Chapter 4597 - Huang Liu

Huang Qi was within the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, surrounded by a bunch of silver cockroaches. Since the plague started, Yin Chen questioned her nonstop about it, but all she did was play dead, saying nothing and merely smiling.

Tianming had been busy personally saving the afflicted and hadn't visited her personally, but he had no choice. If this went on, the Tianming Dynasty would collapse in the Upper and Lower Star Ruins. He guessed that the Gray Plague was most likely due to the remaining Number Monsters. Nobody else could be capable of such a thing. Huang Qi might have some kind of solution.

Soon, Tianming, Zi Zhen and Moran went to Huang Qi's room. This bee-head empress currently looked peerlessly beautiful. The thin, veil-like gown draped over her sensual curves. Her head wasn't the usual bee head, but that of a great beauty. She smiled at the sight of Tianming but didn't say a word.

Tianming stared at her coldly. "Why aren't you speaking? Who's behind this plague?"

She chuckled and observed him. "Emperor Tianming, you're finally starting to panic. Did you finally realize that everything you have, down to your foundations, will be vanishing soon?"

Tianming knew that she was talking about the omnisentient threads. His cultivation path was built upon the Primordial God-Emperor's legacy that relied on his subjects as a foundation. But the spread of the plague caused panic to spread across his people, resulting in endless suffering and a huge hit to their faith in him. More and more omnisentient threads threatened to snap off if this wasn't dealt with swiftly.

"Stop wasting words." He glared at her and raised his hand, summoning all three Sixths. They were itching to jump into action.

Huang Qi stopped playing coy when she saw that. She knew that this was life and death for Tianming, after all. "Only Huang Liu is capable of something like this. He's incredibly close to Di Yi. Granted, this power is only that of his projection. Out there in the Realm of Worldgazing, he's called the Poison Plague King. Yet, his projection is already capable of wreaking such havoc. To him, every single lifeform in this universe, high or low, is nothing but insignificant critters in his petri dish."[1]

Tianming furrowed his brow in trouble. It was the first time he heard number six's proper name and title.

Ying Huo said, "Poison Plague King? That sounds way lamer than Primordial God-Emperor."

Meow Meow yawned. "I bet she's just exaggerating to make her side look good."

Huang Qi snickered and said, "Truly, all of you are like frogs in a well, thinking that the sky is all you are able to see from the hole above. You don't know how vast the Realm of Worldgazing, the true universe, is."

She turned to Tianming with a teasing look. "Li Tianming, resign yourself to fate. There's nothing you can do about it if he wants to kill everyone in this universe. All you can do is watch as your empire collapses into nothing. Eventually, all life in this universe will be tortured until they die. This will be a world of nothing but death and decay."

It was as if Tianming had been checked in a game of chess. If everyone in the universe perished, the omnisentient threads he had gathered would be useless. All his efforts would have been in vain. Going after his subjects was nothing short of a fatal blow to him.

"Is the Order Relic Universe Body able to do something about it?"

Huang Qi chuckled. "It's pointless. This divine body of a universe is far too vast. You're not able to help everyone. And even if you did, the plague will rise again without stopping. Li Tianming, Emperor Tianming, this is the consequence of killing Shen Wu, Jie Ba and Dao San. Soon, you will be a ruler of nobody. Hahahaha! You were the one who picked a fight against the Aeternal Beings. It was you who brought harm upon the masses! If you had surrendered early, all life in this universe would've been allowed to continue."

Tianming was rather frustrated by those words. Zi Zhen was even more direct and immediately smacked Huang Qi. Then, Tianming had the three Sixths attack Huang Qi and also used the Sourcepath Shackles to torture her.

"Aaaaaaah!" The extreme pain caused her head to turn back into that of a bee as her body twitched and curled up.

"If you side with me, your life will be spared once everything is over," Tianming said. "If you continue to be this stubborn, Even if I'm defeated, do you think Di Yi and the rest would treat you well after you taught me the Worldgazing God-Refining Art?"

"Hahahaha..." Huang Qi was still able to squeeze out a laugh despite the pain. "There is... a way... if Huang Liu... dies... everything will be over..."

Tianming waved for his soul beasts to stop. "Where's Huang Liu now?"

"I don't know."

Zi Zhen snapped, "You might as well have said nothing."

Right as she was about to continue to beat up Huang Qi, Yin Chen had something to say. "Something happened... Gan Gangan... got infected... a gray... face appeared... on body... that wants... to meet... you now!"[2]

Zi Zhen stopped what she was about to do.

"Gan Gangan got infected too?" Tianming's expression turned grim. Yu Ziqian had become an astral god long ago and only recently reached cosmic godhood. Though quite a lot of people in the Sun got infected, Tianming's immediate friends and family were fine so far. He didn't think that Yu Ziqian would be the first to get it. "A gray face, huh? I'll see him now."

Tianming left with Zi Zhen and Moran. They soon arrived at a newly constructed palace in Tianmingopolis and saw Yu Ziqian, who had been partaking in the city's construction as of late.

The youth shivered as the gray aura of death surrounded his body. As the aura formed into a face, Yu Ziqian seemed to be in great pain, but he managed to remain conscious.

The face saw Tianming and smiled mockingly. In a harrowing voice, it said, "Emperor... Tianming? You want to kill me badly, don't you? Come. I'll give you one chance. Come here..."

1. The "Huang" (荒: wasteland, desolation) in "Huang Liu" is different from the one in (皇: imperial) "Huang Qi." ☜

2. Yu Ziqian is written as 于子千. All three characters look similar to 干 Gan. He's an old character back during the orderian arc and is an expert in pills and toxins. Has some kind of legacy from the spirit of an old man who used to be a pill refiner of sorts. ☜