“What?!” Even the usually composed Goddess of Wu Mountain was horrified.
On the one hand, she had just met Nuba not long ago. On the other hand, Nuba was not only the Yellow Emperor’s daughter, but also Ancestral Shaman Zhulong’s wife. Her death was bound to cause massive ripples.
Zu An, however, was calm. He was aware of how Nuba had met her end in history, though he hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. It felt bizarre to be involved in such major historical incidents.
“We found it inconceivable too. We heard that she was looking for Emperor Jun but was unable to locate him, so she began insulting him to goad him into revealing himself,” Wu Yang explained.
“She must have gotten impatient.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain frowned. “Nuba has always had a bad temper.”
“That’s most likely the case,” Wu Peng agreed. “However, Emperor Jun was still nowhere to be seen despite her insults. It could be because he was no longer able to sense the happenings on earth after the separation of heaven and earth.”
“Emperor Jun could just be putting up with it. He is the next Celestial Emperor, and Nuba is an important figure. It wouldn’t be surprising if he decided to show some magnanimity to her taunts,” Wu Fan analyzed.
“But the Golden Crow Ten Princes couldn’t take it lying down. They rushed out upon hearing Nuba insult their father, and a conflict broke out. That culminated in the present situation,” Wu Di said with a sigh.
“Nuba should have been strong enough to stand her ground against the Golden Crow Ten Princes, but they happen to be able to suppress her ability. They made her powers go amok before killing her,” Wu Fu added.
...
The Kaiming Six Shamans quickly reconstructed the situation through their discussion.
The Mermaid Queen secretly tugged Zu An’s sleeve and whispered, “Could it be that Nuba dug up something related to that person too?”
“That’s possible,” Zu An replied. Thinking about it, Emperor Jun had arrived in the middle of Yi and Gu’s fight and killed Yi before erasing his trail. This suggested that Gu and Emperor Jun had been colluding.
If they further tugged on the thread, Emperor Jun could have been the one instigating Gu to kill Bao Jiang and steal the immortal medicine, and he could have had a part to play behind Er Fu’s murder of Yayu, too. If that was the conclusion Nuba came to, she was bound to want to avenge her son. That would explain why she'd harshly insulted Emperor Jun to goad the latter to confront her.
But what could Emperor Jun’s motive be behind all these things? What was he planning with the Myriad Souls Banner and the Soul Destruction Cauldron? He was already the next Celestial Emperor, so what was the point of doing all these?
“Look! The suns are quickly moving!” The Mermaid Queen pointed to the sky. It was so hot that her face was flushed, and a thin layer of sweat had formed on her forehead.
The group raised their heads and saw the ten suns in the sky quickly moving westward, causing the surrounding air to become cooler.
“Are the golden crows finally returning to Scalding Valley?” Wu Yang, who had opened up his robe to fan himself, asked in delight.
“It doesn’t look like it.” Zu An shook his head.
The ten suns’ movements were erratic; they would move quickly at one point only to suddenly stop right after, as if they were fooling around.
Wu Xiang’s ears suddenly enlarged until they were comparable to an elephant’s ears. He focused hard on the voices around him, and soon, his expression turned livid.
“Sixth Brother, what did you hear?” Wu Peng asked.
“The shamans are angry at Nuba’s death. Kuafu wants to settle the score with the Golden Crow Ten Princes, but they simply flew off. That angered Kuafu, so he’s chasing after them to demand an explanation,” Wu Xiang said.
“Kuafu chasing the suns!” Zu An exclaimed.
“What?” The others turned to look at Zu An in confusion.
Zu An had no way of explaining this historical event to them, so he said, “It’s too dangerous for Kuafu to pursue the Golden Crow Ten Princes alone.”
“Indeed. If they had the gall to kill Nuba, they wouldn’t show him mercy,” the Kaiming Six Shamans replied worriedly. Kuafu was powerful enough to stand his ground against several of the Golden Crow Ten Princes, but dealing with all ten of them at once was impossible.
