Chapter [B4] 30 — Yang Shen
My world changed within an instant.
I felt the heavens shudder, the last chain breaking as the Divinites vanished around me. I continued to meditate, the edge of harmony humming in my soul. I was not truly here, not truly in this situation. I was simply an observer, watching the world happen around me. And yet I ached at the deaths I saw around me. Two of the three divinities soul came to me, becoming a part of the cycle. The last one, it had died a worse kind of death.
But I did not linger on it. I could not. Time had lost its grip on me, I no longer knew how long I’d been here, but it had been quite some time now. I’d watched as the battle had concluded. Even now the armies fought around the walls, but a different battle had also been taking place, and I’d felt it end just now, as the chains tying the heavens were finally undone.
The heavens themselves opened up now. The last anchor of immortality was dead, and I felt the Divine Tree expanding itself outwards, reaching towards the heavens, claiming it. There was almost a shudder of relief, the mantle of the empire shifted, the cracks in the world starting to be healed together.
And yet, I waited.
I simply sat there, in this chamber.
In this moment, I was not just Lu Jie, or even Emperor, I was the vessel of the two divine beasts, standing upon the precipice of the battle that would determine the fate of not just the empire but this entire world. I did not have place to worry of others in the face of my duties, they’d only be burdens.
It was strange, understanding that this was it. I’d been dreading this moment for so long now.
So many people were dead. Even now, I could feel each battle, each drop of blood that was spilled onto the earth, each life that sunk into the earth and I claimed within myself, each soul and their weight, it had been slowly crushing me under their weight, but now, it all seemed to vanish.