novelzi Chapter 576 - 564: Is He the Son of Heavenly Dao?
Chapter 576 - 564: Is He the Son of Heavenly Dao?
At the moment when the malicious plot against Jiang Yino and Chang Yuanyi was decided upon.
「At the summit of Kunlun Mountain.」
A warm winter sun bathed the entire mountaintop. Sitting at the edge of a cliff, clothed in only a thin linen robe, Demi Immortal Qilian’s ears twitched.
"If you’re here, then show yourselves!" he said. "Stop with the theatrics. I may be blind, but don’t you forget, I’m the one who trained you all!"
As soon as Demi Immortal Qilian finished speaking, four figures shot out from four different directions.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
"Heh heh, Old One, we’ve never underestimated you or doubted you for a second!" a slovenly old man with a messy white beard and a wine gourd hanging around his neck said as he wobbled toward Demi Immortal Qilian.
"Drunkard, can’t you try not to be completely plastered the next time we meet?" a spotlessly clean, crisp-looking old man admonished with a frown.
"You don’t know shit!" the Drunkard shot back, letting out a boozy burp. "How could an oddball like you, who shuns the mortal world and spends all day fucking fishing with a straight hook like Jiang Taigong, possibly understand the joys of wine? Go ask the Monk if wine isn’t a fine thing! How many of the great poet Li Bai’s classic verses were born from it? Ah, forget it. Talking to you is a complete waste of breath!"
"Amitabha! Meat and wine pass through the gut, but the Buddha remains in the heart," the Monk chanted, walking from the north side of the summit. He held a Zen Stick in one hand and held the other before his chest. "How beautiful! How relaxing! How wonderful! What a joy!"
"Alright, alright, you’ve been bickering about this for decades. Isn’t it enough?" a Taoist in a flowing Daoist robe laughed as he approached from the south, carrying a horsetail whisk. "Idler, is this the first time you’ve met the Drunkard and the Meat-Loving Monk? Give it a rest!"
"That’s enough! All of you, quiet down!"
Demi Immortal Qilian shook his head in exasperation and stood up. He opened his eyes, which had long since lost their light, and slowly turned away from the cliff’s edge. "State your business and then scram! Don’t disturb my peace."
"Heh heh, Old One, want a sip?" the Drunkard said, his face flushed. He uncorked his wine gourd and took a big swig. "There’s no rush. Let’s catch up a bit. We brothers missed you! That’s why we came to visit!"
"Piss off!" Demi Immortal Qilian snapped, waving a dismissive hand.
"Fine, fine, you don’t have to drink! No need to get angry," the Drunkard said sheepishly, letting out another powerful, wine-scented burp.
The old man known as the Idler shot the Drunkard a sidelong glance before turning to Demi Immortal Qilian with a serious expression. "Old One, do you know what’s been happening in the world lately?"
"The Young Grandmaster?" Demi Immortal Qilian blurted out instantly, his brow furrowing.
The Monk, the Taoist, and even the Drunkard all tensed at his words.
"Old One, you know?" they asked in unison.
"I don’t just know. Xiaotian brought him here before," Demi Immortal Qilian said slowly, a shadow of worry crossing his features.
"He’s the Child of the Heavenly Dao?" the Idler exclaimed, his eyes widening.
WHOOSH!
The other three subconsciously held their breath, looking anxiously at Demi Immortal Qilian as they awaited his answer.
He paused for a moment, the wrinkles on his face deepening into a complex expression. Shaking his head, he said, "No."
"How is that possible?" the Taoist with the horsetail whisk cried out in disbelief. "If he’s not the Child of the Heavenly Dao, how could he possess such fortune?"
"I can’t figure it out either. But I’m certain he is not the Child of the Heavenly Dao. There isn’t a single trace of the Heavenly Dao on him. It’s utterly bizarre, but there is one thing—"
Before Demi Immortal Qilian could finish, the four of them anxiously interrupted, "One thing what?"
"He slaughtered the resurrected Orochi. He was the one who burned down Japan’s Jingguo Society, and the collapse of Mount Fuji was his handiwork as well. Furthermore, countless Divine Ninjas and Divine Level Onmyoji have died at his hands. On his last trip to Japan with Xiaotian, he dealt an absolutely crippling blow to Japan’s supernatural world. The current Ninja World and Yin Yang Master World there have been so devastated that even the term ’a grave loss of Primordial Energy’ is an understatement." As Demi Immortal Qilian slowly recounted these events, his frown deepened, and the worry on his face grew more intense.
Silence. A dead silence.
His words left the four men utterly stunned. A feat of this magnitude was something that even the four of them combined could never hope to achieve. How could a mere youth, not even twenty years old, be so heaven-defyingly powerful?
Although Demi Immortal Qilian had mentioned Hua Xiaotian was there, they all knew what Hua Xiaotian was capable of. Faced with such an overwhelming display of power, it was already a miracle that he hadn’t become a burden who died in a foreign land. This alone hinted at how easily Qin Fan must have handled the situation.
"How is that possible?"
"How is that possible?"
"How is that possible?"
"How is that possible?"
The four men had exclaimed in unison, their minds in sync. In that instant, even the Drunkard was shocked into sobriety.
"I know! I also want to know how it’s possible," Demi Immortal Qilian said, shaking his head. "But he did it. I was the one who told him about Orochi’s resurrection. My plan was to have him deal with the problem, but I never imagined he would end up creating such an earth-shattering event. If I hadn’t felt his bones and checked his pulse, I would never have believed such a heaven-defying monster could exist outside the Heavenly Dao!"
"Could it be that he has already reached that elusive, legendary plane of the Vast World?" the Taoist asked, horrified. "But... but how? He’s so young!"
"I don’t know. Not only is he not the Child of the Heavenly Dao, his body completely lacks any aura of Martial Arts. That is what puzzles me the most. We’ve never seen a Divine Envoy from the Vast World, so we have no idea if existences on that plane truly return to the basics, having refined away their Martial Arts aura. As for the heaven-defying disparity between his age and his power, perhaps we won’t be able to guess at any connection until we uncover the truth about his Cultivation and identity," Demi Immortal Qilian said, his lips pursed in a grim line.
Now that he had laid everything bare, the stern expression wasn’t just on his face. These four old masters, whose Martial Arts Cultivation had all reached the God Realm, also wore expressions of rare solemnity. It seemed they could already sense the storm brewing in the shadows.
Ordinarily, the birth of such an unrivaled prodigy in Huaxia should have thrilled them. As former members of the Guardian Institute, they had always been deeply concerned with the nation’s safety and security.
But now, they were afraid.
They weren’t afraid that Qin Fan would threaten them. Having lived as long as they had, they were far past caring about fame and fortune. On the contrary, they were more than happy to see a new generation rise to surpass the old.
However, for such a peerless talent to emerge just as the foretold Child of the Heavenly Dao was due to appear... this was not a blessing for Huaxia. It was a potential catastrophe.
A great catastrophe.
After all, as the old saying goes, a single mountain cannot harbor two tigers.
Would the still-mysterious Child of the Heavenly Dao tolerate such an existence?
And would Qin Fan, this heaven-defying being, submit to the Child of the Heavenly Dao?
No one knew, but they were certain of one thing: the chances of that were low. Very low. So low as to be practically zero.