Chapter 940: Xiang Liu

Gonggong’s minister was Xiangliu, who had nine heads and fed on nine mountains.

Wherever Xiangliu touched, it dug out a swamp.

Emperor Yu killed Xiangliu, but his blood was so foul that no five grains could be planted there.

Emperor Yu dug it up, three times it sank down three fathoms, and then he made it into the Platform of the Many Emperors.

North of Kunlun and east of Roulian, Xiangliu had nine heads, a human face, a snake body, and was green.

It dared not shoot north, and the platform was to its east.

The platform was square, and at each corner was a tiger-colored snake, its head facing south.

Soon, Li Qi, Zhang Zong, and Yao Ji arrived at this place.

Here, there was a statue, green in color, depicting a majestic nine-headed serpent with patterns on its body.

Above the nine-headed statue, a magnificent Platform of the Many Emperors was suppressed, carved with numerous murals depicting the achievements and visages of ancient emperors, firmly pressing down on the head of the Xiangliu statue.

And around the Xiangliu statue, there were actually ‘Gods’ present.

Many, many half-human, half-snake beings were living nearby, but their way of life was very strange.

These half-human, half-snake beings were not ordinary Mortals.

They possessed the characteristics of Star Officials.

Star Officials actually possess a considerable depth and breadth of wisdom.

In the minds of these ‘World Wills’ that have Awakened self-awareness, the wisdom of all eras, and even all worlds, is concentrated.

Their bodies contain an infinite variety of worlds and the diverse lives of various individual organisms.

The daily lives of these beings were filled with joy and creativity, but all of this was good, because everything they created would become nourishment for the Star Officials.

The Star Officials thus absorbed their wisdom, which then transformed into their own wisdom.

For high-grade Star Officials, in the past, they could use star charts to obscure all worlds, but now, ‘worlds’ have ceased to exist, and their power will transform into another form.

They are enormous in size, and their consciousness is transmitted through wave-like patterns between stars.

A thousand years is an ungraspable moment for a Star Official.

Today’s Star Officials can count every star in the Universe, just like counting their own flock of sheep, without missing a single one.

Star Officials have their own pride; they believe themselves to be the most Awakened beings, whose wisdom is grander than that of the First Gods.

The First Gods were merely born early.

The First Gods were actually quite ‘personified’; they possessed various self-wills, different personalities, and distinct individualities, with many similarities to Mortals.

But as Heavenly Gods, Star Officials are the World Will.

In the past, present, and future of the Star Officials’ existence, all worlds, in all eras, have unreservedly sacrificed their lives and civilizations for the Star Officials, ultimately creating the magnificent Star Officials.

Star Officials are naturally revered by all people.

When Mortals first realize that their galaxy is alive, possesses self-awareness, and is growing robustly by absorbing the wisdom of all things, they usually feel an irresistible sense of awe.

A sense of reverence arises spontaneously.

When they are under the starry sky, gazing up at everything, they cannot help but feel ashamed, remain silent, and their hearts fill with admiration.

This is the greatness of the Star Officials.

And these half-human, half-snake races before them generally possess this characteristic of Star Officials.

They use their bodies here as a central hub, projecting their forms into the cosmos beyond the world through their Dharma bodies, then forming the cells of their Dharma bodies with ‘galaxies’ as units, and finally assembling the gigantic body of the Star Official.

These half-human, half-snake life forms project their spirits into the starry sky, manipulating the diffuse matter between stars, compressing it with gravity.

Li Qi and Zhang Zong could both see this entire process; they could witness the fortune, manipulated by the will of these half-human, half-snake deities, condensing from initially tenuous gas into a more distinct spherical shape, then becoming a convex disc, with brighter streaks and dimmer fissures beginning to appear within.

By manipulating gravity, these half-human, half-snake deities further condensed the gas.

Stars were ignited one by one, and the matter within the nebula became denser.

They became more tightly bound to each other and then exhibited more characteristics of life.

This process might last a very long time, perhaps even billions of years for an ordinary galaxy to form, but it seemed that for these half-human, half-snake deities, all of this was worth it.

Li Qi counted the numbers; there were over a hundred thousand half-human, half-snake deities here, of varying grades, from Fourth Grade to Sixth Grade, with Sixth Grade being the lowest.

This seemed to be a threshold.

Only by reaching this threshold could one participate in this plan.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Li Qi turned to Zhang Zong and asked.

Zhang Zong scrutinized for a moment, pondered for a while, and then said, “If I had to guess, they’re trying to transform themselves into a combination of a Heavenly God and a Di Qi (Earthly Qi).

