Chapter 658: The Assembly of Patriarchs’ Plan
Translator: YH Editor: X, TYZ
The warmth of the sun fell on every corner of the small courtyard. As usual, Master Shao sat in a white rocking chair for a short rest. The early autumn sunshine was the most pleasant, warm and moist. It was just enough to dispel the chill of autumn.
The rocking chair rocked slowly and rhythmically.
A furry maroon kitten was lying on the armrest, squinting its eyes and showing the same look of enjoyment.
This kitten was a stray cat which was fed twice by Master Shao. Since then, it hung out in the courtyard, refused to leave, and behaved like it owned half of this place.
"Master Shao is really relaxed."
Hong Rongyan unexpectedly appeared in the courtyard doorway. He wore a black overcoat, possessed an exquisite and melancholic appearance, and had a vermillion mark painted on his glabella. He looked like a person from a framed painting.
Master Shao did not respond, keeping his eyes closed as he slept. The kitten on the armrest suddenly stood up, hunched over with its hair standing on end, and bared its teeth at Hong Rongyan, as if defending its own territory.
A skinny palm gently stroked the kitten's arched spine. The angry kitten gradually calmed down, and its body softened. It lay again and squinted its eyes with pleasure.
Master Shao said plainly, "Sir Hong Rongyan, you never come to me other than to ask for a favor. What do you need this time?"
Hong Rongyan smiled slightly, but the gloom in his furrowed eyebrows caused his smile to lack warmth, just like the slight chill of early autumn.
He walked in, stopped in front of Master Shao, and bowed slightly. "I have to trouble you with a request. I need to consult with you regarding this mirage bean."
Master Shao opened his eyes and got up from the white rocking chair.
The white rocking chair melted like snow and turned into a pool of white sand. The kitten jumped to the ground with alacrity, but was evidently dissatisfied with the interruption of its midday break and meowed at Hong Rongyan.
The white sand on the ground creeped around, rose up, and transformed into a sand puppet which stood beside Master Shao. What was initially coarse mud became exquisite and agile after constant improvements by Master Shao.
Hong Rongyan exclaimed in admiration, "I have seen many sand puppets, but your puppet is unique."
Master Shao faintly replied, "Just a worthless piece of work which is unpresentable."
He came straight to the point and said, "I have grown increasingly curious about this mirage bean that brought you here personally."
Hong Rongyan nodded. "I will have to trouble Master Shao."
The subordinate behind him hurriedly stepped forward, his hand holding a basin of mirage bean pods. He carefully placed it on the ground, then bowed and stepped back.
The circulation of the beams of light attracted the attention of Master Shao. Even the bright sunshine could not outshine the light rays from the mirage bean. This was not the first time Hong Rongyan had looked at it, but he had to admit that he was still fascinated by it. However, he restrained himself and fixed his eyes on Master Shao.
Although Master Shao forced himself to stay calm, Hong Rongyan was sharp enough to notice his fear.
Right from the beginning, Hong Rongyan did not speak or interrupt Master Shao.
The light disappeared as the mirage bean recording ended. Master Shao did not speak for a long period of time.
After quite a while, Master Shao finally exhaled. "Unexpectedly, the blood elementalist combat divisions have performed to such an amazing extent! The younger generation truly exceeds the older generation. Such a powerful light sword can only be described as divine."
"The combat division in the recording was the God Wolf Division, one of the six god divisions. There was another blood division, the Silverfrost, which was also destroyed during this battle. The light swords were controlled by a sword elementalist named Ai Hui. Rongyan would like to know from you if Ai Hui has ever taken the holy object of Blood of God?"
Hong Rongyan fixed his gaze on Master Shao.
