Chapter Ninety-Two: Divine Sound

A mysterious divine melody, its source unknown, suddenly rang out. Once it began, hair-raising sobs and whimpers rose without end, like wave after wave of a surging tide, echoing through the Pure Yang grounds, whose atmosphere had already turned strangely eerie.

“Lord in heaven, why must you make me into a fiend despised by all?”

“May I die a miserable death!”

“Strike me with heaven’s thunder, split me apart with the five divine bolts, just blow me to pieces!”

The place was in an uproar of grief and lamentation. Every face wore the look of one heartbroken and regretful beyond measure, tears of remorse streaming down their cheeks.

Even the fiercest, hardest, burliest of the star fiends were now drenched in tears and snot. Looking around, their armor had been cast aside, their former bluster gone, leaving only bleak desolation.

“Old Yuan, isn’t this a bit much?” the little bald boy said, staring at this whole crowd of teary-eyed grown men, and gave a full-body shiver.

Just moments ago they had been roaring with fury, shouting threats and curses; in the blink of an eye they were sobbing like delicate maidens. The reversal made him feel utterly unsettled.

Old Yuan held a crystal ocarina in his hand, egg-shaped with four holes, its material clear and bright like polished jade. The salvational music had been coming from within it.

He smiled faintly and said, “Young Master, there is no need to mind it. The harder they cry, the more evil they must once have committed. Letting them cry a little longer counts as a kind of repentance.”

As he spoke, he brushed a hand over the crystal ocarina and poured in a gentle current of power.

The divine music of deliverance rose, soft and drifting, pure and unhurried, flowing into the heart.

The gaunt Pure Yang Elder wiped away old tears. Moved by a sudden feeling, he raised his eyes and saw two radiant figures flying toward them from afar.

“What is that?”

The Pure Yang Elder stared blankly, his tongue stiff in his mouth.

In a daze, he seemed to see lotus blossoms rising upon the great path, heavenly flowers falling with the music, and all manner of wondrous visions unfolding.

Rubbing his eyes, he finally realized it was merely an old man and a young boy, both of them unlike any ordinary mortal.

“Praise the upright, and let the nine realms never grow slack.”

The little bald boy and Old Yuan pressed their palms together and softly recited the teachings. Around them, beams of light and falling rain shimmered and steamed upward; their bearing was extraordinary, almost divine, with a peculiar charm that made one want to bow and worship.

Zhao Black Dragon, Night Control, and Evil Man Li all had red-rimmed eyes from crying. Suddenly seeing the little bald boy and Old Yuan, they were inexplicably drawn to the peace and harmony about them. Though this was their first meeting, they felt an astonishing closeness.

“I am Qian of the Primordial Beginning.”

The little bald boy stood with solemn dignity, his voice still childish yet deep and resonant. He spread his hands slightly, radiance blazing over his body, his presence sacred and lofty.

Everyone held their breath. How could such grace and bearing belong to a child?

“You carry demons in your hearts and must be delivered. Are you willing to join our Primordial Beginning and follow Young Master Qian?”

Old Yuan stepped forward, the crystal ocarina raised high in his hand, brilliance bursting forth as he looked down upon the crowd. The pressure of that realm of light spread over billions of miles of starry sky like a blazing sun. Under that radiance, the Pure Yang diagram was utterly dimmed.

Everyone was shaken with terror.

A Lord of Light. This was the legendary Lord of Light!

“I can’t believe I’ve seen a living legend!” Many of the star fiends held their breath, overwhelmed.

It was said that in the universe of spiritual energy, it took an average of hundreds of millions of living beings to produce a single world sovereign, and trillions of cultivators to produce one reverse-slayer. As for a Lord of Light, that was nothing short of a tiny miracle.

Old Yuan and the little bald boy, these two holy frauds, had become the only things left in their minds. That luminous image was seared so deeply into their hearts that even after decades or centuries, it would be hard to forget.

“I, Pure Yang, am willing!”

The Pure Yang Elder was the first to rise. In a fluster, he bowed deeply toward the two of them, his heart surging with tumultuous waves, not only shaken by the appearance of a Lord of Light, but also stirred by the words Primordial Beginning.

The Primordial Beginning in the star sea commands a thousand territories!

The origin of that heralded phrase lay in the Church of the Primordial Beginning, a power that had flourished through the age of the Nine Realms and still stood firm and towering in the star sea today!

