Decaying Great Emperor

As dusk approached, a corner of the back mountain inside the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone echoed with the sound of unhurried footsteps.

It was an unusually secluded cave. Darkness filled its interior, while the evening glow spilled over the entrance, veiling it in a hazy halo.

"Whoosh~"

The sound of a flame catching echoed through the cave. Gu Baishui raised his fire striker and stepped inside the hidden cavern.

About half an incense stick later, Gu Baishui reached the deepest part of the cave and used his fire striker to light the ancient lamp on the wall.

The gentle light drove away the darkness and chill, illuminating the vast cavern in its entirety.

This was a cavern piled high with ancient books and bamboo scrolls. Yellowed pages curled up from the rustic books scattered across the ground, as though they had been read many times.

Blackened bookshelves stood scattered in the corners. A faint, damp, rotten smell wafted from the faded apricot-pear wood.

Even Gu Baishui couldn't remember how many books there were.

He only remembered that once the bookshelves could no longer bear the weight of the books, not an inch of free space remained in the cave.

With unhurried steps, Gu Baishui expertly found a flat surface in the center of the book mountain, then sat cross-legged.

"Red-haired monsters, the ominous, Heavenly Source Masters... Let me think... The Heavenly Source Records seems to mention..."

A clear light flashed in the Green-Robed Youth's eyes. After a moment's thought, he looked toward a corner of the book mountain and reached out with his right hand, pulling out a battered old book with precision.

As the pages turned, the handsome young man's face, illuminated by the candlelight, grew more and more strange, flickering between light and shadow.

The title Heavenly Source Master originated in ancient times.

In the ancient era, the Heavenly Dao was distorted and Principles evolved. The continent's mineral veins, spirit herbs, and other cultivation resources lay barren and desolate, unable to satisfy the ancient cultivators' hunger for resources.

In their search for richer resources, the ancient cultivators began exploring the depths of the earth's mineral veins and some ancient divine tombs.

And Heavenly Source Masters were the most outstanding among them.

They searched tombs and sources, opened tombs and robbed mausoleums, read the baleful gates of terrain, and turned the wheel of heaven's secrets. Heavenly Source Masters knew everything and could do anything.

After the Heavenly Source Masters developed into an established system, Human Race cultivators relied on the abundant resources excavated from underground to flourish. This even gave rise to many powerful factions and great sects that trained Heavenly Source Masters, using source-seeking and tomb-robbing to support their own sects.

The most famous sect among them-and the only one whose lineage had endured to this day-was the Source Tower, presided over by the Old Heavenly Master.

But the Heavenly Dao was flawed. When the Heavenly Source Masters reached the height of their prosperity, a terrifying and bizarre crisis quietly spread toward them.

At the same time, every Heavenly Source Master Lineage on the continent underwent an unspeakable, ominous change.

Almost every old Heavenly Source Master who reached their twilight years disappeared from the continent without a sound, without exception.

All that remained were tufts of bizarre, ominous red hair.

In their old age, Heavenly Source Masters would encounter the ominous. A terrifying red-haired creature would emerge from unknown shadows and drag the aged Heavenly Source Masters into the abyssal underworld.

Another explanation was that Heavenly Source Masters had revealed the secrets of heaven, so in their twilight years they were condemned by the Heavenly Dao, transformed into bizarre red-haired beings, and wandered the deep mountains and old forests, neither dead nor immortal.

[These explanations all seem to make some sense, but... I feel like something is missing.]

Gu Baishui turned the pages, carefully studying the red annotations beside the black text in the gently flickering candlelight.

This Heavenly Source Records was an old book from the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone. It was ancient, and its author was unknown.

Judging by the handwriting, however, it seemed to be the original handwritten record of a single person. The black text contained investigative findings, while the red annotations were the author's own speculations and analysis.

Gu Baishui had found this old book in the library, and he always had a strange, baseless feeling:

He knew the author of this book-or, rather, the author was one of their group of master and disciples.

The eldest senior brother? Or the second senior brother?

Gu Baishui wasn't sure, but that familiar handwriting always gave him this premonition.

--

What was missing? I couldn't figure it out, so I spent a long time investigating.

What was the true nature of the red-haired monsters?

Where did they and the ominous come from?

Where did the old Heavenly Source Masters go after they disappeared?

These questions circled through my mind day and night, leaving me no peace.

I went without sleep or rest, searching through ancient ruins and the Source Tower's archives, piecing together every clue and fragment.

Finally, one night, I solved the mystery that had troubled me for decades.

Everything pointed in the same direction.

I saw what lay beyond the bizarre and the ominous, the true monster that could not be spoken of or looked at directly.

It might be... a Great Emperor. A Great Emperor whose corpse had decayed for many years, but who did not want to die.

I called him the Decaying Great Emperor.

And that was the day I found all the answers I wanted.

The red-haired monsters truly were old Heavenly Source Masters, but that wasn't all.

Something even more terrifying was hidden among all the red-haired monsters.

The red-haired monsters and the ominous both came from the Decaying Great Emperor's Curse, but no one knew which period of history the Decaying Great Emperor belonged to.

What intrigued me most was what the Decaying Great Emperor's Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon was, and whether it was connected to the appearance of the bizarre red-haired beings.

I had guessed a few things, but I needed more evidence to confirm them.

The only thing I could leave to those who came after me was a single warning:

If you encounter an invisible red-haired monster, be sure to watch your back.

"Whoosh~" The dim candle flame flickered once more.

It had grown completely dark outside the cave. Gu Baishui closed the ancient book in his hands, his expression growing stranger and stranger.

"Decaying Great Emperor, Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, an invisible red-haired monster..."

"Isn't this talking about me?"

The Green-Robed Youth's muttering echoed through the empty cavern. Outside the cave, tree shadows swayed as drizzle fell from the pitch-black sky.

The night wind blew into the cave, carrying wisps of cool air.

Gu Baishui rubbed the ancient book in his right hand, his eyes shimmering with alternating light and shadow.

"Something even more terrifying is hidden among the red-haired monsters. Is it the Decaying Great Emperor's corpse? Or the Decaying Great Emperor's Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon?"

"If the red-haired monster that came after me is the thing described in the book, what does it want with me? I'm not a Heavenly Source Master, and I've never cultivated any related Dao techniques. There's no reason for the red hair and the ominous to come after me."

Gu Baishui narrowed his eyes and glanced toward the wind and rain outside the cave:

"And that red-haired monster's face I saw last night-why did it look a little like... my own?"

The fingertip sliding across the old book suddenly paused. Gu Baishui felt a drop of damp, sticky liquid on the book's flyleaf.

It was like wet ink, or perhaps... blood.

The Green-Robed Youth stiffened and slowly lowered his head, his gaze falling on the flyleaf tucked inside the book's back cover.

A crooked line of bright red writing lay strangely on the back of the old book, brazenly forcing its way into Gu Baishui's eyes.

The ink was still wet. Someone had written it not long ago.

Perhaps just now, someone had guessed that Gu Baishui would come to this cave and find this book, and had silently left him a message.

Of course, whoever wrote it might not have been human. It could also have been some terrifying thing.

On the dark yellow flyleaf, a line of crooked writing read:

I am not decayed. If you want to live... flee now.

Gu Baishui's body stiffened. As though he had realized something, he abruptly lifted his head and looked toward the cave's only exit.

Amid the torrential rain, a tuft of bright red hair drifted in and landed at the end of the passage.

A shadow flickered. A furry, bizarre body blocked the entrance, its dark red fangs bared, its lifeless gaze fixed on the Green-Robed Youth.

"Run~"