Chapter Twelve: A Stroke of Divine Inspiration

“Boom!”
A meteor streaked across the sky, crashing down to the southwest of the Purple Bamboo Forest.

The entire forest stirred, and the woman in white standing beside Fang Zhe suddenly collapsed toward him. Fang Zhe hurriedly caught her as she fell into his arms.

Time seemed to stand still. The woman in white looked at Fang Zhe, and he gazed back at her.

Sitting nearby, Mao Xuanzi and Han Tianyue looked toward the southwest. “How could there be a meteor?” Mao Xuanzi muttered. The Ninth Heaven had long been shattered, and meteors rarely appeared in the sky; yet this meteor had fallen within the boundaries of the Purple Bamboo Forest.

“Let’s go take a look!” Han Tianyue said.

Mao Xuanzi nodded.

Fang Zhe and the woman in white exchanged glances, then followed Han Tianyue and Mao Xuanzi as they flew toward the southwest.

As they neared the meteor’s landing site, they saw five figures descending from the sky. A voice rang out, “Zeng Cheng, how could you be so careless, falling back down to the mortal realm again!”

It turned out someone had fallen from the heavens. From the site where the meteor had landed came the words, “Since the Ninth Heaven shattered and formed the Vast Sky, it has such strange places—one wrong step and you fall right back to the mortal world!”

“You even call yourself the Divine Pen, yet you’re so careless you’ve forced us to return to the mortal realm with you!”

The man named Zeng Cheng replied, “Isn’t returning to the mortal realm better? It’s much safer than the perilous Vast Sky!”

“Enough quarrelling. Let’s hurry back to the Vast Sky!”

With that, Zeng Cheng waved the pen in his hand, drawing a figure in the air. Seven enormous eagles appeared before them. The seven people each mounted an eagle’s back, and the eagles soared upward into the heavens.

“Farewell, mortal world. I’m returning to the Vast Sky!” Their voices faded with the eagles’ flight.

“Who are they?” Han Tianyue was stunned. Falling from such a great height unharmed was astounding, and they wielded incredible power. Though the other five had not displayed their abilities, they were clearly no ordinary people.

“Are they gods?” Fang Zhe asked, puzzled.

Mao Xuanzi answered, “No, they are humans like us.”

From their words, it was clear they had also ascended from the mortal realm to the Vast Sky.

“Divine Pen!” Han Tianyue was not only shocked by their powers but also by the name. “I believe we will meet these people again!”

Mao Xuanzi looked up at the sky, to the place called the Vast Sky. “Yes, one day we too will ascend to the Vast Sky and descend to the mortal world as they do!”

“Enough talk for now—someone’s coming!” the woman in white suddenly called out.

From afar came a warning, “Be careful, the meteor landed right here!”

They were not from the Kingdom of Daughters. Though their identities, intentions, and allegiances were unknown, Han Tianyue and the others did not wish to confront these strangers. They flew deeper into the Purple Bamboo Forest.

A flash of lightning streaked past as two figures moved from the direction of the Kingdom of Daughters toward the southwest of the forest.

Though they sensed each other, lacking understanding or knowledge of each other’s motives, Han Tianyue and his companions chose to avoid the two figures.

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