King of the Divine Kingdom

Both Emperor's Guardians were bathed in light, as though the one they guarded was no longer the Emperor of the Kingdom of Zhou, but attendants serving a descending being. With their mighty forms, motionless yet humble bearing, they set off her supreme majesty.

A moment later, the light transformed into fiery meteors that shot outward in all directions. Countless tiny flecks of light took the forms of living creatures from myriad worlds, drifting and dancing through the air before vanishing without a trace amid cheerful, mischievous, exuberant cries.

Among the creatures formed from those motes of light, Qin Luming saw quite a few of the otherworldly beings he had encountered in his dreams: cats whose heads seemed to emerge from sunflowers, with a ring of petals around their necks; rabbits with grass growing from their heads; tiny girls peeking around from inside watermelons; raccoons dressed as ninjas; big-headed dolls holding staffs and spellbooks, chanting incantations, whose clothes exploded whenever they cast a spell; and Little Fire Dragons, no bigger than a finger yet striding proudly around and breathing fire. A Mother Catfish in a nurse's uniform suddenly gave one Little Fire Dragon an injection, causing it to stiffen straight in an instant before launching itself away like a rubber band.

They were all such tiny, joyful little lives. As Qin Luming watched those motes vanish, he finally saw clearly the figure that remained standing atop the Sword Bearer's giant sword after the light faded.

It was a little girl.

Judging by her appearance, she might have been even younger than Zhou Nan.

She wore a divine robe that looked elegant, luxurious, dignified, and majestic. It was just a little too large for her, forcing her to keep both arms raised so her hands could extend from the sleeves and grip the enormous staff, which stood far taller than she did and looked even more difficult to balance.

Golden light flowed over the divine robe. Intricate hollow golden patterns adorned the cuffs and hem, and upon closer inspection, deep-blue ripples emanated from those hollow spaces, as though they contained some kind of power.

The staff was twice her height. Its shaft seemed to be nothing more than a wooden stick, half winding and twisted, half straight. Yet in her jade-white hands, it appeared ancient and mysterious. Most striking of all was the black sphere at its tip, floating freely in the air and exuding a terrifying aura capable of devouring everything.

What drew Qin Luming's attention most was her straight, silky long hair, which fell below her hips and spread out around her, each strand dancing in the air. Aside from An Chacha's, this was Qin Luming's favorite kind of long hair.

She was looking around, and her expression was far from stern or composed. Yet her exquisite little face, seemingly always bathed in holy radiance, carried an excessively indifferent pride. Her cheeks still had a touch of baby fat, but her clear, emotionless eyes made it impossible for anyone to regard her as an ordinary adorable girl.

She stood at the peak of the giant sword, looking down upon the whole world, her gaze wandering... until she finally found Qin Luming.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed as her brows furrowed and relaxed. Her free hand lifted her skirt slightly, and her expression became vivid. That arrogance became even more apparent, a lofty disdain from above.

"Contract." She held a stack of papers in her hand. When she released them, the papers she called a "contract" sprouted wings and began circling through the air.

The "contract" seemed delighted as well. With wings, it became even livelier, making the whistling rustle of paper blown by the wind as it continued to flutter and circle.

She frowned and raised a hand. A beam of divine light descended from the sky, instantly piercing through the "contract." The "contract" let out a miserable cry... also the sound of paper blown by the wind, only far more intense. Unable to continue circling and dancing, it gave off the smell of burning paper and fell before Qin Luming.

Qin Luming picked it up. He was already overwhelmed with excitement, but when he saw the "contract," he was still dumbfounded.

The stack of papers was unmistakably the novel contract he had sent out! Besides his own signature, it now bore another name: Fairy Jiang.

Qin Luming stared at that name, then abruptly looked up. He moved so quickly that he felt the blood rushing to his head speed up, leaving him dizzy and seeing stars... That was the name of the female lead in the novel he had written!

"Who are you?"

Zhou Nan had arrived by then. She tried to control the two Emperor's Guardians, only to find that her connection to them was intermittent. Their core systems, which maintained their clear consciousness and unwavering loyalty to the Kingdom of Zhou, had been invaded by a more powerful, chaotic will. They had fallen into a state of confusion and could no longer carry out Zhou Nan's Imperial Edict Arts.

Imperial Edict Arts were a branch of divine arts in the world of the Kingdom of Zhou that only those holding the rank of Emperor could use. Other than Zhou Nan, only the Regent could use them within the Kingdom of Zhou.

Generally speaking, the Emperor could use all Imperial Edict Arts, while the Regent could use only some. Furthermore, whenever the effects of an Imperial Edict Art used by the Regent interfered or conflicted with one used by the Emperor, the Regent's Imperial Edict Arts would become ineffective.

