Sparks Across the Sky

Time passed slowly.

Outsiders continued to enter the city.

The two factions that had formed in Tianfu City also seemed to have reached a balance.

The imperial court's forces were gathering, protecting the Eighth Prince.

The various forces of the jianghu were like wild wolves, watching everything.

The two sides were evenly matched, and an eerie calm settled over them.

But Jun Jingyi did not like this calm.

Outside Tianfu City.

Atop a high mountain.

Feeling the cool breeze against his face, Jun Jingyi breathed a sigh of relief. At last, the moment he had been waiting for had come.

"What's that?"

Looking at the light drifting across the sky,

Sikong Ye fell into thought once more.

Why could a lantern fly in the sky?

Why did Jun Jingyi know it could fly?

And... what use was it?

"A Kongming lantern!"

Jun Jingyi looked toward Tianfu City, the direction the breeze was blowing, and smiled happily.

Tonight, the Eighth Prince would have to slink out of Tianfu City with his tail between his legs.

He had not wanted to kill him.

Because that was simply impossible. Unless Jun Jingyi wanted to bring huge trouble upon himself, the prince could not die before Great Yan fell.

A prince, no matter how useless, could not be killed. That would be a provocation to imperial authority.

But if he merely suffered defeat... no one would care about him. They might even pelt him with stones while he was down. After all, among the imperial family, there were plenty of people who wanted to see him suffer.

But... sometimes living was worse than dying.

There was such a thing as a fate worse than death.

Lock a lustful man in a room without women and leave him there to die of old age.

Make a man who loved wealth a beggar for all eternity.

As for an ambitious man like the Eighth Prince, let him return to the Capital and obediently be a prince without power.

A prince with the word "failure" written all over him.

Of course...

He could not kill him, but he would not make things easy for him along the way.

Who told this guy to come all this way just to act tough and pick a fight with him? He was not even the protagonist. Wasn't he just courting death?

Heaven and earth were his witnesses: at first, he really had wanted to get along peacefully!

"What's that?"

In Tianfu City.

A man who was urinating raised his head and rubbed his eyes, staring at the sky in bewilderment.

A light slowly descended onto his head.

"A lantern?"

"How can a lantern fly?"

The young man patted his cheeks, feeling as though he had not woken up.

But then he was certain this was not a dream!

Because it hurt!

"Huh, there are words on it?"

"Heaven and earth overturned, the heavens stained with blood, the true dragon faces a great tribulation, the eighth dragon takes its rightful place..."

"Gulp..."

The young man's body trembled continuously as he read.

At the same time.

The falling sparks from the sky caused a stir throughout Tianfu City.

Leaving aside why lanterns were falling from the sky,

there were the words written on them.

"What is this? A divine decree?"

Some people of the jianghu looked shocked.

Others looked terrified.

At the Eighth Prince's residence.

The guards braced themselves as if facing a formidable enemy.

The Eighth Prince looked excitedly at the lantern in his hands.

A lantern could rise into the sky?

Obviously impossible!

That was common knowledge.

But these lanterns really had fallen from the sky, so thickly packed that all of Tianfu City could see them.

At a glance, they looked like a sky full of stars, stars falling from the heavens into the mortal world.

It was breathtakingly beautiful!

That left only one explanation.

These lanterns had come from the heavens, and the heavens were where the immortals of legend lived.

Then these words...

"Were they written by immortals?"

The Eighth Prince's heart hammered wildly, beyond his control.

What did this mean?

Had the immortals in the heavens acknowledged him?

Was he the next emperor, chosen by heaven itself?

But why?

Countless thoughts flashed wildly through the Eighth Prince's mind.

Then his gaze suddenly fell on the Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber beside him!

This might be the only explanation.

Otherwise, why had the immortals in the heavens not acknowledged him before?

And now...

Together with the earlier phenomenon.

"Whew... whew..."

The Eighth Prince clenched his fists.

From this day forward, these two divine weapons were his life!

But then, amid his excitement, he closed his eyes. He knew that everyone had to endure tribulations before accomplishing great things.

The greater the opportunity, the more earth-shattering the calamity that preceded it.

What he needed to do now was not get excited, but face the tribulation.

This tribulation had been given to him by heaven.

Whether the flood dragon could become a true dragon depended on this step!

He now had a general idea of what would bring the tribulation about.

The reason the jianghu forces in Tianfu City did not dare act rashly against him now was that he was the Eighth Prince.

The imperial court stood behind him.

But once these words got out... unless he rejected them on the spot.

But... reject them?

"Impossible!"

The Eighth Prince shook his head wildly.

This was heaven's will, the favor of heaven he had finally managed to obtain.

How could he give it up out of fear?

So he chose to face the tribulation.

In that case, these imperial court forces would no longer look after him, because he had already become a rebel prince!

Although he had not yet rebelled, one must not forget the heart of an emperor!

These forces would no longer dare look after him either. Otherwise, if his imperial father blamed them afterward, they could not bear the charge of conspiring in rebellion.

By comparison, finding an excuse to stand by with folded arms was undoubtedly the best option.

His gaze swept over the guards before him.

The Eighth Prince took a deep breath and asked, "What do you think?"

"We swear to protect Your Highness to the death!"

the guards shouted.

The Eighth Prince nodded happily. "Rest assured, I have seen your loyalty. Once I get through this tribulation and ascend to that position in the future, I will not treat you unfairly."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

"All right, make preparations. It's time for us to leave!"

Tianfu City was no longer safe!

The Eighth Prince gazed pensively at the sparks filling the sky outside. The silent night and the icy wind could hardly suppress the excitement in his heart.

He knew this could not be a scheme.

Because the Immortal Bridge could not be made by human hands, and lanterns could not fly into the sky. That was common knowledge!

In the dead of night.

Tianfu City was destined to have no sleep tonight.

Countless gazes watched the quiet sky.

Suddenly.

"It's begun!"

In a courtyard of the Jun Residence, a smile appeared on Jun Jingyi's lips. The Eighth Prince had ultimately been unwilling to give up his ambition.

But even if he had given it up, it would not have mattered. Jun Jingyi had other ways.

Very good!

"Rumble..."

"Clang, clang..."

The silence of the night was shattered. Cries of battle and the clash of weapons rang out repeatedly beneath the night sky, bringing a little clamor to the quiet of Tianfu City.

Sikong Ye gazed intently at the distant sky.

He turned to Jun Jingyi and asked, "What do we do next?"

"Hmm... nothing!"

Jun Jingyi shook his head.

He could scheme for a time.

But he could not take everyone under heaven for a fool. In some matters, going too far was as bad as not going far enough.

The less he did, the fewer flaws he would leave.

"Huh? Nothing at all?"

Sikong Ye felt that, ever since he had met Jun Jingyi, his brain had been struggling to keep up.

But he nodded all the same, then turned and went to sleep.

The scourge was gone; he could finally get a good night's sleep in peace.

Jun Jingyi, meanwhile, went to the study and began to write.

He was writing a story.

A story about a prince of the Ming Dynasty named Zhu Di...