Four months slipped by in the blink of an eye.
For Li Mu, who had been practicing the Mental Scripture of Fire Emperor, the first section of the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures, in the Everlasting Heaven, the four months fleeted by as fast as a galloping horse. During the entire period, he had not opened his eyes once, as he was completely absorbed in the utterly reclusive closed-door training.
As for the ape outside the stone chamber, it found time to forage in other places every day and brought back a variety of objects every time it returned.
In that precise period, in the other regions on the Divine Land, tremendous changes were taking place.
The snowstorm on the vast pasture suddenly halted, bringing in a warm winter that had not fallen on the pasture for a whole century. Plants started to sprout, making the land as alive as it was at the beginning of spring. The small and large tribes on the pasture that were plagued by the heavy snowstorm finally ushered the brightness in. Also, the Spider Shrine that had been the scourge of the recent disasters on the pasture curiously disappeared from the scene. Although the fights among major tribes still went on, those only occurred occasionally. Compared to the period when the snowstorm began to descend, the pasture was several times more harmonious.
Numerous pasture herdsmen were deeply grateful for what the Everlasting Heaven had graced them with.
Nevertheless, in contrast to the vast pasture basking in the light of hope, the order that had been maintained for centuries in other peaceful places on the Divine Land was subverted overnight.
The Western Qin Empire had been troubled by domestic strife and foreign aggression for a while. Over half of the cities and counties in the border area were lost. Although the Spider Shrine retreated to the pasture and the Heaven Inspire Army had recovered three cities under the leadership of Li Yuanba, the Domineeringly Demonic Halberd, who was also a legendary general in the Western Qin, the land occupied by the Northern Song was unlikely to be retrieved for the time being. That was mainly due to the urgent military order issued by the cabinet and the military department, which asked Li Yuanba to send 200,000 soldiers of the Heaven Inspire Army to the northwest to suppress the rebel forces led by Lord Zhenxi. That slashed the forces of the frontier army of the Western Qin Empire to one-third of its original strength…
But the Western Qin Empire’s nightmare did not end there.
Qin Fen, the deputy general of the frontier army, also known as the Heavenly Official, led the forces to Qianyang Province and camped there that night. Yu Fengxian, the magistrate of Qianyang Province who feasted the army on the court’s order, tampered with the food and drinks, then signaled the three forces in Qianyang Province to raid the Heaven Inspire Army at night. The fight lasted eight hours. At last, with their toughness and amazing combat ability, the Heaven Inspire Army annihilated Yu Fengxian and his three forces. But Qin Fen, the deputy general, and his 23 fellows were sacrificed, and many high officers were killed or injured. Over half of the 200,000 soldiers in the Heaven Inspire Army were lost, and more were maimed, leaving less than one-fourth that were still able to go to the battlefield. Almost all their army supplies and gear were destroyed. Therefore, the Heaven Inspire Army had no means to head for the northwest to fight. They could only stay in the messed-up Qianyang Province and help with the rebuild.
That was doubtlessly a deadly blow to the Western Qin Empire.
The Western Qin Empire had two major military forces—the imperial army and the frontier army. Now that half of the frontier army was swamped with clearing up the mess left by the war at the border area and the other half was stuck in Qianyang Province, the whole frontier army had basically lost its combat capacity. The only available force left was the imperial army, which had been guarding Qin City, the capital, for centuries and dared not allot troops to the remote battlefield. Even though the imperial army had demonstrated its remarkable strength throughout history, people in that era had no idea how many ounces of military capability they still retained, if putting aside their large number of recruits.
For all that, Emperor Qin Ming of the Western Qin Empire was still in closed-door training. The door to his secret chamber just did not open no matter how desperately people knocked on it. Some even began to suspect that Emperor Qin Ming might have lost his mind after suffering an Energy Deviation during his practice.
If it could be said that all the folks in the Western Qin were perturbed by the pressure of the imperial court, then many martial arts practitioner in that empire were sinking into despair due to those rumors and tales about the Guanshan Pasture, the Holy Clan protecting the country.
