Chapter 135: The Divine Undying King
Days later, following Emperor Wei's lead, a group of cursed slaves held Xiao Nanfeng 'hostage' as they headed to a valley filled with blue mist.
The moment they entered the valley, Xiao Nanfeng saw an ancient altar with a large copper coffin placed on top of it. By the altar was a stone tablet, on which the three words 'Divine Undying King' were written.
Below the tablet, Blue Lantern stood motionless, as though waiting for something.
On the ground beside the copper coffin were dozens of figures, including Yu'er, the Lady Arclight, Croak, Warble, Marquis Wu, his four black-robed subordinates, and even some frog and centipede spirits, along with several Spiritsong-realm cultivators from the humans' domain. There were eighteen cultivators and spirits in all, all of whom were unconscious. A cursed effigy stood by the side of each one, with their cursed slave subordinates arrayed behind them.
The atmosphere of the altar was particularly sinister. All remained silent.
Xiao Nanfeng looked at Yu'er and the Lady Arclight in worry, but his face remained expressionless. He had learned that the cursed effigy beside Yu'er was the Red Emperor, and that beside the Lady Arclight was Empress Bai Ruoyi.
Emperor Wei gestured for Xiao Nanfeng to head to an empty patch of land. Emperor Wei and his cursed slaves stood guard by Xiao Nanfeng's side.
It looked as though each cursed effigy would be responsible for one outsider to the divine domain.
Just then, another skeleton made its appearance. Its group of cursed slaves dragged a serpent along with it. The serpent had been chained up and was unconscious.
The moment it entered the valley, however, its eyes twitched. It had been feigning all along!
The serpent quickly dropped its charade upon seeing Blue Lantern.
"Master Blue Lantern! I've finally found you. Please, save me! These cursed effigies have sealed my cultivation. Please, Master!" the serpent howled.
"Quiet," the skeleton beside it hissed. "Keep making a fuss and I'll kill you."
"Master Blue Lantern, look! It's going to beat me to death! I'm your envoy, aren't I?!" the serpent called out desperately.
"You're asking for it!" The skeleton, wholly enraged, made to hit the serpent.
"That's a serpent that our master specifically said he wanted. If you beat it up, how will you answer to our master?" Blue Lantern suddenly addressed the skeleton.
"It's been a nuisance to me for days. It'll finally be quiet around here with it unconscious." The skeleton still seemed poised to strike.
"That's not a viable tactic. The master benefits most from the conscious. There isn't much time left, so hold out a little longer. I'll persuade it to come around," Blue Lantern offered.
The skeleton snorted, but it folded its arms and didn't strike.
The slaves it commanded tossed the serpent not far from Xiao Nanfeng.
The serpent fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, unable to move because of the restraints all over its body. The skeletons and cursed slaves standing guard all around allowed it to sense that something was wrong.
"What's the matter, Master Blue Lantern? Isn't there supposed to be a huge opportunity here in the divine domain? Why have you brought us here? It feels like we're about to be sacrifices! I don't want to die!" the serpent cried out in fear.
"Be patient. An opportunity awaits," Blue Lantern continued.
"This can't be! There's clearly something wrong—Master Blue Lantern, I've served you for a century! You aren't going to kill me and eat me after so long, are you? I'm still young, and I don't want to die!" the serpent cried out, sniffing and tearing up.
"With your constitution, I doubt you'll die. Relax," Blue Lantern comforted it.
"But what sort of opportunity would require hands and feet to be bound?" The serpent was clearly disbelieving.
"Just wait patiently. If you continue to make a fuss, I'll ignore you too," Blue Lantern replied, clearly starting to get impatient.
"Master Blue Lantern, I'm scared! I feel like I'm in a slaughterhouse. You have to save me, you have to! Master Blue Lantern, you won't watch me die, will you?!" The serpent seemed incapable of holding back.
"Shall we knock it unconscious? It's too loud." Blue Lantern addressed the skeleton behind the serpent.
The skeleton nodded and was just about to strike when the serpent hurriedly dropped its act. "No, don't! I'll listen to you and wait quietly."
The skeleton: ...
Blue Lantern: ...
A beating averted, the serpent glanced around itself. It couldn't help but feel that something bad was about to happen. It quickly noticed Xiao Nanfeng.
"Ah, it's you? Why aren't you being bound? Why aren't you unconscious?" The serpent started making a fuss again.
Xiao Nanfeng: ...
"Master Blue Lantern, why doesn't he need to be bound?!"
"He listens to orders, and doesn't need to be restrained," Blue Lantern replied calmly.
"I do too! If you release me, I'll be obedient as well!" the serpent cried out.
Blue Lantern: ...
The gathered skeletons: ...
Clearly, no one believed it.
The serpent continued making a fuss for some time until it saw the skeletons behind it raise their fists, prepared to give it a beating. Only then did it quickly stop.
After repressing itself for some time, the serpent quietly whispered to Xiao Nanfeng, "What are they up to?"
"I don't know." Xiao Nanfeng shook his head.
"You don't? Then why are you so cooperative?" the serpent asked, astonished.
"I'll be treated better if I am, of course," Xiao Nanfeng replied.
