Chapter 1036: Awakened

Chapter 1036: Awakened

Xu Jiaorong hurriedly left and returned to the tavern about two hours later. This time, she was accompanied by an elderly man.

The old man wore a plain robe and a pair of boots with curved tips that lifted the hem of his robe. His white hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin.

From attire alone, it was obvious the man was of refined origin. The reason was simple. Wandering swordsmen and laborers could never afford nor choose such flowing clothes that hindered movement. They preferred short sleeves and fitted jackets. Thus, their footwear was flat and practical without needing curved tips to lift the hem.

Clearly, this old man was someone long accustomed to privilege and comfort.

But as for how distinguished he truly was, that was not something ordinary people could discern.

Chen Jianchou knew who he was. This was none other than Lan Hexu, the Great Sage of the Poluo Daoist Mansion, privately hailed as one of the Three Emperors of Nanyang.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The Daoist Order venerated the Primordial Daoist Ancestor, who had severed his incarnations into the Three Pure Ones.

In truth, there were no emperors across Nanyang, only kings. Yet, people often said there were three emperors, mirroring the Daoist Three Pure Ones. The first among them was Great Sage Lan Hexu, the Mansion Master. The second emperor was the sea overlord, the Golden Patriarch, and the third was Sage Wang Jiaohe of the Poluo Daoist Mansion.

In formal settings, Daoist priests would harshly refute it. Yet the saying persisted, because it was somewhat true that these three men held the highest power in Nanyang.

This was Chen Jianchou’s first time meeting someone of such stature. Overawed, he moved to bow, but Xu Jiaorong stopped him. “No need for formalities. Lead the way.”

When Chen Jianchou first entered the underground tunnel, he had roughly estimated the location of the great tomb below. It might not be perfectly precise, but it was close enough. Soon, he led Xu Jiaorong and Lan Hexu out of Thanglong Prefecture to a desolate stretch of mountains outside the city.

The place was deserted, with not a single soul in sight. There were no villages or temples, only barren wilderness.

Great Sage Lan looked around, then lightly stamped his foot.

The earth shook in response. The surrounding trees quivered and swayed, startling countless birds into flight.

The flow of earth qi surged upward, giving him a clear perception of everything beneath the ground.

“There truly is something extraordinary below.” Great Sage Lan stomped his foot again. The ground trembled once more, and waves of blood-red qi rose from beneath the earth, drifting like smoke before slowly dissipating.

Then, with a wave of his hand, Great Sage Lan opened a deep, dark portal and stepped straight into it.

Xu Jiaorong grabbed Chen Jianchou’s sleeve and followed close behind.

Chen Jianchou was bewildered. When he finally came back to his senses, he asked, “That’s it? The formation’s already broken?”

“What else did you expect?” Xu Jiaorong replied evenly.

As they passed through the portal, Chen Jianchou realized they had returned once again to the vast underground tomb.

Great Sage Lan stood by the underground lake. All that was left now was calm and still waters. The red-robed Bodhisattva that had once been here was gone.

Chen Jianchou exclaimed in shock, “There was a massive red-robed Bodhisattva when I came here last. How could it just—”

Lan Hexu merely raised his hand, cutting off Chen Jianchou’s voice.

The tranquil lake suddenly rippled with countless concentric waves, followed by a surge of splashing water as a colossal Bodhisattva head rose slowly from beneath the surface.

The statue kept rising until it stood upright upon the lake, its height matching that of the entire underground hall.

It was the same red-robed Bodhisattva Chen Jianchou had seen before.

Great Sage Lan tilted his head slightly, looking up at the statue, and uttered, “What trickery.”

At that moment, the red-robed Bodhisattva seemed to come alive. Its eyelids lifted slowly, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes that stared down imperiously at Great Sage Lan.

Great Sage Lan continued to stare at the statue, his brows knitting and his face growing darker. When he finally spoke again, his voice brimmed with fury, “How audacious of you to dare gather the Southern Dragon’s energy!”

Chen Jianchou clearly felt his godmother tremble beside him.

Well-read as he was, Chen Jianchou knew of the theory of the Three Dragons.

Kunlun was not only the sacred mountain of the Daoist Order, but also the progenitor of all mountain ranges—the source of the world’s three great Dragon Veins. Based on the flows of rivers and the hidden geomantic currents that ran beneath the land, these veins extended from west to east, forming three major ley lines known as the Three Dragons. The one south of the Yangtze River was called the Southern Dragon, while the one north of the Yangtze River was called the Northern Dragon. The one between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River was the Central Dragon.

