Chapter 438: Your Majesty, Are You Trying to Fake an Accident?!
Heavenly Emperor Palace… Heavenly Emperor Palace?!
The black flood dragon's fading consciousness suddenly shuddered, flaring up with a brief, dying burst of clarity—like a candle's last flare before going out.
A thought surged violently in its final moments.
'The Heavenly Emperor— He—he's the Heavenly Emperor?!'
Not just some ordinary remnant of the Ancient Heavenly Gate, but the Heavenly Emperor himself?!
That final flare of willpower made the black flood dragon turn its enormous head, even as its vision began to fade—the dreamlike scene before its eyes blurring and dissolving into wisps of red dust, gradually replaced by a wash of azure light.
At the very end, it saw only starlike motes of light scattering into the air.
Beyond those motes… was a pale spatial rift.
Through that rift, it saw two figures framed in the pallid glow.
Its original target—the one it was tasked to kill—was now weak and fragile, leaning against the chest of that white-robed figure, murmuring something faintly.
Then that "suspected Heavenly Emperor" loosened the white robe draped around his shoulders, revealing a neat black outfit beneath. He gently wrapped the robe around the woman in his arms, hiding her figure from sight.
After a brief hesitation, his hand rose to the blank mask on his face.
He lifted it away, revealing a strikingly handsome young face.
A face that had been listed among the high-priority surveillance targets by all Netherkin race cultivators hiding within the capital.
The black flood dragon's scarlet eyes widened in disbelief.
The Demon Sect's Holy Saint?!
How could it be the Holy Saint of the Demon Sect?!
It screamed inwardly, desperate for an answer that would never come.
The final trace of returning clarity faded at that instant.
At the moment of death, its eyes still glared wide open—staring fixedly at that youth who should never have appeared here.
"...Hea… ven… Emper…"
Its consciousness scattered—dying without peace.
. . .
Luo Wusheng nearly jumped out of his skin.
He and Miss Kirin had both clearly watched the black flood dragon's life fade completely. They had each exhaled in relief and begun cleaning up the aftermath.
Miss Kirin was now in an extremely weakened state—even activating her storage bag required effort—and had no choice but to lean on him for support. She had even asked him to help disguise her appearance.
She was borrowing his mask for the moment, though she had insisted on changing it herself later, probably because she didn't want him to see her true face.
Luo Wusheng had just been about to tease her about it when the supposedly dead black flood dragon suddenly gave a dying twitch, forcing its presence back into the world for one last moment.
The hand that had been supporting Miss Kirin's slender waist reflexively tightened as he turned a wary gaze toward the space where the flood dragon had fallen.
'Not dead yet? Should I finish it off? If I pour everything into [Phantomless 2.0], it should do the trick. If not… I might have to bolt. I did leave myself an escape route, didn't I?'
Perhaps because the adrenaline of facing a Divine Transformation realm Netherkin hadn't quite worn off, Luo Wusheng's mind was racing with possibilities.
"Y-you… don't touch me like that…"
The slightly flustered and angry voice beside his ear made him freeze.
He looked down to find that, in his moment of tension, his hand had somehow wandered a little too high on the young girl's waist.
"Uh… did you hear that black flood dragon say something just now?"
Luo Wusheng quietly loosened his grip, quickly steering the topic elsewhere.
Kirin, after he withdrew his hand, finally managed to calm her mind a little. She forced herself to respond with composure:
"…Speak? I did not notice."
Truthfully, she hadn't been paying any attention to that side at all.
Ever since she had fallen into the Holy Saint arms, her heart had been in complete disarray.
From childhood till now—even counting her three Alter Ego—this was the first time she'd ever been so intimately close to a man.
And to make things worse, that man was the Demon Sect Holy Saint.
Ever since the moment she'd been caught by him, flashes of the scene that her Imperial Alter Ego had uploaded to her mind not long ago kept replaying uncontrollably in her mind.
'Ahhhhhhh! Shameless! Utterly shameless!'
Under such circumstances, it was already a miracle she could maintain her composure. How could she possibly care about some dying black flood dragon?
After a moment, Kirin finally gathered herself and glanced through the spatial rift—at the flood dragon's body, which had now fallen completely still.
She said softly,
"Its life force has indeed been extinguished. Perhaps what you heard was only a fleeting echo before death… That strike earlier carried the power of a strike left behind by the Ancestral Emperor of the Immortal Nation. Even though time has greatly eroded its strength, when fully unleashed, it was more than enough to slay a Divine Transformation realm Netherkin who was unable to resist and whose primordial spirit was already damaged."
That had been one of the greatest trump cards her Mortal Alter Ego possessed for self-defense.
In truth, when she was trapped inside that formation earlier, she could have invoked that power then as well. But if she had done so, at best it would have shattered the formation—and immediately after, she would have had to face a Divine Transformation realm cultivator head-on.
In the best-case scenario, she estimated that this Alter Ego would have perished completely just to seriously wound her opponent.
If Luo Wusheng hadn't stepped in, she might very well have chosen that path.
No matter what scheme the Netherkin race was plotting, if it came down to mutual destruction, at least their plans would have fallen apart entirely.
But then he appeared.
Faced with a Divine Transformation realm opponent, he had still chosen to act—never once doubting her resolve to fight the flood dragon, and without hesitation, chose to believe in her and help.
Kirin leaned gently against Luo Wusheng. Shame burned faintly in her cheeks, yet beneath that was a strange, unprecedented sense of safety.
Luo Wusheng, meanwhile, wore a thoughtful expression.
"Echo before death, huh…"
He looked toward the black flood dragon's corpse lying within the azure space—its body half-turned, a gaping sword wound carved deep into its back, bone visible.
Something about it didn't sit right with him.
