Chapter 1568: Heaven and Earth in Upheaval

For Niu Youdao, the scene before him confirmed what Li Ge's Handwritten Notes had recorded about the Stellar Command Token.

But he still had no idea what the result would actually be.

The desert was shaking like a sieve.

The two men themselves were gradually sinking with the sand.

Niu Youdao used spiritual power to float above it, while Yuan Gang had to keep lifting his legs and stepping upward to prevent himself from being swallowed.

The pyramid continued sinking until only the tip remained above the sand.

Then a gentle beam of light suddenly burst from the summit and shot into the sky.

In an instant, the deep rumbling ceased.

The earth became still.

The trembling stopped.

The lightning overhead seemed to restrain itself under that soft radiance as well.

Only muffled thunder continued rolling endlessly through the dark clouds.

The column of gentle light began spreading outward like an opening fan.

Something slowly rose from the pyramid's tip.

The Stellar Command Token.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang watched in uncertainty.

They exchanged a glance, then returned their attention to the floating token.

It rose to a height of roughly one zhang.

Then light flashed.

A human image appeared.

The upper half of a woman's figure manifested in the air.

Her eyes were closed.

Her expression was serene.

Her hair was arranged simply.

Her beauty could topple a city.

Yuan Gang's eyes widened.

He blurted in astonishment, "Commandery Princess!"

Niu Youdao froze as well.

Reason told him this could not possibly be Shang Shuqing.

Then the phantom woman, whose features bore an astonishing resemblance to Shang Shuqing, suddenly opened her eyes.

Her bright gaze was dazzling, yet possessed a moving, unfathomable depth.

Even Yuan Gang immediately understood from the woman's cloud-borne bearing that this was not Shang Shuqing.

The resemblance was only in appearance.

The phantom woman looked at the two men.

She spoke.

"Two people? Which of you is the Person from the Mirror?"

Her voice was slightly distorted, carrying a resonant hum.

It seemed to come from the surrounding desert, yet also from Heaven and Earth themselves.

Niu Youdao answered, "I am."

The woman asked, "How do you prove it?"

Niu Youdao considered briefly. "An ancient tomb. An ancient bronze mirror."

Through his Dharma Eye, he could faintly see the Stellar Command Token rotating slowly within the woman's chest.

The entire apparition seemed to be emanating from the token.

The woman gave a slight nod.

"I cannot maintain this form for long. Since you've come to see me, do you have questions you need answered?"

Of course he did.

Niu Youdao immediately asked the first question in his heart.

How could this woman resemble Shang Shuqing so closely?

"Are you Li Ge?"

The woman said, "I am, and I am not."

"This is a strand of consciousness I separated from myself and sealed inside the Stellar Command Token so that you and I could meet today, and so I could answer the questions of the Person from the Mirror."

Niu Youdao was shaken.

He had no idea what level Li Ge's cultivation had once reached.

A mere strand of consciousness could survive until today and still think, speak, and answer questions?

Still astonished, he asked, "Is this your original appearance?"

The woman answered, "Do I have any need to impersonate someone else's appearance?"

"In this form, I can exist for only a quarter-hour. Is the matter of my appearance truly so important?"

The meaning was obvious.

Did he have nothing more important to ask?

Her appearance had thrown Niu Youdao's thoughts into confusion.

He forced himself to settle his emotions and asked, "You have nothing you want to ask me? You don't want to know how this world has changed?"

The woman said, "While I was alive, I did what I could. What the world is like now no longer matters."

"The fact that you have come to see me is proof enough that my true body has already fallen and cannot return."

"I am only one strand of consciousness. However much I learn, it would never be enough. There is no need for me to know more."

Niu Youdao was surprised. "With your cultivation, you could still fall?"

The woman said, "That is a long story. A quarter-hour is not enough time to tell it."

"If you wish to pursue the truth, then after you sever the passages between the Five Domains and the Five Domains Stellar Grand Formation collapses, its remaining gathered power will converge here."

"That force will shatter the void at this place and open a passage to another world."

"Across the vast reaches of the stars, I laid down many ancient-tomb grand formations and left them waiting for people of fate."

"Whichever of those formations is triggered will become connected to this world."