Three months ago, Li Poyue, the Guanshan Master, a legendary figure in the martial arts circle of the Western Qin Empire, had a duel in the contiguous area with Dao Chongyang, a Taoist master from Mount Qingcheng, the Holy Clan of the Northern Song. Top experts from every part of the Divine Land came to watch their duel. After fighting for 10 whole days and 10 whole nights, the duel wound up with the two Superbs both being mutilated. However, the instant their duel came to an end, dozens of unknown experts on the scene unexpectedly launched their strikes, as did some powerful practitioners from the sects that were rather tense with the Guanshan Pasture or Mount Qingcheng. Adding in that there were some followers of the Extra-terrestrial Devils disguised in the audience who then sneaked up on them, Li Poyue and Dao Chongyang were killed right on the spot. And specifically, the two Superbs boldly chose to blow themselves up at the last moment and took most of the raiders along with them to the underworld.
All the practitioners watching the duel were famous in the places they were from. Unfortunately, they also took a blow from the sudden change and the casualties were severe.
It was not until then that the masses realized that the duel had been solicited by some party as a means to wipe out two legendary martial arts practitioners, which by the way brought many experts’ lives to an end.
Thankfully, there were many heroes among the spectators. In the end, they teamed up and killed all the raiders and believers of the Extra-terrestrial Devils who had survived the explosion.
Even so, the loss of the two Superbs was irreversible. For the Western Qin Empire and the Northern Song Empire, it was a devastating catastrophe. After losing their protectors, neither of the empires was able to resist the attack of any of the rest of the Superb masters. Anyone going against the remaining Superbs would be beheaded. For that reason, the royal families of the two empires were especially anxious.
For over a thousand years, the Nine Superbs had been the ones who stabilized the fate of the world. As long as they were alive, there would be no huge turmoil in the world. Despite the constant conflicts among the empires, pasture tribes, desert race, and the wizards and witches in the extreme south, none of those forces ever turned unbridled and caused a worldwide war. However, given that two of the Nine Superbs were already dead, the balance among the Superb masters was tilted, as was the balance among all the forces. A continental war sweeping across the whole Divine Land would soon break out.
When that news spread out, everyone was astounded.
The first one who was eager to take action was the Southern Chu.
Because with the death of Li Poyue and Dao Chongyang, the Southern Chu became the only one with a protector among the three human empires sitting at the center of the Divine Land.
From then on, Wei Wubing, the Mad Scholar from Wendao Academy, the protective Holy Clan of the Southern Chu, who was one of the Nine Superbs, hardly had an equal among all the martial arts practitioners in the Western Qin and the Northern Song, as his two foes—Li Poyue and Dao Chongyang—were dead.
The Diancang Faction and the Great River in the extreme south were also itching to make a move. All the tribes and alliances with witchcraft also started a riot, claiming that they would invade the central area of the Divine land.
After all, in the bleak extreme south sat two Holy Clans, and their heads—the Wave-making Master and the Evil Sword Demon—were both figures standing at the peak of martial arts practice. If the two decided to march in the north and force their way straight to the central area, who could stop them?
The desert state in the extreme west did not remain quiet, either.
The desert race had lived in the desert for generations after generations. Their looks were ghostly. In the eyes of the human race in the three empires in the central area, they were primitive people, practically not human beings. They were treated even worse than the pasture barbarians. Still, they established their nation and cultivation. The twin suns were the token that they worshipped. Their politics and religions were unified. The royal family of the desert race was inferior to the Divine Sun Palace, while the head of the Sun Faction enjoyed supreme power.
After the news about the death of Li Poyue, the Guanshan Master, reached the desert, the Divine Sun Palace sitting on the divine sandhill was filled with deafening roars of laughter.
On that very day, the empire in the desert started to assemble armies. The eastward expedition that they had expected for a thousand years was finally put on the agenda.
Shortly after that, Longxi, the province nearest the western border, began to be harassed by the cavalries from the desert.
Out of the three human empires, the one in the most dangerous situation was indisputably the Western Qin.
Its territory in the west was under the threat of the desert empire. Its domestic land was disrupted by the rebel forces of Lord Zhenxi. The betrayal of Yu Fengxian, the magistrate of Qianyang Province, kept everyone in the Western Qin Empire alarmed even for the tiniest sound. The cabinet dared not trust the provinces, and the provinces were also on their guard against one another. The whole empire seemed to be about to fall apart. Considering that the Northern Song was still encroaching the border area in the north, it was no exaggeration to say that the current Western Qin Empire had changed from a thriving human empire in the central area to a heavily damaged mess. The downfall of the empire had drawn near.
That change simply occurred in less than half a year.
Six months ago, the Western Qin Empire just had one more Sage-to-be, who was still a teenager. At that time, how proud and triumphant the empire was. The appearance of the Sage-to-be stunned the world. It was viewed as a sign that the empire would get the better of the other two empires in the central area in the upcoming hundred years. However, the teenage Sage-to-be was nowhere to be seen, and the Western Qin Empire was wobbling toward its end. The change came so fast that people could hardly believe it.
Certainly, the Northern Song Empire was not doing any better after losing its own protector.
In the sixth months of military conflicts, the Northern Song’s army abruptly retreated from the Western Qin’s land at the border area. An envoy was immediately dispatched to the Western Qin Empire, seeking an alliance and letting go of the previous grudge between the two empires.
Just as all the parties were confused, another explosive piece of news came out—
Internal dissension had broken out on Mount Qingcheng, the sacred place of Taoism.
The deputy head of Mount Qingcheng, Enlightened Taoist, did not approve the disciple named Dao Zhen to be its next head, whom the deceased Dao Chongyang had appointed. He then united the other 12 lords of the Taoist halls out of indignation and waged a brutal war against the rest of the members of Mount Qingcheng who supported Dao Zhen, the direct disciple of Dao Chongyang. After one night’s battle, the sacred place was turned into the fiery pit of Hades. Dao Zhen’s party suffered a great loss and fled down the mountain. The winner of the fight, Enlightened Taoist, declared himself Head of Mount Qingcheng and began to get rid of dissidents on Mount Xuankong…
After that fight, the strength of Mount Qingcheng was considerably weakened. It probably could not make the top nine Holy Clans anymore.
On account of that, the Northern Song Empire found itself in almost the same plight as the Western Qin Empire.
These two empires that had both existed for several thousand years seemed to be competing to be the lousier one.
Time flew by.
Another month had passed.
Spring had given way to summer. Nothing could disturb the rotation of the seasons.
The ambitious and overbearing force in the extreme south quieted down. It turned out that the Great River and the Diancang Faction did not sound the trumpet call of action and lead hundreds of witches and wizards to conquer the central area, as those tribes practicing sorcery had expected and called for. On the contrary, the two factions became unusually low-key, rendering the imposing pledges made by the sorcery society as empty threats.
Anyway, most people paid no attention to those scattered tribes.
Because at the border area of the Western Qin, the strongest force the empire had out there—the 200,000 soldiers from the Heaven Inspire Army—just suffered a fiasco. Li Yuanba, the Domineeringly Demonic Halberd who was deemed as a military genius, was grievously injured. The whole Heaven Inspire Army shrank to less than 20,000 battered members and had to retreat from the border area. But most importantly, the one who defeated Li Yuanba was neither from the Northern Song nor from the Southern Chu. He was not Lord Zhenxi nor a fighter from the desert but a descendant of the Great Moon Empire, which had been overturned for more than a thousand years.
He was a young man called Yu Hualong. His name was known across the land after that fight.
He was the descendant of the emperor of the Great Moon Empire.
Among the 10 cities and nine counties in the Western Qin’s border area, only Longcheng Pass was holding its ground like the last reef in the seawater, while the rest had all fallen into the hands of that young man.
On Summer Solstice…
From the narrow crack between the Western Qin and Northern Song, Yu Hualong erected the flag of the Great Moon Empire that once billowed on that land a thousand years ago.
An empire that had vanished for a thousand years was back.
