It was a most terrifying sight to behold. Tianming felt his heart clench from the shock. The face made him feel like all his organs were pierced through.
"Plunderer, your time of reckoning has come! Even ten reincarnations weren't enough to save you. I have found you! Everything is over for you!" the face roared so loudly that it felt like the world was crumbling.
Feiling was so terrified that her hand shook profusely. He turned back and gave her a hug. Without saying a word, he kissed her. The wet warmth finally snapped her out of her anxiety.
"Plunderer, your time of reckoning has come! Even ten reincarnations weren't enough to save you. I have found you! Everything is over for you!" The same words kept repeating as the eye-filled face contorted. However, the words kept repeating senselessly. It seemed like a pointless threat. They hadn't found Tianming nor Li Muyang at all. If Tianming lost his cool and revealed everything in the canal, it might get even worse.
"Are you okay now?" His passionate kiss caused her knees to give out. Even amidst the darkness, she could see his gold and black eyes. They seemed ever so resolute.
Their lips having parted, Tianming turned to look at the gigantic black face before continuing onwards, passing through the face entirely, but it simply reappeared in front of him again and again, repeating the same lines.
All of a sudden, he saw a bright light coming from ahead. Elated, Tianming pulled Feiling towards it.
"We finally made it through!" he couldn't help but cheer. They had managed to sever the karmic ties. However, that was only the first out of many steps they would have to take. "Next, the Archaionfiend Eye."
......
They were greeted with warm sunlight, fluffy clouds, lush flowers and green grass. Tianming took a deep breath after crossing the Canal of the Dead. "So this is the air of a foreign land... Doesn't it smell good?"
"No way it does." Feiling stepped on the soft, black soil and twirled a few times. Her blue skirt rose, revealing her smooth, long legs. Tianming squatted down and admired their beauty.
"What are you doing? Don't you get sick of staring?" she snapped. Recalling how he sealed his lips by kissing her to prevent himself from saying anything unnecessary, she felt a little stimulated. It was a dangerous mix of fear and passion.
"You look so good, I'll never get sick of it."
"Hmph, stupid mooch. All you're good for is your sweet mouth," she said, secretly relishing in the compliment.
"You liked that? Want another taste of these sweet lips?" he said with a smirk.
"I wasn't referring to that!"
"Oh, believe me, I know."
"Idiot. I bet you didn't want Feng to come cause you wanted to tease me."
"Bingo."
With them not knowing where the Archaion Sect was, they weren't in a rush to look for it. Tianming decided he would cultivate as he searched for it. Mainly, he would focus on assimilating into the local culture first. Otherwise, it would be quite troublesome if he was to be recognized as someone from the Theocracy the moment he opened his mouth.
All he would have to do was to find a town and spend a month there. At least, he would be able to get a rough grasp on the local powers and happenings. What he was most curious about was how powerful the cultivators at the center of the continent were, these so-called descendants of the gods. Were they empyrean saints or samsarans? At the very least, he knew that there were no gods on the Flameyellow Continent.
"I wonder how the Samsara stage is broken down... How many people are at this stage in all of the Nine Divine Realms?"
As he pondered those questions, he headed southwest along the coastline of the Northern Voidsea. While the people of Archaion were powerful, they numbered far fewer than those of the Theocracy. Tianming hadn't seen a single person even after two hours of traveling.
Right at that moment, they heard a shriek not far away. The shriek was so domineering that Tianming could tell it belonged to a phoenix.
When it flapped its wings, the world around them shook. Tianming looked up and saw a green phoenix flying towards them from the north.
It looks so huge even though it's still so far away... Will it block out the whole sun if it's right above us? Tianming thought. He felt like he had underestimated the power level of the Nine Divine Realms based on his singular encounter with Xuanyuan Xu.
He brought Feiling to a shade nearby to avoid being detected by the phoenix, but it stopped when it was right above him and circled in the sky.
