Chapter 1342: Having an Affair

Chapter 1341: Having an Affair

“…It actually turned out to be… Yan Zhu…”

Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened slightly.

He actually came out of the Desolate Wilderness?

How did he cross the land of famine? And how did he return to the Royal Court?

Mo Hua frowned.

Inside the great hall, the imposing Yan Zhu suddenly felt a chill in his heart, as if some terrifying existence had glanced at him, sending a tremor from the depths of his soul.

He quickly looked around, and in the end his gaze fell upon the half-human, half-divine Vermilion Bird Goddess statue standing at the front. Reverence rose in his heart, and his attitude grew much more restrained.

Yan Zhu then looked toward Dan Ling, radiant like red jade before him, and his tone softened considerably:

“Dan Ling, take me as your master. I will never treat you unfairly. I will pass everything on to you, my Divine Dao, my legacy, my position as High Shaman. In the future, it will all be yours.”

Dan Ling frowned. “You still haven’t answered me. How did you break into the Divine Maiden Hall?”

Yan Zhu smiled. “I am a High Shaman, after all…”

Dan Ling said coldly, “The Divine Maiden Hall is a place of purity. Even if you are a High Shaman, without a decree from the Divine-Lord, you have no right to enter.”

Yan Zhu shook his head, a trace of emotion in his eyes.

“Dan Ling, don’t you understand? The Great Wilderness is finished. The Royal Court is about to fall… At a time like this, talking about decrees from the Divine-Lord is… laughable…”

Dan Ling’s gaze remained icy. “So what?”

Yan Zhu froze.

Dan Ling’s expression was resolute, her eyes shining with the brilliance of the Vermilion Bird:

“I am the Divine Maiden of the Great Wilderness. What I serve is the orthodox Divine Dao of the Great Wilderness. My heart and fate were long ago offered to the gods. If the Great Wilderness stands, I stand. If it falls, I will die together with the Royal Court.”

Yan Zhu was shaken by Dan Ling’s blazing, radiant presence. For a moment his heart wavered, and seeing her jade-like beauty, he suddenly felt somewhat ashamed of himself.

He muttered, “No… no… You can’t die. You’re so beautiful… how can you die?”

Unable to resist, Yan Zhu stepped forward, wanting to reach out and touch Dan Ling.

Dan Ling stepped back, her gaze sharp and severe.

Yan Zhu paused, then stopped himself, slowly withdrawing his hand. He sighed. “Dan Ling, listen to me. Take me as your master.”

“I can give you everything.”

“As long as you take me as your master, I can protect your life. I can help you leave the Royal Court…”

Hearing this, Dan Ling froze, then her eyes grew even sharper, tinged with anger.

“Lord Yan Zhu… you intend to abandon the Royal Court and cling to life in disgrace?”

Being questioned like this by the slender and graceful Dan Ling, Yan Zhu’s tall, imposing figure seemed to shrink slightly, and a trace of shame flickered in his eyes.

But the shame vanished quickly, and his face turned cold again.

“You’re wrong. From beginning to end, I have been a believer of the Luminous Flame God, while the Royal Court is merely secular royal power.”

“I am a shaman. I believe in the gods, not kings. If the Royal Court stands, I can enshrine the gods there and let them protect its greatness. If the Royal Court falls, I can enshrine the gods elsewhere.”

“What is great is the Dao of the gods, not the kingdom of a king.”

Dan Ling rebuked coldly, “You’re just twisting words.”

Yan Zhu shook his head. “I am a shaman. I grasp the doctrines of the gods. There are many things I understand better than you…”

He looked deeply again at the cold and beautiful Dan Ling, and his tone softened once more.

“You should understand, I would say this much only because it is you. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t bother explaining a single word. Whether they live or die means nothing to me… But Dan Ling, you’re different. You’re not like them…”

Yan Zhu couldn’t help taking a few more steps toward Dan Ling.

“Stop right there!” Dan Ling snapped.

Yan Zhu had no choice but to stop again. Helplessly he said, “What will it take for you to believe me? What will it take for you to take me as your master and accept my blessing?”