The First Gods cannot be simulated, so they’re looking for a way through the Star Officials, after all, the Xiangliu clan are naturally Di Qi (Earthly Qi), but I don’t understand why they would do this.”

“Like me?” Li Qi pointed to himself.

Li Qi was a combination of a Heavenly God and a Di Qi (Earthly Qi).

He became a Heavenly God by leveraging the power of the Zhu Rong lineage, while his Di Qi (Earthly Qi) status was due to his Dao field, becoming part of the world.

“You’re different.

You’re half Heavenly God, half Di Qi (Earthly Qi).

In other words… you’re neither a Heavenly God nor a Di Qi (Earthly Qi),” Zhang Zong concluded.

“What they seek is to be both a Heavenly God and a Di Qi (Earthly Qi).

They want to project a Star Official’s Dharma body using a Di Qi (Earthly Qi) body.”

“But what’s the point of that?” Zhang Zong was a bit confused.

Indeed, this was a grand plan.

If time were stretched out, from a hyper-accelerated perspective, billions of years would be but an instant for this plan.

These Di Qi (Earthly Qi) of the ‘Xiangliu clan’ used their Divine Ability to condense nebular matter into the first stars.

From a distance, these reddish behemoths were merely specks of light.

Sometimes, these starlights burst into flames, and after a brilliant flash, life and civilization were born, and the lifeless stars were surrounded by these tiny, hard-won seeds of life.

Finally, the entire galaxy was filled with countless civilized worlds, teeming with life.

Each world had at least one unique race, sensitive and intelligent, with their own world and cognition.

Then, many worlds together formed a system, and this system became a commonwealth.

Within a complete galaxy, countless civilized commonwealths were tightly connected through the ‘Star Official’s’ body, becoming a wise, fervent, galactic co-existence.

The Star Official, a culmination of the power and wisdom of countless disparate, fleeting individual lives, pursuing an adventure of life and spirit in the vastest Universe, this power seemed to be what the Xiangliu clan wanted to obtain.

Then, what would they use these for?

It was unknown.

But Li Qi wasn’t going to pursue it.

Everyone had their own goals, so why dig into the root of the matter?

So, he gave up on continuing to observe and instead looked towards the platform.

“Shall we go?” Li Qi asked.

“Mhm.” Zhang Zong nodded.

The two stopped observing the Xiangliu clan and instantly arrived on top of the platform.

“This was Sealed by your Shaman Dao.

You should know how to communicate with it, so I’ll leave it to you.” Zhang Zong stepped back.

Li Qi nodded, then chanted spells.

He burned a half-pile of firewood, set up nine cauldrons, blew on ox horns together, scattered coins and rice crosswise on the Dao, then threw them into the river, summoning lustful and confused ghosts to fill the surroundings.

Blood suddenly appeared in the air.

Li Qi took the blood and smeared it on the roof tiles of the platform, and also took ghosts and monsters to use as suppression objects.

In this way, the filthy blood of the evil ghosts from the underworld could obscure the sight of the Five Emperors Platform, breaking a small crack in the Seal, allowing Xiangliu’s power to spread out from it.

However, it was impossible to let Xiangliu out just like that.

Zhang Zong, standing nearby, lightly flicked his finger.

Thunder chased lightning, a chaotic and magnificent display, as twelve different types of thunder appeared in the sky, corresponding to the twelve directions.

One could only hear crashes, bangs, and clangs, sudden and unpredictable, with rolling thunder startling and horse-like lightning intertwining.

Within an area of 193,500 li, thunder roared, representing the number of li from Earth to Heaven.

This blockade would Seal off all possibilities of escape.

Thus, Xiangliu’s power stretched out its head.

The surroundings were immediately filled with a ‘polluting’ power.

Li Qi and Zhang Zong both felt their own decay begin.

It was as if Mortals’ brains began to degenerate due to old age, no longer able to bear the task of thinking.

All functions were declining, and their constantly decaying bodies severely eroded them.

“This stench, you should restrain it.

Xiangliu, did you call me here just to fumigate me?” Li Qi spoke, saying so.

Then, a nine-headed great serpent crawled out from the Seal.

This was not its true body, but merely a Dharma body formed by a trace of its leaked power.

This Xiangliu Dharma body glanced at the horizon.

Zhang Zong’s commanded thunder had already completely covered an area of 193,500 li.

Xiangliu could not escape this region.

“You two are truly cautious, aren’t you?

Where is Yao Ji?” Xiangliu spoke.

