Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 997 - 816: Battle to Slay the Saint

Chapter 997: Chapter 816: Battle to Slay the Saint

When Li Xuan opened the palace doors, he was immediately met with a floor drenched in fresh blood.

In the center, a woman dressed in golden Twelve-Chapter Robes hung suspended in the middle of the grand hall, her body pierced by numerous silvery-white chains, blood flowing from her like rivers.

Perched around the hall were about two hundred red, sharp-beaked hummingbirds resting on the beams above, mercilessly watching below. A few encircled the woman, pecking at her flesh and blood.

The woman had been in a state of daze until Li Xuan and his companions entered when she slowly regained consciousness, then looking at Lv Qiluo and the others beside her with a trace of astonishment.

Her features were exquisitely beautiful, her skin as pale as snow, and her hair disheveled. Her face, delicate and usually vibrant as peaches and plums, was now as pale as paper.

She fixed her gaze on Lv Qiluo briefly, then glancing at Li Xuan, she let out a light laugh, "Qiluo, you’ve finally come. I have waited for you for a long, long time."

Lv Qiluo’s face was ashen. She glanced at those sharp-beaked hummingbirds, then suddenly whipped her sleeve. In an instant, hundreds of Sword Qi of Taichu nailed the birds right where they perch.

"Useless."

The woman in robes chuckled tragically, "These ’Fire-Crest Birds’ are the Taoist ancestor’s punishment for me. No matter how many times you kill them, they will resurrect just as many. They feed on my blood and have acquired Divine Abilities, capable of endless Nirvana."

Indeed, in the next moment, the red hummingbirds burst into flames and were restored to their original state almost instantly.

Lv Qiluo’s lips were tightly pursed. She shifted her gaze to the woman in robes, her eyebrows furrowed in silence.

"Are you heartbroken for me? Feeling guilty?"

The robed woman scoffed coldly, "I told you before, your power was sufficient. As long as you could lure the Saint into the mortal realm, with the help of successive human emperors’ Yuanfeng and the joint force of about twenty Emperors, it indeed was possible to combat the Saint in the mortal realm.

But if two or three of you were to betray, that battle would end in vain. That’s why I told Haotian to continue amassing power; few of his subjects are reliable, and the First Emperor of Qin in the mortal realm would surely betray."

Lv Qiluo’s expression turned cold, "Before the Pre-Qin Dynasty, Haotian had expanded his heavenly soldiers to 2.5 million, all of the sixth house level, equipped with the most powerful ’Lengyin Armor’ of that time and high-grade magical instruments forged from Star Iron. Additionally, nine million auxiliary soldiers guarded the Thirty-Three Heavens, all of secondary level, also well-armed.

Besides, the Heavenly Court had to support seventeen Emperors, Marshals, forty-five Devarajas in total, over two hundred upper-level Divine Generals, along with their private armies numbering in the tens of millions. They were already overburdened and could hardly carry on. At that time, Buddhism and Brahmanism were fiercely at war, which should have been our best opportunity."

The robed woman fell silent, then chuckled, "Who can be sure? Although the ’Star Core’ was depleted then, it might not mean that other substitutes could not be found. Like the Outer Void now, don’t the Emperors there also maintain armies in the tens of millions? And the Changsheng Emperor in the South, didn’t I hear that her forces also number over seven hundred thousand?"

Lv Qiluo shook her head, "The forces under the Changsheng Emperor of the South, how could they compare to the Heavenly Court at that time? Most of them aren’t even as good as the heavenly auxiliary army. Only her 360,000 Divine Thunder Guards have considerable combat power."

She then looked thoughtfully at the robed woman, "It seems you being trapped here doesn’t mean you’re completely cut off from knowing outside affairs?"

"Although the Saint’s methods are unfathomable, overshadowing the heavens and the sun."

The robed woman chuckled looking towards the door, "But did you forget? I still have a good younger brother."

Just at that moment, a fiery figure appeared outside the palace doors.

It was a fine-featured young man, resembling the robed woman. His expression was stern, and his eyes unusual as he looked at the robed woman inside the palace and Lv Qiluo and her companions.

"It’s rather lively here today, eh?"

Especially towards Lv Qiluo, his gaze sharpened like a knife, "You are Suiren Qiluo! A person of such disastrous sins, have you not yet perished?"

Li Xuan also looked at the young man with grave eyes.

The young man’s Rule of Extreme Heaven caused the temperature inside the hall to rise drastically.

He had guessed the identity of the person; it was undoubtedly Zhuque, the Divine Lord Lingguang, one of the Four Symbols.

Divine Lord Lingguang’s eyes were cold, and with a flick of his hand, towering flames engulfed both Lv Qiluo and Li Xuan.

Huang Wuhuan’s expression changed. She immediately tried to extinguish the flames on Li Xuan, but it was to no avail.

Her Nirvana Divine Flame was nowhere near the level of Zhuque’s.

However, at that moment, Li Xuan also raised his hand and summoned a Seal Stamp, suppressing the towering flames completely.

His brow furrowed tightly. The power of ’Divine Authority’ within the Haotian Seal had indeed been enhanced by him to the Holy Heavenly level.

But his condition was like an ant swinging a massive hammer, exhausting all his heavenly level Zhenyuan in just a few breaths.

Nevertheless, both the robed woman and Divine Lord Lingguang could not help but look slightly in awe upon seeing this.

