"You bastard... you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Tamamo-no-Mae, whose full chest rose and fell in rippling waves, quickly got up from where she had fallen. She took a deep breath and tried hard to calm herself.
Rovi lowered both hands, faint points of radiance scattering from the edges of his long sleeves.
The Qin sword manifested from the concept of Qin's Human Order, gathered through the Qin army, could only be used once. Rovi had only borrowed the right to use it from Qin once as well.
Once used, it naturally dispersed.
His goal had already been achieved, so Rovi had no intention of keeping it.
He gazed steadily at the magnificent palace before him and smiled. Tamamo-no-Mae's words sounded like a question, but in truth, they were already a certainty.
Even so, he still said, "Guess."
"I refuse!" Tamamo-no-Mae took a deep breath, the nine tails behind her swaying upward.
There was no doubt about it. She had fallen into his trap.
From beginning to end, Rovi had known of her existence. He had known she was watching. Only by using the fluctuations created when she acted had he been able to find this place.
This bastard was even more cunning than she was, and she was the fox!
Tamamo-no-Mae let out a breath, her cheeks puffing slightly. "Which one of us is supposed to be the fox here?"
"You are. The fox stink on you is the best proof." Rovi's serious expression made Tamamo-no-Mae's brows and eyes twitch wildly.
She could not get angry. She had to keep herself steady... She quickly stabilized herself and sat back down on her seat.
Her slender, jade-white fingers traced through the air. Tamamo-no-Mae was, after all, an ancient demon-god who had gathered nine tails. Though Rovi had left a shadow in her heart, at this moment, she still calmed down swiftly.
Her crossed legs swayed lightly once more. The stunningly beautiful fox demon showed a charming smile. "I have to admit, Your Excellency truly is full of schemes."
"To be able to sense my existence, and even enter this place directly..."
"Then, have you already decided to be with me?"
Tamamo-no-Mae leaned forward slightly, letting the full curve of her chest sway beneath the fabric. "If you're with me, no matter what you want, I can satisfy you."
"You should know, this time—I am here in my true body."
In their first formal meeting, Tamamo-no-Mae was still trying to seduce Rovi, who had come here. But one had to admit, even if the illusion-like projection manifested by the nine-tailed fox who had reached the highest scale was almost no different from substance, there was still an enormous gulf between that and her true body.
Even if the appearance was the same, even if the face was identical, at this moment, the charm displayed by the nine-tailed fox was enough to make even a primordial human feel amazement and be moved.
Because she was a check against all humanity.
Because she was one form of the Evil of Humanity.
"The Beast of Cherishment?"
"That's right. This form is precisely the manifestation of humanity's 'evil.'" Tamamo-no-Mae laughed softly.
In this age, which had grown ever more distant from myth, the power of humanity had long since gradually become prominent. The thickness of Human Order displayed its mighty force, and human existence gradually occupied the planet's surface. And humanity's "evil," the manifestation of desire, had also become a rank like that of a supreme god.
For the definition of a supreme god was, in itself, "one who influences the entire world," and human desire could likewise influence all humans who occupied the planet's surface.
Tamamo-no-Mae slowly rose. Her deep blue dress swayed as she moved, the plump flesh of her thighs shifting beneath the tight bind of silk, her curves exquisite as she walked toward Rovi with graceful hips. "This is something I discovered from the chaotic aspects separated from the gods while I was pushing the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens to awaken."
"What do you think? Interesting, isn't it? Here, in this form, I can play with you in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of positions."
Her hand brushed across Rovi's face. Her steps carried her to his side, the nine tails behind her swaying faintly.
So...
"How are you this practiced when you don't even have a real lover?" Rovi, who had been silent for a moment, opened his mouth and landed a critical hit.
Tamamo-no-Mae's expression instantly stiffened. Her lovely, bewitching face showed a momentary collapse.
"And besides, stalling for time is useless." Rovi looked steadily at Tamamo-no-Mae before him, looking into those golden fox eyes. "The Evil of Humanity can indeed influence all humans, but I have never been simply human."
Human, Machine God, planetary god, and moreover an indescribable, chaotic "Taiyi immortal."
Rovi as a human could not suppress his "desire" for the Tamamo-no-Mae before him, but as an immortal and a god, he could regard it as dust.
In a single thought, it depended only on whether he wished it or not.
Tamamo-no-Mae, who had already exchanged words with him before, could not possibly be unaware of this. And since she was doing this, there could only be one reason.
To stall for time.
To allow the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens in the present world to fully reveal their existence.
