Chapter 132: The True King's Revival
Chen Shi turned to look at the stone soldiers, only to see stone chips and dust constantly flaking off their surfaces. The armor on their bodies was gradually shedding its petrified state, gleaming with metallic sheen, while their eyes slowly regained their clarity and spark of life.
All the stone soldiers were undergoing the same transformation!
At this moment, the river channel was dim like twilight, the light filtering indistinctly from ahead.
Even so, Chen Shi peered forward along the channel and estimated there were at least a thousand of these stone soldiers here!
"Over a thousand stone soldiers reviving!"
The mere thought sent a chill crawling across his scalp. These weren't Stone Image Spirits!
Stone Image Spirits and Tomb Suppressing Beasts were stone statues venerated as deities, granted supernatural powers and spells to guard mausoleums and ward off intruders.
These stone soldiers had to be warriors from the True King's era! They'd been commanded to guard the Tomb of the True King—they must have been petrified by the True King himself using the Stone Petrification Art!
A possibility struck Chen Shi like lightning. He blurted out, "Tianqing, Blackie Pot—the True King cultivated the Water-Fire Tempering Art too! Who says he must be dead?"
Li Tianqing jolted as realization dawned. The Water-Fire Tempering Art was the supreme technique for pursuing corpse liberation to immortality. Master it, and even after the flesh perished, one could reform the body with true fire and true water, transcending death to roam free!
Chen Shi was living proof!
Grandpa Chen Yindu had stormed the Tomb of the True King, seized the Water-Fire Tempering Art, and used it to temper Chen Shi's corpse, keeping it incorrupt. Then he'd ventured into the underworld to reclaim his soul, resurrecting the fifty provinces' finest child prodigy!
"This is the Tomb of the True King!"
Li Tianqing gazed around in disbelief, murmuring, "We're inside the Tomb of the True King. This must be the burial escorts welcoming their king's revival..."
Chen Shi had reached the same conclusion, his heart heavy with dread. If the True King revived—and took all these soldiers with him—the man might soon reclaim dominion over West Ox New Continent!
Caught in the middle of it all, was this a blessing or a curse?
Suddenly, something in his sleeve grew scalding hot, searing his skin. Alarm shot through him. "The West King Jade Seal!"
The seal he'd tucked into his sleeve for safekeeping now burned like molten iron!
He fumbled it out in haste. The instant the West King Jade Seal emerged, a blinding radiance erupted, flooding the river channel!
Li Tianqing flinched in shock. The glare forced the two men and the dog to shield their eyes; only after moments did they adjust.
The West King Jade Seal was scorching in Chen Shi's grip, nearly slipping free, but he clenched his jaw and held fast.
This was likely their one shot at survival!
"I hope Scholar Zhu was telling the truth!"
Chen Shi gritted his teeth. Then a stray thought bubbled up. "Why haven't Li Xiaozheng and the Red-Green Elders caught up? By rights, they should've boarded the deck ages ago."
"If I wield the West King Jade Seal, could I command the Great Ming soldiers to slaughter those bastards? True King revival be damned—I'm the True King!"
His youthful fire urged him onward, but the looming specter of the True King's return tempered the impulse.
One by one, the stone soldiers regained flesh and blood, descending from the stone walls on either side.
Whatever secret art they practiced rendered them far taller than ordinary men—fifteen or sixteen feet at least—like true giants towering over Chen Shi and Li Tianqing.
Dazzling golden light poured from their armor. Their bodies gleamed as if cast from gold itself, their exposed skin radiating the same luster.
"Buddhist Six-Zhang Golden Body!"
Li Tianqing whispered in awe. "That Buddhist secret art—lost to time. The pinnacle of golden body techniques!"
His eyes glazed over as he muttered, "Little Ten, if you mastered this, you could carve through Xijing single-handed..."
The image of Chen Shi's savage fighting style made him shudder.
The True King's soldiers paid Chen Shi no mind, intent on their duties.
Chains rattled overhead as a coffin plummeted from above, slamming onto the deck with a thud.
