Su Hua didn't know why she felt so uncomfortable upon hearing Gu Qingfeng was about to leave.
Perhaps she wanted to understand more about the peerless hero in her heart, or perhaps she wanted to understand more about this person tied to her by karma.
Perhaps there were even more reasons, but Su Hua truly didn't know.
Yet Gu Qingfeng always wore that impatient look, which made her feel deeply hurt and very angry.
What made her even more furious was that she had originally just wanted to act a little willful, to let Gu Qingfeng know she was angry and that she wanted him to stay. But to her surprise, when she turned around, Gu Qingfeng had already vanished without a trace, as if he had never been there at all.
"How hateful!
Truly too hateful! How can he be so hateful!"
Su Hua felt wounded, her self-esteem severely bruised, her heart suffering an unprecedented trauma. Gazing in the direction Gu Qingfeng had disappeared, she gnashed her teeth in anger: "Gu Qingfeng, you are simply a complete and utter scoundrel!"
...
It was high noon, under a blazing sun.
A full day had passed since the Yanluo temple fair, yet the entire Yanluo Kingdom seemed exceptionally tranquil.
There was no chaos because the Immortal Dynasty's people had been slaughtered.
Nor was there any turmoil because the inner court ancestors of the four great families and seven great sects had been wiped out.
What existed was only a profound shock at the return of Monarch Chixiao, and that indescribable sense of disbelief.
Back then, many had witnessed with their own eyes the legendary overlord of his generation, Monarch Chixiao Gu Tianlang, being reduced to ashes by the judgment of the Immortal Dao.
With Monarch Chixiao turning to ashes, it also signified the end of the Ancient Era and the official beginning of the Present-Ancient Era.
There had always been debate about whether Monarch Chixiao had truly died.
Some said that the Monarch had experienced nine lives and nine deaths in his lifetime; life and death were as commonplace to him as daily meals. Others being reduced to ashes by Immortal Dao judgment might truly die, but that didn't mean the Monarch would.
Others said that even if the Monarch had heaven-defying abilities, once reduced to ashes, he could not die and come back to life.
With the reincarnation storm that accompanied the Ancient Era's great calamity, and with the revival of all things in the Present-Ancient Era, many powerful Immortals and Demons had reincarnated one after another. Even some ancient existences had begun to awaken, and quite a few prominent figures from the Ancient Era had returned.
Some said that if the Monarch hadn't been completely annihilated back then, he would surely have reincarnated with the reincarnation storm and the revival of all things, or died and resurrected to make a comeback.
Yet year after year, the true Monarch Chixiao did not appear. Instead, impostors claiming to be Monarch Chixiao were everywhere.
Precisely because of this, everyone came to realize a fact: Monarch Chixiao was truly dead, completely annihilated. Otherwise, it was impossible that he hadn't reincarnated even after a full century of the Present-Ancient Era.
When Gu Qingfeng appeared in Yanluo and claimed to be Monarch Chixiao, no one believed him.
Even when Gu Qingfeng could command the awe of the Blood Fiend Dragon-Elephant, they still didn't believe.
But then, with the respectful welcome from the Yanluo imperial family's Elder Tang.
With the prostration of the two reincarnated experts from the Immortal Dynasty, Wan Huaiyu and Qin Hao.
And with the prostration of the Supreme Ancestor Xuanze from the Taiji Sect.
More and more people, from initial disbelief, gradually began to doubt.
Until Immortal Su Hua personally stated that Gu Qingfeng was Monarch Chixiao. Then, no one doubted any longer.
Immortal Su Hua's previous life was the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden; in this life, she was an emissary of the Nine Heavens. Moreover, for a century, she had been searching for traces of Monarch Chixiao. If she said Gu Qingfeng was Monarch Chixiao, then he certainly was.
No one knew how Monarch Chixiao, who had been reduced to ashes by Immortal Dao judgment, could still be alive. Not only alive, but neither reincarnated nor reborn.
Yes.
No one knew.
Nor did anyone care.
It wasn't important.
