Chapter 319 – Life 76, Age 157, Martial Sovereign 1

It appeared that we had been victorious, but I didn’t want to risk anything going wrong at the last moment. So, I pulled NiangBa’s four lieutenants out of my inner world and had them keep an eye out for any rogue portals.

While I did this, Ning ZeKun popped over to where the Emissary’s storage bag had fallen and grabbed it before it could be lost. After opening it and checking its contents, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

Then, he turned to me. “Sovereign Su, we should go somewhere more secluded and have a little chat.”

Looking around at the destroyed platform where the Hall of Supreme Harmony once sat, I couldn’t help but agree. Still…

“There’s a war going on. Before we talk, I need to help my people.”

Ning ZeKun gave a single shake of his head. “No. The ‘war’ is over. Before we came here, we each signaled our armies to retreat. It might be worth sending a couple of those Emperors you have stashed away to take care of any stragglers, but the bulk of the fighting should already be over.”

I creased my brow. “Really? But… Why? Your forces were at an advantage. Why would all of the Sovereigns agree to just… pull back? At the very least, they could have taken hostages.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. This whole operation was planned out by the Zhuge Clan’s chief strategist. He’s got a monstrous blessing that borders on precognition and has helped the Zhuge Clan develop rapidly over the last hundred years. I’ve never known him to make a mistake. If it weren’t for Old Man Li telling me that I needed to help you, I wouldn’t even have considered going against that guy.”

The Zhuge Clans chief strategist… Was he talking about Yan? Was that why so many of the Sovereigns' actions were so strange?

Ning ZeKun snorted. “Anyway, even if there is still a bit of fighting going on, it’s not like you can go out there and do anything about it yourself. The formation that was stopping us is going to stop you now too.”

After a bit of thought, I pulled out a group of Liang’s Emperor-level enforcers that had been waiting for a chance to strike at the Sovereigns and motioned for them to join NiangBa’s lieutenants. “As long as you remain in Dragon Gate, the Sovereigns might still try to kidnap you, so stick together and protect each other. After you’re under the formation’s protection, split up and head to the various sects. Assist where needed.”

They each saluted me and bowed. “Yes, Ancestor.”

As they left, I sucked in a breath as I remembered someone. I looked around at Liang and NiangBa. “Follow me.”

Together, we rushed northeast, to the Hall of Ancestral Worship and sped down the stairs to the cavern below.

There, we found TongBin huddled against a wall, nursing serious injuries.

I tensed. “What happened?”

“Some… Some bastard in a blue robe just sneak-attacked me. He popped up behind me and tried to pull me through a portal. I was barely able to fight him off.”

I puffed out a cloud of angry air. “What a good Sovereign Li.”

Focusing back at TongBin, I tossed him a bottle of Rank 6 pills to heal his injuries and pulled him into my inner world. Then, I looked at Ning ZeKun who had followed us down.

“You wanted to have a chat, right? Well, let’s talk.”

He looked around the room with narrowed eyes and shook his head. “Not here. Follow me.”

After taking a deep breath, Ning ZeKun placed his palm in front of himself and grunted, shattering the world and creating a large, black portal.

The moment it formed, he stumbled and dropped to a knee, exhausted.

Arduously climbing to his feet, he wrestled his way through the portal without even looking back at me.

I glanced around at my companions. “We need to be careful. I’ll send you back to the world orb to recover, but be ready to act if things go sideways.”

They both saluted. “Yes, Ancestor.”

I waved a hand as I collected them up. Then, I turned and stepped through Ning ZeKun’s portal.

---------------------------------------------------

Stepping out of the portal, I found myself in a place that looked strangely familiar. It was an almost exact replica of Emperor Jin’s conference room on the Metal Peak of the Nine Rivers Sect.

After I was fully through, Ning ZeKun, who was already slumped in a seat, closed the portal and tapped on a formation plate in the center of the room’s long, rectangular table.