This church was nothing less than a superlative orthodox tradition, with an inconceivable number of experts, and its way of doing things was equally distinctive. They had always taken the spiritual-energy universe upon themselves as a sacred charge, pacifying disasters and delivering the wicked.

No matter how ferocious the temperament, no matter how heaven-defying the cultivation, once the Church of the Primordial Beginning made its move, every living being would willingly become one of their believers, even to the point of a complete change in character, which was truly chilling to contemplate.

For that reason, the church’s reputation was immense, and countless hegemonic star fiends would lose all courage at the mere mention of its name.

What was more, this great church had a special trait: wherever it went, it recruited disciples without restraint. It even had members reaching into the very gates of various cultivation domains, to the endless headache of many divine rulers.

“Good, very good.” Old Yuan’s smile was kind.

Then his gaze fell upon Zhao Black Dragon and the others of the star fiends, and he asked gently, “And you?”

“We are willing as well!”

Evil Man Li, Zhao Black Dragon, and Night Control hurriedly prostrated themselves and bowed. As for the great crowd of star fiends behind them, already stunned by all the crying, they had long since decided that Old Yuan and the little bald boy must be saints. They followed devoutly and, thunderously, all dropped to their knees and began kowtowing.

The little bald boy smiled warmly. “I know there has been enmity among you. But the good Saint said that enmity cannot bring blessings. It can bring only pain!”

As he spoke, he took the crystal ocarina, lifted one hand to the sky and held the ocarina in the other. The crystal instrument blazed, its whole body overflowing with brilliant, shifting colors, and more moving Primordial Beginning sounds rang out, striking the heart with greater force than before.

As expected, this group of people once again fell into deep remorse and reflection.

“I, Pure Yang, have been at odds with the star fiends for hundreds of years, yet I never once thought to seek reconciliation,” Yan Youxing murmured.

“I swore vengeance and vowed to destroy the Pure Yang Church. But even if I truly destroyed it, so what? Ridiculous. The evil deeds I committed in the first half of my life will have to be repaid with pain in the second half...”

Zhao Black Dragon wore a blank expression and shook his head.

The scene was astonishing. With nothing more than a single divine melody, so many cultivators had been won over and made obedient. The speed of its effect and the absurdity of the process left one speechless.

Perhaps it should not even be called deliverance. Brainwashing would be more fitting.

Old Yuan wore a faint smile, unsurprised. He quietly nudged the young master, signaling the little bald boy to press the advantage.

“The disciples of our Church of the Primordial Beginning are naturally inclined toward goodness. Since you have joined us, you must cast aside all past grudges and conflicts. From this day forward, you are to be generous and benevolent, and you must understand... understand... ah, that the sea of suffering is boundless, and to turn back is to reach the shore.”

The little bald boy cleared his throat. He had been speaking with great force and the full bearing of a true envoy of the Primordial Beginning, but halfway through, he suddenly forgot the line. His face flushed red, he stumbled over his words twice, and only then remembered.

He glanced at the crowd and saw that no one was mocking him. Only then did he secretly relax.

Old Yuan noticed this and could not help but smile to himself.

The young master was truly adorable. This entire speech had been drilled into him by the Sect Master countless times, and he still managed to forget it. When they got back, he might very well be punished to stand in place. Still, thanks to the baptism of the divine music, these people had had their inner discord dispelled, so naturally no one would make a fuss.

“Very well. You have all become disciples of our Primordial Beginning. From this day on, you must be good. Also, the reason Young Master Qian and I have come today is twofold: first to deliver people, and second to pacify disaster.”

Old Yuan’s tone turned solemn. His eyes settled on the three shrines as he said, “It is this object that has stirred the ancient and primordial winds and thrown the various star realms into chaos. Come here!”

With a low shout, Old Yuan extended a great hand of light. Its aura was far more powerful than Crane Xuan’s, and in an instant it seized the three shrines, which had been crouching and trembling in hiding, and dragged them over.

The shrines trembled and struggled within the light. Ever since Old Yuan had appeared, they had restrained all movement.

This was because the old man’s aura was far too formidable. He stood at the peak of the realm of light, extremely close to a divine lord, with one foot already stepping into that transcendent domain.

What frightened the shrines most, however, was the silver sword sheath behind the little bald boy. Within it, the broken blade was silent and still, revealing only a stripped ancient hilt, ordinary enough to seem to lack anything special at all.

But the shrines possessed spirit and were extremely sensitive. They knew that it was a heaven-defying treasure, a thing capable of slaying gods.