"Dang, it really is huge!" It was ten times bigger than Li Wudi's Ancient Infernalblood Kunpeng. Taking a look at its eyes, he snapped, "What... It has about eight hundred stars!"
It was truly a shock to behold. Hundred-star saint beasts were things of myth in the Theocracy, yet the first beast he encountered had about eight hundred. What was going on? Was Xuanyuan Xu simply a small fry in Archaion?
As he mired in the shock and awe, the phoenix seemed to have pinpointed his location. Almost instantly, two figures descended and appeared before them, causing them to feel grave danger. They were a thousand times more dangerous than the autarch or Xuanyuan Xu. It only took one look for Tianming to understand the magnitude of the rift between those in the core of the continent and those in its fringes.
If his guess was right, the two of them were more powerful than empyrean saints based on their aura. They were probably at the Samsara Stage. Tianming didn't even dare to look them directly in the eye. Meeting these elites ruined his plan of slowly getting to assimilate with the locals.
However, he still got a good look at their appearances. The one on the left was a woman wearing a white-and-black dress and a face veil. She stood tall and slender and gave off a cold feeling. It was hard to tell her age based on her gaze, but she should be a senior based on the lock of white hair that mingled with the rest of her black hair.
The one on the right was a youth wearing a gold-white robe. He gave off a similar vibe to the woman that could only be described as cold and lofty. Like her, he was tall and slender and looked really handsome. Though his features were gentle, his gaze was as sharp as a sword. But his most defining feature was without a doubt the third eye that sat between his other two. It was dark gold,, unlike the other two eyes with black irises.
The youth stood behind the woman, so that probably meant she had a higher status than him. Tianming had a feeling she was even more powerful. In the next instant, the woman raised both hands with a passionate expression before prostrating on the ground with her hands outstretched.
Then, with all her might, she yelled, "Fang Qingli of the Sterling House of Fang greets you, Eminent Xuanyuan! Congratulations on your revival after 100 thousand years!"
She sounded so touched that words failed to capture the intensity of her feelings. The one she had prostrated herself to was Feiling, who was startled by her loud voice.
The youth beside her also kneeled and yelled with his booming voice, "Xuanyuan Yuheng of the Archaic House of Xuanyuan greets Your Eminence! Congratulations on your revival and descent upon our realm!"
Tianming and Feiling's ears rang from the sheer volume of their voices. He looked at the two prostrating elites in a daze, but quickly snapped out of it. Feiling had been discovered as Xuanyuan Xi! There was no way they would be able to scout the place out any longer.
Tianming had talked to her about this before. The fact that she wasn't Xuanyuan Xi was not to be discovered by the denizens of Archaion at all costs. If it came to light, the two of them would be in grave danger. While they didn't know how they managed to spot her so quickly, there was nothing they could do now but pretend. Now, it all rested on her mental fortitude and ability to ad-lib.
Tianming shot her a look. She should be able to handle it since she did have some of Xuanyuan Xi's scrambled memories. "Alright. Rise."
Tianming finally relaxed at how she managed to play her part at the crucial juncture.
"Yes!"
The two of them immediately got up, but she didn't dare to look up at her.
"Your Eminence, this is the divine blood you left behind 100 thousand years ago in preparation for Your Eminence's prophesized revival. The blood shall lead the way to Your Eminence. The descendants of our houses held onto this divine blood throughout the generations. Even though everyone claimed that gods can't return from the dead, we believed in Your Eminence's prophecy without wavering and have waited all this time for this! The whole of Flameyellow Continent shall marvel at this miracle!" Fang Qingli exclaimed.
"Okay." Feiling didn't know what else to say and nodded.
"Your Eminence, here is your divine blood." She took out a really tough gem made of some unknown material that didn't have any heavenly patterns on it. Within it was a drop of divine blood that pulsed in Feiling's direction. Now, it was obvious how they found her.
Feiling took the gem. At that instant, Fang Qingli furrowed her brow and asked, "Your Eminence, why is your cultivation only at the Earth Saint stage after your revival?"