“Alright, we should be protected from any prying eyes. We need to talk about what just happened, and we figure out how we are going to survive what comes next.”

Realizing what kind of conversation this was going to be, I held up a hand. 

“One moment.” Reaching into my inner world, I pulled ShouLi and a couple of her administrators. “This is the group that usually handles things like plans and strategies for me. If that’s what we’re going to discuss, it would be best if they were involved.”

Ning ZeKun waved a hand, unconcerned. “Sure, whatever.”

Leaning back in his chair, Ning ZeKun took a moment to think before letting out a long, exhausted sigh.

“You started a rebellion against the Nine Rivers Saint today. I won’t say that I don’t understand why you did it, but you should know that your actions will have consequences. If the Saint decides to come here and put you in your place, none of us will be able to survive it. Both your Su Clan and my Ning Clan will be entirely wiped out, and there won’t be a damn thing we can do to stop it.”

ShouLi cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you help us?”

ZeKun chuckled wryly. “Because Old Man Li told me to.”

His expression firmed as he turned to look at me. “Li told me enough that I can understand what’s going on. I’m not sure if I believe it, but true or not, trusting you is my only path forward. Even with the Saint’s protections in place, the three big clans have spent the past several centuries suppressing my Ning clan and preventing it from developing. The Jiu, Li, and Zhu clans have no desire to see the rise of anyone who may threaten their positions. I can only hope the Su Clan will be able to change things.”

I nodded. “If you do not break faith with me, I will not break faith with you. I could use the assistance of another Sovereign ally, but understand, helping your clan advance could take quite a bit longer than you are hoping for.”

Ning ZeKun waved this off. “Like I said, Old Man Li told me enough. I have a pretty good idea of what I’m getting myself into.”

He let out a long breath. “We can work out the details of our cooperation later. For now, we need to focus on the issues in front of us. You’ve started a rebellion, and once the Saint learns about it, he will probably want to come and crush it. We need to figure out how we are going to deal with that.”

ShouLi pulled a small notebook from the folds of her robes. “If Saints are several realms above Sovereigns, I doubt we can confront one. So, we just need to make sure things don’t come to that.” She raised her eyebrows and gave Ning ZeKun a meaningful look. “The Saint isn’t even on this continent, right? How would he even find out about what we’ve done?”

“He isn’t, but he has several contingencies in place to alert of any problems.” ZeKun paused for a moment to think. “There are four that I am aware of: the Emissary, the Soul Lamps, the tribute, and the inspections. However, they may be others.”

ShouLi jotted this down in her notebook as ZeKun explained.

“The Emissary had a formation that he could use to call for help. He was reluctant to use it, since doing so would have been a sign of his incompetence, but if I hadn’t killed him in a single blow, the Saint would likely already be on his way here.”

Ignoring the fact that the Emissary was already dead in this timeline, ShouLi diligently scribbled down this information along with thoughts about how to prevent an Emissary from calling for help in the future.

Once she was done, she looked up to ZeKun. “Alright, what are Soul Lamps?

ZeKun hesitated. Either he wasn’t sure what to say, or he was working around an Oath. “Soul Lamps are a strange combination of refining and formations. I can’t tell you any specifics about how they work, but there are five Sovereigns on this continent, one for each clan plus the Emissary. The Saint has a Soul Lamp connected to each of these Sovereigns. If one of them dies, the Soul Lamp connected to them will be extinguished. If this were to happen, the Saint would almost certainly send someone to investigate.”

ShouLi nodded as she jotted this down. “So, the Saint already knows the Emissary is dead?”

“No, Sovereign Su had a formation from Formation Emperor Shen which maintained the Emissary’s connection to his Soul Lamp even after his death. As long as the Emissary’s body isn’t removed from that formation, the Saint shouldn’t know that he is dead.”

I furrowed my brow in worry. “I threw both the formation and the Emissary’s body into my… world orb. Will that cause any problems?”

