Chapter 402: Yan Long
The older generation of the river sect only smiled while one of them shook their head: “How could a nobody be a match for our Thousand Carp River’s descendant? Not even descendants from emperor’s lineages have such qualifications.”
The young disciples were also incensed, especially the young males who carried extreme hostility towards Li Qiye.
This matter should come as no surprise. Lan Yunzhu was the perfect girl in both talents and looks, thus she was the goddess and lover in the dreams of these young men. How could they not become outraged when their goddess suddenly gained a fiance out of nowhere?
“Isn’t that Sister Zhu’s fiance? I heard he came this time around to marry her.” A young female disciple whispered to her brothers and sisters next to her.
“Sister Zhu’s fiance?” There were also some students who were immediately shocked after hearing this as they responded: “Since when did Sister Zhu have a fiance? Before this, the Saint Child of the Titanic Crescent Sacred Ground came to propose, but he was denied by the group of elders, so how could there be a fiance now?” 1
“I heard this marriage was arranged by Sister Zhu’s family!” Another young male disciple said: “This brat crawled out of nowhere and suddenly became Sister Zhu’s fiance.”
“Don’t worry, a marriage arrangement like this will not work out; the elders will not let such a thing come to fruition!” A knowledgeable older disciple calmly spoke as if a character like Li Qiye was not worthy of entering their inner circle.
“Of course! This brat must be daydreaming if he wants to marry our Sister Zhu!” A male disciple sneered: “Why not look in the mirror first? It’s only a marriage arrangement from the mortal world, yet he still dares to show his face at our Thousand Carp River. Hmph, does he not know what kind of place this is? Even an imperial descendant is not worthy of our sister, let alone a nobody like him!”
In just a brief moment, many disciples whispered and discussed this matter. They were quite antagonistic towards Li Qiye’s arrival. Nevertheless, the disciples here didn’t make it difficult for Li Qiye, but they indeed carried unfriendly expressions for Li Qiye to look at.
Li Qiye didn’t mind such trivial things and kept on following his whim to bring Lu Baiqiu around the islands on the Thousand Carp Lake.
Lu Baiqiu had to wryly smile after seeing Li Qiye’s good mood. She felt inadequate compared to Li Qiye since he was able to leisurely stroll around despite being in the enemy’s camp. It was as if the lake was his own house. Despite the disciples not giving him any amiable expressions, he ignored these disciples and their whisperings.
Inadvertently, the two of them went to a particular island with a huge statue standing tall in the center. This extremely large statue only consisted of the shadow of a back.
However, this alone was enough to shake spectators. The person who left behind his back seemed to have come from the great ocean as his head entered the primordial chaos, leaving behind an endless blue ocean.
Even the silhouette of this back was not very clear. More than half of the figure had entered the primordial chaos, so one could only see a faint profile. Nevertheless, it was still an awe-inspiring scene as this ethereal back proudly stood above the nine heavens and ten earths. It was as if everything had to stop at this place, and even the gods and devils could only gaze at this faint back, not daring to take a step further.
Li Qiye was lost in a daze for a long time after seeing this statue that only consisted of a faint silhouette.
Lu Baiqiu was also stunned from astonishment by the aura exuded from this silhouette. Standing before the statue was like seeing the back of an Immortal Emperor in person. It seemed that the emperor was walking on a solitary path forward and eventually entered the endless primordial chaos.
“Immortal Emperor Qian Li’s silhouette!” Lu Baiqiu couldn’t help but murmur while staring at this statue.
Immortal Emperor Qian Li was too mysterious. Some even considered this emperor as the most mystical out of them all. No one even knew whether the emperor was a man or a woman, let alone their background and master.
So the world kept on guessing about the emperor’s mysteries with many speculations that ended without any result. In fact, even the disciples of the emperor did not know whether their master was a man or a woman. To sum it up, everything about the emperor was shrouded in a thick layer of fog, blocking out the gazes from the rest of the world.
There was even a rumor stating that during the emperor’s generation, no one had ever seen the emperor’s true appearance, not even the emperor’s own disciples. Thus, there was no frontal image of the emperor even within the Thousand Carp River, only side profiles.
