Chapter 564: Does Heaven Send Me
At noon in the capital city of Shangjing, Great Xia’s sacrificial altar was hidden beneath a forest of flags. After changing the nation’s name, Yue Fuguang had taken the opportunity to create a national flag for Great Xia as well.
Emperor Mingxi led the civil and military officials in offering three bows and nine prostrations. Three thousand Imperial Guards stood in rigid formation beneath the vermilion steps, clad in grim armor. Beyond the altar, the people knelt in wave after wave, like a surging tide. Hundreds of thousands of eyes held their breath as they gazed toward the figure atop the high platform.
[Host, there must be over a million people here!] the System exclaimed in amazement. Not only was the city packed with people—even those dozens of miles beyond the city walls had come. There were far more people than it had filmed two days ago.
That was because only a few days had passed since the news was released. Those living farther away had not yet received word and had been unable to make the journey in time.
[Host, so many people are here to see you off! You’ll be able to brag about this for several lifetimes!]
Yue Fuguang straightened her back and lifted her chin slightly. “Of course! System, remember to film everything from beginning to end. This is my moment of glory.”
[Host, you’ve had plenty of moments of glory.]
Yue Fuguang shook her head. “This time is different. It’s also the last time, so it’s worth commemorating.”
Yue Fuguang was dressed in white, her entire body shimmering with an aura like moonlight and starlight. She stood at the center of the stone platform for offering sacrifices to Heaven, her sleeves slowly lifted by an invisible current of air. Behind her, her hair streamed like dark clouds of ink.
Over the past two years, her bearing had already grown ethereal and otherworldly. At this moment, she seemed even more like an immortal or deity who might rise with the wind at any moment.
Above her head, multicolored clouds slowly drifted and flowed, each one radiating brilliant light. Something in Heaven and Earth was being drawn to her, gathering and surging toward her from every direction.
First, the wind changed.
It was not an earthly wind, but a current that welled up from the depths of the void, carrying a faint golden glow. Silently, it began to circle around her. At that very moment, the translucent phantom of a lotus slowly blossomed beneath her feet.
The civil and military officials below were the first to notice. The jade tablet in the Ministry of War’s hands began to tremble faintly. The ceremonial official’s hat fell from his head without a breeze. Even the beads hanging from the emperor’s crown started to strike one another softly, producing a clear, springlike chime.
Yue Fuguang raised her head.
In her eyes appeared a sight invisible to ordinary people: deep within the firmament, the River of Stars hung upside down. A pillar of light descended from beyond the ninth heaven, falling straight down to envelop her.
The light was faint and pure, almost transparent. Yet the instant it touched her body, her entire being began to change.
“System, I only bought a discounted item. Isn’t this a little over the top?”
The upside-down River of Stars was invisible to ordinary people, but her body—transformed by divine incense and already freed from its mortal nature—could see it clearly. This spectacle truly resembled the prelude to an ascension in those cultivation novels, when a great immortal rose into the heavens by day after surviving a tribulation of lightning.
“I don’t remember the item description mentioning anything like this.”
[Host, why can’t it be this world’s Heavenly Dao seeing you off as well? Our mission received an S-rank evaluation, which clearly shows how satisfied the Heavenly Dao is with it.]
“The Heavenly Dao is seeing me off?” Yue Fuguang gazed toward the depths of the sky, but unfortunately, she saw nothing. Perhaps this world’s Heavenly Dao was too weak to reveal itself yet.
Under the radiance of the pillar of light, Yue Fuguang’s entire body began to glow inch by inch, as though some bloodline were slowly awakening within her. Her body shone—not with the harsh brilliance of the sun, but with a purer, gentler light.
It was as if she were awakening from within a mortal shell. The divinity she had carefully restrained in the mortal realm could no longer be suppressed. It surged forth like a flood bursting through a breached dam.
“Look! The Divine Maiden... Divine Maiden Yue is glowing!”
Someone cried out in alarm.
The people below the altar raised their heads one after another. A moment later, gasps and cries of astonishment rose and fell throughout the crowd.
As Yue Fuguang’s figure gradually left the ground, phantoms of all kinds of spiritual flowers began to surge into being beneath her feet, swirling upward around her. Even the lotus beneath her seemed to float upon the River of Stars.
Indeed, as Yue Fuguang rose higher and higher, a silver river of stars slowly appeared beneath her feet. Even in broad daylight, it shone more brilliantly than the sun in the sky, yet its light was far gentler and less dazzling.
Her ribbons unfurled in every direction, as though countless invisible hands were pulling them at once—or as if a colossal white flower bud were blooming.
Light streamed from the lotus-shaped mark between her brows. Seven-colored radiance intertwined and coiled around her, enveloping her entire form in a pure, luminous halo.
Emperor Mingxi abruptly rose to his feet, his crown nearly tilting askew. He clenched his fists tightly, his imperial eyes wide with disbelief.
He gazed at Yue Fuguang, already dozens of meters above the ground, surrounded by radiance and flowers. Tears once again spilled from his eyes without his realizing it.
He, his ministers, and the people were all witnessing Fuguang’s departure together. A hundred conflicting emotions clogged their throats, leaving them painfully unable to breathe.
The civil and military officials prostrated themselves on the ground, the hems of their robes snapping in a wind that seemed to come from nowhere. Every one of them, like their emperor, gazed upward at the figure in the sky with tears in their eyes.
As Yue Fuguang climbed higher and higher, the realization that they were about to lose their Grand Preceptor—their pillar that steadied the realm—became all the more painfully real.
The Imperial Guards drove their spears into the ground and knelt on one knee to see their Grand Preceptor off. Their iron armor grated harshly in the wind.
Someone began the chant. Soon, the cry resounded across the altar:
“The earth bears the Four Seas; Heaven covers the Eight Wastes! Wherever the sun and moon shine, all is Xia soil! Majestic are our mountains and rivers, forged in blood and iron! Eternal is our foundation, firm from this day forth! When the winds rise, clouds gather; the dragon strides and the tiger advances! One wrathful roar, and all nations tremble; when we live in peace, the world is settled!
“Our land, our people, our blood, our bones! Whoever dares invade Great Xia—no matter how far they flee, they shall be destroyed!
“Beat the drums! Beat the drums! Let them thunder with the fury of our mountains and rivers! Raise the flags! Raise the flags! Let them proclaim the spirit of Great Xia! Majestic is our divine realm, forever guarding the heartland! For a thousand generations, for ten thousand years—let the songs and dances rise again and again!”