Chapter 1313 - 721: Refusal (Double - )
Chen Yi snapped his eyes open.
With that sword thrust, there was now nothing before his eyes; the blade had fallen into emptiness.
Where... did the person go?
Chen Yi pressed at his temples. He clearly remembered that in the instant his sword pierced through, Wu Meng had used his fleshly body to block the Purity Saintess who was about to step into the River of Time, and he himself had used that momentum to thrust this sword out.
The feeling of that strike was incomparably real; the sensation of the sword edge tearing through an obstruction still seemed to linger at his fingertips.
Yet now... the person was gone, the building empty; there was only a vast expanse, and a hard-to-describe sense of stagnation, as if he were encased within an enormous piece of amber.
And moreover, this place...
He looked around and found that he was standing inside a hall so vast and so solemn it defied description.
Beneath his feet was a floor of gold bricks smooth as a mirror, extending to the very edge of his sight.
The dome soared high above, not solid, but formed of flowing light—gentle yet eternal—like a soft firmament sealed within this place.
Around him stood colossal glazed pillars so wide that several people would be needed to encircle them. Within the bodies of the pillars, liquid light seemed to flow slowly, refracting a hazy yet sacred halo. Innumerable Everlasting Lamps floated in midair, burning in silence; their flames were as steady as congealed time, spilling warm and lasting radiance that illuminated every hair’s breadth of this space, yet strangely carried not the slightest trace of mortal smoke or fire.
This place... is the Bright Hall?
"Chen Yi, Chen... Zunming."
A voice came from behind him, calm, distant, betraying no joy or anger, yet carrying a serenity that seemed to see through all things.
Chen Yi whipped around, every muscle in his body instantly taut. The Hou Kang Sword lay crosswise before him, the tip quivering slightly, aimed at the source of the voice.
He saw the Purity Saintess standing not far away, like him, within this Bright Hall.
Her whole body was still shrouded in a source of light, but that radiance was no longer blinding; instead it appeared restrained and profound, merging seamlessly with the brilliance of the hall.
No trace of injury could be seen on her, nor any sign that she had just undergone a life-and-death struggle; it was as if she had been standing here from the very beginning, waiting for his arrival.
Chen Yi’s pupils shrank slightly as he asked slowly, "You know my courtesy name?"
The light-formed features of the Purity Saintess seemed to ripple faintly, as if she were smiling, or perhaps revealing some more complex emotion. "Your courtesy name holds a mystery."
"A mystery?" Chen Yi tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a sliver of cold, severe smile, yet the warning in his heart only grew stronger. He tried to sense the Resentment Demon Master beneath his feet, to sense Xu Qi outside, but discovered that all connections had been severed. The Bright Hall seemed like a Sumeru Heaven and Earth independent of the outside world.
"Zunming—’to honor the Ming Venerable’—that is the meaning," the Purity Saintess said slowly, her voice echoing within the vast hall.
Chen Yi’s thoughts flashed; all manner of doubts surged up in his mind. He let out a cold laugh, his tone edged with mockery: "And why can’t it be reversed instead, simply ’Ming Venerable’?"
Those words were meant as a probe, and even more as a counterstrike, intended to disrupt her rhythm.
Yet when the Purity Saintess heard this, the radiance around her suddenly flared.
She fixed her gaze on Chen Yi, her eyes seeming to pierce through his leather bag, straight into the depths of his soul.
"Ming Venerable," her voice remained calm, "how could you possibly be the Ming Venerable? Do you not know your own origin?"
Before her words had fully fallen, the entire Bright Hall seemed to come alive. The light flowing within the glazed pillars quickened; the brilliance of the dome fell like a waterfall; the flames of the myriad Everlasting Lamps all tilted ever so slightly in Chen Yi’s direction.
It was as if the entire Bright Hall were rejecting him.
The hand with which Chen Yi gripped his sword was steady as a rock, but a chill struck his heart.
After a long moment, he laughed and said, "Right now you are still the master of the Bright Hall, so it merely looks as though the whole Bright Hall is rejecting me. Why bother with such tricks? Wu Meng has already blocked you; otherwise you wouldn’t be wasting words with me here."
"...What you say is indeed correct. At this moment we are wedged in the crevice between Time Fragments, having obtained a brief moment of Qing Jing—only the time of one stick of incense," the Purity Saintess raised her hand slightly, light flowing between her fingers. "At that time, you did indeed become the Ming Venerable for an instant. But this does not mean that the Bright Hall acknowledged you, for your origin is not so simple."
Chen Yi’s brows knit faintly as he sneered, "My origin? No more than that of a mere mortal."
Within the Bright Hall, he had no choice but to temporarily bide his time; the Purity Saintess before him seemed, for the moment, unable to do anything to him either.
"A mortal?" The light around the Purity Saintess flowed. "Chen Yi, do you truly think you are a mere mortal, and not an Outer Heaven Demon?"
Chen Yi’s pupils contracted.
It was not that he was shocked at having his identity seen through, but that even this Purity Saintess before him seemed to know something.
Zhou Yitang had never made things clear to him before. Once, when he asked whether he truly was an Outer Heaven Demon, she only said, "Yes and no," so ambiguous that it left Chen Yi brooding.
"Perhaps someone has once pointed out your origin, and thus you have heard of it. In truth... I also only half understand," the Purity Saintess drifted a little closer, an invisible pressure warping the surrounding radiance. "But what others dare not say, and cannot say, I can say."
Chen Yi locked his gaze firmly on the Purity Saintess before him.
The Purity Saintess took in his expression completely. He seemed to be stepping, step by step, into her circle. Her voice suddenly turned ethereal and distant,
"The reason you became the Ming Venerable for that instant was merely that you stirred the Bright Hall—no one had, for a very long time, been able to have a single thought of brightness within the Forbidden Land of the World of Ignorance. You just happened to receive the call. But the true Ming Venerable would not cease to be the Ming Venerable simply because there is no Bright Hall."
Chen Yi lowered his eyelids, and said with a faintly amused tone, "So by that logic, you are not the true Ming Venerable either?"
"There is no true Ming Venerable in this world."