Chapter 122 - 105: The Correct Usage of the Sun and Moon Gnomon

Chapter 122: Chapter 105: The Correct Usage of the Sun and Moon Gnomon

Lu Changyuan understood. If it weren’t for that, the Nether Monarch wouldn’t be acting this way toward him, as if terrified he would run away.

The lonely crave companionship most of all.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

The Nether Monarch spoke softly.

He didn’t know when she’d woken up, but she remained nestled in his arms, blinking up at him.

Lu Changyuan shook his head. "We’re almost at the World Tree."

The Nether Monarch hummed.

A Magical Artifact that Lu Changyuan found quite familiar suddenly appeared in her hand.

The Sun and Moon Gnomon.

The Nether Monarch said softly, "This is the Sun and Moon Gnomon. I obtained the materials from the Demon Race and forged it into my Lifebound Magical Artifact within the lands of the Stone Race."

The World Tree was just ahead, its lights like countless torches in the dark night. The sight reminded the Nether Monarch of her childhood. It had been another deep, dark night when they had hunted her, their torches flaring up all around like fireflies—like soul-reaping ghosts.

The Nether Monarch looked at Lu Changyuan. "Yu," she said, "if you were hunted as a child, and now you had the power to find your pursuers, what would you do?"

Lu Changyuan paused for a moment. "I’d kill them."

"Exactly," the Nether Monarch said, her gaze fixed on the World Tree. "I am the last of the Royal Family. The Spirit Race should have been mine to begin with."

~~~~~~~~~

"She’s close. I can smell Nether’s aura."

Atop the giant World Tree.

A red-haired old man frowned. "Nether has really returned? How could she have become so powerful?"

This man was an Elder of the Spirit Race, a cultivator of the Sixth Realm, named Chi.

He was one of the Spirit Race’s Venerables. In terms of power, he was in the Sixth Realm—and on the very cusp of Entering Yao Guang.

Du clutched her wounded, severed arm, from which blue blood flowed. She nodded with great difficulty. "She’s very strong. Perhaps even stronger than you, Red Venerable."

The Red Venerable muttered, "Failing to find her back then has truly created a huge mess. She must have returned for the title. We absolutely cannot let her have the title bestowed by the Celestial Dao."

Du asked in a low voice, "Red Venerable, Nether is the last of the Royal Family, isn’t she?"

The Red Venerable gazed into the sky, as if he could see the Nether Monarch’s murderous visage.

"She’s the only one left."

The Spirit Race was divided into commoners and the Royal Family. The Royal Family served as their banner, and the commoners were their protectors.

But over the last century, the Royal Family had grown increasingly weak, no longer a match for the commoners. As a result, the rift between the commoners and the Royal Family grew ever wider.

Many years ago, the Celestial Dao issued a decree.

[Each race shall select one supreme champion, to whom the Celestial Dao will grant a title. Whosoever obtains this title may achieve the Great Dao.]

Achieving the Dao meant Entering Yao Guang.

This undoubtedly hastened the schism between the commoners and the Royal Family.

Just as the strongest member of the Royal Family passed away from meditation, the commoners, led by the Red Venerable and the Blue Venerable, launched a rebellion to seize the Celestial Dao Title for themselves. They hunted the Royal Family to extinction.

Someone descended from the treetop, a powerful aura radiating from them.

It was the Blue Venerable of the Spirit Race.

The Blue Venerable frowned upon seeing Du’s injuries. With a light wave of his hand, he drew pure Life Force from the World Tree and infused it into her body. Du’s grievous wounds began to heal at a visible rate.

Only then did the Blue Venerable turn to the Red Venerable. "Nether summoned her Lifebound Spirit using a broken Array? If that’s true, Chi, then in the eyes of the Celestial Dao, she is the embodiment of the Spirit Race. We must drive her out again. The title is about to be bestowed; we absolutely cannot allow her to return now."

The Red Venerable agreed. "The two of us together should be enough to kill her. There’s no way she has achieved the Great Dao. At most, she’s like us, lingering on the final step of the path."

Two against one.

There was no way they could lose.

But even so, the Red Venerable turned to Du and said, "Go find the members of the Blood Race. Didn’t they want Royal Blood? The last of the Royal Blood is right here. Tell them to come and take it themselves."

Du was stunned. "Red Venerable?"

The Red Venerable said coldly, "It’s a precaution."

In the year of the rebellion, the Red Venerable and Blue Venerable hadn’t slaughtered the Royal Family on their own.

The shadow of the Blood Race had been involved.

The Spirit Race despised the Blood Race from the bottom of their hearts. They believed the Blood Race to be as frail as the Human Race—like maggots.

The Human Race could at least weave beautiful clothes and farm the land for food. This was why many of the great races enjoyed keeping humans.

But the Blood Race was both weak and repulsive.

And yet, it was this repulsive race that had devoured the Royal Family’s Lifebound Spirits for the Red and Blue Venerables during the rebellion, allowing them to slaughter the royals to the last.

Du had no choice but to leave and contact those Blood Race maggots.

The Red Venerable and the Blue Venerable exchanged a look and nodded.

Their auras surged, and the World Tree behind them began to glow.

’A mere slip of a girl... what could she possibly know about Cultivation?’

’And she still dreams of taking back the Spirit Race and stealing the Title?’

A beam of sword light, saturated with Nether Qi, surged toward them from the distance.

The Red Venerable reached out his hand.

CRACK.

The beam of light shattered in his grip.

The Red Venerable sneered. "Is that all she’s got? Being hidden and raised by the Human Race taught her a few of their petty tricks, I see. Nothing to fear."

’I was overthinking things.’

’Afraid of a young girl, of all things.’

’It seems the imminent arrival of the Celestial Dao Title has made me anxious and insecure.’

The thought had barely settled.

Just then, the entire night sky lit up. A colossal Hourglass materialized before the World Tree, visible to every member of the Spirit Race. The sand within it was trickling down, haltingly.

For reasons they couldn’t comprehend, the sight sent a chill of terror through all who watched.

DONG.

It was as if a great drum had been struck with immense force.

The Red Venerable and the Blue Venerable both frowned at the exact same moment.

Nether Qi billowed out, and a thick fog rose from all directions.

The vision of every member of the Spirit Race was obscured. From within the mist, a woman’s voice echoed.

It sounded like a royal decree.

"Before the Hourglass runs out, anyone who has not knelt before me shall die."

A flash of black light swept past.

On the foreheads of every member of the Spirit Race, including the Red and Blue Venerables, a black Hourglass mark appeared.

The sand in the upper bulb of the Hourglass was their very lives, and at this moment, it was slowly draining away.