What was important was that the legendary overlord of the Ancient Era, Monarch Chixiao, had returned after three hundred years.
How could this not shock people? How could they dare believe it?
If others felt this way, how much more so for Hei Shui, Hei Fo, and the other three hundred or so Chixiao people in Yanluo Kingdom? Although a day had passed since the Yanluo temple fair, for these Chixiao people, it felt as if it had just happened. The excitement, exhilaration, and surging emotions in their hearts had not weakened but had grown even stronger.
It all felt like a dream, somewhat unreal, leaving them dazed and with a trace of unease.
They were excited and exhilarated because the Monarch they had long awaited had finally returned.
They were dazed and uneasy because they feared it was all a dream. Even knowing it wasn't a dream, they were still afraid.
Since Gu Qingfeng mysteriously vanished at the foot of Coiling Dragon Mountain, telling them to go back and wait, Hei Shui, Hei Fo, and the three hundred or so Chixiao people had been anxiously waiting at the Plum Mountain branch. At first, it was fine; they were all excited, one more than the other. But as time ticked by, with no sign of the Monarch, after waiting a full day, their initial dazed unease turned into growing worry.
Especially since they had been continuously using their Divine Sense to probe the entire Yanluo Kingdom. But probing and searching, scouring every corner of Yanluo, they found no trace of the Monarch. This made them even more restless.
"Elder Mei, just waiting here like this isn't a solution. Should we go out and search?"
Hei Fo's face was somewhat pale, his spirit extremely listless. He had been continuously using his Divine Sense to probe, and by now, not only was his Divine Sense overdrawn, but his consciousness was beginning to blur.
"Where would we search?"
Elder Mei's complexion wasn't good either, as he too had been constantly probing with his Divine Sense. Like Hei Fo, his Divine Sense was long overdrawn, his mental state particularly weak. With a grim face, he said, "If even our Divine Sense can't detect him, what else can you do?"
"Then what should we do?"
"Sigh..." Elder Mei sighed heavily; he didn't know what to do either.
"Elder Mei, Hei Fo..." The speaker was Hei Shui. By now, he was utterly exhausted, slumped on the ground. His voice was extremely faint when he spoke, his vital energy and spirit long depleted. Slumped on the ground, he looked like a man about to starve to death, saying weakly, "We...
At the foot of Coiling Dragon Mountain...
We didn't recognize the Monarch. Could it be...
The Monarch is angry with us?"
"He shouldn't be, right?"
Hei Fo said, "The Monarch isn't a petty person."
"Hei Fo, this isn't about pettiness or not. It's about disappointment or not. I think...
I think the Monarch must be terribly disappointed in us. Think about it...
Think, when the Monarch was...
In the Great Northwest, we Chixiao brothers didn't recognize him. Calling him...
A fraud was one thing. I heard...
I heard some Chixiao people even attacked him..." Due to his depleted spirit, Elder Hei Shui was almost in a state of muddled consciousness. But even so, he forced himself to rally, to stand up, saying, "When he came to Yanluo...
We didn't believe him either...
Plus...
After all these years, the few of us haven't amounted to much. Not to mention the Chizi Head being split and divided, but Zhou Taihe and those turtle grandsons betrayed their oaths. He...
Must...
Must be very disappointed in us. Anyway...
If...
If I were the Monarch, I'd be pretty disappointed in myself."
Hearing Hei Shui's words, Hei Fo thought carefully and felt there was some truth to it.
"Sigh, we...
We truly have eyes but fail to see. Especially me...
I followed the Monarch for so many years, and now when the Monarch stood before me, I actually...
Actually couldn't recognize him. I feel too ashamed...
Too ashamed to face the Monarch."
Hei Shui rambled on in a daze, his eyes half-open and half-closed, as if he didn't even have the strength to open them fully. In his haze, he seemed to see a white figure appear out of thin air, looking very much like Gu Qingfeng.
"Oh, damn it...
Hei Fo, come slap me. I can't hold on anymore, I'm about to collapse. I'm even starting to see hallucinations..."