“Waaaaaaah….”
A startled cry resounded through the pure white space. The immortals raised their heads to look and before long, saw Ye Zichen appear above them, flailing frantically as he fell to Earth like a shooting star…..
Bang.
He slammed hard into the ground.
Spread flat on his back, limbs splayed, Ye Zichen was briefly stunned before he sitting up and swearing, “Damn it, you %$#@!”
After a struggle, he managed to get his temper under control, then realized that countless eyes were staring directly at him.
He quietly examined his surroundings….
“What are you all doing here? You having a meeting?” he said, brows raised in surprise.
“Bro, how did you get here?” asked Yang Jian after confirming it really was Ye Zichen. He got up from his chair, walked over, and pulled him into a bearhug.
“I have absolutely no clue how I wound up here,” he said astonishedly, then glanced at Fuxi and the others.
Sensing his gaze, they cupped their hands respectfully and greeted him.
“Emperor Ye.”
“Don’t give me that! ‘Emperor Ye,’ my ass,” frowned Ye Zichen. “Are you people heartless? Let me tell you, the demon horde has already reached Maple City. Hurry and follow me into battle!”
“The Demon Realm!”
The immortals were stunned.
“Didn’t we just send them running?” asked Yang Jian. “Why did they come back?”
“They’re taking advantage of the Struggle for the Three Realms to……” Ye Zichen started but stopped halfway through. After a long pause, he turned to the others and said, “this… could this be….”
“Yes, that’s right,” confirmed Fuxi. “Emperor Ye, you said the demons attacked Maple City? What happened?”
“I….” Ye Zichen was somewhat baffled
Just now, he had clearly turned off his phone. How did he still wind up here? But then, this was no time to worry about all that!
“I don’t know why they decided to attack, nor do I know the current situation. All I know is that when I got here, the demons had just arrived. It looked like they’d brought their entire race. The situation doesn’t look optimistic.” said Ye Zichen with a deep frown.
“Everyone, you’re all-powerful figures. The demons are our mutual enemy. They’re currently at Maple City, and although that’s Immortal Region Territory, if we fall, it will impact you too. I’m sure you all understand that logic. I sincerely request that you come to our aid and follow me into battle.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” said the North Pole Emperor.
“North Pole, that’s unlike you,” said Ye Zichen in surprise. “When the Jade Emperor left, he asked me to help you take control of the Heavenly Court. I helped you out for a whole half-month, but now you…”
“Emperor Ye, I absolutely didn’t mean it like that,” the North Pole Emperor shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t want to help, but rather that I truly can’t. The moment we stepped foot in this place, we lost all means of returning. All information from the outside is blocked too, so even if I wanted to send a message, I’d have no way of doing so.”
“What do you mean?”
“Emperor Ye, this is your first time here, so you might not understand. This space is extremely mysterious. Entrance is one-way; you can’t leave once you’re inside. When we finish up everything here, it will vanish on its own and we can return to our clans,” explained the Flame Emperor. As a highly-ranked figure of the Immortal Region, he too was deeply concerned about its current situation.
But this space was just that strange. Even though he wanted to help, there was nothing he could do.
“We can’t leave? Then what will happen to the Immortal Region?” asked Ye Zichen, knitting his brows. “Also, I didn’t come here of my own free will, I… just inexplicably appeared here, okay?”
He still hadn’t realized that he’d been forcibly teleported.
At the time, he’d just stepped into the sky and prepared to face the demons, but before he could finish his sentence, the scene shifted right before his eyes.
All he saw was chaos and utterly terrifying spacial fissures
He’d been scared out of his wits and assumed it was some technique of Black Dragon’s.
He carefully avoided all the spacial tears, only to be forcibly dragged in by a powerful, unrelenting suction. He naturally didn’t want to die such a pointless death, just flailing about frantically, but then he’s appeared in this space.
“How the hell did I get here?” he muttered to himself.
“For now, the Immortal Region can only depend on themselves,” said Fuxi. “We’ll have to see how long they can hold out. The Struggle for the Three Realms, put simply, is actually just an awards ceremony of sorts. We’ll receive treasures according to our ranks. So long as we complete it quickly, the Struggle will end quickly and we can go back to face the demons.”
Fuxi spoke at this time. The other immortals were nervous about the demon situation too, but they all frowned and nodded
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. Let’s hurry up and start, then!”
With that, Ye Zichen sat down onto the second seat. Given the order the others had been sitting in he arrived, the seating seemed to be determined by their leaderboard rankings.
Earlier, Ksitigarbha’s words made them suspect the second seat might belong to Ye Zichen, but Yang Jian…
“Bro, so you’re that seat’s owner!”
“What? Is that not okay?” Ye Zichen raised his eyebrows. “Enough, let’s quit talking. Let’s hurry up and start. We don’t have much time.”
“Little friend Ye, we don’t get to decide when it starts,” said the Buddha with a soft smile.
“Then who does get to decide?” he asked. By now, his mood was extremely unstable. Before arriving here, he’d seen for himself just how many demons there were.
Given their vast numbers, he was truly worried about what would become of Luo Wei and the others.
All he wanted now was for the Struggle to hurry up and end.
“We’ll just have to keep waiting. It will naturally start when the time comes.”
The Buddha smiled again, his face serene. Ye Zichen glared at him and opened his mouth to say something, but then thought about how the Buddhist Realm transcended their Three Realms. Talking to them was pointless.
“Let’s just wait, then.”
Within that pure white space, the group grew silent, only to realize how strange this space was.
Everyone within it felt alert and focused, and a faint but comfortable, refreshing feeling rose up within their hearts. Everyone who could make it here was famous and their daily lives were extremely busy.
To tell the truth, it had been a long time since they’d enjoyed this sort of peace.
Gradually, some of them started to close their eyes and enjoy the tranquility, but then inevitably….
Inevitably, someone had to go and ruin it. For instance, Yang Jian!
“Hey, you guys, what’s that chair for? It seems like it wasn’t there when we arrived.”
