Chapter 1596: A Brush That Portrays Death

“You want to know if the Earthly Sovereign is still alive? Well, I can tell you with certainty that he is dead. His True Spirit is definitely gone, and he definitely hasn’t been reborn as a new person. No one will be coming to save you, so just cease your resistance and come with me.”

King Taishan seemingly guessed Ye Qing’s thoughts and said smilingly.

Ye Qing let out a dejected sigh after hearing this. To be honest, he was hoping that the Earthly Sovereign was still alive. After all, this would support his assumption that he was a pawn of the Earthly Sovereign, meaning that there was a high chance that the Earthly Sovereign would show up and save his life.

But now, it looked like he had no one to count on.

Disappointed he might be, Ye Qing wasn’t planning to give up as a matter of course. No matter how hopeless the situation might seem, he was going to struggle until the bitter end.

Worst case scenario, he could simply die.

Well, okay, maybe he couldn’t die considering that this was an ancient one of the dead. Maybe he would be forced to lead a life worse than death.

Still, he would fight.

“You really shouldn’t be entertaining useless thoughts. You don’t stand a chance.”

King Taishan said calmly and indifferently right as Ye Qing got ready to fight. Then, the hand on his shoulder grew ice cold.

Ye Qing felt as if he was encased in ice. His blood, his muscles, his bones, his inner organs, even his spirit and consciousness. Forget moving, even his consciousness was frozen at that moment.

Not even a chance to fight back?

Ye Qing let out a bitter chuckle as despair filled his heart.

“Roar!” It was at this moment a wave of draconic roar came from the distant horizon.

Why a “wave”? Because it wasn’t one roar. Because it sounded like a cacophony of roars emerging from multiple dragons.

At first, the draconic roars were far and away. Just a moment later, they were close enough to deafen heaven and earth.

An indescribably terrible aura washed over Ye Qing. But at the same time, the aura felt familiar. He even felt... connected to it.

Ye Qing abruptly discovered that the iciness freezing his entire person had faded. He could move now.

Could it be...?

A possibility occurred to Ye Qing as he felt the familiar aura.

It was at this moment nine gigantic Strangers entered Ye Qing’s view.

One had a dragon’s head and a serpent’s body, another had a leopard’s body and a dragon’s head. One looked like a tiger, another looked like a lion, a third looked like a snake, and a fourth looked like a turtle.

It was none other than the legendary Nine Sons of the first true Dragon, Bixi, Chiwen, Pulao, Bi'an, Taotie, Baxia, Yazi, Suanni and Jiaotu.

Thick iron chains were wrapped around the nine dragons’ body. Behind the iron chains was a massive, mystery-shrouded coffin.

It was a coffin pulled by nine dragons; a death mourned by heaven and earth.

There was only one person in the entire world who possessed the right to such a burial. He was the Earthly Sovereign.

Therefore, this coffin was the Earthly Sovereign’s coffin. It was the place where the Earthly Sovereign’s bones were set.

Once more, the Earthly Sovereign’s coffin had appeared before Ye Qing.

He still remembered the first time he saw the Earthly Sovereign’s coffin. At the time, all he felt was shock and fear that came from the bottom of his soul. One look was enough to cause his eyes to fill up with blood.

Today, he was still shocked and intimidated, but he also felt a kind of affection toward it.

“Earthly Sovereign...” Ye Qing heard King Taishan muttering behind him. Although his voice was deep and low, Ye Qing could still hear his surprise, shock, seriousness, and even fear.

The next moment, Ye Qing felt the surrounding space rippling like water. At the same time, he was growing more and more transparent.

Clearly, King Taishan was planning to run away.

Rattle rattle!

It was at this moment the sound of chains rattled in the air, deafening and earth-shaking. It was like a powerful wind that kicked up a tsunami. It forced King Taishan out of whatever hole he was trying to escape to while bringing Ye Qing with him.

Creak...

The chains were still clattering when a teeth-gnashing creak overwhelmed the noise. The next moment, the coffin lid slowly slid to one side, and a hand slowly reached out of the coffin.

The hand was large, thick, and coarse. It was covered in calluses like the hand of a farmer who worked all year long at their farmland. However, it was also thick and solid like the solid earth beneath one’s feet, vast and boundless like the sea, steady and reassuring like the mountains and the lands.

It was as if the hand wasn’t a hand, but a world unto itself.

The heavens that made up one half of the world were nine profound heavens.

The land that made up the other half of the world was an infinite expanse.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You are dead, so you should rest in peace, Earthly Sovereign...” Looking at the palm, a brush appeared in King Taishan’s hand, and the Dao of profound yin, life and death were circulating around it. He then drew one line and said the word, “Stop.”

It was a brush that portrayed life and death, a word that froze age and time.

When the line was drawn, the wind died, the clouds disappeared, and the unusual phenomenon faded. The terrible aura permeating heaven and earth slowly faded into nothing, the nine dragons rotted and died at a visible rate, even this corner of the world was slowly losing its vitality and dying.

When he said the word, it was as if time itself had stopped, and everything was coming to a standstill. The shifting lid came to a stop, and the outstretched hand paused in its tracks.

The next moment, King Taishan drew another line underneath his feet, and the mountains split open to reveal a gap of immeasurable depth.

“Let’s go.” King Taishan plummeted toward the gap while Ye Qing was still in his grasp.

Boom!

It was at this moment Ye Qing elbowed King Taishan in the torso. He used the feedback to propel himself toward the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin.

“This junior shan’t be accompanying you on your journey, King Taishan. Goodbye!” King Taishan did not think that Ye Qing could move. That momentary surprise was enough for Ye Qing to put several kilometers between him and the ancient.

“If you insist on drinking a forfeit...”

King Taishan wasn’t going to allow the roasted duck in his mouth to fly off, of course, much less allow his ten-thousand-year-long grand conspiracy to be foiled at the last moment. So, he acted with killing intent this time. If he could not take Ye Qing with him, then he would kill him and end the threat he posed once and for all.

So, King Taishan raised his left hand and summoned an illusory book. After Ye Qing’s name and birth date slowly appeared on the book, King Taishan lifted his brush with his right hand and crossed them from the book[1].

When the king of death crosses someone’s name from his book, their soul should scatter into nothing.

Ye Qing felt some sort of invisible, fateful power enveloping him. His scalp turned numb, and his mind shivered all over.

Thang!

It was during this critical moment that a bell chime resounded, and the Earthly Sovereign Bell jumped out of Ye Qing’s headspace. It turned solid while flying toward the distance.

“Et tu, brother?!”

Ye Qing was speechless as he stared at the flying Earthly Sovereign Bell.

No, he wasn’t the one who made it fly away. The Strange Artifact had moved of its own accord.

When the tree topples, the monkeys scatter. These days, not even a Strange Artifact could be counted on anymore! This fucking world!

A bitter chuckle escaped Ye Qing’s lips as he felt some sort of invisible power wiping out his three Heaven Souls and seven Earthly Souls. His consciousness was fading as well. It was an indescribably potent and profound power that could not be stopped even by the Profound Yellow Mother Qi or Innate Yin Yang Qi.

1. As you can see the Annon Sutra either cannot stop him or does not want to reveal itself. This normally could not have happened. ☜