Chapter 846: Too perfect...

Chapter 846: Too perfect…

“So…”, the leader of the faction from the Ember Palm Pavilion spoke after the door closed, turning to Senior Dong, “Remember the deal, Old Man, if you do everything well, you and your Young Master both don’t need to be harmed at all”

Senior Dong made a heavy look, seemingly not quite trusting that statement, but being out of options begrudgingly turned to move to the smaller platform with the stone monolith.

Silence hanged in the air as the older man began deciphering the writings on the monolith, a scene not dissimilar to what he did by the door.

And then, as he touched the monolith, the characters engraved on it began lighting up with the same glow as the ‘liquid text’, as if the inside of the monolith began filling with lava.

Profound symbols and patterns of the same color appeared on the floor of the platform that the three Sects’ Disciples and the Young Master stood on.

And the ‘liquid from the ponds began rising up in coumns, as the hieroglyphs formed neat rows that moved horizontally at different speeds, as if being decoded.

“Ooh!!!”, some of the disciples couldn’t hold back excitement as next, when the characters finished being set in place, they began unfolding into large panels of glowing text in front of each pool of ‘liquid text’.

This process was repeated several times, as more and more columns rose, were deciphered, and unfolded into small walls of glowing text.

Meanwhile, small grooves in the floor leading from the pools to the flat platform, began filling with liquid text that flowed and started rising in a wall of texts as well.

“Hm?”, however, amid the excitement, the leader of the Ember Palm Pavilion raised his eyebrow, sensing something.

He quickly stretched his palm, and it landed on the wall of glowing text, as solid as if it was made of stone.

“Hey Old Man! What is the meaning of this?!”, the leader of the Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s disciples shouted, noticing that and also trying to breach the walls than now rose up to the high ceiling, completely enclosing them.

“Hehe… hehehaha…. hahaha… haHAHAHA! Finally!!!”, Senior Dong, however, changed his meek demeanor into a satisfied and liberated delight, “A thousand years!!! A damn THOUSAND years! Waiting for this moment!”

Senior Dong made a gesture of success with both hands clutched into fists, “Damn I was nervous! Especially since it all went so good! It went way better than I could have imagined! Whoo!”

“S-Senior Dong?”, the sickly Young Master also seemingly did not recognize the kind Senior who has been serving his family for nearly 300 years.

“Yes? Young Master?”, the older man suddenly stopped his celebrations, and turning to the platform with people trapped in it, spoke with a grin.

“You Old Fart! Don’t you remember your Young Master is on this side of the barrier?”, the Crystal Wood Sect’s disciple shouted, approaching the young man.

“Of course I didn’t you idiot!”, Senior Dong spoke as his grin widened, his hand surrounded by glowing patterns shifting.

Suddenly, a column of glowing text rose around the Young Master, and lifted him up into the air, as the latter’s face filled with relief.

The faces of the other two disciple leaders became grave, as they understood their predicament.

But then, the column shifted the Young Master into the center of the platform instead of pushing him outside.

“Eh? S-Senior…”

“What? Oh! You must be confused, hahaha, let me explain”, the older man made a ‘genuinely surprised’ face, and then chuckled as if there was some misunderstanding, “You see, I’ve discovered this ruin a 1000 years ago, when I was a young man, coming into this Sun Shadow Realm to have my Heavenly Tribulation, but I didn’t have the key…”

He began speaking, explaining in detail. It seemed that whatever it was he was talking about was deeply weighing on him for all of those 1000 years he spoke about, and needed an outlet.

While the Young Master’s eyes widened, as a certain feeling he got when Senior Dong first changed a few moments ago began solidifying into confirmed fact.

“I knew, since it was an Ancient Ruin, it wasn’t likely it will just disappear along with the closing of the Sun Shadow Realm. I also had a hunch that it had to be connected to that long-since explored and combed through Ancient Realm on the Emerald Falls Continent. It was a gamble. A 1000 years, even if I was in Mortal Transcendence Realm with a lifespan of 3000, is still a long time. Not to mention, I would be losing my golden years of cultivation”, he was talking as the walls of text that formed before the ponds started moving toward the flat platform, forming secondary and more layers of walls around the first one.

“But it was just too good of an opportunity to just let it go… an unexplored Ancient Ruin only I had the knowledge about…”, a look of satisfaction with his choice appeared in the eyes of Senior Dong, “Not to mention, I obtained knowledge of what was in here in the adjacent broken ruins, as well as general knowledge of how it operates… and it was far beyond my wildest dreams!”

The disciples of the three Sects long since began attacking the walls, trying to break free, but could do nothing, while the Young Master, helplessly suspended in the air against his will could only listen to the explanation.

“This hall, is indeed the Secret Knowledge Vault, but not of an Ancient Sect, it is one of a center of an Ancient Civilization, an Empire so vast and powerful the likes of it do not exist today. But aside from being a Secret Knowledge Vault, it is also a ceremonial room of succession for the Emperors. I told you the true names of the two platforms… I just reversed them. What I am standing on, is the Throne of the Taker, and you, are on the Throne of the Giver”, Senior Dong spoke, pointing to the two platforms.

“The Empire’s rulers were called the Sun Emperors, as they all, without exception, possessed the same exact, very powerful Extreme Yang Physique”, he then added, and seeing the look of disbelief in the young man’s eyes chuckled, “I know, right? That should be impossible! However… the secret lies in here! They created something that never existed before them, and was lost long after them! They created a method of transferring an Extreme Yang Physique!”