Throughout successive dynasties, the importance of each Dragon Vein varied depending on where the capital was established. For instance, during the reign of Empress Mingkong and the Li royal family of the Qi Dynasty, the Central Dragon was paramount. In the Jin Dynasty, which ruled from Jiangnan, the Southern Dragon was favored. By the time of the Wei Dynasty and the Great Xuan Dynasty, the emphasis had shifted northward to the Northern Dragon.

In short, the Central Dragon had once flourished but was now waning with age. Thus, the decline of Xijing Prefecture and Longmen Prefecture was inevitable. The former glory of the dual eastern and western capitals no longer existed. The Southern Dragon was weak by nature, confined to Jiangnan and unable to endure for long. Only the Northern Dragon remained truly fitting to bear the empire’s fortune.

Yet now, even the Northern Dragon showed signs of dying, which became the clearest omen that the end of the era was approaching.

If the Northern Dragon was already failing, the Southern Dragon fared no better. A portion of the Southern Dragon’s energy extended deep into Poluo’s Yu Kingdom, which was why the Yu Kingdom had always competed with Fenglin for the title of the “Mini Central Plains.

For this reason, the mastermind had no choice but to act right under the nose of the Poluo Daoist Mansion, as only Thanglong Prefecture held such abundant dragon qi.

They succeeded by sheer luck in gathering the Southern Dragon’s energy beneath Thanglong Prefecture to nurture such a monstrous being.

In the grander scheme, this involved the fortune of the region, something capable of shaking a nation’s foundation. It was no wonder Great Sage Lan’s anger ran so deep.

Great Sage Lan whispered, “Jiaorong, you two should leave first.”

With that, the Great Sage swept his sleeve.

Before Chen Jianchou could react, he felt the world spin around him. When his vision cleared again, he found himself standing outside the gates of the Sheji Palace. Xu Jiaorong was beside him, her expression grave.

In the underground hall below, Great Sage Lan clasped his hands behind his back and shouted, “Fiend!”

The red-robed Bodhisattva had fully awakened.

In truth, when Chen Jianchou had first entered, he had not disturbed the statue. He was simply too insignificant, like an ant crawling over a sleeping man’s hand.

But Great Sage Lan was different. His arrival was like a bandit kicking down a door. Even the deepest sleeper would wake from his presence.

In truth, Great Sage Lan had not foreseen such a situation.

When Xu Jiaorong had first reported the matter to him, he had assumed it was merely the descent of a lesser Ancient Immortal with the strength of a Pseudo-Immortal at most. He had not imagined things would escalate to this degree.

This was a fateful confrontation. Neither side was truly prepared for what was to come.

The face of the red-robed Bodhisattva grew lifelike, almost as if it were a living being. It seemed at once close enough to touch and yet infinitely distant, like a towering pillar propping up the heavens themselves.

At the same time, a layer of golden radiance enveloped the Bodhisattva, divine and resplendent in its majesty, devoid of even the slightest trace of malice.

Anyone who saw it would surely believe it to be a righteous deity, a true divine incarnation rather than an evil god.

But Great Sage Lan was a Longevity-stage Immortal. He could discern the statue’s true nature with a single glance. It was merely a shell.

Due to the Heavenly Tribulation, Godly Immortals could not descend freely into the mortal realm. Doing so meant that they had to survive a Heavenly Tribulation. Even Izanagi’s undying form had been annihilated by such a calamity.

Thus, if a Godly Immortal wished to descend without passing a Heavenly Tribulation, they required a vessel, something that could shield them from heaven’s detection.

The stronger and more compatible the vessel, the more of the Godly Immortal’s true power could be expressed, potentially even their full power.

Such a vessel could take many forms. It could be a human with a unique destiny, an immortal object, a manmade creation, an entire race, or even a vast reservoir of divine power.

Undoubtedly, the Sakka was the finest vessel imaginable, possessing an Immortal’s strength in its own right. Many Godly Immortals yearned for such a host. Combined, such a union could result in possessing the power of a First-Tribulation Immortal.

The red-robed Bodhisattva before him carried faint traces of that same divine signature.

Beyond divine power, its foundation was primarily composed of the Southern Dragon’s energy.

The eunuch ancestor of the Great Xuan Court could draw upon dragon qi within the imperial palace, gaining strength rivaling that of an Immortal. This dragon qi was, in essence, earth qi, making it among the best mediums for temporarily evading a Heavenly Tribulation.

When Godly Immortals used such a vessel, it was akin to a heretic infiltrating the Daoist Order. They were unrestrained, as this method of divine descent was far more suitable for unleashing power than mere possession of a human.

The awakening of the red-robed Bodhisattva meant that the descent of the Godly Immortal was complete.

No one could have foreseen that a clash between Immortals would erupt so suddenly.