Chapter 242: Celestial Maiden Ya
Accompanied by shadows that were either strange or familiar, fierce or beautiful, either human-like or deformed and twisted, they appeared before Luxianbei, and the corner of the time and space where those figures existed flashed by her in an instant.
Under the thick smoke, crumbling city-states were shrouded, various corpses scattered among the mountains and rivers, like a small boat drifting atop an endless expanse…
Suddenly, the fires of war erupted and spread across the earth.
Humans fought humans, beasts fought beasts, monsters fought monsters, with roars and cries shaking heaven and earth.
A solitary preacher, dragging a broken body, sang a hymn of despair and sadness amidst the flames and ruins, calling out to the gods that had already departed.
On a wasteland where only ash and white remained, a solitary figure walked silently, seemingly waiting for d*ath, yet also appeared to be searching for hope.
Countless lives vanished in those scenes, not just humans, but also birds and beasts, flowers and trees, yet… there were always some sparks symbolizing hope left, allowing life to prosper once more.
Then.
Those moments, whether cold, noisy, or broken, shattered.
Thus, Luxianbei returned once again to the suffocating darkness, drifting along with the surging current of darkness, as if breaking the shackles of time and space, endlessly.
It felt like centuries had passed, yet it felt like only a brief moment, when an ethereal voice reached Luxianbei’s ears.
“In the river, there is elegance, the water gives birth to lovely shores. Her beauty can awaken the gods. When the jade ornaments are lost, there are no thoughts of distant people…”
Someone was quietly reciting, carrying a contradictory feeling of both sadness and solace.
Hearing the voice, Luxianbei was momentarily stunned.
The verses sung by the woman came from *Shanhaijing Tuzan: The Great Wilderness North Chronicle*, praising the beauty of the Qingyi Celestial Maiden Ya. Some lines even appeared in the description of Qingyi Celestial Maiden’s powers; Luxianbei had checked it in *The Book of Siye* when merging with *Royal Authority*, transforming it into the powers of the Qingyi Celestial Maiden.
At this moment, hearing someone reciting this passage, she suddenly felt the subtle sensation of walking down the street and overhearing a stranger praising her from behind.
It really was a bit embarrassing!
But as long as it was a fan and not some extreme, obsessive fan, there shouldn’t be any threat, right?
Luxianbei thought, and just as she instinctively blinked and reopened her eyes, the darkness surrounding her quietly dissipated. Accompanied by a strong but painless warmth in her eyes, her vision seemed to pierce through time, glimpsing the scenes of a distant time and space.
She saw a small palace floating above the sea of clouds, exquisite as if it were a piece of art. Inside the palace, the vegetation was lush and vibrant, and a red-haired woman dressed in green stood at the edge of the palace terrace, looking down at the earth.
Who is she? Why… does it feel familiar? Luxianbei wondered.
Just then, a soft call, coming from nowhere, interrupted her thoughts.
“Ya, the Master of Jiu Li has sent forth the Wind and Rain Ministers, unleashing the storms. The Ying Long has gone to battle, but against the two, they have already fallen. Will you… display your divine powers and stop the wind and rain?”
As that soft call echoed, the green-clad woman turned around, and upon seeing her appearance, Luxianbei suddenly understood where that subtle sense of familiarity came from.
Looking at the woman, she felt as if she were looking into a mirror.
Although the woman looked quite different from her except for her long red hair, the indescribable aura emanating from her closely resembled that of her mythological species form.
“……”
Could she be the legendary Celestial Maiden, the Yellow Emperor’s Ya?
But why would she suddenly glimpse her past?
What she had just seen were all remnants of the ancient destroyers, weren’t they? Luxianbei was astonished.
Then, as she gradually equated the Maiden Ya with the ancient destroyers in her mind, before she could clarify her thoughts, the image before her began to blur, following the Maiden Ya’s hesitant response after some time.
She said, “I understand, I am willing to go.”
“Hmm?” Hearing the response from Ya, the inquirer seemed a bit surprised, softly saying with a hint of astonishment, “Ya, don’t you want to think about it a bit more? If you go, you are very likely to…”
“I know.” The woman replied, “It’s very likely that I won’t return, right? But someone has to go, doesn’t there? Moreover, I originally…”
With that, Luxianbei’s surroundings fell back into silence.
————
When her vision became clear again, Luxianbei saw a world shrouded in shaking wind and rain.
Heavy dark clouds stretched for thousands of miles, and beneath the clouds, two bizarre figures shrouded in dim light were vaguely visible—one had deer horns, covered in leopard patterns, with a python tail trailing behind, and the other was covered in red scales, resembling a wild man with a long beard, its form constantly changing between large and small, with a gaping mouth.
