Chapters 1408 - The Heavens Haven’t Forsaken Me!' |
The Flying Immortal Forbidden Zone.
A ruined stretch of ground shrouded completely in fog. Everything was silent on all sides.
“Qing Tang, you leave first. Seek protection with the Mo Family,” ordered Su Yi.
His body was in tatters, and he was bleeding non-stop. His handsome face was translucent from blood loss, and his vital energy was a chaotic mess.
“I won’t leave!” Qing Tang’s eyes were bloodshot and misty with tears. “Even if I die, I want to die with you, Master!”
Su Yi laughed and tousled her hair, his gaze uncharacteristically tender. “That’s an order, and a master’s commands are not to be disobeyed. Do as I say.”
Qing Tang stubbornly lowered her head. She said nothing, but she didn’t back down.
“There’s not much time left.” Su Yi gazed into the distance and said softly, “If I’m not mistaken, it won’t be long before the Tailor arrives. Rest assured. It won’t be so easy for him to kill me.”
He then looked at Qing Tang once more. “Hurry up and leave.”
Here, she paused to take a deep breath before looking up and gazing intently at him, her starry eyes misty with tears. “This time, I’d…. rather die than leave you!”
She spoke with staunch determination.
Su Yi froze, stunned, then gently wiped away her tears. “Very well. Stay if you must.”
Qing Tang said hurriedly, “Master, seize this opportunity to tend to your wounds. I’ll watch over you!”
Su Yi shook his head. “There’s no time.”
He raised his jug of wine, threw back his head, and took a deep swig before saying, “There’s no way that old schemer the Tailor will give me time to recover. Besides, he’s… already here."
Already here? Qing Tang’s heart clenched.
Meanwhile, an aged voice emanated from beneath the distant dome of heaven.
“No one understands me better than you, Temple Master.”
The Tailor appeared before the echo of his voice vanished, walking over from afar in his usual plain cloth robes and round black hat. Four figures followed shortly after—three men and two women. All of them had strange, inscrutable presences, and all of them emanated a mottled air of calamity.
These were obviously four more Hidden God Guards!
The look on Qing Tang’s pretty face shifted. Their enemies had arrived far too quickly!
“Another clone?” Su Yi glanced at the Tailor.
The Tailor shook his head. “This one’s different.”
He sighed with emotion. “As you know, I’m from the Epoch of Demonism. I was able to cross the River of Spacetime and send a clone into this world through the power of a taboo divine artifact. In other words, since the moment our enmity began, you’ve only ever seen my clones.”
“Does that mean your true body is still in the Epoch of Demonism?” asked Su Yi.
The tailor nodded. “That’s right.”
As they conversed, he led the four Hidden God Guards to that stretch of ancient ruins and stopped just a thousand feet away from Su Yi.
He then looked Su Yi up and down and said, “To be precise, if you manage to kill me this time, even if my true body wants to get revenge…. I’m afraid he’ll have to wait until the Domain Boundary Battlefield reopens.”
Su Yi exclaimed, “When the Domain Boundary Battlefield reopens? Don’t tell me that your true body will be able to cross the River of Spacetime and enter this world then?”
The Tailor’s gaze was inscrutable. “Should you manage to live that long, you’ll naturally find out.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh dryly. “Try and kill me, then.”
His wounds were severe, and his vital energy was in disarray. It seemed as if he might topple at a moment’s notice.
Yet for some reason, he seemed incomparably calm and composed, and it didn’t seem at all like an act.
The Tailor’s brow furrowed imperceptibly. “Don’t be in such a rush. We’ve fought all these years, but now, we’ll finally determine victory and defeat. No need for haste.”
Su Yi raised his jug of wine and took a sip, a faint smile on his place. “You want to stall for time to get a better sense of how real my injuries are?”
The Tailor didn’t hide it. “That’s right.”
Then, he let out a long sigh, a complicated look on his face. “Throughout our long years of conflict, I’ve racked my brain for ways to get rid of you, only to lose to you every single time. As the losses piled on, there was no preventing lingering resentment and hatred from accumulating in my heart.
“But despite all that, throughout the stars, you’re the only person I think highly of,” said the Tailor, rubbing his lower jaw. “The more I hate you, the more I admire you, and the more I admire you, the more I long to kill you.
“Do you understand how that feels?”
Su Yi thought it over, then said with complete seriousness, “I don’t. After all, as you said, we’ve fought all these years, but I’ve never once lost to you. It’s truly difficult for me to understand how you must feel.”
“....” The Tailor suddenly felt as if he’d been a fool to say all that. It was as if he’d handed his enemy a knife, only for him to predictably turn around and thrust it into his gut. And indeed, what had he expected?