Rovi swept his gaze "downward." In the present world, across the vastness of the world, everything had already fallen into chaos. Aside from Guanzhong Qin, protected by "Lady of the West" through the power of the stars, Zhao, whose pass had been captured, and Chu, which had already been cleansed, the other four states had all sunk into indescribable chaos and disorder.
In Qi, thousands upon thousands of orbs of light scattered. In Wei, yellow fog blotted out the sky and covered the sun. In Han, drifting "dandelions" fell across the world. In Yan, the faceless god stretched out enormous, twisted tentacles that pierced heaven and earth.
Ever denser "strangeness." Ever clearer "chaos."
This was the sight of the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens pulling themselves out, step by step, from the gaps of Human Order.
Step by step, truly setting foot upon the Divine Land with their true bodies.
"Oh my, I've been found out?" The nine tails behind her spread out at the same time, and Tamamo-no-Mae instantly retreated several steps. Those enormous tails dropped together, landing on the ground and lifting Tamamo-no-Mae's body upward, transforming into a golden throne.
Tamamo-no-Mae sat upon it with her legs crossed, looking down at Rovi from above. Her red lips curved into an expression different from before, one filled with wild arrogance. "You couldn't possibly think the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens sealed by the ancestor gods back then numbered only these few, could you?"
The Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens were the products created when the chaotic Great Old Ones tried and failed to contaminate the ancestor gods.
However many ancient immortals and gods Huaxia had possessed, that was how many Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens existed.
"The ones manifesting now will tear apart the true seal that holds the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens and serves as the final protection sheltering the Divine Land—the Great Investiture Array left behind by Tianqi Supreme Jiang Shang."
"When that time comes, the mist of chaos will blanket the world, and all things will sink into darkness."
"Only I... will become the sole light within it!"
With her seductiveness withdrawn, Tamamo-no-Mae, at this moment, displayed endless majesty before Rovi.
Because at this moment, more than half of the Divine Land had already fallen into chaos and the Old Ones. The essence of chaos was neither good nor evil, but to humanity, which stood on the side of order, it was "evil."
And Tamamo-no-Mae was also "evil."
She was even more an existence that had seized the sun Authority into herself.
Seized—or rather, reverted it back to its source.
"I was originally one manifestation of the primordial sun. If not for the Vanguard of the Umbral Star descending back then, I would never have been split into nine and scattered across different lands."
"Now that I have reunited, this Authority that belonged to me from the beginning—I will take it back!"
Her golden eyes shone brilliantly. Endless pressure manifested within this gap deep inside Human Order. She leaned down and looked at Rovi below her. "But don't worry. I won't hurt you. On the contrary, I will cherish you properly and dote on you."
"A Divine Land immortal-god Emperor-Lord like you, with such great wisdom, great courage, and great perseverance—I will only keep you enclosed and feed upon your essence..."
"And turn you into a useless thing that can no longer leave me!"
Mad. Vicious.
And exceedingly arrogant.
In truth, Rovi being able to enter this place had indeed exceeded Tamamo-no-Mae's expectations, but her plan had always been advancing in an orderly fashion.
The process did not matter. The beginning did not matter.
What she pursued had always been only the result.
"Unfortunately, I'm the same as you." Rovi flicked his sleeve. Though he stood on the ground looking up at Tamamo-no-Mae, who was held aloft by her nine tails, his eyes held not the slightest sense of looking up to her. Instead, they were filled with... gratitude?
Gra... gratitude for what?
Unease suddenly surfaced in Tamamo-no-Mae's heart.
CLANG.
Rovi raised his hand and swept it through the air as though brushing away dust. His open palm reached back, his five fingers slowly settling on the hilt of the sword suspended behind him.
The sword hummed, bringing all manner of howls with it. Tamamo-no-Mae tilted her ear and listened, only to hear the chaotic, disorderly sounds from the present world.
Shattering, and formless whispers.
Those were the sounds of the Investiture barrier gradually breaking apart as the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens manifested.
Even more, they were the voices of the countless Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens suppressed by the Investiture barrier.
They had come.
They manifested within the territories occupied by the first four Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens, appearing within layer upon layer of mist.
Darkness, chaos, distortion, inversion... all swelled in an instant.
Qi, Yan, Han, and Wei were thrown into turmoil. Even Chu, Qin, and Zhao were not spared. Many ordinary people inexplicably fell into sleep, and then, in their dreams, crashed into an endlessly twisted universe.
They panicked. They feared. They sank into it, and began to go mad.
Disorder. Disorder, repeated disorder.
Heaven and earth bit together.