Both figures hovered in the sky, wantonly unleashing their terrifying spiritual energy, inadvertently stirring up storms and heavy rain with their every move.
Cataclysm Grade Urban Legends! In an instant, Luxianbei judged the energy level of these two figures; they wielded wind and rain as though they were mere extensions of their arms. She had seen this state once before, with Zhang Hainan.
Under the influence of the powers of these two Cataclysm Grade Urban Legends, the sky seemed to be torn open with countless gashes. Amid the flashes of lightning and booming thunder, the fierce winds whipped down rain that resembled thick whips, lashing against the earth, creating alarming sounds.
As the rainwater continued to accumulate between mountains and lands, the floods revealed their terrifying faces, roaring fearsomely and carrying rocks and mud. In that turbulent current, countless grotesque and distorted figures flickered in and out of view.
Such a scene evoked memories of the apocalyptic legends of floods drowning the world, told across various lands.
“Roar——!”
Suddenly, with an earth-shattering roar, a giant black dragon with wings surged into the air, twisting through the storm, raising its head and tail, doing its utmost to carry the lives that were about to be consumed by the tempest on its back.
Time ticked by, perhaps due to the two bizarre figures intensifying their powers, leaving countless wounds on the dragon’s body, or perhaps as more and more beings accumulated on its back, it reached an unbearable weight. The black dragon gradually became overwhelmed.
It flew lower and lower, its body swaying violently, wings trembling, as if it might drop into the raging flood at any moment.
In that moment of crisis, a scarlet beam of light pierced through the vast dark clouds. The red-haired woman in green descended from the sky with the falling red light, her powerful spiritual energy swirling behind her, gradually transforming from ethereal to real, outlining a slender shadow over a thousand meters tall.
She walked through the air, striding toward the two Cataclysm Grade Urban Legends stirring the storm. Wherever she passed, the flood on the ground surged, rising steam that obscured the view, and countless urban legends hidden in the flood began to tear at their flesh and scream in agony at a visibly accelerating speed…
“Begone!”
The woman gazed ahead and spoke, not just addressing the two Cataclysm Grade Urban Legends, but also the torrential rain and howling winds.
As her voice fell, a pulse of energy that made bl**d boil and bodies feel hot spread out, shaking the endless dark clouds in the sky, then as if a violent explosion occurred, they shattered amidst the deafening thunder.
Thus, the wind and rain ceased, and the fierce sun shone down upon the earth.
Following this, a gust of wind blew out of nowhere, sweeping away the dust, along with everything in front of Luxianbei, the figure of the Maiden Ya crystallized in her vision, then dissipated, vanishing without a trace.
————
“Let’s set off! This land is no longer suitable for us to survive; only by finding the protection of the gods can we live on…”
In a daze, Luxianbei heard an old voice say.
As the voice resonated, she unexpectedly caught sight of a familiar scene.
After the disaster brought by the winds and rain subsided, seemingly endless drought ruled the earth. The survivors wandered like shadows across the cracked desert, constantly praying to the gods, constantly migrating, until they finally found a giant peach tree full of crows for protection at the place where the sun rose.
This was the scene Luxianbei saw when she first met Jumeng, while using her ancestral kitchen kn*fe to cut into the weakened Jumeng’s flesh, perceiving the power hidden within her bl**d.
Perhaps due to a special connection formed through the red thread of fate between her and Jumeng, and the connection between the powers of the female Ya and the origins of the earliest Peach Source citizens, she was able to glimpse such a scene once again.
The familiar image faded away.
Luxianbei’s vision once more fell into darkness.
In that darkness, she heard a conversation.
“Five years! That stretch of land has not seen a drop of rain for five whole years; it can’t go on like this! If it keeps going on like this…” Someone spoke in a deep voice.
Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a voice carrying a trace of authority.
“I understand, then let Ya leave!”
“That’s not what I meant; what I meant was…”
“It’s okay.” The authoritative voice interrupted again, “She has long been prepared.”
After a long silence, another person inquired, “But where do we send her?”
“To the north, just north of the red water… After she leaves, clear the waterways, dig the channels, and the drought can be resolved.”
Thus, the Celestial Maiden Ya, who had once saved the earth and countless beings, was cast out just like that.
Luxianbei listened to the conversation emerging from the darkness, and a blurred image rose before her.
On the barren, desolate earth, a figure dressed in green was moving steadily northward, getting further and further away. Before her, a figure that instilled reverence and made one want to kneel was watching her leave, deep pools of sorrow in its eyes.