After a moment’s silence, the Tailor let out a deep sigh. “Indeed, I’m the only one of us to have tasted defeat. However…”
He looked up at Su Yi. “Do you think you can still win this time?”
Su Yi took a deep, hard look at the Tailor, then asked right back, “Is this really the last clone you have left in this world?”
The Tailor looked at him, a conflicted look in his eyes. “I’d just love to keep some strength in reserve and lie low until a better opportunity arises. Alas, time is not in my favor.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Su Yi.
“You’re only in the Cosmic Enlightenment Realm, but you slew an army of Cloud Soaring revenants. I fear that if I want until after you’ve stepped onto the Path of Transcendence, I’ll never get another such perfect opportunity to kill you,” the Tailor said with a self-deprecation. “There’s nothing for it; I am ultimately just a clone, and I lack the power of my true body. I’m like a tree disconnected from my roots. At most, I’ll be able to step into Transcendence, but… I cannot achieve any further breakthroughs.”
Su Yi instantly understood.
Ultimately, he was breaking through too quickly. The Tailor was struggling to keep pace with him. If things went on like this, how could the Tailor possibly fight him? With just tricks and schemes?
The thought was laughably childish!
Setting traps to kill your foes was only effective when you had the strength and foundations to back it up. Only then could you compare intellects and bravery. Without strength to back your plots and schemes up, they were as fragile as soap bubbles.
A single powerful cultivator could defeat any number of trained martial artists. This was much the same principle.
“It’s because of this that when I caught signs of the changes to come, I poured everything I had into refining the Hidden God Guards,” the Tailor continued as if speaking to himself. “This is because I predicted that, if the Path of Transcendence appeared and you seized an opportunity to break through, I’d have little hope of ever defeating you.
“However… I wouldn’t have thought that the Hidden God Guards, who are stronger than even Cloud Soaring revenants, would fail to take down a World King like you.”
Here, the Tailor let out a deep sigh. His voice was full of entirely unconcealed bitterness and despondency.
Su Yi asked in confusion, “But if you had a trump card like the Hidden God Guards all this time, why not deploy them as soon as you learned that I’d reincarnated and returned to the stars?”
The Tailor’s expression shifted, and he said irritably, “Surely you know the answer to that?”
Su Yi thought for a moment.
“Ah, I understand,” he said as if enlightened. “The Hidden God Guards are subject to the restriction of the Laws, just like the revenants. They cannot travel the outside world freely.”
“What do you mean, you understand? Aren’t you just poking fun at me?” The Tailor laughed coldly, but inwardly, he felt quite stifled.
The Hidden God Guards really were the trump card he took the most pride in.
But due to the restrictions of the Laws, he hadn’t been able to use them to destroy Su Yi until recently.
By the time he could finally deploy the Hidden God Guards, Su Yi’s strength had soared to utterly terrifying heights!
How could the Tailor not be frustrated?
“This is what they call the hand of fate. The heavens haven’t forsaken me!” Su Yi threw back his head and laughed.
However, his laughter soon gave way to violent, hacking coughs. Blood poured from his mouth, and his face paled.
“Master…” Qing Tang’s heart clenched.
The Tailor couldn’t help but find this amusing. “Go on, keep laughing. It’d be best if you laughed yourself to death. That would save me the trouble of killing you personally! Die of laughter, and your death will be spoken of throughout the stars with amusement. Everyone will know that the lofty Temple Master laughed himself to death in the end. Your unique means of death will ‘dazzle and shake’ both the present and the future!
“Right, I’ve long since prepared your coffin and tombstone. Once you die, I’ll carve your cause of death on your grave marker and place it outside the ruins of All Willow City’s Glittering Jewel Hidden Realm. After all, it’s your hometown. In the years to come, I’m sure that countless people will come to visit your grave and pay their respects.”
He spoke with entirely unconcealed mockery. The Tailor’s delight would have been obvious to anyone; his face was nothing but smiles.
Su Yi put away his jug of wine, and his bleeding hands gripped the Sword of the Human Realm. “I wouldn’t have thought you were so filial, Ol’ Tailor. That’s truly rare and precious. Alas, filial as you may be, I don’t acknowledge you as my son.”
The Tailor’s smile froze in place, and the veins bulged on his forehead.
Clang!
Su Yi suddenly flicked the flat of the Sword of the Human Realm and attacked from afar.
“Hah? You finally can’t take it anymore. Want to lash out before your death? Very well! I can grant that wish!”
The Tailor’s eyes flashed with murderous intent.
Kcch!
As his voice rang out, he transformed into a puff of black smoke, then disappeared into thin air.
Meanwhile, the four Hidden God Guards attacked in full force.