The Six-Zhang Golden Body soldiers hoisted it and bore it into the hold.
From afar, it hadn't seemed large, but up close, the coffin rivaled a small house.
Even these towering Great Ming warriors required four men working together to lift it.
More chains slithered, delivering coffin after coffin, each crashing onto the deck in turn.
These coffins were paragons of opulence, crafted not from local West Ox New Continent timber but golden-threaded nanmu shipped from Divine Continent.
The Great Ming Treasure Ship pressed on along the dockside. Soldiers leaped aboard from both banks—some tending sails, others redrawing wind talismans, a few inspecting crossbows. Still others manned the second-deck cannon ports, checking colossal red barbarian guns.
Those cannons' muzzles could swallow several men whole—orders of magnitude thicker than the one back in Chen Da Wang Village!
On deck, Chen Shi, Li Tianqing, and Blackie Pot—with the red bellyband doll in tow—dodged ceaselessly amid the striding giants. The soldiers loomed so tall it felt like threading a living forest, trees that walked.
The Great Ming Treasure Ship forged ahead, the dock threading the entire mountain range. Stone soldiers revived endlessly from the shores, vaulting aboard.
Coffins thudded down without cease.
Li Tianqing sensed the anomaly. He whispered, "Something's off—too many coffins!"
Seeing Chen Shi's confusion, he elaborated. "Coffins aren't for commoners. Only dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, barons—and key royals—merit them."
Even then, specifications varied by rank.
So many coffins implied a glut of nobility and imperial kin interred in the Tomb of the True King? By all logic, it should house just the True King and his consorts, plus a handful of attendants. Burying hordes of elites made no sense!
Chen Shi got it now.
The True King's funeral had claimed far too many luminaries—unnaturally so!
"Why are the soldiers reviving, but not these elites?"
Chen Shi wondered aloud.
Even the scholarly Li Tianqing had no answer.
The treasure ship glided forward as soldiers ferried coffins aboard. Chen Shi tallied roughly: over 160 had plummeted aboard in short order.
A mighty clan would be gutted of its leaders.
An empire's full court of officials, wiped out.
Yet the coffins kept coming.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing's faces hardened. Even Blackie Pot looked grim.
The red bellyband doll, mirroring their gravity, sobered up too.
The air grew stifling.
At the 217th coffin, the chains finally stilled. The eerie rattling fell silent.
The clamor had masked it before; now, an uncanny quiet reigned.
The bustling soldiers halted as one, dropping to single knees where they stood, heads bowed in reverence—as if greeting a sovereign.
Chen Shi, Li Tianqing, and Blackie Pot hurried to the bow and peered ahead. The short-legged dog reared up on its forepaws against the rail, craning for a view.
The treasure ship eased onward. The channel narrowed. A grand palace, rent asunder by divine might, flanked the way—its halves glittering with gold and finery, opulence incarnate.
Ranks of stone statues lined the sides: civil and military officials.
True statues these—no stirring to life.
Dead ahead, unsundered white jade steps led to an imperial throne.
Atop it sat a man in crown and dragon robes, aura abyssal and profound.
Lifelike as yesterday, he seemed to hold court in Xijing still, overseeing West Ox New Continent's expanse, quelling every fiend and calamity.
The West King. Sovereign of West Ox New Continent. Great Ming's master here.
The Great Ming True King.
Here the treasure ship slowed further. Chains rattled anew.
True King and throne descended as one onto the Great Ming Treasure Ship.
Chen Shi whirled and bolted for the throne.
"Little Ten, back!"
Li Tianqing called.
Chen Shi pressed on undeterred.
Li Tianqing gritted his teeth and followed.
At the throne's flank, Chen Shi peered up. The True King's face was square and stern, brows thick, eyes bold—a heroic visage, kingly stature.
Crown tassels veiled much, but Chen Shi spied a slender golden seam at the neck: handiwork of master embalmers stitching a corpse!
The True King had been beheaded!
Chen Shi's ears rang.