Its vitality was indeed gone, and that sword wound still pulsed with destructive spiritual energy that left no chance for survival.
But he was sure—absolutely sure—that he had heard its final words before it died.
''Heavenly Emperor'…?'
Luo Wusheng rubbed his chin.
To be honest, when he'd been bluffing that flood dragon earlier, he had indeed considered pretending to be some ancient powerhouse from this world. He'd even planned which lines to steal from memory—something along the lines of "With sun and moon in hand, I pluck the stars; in all the world, none like me", or "I am the Heavenly Emperor—I suppress all beneath heaven."
But in the end, he had decided to tone it down a little.
Not because he feared overacting… but because he'd have to face Miss Kirin afterward.
'Sigh~ My heart really isn't protagonist-tier. If it were Little Yuli instead, she could probably shrug off this level of social death with ease.'
Still, what had that flood dragon meant by calling him the Heavenly Emperor?
Luo Wusheng's gaze drifted over the black flood dragon's corpse—and then, unintentionally, stopped a short distance away.
There floated a fractured, dim jade stone.
It was the same gem that had unleashed the so-called Sword Strike of the Immortal Nation's Ancestral Emperor.
The Holy Saint of the Demon Sect felt a sharp pang in his heart.
That stone had been capable of launching a peak-stage Divine Transformation realm strike! Even his own collection didn't have anything remotely comparable!
At that moment, he heard Miss Kirin draw in a soft breath.
"This matter… Thank you for lending your hand in it."
Her eyes, hidden beneath the mask etched with scale-like patterns, flickered slightly, though her voice had regained its usual cool composure.
"Were it not for your timely assistance, I would have had no means left."
She paused briefly, then added, "Your… performance just now, was also very good."
If not for this so-called Holy Saint nearly bringing to life the legend of some ancient supreme being, she would never have been able to seize that moment when the flood dragon's mind faltered—using her Mortal Alter Ego's secret technique to magnify its spiritual instability until it couldn't exert even half its strength.
Had the flood dragon managed even a proper resistance, that long-diminished sword strike of the Ancestral Emperor would have never been enough to kill it outright.
Luo Wusheng's face twitched slightly.
Was Miss Kirin praising him? Then why did it feel so uncomfortable?
And what was with that strange pause in her tone?
"Heh… hahaha… it's nothing, really. Just what I should do…"
The Holy Saint forced out a stiff smile, replying casually.
But though he said it without much thought, the listener didn't take it lightly.
'Should do?'
Kirin's eyes, hidden beneath the mask, swept quietly across their surroundings.
Normally, something this dangerous shouldn't fall within the bounds of what someone "should do"… unless there was some special relationship involved.
What exactly was her relationship with the Holy Saint of the Demon Sect?
Friends? Colleagues? Superior and subordinate?
…Fiancée?
That one kind of worked.
"Why is your heartbeat suddenly so fast?"
Luo Wusheng immediately noticed the subtle change in the girl in his arms.
"It's nothing."
Kirin turned her head slightly, keeping him from seeing her wavering gaze. Her voice, usually calm and aloof, now carried the faintest tremor.
Her thoughts, however, were in complete disarray.
Just moments ago, she'd been preparing to answer the question she thought he'd inevitably ask—why she possessed a jade stone capable of containing an attack from the Ancestral Emperor of the Immortal Nation.
Or why she had used the Synthesized Dream Convergence Technique earlier, and why the Netherkin race had gone to such lengths to capture her.
She'd already decided—if pressed, she would reveal her true identity as the "Empress's younger sister."
But to her surprise… the young man beside her hadn't asked a single thing.
Not one question.
Then her thoughts began to spiral further.
Why had Luo Wusheng appeared here in the first place?
Could this entire sequence of events have been within the Holy Saint's expectations?
Was his mysterious interference at the Ascension Platform two nights ago—the one that disrupted the black flood dragon's plan and planted fear in its heart—all just preparation for this very moment?
When he vanished that night… did he change the entire course of his plan?
What else had he done in the shadows? How far did his schemes reach?
'What… drives him to go this far?'
Kirin's gaze grew distant and unfocused.
Meanwhile, Luo Wusheng scratched his head, puzzled.
Though she said "nothing," her heartbeat was only getting faster.
Then suddenly, her hand shot out and clutched his arm tightly.
Startled, Luo looked down at the girl in his arms—her fingers tense around his sleeve—and saw that she was now looking up at him too.
Beneath her mask, her beautiful eyes flickered with a rare, unguarded panic he had never seen before.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"The backlash… from the technique I used earlier… it's starting," she said, her voice low and strained.
"Backlash?" Luo Wusheng's tone immediately grew serious. "Is it bad?"
He didn't doubt her words.
After all, with her cultivation at the Nascent Soul realm, using a technique capable of affecting a Divine Transformation realm Netherkin was bound to carry some backlash.
"It doesn't seem too severe. Even in the worst case, it shouldn't threaten my life," she said, the unexpected warning dragging her mind back to clarity. "But… I can't suppress it much longer…"
Her eyelids trembled; she was clearly fighting to stay conscious.
It looked like she didn't even have time to explain what kind of backlash it was.
But she still had one last thing to say.
Kirin pressed her fingers lightly against the mask on her face.
"In a moment… you must not… take off… my mask…"
"Otherwise…"
Her eyes fluttered closed beneath the mask.
And then, the mask was lifted away.
Luo Wusheng froze.
Because the one who had just removed it… was none other than the girl herself.
He stared blankly at her, utterly dumbfounded.
'Your Majesty— are you seriously faking an 'accidental reveal' right now?!'
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 571: To See or Not to See?[1]
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/u93297024/posts/chapter-571-to-163855664
[2] https://www.patreon.com/u93297024/posts/chapter-571-to-163855664