Chapter 1033
Chapter 141: A Thousand Years of Waiting
“Bang!!!”
With a heavy impact, Shangguan Hong’s towering figure was sent tumbling back into the crowd, completely out of control.
Shaking his still aching shoulder, the chief disciple of the Shocked Spirit Sect lifted his head, the figure that had just knocked him back reflected in his eyes, and he couldn’t help but click his tongue.
“This monster… is it really that absurd?”
“Watch out!”
As he raised his voice to warn, Liu Quan, who was responsible for support, had already stepped in front of him without hesitation, activating the Hongmen Golden Bell with all his might, instantly erupting with a dazzling light like red gold!
“Clang!!!!”
With a sound akin to crashing swords, the golden bell shattered in response, Liu Quan spat out a mouthful of blood but still didn’t retreat, forcefully smashing the now powerless energy arrow into fragments.
Following the tactical assignment, two other disciples from the Shocked Spirit Sect quickly stepped out of the crowd, taking their place behind the injured duo. The girl named A Xue, with her pure aura, hurried over to them, raising her hand to conjure an energy-formed white lotus, showering faint light over the wounded.
“Senior Brother, you were too impulsive.”
Swallow stood in front of them, assisting in maintaining the defensive formation while not forgetting to point out Shangguan Hong’s previous mistake, causing the latter to smile wryly.
“Who knew these monsters would be so weird? They looked like they were about to fall apart but managed to overpower me with brute force. They’re just a bunch of strawmen…”
His words seemed to greatly displease Swallow, who immediately frowned.
“This world is full of wonders and mysteries; can it be simply judged by sight? Senior Brother, your sense of teamwork is genuinely lacking, and you have no respect for true mysteries at all.”
“Remember, Liu Quan got injured because of you. I know your background is extraordinary and you are proud, but you are now the senior brother of the Shocked Spirit Sect, a part of our team. I hope you don’t wait until your companions pay a truly painful price before you wake up.”
“To be frank, with the cooperation just displayed, you are even worse than those strawmen over there.”
Though she appeared to be only around sixteen or seventeen, Swallow’s calm and composed demeanor, without a hint of reproach, left Shangguan Hong speechless.
He had just been fiercely cursing the Black Scale Army, but in front of his comrades in battle, he merely fell silent for a moment before finally nodding.
“…You’re right, I was reckless before. I’m sorry, Swallow. I promise I won’t make that mistake again. I’ll leave this battle entirely under your command.”
Seeing that the most senior brother didn’t cling to his own opinions and instead accepted her critique with grace, the girl with pigtails visibly sighed in relief. She turned her gaze back to the four rickety figures bound with straw.
Honestly, while she still appeared calm on the surface, inwardly, she felt a bit uncertain. This operation was vastly different from past experiences, and most situations she remembered; she was indeed taking a gamble.
A gamble on something that might happen in the future…
Her adventure far exceeded Shangguan Hong’s imagination, but Swallow hadn’t told anyone.
Swallow used to have a different name.
To explain it in a straightforward way, she possessed memories from “her previous life,” which was why this young girl appeared more composed than her peers.
Her previous life was in the distant past, a thousand years ago.
The history of the Ancient Spirit Realm certainly didn’t just span a thousand years.
A millennium ago, before this world had encountered the chaos of evil demons, there existed many nations on this land, some just as formidable as today’s Four Holy Nations, and others merely small countries with a few cities and populations in the hundreds of thousands.
At that time, the rulers of the Ancient Spirit Realm weren’t solely human; there were also great existences known as the “Ancestor Dragon,” called “Source Ancestors” by later generations, who led their groups.
That wasn’t merely a composition that could be summed up with “spirit beasts” or “demons;” the environment back then was far more complex than today.
Although the current era has seen a great upheaval, making records of that history incomplete, Swallow still remembered it quite clearly.
Back then, the world’s rulers were referred to as the three great pillars.
There was the “Blood of the Ancestors” managing the “Inner Realm,” the “Ten Thousand Nations Alliance” expanding the “Outer Realm,” and the “Lingyin Fairy Island,” which stood above the Ancient Spirit Realm, remaining absolutely neutral and not involving itself in politics, yet still possessing authority and power equal to the other two—those were the three pillars.
Among them, the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance was formed by countless nations in the Outer Realm, which essentially corresponds to the vast territory of the Ancient Spirit Realm today. Although the term “Ten Thousand” is obviously an exaggeration, it indeed encompassed nearly all nations across the continent at that time.
In terms of sheer number of members, the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance even surpassed the combined numbers of the Blood of the Ancestors and Lingyin Fairy Island by several times, making it their greatest advantage.
Every time the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance held a meeting, the grand scene of ambassadors from all over flooding in was something Swallow still vividly remembered.
As for the Blood of the Ancestors, naturally, it referred to the spirit beast group represented by the Ancestor Dragon. They were the earliest intelligent lifeforms to appear in the Ancient Spirit Realm, with an ancient heritage and profound foundation, and they had little in the way of ruling ambition.
They maintained peace and procreation in the Inner Realm, living almost diametrically opposed lives to the prosperity of the Outer Realm. Though fewer in number, their true strength surpassed that of the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance occupying the Outer Realm.
After all, while the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance also had a plethora of talents and powerful figures, they lacked the Ancestor Dragon, which marked a qualitative difference.
As for Lingyin Fairy Island, it positioned itself between the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance and the Blood of the Ancestors, both mediating and inherently forming a tripod balance, allowing the Ancient Spirit Realm to maintain a relatively stable developmental environment.
To be honest, Lingyin Fairy Island didn’t possess extensive military forces like the other two. Yet, one important reason it could maintain its transcendent status was due to two supreme existences, who feared nothing even faced with the Ancestor Dragon, wielding limitless power.
The Spiritual Fox Priestess, alongside the God Fox.
If the latter was merely a nominal existence, a guardian deity of Lingyin Fairy Island that exists only in legends, then the former was the true leader of the island, who had walked among the mortal realm, personally displaying miracles of power, earning the unanimous respect of the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance and the Blood of the Ancestors.
She was the only being in Swallow’s two lifetimes that she genuinely respected and admired from the heart.
But the arrival of the evil demon chaos shattered the existing civilization of the Ancient Spirit Realm. Not only did the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance crumble under that treacherous force, but the Inner Realm managed by the Blood of the Ancestors also disappeared from the earth, breaking two of the three pillars and completely altering the world’s structure.
Though Lingyin Fairy Island wasn’t destroyed—indeed, it has attained an even more transcendent and mysterious status today—the true leader, the Spiritual Fox Priestess, lost all traces, leaving behind only countless legends in the world.
The reason Swallow reappeared in a reincarnated form was primarily due to the great debt of gratitude she owed to this priestess.
It was just before the demise of the evil demon chaos when an incredible secret transmission came from the God Fox.
A prophecy for the future, the hidden hand she had left behind.
“…”
It’s time.
Taking a deep breath, with her teammates once again in stalemate with those strawmen, Swallow activated the “Heaven-Blocking Divination Technique,” an extraordinary secret technique personally taught to her by the Spiritual Fox Priestess during an unexpected encounter.
As the name suggests, this technique could block heavenly listening, helping mortals to discover certain untold “heavenly secrets” that would occur in the past and future. The cost was sacrificing one’s true name to evade the scrutiny of the heavens, but it could significantly act to foresee the future.
It was, without a doubt, a miraculous skill.
This was one of the true trump cards that allowed Swallow, since her reincarnation, to always anticipate her enemies and make the right choices during crucial moments.