Chapter 80: Blue Lantern Splits the Dragon
Within a ruined hall atop the dragon's head mountain, a puff of black smoke appeared, a skeleton within. Madam Rouge herself had appeared.
She stood quietly by the hall, refraining from her usual slaughter. She looked at the tremendous spiritual power wafting from Xiao Nanfeng as he beat up You Shi, unable to accept her target's newfound strength. How was she meant to take down Xiao Nanfeng when he was this strong?
She then looked toward the empress and the Lady Arclight. These two cultivators were relatively weak and would serve as nourishing food, but Blue Lantern was standing right beside them! It was somewhat wary of him, and chose not to reveal herself.
Blue Lantern frowned and suddenly turned toward where Madam Rouge was standing, but she had since vanished. Even her signature black smoke was gone.
Blue Lantern stared curiously in that direction for quite some time, but Madam Rouge had successfully evaded detection. He finally turned back toward Xiao Nanfeng's fight, where he had just caused You Shi to disperse in a cloud of smoke.
Xiao Nanfeng leapt back toward the plaza, where he looked toward the Lady Arclight with care. She had gotten back to her feet, and clearly wasn't in great danger. Only then did he relax.
"Empress of Great Wei, I have defeated the traitor to your empire!" Xiao Nanfeng reported.
"My gratitude. I have little to repay you with save this dragon-quelling spike in the air. Please claim it once this realm has collapsed." The empress' eyes were still red. There was no happiness in her tone; the moment she received confirmation of her consort's death, her emotions had deadened. With this final grudge resolved, she felt even more unmoored.
Xiao Nanfeng could sense the empress' desolation and despair. He bowed in response, without speaking further.
Blue Lantern looked at the empress once more. "Empress, this realm is about to collapse, and Emperor Wei has met his demise. He entreated me to bring you to another realm. Please, follow me!"
The empress raised her head, her eyes vacant. She shook her head. "With him dead, nothing is important to me anymore. Let this realm collapse, and I with it. This is the final gift that my consort has left me."
"Your Majesty, why don't you accompany Elder Blue Lantern to a new realm? Perhaps you might have a change of perspective then..." the Lady Arclight advised, before suddenly falling silent. The empress sought to die; would prolonging her life not be torture?
The empress turned toward the Lady Arclight with some gratitude. "You are a good-hearted lass. Though you were unable to defeat You Shi, I am still indebted for your assistance. Before my consort perished, he spread his Hegemon's Fist throughout the realm. I can do little of that magnitude, but allow me to pass you, if nothing else, the fruits of my lifelong labor."
The empress touched the Lady Arclight's temple with a finger. The Lady Arclight trembled, then slowly closed her eyes. The empress' body turned even fainter.
"Elder, this is..." Xiao Nanfeng murmured in worry.
"The empress is infusing her own spiritual power into the lass, a beneficial endeavor without potential for harm. However, with this vital energy gone, the empress herself will not last long. This is for the better, perhaps—with only her truesoul remaining, it'll be less work for me to take care of," Blue Lantern explained calmly.
Indeed, the empress' figure was turning more and more transparent, until she was only barely visible.
"Allow me to make one final request of you. If it is convenient, place my physical body by that of my consort, allowing us to be together even in death," the empress murmured. Suddenly, her near-transparent body popped like a bubble and vanished for good.
Just then, Blue Lantern made a grabbing motion with his hand where the empress had fallen, catching a group of golden sparks in his palm. He bottled them, then kept the bottle in his sleeve.
The dragon-quelling spike in the air, as though sensing the empress' downfall, sent out a burst of blue light. The entire illusory realm dispersed.
Xiao Nanfeng shuddered as he returned to his physical body.
"Have we left the illusory realm?" His eyes lit up. He looked all around himself to discover that he was still lying outside the copper doors. The Lady Arclight was meditating beside him, while the two toad spirits had fallen unconscious by the doors.
Within the doors were a thousand meditating cultivators, along with all manner of precious treasures and weapons. At a corner of the chamber was a giant dragon's head that glowed with golden light. Cracks spiderwebbed from it. One shard fell from the head and transformed into a wisp of draconic aether. Above the dragon's head was a copper coffin, with a black-robed figure by its side—Blue Lantern.
Xiao Nanfeng stepped through the copper doors as his surroundings rumbled.
The thousand meditating cultivators were quickly turning into ash, dissipating in the air. In addition, the treasures and weapons were swiftly decaying.
Xiao Nanfeng halted in surprise.
"There's no need to worry. These cultivators have long since perished. Without their spiritual power to prolong their lives, their physical bodies and all the material items within have been corroded by my dragon-quelling spike," Blue Lantern told Xiao Nanfeng, the former facing away from the latter.
