Chapter 1348: I’m Zi Qing

The eternal good fortune of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was shattered like glass by the cultivators of the countless species.

I personally saw my father, the emperor, ripped to shreds. My wife was impaled through the head, and my child huddled, weeping, until he was as cold as ice. I was too late to save them.... Nor was I strong enough to save them....

As I fought the battle, the countless species unleashed a magical curse to seal my cultivation base and turn me into a mortal.

I watched in grief and indignation as my younger brother met the enemy troops head-on, and detonated the last of our destiny aura. That blast of destiny aura entered me. When it did, I saw countless pairs of eyes. They were the eyes of my dead relatives and ministers, watching me from beyond the timescape.

I had to get revenge!

***

The Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, which had lasted for a thousand years, shattered more easily than glass. The majestic, auspicious violet energy had already been ripped apart by the gory, infected magics of the countless species. Outside the imperial city, the jade columns which had long stood unsullied were now like a crumbling graveyard that trembled amidst the ear-splitting, bone-shivering sounds that rang out.

I stood for a long time on the shattered steps leading to the throne. Beneath my feet was sticky gore, and a pungent smell assailed my nostrils with every breath I took.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

My father, the emperor, a figure who had once towered like a heavenly pillar, had been snatched by a shadow that could rip apart the air. I never heard his final cry. His powerful frame, clad in the violet-gold dragon robe, a symbol of infinite majesty, was ripped apart right in front of me!

Blood and bone fragments rained painfully onto my face. The scalding blood of my father turned my field of view into a crimson blur. As the rain of blood fell, the violet and cyan dome of heaven collapsed.

I was completely and utterly powerless. My cultivation base, my divine abilities, my fleshly body power... all of them had been sealed by the curse of the countless species. I was left without a scrap of battle prowess. I had been reduced to the level of a mortal.

At that moment, I realized that I was not as strong as the stories had made me out to be.... I was weak. In fact, I was weaker than just about any human around.

“Your Majesty! This way!” A hoarse cry pierced through the suffocating rumbling sounds that surrounded me. It came from one of my few remaining personal guards.

Numb, I followed after him as if being dragged by invisible bonds. Upon emerging from the rubble of the palace, a binding pillar of light caught my eye from off to the side.

It was coming from the direction of the Hall of Phoenix Rites! The entire place was a sea of flames! My heart pounded as I staggered in that direction. As the flames intensified, I saw her.... My wife.

She was propped up against a scorched column, a silver hairpin stabbed into her forehead. The delicate hands that had once bound my hair atop my head now lay limp at her sides. Her vacant eyes stared into the smoke-filled sky, yet her pupils seemed to glimmer with unending concern.

My outstretched hand came to a stop in front of me, and my chest pounded as if something was about to burst out from within. I let loose a soundless cry of anguish. The ancient lotus symbol on my palm, which symbolized the imperial house of Violet and Cyan, burned like a branding iron into my soul.

“Father...” a weak, trembling voice cried from beneath the shadow of a toppled roof beam.

A small form huddled there, my little prince, who was only seven years old. His body was already as cold as ice. He was clutching the little wooden sword I’d carved for him, holding it against him as if it was the only source of warmth left in the world. Trembling, I scooped him up, but what little bit of warmth remained in him left, leaving behind nothing but icy cold. The wooden sword slipped out of his limp hand and clattered on the ground tiles. The howling of the cultivators of countless species echoed in my ears and deep into my heart.

My father, my wife, my prince, and my kingdom... were as cold as ice.

“Let’s go! Your Majesty!” The few remaining armored warriors formed something like a metallic dam that blocked the terrifying torrent of attacks from outside. Their faces flitted with despair and the willingness to die.

I was like a puppet with its strings cut, swept along by the force of inevitability as I staggered out of the palace and into the unknown darkness. Behind me was a dying world. The palace uttered a groan and collapsed.

Then a cold, destructive divine will stabbed into my bones, like a maggot gnawing at me. Death seemed to freeze my marrow.

“You are not as high-spirited and full of mettle as usual, Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.”

The unctuous voice ridiculed me like a cat that had caught a mouse. As the destructive power was about to overwhelm me, a familiar and resolute figure shoved against the flow of the crowd to stand between me and the divine will!

It was my little brother! My father had not loved him, and he was normally taciturn. He existed in the shadows cast by my light, and I rarely interacted with him. But he was my little brother! He held an official jade seal, and the pressure weighing down caused his tattered robes to flap loudly. His hair whipped about him chaotically.

He turned and glanced at me. His eyes were full of the type of madness that came with staking everything on one move! His emaciated frame suddenly seemed to swell like an inflating balloon. Blinding, violet light shot out of both the jade seal and every pore in his body!

The light was pure, solemn, and stirring, like the final scraps of destiny aura from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. And it ignited the last bit of his fate and soul!

BOOOOM!

An indescribable explosion ripped through the world. All beings in heaven and earth seemed to go deaf.

The power caused by the igniting of the destiny aura created something like a huge, invisible hammer that swept into me. Rumbling sounds filled me. They broke through the powerful curse laid on me by the countless species. It blasted through the seal that they had put on my cultivation base. Majestic power swept through me like spring breaking through the rotten shell of winter. My cultivation base woke up.

And yet, even as cultivation base power coursed through me, my mind was still a haze of blood filled with countless astonished eyes! My father, my brother, my wife, my child... and countless familiar faces were there. There were soldiers and citizens who had shed every last drop of blood for Violet and Cyan.

Their gazes contained a look of farewell, like something from beyond the timescape. It was like the other shore of pāramitā that could never be touched. As I looked at them, a tear of blood formed out of nowhere and fell down my face into the infinite darkness. It plummeted to the crumbled corpse of the kingdom, stained with blood and licked with fire. It fell into eternal silence.

Behind me were the flotsam of the past, and the degraded jetsam of the timescape. But in front of me, there in the void, was a long, dark, blood-soaked path.

I had to get revenge!