As Senior Dong made that last announcement, even the disciples of the three Sects were forced to stop and look at him in shock.

“Haha, it seems now you appreciate it!”, Senior Dong spoke as he was talking with extreme excitement, “I knew then, this was my chance, a chance to not only obtain an Extreme Yang Physique for myself, but also unparalleled Ancient knowledge, an inheritance even the highest, most esteemed Gods of the Seven Boundless Worlds would slaughter entire Boundless Worlds for!”

A slightly crazed look appeared in his eyes, but no one seemed to blame him if he was telling the truth, while he continued, “So I rejected my chance to advance in this Secret Realm back then, telling everyone I failed my Heavenly Tribulation and thus am destined to be forever in the Mortal Transcendence Realm. And I vowed to come back in a 1000 years”

His excitement seemed to finally slightly subside, as he sighed, and continued in a slightly subdued tone, “I used nearly 600 years researching formations, Extreme Yang Physiques and Yang attribute in general, ancient texts, information on the already explored ruin, and locating this token”

He raised the ancient-looking, jade carved token in his hand.

“I knew by the end of those 600 years that it was in your Helian Family, Young Master. But I was still a Mortal Transcendence Realm practitioner, officially, I was also a failure who would not be able to advance. I had no way of getting my hands onto a treasure of your Family, so I started working on a way to get employed. I finally succeeded about a decade later, and started painstakingly raising my credibility and trust”, there were some frustrated notes in his voice as he spoke about this, as it seemed the years spent loyally and faithfully serving the Helian Family while hiding ambitions as high as his were centuries of torture.

“My initial plan was to find a suitable Extreme Yang Physique bearer in the final 30 to 20 years before this opening of the Shadow Sun Secret Realm. I also planned to use the excuse of helping a Young Master of the Helian Family to pass the Heavenly Tribulations within this Secret Realm with this Jade Token, even prepared fake ancient texts to present to the Family Head so I would be allowed to take it out of the Family Vault and into here… But I couldn’t believe my luck!”, Senior Dong’s excitement level seemed to rise again, as he exclaimed, “Heavens themselves must have shone on me! You were born into the Helian Family, a bearer of an Extreme Yang Physique!”

This time, an even greater shock appeared on the face of the young man, “E-Extreme Yang Physique?! B-but…”

“I knew as soon as you were born, while others were completely oblivious! I researched Extreme Yang Physiques for nearly a full millennium at that point! You were my perfect chance! A plan instantly formed! A brilliant one! I created your sickness, and then ‘miraculously’ found a cure that alleviated some of your pain! Instantly becoming the most trusted servant of the noble house”, he was speaking with extreme satisfaction of his own genius, completely disregarding, or perhaps savoring the despair of the young man.

“I knew I could use completely curing you as an excuse to get both the token and you into the Shadow Sun Realm in with me… there was just one problem, in that I wasn’t sure nothing would happen to you in the first skirmish. It had to succeed this time, or else I would miss my chance at obtaining greatness. Everything had to be perfect… so I leaked the information about us holding a secret to an Ancient Ruin to these idiots from the three big Sects, and as expected, they took the bait. They cooperated in both protecting us from others, and disposing of those Helian Family guards”, as he spoke, the faces of the Sect disciples turned into grimaces.

“But then a new problem arose, since I knew this moment would come, when I had to somehow get both you and all of them onto the platform at the same time, but then… that Meifeng… hahaha, I knew that stupid girl who fell in love with someone she shouldn’t and who you fell in love with as well would come in handy at some point, but her role in this was just too perfect!”, he seemingly could not help himself, speaking with laughter coming out involuntarily.

“I knew you would volunteer to stay! Honestly, it all went so precisely according to my plan I got goosebumps! In the final moments, when all of the pieces of the puzzle I was so meticulously putting in place years in advance came together, you cannot imagine how nervous I was, of showing a wrong reaction, of not acting right, of something going wrong…. hahaha! I didn’t even have to act that I was shaking, I was truly shaking! You idiots just didn’t realize it was not from fear or anger, but from excitement! Hahahaha!”

Senior Dong laughed with genuine relief of liberation, after hiding this all for so long, after all of those efforts and holding it in, of bearing frustration, the hour of nervousness and doubt that came to him every single night for a 1000 years, he finally arrived at the finishing line.

“Finally… finally… finally…”, he repeated over and over, as if in disbelief, “It is just so… perfect hahahaha, so unbelievably, scarily perfect. Heavens must have really blessed me on that day a thousand years ago. It is honestly hard to believe how perfect it is-…”

“Indeed”, suddenly, a voice resounded, causing Senior Dong to freeze as it came from behind him, “If something is just too insanely, scarily perfect to be true, to the point it is genuinely hard to believe, it is highly likely, that something went very, very wrong”

Hehe ^^

I know this chap is basically a lot of backstory.

But I really wanted to show what led to this moment ^^

And yeah, I know it is basically another cliff, but what can I do, this chap’s also getting too long, and I need to finish up for today, so the rest’ll have to come tomorrow. ^^

Hope you are doing great my dear readers, and I wish you a great day/night/time of day!

As always, thank you so much for reading, and your super support! You are awesome! ^^