owlsbooks Chapter 12: The Soldiers Dissolve in Broad Daylight, Ascending to Heaven on Clouds
Chapter 12: The Soldiers Dissolve in Broad Daylight, Ascending to Heaven on Clouds
"BOOM—!!!"
A loud bang suddenly exploded in the center of the coffin without any warning.
The sound was like thunder from the heavens, piercing down and shaking the earth.
"Why...why is this?"
The crowd on and off the altar, who had just been immersed in a deathly silence, were now terrified, their faces drained of color.
On the high platform, several timid civil officials' legs went weak and they almost collapsed.
The Xuanjia elite soldiers beside Ying Zheng reacted extremely quickly, closing in before the aftershocks of the explosion had even subsided.
With their own flesh and blood, they desperately protected the emperor on the high platform, keeping him at the core.
The bronze weapons all pointed towards the center of the altar, their eyes warily fixed on the center of the dust, not missing the slightest movement.
A moment later, as the noise subsided, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred!
A sliver of condensed, almost tangible, azure smoke shot into the sky from the crack in the coffin.
Its momentum was unstoppable, piercing straight into the depths of the clouds.
No matter how fierce the wind raged and battered the square, the wisp of smoke remained unmoved, condensing and not dissipating, like a strange bridge connecting heaven and earth.
At that very moment when the smoke rose, everyone present, whether kings, generals, soldiers, or servants, was present.
In a daze, I seemed to glimpse a blurry, hazy outline.
The figure floated up and down, stepping on the pillar of smoke that guided the ascension, soaring straight up into the nine heavens!
The blurry, indistinct figure was indistinguishable, yet everyone suddenly understood.
This immortal who ascended to heaven was clearly the Taoist priest Zou Yun, who had already breathed his last and was broken in two in the coffin!
At this moment, he looked serene and was riding the wind away!
quiet!
Everyone stared in stunned silence at this breathtaking scene, afraid that they might utter a sound that would desecrate this sacred moment.
For a long, long time...
Only when the billowing smoke gradually thinned and finally dissipated completely into the vast sky did the stagnant air in the square begin to slowly move.
However, the immense shock still weighed on everyone's hearts, leaving them shaken and unable to shake it off for a long time.
Just when all was quiet and everyone was still unsettled!
The stone statue, which had been standing like a stone sculpture at the edge of the altar with its eyes closed in deep concentration, suddenly opened its eyes wide in anger.
Two beams of light shone from his eyes, and Shi Gong raised his magic sword high, the sharp blade pointing directly at the broken coffin.
At the same time, he stomped his foot heavily and let out a thunderous shout.
"combine!!!"
Before the shout had even finished, a chilling scene unfolded.
The heavy coffin that had been cleaved in two by a sharp blade.
At this moment, it seemed to be controlled by a pair of invisible and huge hands, making a teeth-grinding "crunching" sound, and slowly closing on its own.
The coffin closed perfectly, as if it had never been damaged.
What's even more chilling is that Zou Yun, who should have been dead, is now experiencing subtle yet incredibly clear tremors in his exposed head and feet.
Like a slumbering beast disturbed, or a imprisoned soul struggling.
It was as if... in the next second, it would break free of the coffin and come back to life completely.
Before the gasps of surprise could even escape their throats—
"Ho—!"
A long, sharp gasp suddenly came from inside the coffin.
Immediately afterwards, under the gaze of countless pairs of eyes that seemed to burst open, the coffin lid was pushed open from the inside with a "bang".
Zou Yun was completely unharmed and sat up straight from the coffin. Then, with a swift movement, he landed on the ground.
As soon as he landed, he hunched over, gasping for breath as if he were drowning.
Zou Yun's chest heaved violently, and fine beads of sweat kept seeping from his forehead. He looked as if he had gone through some kind of terrifying ordeal that ordinary people could not imagine.
This caused everyone present to feel a chill from the bottom of their hearts, and they all wondered what Master Zou had encountered.
"It seems that Gui Bo is unwilling to release people easily, so he deliberately made things difficult for Zou Gong."
"I believe that the greatest terror lies in the very cycle of life and death!"
"Perhaps the Heavenly Emperor couldn't bear to part with Master Zou, so he removed the ladder that allowed him to descend to the mortal realm, and thus Master Zou fell all the way down from the heavens."
The crowd discussed amongst themselves, but couldn't come to a conclusion. Although their guesses differed, their gazes towards Zou Yun were filled with deep awe.
The expression on his face didn't seem like he was looking at an ordinary person; it was more like he was worshipping a deity in a temple.
At the same time, the coffin behind Zou Yun, as if hated by heaven and earth, suddenly burst into flames before everyone's eyes!
Moreover, the flames were not the usual crimson, but a chilling, eerie green.
The flames licked the wood frantically, burning ever brighter, and in an instant transformed into a giant torch, radiating scorching heat.