Dan Ling said coldly, “Give up on that thought.”

Yan Zhu frowned. “Dan Ling… I truly want to cherish you in my heart…”

Dan Ling replied, “You are a High Shaman, so I show you some respect. Do not be shameless.”

Yan Zhu’s expression finally turned cold. He nodded, then suddenly said:

“Fine, fine, fine… a chaste and pure Divine Maiden indeed. You’ve devoted your mind and spirit entirely to the Divine-Lord… But what about your tribe? Your father? Your brothers? Where do they stand in your heart?”

Dan Ling’s expression shifted slightly. “What do you mean?”

A mysterious smile appeared on Yan Zhu’s face. “You should know that I went out to preach before and was gone for several years. But do you know where I actually went? Do you know whom I met?”

A trace of unease appeared in Dan Ling’s eyes. “You…”

Yan Zhu smiled. “I went to the Vermilion Sparrow Tribe. I met your father, your elder brother, your younger brother, and your tribesmen…”

Dan Ling frowned. “You’re lying!”

Yan Zhu smiled calmly. “Whether I’m lying, you should know in your heart. Why did I go preach? Wasn’t it for your sake? You are a Divine Maiden, serving the gods alone in the Royal Court, cut off from kin, forbidden from associating with your tribe…”

“All these years of secluded cultivation in the temple, you have no idea how your tribe and family have been doing.”

Yan Zhu’s gaze was gentle. “I knew your cultivation was not easy, cut off from your loved ones, your heart quietly suffering. I feared you might worry, so I made a special trip to the Vermilion Sparrow Tribe to see your family and tribesmen. Don’t you want to know… how they are now?”

Dan Ling pressed her lips together tightly. “I am already the Divine Maiden of the Royal Court. In my heart there are only the gods… no more blood ties or family.”

Yan Zhu chuckled. “Then you don’t want to know how your tribe, your father, your brothers are doing?”

Dan Ling’s hands clenched, her fingers turning pale.

Yan Zhu sighed, his face sorrowful. “You don’t know… Famine has struck the Desolate Wilderness again. Wherever the disaster mist spreads, the starving dead lie for thousands of miles, and cries of misery fill the land. And by the Desolate Wilderness’s custom, whenever famine comes, war follows. Your Vermilion Sparrow Tribe could not escape either. Your father…”

Dan Ling’s chest tightened painfully. She couldn’t help asking urgently, “What happened to him?”

A faint smile curved Yan Zhu’s lips as he looked at her. “You… want to know?”

Gritting her teeth, Dan Ling slowly nodded.

But Yan Zhu did not continue immediately. He deliberately paused, watching as her icy expression grew more anxious, before finally speaking slowly:

“As famine spread and bloody wars erupted, the Vermilion Sparrow Tribe faced great peril. Your father, as its great chieftain, naturally could not avoid responsibility.”

“But his old injuries had never healed. After so many years away from battle, he suffered repeated setbacks in the brutal tribal wars. Barbarian warriors fell, and many of your tribesmen died…”

Dan Ling’s face grew paler and paler.

Yan Zhu sighed. “Seeing this, I truly could not bear it. The gods do not easily interfere in mortal affairs. As a shaman, I should have upheld that rule.”

“But that was your father, your people, how could I stand by and do nothing?”

His expression turned solemn. “So I broke the rules and personally intervened, using the great Luminous Flame God’s power to interfere in the tribe’s wars.”

“In the name of a shaman, I supported the Vermilion Sparrow Tribe. I passed down sacred runes, improved their livelihood, and ensured your people had food even in years of disaster.”

“With boundless divine power, I removed your father’s powerful enemies.”

“I strategized and helped your father pacify the wars, unify the Vermilion Bird Mountain region, and helped him become the grand alliance leader of the tribes.”

“I made the Vermilion Sparrow Tribe the strongest tribe in the alliance.”

“And I allowed your people to survive through the famine.”