"If you wish to return, then the passage opened here by the remaining power of the Five Domains Stellar Grand Formation will be your road home."

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang stared at one another, both somewhat dazed.

Return?

They could still go back?

"Remember this. The remaining power of the Five Domains Stellar Grand Formation cannot last long either. The passage can remain open for no more than a quarter-hour. Once you miss it, the chance is gone."

"If you can unlock the Heart-Illuminating Mirror, then naturally you can also unlock the bronze mirror in the ancient tomb."

"Find that bronze mirror. It will give you the answer."

"The starry reaches are vast, without edge or limit. If your heart cannot rest, it will yearn for elsewhere."

"The bronze mirror will give you a choice."

"How you choose is up to you. I will not compel you."

"That is all I have to say."

"Heart-Illuminating Mirror. Person from the Mirror. Take care of yourself."

Seeing that she was about to disappear, Niu Youdao hurriedly said, "Wait. There's one more question—"

The woman merely smiled.

The apparition suddenly contracted and flowed back into the Stellar Command Token.

The token spun rapidly for an instant, then dropped into the recess in the stone summit.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning that had been gathering overhead came crashing down and struck the Stellar Command Token inside the slot once again.

Not one bolt.

Another followed.

Then another.

Lightning descended in a rapid succession of strikes.

The earth began trembling again.

The last exposed portion of the pyramid continued sinking.

Niu Youdao reached out as though to stop it, but there was nothing he could do.

He had still wanted to ask another question.

Then a hole suddenly opened in the sinking stone.

The Stellar Command Token seemed to fall through it.

Or perhaps it was swallowed.

BOOM!

They could feel the pyramid suddenly sink violently.

Something enormous seemed to erupt deep underground.

The entire desert heaved like a raging sea, while the signs of Heaven and Earth descended into chaos.

All around them, enormous sand scorpions were churned out of the surging dunes, tumbling in panic.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang themselves seemed to be standing amid storm-driven waves.

Only after the desert gradually calmed did the thunder overhead fade away.

The rolling black clouds dispersed just as quickly.

Before long, the sky returned to an endless blue.

Across the vast desert, the two men looked no larger than ants.

They could still go back?

The two stared at one another.

...

At the same time, atop Xiping Pass, Shang Chaozong and the others had only just occupied the fortress when Heaven and Earth seemed to shake around them.

Countless crows wheeled wildly overhead in alarm.

Yin'er, biting into a chicken leg, stared up and suddenly said, "Crows."

The disturbance came quickly and vanished just as fast.

Once it stopped, everyone looked around in shock and confusion.

No one knew what had happened.

The Yan army had been advancing like a blade splitting bamboo.

Jin's forces had been beaten so badly they could barely resist, routed again and again until they fled all the way back inside Xiping Pass.

Then Xiping Pass itself had fallen to Yan in a single assault.

There was no avoiding that result.

Those hundred thousand Crow Generals were effectively equivalent to a hundred thousand Golden Core cultivators—and Golden Core cultivators who could fly freely.

They might not have been enough against Wu Chang and people of his level, but Jin's ordinary cultivators simply could not contend with them.

Worse, the Crow Generals possessed no true flesh-and-blood bodies in their transformed state.

Ordinary sabers, spears, and storms of arrows had great difficulty harming them.

An arrow might pass straight through a Crow General's body without affecting it at all.

Only powerful spiritual force could truly destroy one.

And those Crow Generals could even form military battle formations.

They were like an army of a hundred thousand flying soldiers.

Their power was simply beyond what the Jin army could withstand.

The moment the two sides clashed, Jin collapsed.

Gao Pin and the others, having lost Xiping Pass, fled in panic.

Then they too felt the sudden shaking of Heaven and Earth and became even more alarmed.

And it was not only Xiping Pass.

The entire world felt that sudden, violent tremor.

At the entrance to the Tiandu Secret Realm atop Tiandu Peak, the mist that appeared only once every few decades suddenly returned.

Misty Pavilion had already dispersed.

No one was stationed there now.

The change went completely unnoticed.

Inside the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm, the mountain behind Shang Song's Traveling Palace collapsed.

A pyramid broke through the earth.

The shaking of Heaven and Earth sent Butterfly Rakshasas of every color flying wildly in panic.