“I’ll go take a look,” Zu An said grimly. It would be a stretch to say that Kuafu was a friend, but he did have a favorable impression of the other party’s candid personality.
Besides, Emperor Jun was likely involved in this matter. He wanted to get to the bottom of the issue and hopefully obtain news about Xiaoxi and Yumen Beiqing.
“I’ll go with you.” The Mermaid Queen tagged along, not wanting to part ways with him.
Zu An shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. You should stay here with the goddess.”
He clasped his fist toward the Goddess of Wu Mountain and said, “Goddess, I’ll be troubling you to take care of her.”
Confronting the Golden Crow Ten Princes was already dangerous, and they could even encounter Emperor Jun on top of that. Zu An could escape using Rainbow Morph, but he dared not bring the Mermaid Queen with him.
The Goddess of Wu Mountain nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect her.”
The Mermaid Queen was reluctant to part ways with Zu An, but she understood the severity of the situation. She grabbed his hand and said, “You must stay safe.”
Despite the intense heat from the surroundings, she gave off an inexplicable coolness that calmed his heart.
Zu An was moved. A thought suddenly came to his mind, and he stuffed an item into her hand and secretly relayed some instructions to her.
The Mermaid Queen was taken aback. “But you need this more than me!”
“Don’t worry. I dare not say the same about the others, but I'm unparalleled in the art of fleeing.” Zu An had been skirting around death ever since transmigrating back then. Over time, he had honed the art of fleeing to a masterful degree.
Worried that the Mermaid Queen would continue turning down his gift, he bade her farewell before morphing into a rainbow to chase after the ten suns. He couldn’t move straight to where the Golden Crow Ten Princes and Kuafu were because he didn’t have their coordinates, so he could only manually chase after them.
But after crossing Spirit Mountain, his expression slowly turned cold. Spirit Mountain was an enigmatic mountain range where powerhouses and experts dwelled. While the sudden appearance of the ten suns had caused the temperature to reach unbearable levels, the powerhouses were able to protect even the flora and faunas using their formations.
But everything changed beyond that. The sky was constantly dyed a jarring dark red color. The trees beyond the Spirit Mountain swiftly withered. Their trunks cracked under the immense heat, and their sap swiftly evaporated. Lush forests were swiftly reduced to charred ground. It was hard to tell where the first spark of flame had started, but it hadn’t taken long for it to evolve into an inferno.
Many beast fled in a fluster. They were already the stronger ones, as the weaker ones had already been scorched to death. But escaping the protection of the forest meant direct exposure to the rays of the ten suns. Many of the beasts shrieked in misery as their bodies burst into flames. In the end, they were reduced to charred carcasses.
Zu An passed by a furiously bubbling river that was soaked in blood. Fishes and sea monsters tried leaping out from the water, but it was too late. Their flesh melted so quickly that only their bones were left before they could even leap out of the water.
Zu An noticed a human tribe next to the river and tried to rush over to save them. It was a decently-sized tribe. Its buildings were made by piling up simple stone blocks, but it was already nearing the scale of a city. Anyone could tell that it was a vibrant civilization.
But there wasn't a shadow to be seen...
No, it would be more accurate to say that there were shadows everywhere—the walls and the floors were covered in pitch-black carbonized silhouettes. Most people in this tribe had to have been mortals for them to not even leave corpses behind. The crude marks around were the only evidence of their existence in this world.
Zu An stopped before an underground cavern. It likely served as the tribe’s bunker in times of danger, but there was no one inside. There were only ‘wall murals’ to be seen. Some of these murals depicted a mother hugging her children tightly before their lives came to a halt.
Zu An had heard the word ‘carnage’ many times, but it was only now that its true meaning sank in for him. These people had just died, but he couldn’t sense their souls despite being the master of the underworld. He could only sense their resentment and fear.
Emotions gushed into his heart, leaving him suffocated. He looked at the sky. Those who have sinned must pay the price, even if they are gods!