The Black Sun

The next day, a flock of tits clung to the damp branches in the courtyard. The Ambrosial Arbor seal in the Scalegorge Waterscape had been reinforced, and the wind and rain gradually subsided. Sunlight, breaking through the clouds, streamed through the gauze window and fell upon the smoky-green bed curtains.

"Master, you're lying on my hair." Bai Heng never imagined she'd be the one saying those words.

The two were face to face, close enough to lock eyes, but only a brief silence followed.

"Hey, hey, stop, Master! I really didn't do anything, just held you all night... Okay, fine, I admit I touched your hand and pinched your cheek... Ow, ow, ow, don't hit my face..."

Two minutes later, Bai Heng pinned the still-weak Jingliu beneath her, flipped over, leaped out of bed, and bolted out the door, leaving behind only one sentence:

"Master, I'm going to brew your medicine!"

After Bai Heng disappeared through the doorway, Jingliu, her hair disheveled, slowly turned her face away, staring blankly at the light gauze bed curtains bathed in the warm morning light.

After a long while, she reached out her cold, pale hand, feeling the lingering warmth on the bed, and whispered:

"Giving you the chance... and you still fail to seize it..."

[At twenty-one years old, the storm brewing in the dark clouds hanging over the Luofu seemed ready to break at any moment.]

[As the number of Mara-Struck slain by your hand steadily increased, you began to frequently dream of a scene. He appeared in your dreams, enveloped in light, but in an instant, that light began to burn, piercing the clouds, transforming into golden death. Towers toppled, people fled, because the sun was about to fall, bringing about terrible destruction...]

[Like grains of sand in a golden hourglass, the day foretold by the Divination Commission drew ever closer, and time itself seemed to take on a tangible form in your eyes.]

[Finally, "He" came.]

On that day, the Abundance Emanator Shuhuo, accompanied by several Demon Stars and countless Mara-Struck, brought disaster upon the Xianzhou. They wailed, they sang, and they charged towards everyone, carrying burning mountains and earth. People screamed in the long streets, struggling and writhing in the despair of impending doom, allowing golden tendrils to grow endlessly in their mouths and nostrils.

On that day, even knowing the tragic outcome of this war, the Cloud Knights of the Xianzhou Luofu arrayed themselves in the Sea of Stars Skiffs, vowing to block the sky like clouds, protect the Xianzhou, and never fall. Even if their arrows were exhausted, their skiffs destroyed, and their Gold Automatons stopped, they would use their flesh and blood, their skills, to draw their swords against those inhuman Mara-Struck.

Above the Sea of Stars, a dark brown dome shrouded the entire Xianzhou Luofu. Demon Stars hid in the fog that blotted out the sun. On the horizon connecting the sky and the earth, a golden ray of light poured down from a crack in the dark brown fog, like a light for the world.

Everyone stared at that strange gap.

Golden branches and vines stretched out from it, tearing open the dome, and His form gradually revealed itself.

It was a thousand-faced grotesque tree composed of countless flesh and blood, with faces of flesh and blood coexisting with it, mimicking the same movements, eerie yet sacred.

He waved His branches, His trunks deeply rooted in the earth, and said:

"I am Shuhuo, I am eternity. From me, you shall obtain true immortality."

The war between the Xianzhou Luofu and the Emanator Shuhuo was imminent. Tengxiao, the Luofu General at the time, was shrouded in golden lightning like an avatar of The Hunt, driving the Divine General, and with his phantoms, plowed through the enemy's warbeast formations, sweeping away all opposition.

The Vidhydara High Elder, Dan Feng, the Imbibitor Lunae, confronted the Emanator Shuhuo, a head-on collision between the descendants of "Immortality" and the emissary of "Abundance."

In the direction the skiffs pointed, Jingliu took the lead, dancing with her blade, weaving through the sword light. Her sharpness was too great, and no one dared stand alongside her except Bai Heng, so they could only stay behind and provide support.

