THE LAND OF COUNTLESS PLANES (6/6)

< Xū Líng >

Other moniker/s: "The Youth Born Of Space", "Child of Prophecy", "Evil Saint", "Great Sage", "Fifth Divine King", "Tamperer of Heaven", "Childe of the Qi", "Bane of Ran", "Ancestral Protector of Xiao", [...]

Hundreds of years passed in precarious peace: although the seal had been broken, the remnant power of the first 'God' was no joke. Especially for those that had been under its influence for so long, it would take a lot more than a couple of laughable centuries for their essence to be cleansed of such poison. Only newcomers, newborns in a world free of the Seal, had any hope to fully display their true capabilities when rebelling against the Nine Heavens: even then, whatever traces of the seal inlaid in the Karma of their ancestors would occasionally hinder their Paths.

The era of the olden Primordial and Heavenly Beasts was almost officially over by then. With their might virtually maimed and spirits broken, only the newer generations could persist on the path of cultivation unscathed. All others were left helpless as they witnessed their cultivation atrophy, and they slowly withered away.

Barely worthy of mention, there was a speck of light in that darkness: it would not be easy for Tian to craft a second seal in the short term.

Not only would he have to dedicate himself to it fully, but he also needed to recover the might of the Jade Emperor which he had greatly expended both to resist the Martyr's struggles and to face the backlash that resulted from his loss.

With signs of revolts plaguing his reign after the shattering of the seal, if he tried to work on the Seal and a rebellion happened, he would be vulnerable. Even working on the two in tandem, he'd need many millennia to recover what was expended and regain his unshakable status.

But even then, it all looked bleak to those who had animosity towards the usurper and who yearned for his downfall. Lady Jinhuang's sacrifice had opened up a path, but to traverse it, it would require almost as extraordinary of an effort.

But then, a mere human shattered all semblance of peace.

The Heavenly Beasts referred to this woman as the Prophet.

Mortal humans yet to achieve a higher Realm of cultivation couldn't even acknowledge the existence of Heavenly, Divine, and Primordial Beasts. Even more so for the Primordial and Divine, but even the lowest Heavenly Beast would appear no more than a blur even to the most legendary of mortals. They'd be none the wiser unless the Beast went out of their way to strike them on the head and dispel the Veil.

And yet, the Prophet was a mortal. A blind, old human who, for some twist of fate, had been able to interact with Heavenly Beasts and peer into their path regardless of the worldly laws.

She was the one who gave many Beasts, the Divine Kings and the Primordial Emperors first among them, proper names beyond titles and sobriquets, introducing the humans to the world beyond the Veil.

She had a long history of almost a hundred thousand years and two different regimes of Heavenly Realms, an extreme lifespan fruit of the joint efforts of the countless beings in the countless planes who wished to keep her alive. In that time, she had prevented countless catastrophes thanks to her ability to glimpse into the Grand Design written in the Karma threads.

No matter how outlandish, the Prophet's word was always the Truth.

And this time, she had foretold of a person that would bring chaos and destruction to the Nine Heavens, destroy the Tyrant and take the Throne as the Lord of Heaven!

This person not from the Earths, not from the Heavens, not from the Underworld: unlike all other beings whom, in a way or another, descended from the Heavens and Earths, he would herald from beyond the lands encompassed in the Triangle, Square, and Circle.

As a being free of any seal, he would be the sign of a calamity that shall befall the Nine Heavens!

As the suppressed Heavenly and Primordial Beasts began to squirm about more and more menacingly, showing signs of rebellion and clamouring for the Liberator, Tian couldn't help but move [...]

Thus, he had ended his search of the Nine Heavens, the True Earth and the surroundings Planes of notice, but couldn't hope to sieve through the countless lands on his own.

He thus visited the Underworld. By then, it was no longer a secret that he had once cheated Yama, King of Hell, of three favours.

Consensus has it, Tian used the second of them there

[Note scribbled between the lines by an anonymous scholar: the first is virtually confirmed, having made Yama reenact the scene of submission to the Jade Emperor and helping the Usurper bring all beings under the Seal]

to search the inexplicable Underworld for the foretold child that would one day aim at his throat.

Even then though, he wouldn't find any trace of that potential threat. Returning home empty-handed, Tian could only focus his efforts on recovering his power.

Like so persisted the precarious state that the Nine Heavens were in since Lady Jin Fenghuang's revolution... and for the centuries to come, the Prophecy would be like a beacon in the night, a light of hope for those who wished to rebel, and it only served to further incense their desire to act up to Tian.

The years passed in bated wait for the promised coming.

And finally, it happened.

The foretold Saviour had blue eyes more beautiful than any gemstone, more starry than any night sky, deeper than any ocean.

On a night of converging sunlight and moonbeams, reality split open before the Four Divine Kings who had given up hope.

And Xu Ling, the child holding the revolving galaxies in his gaze, appeared into the Land of Countless Planes.

End of "Xū Líng", an excerpt from the work "Records of the Nine Heavens", now banned across the Nine Heavens and penned by an anonymous scholar.