On the high platform, Ying Zheng's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of needles.
He stared intently at the figure that was perfectly unharmed, illuminated by the eerie green flames.
The desires within him, like the coffin itself, exploded and burned within Ying Zheng's chest, making his very soul tremble!
The entire square fell silent once again.
The crowd stood speechless, frozen in place, countless eyes wide open, seemingly unable to believe what was happening before their eyes.
Only Zou Yun, at the center of the storm, straightened his slightly disheveled clothes as if no one else was around, after his breathing gradually calmed down.
His expression was calm, even carrying a hint of indescribable detachment, as he calmly bowed to Ying Zheng on the high platform!
Then, under the gazes of stunned, fanatical, awe-inspiring, and fearful intertwined, he turned and walked away with a flourish.
Those Xuanjia warriors, who were usually fierce and only obeyed the king's orders, were now as if bound by invisible shackles, and not one of them dared to step forward to stop him.
It was as if that figure carried some kind of invisible pressure, making them even careful when they breathed.
Zou Yun's figure gradually disappeared into the distance, his steps light and quick, as if he had unloaded a heavy burden.
A clear and unrestrained singing voice drifted over on the gentle breeze:
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Carefree and at ease~"
"I can't control what gods and immortals do..."
"Ho...ho...hahahaha~~"
That laughter was unrestrained and exuberant...
It is filled with the joy of breaking free from all constraints, so unrestrained that even the laws of heaven and earth can no longer imprison it.
The song lingered in the vast, empty square for a long time before finally rising and disappearing into the boundless blue sky.
Ying Zheng was rooted to the spot, staring blankly in the direction where Zou Yun had disappeared, unable to recover for a long time!
That laughter, that silhouette, were branded into his mind.
At this moment, Zhao Gao, who had been standing by his side like a shadow, suddenly stepped forward and spoke up at just the right moment, "Your Majesty..."
He paused, making sure that every word he spoke was perfectly clear.
"Just now... when the thunder roared, the sun's corona was pointing precisely to noon, without the slightest deviation!"
He slightly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the still-wet pool of blood on the altar, and lowered his voice even further.
"On the altar, such a massive and terrifying amount of blood loss... Your Majesty, if it were truly the blood of one person, even someone with bones of copper and iron would surely die, with absolutely no chance of survival!"
Ying Zheng looked dazed, as if his soul had followed that figure, and he murmured in a low voice, his words filled with confusion and longing.
"So... this Taoist priest Zou Yun... truly died in broad daylight, his soul ascending to heaven."
"To...to live another life?!"
Even Ying Zheng himself didn't realize that his question already carried a subtle yet profound sense of awe.
"Your Majesty will make the decision; your subject... dares not presume to comment!"
After Zhao Gao finished answering, he lowered his head even further, his drooping eyelids concealing all his emotions.
"So... there really are immortals!" Ying Zheng murmured to himself.
In fact, he had always had his doubts.
The so-called immortals and immortality may just be a carefully crafted illusion by alchemists.
However, his increasingly deteriorating health, along with some indescribable stroke of luck, forced Ying Zheng to believe that there really was an elixir of immortality.
Otherwise, he really didn't know if his increasingly decaying body could survive the next night.
But nowadays, the legendary miracles of "dissolving into immortality" and "resurrection" are being told.
When it was presented to him so realistically and so shockingly, Ying Zheng could hardly believe it.
The proverb "Lord Ye loved dragons but was terrified of them" perfectly describes this situation!
On the other side, Fusu was equally astonished, "This...is he truly an immortal?"
"But Master Zou, didn't you say before that all the arts of immortality in the world... are illusions?!"
He was in a daze, unable to believe what he was seeing.
My mind kept replaying phrases like "immortality is fake" and "a flower in a mirror, the moon in the water"...
Meanwhile, the many princes and nobles around Fusu had already come to their senses, and their eyes quickly changed from shock to naked fanaticism!
"Hahaha, I knew the Grand Master was no ordinary person!" Wang Li shouted to the people around him, his face flushed.
However, at this moment, no one was willing to pay attention to him, leaving him feeling quite unhappy as his punch landed on cotton.
At this moment, the entire platform is a stage for all sorts of people.
Some people were so excited that their beards trembled, some rubbed their hands together excitedly, and some even couldn't wait to pull their companions aside and whisper to each other.
Although they tried to keep their voices down, they couldn't hide their excitement.
"I'd give up all my wealth... Yes! Even if it means giving up all my wealth, I'd still beg Master Zou for guidance!"
"The fire in the coffin, the rising smoke... a miracle! This is truly a miracle!"
"Seeking immortality! Seeking the Dao! Longevity! A once-in-a-millennium opportunity... is right before our eyes! It's at the Immortal Temple!!!"
In an instant, everyone's thoughts were completely overturned.
In 212 BC, on an autumn day, the weather in Xianyang changed!