Understanding suddenly dawned on Master Shao, and he nodded, "Oh this chap Ai Hui. I have heard a little about the illustrious Sword of Lightning Division. That blood elementalist soldier is rather powerful but he still couldn't block Ai Hui's light swords. It is quite possible Ai Hui has taken the sacred artifact as you suspect. However, after observing the rain of light swords, the power was terrifying even though the bloody glow could not be seen. If I am not mistaken, he absorbed the power of the holy artifact, while inducing his blood and qi into the swords."
"So, that was the case." Hong Rongyan nodded. "In other words, this method can be used to restrain blood elementalists?"
"That's right," Master Shao nodded, but teasingly winked at Hong Rongyan, "as long as you can find more of the God's blood."
"That's true." Hong Rongyan smiled and changed topics. "Master Shao's work is a goal that the descendants will emulate. The Holy Emperor heard that Ye Baiyi was seriously injured and in critical condition, so he granted Ye Baiyi the Heart of God. Your student Nangong Wulian personally implanted it in Ye Baiyi."
Master Shao grew agitated upon hearing the three words "Heart of God."
Hong Rongyan said casually, "I do not know how much Nangon Wulian learned from Master Shao or how powerful the Heart of God is exactly? Somehow, I do not understand why you successfully developed the Heart of God at that time, but destroyed all the materials and records before escaping from the God Puppet Palace. What reason could this be?
Master Shao remained silent.
"What the need is there for Master Shao to make things difficult for me?" Hong Rongyan sighed. "What I have most for Master Shao is admiration. However, the Heart of God is related to our Assembly's survival, and I hope you can give us a helping hand."
Master Shao grinned a scornful smile. "I already have one foot in the grave. Matter of life and death no longer bother me. We are enemies, not friends. If I were not seeking the whereabouts of my granddaughter, would I have entertained you? How could I be unprepared after I decided to see you?
He stopped smiling and lowered his tone, "If you want the Heart of God, bring my granddaughter for an exchange. There is no point in talking to me if you cannot find her. If you are thinking of schemes like confession by torture or other such methods, do not use them to scare me. Thanks to your Assembly, I was seriously injured back then. In order to survive, I had to transform my whole body. Now, there is not much left of my body. To prepare for a situation like today, being in the hands of others and being tortured, I would rather die than live. I have set up a killing mechanism in my body and can destroy my soul at any moment."
"Take care. I will not be sending you off!"
Master Shao turned around and stormed straight into the house.
Hong Rongyan looked gloomy when he left the small courtyard because he had really hit a snag. On second thought, he realized he was too impetuous. Master Shao was once the palace master of God Puppet Palace after all. How could he not be prepared at all?
Still, there were some gains today.
The content inadvertently revealed by Master Shao was somewhat interesting…
The corners of Hong Rongyan mouth revealed a hint of a pondering smile.
"Heart of God, haha, Heart of God…"
Hong Rongyan stopped and listened. Master Shao's prolonged laughter came from the small courtyard behind her. She frowned slightly as a hint of doubt flashed through her eyes.
Heart of God… What could make Master Shao so pleased?
Master Shao, who was inside the house, had lost his anger, and his face showed a hint of relief. Upon reaching the ending of the mirage bean recording, the sudden appearance of Lou Lan made him pleasantly surprised and almost made him lose his self control.
Even though he knew Ai Hui was a pretty good fellow, he was still very worried about Lou Lan.
In fact, he regretted instructing Lou Lan to follow Ai Hui when it seemed that Ai Hui was just an ordinary student. The wish of Master Shao was for Lou Lan to live a peaceful life.
He had not expected himself to make an error in judgement!
From the start, Ai Hui was not a quiet person and would stir up trouble wherever he went. It was too dangerous for Luo Lan to follow such a troublemaker! Every time he heard news of Ai Hui, Master Shao shuddered with fear and worried incessantly.
Although it was just a hasty glimpse from a mirage bean, Master Shao could see that the power of Lou Lan was vastly different. Lou Lan was certainly able to safely remove Midnight's outer seal.
He was immensely satisfied with Lou Lan. Well done!