The voice sounded somewhat low, like the sound of magnets rubbing together.

“She’s waiting outside.

It seems she’s not planning to interfere in this matter, but… I guess it’s because she knows it’s useless to come in, so she’s too lazy to move, right?” Li Qi said, looking at Xiangliu.

A nine-headed great serpent, or rather, a ‘nine-headed majestic serpent,’ this was Xiangliu’s appearance.

“Then, what have you considered? Unseal me, and then I will help Shaman Dao,” Xiangliu said.

“Unsealing you would involve too many things.

Would the internal divine Dao allow it?

Most of the ancient emperors probably died in the Dao struggle, but wouldn’t those who survived cause me trouble?

Like Emperor Xuanyuan, he’s a First Grade now.

You two don’t get along very well, do you?” Li Qi said.

Li Qi already knew this secret.

Emperor Xuanyuan was now the ‘Yellow Dragon’.

Clearly, in the past, the legend of Emperor Xuanyuan ‘ascending on a Dragon and departing’ revealed one thing: in his final moments, Emperor Xuanyuan chose neither Shaman Dao nor the human Dao.

As one of the emperors, and also the Primordial Sage Emperor, he abandoned humanity, divinity, and Shaman Dao, choosing instead to ‘ascend on a Dragon and depart’.

“Emperor Xuanyuan is First Grade now?

Is he still a God?” Xiangliu suddenly asked.

This question made Li Qi realize that Xiangliu had no idea what was happening outside.

“He’s not a God anymore; he ascended on a Dragon and departed,” Li Qi chuckled.

“So that’s it, ascending on a Dragon and departing… Does that mean Emperor Xuanyuan will interfere? Even if I’m still Third Grade?” Xiangliu said, its nine heads and eighteen eyes scanning Li Qi and Zhang Zong.

The gloomy gaze seemed to lower the surrounding temperature.

The Xiangliu clan and the True Dragons had always been at odds, and Emperor Xuanyuan had also never favored the Gonggong lineage, at least when he was one of the emperors, Emperor Xuanyuan supported the continued existence of Mortals.

“It’s hard to say.

You know, don’t you?

Emperor Xuanyuan initially supported Mortals, but when he ‘ascended on a Dragon and departed,’ his ministers wanted to follow him, but they were shaken off by that Dragon, leaving behind only his former bow.” Li Qi said, “So, is Emperor Xuanyuan’s attitude towards Mortals really the same as before?”

Li Qi was indeed unsure about this point.

Emperor Xuanyuan not supporting Mortals might be understandable, just like Yao Ji.

Yao Ji once helped Emperor Yu control the floods stirred up by the Gonggong clan, but in the end, Yao Ji changed her mind, believing that Mortals should be completely destroyed.

He had once helped Mortals, but ultimately chose to abandon them.

But… after abandoning them, would Emperor Xuanyuan support Xiangliu?

It’s also hard to say.

From the Shen Yijun, one can see that the relationship between the Xiangliu clan and the True Dragons was never good in the ancient times.

Even people from the Xiangliu clan, like those in the Shen Yijun, would hunt True Dragons, provoking Fourth Grade True Dragons to retaliate and kill them.

Li Qi was undecided, so he looked at Xiangliu.

If Xiangliu could persuade him, then everything would be fine.

But if Xiangliu himself couldn’t come up with a good argument to persuade Li Qi, then he should just go back and wait.

The outside world is very dangerous, rash intervention can easily lead to death, so you should just go back to prison and wait.

Li Qi’s attitude was easy to understand, and Xiangliu easily grasped what Li Qi wanted.

So, this gloomy nine-headed great serpent said, “Let’s not talk about Emperor Xuanyuan for now.

After all, at this point, clinging to the attitude of a First Grade is too difficult, and a First Grade wouldn’t bother with my unsealing.”

“I’ll get straight to the point.

When I was Sealed here, the information I could get was very limited, so I’m not very clear about the outside situation.”

“However, from the available information, the current Dao struggle has moved from a calm period to a new peak.

The Shaman should need more combat power, right?”

Li Qi shook his head: “If it’s just about combat power, then there’s no need to say more.

The faction that you and Yao Ji belong to, frankly speaking, from the perspective of Shaman Dao, is no different from the human Dao.”

“If we could reconcile with you, then Shaman Dao wouldn’t have fought with the human Dao in the first place.”

For the Shaman, a God who wishes to eliminate all Mortals and a human Dao that wishes to eliminate all things other than humans are equivalent.

The Shaman does not wish to eliminate either side.