Killing himself—this had been Rovi's ultimate goal from the start of his journey. Making that the purpose of his sword practice now was only natural.
He truly did hope this sword could be used to kill him...
Of course, the process could not be completed in a single stroke. Just as the Age of Gods had yet to fully recede, the East Sea stretched on for tens of thousands of li, and its depths alone reached a thousand li. Even with Rovi's primordial scale on full display, it was impossible to purify the entire sea in an instant.
He set out at sunrise, and only at sunset did Rovi ride the sword-light back beneath the Fusang Tree.
The vast tree swayed gently. After nightfall, it seemed especially quiet, yet it still gave off a faint radiance.
That was the manifestation of the sun's concept.
Rovi flicked his sleeve and glanced back. "We're here... hm?"
What answered him was not Yu Mei-ren's irritable voice, nor her feigned disdain, but a soft weight against him.
Her arms hung loosely at his sides. The girl was pressed front-first against his back, her soft body shifting gently, her face beneath her falling black hair serene and beautiful.
Yu Mei-ren had fallen asleep.
Rovi paused, lowered his gaze to her delicate brows and the peaceful expression they framed, and raised an eyebrow.
So she could make such a calm face too?
This girl-like planetary Elemental was so stubborn that even after Rovi had gathered up the negative emotions in her heart and made them disappear, she still insisted on acting obstinate...
"If you're asleep, then sleep." Rovi turned, wrapped one arm around Yu Mei-ren's slender waist, supported the full curve of her thigh with his other hand, and lifted her up. Then he leapt down from the sword-light and landed lightly on the ground.
The radiance around the Pure Yang Sword shifted, condensing back into a humming blade as it descended. Its edge burned even more intensely than before, yet compared to earlier, there were now a few more traces of warmth within it.
The sword continued to hum, its awakened spirituality seeming to pour out its joy toward Rovi.
"Go up into the tree and wait for sunrise." Rovi smiled. At his words, the Pure Yang Sword shot into the sky again, hanging high above as it awaited the dawn.
Rovi set the sleeping Yu Mei-ren down, wrapped her in the robe she had been wearing, then sat cross-legged beside her and gazed out over the boundless sea, silently calculating how long it would take to thoroughly purify this stretch of water.
In the end, he reached a conclusion.
A few days should be enough.
"Once it's purified, I'll be able to formally set foot on the Divine Land." Rovi closed his eyes, feeling the sea breeze wash over him as his robes stirred soundlessly...
...
The next day, as the first sunlight rose into view, Yu Mei-ren opened her eyes in a daze. The first thing she saw was the brilliant sun.
"So... bright..." Yu Mei-ren rubbed her eyes, shook her head, and propped herself up slightly with both hands on the ground.
Beneath the sunlight, the graceful curves of her body looked particularly pure. As the girl-like planetary Elemental moved, she stirred a soft ripple, with only narrow strips of cloth covering her body and revealing a beauty as tempting as the morning glow.
Having not slept so peacefully in a very long time, her mind was still somewhat muddled. She rose unsteadily, but failed to notice Rovi beside her and tripped over him all at once.
"Mm—?" Her mind cleared instantly, but her tilted body could no longer stop itself from falling.
Yu Mei-ren instinctively reached out and pressed both hands onto Rovi's shoulders, pushing straight down.
Rovi fell back onto the ground and opened his eyes, looking at the girl who had somehow ended up on top of him.
Black hair veiled her bewildered face. The fright had yet to fade from her ruby-like eyes. The girl's hands pressed against his body, propping her upper half up slightly, while below, her legs were pressed directly against Rovi's, the soft fullness of her thighs flush against him.
The morning sun shone down. It was precisely the time of day when vitality was at its peak... Feeling exactly where she was pressed against him, Yu Mei-ren could not help but catch her breath.
Yet in that very instant, she seemed to think of something...
"Oh? What's this, are you pleasantly surprised?" Yu Mei-ren swept back her long hair and licked her moist crimson lips, the flash of pink tongue she revealed exceedingly enticing.
She even deliberately swayed her body left and right, rubbing against him.
She had failed before.
But now, she had only just woken up and was still dazed. Rovi had to be in about the same state, didn't he?
She absolutely had to see him make a fool of himself...
"As expected." After a moment of silence, Rovi finally spoke. "You really have gone mad."
Yu Mei-ren's expression stiffened slightly.
Why was it like this again?
"And if you want to make me lose my composure with this, you're still not quite there." The voice came from one side. In an instant, the body beneath Yu Mei-ren collapsed into a single garment, while Rovi sat quietly off to the side. She ground her teeth, but there was nothing she could do.
