"Exalted One Mo Yu, come see me!" Tianming yelled when he reached the entrance. Soon, she came running to him with cold sweat. She was deathly afraid of being killed.
"Do you know how to use the Cyclic Map?" Tianming asked.
"A little bit. I can try."
"Do it now." Tianming handed her the Cyclic Map.
"Please wait. This might take some time," she nervously said.
As she was a close acquaintance with Chong Yang, she had learned how to use the Cyclic Map's locating function. It wasn't complicated, so she showed Tianming how to use it as she worked with it. Fifteen minutes later, the formation projected a kind of light map on which a white dot could be seen. Upon closer inspection, the dot seemed to be two people—a man and a woman with indistinguishable facial features but familiar builds.
Is that my dad and the Skyfate Princess? Didn't they say the two of them were dead?
"Tianming, they seem to be in the Divine Capital..." Mo Yu said with a hoarse voice.
"Where in the capital?"
"I can't say for sure. If they don't want to be found, it'll actually be quite hard to encounter them. I also heard that the Cyclic Map has nothing to do with the actual Cyclic Mirror, so this locating function might be fake as well."
"That can't be!"
Tianming turned back and saw a pair of footprints behind him. He knew that the man was still observing him from afar.
"Why won't you come out to meet me in person? Why?!" What reason could there be for his father to avoid meeting his son at this juncture? Tianming felt a little troubled by how he was trying to keep a distance from him.
"You may leave," he said.
"Understood." Mo Yu sighed with relief and left.
Tianming let his gaze linger on the Cyclic Map for quite a while. Only after Feiling held his hand and consoled him did he snap out of it.
"Ling'er, why do you think he's doing this?"
"Big Brother, I know he definitely won't do anything to harm you. One day, he'll appear before you and answer all your questions," Feiling said.
"Alright. I'll trust in that." He looked at his surroundings and continued, "Perhaps he's watching over me from afar."
"That must be it!"
"Then I better do my best."
"Me too."
Tianming stroked her head before returning to the courtyard together.
"Great Granduncle, I am Muyang's son. I'll help you move somewhere else where people will take care of you. What do you think?"
"Muyang's son?" The old man's eyes glowed as if he was lucid again.
"That's right."
"Are there beautiful, elderly ladies where you live?" he asked sneakily.
"There are quite a few, I'd say." Since the relatives of the warriors lived near the Dark Hall, he would have company.
"Then move me there quickly!"
"Great."
......
It was twilight again. An old man walked amidst the ruins of the Divine Capital, stumbling along the way. His eyes were bloodshot as he traced his hand in the air.
"Where are my descendants... Where are my theocrats?" He stumbled and fell, getting mud all over himself as he spat out a mouthful of blood. He couldn't stop vomiting to the point that his face paled. "This is weird. Where are they?"
He was crawling between a sea of corpses. The whole of the Divine Capital was awash in a river of blood wherein chunks of organs or fingers could be found.
Suddenly, the old man saw a sword some distance ahead, upon which a human head was staked through. The head seemed to be looking at him blankly.
"Ninth? Daddy here was wondering where you were. You're here playing hide and seek, are you? Naughty, naughty!" The old man smiled as he climbed to the head and picked it up. He laughed as tears of blood flowed from his eyes.
"Tell daddy which naughty boy took your head off. I'll go give them a stern talking to," he mumbled with a hint of despair and abject terror on his face. "Who is it? Well? Tell me! Why are you so cowardly, Ninth? You were afraid of a mere dog at the age of three! Do you expect me to believe you're actually my son? The son of Dongyang Qian?"
He grew even more restless as he spoke. "Who is it? Tell me. TELL ME!"
With great effort, he flung the head to the ground, smashing it apart. He then proceeded to hammer the ground madly, causing it to shake and crack apart.
"Hahahahaha!" Lying flat on the ground, he looked straight up at the skies. "Where has my clan gone?! Did the hundred thousand elites all get killed by dogs? Huh? Someone! Tell me!"
Not a single person remained in the Divine Capital. Every single member of the Decimo Dao Palace had retreated into the formation. There was nothing the old man could do but whine like a wounded dog.
But then, a deep sound came ringing from the shadows. "Dongyang Qian, you truly are a failure."
"Hehehe! Hehehehe!" Autarch Qian continued to laugh like a madman.
"Still reminiscing, huh? There's no need for that anymore."
