regent Wang is a one-in-a-million talent, and he can actually achieve this level… This goes beyond expectations, bravo, bravo!”

”Well said, well said.” One of Bai Heng's hands was resting on the chair, and he could barely cup his hands in thanks. ”You're not trying to find a better place to perch, are you Duke Yunlou?”

”That I am. I cannot force the heavens to change. Things have come to this, and I despise the backing of others. If I want a great patron, why not myself?” Yunlou Qinshou smiled and somehow unlocked the shackles on his left hand. He got up from his chair and looked all around the temple, then suddenly lifted his hand. ”It's unfortunate that Her Majesty and Regent Wang have used up all their tricks. The crane and the mussel fought, giving an old fisherman like me the chance to achieve victory.”

”What?” Bai Heng looked shocked. ”You did not do this out of love, in order to resurrect your beloved wife?”

”Those were just words, don't take them seriously.” Yunlou Qinshu waved his hand to dismiss the idea. ”If you love beauties, Duke Bai, then after I ascend the throne, I'll burn a couple of them for you.”

”Is this the start of your plan to take the throne?” Bai Heng snorted. ”Unfortunately, a bumpkin will always be a bumpkin and can never be Emperor.”

Even at this point Bai Heng still called him a bumpkin.

As a result, Yunlou Qinshu's smile faded. Now that he knew he was a fake, being called a bumpkin by him was ten times worse than before.

He narrowed his eyes at Bai Heng and waved. ”Chaoyue, kill him.”

At that moment, in the center of the temple, the sleeping Yunlou Chaoyue suddenly began to tremble. At Yunlou Qinshu's command, Yunlou Chaoyue, who had been immersed in a trance, was forcibly awakened from the depths of the Originator. Her eyes slowly opened.

Her eyes were empty.

They seemed to have enough space in them to cover the entire magnificent world.

A vague figure slowly emerged from the Originator that had formed as it emerged from the Holy Cauldron, and cold killing intent emanated from it.

It was gruesome to the core.

But Bai Heng still smiled. ”Where were we? Ah yes, a joke.” He slapped his knee and enthusiastically said, ”Here's the joke: once upon a time there was an ambitious bumpkin. He thought he was extraordinary. He overreached himself and cast his greedy eyes upon the throne. Then...” Before he finished his sentence, the ear-piercing sound of scraping metal rang out.

Blood spewed forth, dyeing everything red.

”...he died,” said Bai Heng.

Yunlou Qinshu's smile stiffened. He looked down and saw the large hole that had appeared in his chest. It was wide open, and a smoldering flame burned in the wound. Using his blood as fuel, it spread all throughout him, consuming him bit by bit.

He looked back in shock.

He looked at the shadow that had appeared from the projection of the Originator.

Its huge amount of power was contained by Chaoyue and Baixi, and it descended into the physical world. It was given character by Taiyi and Zhaodong, these two talents that were so strong they could almost break the rules of the universe. Finally, it appeared by using the most perfect gesture within their consciousnesses.

It was a distant and indistinct figure.

Chaoyue and Baixi, who had been divided into two before birth, merged into one here, forming a strange face that seemed familiar. It was the face that had been engraved in the deepest parts of their consciousnesses at the moment of their birth, the source of their bloodline and inheritance.

It was Yunlou Qinshu's sister and wife—Yunlou Qingxue!

In but an instant, the devastating power crushed Yunlou Qinshu's heart and lungs. It set him on fire, cruelly and deliberately giving him the harshest punishment.

He turned into ashes bit by bit in the flame.

”How can this...be?” Yunlou Qinshu looked at the pair of eyes in shock. He glimpsed at the bitterness and hatred within them. He screamed in the flames and fell to the ground twitching as he watched his limbs burn away, crumble, and turn to ash.

He took a long time to die.

”That's the joke. Was it funny?” Bai Heng looked down on his miserable condition with pity. ”You fool… You never understood how precious your daughter was.”