Due to the fear that Lou Lan could not bear the power of Midnight, Master Shao had implemented a safeguard that sealed the Midnight core. The outer layer was broken, indicating that the body of Luo Lan had adapted to the partial power of Midnight.
The fear of letting Hong Rongyan know about his concern for Lou Lan made him hold back.
However, at this moment, he had no more scruples and laughed heartily.
"Heart of God, haha, Heart of God…"
…..
Wong Erdan held on tightly to Ye Baiyi's long hair and hid behind him. Occasionally, fragmented lights would sweep over his exposed arms and legs, creating bloody wounds. Besides making muffled noises, Wang Erdan did not dare to make a single movement.
With intense fighting going on in front of him, this would normally be the best time to flee. However, he had already exhausted his strength dragging Ye Baiyi to hide behind the North Sea Division's formation.
He did not even have the strength to dodge the aftershocks of the intense battle before him, let alone run away.
Fortunately, he had an unbreakable "human shield." This was probably the most expensive shield in the world.
Looks like all that effort paid off from dragging you around!
Fu Sisi was extremely angry at the moment, and her expression was awful. Her sparkling and translucent arms had an extremely pronounced crack from her index finger to her forearm.
A moment ago, her fingers grasped her opponent's spear gleam. She had not expected that the spear gleam would actually burst between her fingers immediately. Subsequently, she suffered a substantial injury.
Her strength was obviously much stronger than the other party, but the other party always made her feel extremely terrible. Intellectually, she knew this was because the other party was more experienced than her and could always exploit her weaknesses by using ingenious methods to counteract any disadvantage as a result. Despite this, she still felt dejected.
If She Yu was here, she would certainly suffer the same feelings as Fu Sisi for chasing Wan Shenwei all this way. It could be said that she had suffered a hefty.
Wan Shenwei and Shi Beihai had been on the battlefield for decades. They had seen all sorts of events and were full of experience!
Thunder roared from the sky, and silvery lightning illuminated the earth.
Bean-sized raindrops came down as thunderbolts shot down from the sky. The intense storm spanned a vast expanse of the sky and earth.
Fu Sisi did not let the rain bother her. As the rain neared her body, it seemed to encounter an invisible screen and appeared to slip away. In the midst of the downpour, Fu Sisi's clothes did not get wet at all.
On the contrary, her stature became more ghostly and elusive in the heavy rain.
The rain fell in torrents, and all of a sudden, a crystal clear palm quietly went straight for Shi Beihai's face. The five half opened fingers were each lit up with different elemental energy light rays.
The five elements—metal, fire, wood, water, and earth—formed a ring that pressed down from above.
A cold shiver went down Shi Beihai's spine, but instead of retreating, he exhaled loudly and moved forward with his spear, thrusting it like a poisonous snake at Fu Sisi's abdomen.
Fu Sisi almost crushed her teeth in anger. She knew her blow could kill Shi Beihai, but the thrust from Shi Beihai spear would certainly injure her seriously. She had been forced to retreat by Shi Beihai's method of mutual destruction several times.
She did not doubt that Shi Beihai was unafraid of death.
Both Shenwei and Beihai were the same.
In desperation, Fu Sisi turned her wrist, folded her five fingers, and turned her palm into a beak-like shape. The five elements fused together and erupted with radiance.
Light gathered at the tip of the spear.
Shi Beihai felt as though he had been struck by lightning as he lost his balance and was pushed back a few steps before stabilizing. The other people behind him were knocked down all over the place.
Pop.
The tip of the spear snapped, and the Firmament Iron, which was thought to be the hardest material, shattered to pieces.
Fu Sisi rebounded more than three meters due to the strength of this blow before finally managing to stabilize herself. When she saw the shattered battle formation and weapons of the other party, she smiled.
On the other hand, Shi Beihai, who was carrying a simple and unadorned spear in the heavy rain, looked at the knee high water level around him and smiled as well.