"I'm just frustrated. How could this happen?" Had he known something like this would happen, there was no way he would've left for somewhere so far away.
"This is pointless..." The man came out of the shadow. He looked ahead and said, "So that's the Evil Suppression Formation? Let's just go straight in. If I were you, I'd kill every single one of them. An eye for an eye."
"An eye for an eye? Hahahahaha... Nonononono, it's not that simple, you see... An old man like me... can't take the shock... They drove me mad! No more Mister Nice Guy! If I can't make them give me at least ten eyes for each one they've taken, I'd rather off myself!"
"Go ahead then. What are you waiting for?"
"Well... Even with you around, we won't be able to do much by entering the formation. We still have to lure them out. This time, I'm going in for a big bet! Xuanyuan Xu, what you deserve will eventually be yours. All I have left is my pathetic life. I am going to fall and become a demon, so you need to help me." His face was a contradictory mix of bloody tears and a maniacal smile.
"We'll do as we have planned then. What's your next step?" the shadow asked.
"There are eighteen compounds around the Divine Capital, each with a million people within. I will slaughter them all one by one until they come out to stop me. Even if you don't help me, I can still force them to die in despair."
"You really are messed up. What if they don't come out? Are you going to kill more than ten million people? Your clan has surprised me time and again. If not for the Canal of the Dead forbidding access to your Theocracy, the Nine Divine Realms would have ended you long ago."
"Are you jealous?"
"Of course, I am. I am jealous that even with your level of power, you're still able to occupy a territory as large as half a divine realm and call yourself king."
"Nothing is impossible in this world. Well, I need to calm down... Breathe in, breathe out..." Autarch Qian stood up and stretched comfortably.
"Let's go. I can't wait to see the Grand-Orient Sword, Prime Tower, and Evil Suppression Pillar. I wonder how powerful these divine artifacts are."
"You'll definitely be in for a great show."
"Haha..."
The two of them vanished amidst the twilight mist.
"Xuanyuan Xu... I was unlucky to have met someone like you at the Canal of the Dead, but then again, I was lucky to have met you there."
"I see."
......
Northblock City was sandwiched between the Divine Capital and Dazzling City with a population of two million. But as a result of the chaos in the Divine Capital, nearly half of the citizens had left. That day, an old man came to the city amidst a drizzle. He ran swiftly in his tattered sandals as he sang, "With but a coir raincoat, a whole lifetime can be spent in the rain! Wonderful! Wonderful!"
The old man was standing outside the city under the light rain as a few people were about to enter. There was a field outside where a few children played around, trying to catch some frogs.
"Old man!" cried a little girl riding a pig as she came to him. "I didn't think I'd meet you again! Did you manage to catch any fish?"
"Darling, this old geezer didn't come here today to fish. I will drain the water dry! There's fish everywhere here, and old me here is going to cook up a delicious meal. It'll smell so good that even the people at the Divine Capital will smell it!" he said with a doting look.
"Wow, you use such big words, old man! Youyou doesn't understand!" she said with admiration.
"Is your dad here in the city, darling?"
"He is! He's part of the garrison!" she said with pride.
"How impressive."
"Old man, I want to apologize for my daddy. He was very mean to you back then! I scolded him when we got back!"
"It's fine. Grandpa here won't take what a fish says to heart."
"Do you live here too?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Oh, no, but I'll be making soup here."
"I want to drink some too!"
"Haha, then you better watch and learn," he said before he headed toward the gate. The little girl followed behind, riding her pig.
"Youyou!" A young man came running out of the city. He glared at the old man and said, "Who are you? Why is an old man like you talking to a child? Leave her alone."
He marched angrily towards them.
"Watch closely, darling!" The old man walked slowly towards the guard yet seemed unstoppable. The little girl watched as he stretched out his hand to lift the man by his neck.
"This is how you hold a fish by its gills." Splat! He pushed his other hand through the guard's stomach and pulled out his innards. "And this is how you remove the guts!"
Then, his hand flashed across the guard's body, flaying the skin off him. "And this is how you descale a fish."
The guard's body fell to the ground. His eyes were wide open; nay, he didn't even have eyelids left to close.
"And that's how you prepare a fish before cooking it. Did you get a good look?" he asked as he turned around with a smile. He then stretched out his bloodstained hand with guts still sticking on them and stroked her hair. "To live is to suffer. Don't be too naive in life."