If Rovi wanted to dodge, Yu Mei-ren had no way to stop him.
"You hateful man, you utterly unromantic bastard—" But in truth, Yu Mei-ren herself had not realized that the way they interacted was becoming stranger and stranger.
Rovi yawned and swayed to his feet. "You should wake up properly."
"Hmph. I've been awake the whole time!" Yu Mei-ren turned her head aside, her face full of disdain. "The only one who's been out of it is you."
If I were really out of it, you wouldn't be so intact right now... For all that, Rovi was no passionless saint without desire.
The only reason he could still restrain himself was entirely because, as a supreme god, he had control over his own human body.
As for why he had to control himself... Rovi glanced sideways, toward the world beyond the sky.
She probably wasn't watching, right?
A humming sound fell from the heavens, and brilliant red light descended like a rainbow bridge.
The Pure Yang Sword appeared before Rovi, ringing crisp and clear.
"That sword of yours... seems to have become even more spiritual?" Yu Mei-ren looked over curiously.
Rovi reached out, gripped the hilt, and slid it backward into the sheath on his back. "The Pure Yang Sword condensed the cycle of the Three Waters yesterday and gained a new underlying mechanism... Hm. On this land, perhaps it should be called new 'spiritual power.' It grew by absorbing the spiritual power of the sea."
"Are we continuing today too?" Yu Mei-ren asked before she could stop herself.
Even she herself did not realize how much longing was mixed into those words.
Of course they would continue.
Purifying the East Sea as soon as possible would also benefit Rovi.
But before that...
Rovi looked toward the surface of the sea. "Someone's coming."
Yu Mei-ren froze, then followed Rovi's gaze. Sure enough, she saw people.
People were floating on the sea, clinging to round logs as they drifted. Their clothes were ragged, and under the sunlight they looked terribly bedraggled, their faces pale.
They drifted across the water, yet there was no surprise or panic on their faces.
It seemed they had intentionally let the seawater carry them here.
As if they were... seeking refuge?
But what kind of disaster would require them to throw themselves into the sea just to escape it?
Rovi did not understand, and for once, Yu Mei-ren did not show impatience toward the people who had suddenly appeared either. Because she abruptly remembered what Rovi had said—the people who could truly represent humanity... those at the bottom, people who only wanted to live.
The people before her seemed to be just that sort.
"I'll go take a look..."
"I'm going too." The moment the words left her mouth, Yu Mei-ren herself froze. When she noticed Rovi looking at her, she could not help saying, "Don't misunderstand. It's not like I care about them..."
It's only because of you that I want to go see.
"Suit yourself." Rovi had no reason to refuse.
Yu Mei-ren wrapped the robe around herself, and her rather revealing outfit instantly transformed into a loose black, cross-collared ancient robe. Her long hair fluttered down, her red eyes were like jade, and in that moment, she looked even more like an "immortal."
"Let's go." Yu Mei-ren took the initiative to reach out to Rovi and smiled. "Mr. Rovi?"
In an instant, sword-light rose. Before they even drew close, voices fell into their ears...
"They've gone mad, they've all gone mad!"
"We should be safe here now, right?"
"Why did it become like this..."
"Where are we supposed to go?"
The air was filled with fear, panic, worry... all kinds of emotions intertwined together. Rovi could feel the "chaos" within him operating and absorbing them, and through the mechanism by which it functioned, he could take in the hearts of these people at a glance.
Rovi glanced at Yu Mei-ren. Their eyes met, and each saw the confusion in the other's heart.
Perhaps because Huaxia had once manifested a great number of primordial supreme gods, and had even been visited by beings higher than supreme gods, Rovi, standing in the East Sea, could not directly observe the state of the Divine Land. Only when someone called upon his divine name could Rovi turn his gaze there. So for now, he could only ask in person.
The sword-light paused slightly. Rovi summoned a Kun-fish from the deep sea below. The people floating on the sea looked up at the sky, still lamenting, but in the next second, they abruptly discovered the seawater beneath them surging rapidly.
Something was rising, lifting them up with it.
A Kun-fish was a colossal mythical creature. It needed only to surface by the slightest fraction of itself to carry everyone on its back like a sudden island.
"Has the sea god revealed himself?"
"Bless us, sea god, bless us..."
"..."
A feeling welled up in their hearts, as though they had survived a disaster and grasped a chance to live.
"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED." The sea breeze brushed gently across their faces, and a voice entered everyone's ears.
It—it really was the sea god revealing himself!?
The crowd was both shocked and delighted.
Faced with the sea god's question, they naturally did not dare conceal anything. One after another, they spoke and explained what had happened.