Even the Water-Fire Tempering Art couldn't save one decapitated!
It forged corpse-liberation immortals: liberate the corpse, remake the flesh, ascend.
But slain post-mastery? Revival?
The art allowed rebirth only 740 years after natural death—and only with an intact corpse.
The True King could never rise.
Li Tianqing sidled up, saw it too. His pulse thundered. He seized Chen Shi's hand and hissed, "We find a way out—now!"
Before the words settled, the West King Jade Seal leaped from Chen Shi's grasp, blazing with sky-rending light that seared their eyes shut.
Light ebbed. The seal drifted gently into the True King's palm!
The corpse-hand twitched—closing around the emblem of West Ox New Continent's ultimate sovereignty.
"The True King lives?!"
Hearts hammered; they froze in panic.
The True King's corpse lifted the seal languidly, eyes flickering with inner divinity—as if alive.
Palm unfurled. The West King Jade Seal rose softly aglow, its glare tamed.
It floated ahead. Chen Shi spun and gave chase.
"Soldiers—we go home."
A resonant, august voice echoed behind, laced with homesick yearning. Chen Shi halted, glancing back. The throne loomed silent as the grave.
Deck soldiers rose in unison, eyes alight with zeal.
"Home!"
They intoned.
Longings wove into one, a collective resolve fueling their unyielding will.
So long from home.
Years of campaigns abroad. Since West Ox New Continent, endless battles against abominations, shielding Great Ming folk.
Home—so long unseen.
True King gone. Court crumbled.
In death's final throes, their king yearned to lead them homeland-bound.
Home. To that soil, those souls upon it.
Soldiers stirred to toil. The Great Ming Treasure Ship quickened.
Chen Shi dashed after the seal without pause.
The ship accelerated. Chen Shi darted between colossal legs, head craned skyward. The West King Jade Seal climbed, banishing shadows from the Tomb of the True King's vaulted ceiling.
The mountain's heart hollowed, frescoed magnificently: Great Ming West Ox New Continent's fifty-province map!
Xindu!
Quanzhou!
Yudu!
Binhai! Beimeng! Juzhou! Pangu! Lanhua! Beilai! Qingzhou!
Liuzhou! Lingzhou! Jinzhou! Yinzhou! Tingzhou! Xianzhou! Youzhou!
Maps ignited sequentially. Then they furled like scrolls, vanishing into rolls.
Xindu Province map streaked into the West King Jade Seal.
Chen Shi vaulted skyward, treading Tianxuan Star, surging upward to snatch the seal.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Radiant streams plunged into the seal. In a blink, all fifty-province maps were absorbed!
Chen Shi clutched it as momentum failed. He plummeted.
Three Lights Righteous Qi Art's North Dipper Seven Refinements let him linger midair—but briefly. Reaching so high was feat enough.
Below, the Great Ming Treasure Ship had surged dozens of zhang distant. Dark waters loomed—then an invisible true qi jade wheel arced beneath his feet.
Six Yin Jade Wheel!
Lethally keen, the Li clan slayer—ideal foothold.
Chen Shi rebounded forward. Nearing descent, another wheel whirled perfectly underfoot.
He sprinted airward, wheels materializing flawlessly each time.
He caught the fleeing ship at last.
He landed—then a thunderous cascade roared. The Great Ming Treasure Ship burst from beneath a colossal waterfall, bucking wildly as it cleared the mountain!
Sunlight pierced their sight. Chen Shi scanned wildly: beyond Qianyang Mountains, broad De River flowed.
Towering wind talisman planks rose, swelling the sails.
The treasure ship gathered speed, surging forth!
Rumble behind. Chen Shi glanced back—the sundered mountain sealed shut.
"Go—now!"
Li Tianqing vaulted overboard, bellowing, "Or this ship drags us to the Dark Sea!"
Blurring shores. Li Tianqing hit water hard, tumbling like a stone.
He righted at last—saw the ship cleaving ahead!
Chase called—then a figure rode Blackie Pot off the deck. Man and dog smashed into the river, rolling wildly!