"Is that Haotian’s Emperor Stamp?"

The robed woman looked at Li Xuan again, her gaze heavy with scrutiny and measure, "I didn’t expect you to have restored the Haotian Emperor Stamp to this extent. Just now, I felt the Emperor’s aura lingering around this person, filled with Dragon Qi.

He must be the recently risen Xuanhuang Emperor, right? I thought it strange, a mortal who rose not a few years ago daring to aspire to be the Heaven Emperor’s honor. It turns out it’s Qiluo manipulating and supporting behind the scenes. Suiren Qiluo, you want him to become the Fourth Generation Heaven Emperor, to assist you in exterminating the Saint, right? Another fool you’ve deceived."

Li Xuan, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but shudder in fright.

To kill a Saint? What did that mean? To slay a Saint?

With a slight wave of his sleeve, he directly absorbed Lord Huang behind him into his Liuhe Zhuxian Sword Diagram.

Li Xuan knew the content that was to follow, it was no longer suitable for Huang Wuhuan to listen any further; it would be a curse rather than a blessing for her.

"Without the death of a Saint, there can be no peace in heaven and earth."

Lv Qiluo said emotionlessly, "At the end of an era, the world restarts, and everything returns to the origin. By then, beneath the Saints, everyone, immortals, and gods will not survive; they will all turn to dust.

Xuanhuang and the First Emperor had such magnificent aspirations. If their interests were not profoundly affected, even if I had an invincible persuasiveness, I wouldn’t be able to convince them to take the risk and become enemies with the Saints."

Li Xuan, upon hearing this, was stunned and pondered what Lv Qiluo meant by ’at the end of an era’.

Taoism considers thirty years as one generation; twelve generations make up one cycle; and thirty cycles make up one era.

’One era’ is also arranged according to the twelve Earthly Branches, hence there are twelve eras.

If calculated by year, then one era spans one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred years.

After one era ends, the next begins, and the cosmos is reborn, known as ’The new cycle begins, and everything refreshes.’

"That’s true, but how easily can a Saint be annihilated?"

The robed woman shook her head, unconvinced, "Back in the heydays of the three previous Heavenly Courts, they couldn’t do anything about the Saints, how much more now? Without the ’Star Core’, your newly created Heavenly Court will never reach the heights it did ten thousand years ago."

"But after I awakened, some of the Saint’s power was sealed. It shows that in that battle of ancient times, the Saints were not completely unscathed."

Lv Qiluo stated firmly, "As long as this generation’s Heavenly Court could reach seventy percent of the power of the three previous Courts and elevate the power of Divine Authority to the ’Divine Heavenly level’, we have a chance.

So I came here this time to reclaim my belongings from my previous life. As well as the fragments of the Haotian Seal and Emperor Dijun’s remains you have."

"Impossible!"

Zhuque, the Divine Lord Lingguang, sneered looking at Lv Qiluo, "What good does this do her? She’s already in this state, yet you still refuse to let her go?"

But before he finished speaking, the robed woman interjected, "Give them to her!"

Divine Lord Lingguang, incredulous, turned to look at the robed woman.

"I said give them to her!"

The robed woman emphasized sternly, a cool expression on her face, "Relics of Haotian, Emperor Dijun’s remains, they are no longer of any use to our Phoenix clan, instead, they are coveted by the Crow Prince Jinwu. Just let her try, our Phoenix clan’s plight couldn’t get any worse."

After a moment’s thought, Divine Lord Lingguang tossed a bag woven from starlight toward Li Xuan, "Here, take it, these are all that Haotian left behind. The fragments of the divine seal are too scattered; my sister and I have only managed to collect this much."

With another flick of his sleeve, he sent a forest-green sword to Lv Qiluo’s front, "There were too many fighting over your belongings back then, Haotian only managed to secure your life-bound magical weapon ’Gongbu’."

The style of this sword was exactly the same as the sword transformed from Lv Qiluo’s soul force.

It was entirely forest green with three red gems embedded in the center of the hilt, and the blade bore elegant gold inscriptions.

Upon hearing the word ’Gongbu’, Li Xuan knew it was one of the divine swords forged by Ouyezi, the ancient weaponsmith.

Legends said this sword ’starts with patterns and goes up to the spine, like beads that cannot be stitched, with patterns flowing like unstoppable water,’ rivalling those ancient divine swords like Zhuxian and Luxian.

Lv Qiluo drew the sword closer, touching it gently with a nostalgic expression.

However, after a short while, she placed the Gongbu sword back into her sleeve, "We can do nothing about the seal of the Saints for now. When the Emperor achieves the Rule of Divine Heaven, I will ask him to unseal it for you."

Li Xuan, standing aside, also withdrew his Divine Consciousness from the bag.

Indeed, there were many fragments of Haotian Seal inside, comparable to the number given by the Fusou Emperor.

However, there was a ’sun’ inside, so blinding that it was impossible to look at directly.

Though it had died and dimmed, the light and heat it emitted were still at least tenfold more than the corpses of Crow Prince Jinwu.

No, it was hard to describe in multiples, it was entirely a different tier, which gave a glimpse into the intricacies of Dari.

Li Xuan was overjoyed, and nodded with a solemn expression, "That’s only natural, should Li achieve the Rule of Divine Heaven one day, he will assuredly not neglect Lord."

At this point, Lv Qiluo looked at the robed woman again, "And the second matter, who was the one who plotted against me back then?"