Chapter 649: Usurping the Nest
‘We’ve been set up.’
The moment he understood this, Song Changsheng’s blood ran cold.
He had first assumed it was the Purple Demon’s handiwork, but seeing that the Purple Demon was also imprisoned, he dismissed that suspicion. The mystery, however, only deepened.
‘If even the Purple Demon was just another pawn, then who is pulling the strings from the shadows?’
“You skulking rat! You only dare to strike from the shadows? Too scared to show your face?” Niu Dazhuang bellowed, his neck craned in defiance.
Though furious, he understood they were fish on a chopping block, so he managed to restrain himself from saying anything truly outrageous.
“Young man, don’t be so aggressive. When I roamed the realms, your grandfather’s grandfather hadn’t even been born yet.” A voice, melodic to the extreme, rang out in the hall, sounding both abrupt and bizarre.
“Who’s speaking?” Niu Dazhuang looked all around, but even with the keen hearing of a Purple Mansion Cultivator, he couldn’t find the source of the voice.
Song Changsheng searched as well, but came up with nothing.
“Looking for me? Here… look this way.”
The voice spoke again.
This time, both men heard the source clearly. It was coming from the metal sphere floating in mid-air, the one they suspected held the Law Origin.
‘It’s the sphere… Right, of course, it is. Why didn’t I even think of it while fighting the Purple Demon…?’ Horror flashed through Song Changsheng’s mind. If the voice hadn’t drawn his attention, he suspected he would have continued to “ignore” it.
“Damn it! You in the ball, what are you? A person or a ghost?” Niu Dazhuang’s eyes were wide as saucers as he delivered this profound inquiry.
WHIRRR—
A grating sound that set their teeth on edge emanated from the metal sphere. Its two halves began to slowly rotate, finally parting to reveal a blue-green orb of light. Faintly visible within was the silhouette of an infant.
“This is…” Song Changsheng’s eyes flew open wide.
“Master, it’s a Nascent Soul,” Little Ninth confirmed Song Changsheng’s inner speculation.
‘But… a Nascent Soul isn’t a Primordial Spirit. How can it have a human consciousness?’ Song Changsheng had read countless books and knew what a Nascent Soul was, but this scene was something he had never heard of before.
Song Changsheng’s mind was reeling.
Just then, a blurry shadow stepped out from within the Nascent Soul. Even with Song Changsheng’s powerful eyesight, he could only barely discern that the figure was female.
‘A Divine Sense projection.’ Song Changsheng’s brow furrowed. He had almost failed to recognize the Secret Technique because the projection was simply too faint.
‘A Divine Soul hidden inside a Nascent Soul? How is that even possible…?’
Song Changsheng felt his mind overloading. He had never even heard of such a miraculous Secret Technique.
At that moment, the Purple Demon, who had been unconscious for some time, slowly stirred. It stared at the scene before it, too shocked to speak.
The woman drifted before the Purple Demon and said teasingly, “Oh? Awake already? Truly worthy of the Ancient Witch Bloodline, to recover so quickly from such grievous wounds.”
“Who are you?” the Purple Demon asked, its voice heavy.
“Oh, that’s right. I’ve forgotten my manners. My name is Yushu. It’s been so long, I wonder if anyone even remembers me.”
At her words, the Purple Demon looked as if it had seen a ghost. In utter disbelief, it stammered, “Jade Rinse True Monarch? You… you haven’t perished? How is that possible? After five thousand years, how could you still be alive?!”
A moment later, it dawned on Song Changsheng and Niu Dazhuang as well, and they too recalled who this Yushu was.
Daqi, the Lu Kingdom, Gusu, and the more distant Great Yu were all relatively new Cultivation Realms. Their histories weren’t particularly long, and the number of recorded Nascent Soul True Monarchs to date could be counted on two hands.
The most recent among them was a female True Monarch known as “Jade Rinse” who had appeared about five thousand years ago.
She was born in the Great Yu Cultivation World but left behind legends in the Gusu and Lu Country Cultivation Realms.
She was like a night-blooming cereus, dazzling the world before fading away just as quickly.
Rumors about her fate were rampant across the Four Great Cultivation Realms. Some claimed she had exhausted her lifespan and passed away in meditation; others said she had gone traveling to other domains. There were even those who claimed she had perished during a Celestial Tribulation.
In short, theories ranged from the plausible to the absurd, but not a single person could offer any proof.
But regardless of the stories, given the lifespan of a Nascent Soul True Monarch, it was utterly impossible for her to have survived to the present day. Even the legendary Divinity Transformation Venerables did not possess such a long life.
That was why the Purple Demon had lost its composure so completely upon hearing her name.
“So, five thousand years have passed,” Yushu mused, sounding somewhat dazed herself. “No wonder my Divine Soul is so weak. If this resurgence of Spiritual Qi hadn’t woken me, another few centuries of slumber and I might never have woken at all.”
She recalled the events of over five thousand years ago. Gravely injured and on the brink of death, she had sensed her end was near. Using a Secret Technique, she extracted her own Nascent Soul, entrusted her Divine Soul to it, and sealed them within a specially refined container. This prolonged her life and allowed her to use the arrangements she’d left behind to orchestrate the “Outer Celestial Meteor” spectacle.
The ploy worked perfectly, attracting a Golden Core Cultivator of considerable talent.
Under her careful guidance, the Golden Core Cultivator mistook her for the fabled Law Origin. He built this very altar and drew upon her power daily for his cultivation. Finally, having reached the peak of the Golden Core Stage, he could no longer resist the desire to fuse with her completely, hoping to take a shortcut to the Nascent Soul Stage.
At that moment, she finally showed her fangs, intending to take the opportunity to seize his body. Everything went smoothly at first, but something went wrong at the critical juncture. The fusion failed, and the Golden Core Cultivator, having Fallen into Demon as a result, fled the area and vanished without a trace.