The howling wind rose suddenly, gathering dust, gradually obscuring the figure of the Celestial Maiden Ya. In that wind, whispers echoed, endlessly recounting… recounting her story.
“There was a Zhongshan, where a woman dressed in green…”
“In the river, there is elegance, the water gives birth to lovely shores. Her beauty can awaken the gods…”
“The Master of Jiu Li sent forth the Wind and Rain Ministers to unleash the storms. The Emperor then sent the Celestial Maiden Ya to stop the rain, thus she was slain.”
Time flowed slowly; it was unclear when the portrayal of the Maiden Ya in the stories began to turn ugly, as if she was the source of all disasters.
“Maiden Ya, like the female Ya, where she dwells, the heavens do not rain…”
“The female Ya commits sins; in the summer of Meng, there is no rain. By the end of this month, Hou Tu will dry up, leading to fears of exhausting the grains…”
“……”
As the stories spread, that solitary figure, once beautifully stunning, began to twist and contort, her long hair falling out, her form hunching, appearing like a scarlet flower, dying and withering away.
Then, the legends of the Celestial Maiden Ya ceased to exist, and the woman standing alone north of the red water also vanished without a trace.
At the moment the woman completely dissipated, her figure suddenly became clear before Luxianbei.
She gazed quietly at Luxianbei, revealing a warm and comforting smile, then as if waving goodbye, raised her arm and gently waved.
That image lingered in Luxianbei’s eyes for just a fleeting moment. By the time she regained her senses from her stupor, wishing to see more clearly, the woman had completely vanished, leaving only a particularly small but radiating bead of bright red flame, exuding terrifying spiritual energy fluctuations, flickering there…
Within that flame, contained the totality of the powers of the Celestial Maiden Ya!
Luxianbei, “……” What does this mean? Do you want me to inherit the flame? Is this some kind of advanced Cataclysm ritual?
Having witnessed the entire experience of the legendary Cataclysm Grade Urban Legend—Celestial Maiden Ya, an indescribable discomfort surged within her.
Although the Celestial Maiden Ya chose the path of sacrifice, Luxianbei felt that this was a large-scale offering.
An offering of the seemingly destructive Celestial Maiden Ya, turning her into an ancient destroyer, shouldering the malice from countless beings and even the entire world, ultimately perishing in the ever-intensifying decay.
As someone possessing the powers of the Qingyi Celestial Maiden derived from the Celestial Maiden Ya, if Luxianbei accepted her power and advanced to become a Cataclysm, she would likely bear the same fate as her.
That was also the fate of the vast majority of ancient destroyers who chose to actively resist.
“……”
d*mn it, is it either the destruction of the world or the destruction of oneself?
Do we have to be so extreme!
Is there no middle ground? As a citizen of Z Country, I still prefer a more moderate choice…
Luxianbei pondered, staring at that red fire, falling into deep thought.
————
On the other side.
On the crumbling, leaning rooftop.
The Proxy Player Sister followed Luxianbei’s perspective of advancing to Cataclysm, witnessing the past of the Celestial Maiden Ya with an astonished expression, and it took her a long while to regain her senses.
“Why would she see these things…”
What Luxianbei beheld were scenes she had never seen before when advancing to Cataclysm.
Perhaps it was because her internal mythological species powers were more significant?
But…
Just as the Proxy Player Sister had a hypothesis emerge in her mind, she dismissed it immediately.
When she advanced to Cataclysm, the scenes of Lilith being cast out of the Garden of Eden that she glimpsed were merely fragmented images, far from the completeness Luxianbei observed.
Although the completeness of the glimpsed scenes of the origin of powers had little connection with the strength after advancing to Cataclysm, it was merely a symbol of initially obtaining Cataclysm level strength. If one did not abandon the powers that helped them ascend to Cataclysm and condense their own unique powers, they could only remain stagnant, becoming the weakest among Cataclysms.
Yet, the Proxy Player Sister still wanted to figure out why Luxianbei had glimpsed such complete scenes.
After pondering for a long time, as if she thought of something, her eyes suddenly lit up. “Could it be because of the Nightmare? Was she interfered with by the powers of the Nightmare during the advancement process?”
“Exactly, most likely! But…”
“After seeing such scenes, will Luxianbei still accept that power?”
The Proxy Player Sister was a bit worried. Although if she were given another chance, she would certainly grasp that flame without hesitation, she understood Luxianbei too well. Given Luxianbei’s current unrestrained nature, there’s a great likelihood she would give up.
She raised her eyes to look at the projection in the sky, focusing on Luxianbei, who was lingering near that flame, clenching her fists…