But even as they repeatedly killed those Mara-Struck, the Emanator Shuhuo could simply wave a branch from His multitude of hands to make flesh grow back onto white bones, and petals fall back from the dust to the flower's pistil.

He seemed to possess infinite regenerative abilities. The golden branches were constantly being cut off, but they constantly recovered. The Xianzhou Luofu truly fell into a clear disadvantage in this war, just as the Divination Commission had predicted.

If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf to avoid not finding it next time.

As the Cloud Knights suffered continuous casualties, familiar figures gradually appeared on the Emanator Shuhuo's branches. Those Cloud Knights whose flesh and blood had been devoured became insignificant fruits on Shuhuo's body.

But those fruits could speak, constantly bewitching the Cloud Knights who were fighting desperately.

After the "Hunt" Emissary Tengxiao and the "Immortality" descendant Dan Feng inflicted a heavy blow, the "Abundance" Emanator Shuhuo revived again, and constructed an impenetrable prison, the "Bloodstained Prison Realm," on the scorched earth of blood and fire. Jingliu, Dan Feng, and thousands of Cloud Knight elites were trapped within.

Shuhuo's branches cackled, making each head on the branches speak one word for Him, forming a sentence:

"Believers of The Hunt, what do you plan to use to kill me this time? I'm looking forward to it."

[With nearly all the elites trapped, and the situation almost entirely in favor of the Mara, the Luofu urgently needed a way to break the deadlock. The primary prerequisite was to break open the Bloodstained Prison Realm. At this time, Bai Heng suddenly remembered an experience she had many years ago on the Xianzhou Zhuming.]

[At that time, she first visited the Artisanship Commission of Zhuming, where, in addition to seeing the young Yingxing, she also saw a black sun. In a daze, she saw that sun devour and destroy everything in a war... Perhaps, that was the way to break the deadlock.]

[In order to seize this last glimmer of hope for victory, Bai Heng decided to pilot a skiff to the Xianzhou Zhuming to retrieve that black sun. And you, as her guard, would help her break through the Mara's blockade of the Xianzhou and travel together to the Xianzhou Zhuming.]

With the Divine General leading the way, golden phantoms thrust giant blades down from the sky, piercing straight into the earth, tearing a crack in the dark brown dome.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bai Heng piloted the skiff out of the Xianzhou Luofu through the crack, heading to Zhuming at the fastest speed.

Along the way, a constant stream of Mara-Struck pursued them.

However, Bai Heng's swordsmanship was now on par with that of Jingliu, the Luofu's Sword Master.

For her, these Mara-Struck were not enough to hinder their progress.

After two days of traveling day and night, the two arrived at the Artisanship Commission where General Huaiyan was located, and were personally led by General Huaiyan to the Flame-Wheel Forging Palace.

Here, they saw the black sun that Bai Heng had mentioned.

It was a ball of light as dazzling as a star. The entire Flame-Wheel Forging Palace was like a meteorite, and they seemed to be clinging to a meteorite, slowly rotating along a celestial orbit, floating above this "sun."

But just as they approached the "sun,"

Bai Heng once again saw the scene in her dream: that light began to burn, piercing the clouds, transforming into golden death. Towers toppled, people fled, because the sun was about to fall...

Every ray of the "sun" was pulsating, like a rushing torrent, or like a suppressed rage from ancient times, biting, roaring, and drilling into Bai Heng's consciousness.

[This time, it seemed to have chosen you.]

[In an instant, countless scenes were like pages of a book knocked to the ground by the wind, frantically sweeping over and flooding into your sea of consciousness.]

[A familiar scene appeared before you, still a prison built on scorched earth of blood and fire. The sky was a thick blood-red, with torrential rain, each drop of water was crimson, and the rain fell on the scorched earth, creating billowing white smoke. And in the prison behind the white smoke was an ancient dragon covered in black scales.]

[It looked down on everything in the scorched earth, its pair of scarlet-golden pupils looking at you.]

[It did not speak, but a voice rang in your ear:]

"Welcome to my kingdom."