This entire series of Imperial Edict Arts was the direct manifestation of the Emperor's supreme authority. They could command the power of the entire Kingdom of Zhou, wielding the force of will condensed by the whole kingdom. They were also the foundation of the Emperor's legitimacy and the basis for maintaining that rank.

For the other party to interfere with an Imperial Edict carrying the willpower of the Kingdom of Zhou meant that she possessed power capable of threatening the entire Kingdom of Zhou, power sufficient for one person to contend against the whole kingdom. Otherwise, this would have been impossible.

Zhou Nan remembered the Regent mentioning during her lessons that His Majesty the Emperor was the incarnation of the entire Kingdom of Zhou, wielding the spirit, strength, and national will accumulated by the kingdom over tens of thousands of years—unmatched in might.

The Kingdom of Zhou was invincible in the world, sweeping across the cosmos and ruling countless domains. The power condensed by such an empire made His Majesty the Emperor an invincible existence as well.

Only the distant, unreachable legendary nation known as the Divine Kingdom possessed the means to stand above the Kingdom of Zhou.

"King of the Divine Kingdom, Divine Ash Sky Aizen Great Bright King."

Like the light that had heralded her arrival, the beautiful girl carried supreme majesty as she looked coolly at Zhou Nan.

"Never heard of you."

The girl calling herself the Aizen King frowned. "And who are you?"

"Emperor of the Kingdom of Zhou, Zhou Nan Taoyao." Zhou Nan stood on guard. Though she had never heard the other party's name, the other's strength was clearly beyond anything Zhou Nan had ever encountered, so she gave her private name.

Zhou Nan was her name as Emperor. Before becoming Emperor, however, her name had been Zhou Taoyao, meaning a girl from the south of the Kingdom of Zhou, like the peach blossoms in full and radiant bloom.

As soon as Zhou Nan finished speaking, she realized that the other party had apparently not listened to her introduction at all. Anger rose in her heart. Knowing that a clash today was unavoidable, black flames ignited around her body and wrapped her within them.

The flames were like the source that froze everything in a cold world, radiating a chill capable of freezing even the air. A hand extended from within the flames, and the black fire immediately surged upward like fireworks into the sky. Where Zhou Nan had stood, His Majesty the Emperor now appeared, clad in black armor and gripping a massive hammer, ready for battle.

The Aizen King said nothing and merely raised the staff in her hand.

A full moon, one that easily brought to mind the scene of a bright moon rising over the sea, rose over the horizon. It became a holy backdrop behind the Aizen King, but a moment later, its glow dimmed. Its clear radiance faded away as scorching flames burned across it, while surrounding hot plasma and magnetic fields distorted space itself.

The Aizen King casually reached into the air, and the moon that had been distant on the horizon appeared behind her in an instant. Its clear radiance blossomed once more with the cold, ethereal air of the Palace of Vast Cold, making her figure seem even holier and more elusive.

The sun above her head suddenly erupted with countless faint beams of light, which shot toward Zhou Nan!

Though dim, those beams were incomparably hot, as though they had truly been drawn from the sun's corona and forged into weapons. Those blue-white pillars of light seemed to be thin, fully ionized plasma. At extreme temperatures, powerful particle streams flew toward Zhou Nan, triggering visible magnetic storms. Everything within sight twisted, and everything exploded.

The dense explosions were no different from the bombardment caused by hundreds or thousands of cluster bombs raining down. In Qin Luming's view, there was only endless rumbling and surging clouds of ash and dust. It felt roughly like someone setting off a string of ten thousand firecrackers in front of an ant.

"Kingdom of Zhou, I remember now! The Kingdom of Zhou is the one that, after its imperial territory could no longer expand, decided to attack the Divine Kingdom!"

"Why does someone always want to attack the Divine Kingdom?!"

"There is a place called the Sky Cloud Divine Realm, and a woman named Lin Jiangxian built a giant warship to attack the Divine Kingdom!"

"In this world... there is also a woman named An Nanxiu. She's a madwoman too!"

"You arrogant fools, I'll kill every last one of you first!"

The Aizen King's voice carried the fury of someone unable to remain calm after being provoked. She left the peak of the giant sword and rose into the air. The sun behind her suddenly erupted again with the violent impact of a coronal mass ejection and solar storm. The Aizen King glanced back, and the impact immediately struck her in the lower back, knocking her out of the air.

Qin Luming hurriedly extended his right hand to spread a barrier, then leaped up and caught the falling Aizen King, holding her in his arms.

She seemed to have fainted. Her long lashes crossed together, and her lovely little face radiated a tranquil beauty that immediately reminded Qin Luming of the girl in his novel, a figure who embodied all the cuteness and beauty in the world.

Holding her, Qin Luming turned and ran. He did not know what had happened to the seemingly incomparably powerful Aizen King, but he could not be sure that Zhou Nan had already been killed.