The serpent looked flabbergasted. Was Xiao Nanfeng a fool? It was clear that something bad was about to happen to them!
"Calm yourself. I've asked around in the humans' domain. Generally, half of the Spiritsong-realm cultivators make it out alive. In that case, we too have a good chance of surviving," Xiao Nanfeng consoled it.
The serpent froze stiff. "That's making me even more scared! Stop trying to console me. If half of us make it out alive, what happens to the other half?"
"Whether you live or die is fated. Just accept it," Xiao Nanfeng whispered.
The serpent's eyes grew as wide as bronze cymbals. What sort of nonsense was that? It didn't want to die!
"Master Blue Lantern, I'm your envoy! Are you really going to watch me die just like that? I don't want to die. Won't you let me go?" the serpent begged.
Blue Lantern was unmoved.
When the skeletons around raised their fists once more, the serpent hurriedly stopped talking.
It was incensed, but it had no choice but to wait patiently. Even Master Blue Lantern was unwilling to help it any longer; it felt as though its life was over. What was it to do?
In exasperation, the serpent turned to Xiao Nanfeng. Its face twitched.
Xiao Nanfeng had retrieved a jade tablet and was attentively reading it. How could he be so composed as to be reading for leisure?
"What are you reading?" the serpent asked incredulously.
"It's not as though there's anything else to do, so I'm reading a Taoist scripture to enlighten myself. Would you like to borrow some? I have more," Xiao Nanfeng offered.
The serpent sucked in a deep breath. Enlighten himself? Doesn't he know what sort of place this is? He's reading when he's about to die? Is he crazy?
"To think that a hero among dragons like myself, unparalleled in wit and intelligence, would suffer such a fate. I can't bear it!" the serpent murmured to itself piteously.
Xiao Nanfeng's face spasmed. This serpent really was thick-skinned, wasn't it?
Xiao Nanfeng had learned from Emperor Wei about what was to happen next. It wasn't as though he could resist it, so why not calm himself down and wait? The more scriptures he read, the stronger his spiritual power would be. There was little else he could do, after all.
The wait lasted ten whole days, by which point the serpent had lost all the energy it had. It fell to the ground, slumping over in exhaustion and desperation. It wouldn't even have minded being unconscious—at the very least, that would stop it from being so afraid.
Just as Xiao Nanfeng finished yet another Taoist scripture, the blue moon in the sky suddenly glowed with light.
Xiao Nanfeng and the serpent raised their heads at once, only to see the moon falling to the ground.
"Master Blue Lantern, the moon's falling! Let me go!" the serpent cried out.
Blue Lantern ignored it and bowed to the falling moon. "You've returned, Master."
The skeletons all around likewise bowed.
The moon grew smaller as it fell, before finally crashing into the copper coffin and passing through its lid. The coffin radiated with light as a tremendous aura made itself known. Pressure suffused the gathered crowd, making them fearful.
To Xiao Nanfeng's senses, the aura radiating from the copper coffin was so strong as to be heavenly or divine. Nothing Xiao Nanfeng did would be able to counter its might.
"So few, this time?" a deep and resounding voice came from the coffin.
"The portal from the hidden realm to the wider world at large has been closed since antiquity, and only the cultivators and spirits of the realm have made it here. Fewer and fewer will come each time; this time around, thanks to hints left behind by a traitor to Emperor Wei, foreigners have made it into the realm, bolstering the size of the group," Blue Lantern replied respectfully.
Two dragon-quelling spikes had been placed on top of the copper coffin. They slowly melted through its lid, allowing the cursed king within to understand the secrets they held.
"It matters not. My requirements were too strict. This time, I'll be lenient. Pick out at least one among these people to be my cursed slave. Then, they'll be able to take turns either guarding the realm with you or stepping beyond it to serve my will," the cursed king continued.
"What? The so-called opportunity is to become a cursed slave? I don't want it! Let me go!" the serpent cried out in shock.
"Silence! Do not interrupt our master," Blue Lantern shouted.
Killing intent surrounded the serpent, causing it to quail. Was this the true face of its master, Blue Lantern?
"Why are you the only ones here? Where are the other cursed effigies?" the cursed king continued.
The cursed effigies glanced at each other before shaking their heads. None knew.
"I saw them a few days ago, but my senses extend only to the humans' and spirits' domain. You have not deemed it fit to extend my senses to the divine domain, Master," Blue Lantern replied.
Bright light exploded from the copper coffin, which illuminated the air and then every aspect of the divine domain therein.
At the same time, Madam Rouge, who had just finished consuming a cursed effigy in a distant part of the divine domain, felt a blue light strike her. She trembled before vanishing from sight. The blue light swept past where she had been, then returned to the valley in which the copper coffin was kept.
"A foreign cursed effigy tied to this lad, robbing my servants of their cursed spiritual power? It avoided my gaze quickly," the cursed king said.
Xiao Nanfeng understood what was going on now. The cursed king could learn about what had transpired in the hidden realm through Blue Lantern's eyes.
The cursed king wasn't angered by Xiao Nanfeng; its subordinates were all cursed effigies that would be able to regenerate themselves eventually.
"Master, everyone is present. You may have your pick of your slave," Blue Lantern began, bowing respectfully.
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