In a room deep in the imperial palace, there is an old man sitting cross-legged on a mahogany arhat bed.
He is wearing dark purple brocade clothes and has a jade ring on his right index finger.
Although he is not a woman, but the corners of the old man’s eyes are painted with purple eye shadow and his lips are bright red, evidently adorned by rouge paste.
Yet despite how his face is decorated, it cannot cover up the vestiges of time carved on his face.
His face is old, his hair is white, his closed eyes are deeply embedded in the eye sockets, and his exposed skin, rough as tree bark, is crisscrossing with prominent wrinkles and covered with earthworm-like green veins.
While silently sitting cross-legged, he resembles deadwood worn down by time and termites. He has a strong sense of decay about him.
For such a person, even mistaking them for a corpse would not be too much of a stretch.
Yet he is not a corpse, but a living person.
— he suddenly opened his eyes.
The dim and turbid eyes glowed with amazing and dazzling luster that actually brightened the dusky room.
Then, he disappeared, leaving only a blurry outline.
Next, both sides of the door opened violently.
The old man, with his hands clasped behind his back, appeared in the middle of the courtyard outside the room and looked at the westward horizon with a bright gleam in his eyes.
There is a majestic breath in that direction.
As if it resonates with the breath in the horizon, the flow of true qi inside his meridians accelerated and it even pulsated along with the heartbeat. He has a strong premonition that something shocking will appear.
So he is waiting, waiting for that something to appear.
— or in other words, to descend.
In the blink of an eye, his premonition came true.
A sword ray formed from pale blue light soared, ran through the curtain of night, and reached to the abyss of the sky.
“Grandmaster…?”
A severe shade streaked across his eyes, and the old man muttered to himself.
Almost at the same time when his voice sounded, the sword ray slashed down with imposing momentum and silently shocked the world.
— as if the Milky Way fell down.
Just like that sword strike Qi Guiyuan used to cut mountains and rivers five years ago, a radiance filed the world, dispersed the darkness, blotted out the stars, and drew the clouds away. It became the only color in the world and dyed the sky of the imperial capital in a dazzling pale blue.
“Hum, still seems a little lacking.”
However, the old man bathed in the light retracted his gaze with disdain.
“Although I said that a Grandmaster graced the imperial capital with their presence. But it turns out that it was just someone of the younger generation making a fuss.”
After coldly dropping this sentence, the old man turned around and returned to the room.
The moment when countless gazes focused on the blooming radiance, the old man’s door slowly closed again.
＊
At the same time, the Ninth Princess’s manor in the eastern district.
When the people invited to the banquet held by the Ninth Princess noticed the light in the west, they ran out of the hall one after another, came to the front courtyard of the Ninth Princess’s manor, and, while holding their breath, gazed at the sky in the west with looks of alarm and doubt on their face.
Bathed in the pale blue radiance, Qin Shiyu covered her face with a sleeve, and the corners of her mouth rose into a smile with profound meaning.
“Yinping, say, was it was worthwhile for me to do this favor…”
Staying close beside her, Yinping didn’t answer. It seems that she didn’t notice the tiny voice that escaped from between her lips.
“… after the Great Ancestor, will another one be born in our Merak Temple?”
Her question soon dissipated in the radiance and of course she didn’t got an answer.