The only thing future generations knew was that the emperor was a demon, but their true form remained unknown. However, a few people guessed that Immortal Emperor Qian Li was a demon carp, but this conjecture could not be proven.
Li Qiye softly sighed while gazing at this statue before him. The past had disappeared inside the mist, and future generations could no longer find it again.
“I feel that Immortal Emperor Qian Li is very lonely!” Seeing the figure entering the primordial chaos, a lonely sensation suddenly rose in Lu Baiqiu’s heart. It was as if when Immortal Emperor Qian Li entered this primordial space, the prosperity and prestige of the world along with an Immortal Emperor’s glory no longer had anything to do with them. They only left behind a lonely figure.
“The path of the grand dao is solitary.” Li Qiye sighed softly and said: “The 3,000 dao are very long, so as one walks on a path, many things will slowly disappear. Even those who could walk with you towards the apex will eventually leave one day. Walking on the path of the grand dao alone might not necessarily be a bad thing since the day will be inevitable. This way, they can at least enter this endless primordial chaos without any hesitation.”
Lu Baiqiu was taken aback after listening to Li Qiye’s emotional words. It was as if Li Qiye, at this moment, had changed and became quite melancholic and lonely, entering a profound state that was unreachable by others.
“A brat whose mother’s milk has yet to dry, what do you know about the loneliness of the grand dao!” At this time, an encroaching voice appeared as a young man walked towards them along with many Thousand Carp disciples right behind him.
Before the youth even got close, a pressing hot aura approached. His aura seemed to be able to burn all things, and even the disciples right behind him didn’t dare to get close.
This was a young man covered in flames that had intertwining universal laws surrounding him as if they wanted to turn into dao scriptures. The blood energy from his body also appeared to be boiling due to this fire. His approach made people feel that their mouth was drying with a burning sensation.
No one wanted to come close to such a dangerous person.
The young man was very handsome. If it wasn’t for his hair taking the appearance of little crimson snakes, others would actually think that he was the son of a Fire God.
The moment this young man came close, he looked down at Li Qiye. In fact, his arrival had already attracted the attention of many disciples.
“It’s the senior brother of the Thousand Carp River, Yan Long!” Lu Baiqiu whispered to Li Qiye with a shocked expression after seeing this young man. 2
Yan Long was the prime disciple of the Thousand Carp River’s younger generation. Many disciples once thought that if Lan Yunzhu didn’t join the sect, maybe Yan Long would have been the current descendant.
Although Yan Long referred to himself as a descendant of a Fire Dragon, his ancestor was only a demonic Fire Serpent that had an extremely strong affinity for fire. His talents were exceedingly high and he was greatly valued by the elders of the sect. He himself was the disciple of an elder.
“Senior Brother is here!” Many disciples quickly stopped to watch in anticipation once they saw Yan Long suddenly appear and approach Li Qiye’s location.
Such a thing was not surprising to many disciples because the one who would oppose Lan Yunzhu having a fiance the most was Yan Long.
Despite the fact that Lan Yunzhu took his position as the descendant, Yan Long was not unhappy. The reason was very simple — Yan Long also liked Lan Yunzhu. The inner circle of the sect itself valued both of them together quite a bit.
Lan Yunzhu was the river sect’s descendant, so naturally, the elders didn’t want her to marry an outside. Thus, there was once a high elder trying to match them together. The upper echelons were happy at the prospect of them becoming dao companions for this was not a bad choice at all!
However, Lan Yunzhu was not interested in this arrangement made by the high elder. Nevertheless, Yan Long still held onto this hope because even descendants from the other emperor’s lineages could not move Lan Yunzhu. This meant that he, as the senior brother of the sect, still had some hope, especially with the support from the elders.
1. Titanic Crescent was rather hard to translate. It is the name of a famous historical sword, but I’m not sure if the author is intending to use this as the name. It can also be a giant crescent moon, or just the literal meaning of a huge flaw to sound enigmatic.
2. Yan Long = Flame Dragon.