The world seemed to return to chaos.
The humming of the sword still echoed in her ears, but Tamamo-no-Mae's heart steadied slightly at this moment. The Investiture barrier had already shattered layer by layer, and the suppressed old ghosts had manifested.
No matter what, it could no longer be stopped.
"Bluffing is useless." Tamamo-no-Mae laughed softly, crooking a finger. "Since you mocked me, next, I shall make you my 'lover' and enjoy the beauty of this body!"
The nine tails abruptly lifted, and Tamamo-no-Mae floated into the air. Endless brilliant radiance manifested all over her body, and the falling light pierced from the deepest part of Human Order into the present world.
Like a blazing sun suspended in the sky, she displayed her radiance to the fullest.
One of the primordial sun gods, the nine-tailed fox once struck down by the White Titan, finally manifested her form as a sun god.
"The White-Faced Golden-Furred God."
On this Divine Land returning to chaos, she would manifest the first ray of "light," becoming the future sun deity from a primordial sun god.
The future Divine Land in her plan was a land where chaos and evil walked.
But she would also become one among them.
Using evil to reveal evil.
Yet it was precisely in this instant that Rovi finally drew the sword on his back. The sword light that appeared after a long span of brewing, drawn out over time yet completed in an instant, manifested as black-and-white chaos, as a crimson-wrapped storm, and even more as the primordial rotational force of the planet.
The Authority of the Mesopotamian god Ea, long unseen, manifested again at this moment. But the target it aimed at was not Tamamo-no-Mae before him.
It was this deepest place of Human Order where they stood.
It was beneath his feet—
From below to above, one needed a direction, needed to use Human Order to cut Human Order in order to find the precise target.
But from above to below, one needed only violence.
Because he was already here.
And beneath his feet was the Divine Land.
And so Rovi cut open this space with the planet's primordial rotational force, then, under Tamamo-no-Mae's astonished gaze, swept it toward the vast Divine Land.
Tamamo-no-Mae instinctively wanted to stop him, only to find her movements had suddenly grown heavy. She abruptly discovered that, at some unknown point, silver-white chains had already wrapped around and bound her body.
Immortal-Binding Rope!?
No—
This was...
"Chains of Heaven." Rovi smiled softly and swung his sword down. Of course, the projected Chains of Heaven could not completely seal Tamamo-no-Mae's movements, but with its nature, making Tamamo-no-Mae feel shock and hesitation for an instant was still something it could accomplish.
The Immortal-Binding Rope was an immortal treasure that had displayed great divine might during the Battle of Investiture at the end of Shang. It came from the lineage of "Yuanshi Tianzun."
And Yuanshi Tianzun was the god who opened heaven and earth in the Divine Land.
An existence enough to make Tamamo-no-Mae feel fear.
Hesitation was inevitable.
Astonishment was certain.
And that instant of opportunity had already been firmly seized by Rovi.
ANG—!
A ringing cry startled countless Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens.
They were astonished. They sensed a threat. They instinctively wanted to rise and strike back.
But the magnificent bell sound echoed from the "heights," spreading from the depths of history. The ancient great bell rose high, yet amid the distortion of endless light and shadow, it manifested as an enormous, indescribably strange existence.
"Come."
Rovi flicked his sleeve, and the sword light fell.
The mist was slowly drawn over by the sword wind.
"Come here."
"All of you shall return here."
More and more chaos, more and more indescribable aura, was absorbed.
Beneath that great bell, the sun Tamamo-no-Mae had raised instead seemed insignificant.
Before setting out, Rovi had said that he intended to use this sword, which joined yin and yang and merged chaos, to sweep away the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens across the Divine Land.
But the "sweeping away" he spoke of had never meant killing or slaughtering them. It meant using the sword in his hand to draw out the chaos upon the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens, to swallow that chaos.
After the chaos was driven out, what was revealed?
Gods—orthodox gods of heaven and earth.
"If I completely killed the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens here, it might indeed be a form of help to the ancestor gods beyond the heavens. But at the same time, it would mean they would lose the final traces they left on the earth, in the Divine Land."
"They would lose their home. Lose their way back."
"And I am unwilling to do that."
Then what should he do?
Since Tamamo-no-Mae wanted the Divine Land to return to chaos, Rovi could only do the opposite... He would gather the chaos and transform ten thousand demons into gods.
He would allow the ancestor gods of the Divine Land to manifest here once more as gods, as divided bodies and avatars of the same source, and rebuild the vast Divine Land.
And Rovi himself would use endless chaos as the guide and transform into the "primordial core of chaos."
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