“After finishing all this, my mission was complete. Only then did I leave the Desolate Wilderness and return to the Royal Court…”

Dan Ling stood stunned and absent-minded.

Yan Zhu gazed at her affectionately. “I did all this for you. Just so you would take me as your master and inherit all of my Divine Dao.”

Dan Ling’s radiant face went through several changes. Pain and hesitation intertwined in her heart. After a moment, she shook her head. “You’re lying. You’re deceiving me.”

Yan Zhu said, “What? You don’t believe me?”

Dan Ling shook her head. “Unifying the Vermilion Bird Mountain region is something you couldn’t do.”

Yan Zhu sneered. “Don’t forget, I am a late-stage Golden Core great cultivator, a High Shaman blessed by the Luminous Flame God. Among Golden Cores, my divine power is unmatched.”

He activated his divine power, and fiery patterns flashed across his body with blazing light.

Dan Ling frowned deeply, a trace of struggle flashing in her eyes.

Within the Great Wilderness Royal Court, Yan Zhu was indeed one of the top High Shamans, his mastery of the Divine Dao unfathomable.

He looked at Dan Ling again, fire rising in his heart, and couldn’t help saying:

“You are of the Vermilion Bird lineage and serve the Vermilion Bird Divine Maiden. The Vermilion Bird governs fire. I serve the Luminous Flame God, he too follows the Fire Dao. If you take me as your master, our Divine Daos will merge and complement each other perfectly.”

Dan Ling kept shaking her head. “Don’t even think about it.”

Yan Zhu said, “I saved your Vermilion Sparrow Tribe. I saved your father. Won’t you show gratitude?”

Dan Ling’s face was icy, guilt flickering in her eyes, but she still shook her head. “I am a Divine Maiden. The rest of my life belongs to the gods. I have no father, no tribe.”

Yan Zhu’s gaze turned cold again. “Then if your father and tribe all died, you wouldn’t care either?”

Dan Ling’s face turned deathly pale. “What did you say?”

Yan Zhu sneered. Originally he had wanted to leverage kindness for repayment, but seeing it was useless, he changed tactics.

“The Royal Court has already been breached. Do you think the Desolate Wilderness could escape? Your tribe…” He chuckled coldly without finishing.

“What… happened to them?” Fear rose in Dan Ling’s heart.

Yan Zhu said calmly, “If you want to know, agree to take me as your master. I’ll tell you everything.”

Yet after thinking for a moment, Dan Ling still gritted her teeth and shook her head.

Yan Zhu flew into a rage. “Stubborn fool! The Dao Court will soon slaughter its way in. Aren’t you afraid of dying together with the Royal Court?”

Dan Ling was silent for a long time. Then the unease in her heart settled, and her fire-opal-like eyes became firm once more.

“Those who follow the Divine Dao must offer their lives to the gods.”

“I’ve already said, I am the Divine Maiden of the Royal Court. If the Royal Court falls, I will die with it.”

“If my father, brothers, and tribesmen die at the hands of the Dao Court…”

“I will use my sword to kill those of the Dao Court, until my last bit of strength is spent and my last drop of blood is shed…”

In that moment, Dan Ling was radiant as crimson jade, radiant as a vermilion phoenix, dazzling as blazing fire.

That fire made Yan Zhu’s whole body burn hot, his heart restless with desire.

What he admired most, what he was most obsessed with, was precisely this side of Dan Ling.

Among the women of the world, true beauty was rare.

And even those considered beautiful were usually only fair of skin.

But someone like Dan Ling, not only possessing beauty like red jade, chastity like the Vermilion Bird, but also a pure, unwavering faith.

And the faith she served was the Vermilion Bird Fire Divine Dao.

To Yan Zhu, Dan Ling was the most priceless treasure in the world.

To obtain her, he was willing to do anything… even sacrifice his lifespan.

But there was no time.

If time were plentiful, Yan Zhu would have had many chances to slowly “win over” Dan Ling and cradle this “forbidden treasure” in the palm of his hand.

But now there was no time at all.

