Chapter 509 - The One Path (III)

Chapter 509

The One Path (III)

Long Tao's heart wouldn't stop beating rapidly.

It's been over a day.

Once the phoenix roared and announced itself, it retreated back into the cocoon of fire and hasn't come out since. And neither did his Master.

That woman had swung by a few times, though she didn't interact with him past a courtesy nod; for an Empress, Long Tao mused, she was quite... weird.

As for him, he never left. He stood and sat on the edge of the platform, eyeing the giant ball of fire like a hawk, waiting. Even he couldn't peer past the outer shell once it was reinforced; if he tried, his Divine Sense was immediately burned, and backlash was... well, painful was a light way of putting it.

Thus, he waited.

He had half the mind to ask the woman to tear open the cocoon, but even if she could--which was not a guarantee--it was unlikely that she would. Master's fate... was uncertain.

From what Long Tao could infer, Master was looking for a place to undergo a breakthrough. It made sense--breakthrough into the Void Transformation Realm couldn't exactly be done anyplace. At least not a good sort.

But just what kind of a place did he seek?

If it was a spatial storm, Long Tao worried his Master went in unprepared. Spatial storms, even for him, who had been an Emperor for so many years that he'd lost the count, were some of the most dangerous things, as they were unpredictable. Not to mention that an overlap of them could kill in seconds.

Uncertainty filled him as hours ticked by, his worries gnawing away at him. At some point, he caught himself realizing the worry stemmed from the human heart--he didn't care that a potential treasure trove of things would disappear; he cared that his friend would die.

He couldn't help but briefly chuckle at the thought; he who swore off all human relationships as he watched his body be turned to ashes and dust by some of the people he trusted the most... now feared for a friend's life. Not a tool, not a child, but a friend.

Life, he reckoned, even for an immortal, came at you fast. In the grand scheme of things, he hadn't spent that long with Master; in fact, it was a time so short he wouldn't even qualify it as a 'blink', let alone much else. He'd spent centuries before stuck in a secret realm with other people and had not once come to care about someone as quickly.

Sighing, he stood up and started pacing around the fiery ball as the voice suddenly trickled from the back.

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"He is fine." He spun and faced the woman who was standing just where he stood a moment ago.

"Hm?"

"Your Master. He is fine."

"How do you know?" Long Tao asked.

"A little birdie told me."

"..."

"Who are you?" she asked; it was clear she noticed there was something off about him, but even if Long Tao told her... would she believe him?

"Master's best Disciple."

"Undoubtedly," she said, smiling faintly. "Forgive me for prying," shocks came one after another. An Empress... apologizing? Could he be wrong? Did he simply lose his edge and assign her to the state of an Empress due to a mistake? "You aren't the only oddity around," she added with a chuckle. "I do have a favor to ask of you."

"... a favor implies being free."

"You want me to pay for it?"

"..."

"Fine. I'll pay for it," she seemed to shrug nonchalantly. "It is a fairly big favor, after all."

"... what is it?"

"I need you to kill the Master of the Nirvana Frontier Island once you get there." Long Tao remained impassive, largely because he didn't quite know much about it. Though he heard Lao Shun mention that the man was an Emperor, not once did Long Tao believe it. However... since there was an Empress here, who was to say what was right and what was wrong?

"You want me to kill an Emperor?"

"An Emperor?" she arched her brows. "Ha ha ha, no, no. The only way that kid could have become an Emperor... no, actually. There was no way. Not even Dao could have made him one."

"... he has the Silent Spirit Root?" Long Tao exclaimed softly.

"He has, indeed," she said, looking at him oddly. "Your Master must know near everything if he taught you even that."

"... he really does," Long Tao shrugged.

She was right. If he had the Silent Spirit Root, even Dao couldn't make him an Emperor. That, however, did not mean he was weak.

"Alas, even without that, he is rather troublesome," she said. "To supplement his lack of strength, he turned to every other field under the sun. Last I heard, he even attained some enlightenment in shamanism. Though I doubt he's become the first to merge the two, if anyone has the will and the fire to do it..."

"Why do you want him dead?" Long Tao asked. "And why don't you kill him yourself?" Though Long Tao knew why, he still probed to see how truthful she'd be with him.

"... because laws bind me," she spoke a vague, half-truth, probably the most he could expect of her. "As for why... there are many reasons. For starters, he'd captured quite a few of the lambs of this place. And many more from others. Because he could end the H'thaw invasion within a month but chooses not to, letting countless young and promising perish, collecting their bodies to do--though there are many evil people," she continued after a short pause. "I don't hate him because he's evil. To many, I assume, I am evil. But he's also the reason why this realm has remained chained so firmly at the bottom. Though he's not a member of the Sage Order directly, the two had been colluding for quite some time; as he doesn't need Life Qi, whatever he siphons, he gives to them. And, in turn, they provide him with what he does need."

"What is that?"

"... you'll find out once you get there," she smiled somewhat oddly. "Though he's experienced, and though he has many means under the sky, I assure you, he is a pathetic coward, and he is weak. Your Master, as he is now, can probably kill him with ease... so long as they fought fairly and normally."

"But he won't."

"But he won't," she nodded. "Here," she procured and tossed a small handbook bound in leather at him. "Everything I know about his secrets. If you study it, you might find a way."

"And if we fail?"

"Then you would have become one of the many."

"Ah. So he'll expect us to go after him."

"Don't take it to heart," she said. "He expects every newcomer to do it. He's got so many Avatars running around that I often joke half the population of that godforsaken Island is just him talking to himself. Hm. Looks like it's done."

"..."

"As I mentioned before, tell him to come to the highest peak. There's a child there that needs his help."