ZeKun gave a light snort. “I have no idea. But since Old Man Li didn’t mention it, I can only guess that storing him in your soul space won’t be an issue. The real problem is figuring out a way to deal with the three remaining Sovereigns. Without more copies of the formation, we can’t kill them, but if we don’t kill them, then they will be a constant source of danger.”

ShouLi tapped her fingers on the table in thought. “Capture and imprison them? Lock them away somewhere without qi and let them rot?”

ZeKun gave a wry smirk. “Imprisoning a Sovereign is more challenging than you might think. And even then, there would always be a risk that they would take their own lives.”

I nodded. “So, we need three more copies of Shen’s formation. That’s a bit of a challenge, but we can get it done. It will just take a bit of time.”

ZeKun clasped his hands together and looked between me and ShouLi. “And that brings us to our next problem. Once a year, the Li, Zhuge, and Jiu clans send tribute back to their main branches on the Central Continent. The Li’s tribute comes from the Blue Wind Pavilion, the Zhuge’s comes from their Imperial Alliance, and the Jiu’s comes from the Nine Rivers Sect. Your ascension was timed about as well as it could have been, but we will still only have 11 months before the next round of tribute comes due. We have to deal with the Sovereigns before then.”

After writing this down, ShouLi kept her brush at the ready. “Where is the tribute handed over? Would the people from the Central Continent expect the Sovereigns to be there?”

ZeKun shook his head. “No, such tasks are beneath them. But… the portal to the Central Continent is in a large hall atop the Summit of Dragon Peak, in the Nine Rivers Sect. That is the seat of Jiu Clan’s power on this continent. Even with all the Sovereign dead, managing this without alerting the delegation from the Central Continent that something is wrong will be a challenge.”

ZeKun sighed. “And then, even if all of that goes smoothly, we still have to worry about the possibility of random inspections. They don’t happen often, but every few decades, the Saint will send someone to check in on how things are going. With the Emissary and the Sovereigns all dead, passing such an inspection seems… unlikely.”

ShouLi nodded as she wrote. “Is that it?”

“Yes…” Ning ZeKun looked like he was just realizing what he had gotten himself into. “Except… assuming all of this goes well. Assuming we can kill the Sovereigns and maintain their Soul Lamps. Assuming we can successfully hand off the tributes. Assuming we can pass the random inspections… Even then, we likely only have about 280 years to work with. After 280 years—”

ZeKun suddenly froze. When he started speaking again, he did so very deliberately. “After 280 years, it is unlikely we will be able to avoid the… Saint’s notice.”

I wasn’t sure what he was trying to imply, but ShouLi just jotted it down with everything else. Then, she turned around to confer with her attendants.

As they talked, I looked at Ning ZeKun in silent commiseration. He was trying to do what was best for his clan, but everything in this cruel world was working against him. He barely had any ability to fight back, not even as a Sovereign.

I knew the feeling.

After a few minutes, ShouLi turned back around and looked at Ning ZeKun. “When the Ancestor stored the Emissary’s corpse in his ‘soul space,’ that might have caused the Soul Lamp connected to him to go out, correct?”

ZeKun shrugged. “No clue. I don’t know enough about how they work or how a soul space works to be able to tell you.”

ShouLi looked back at her attendants, and they all nodded in unison. Then, she looked at me.

“Ancestor… we… we can’t… We can’t take the risk. The Saint might be headed here at this very moment. We need to escape. We need time, and we need to go back to before all of this started so that we can use what we’ve learned to do things right.”

I closed my eyes.

Going back would mean the destruction of everything we have built over the past 100 years. To me, this had become… normal, but how would the people my clan react? And even if it was ‘normal,’ I was still hesitant to throw away everything we had spent the past century building.

Still, looking at ShouLi's worried face, I knew what we needed to do. It didn’t matter what individuals in my clan thought. It didn’t even matter what I thought. This was what we needed to do. If anyone was reluctant to return and start again, then maybe they just weren’t a good fit for the time-traveling clan that I was building.

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”