Free Web NovelChapter 494: Chapter 110: Tomb-Sweeping, The Last Afterglow of an Era
In Luoyang, a Historian furiously recorded.
[Ninety-eighth Year of Jianwu. After the fall of the Four Directions Celestial Court, a great change seemed to befall the Celestial Court. A Heaven-Reaching Sword Array pierced the sky!]
[Afterward, Immortal Gods personally proclaimed that the Celestial Emperor had fallen and the Celestial Court was left without a master.]
[The Human World was free of disasters, blessed with favorable weather. It remained so for the next ten thousand years, year after year.]
...
"During the first invasion of Heaven, Xiang Yu died."
On the shore of a great lake, Liu Bang, clad in Broken Armor, recounted with his head lowered:
"By the second invasion of Heaven, Duke Mu of Qin, Li Si, Meng Yi... all of them fell in battle."
"For the third invasion of Heaven, we revered Zhang Liang as the Supreme Venerable and struck at the heavens once more. It was a disastrous defeat."
Hearing this, Lu Xuan’s brow twitched.
Liu Bang took a deep breath and continued his account:
"Our remaining forces scattered, and the Great Han began to decline until it was finally destroyed. My descendant, Liu Xiu, was chosen by the Celestial Court. He accepted their mandate, established the New Han, and proclaimed himself the Celestial Son..."
As he spoke, tears suddenly streamed down the old man’s face.
"The remnants of our army fled in all directions, hunted by the Celestial Court time and again. The Wu’an Monarch was slain in the West Sea. And Zhang Liang, on his wedding day, met with disaster in the depths of the North Sea..."
Lu Xuan crushed the teacup in his hand to dust.
He asked in a low voice,
"What about the others?"
"I don’t know."
Liu Bang shook his head, a look of confusion crossing his face.
"Most of the ’otherworlders’ who knew the future died in battle. The rest vanished along with the First Emperor. It’s very strange. I investigated for many years but found nothing."
Lu Xuan frowned. He tugged on the threads of Cause and Effect, peering into the past and future. It was clear that people like Uncle Yan were still alive, but their whereabouts were hidden from him.
He searched carefully, his heart growing heavier. Cause and Effect revealed that of the Chen Family Siblings, Chen Shu was dead. Zhang Huatian had also been slain. Li Yutong’s very Soul had been annihilated, severing all chance of Reincarnation!
Old friends like Chen Ye, Wang Zhiyao, and Lu Chongtong were missing, just like Uncle Yan and the Old Celestial Master.
A sharp pain lanced through Lu Xuan’s heart.
He didn’t have many old friends, but they weren’t a small number either.
In three invasions of Heaven, from Duke Mu of Qin to Li Yutong, and then to Chen Shu and Zhang Huatian, the lucky ones entered Reincarnation. The unlucky ones... had their souls utterly shattered!
Adjusting the Bronze Mask on his face, Lu Xuan let out a soft sigh.
After a long while, he rose to his feet. "I understand now," he said, his voice heavy with sorrow. "...I’m going to see some old friends, visit their graves. You may go."
Liu Bang suddenly prostrated himself on the ground, saying with a wretched laugh:
"Emperor Venerable, my own people are all gone! My wife was killed, my brother died, even my own sons and grandsons are no more! Can you take me with you?"
Lu Xuan gazed at Han Gaozu and gently placed a hand on his head.
"Come. I permit you to follow me for a time."
"Yes, Emperor Venerable!"
The two men, both weathered by ages of hardship, journeyed together until they reached a vast stretch of burial mounds—the great tombs of those who had died in the war against Heaven.
They walked past endless rows of tombstones, pouring a cup of Immortal Wine on each. At last, Lu Xuan stopped before the grave of Duke Mu of Qin, his gaze distant.
Of all his companions, he had known and traveled with Duke Mu of Qin for one of the longest periods of time.
From the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, through the invasion of Qi, the Preaching, and into the era of the Qin Dynasty...
Placing his palm on the tombstone, Lu Xuan sensed for a moment, then nodded slightly.
"Gone to be reincarnated, have you? That’s good... That’s good..."
He poured the last cup of Immortal Wine onto the burial mound.
Leaving the graveyard, Lu Xuan led Liu Bang north. They did not fly, but walked slowly, observing the affairs of the Human World and witnessing the fleeting moments of mortal life.
A hundred years after the fall of the Celestial Court, the two had journeyed deep into the ocean, finally coming to a solitary island.
The creatures in this stretch of sea were far from ordinary. Tainted by Dragon Blood and Immortal Blood, they were brimming with savage energy and launched several attacks against the pair, but none could even get close.
Once on the island, Lu Xuan walked up to a decaying hut. The inside was covered in a thick layer of dust.
He could see a rotted lantern and a half-burnt candle stub. A faded, blurry ’喜’ character, signifying joy, was still stuck to the wall.
Lu Xuan raised the Celestial Venerable Cyan Lamp, illuminating the hut. In the candlelight of the Jade Void Glazed Lamp, he saw a scene from the past.
A young man and a young woman were performing their wedding ceremony inside the hut. Outside, the din of battle shook the heavens, and the roar of thunder rolled across the sky.
After the ceremony, they did not retire to the bridal chamber. Instead, the young man knocked the woman unconscious, submerged her deep in the sea for safety, and walked out of the hut alone to face the sky.
"Senior Brother Zhang..."
Tears suddenly streamed down Lu Xuan’s face.
He walked behind the hut. A cenotaph stood there, likely erected by Ao Xianzhi after she returned.
The inscription on it read, "Tomb of My Husband, Zhang Liang."
Lu Xuan sat before the grave. Liu Bang stood quietly to one side. A long, long time passed.
"You all couldn’t even wait for me..."
He stroked the tombstone, murmuring absently,
"Senior Brother Zhang, I should have been sitting in the seat of honor at your wedding, but you slipped away. Oh, you..."
Lu Xuan set out two cups of simple wine. He didn’t drink, but just sat there quietly, remarking with a wry smile,
"No Immortal Wine for you. This simple vintage is more than enough!"
"Still... why did your soul have to be shattered so completely? Thankfully, a fragmented wisp of your True Spirit managed to escape..."
He sat before the grave for ten years.
In the eleventh year, the Kunpeng arrived, parting the seas.
"Xuanhuang..."
The Kunpeng, having taken human form, looked at the desolate figure sitting before the grave and sighed softly.
"Are you well?"
Lu Xuan seemed to startle awake. He brushed the cobwebs from his head and turned to give a weary smile.
"I’m all right. Your timing is perfect."
He had taken off his Bronze Mask. Unshaven and haggard, he looked utterly despondent as he spoke in a low voice,
"Fellow Daoist Kunpeng, since you are a Demon, would you happen to know of the Demon Ancestor?"
"The Demon Ancestor?"
The Kunpeng’s expression changed slightly, but it immediately nodded.
"I know a little. His origins are a complete mystery; no one knows where he came from. He calls himself the Demon Ancestor, and his Cultivation is profound beyond all imagination..."
Lost in memory, he began to recount in a low voice:
