Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Lich King?

No one knew how long it had been before Zhou Tian woke from his deep sleep. He rubbed his eyes, wiped away the saliva at the corner of his mouth, and regained some measure of energy. Opening the Undying System to take a look, he saw that his resurrection count had not yet refreshed, which meant that less than twenty-four hours had passed since his last return to life.

The sun in the sky had shifted position and now hung close to the horizon, yet strangely, the brightness had never changed, no matter where it stood overhead.

“You really have a lot of nerve, falling asleep on me like that. Weren’t you afraid I’d stab you to death with a gun?”

Mu Su’s flat voice came from beside him. His body remained as rigidly upright as it had been before Zhou Tian fell asleep, unchanged in the slightest.

Zhou Tian smiled. This Mu Su was rather interesting. He stretched, then replied, “Well, you didn’t stab me to death, did you? For the sake of this little pillow-and-sleep kinship, I can help you once in the future.”

“Hmph. Help me? Who was the one asking for help first?”

Mu Su said with disdain.

“This time doesn’t count. As for the help I promised you, do you want it or not?”

“With your frail mortal body?”

Mu Su had already sensed it clearly: Zhou Tian was indeed an ordinary mortal, not someone concealing his cultivation.

“Yes. With this frail mortal body of mine.”

Zhou Tian said calmly.

“...”

Mu Su fell silent.

He wanted very much to mock Zhou Tian in a stern voice, but some feeling deep in his heart kept him from saying it aloud.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll take that as a no,” Zhou Tian said.

A no? Wasn’t silence an acceptance?

Mu Su was momentarily choked with irritation. After a while, he said coldly, “Then you owe me this.”

Zhou Tian laughed. What a stubborn tsundere. As if I couldn’t handle you.

Mu Su’s handsome face was covered in dark lines, veins faintly bulging on his hand. If it were not for the strict upbringing that had placed an invisible line in his heart, he would have already stabbed Zhou Tian to death.

He could strike at evil heretics, but he could not bring himself to strike at a mortal, even if that mortal was very “evil.”

“Captain Mu Su, have there been any strange incidents around here lately?”

After all that nonsense, Zhou Tian felt the two of them had grown much closer and could now almost be considered friends, so he began fishing for information.

“The heretics are becoming more and more active,” Mu Su said, his voice still cold.

“That doesn’t count. I mean things you’ve never seen before, like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, or people falling from the heavens.”

Zhou Tian probed carefully.

“...”

You might as well just say the midair explosion from a few days ago, Mu Su thought, utterly speechless.

“You’re with them?”

“How could that be?”

Zhou Tian denied it at once.

“One of them is my sworn enemy. If I ever find him, I’ll pin him down and whip him senseless. How could I possibly be with them?”

Mu Su always felt there was something off in Zhou Tian’s words, but for the moment he could not find what it was. He let out a cold snort and said, “If you were with them, then I’d have a reason to act against you.”

“After the huge explosion in the sky, many people fell from above. In the wilderness, many heretics tried to take advantage of the chaos, and several battles broke out. Later, many archbishop-level figures also arrived and fought for a while, capturing some people, though more managed to escape. Then reinforcements from the other side arrived as well. After a few more clashes, both sides finally stood down.”

Captured some people?

Zhou Tian’s heart tightened. He hurriedly asked, “Did they catch any women? My sworn enemy is hiding among the women!”

Mu Su turned and glanced at him, then looked away again. The distance between them was too close; when he turned his head just now, meeting the gaze of a strange man at such close range had made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“No. From what I heard, most of them were bald, with no hair at all, all men. There was only one woman, and her calves were thicker than your waist. Is she your enemy?”

“No...”

Zhou Tian shuddered, but at the same time he let out a breath of relief. It seemed Tianling was not in danger.

Silently offering a prayer for those bald-headed brothers, he also found himself wondering why it was that the major powers of the Nine Provinces seemed to harbor some degree of prejudice toward Buddhist forces.

Back then, a mighty figure from the Celestial Kingdom had self-destructed to buy them time, and the same had been true of a great powerhouse from the Dao Alliance. They could not simply stand by and watch their own people be captured. The great powers of the Light Church and Heavenly Qin were still there as well, and they certainly would not watch their own people being taken away.

The other side had brought many people too, and since they would not leave without taking some captives, those bald-headed believers were probably treated as expendable pieces.

It was not hard to guess. Zhou Tian quickly sifted through the information in his mind.

“Can you tell me what you’re all doing here?”

Zhou Tian felt that Mu Su seemed a little different now. The scope of his questions was growing larger and larger.

Unlike the cold, sharp-edged attitude from the beginning, Mu Su did not answer at once. Zhou Tian could not see his expression from the back of his head. Perhaps because Zhou Tian was just a mortal and posed no threat, or perhaps for some other reason, Mu Su finally said, “The Lord has bestowed sacred revelation. A holy emissary is about to descend, and all the holy sons and holy maidens must be sent there to search for suitable vessels.”

Sacred revelation? A holy emissary descending?

Zhou Tian frowned. It seemed the goal of those remnants of the divine realm was not merely the younger generation.

To dare proclaim a sacred revelation meant that the surviving lords of those divine lineages were almost openly declaring their intention to make a move.

The reason Nine Provinces had kept these remnants around was manyfold, but one of the most important was to monitor those surviving gods through their believers.

For so many years, those people had behaved as if they had utterly abandoned the Land Forsaken by the Gods, no longer even accepting or responding to the power of faith.

And now they had directly issued a divine revelation. Zhou Tian did not believe for a second that the people of Nine Provinces would fail to notice what they were doing.

Clearly, there was much more hidden beneath this. Zhou Tian rubbed his brow. Guessing at conspiracies and schemes was far too brain-consuming.

But sensing the odd tone in Mu Su’s voice, he asked curiously, “Your Lord should not have granted a sacred revelation for a very long time, right? This time, you ought to be pleased.”

“Do you know, just for saying ‘your Lord,’ I should stab you to death with a gun?”

Mu Su said in a low voice. Before Zhou Tian could respond, he continued in a strange tone, “The Lord has not answered prayers for a very long time. Now that a sacred revelation has been granted, everyone is very happy. Father is very happy. Saintess Bei Na is very happy. I... am also very happy.”

Zhou Tian chuckled. Mu Su really was interesting. Happy? That was hardly the tone of someone who was happy.

“Haha, Captain Mu Su, I don’t just want to help you once anymore.”

Mu Su’s brow furrowed slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? Do you know what a Lich King is?”

Zhou Tian was slowly sketching the shape of an idea in his heart. It was still only a rough outline, but merely thinking about it already excited him.

“A Lich King? Is that some evil god?”

“No, no. He’s a righteous knight, just like you—utterly righteous!”

Zhou Tian’s tone was extremely sincere. Utterly sincere!

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