The situation in the Great Wilderness had already rotted beyond saving, and the slaughtering blades of the Dao Court’s Nine Provinces were close at hand.

Once the Dao Court reached the inner court and breached the Divine Maiden Hall, Dan Ling would have only two fates.

One, like a chaste Vermilion Bird, she would face death without regret and perish amid the chaos of war.

The other possibility…. she would fall into the hands of the Dao Court, into the grasp of those noble young masters of the great clans.

At the thought of Dan Ling ending up in their hands and suffering who knew what, jealousy and hatred twisted together in Yan Zhu’s heart like knives.

His expression turned cold. Flame-patterns across his body ignited like raging fire, and his aura began to surge violently.

Dan Ling’s face changed. Realizing what Yan Zhu intended to do, she rebuked, “Yan Zhu, you dare!”

Yan Zhu sneered. “I tried talking nicely. You wouldn’t listen. Don’t blame me for using force.”

With that, he grabbed out with one large hand, divine-sense flames blazing in his palm as he lunged toward Dan Ling.

Dan Ling touched a finger to her brow, manifesting a long plume-like sword seemingly woven from Vermilion Bird feathers. Accompanied by a clear cry of blazing fire, it stabbed toward Yan Zhu’s hand.

The sword tip met his palm. Power intertwined, and the flames of their divine senses began to grind against each other. The ground started to crack.

Amid the scattering flames, Yan Zhu and Dan Ling clashed.

But Yan Zhu was at the late-stage Golden Core and had lived for several hundred years. His cultivation and techniques were both vicious and fierce.

Dan Ling was only at the early-stage Golden Core. Though she was a Divine Maiden with excellent talent, cultivation, and spiritual power, the gap in realms was simply too great. She was no match for Yan Zhu.

At first she could barely hold on, but after several dozen exchanges, she was clearly falling into a disadvantage. Her situation grew increasingly perilous.

Yan Zhu, however, wanted to capture Dan Ling alive and could not bear to kill her, which forced him to expend far more effort.

Dan Ling’s talent was also exceptional, and with her firm heart and pure divine sense, she did not fall as quickly as expected.

After fighting a while longer, Yan Zhu began to grow anxious.

This was the Divine Maiden Hall. If the fight dragged on, something unexpected would surely occur.

“Grab Dan Ling first. No time to play the gentleman…”

A ruthless thought flashed through his mind. He immediately began chanting a divine incantation, fire gleaming in his eyes, preparing to unleash divine power to severely wound Dan Ling in one blow and seize her.

Even if it caused some damage to her Sea of Consciousness, he could no longer worry about that.

A powerful flame-like divine sense began condensing in the air.

Dan Ling’s breathtaking face turned even paler. She could feel that Yan Zhu was now striking to kill, but his cultivation was far too high, she had no strength left to counter.

As Yan Zhu looked at Dan Ling’s peerless yet despairing expression, it was as if he were gazing at a little white rabbit of fine jade about to fall into his hands. The fire of lust in his heart burned even stronger, mixed with wild joy.

But at that very moment, a strange and unfathomable killing intent suddenly descended, pressing down upon Yan Zhu’s head.

That familiar, cold, lofty, fearsome authority made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

It was as though he had returned to the Desolate Wilderness.

Returned to stand before that person.

Returned before the one he had been forced to kneel to every single time he saw them.

The fear etched into his bones and the icy chill completely extinguished all of Yan Zhu’s desires.

Even the divine-sense fire techniques of his Divine Dao were snuffed out by terror.

His technique was forcibly interrupted, and the backlash made Yan Zhu spit out a mouthful of blood.

Yet he paid no attention to his injuries. In panic, he looked wildly around, searching to see whether that figure was somewhere nearby.

“No… no one…”

Yan Zhu was dazed, disbelief growing in his heart. “Just now… was it my imagination?”

But that inhuman pressure was far too familiar, carved too deeply into his bones. Yan Zhu could never forget it.

Ever since he had betrayed that person and fled the Desolate Wilderness, he had suffered nightmares every single day and night.