In the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, a group of Demon Foxes stood atop the marsh.

Hei Yun and the other senior members of the Demon Fox clan had appeared as well.

All of them stared at the pyramid that had broken upward through a deserted island.

...

Above the vast desert, Duan Hu piloted a flying mount.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang rode together behind him.

Far off to their left, faint lightning flashed.

Rolling black clouds seemed to be gathering, as though rain were about to fall.

It was an extremely rare sight in the desert.

Niu Youdao gestured. "Go take a look."

Duan Hu immediately changed course and guided the flying mount toward it.

By the time they arrived, the lightning and dark clouds had already dispersed.

A pyramid identical to the one in the Fifth Domain stood in the desert below.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang exchanged a look.

If Duan Hu had not been with them, the two might almost have wondered whether they were still inside the Fifth Domain.

As they drew closer, they saw several people gathered beneath the pyramid, apparently surrounding someone.

The flying mount swept low overhead.

It was obvious at a glance.

Someone lay on the ground below, charred black by lightning.

Yuan Gang looked toward Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao had already flashed away.

He drifted down onto the pyramid's summit and looked at the stone platform there.

The recess was different from the one in the Fifth Domain.

This opening was flat and narrow, and very deep.

After observing it briefly, Niu Youdao understood.

He ignored the confused people looking up from below, flew back into the air, and landed on the circling mount.

He said only, "Tiandu Peak."

The people beneath the pyramid watched them leave in bewilderment.

...

When Niu Youdao's group reached the entrance to the Tiandu Secret Realm and saw the mist there, it confirmed what he had already suspected.

The Tiandu Secret Realm had indeed opened ahead of schedule.

Duan Hu, who knew nothing of the cause, was astonished.

Something suddenly darted out of the mist.

It resembled a rat, but was obviously several times larger.

The animal scurried around outside for a while, seemed unable to adapt to the environment, and quickly ran back into the mist.

Duan Hu said in surprise, "The Secret Realm entrance allows passage both ways?"

Under the old rules, entering and leaving had been one-way choices.

Both directions could not be used at the same time.

Niu Youdao naturally understood what was happening.

Still, he had no absolute certainty and would not casually test it with his own life.

Later, he could have someone send in a condemned criminal and verify it.

He turned around. "Let's go. Back to the villa."

Duan Hu had no idea what exactly the two men were doing.

He only knew to obey.

Still, he had begun to sense something.

Every place these two visited seemed to be undergoing some extraordinary abnormality.

He had no idea whether their journey was connected to those changes.

...

After the long flight back to Maolu Villa, Duan Hu withdrew.

Niu Youdao lowered his voice to Yuan Gang.

"You can enter the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm. Later, make a secret trip there. Take a flying mount and search for whether another pyramid has appeared."

"Focus around Shang Song's Traveling Palace."

"I doubt whoever arranged these things would have hidden them somewhere impossible to find. The area around Shang Song's Traveling Palace is the most likely place."

"Understood." Yuan Gang nodded.

At that moment, Yun Ji came striding over.

She had no idea where the two had gone on this secretive trip.

Since they had not told her, she followed her old habit and did not ask.

Once she drew near, however, she looked at Yuan Gang twice, as though she had something to say but wanted him gone first.

Yuan Gang noticed.

Understanding that she wanted to avoid speaking in front of him, he tactfully left.

The moment he was gone, Yun Ji lowered her voice to Niu Youdao.

"Feng Guan'er is here."

Niu Youdao looked toward Yuan Gang's departing back and raised one hand to rub his forehead.

A headache.

A headache entirely because of Yuan Gang.

He asked, "So Hongniang is back too?"

Yun Ji said, "She's back. She brought Nantian Wufang with her."

"Hongniang refused to let us arrange a guest courtyard for them. The two have openly moved in together."

"Everyone was stunned."

Niu Youdao glanced at her.

She was speaking with barely concealed delight, clearly enjoying the gossip.

He suddenly discovered that women truly did seem interested in this sort of thing.

Even a snake demon was no exception.

Where had that aloof and icy snake demon from years ago gone?

Just then, Guan Fangyi's teasing voice floated over.

"Sister Yun, you're talking behind my back again, aren't you?"

[End of Chapter 1568]