Xiao Nanfeng pursed his lips. He had been planning to take a few of the treasures for himself. Even ordinary possessions from an empress' tomb had to be valuable! There might even have been divine implements within—but were they all gone now, with only the coffin left intact?
Xiao Nanfeng stepped into the interior of the chamber as he rummaged through the ruins.
"Are you searching for this?" Blue Lantern revealed a dragon-quelling spike in his palm.
"Yes, Elder! The empress bequeathed this spike to me before she passed," Xiao Nanfeng explained.
"This is the token with which Emperor Wei requested me to bring the empress away, and I can't hand it over to you," Blue Lantern replied.
Xiao Nanfeng: ...Despite being an esteemed cultivator, are you trying to snatch away my treasure?
"However, within this spike remains a fraction of Emperor Wei's strength, which I can pass to you. Where are your dragon-quelling spikes?" Blue Lantern continued.
"Right here, Elder!" Xiao Nanfeng immediately pulled out his spike before fully processing Blue Lantern's words. "Your spikes," he had said—Xiao Nanfeng turned to see the Lady Arclight walking over.
"Have you awoken, Elder?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes brightened.
"The empress left me with a great deal of information, which I will not be able to process without prolonged secluded cultivation." The Lady Arclight cradled her aching head as she pulled out her spike and handed it to Xiao Nanfeng. "I leave this spike in your safekeeping."
Having heard Blue Lantern's words, she wanted to give Xiao Nanfeng a means of protecting himself.
"Thank you, Elder."
Blue Lantern drew a measure of golden energy from the spike he possessed, split it in two, and infused each portion into the two spikes in Xiao Nanfeng's hands. They flared with golden light before going dim again.
"Much of Emperor Wei's strength has been depleted, but what remains is now within the two spikes in your possession. Activate each spike with your qi to release that strength, each corresponding roughly to a single blow from a Spiritsong-realm cultivator. It's not much," Blue Lantern assessed.
"Thank you, Elder!" Xiao Nanfeng bowed deeply. Although he was unable to acquire the dragon-quelling spike now in Blue Lantern's possession, he had obtained as compensation the strength to safeguard him twice.
"No matter," Blue Lantern replied.
"Elder, has You Shi perished for good?" Xiao Nanfeng continued seriously.
Blue Lantern glanced at Xiao Nanfeng with a wry smile. "He's a sly and crafty fellow. How could he have died so easily? You had better make preparations to defend yourself."
Xiao Nanfeng sighed. You Shi hadn't perished? Trouble would lie ahead, then...
"Elder? The empress tasked us with reuniting her corpse with that of Emperor Wei. Might you know where it is?" the Lady Arclight asked.
"Emperor Wei's corpse is buried in the location with the strongest spiritual density within the spirits' domain. When your cultivation recovers, you should be able to identify it easily."
"Thank you for the information, Elder!" The Lady Arclight bowed toward him.
"You're not far from recovering to Spiritsong, are you?" Blue Lantern asked. He could clearly identify the state of the Lady Arclight's cultivation at a glance.
"I'm far from it, I'm afraid. I've only recovered to Ascension, Elder," the Lady Arclight reported.
"Worry not. The remnants of this golden dragon's head will suffice for you to recover to your peak—and then to ascend beyond that," Blue Lantern replied, looking at the tattered head before him.
"Elder, is this a draconic vein?" the Lady Arclight asked curiously.
"A draconic vein of the earth is formless and shapeless. For it to have congealed into such a state is a deterioration in quality. You Shi divided it once and again out of greed and selfishness, sending it out into the wider world to attract attention. At this point, not even a hundredth of its initial spiritual power remains, and what exists is inferior in quality. Even so, this one dragon's head is sufficient for you to recover fully to your peak, and to cause those two mutated toad spirits to step into the Spiritsong realm. Let me divide it among the four of you," Blue Lantern suggested, glancing at the toad spirits close by.
"Thank you, Elder!" The Lady Arclight bowed once again.
Blue Lantern waved a hand. The empress' coffin slid to the ground, and the giant dragon's head suddenly trembled and burst into a million small golden dragons. Blue Lantern manipulated the aether with his palms, compressing them all into four glowing golden balls.
Xiao Nanfeng infused spiritual power into the two toad spirits, waking them up. As they did so, they began to croak.
"Shush! Don't disturb the elder," Xiao Nanfeng whispered, his palms on the two toad spirits.
They clamped their mouths shut and looked toward Blue Lantern in confusion.
"If you ascend to Spiritsong, head toward the divine domain immediately. An opportunity awaits you there. You must go!"
"Yes, Elder!" The Lady Arclight nodded firmly.
"In that case, we'll see each other again in the divine domain." Blue Lantern made a pushing gesture, sending the four golden balls toward the two cultivators and two spirits. Meanwhile, Blue Lantern's figure vanished in a wisp of smoke.
"Farewell, Elder!" The two cultivators bowed deeply.
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