"We all came from the lands of Chu. Actually, we don't know what happened either. It's just that starting yesterday, many, many people seemed to go mad..."
"My wife, my father and mother—they'd get angry at anyone they saw and attack anyone they saw..."
"It wasn't just us. Even the local nobles and the army started fighting among themselves... So many wild beasts gathered into a flood and charged through every village as they pleased. We were among the few who could stay clear-headed. All we could do was run, keep running..."
"Running from the village was useless. Leaving the town was useless too. We ran all the way to the sea..."
"We didn't dare look back, but we could hear the constant whispers."
"The voice was saying 'Taiyi.'"
"Over and over, it kept saying 'Taiyi'... I know that was the supreme god revered by our ancestors in the lands of Chu."
"I couldn't help thinking... perhaps Taiyi had gone mad too!?"
"But that's impossible. I don't believe it..."
Grief spread once more. Listening to their words, Rovi's expression turned contemplative as well.
Of course he knew Taiyi. Taiyi was the supreme god of the lands of Chu, and also a creator god.
As recorded in Taiyi Gave Birth to Water: Taiyi gave birth to water, and water returned to nourish Taiyi; thus Heaven was formed. Heaven returned to nourish Taiyi; thus Earth was formed.
Taiyi was the manifestation of the concept that birthed and created Heaven and Earth.
And one of the more than ten primordial beings that existed in the land of Huaxia.
But why had things become like this?
Rovi cast an inquiring look toward Yu Mei-ren, the one most likely to know. Yu Mei-ren thought deeply for a moment, then rose slightly onto her tiptoes.
Can't you use some technique like voice transmission...? Although he knew this might be some kind of secret, Rovi still could not help quipping inwardly. Even so, he bent down.
The girl's crimson lips brushed past his ear, and she said softly, "I don't know."
Rovi: "..."
Damn. How careless of me.
It was actually the legendary best answer.
And so Yu Mei-ren smiled, her crimson lips curving upward, making her look especially pleased.
She had finally gotten one over on him!
"Though I don't know, what I do know is that back then, seemingly to resist madness, and even more to transcend further, quite a few immortals and gods were involved with those Outer Gods beyond the sky." Yu Mei-ren's mood improved all at once. "Deep within their Divinity, there seems to have been a side touched by madness. The fact that the gods and immortals scattered and disappeared one after another during the Battle of Investiture is also suspected to be connected to this."
"I didn't experience it back then. I was only a bystander, so what I know is limited..."
Madness within Divinity?
Rovi swept his gaze once more over the people sprawled at his feet, weeping as they spoke.
Seeing Rovi react this way, Yu Mei-ren said, as if possessed by some impulse, "Don't bother with them..."
Let's just live our own lives.
That was what she wanted to say.
But she abruptly realized that she had known the person before her for no more than two days, and she fell silent.
Still, the words she had spoken were truly sincere.
Rovi was strong. He was a supreme god, a manifestation of primordial scale.
But the mad Taiyi... if that truly was the original Taiyi, then Taiyi was also a supreme god.
And its rank was absolutely above Donghua's!
Yu Mei-ren did not want Rovi to get dragged into this.
"Unfortunately, it's coming for me." Taiyi was an ancient sun god, while Donghua Dijun was a newly born sun god. As a god himself, when Rovi spoke the name Taiyi, he could clearly sense an intense hostility.
It truly was coming for Rovi.
Yet although Rovi spoke as if he were helpless, his eagerness was practically written all over his face.
A chance to leave his name in history and die with his Dao extinguished—hadn't it arrived?
Even if he failed, it did not matter.
A mad Taiyi would surely be able to provide him with plenty of "negativity" and "malice," right?
All profit, no loss.
And besides...
"I said before that I hope the sun I hold falls upon them."
Simply by looking at the small number of people beneath him, Rovi could imagine just how chaotic the lands of Chu, the Divine Land itself, had become.
He wanted to save them.
Because he had the ability, and because he had the need.
A god
ought to protect all people.
Yu Mei-ren fell silent. Only after a while did she smile. "Then there's no helping it... I'll reluctantly accompany you on this trip."
"I know where Taiyi might be. I can help you..."
I also want to stay with you.
The only "kindred being" I have in this world.
In the girl's crimson eyes, there was nothing but seriousness.
After living for so long, after drifting aimlessly through an endless stretch of time, the pure planetary Elemental had finally found something she wanted to hold on to.
Even if they had only spent two days together, that feeling had never had anything to do with time.
---
T/N: donggghughgua is rovi btw if u didnt figure it out
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