In those nightmares, that great Lord, covered in blood, looked at him with icy eyes and asked, “Why did you betray me?”

“Why did you betray me?”

“Have you… decided how you wish to die?”

“Those who betray the Divine-Lord will have their souls scattered and destroyed, cast forever into the Nether Abyss…”

Those words seemed to echo in Yan Zhu’s ears even now.

His breathing grew ragged. His divine sense throbbed faintly with pain, and fear spread through his heart. Clutching his head, even his tall, powerful body began to tremble.

Yan Zhu did not dare remain any longer.

Within the hall, that great being’s aura seemed to flicker in and out of existence, killing intent lurking in the shadows.

Even a mere trace of it weighed on his heart like a thousand catties.

He knew better than anyone how terrifying that being was.

He feared that if he stayed any longer, that great Lord would suddenly appear alive before him, like a lofty god, and with a single casual point of a finger, strip away his Dao and his life in an instant.

“No… no…”

At that thought, Yan Zhu was scared out of his wits, his soul nearly fled his body.

He no longer cared about anything else. Like a madman, he burst out the door, used an escape technique, and fled for his life.

Only Dan Ling remained in the hall.

Her expression was somewhat stunned, not understanding what had happened to Yan Zhu.

Why had Yan Zhu—whose Divine Dao attainments were so profound—suddenly gone insane and fled for his life?

Dan Ling looked around, and her gaze finally settled on the statue of the Vermilion Bird.

The Vermilion Bird God protected its believers.

Dan Ling let out a soft sigh of relief, knelt before the statue, and bowed three times, murmuring:

“Vermilion Bird God, bless me…”

Afterward, Dan Ling took out several medicinal pills and swallowed them. Some color slowly returned to her pale face.

But in the next instant, her expression turned visibly pained again.

The Royal Court was falling. The gods were in decline.

The Desolate Wilderness was stricken by famine. Her father, younger brother, elder brother, her tribesmen, their fates were all unknown…

And she… could only die along with the Royal Court.

Dan Ling couldn’t help clutching her chest, gritting her teeth, her eyes brimming with tears.

Just then, a sigh suddenly came from the ceiling beam.

Dan Ling froze, then her gaze turned instantly cold. Gripping her longsword, she pointed it forward and shouted, “Who’s there?!”

A faint sound of landing rang out.

It seemed someone had jumped down from the beam.

Then a misty haze of water appeared before her eyes, and a figure emerged, a young boy with only Foundation Establishment cultivation, a slender build, delicate features, and a clear, unworldly air.

Dan Ling was momentarily stunned, the iciness on her face fading. “You are…?”

Mo Hua said, “You’re Dan Zhu’s sister, right?”

“Dan Zhu…”

The handsome and adorable image of her younger brother from childhood flashed through her mind. Dan Ling’s chest tightened for no reason, and she asked urgently:

“You know my brother?”

Mo Hua had just nodded when a flash of red appeared before him, a sweet fragrance rushing to his nose. Dan Ling was suddenly right in front of him, grabbing his shoulders, her beautiful eyes filled with anxiety.

“Where is Dan Zhu? How is he? Is he still alive?”

Mo Hua was just about to speak.

Suddenly, another faint sound came from beside his ear, as if someone else had jumped down from the beam.

Mo Hua turned his head and saw a white-robed youth revealing himself.

It was his Little Senior Brother, Bai Zisheng.

After landing, Bai Zisheng glanced at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua also looked at Bai Zisheng.

The two martial brothers looked at each other for a while.

Bai Zisheng then shifted his gaze and saw Dan Ling standing opposite Mo Hua, as well as Dan Ling’s hand “around” Mo Hua’s shoulders.

Bai Zisheng frowned, looked at Mo Hua, then at Dan Ling, then again at Dan Ling’s hand “around” Mo Hua’s shoulders…

After staring for a long while, Bai Zisheng suddenly came to a realization. Pointing at Mo Hua, he said angrily:

“So it’s you, Mo Hua! You’re the one having an affair with that Royal Court enchantress?!”