Chapter 130: Gao Tianyuan, or…?

Professor Beishan and the others were horrified; boundless might descended, and this era thoroughly entered the End of Dharma — heroes withered away, ancient transcendent beings perished to the last.

One could imagine why the Kamakura era saw so many yokai legends spread abroad — it was a dark age, yokai ran rampant, and transcendent beings, far from being able to stop them, were themselves like a clay Buddha crossing a river, hard put even to save themselves.

Just as the boundless might was about to fall.

The next instant.

The people before the livestream leapt to their feet in shock.

At the same moment, many reporters, streamers, and Director Takahashi and the rest changed color drastically, their gazes shaken.

On the bloodstained heavens, fissured like an inverted abyss, a point of divine dawn-light appeared, like the break of day, spreading from a point into a surface, parting the blood-colored firmament.

"My heavens."

"The sky was, was, was torn open?!"

As if a heap of loose sand had been pried apart from the middle, what scattered was not only the blood-colored clouds, but also this shattered firmament.

The heavens had been parted!!

Utmost divine dawn-light, accompanied by the ever-widening rifts in the firmament, poured down from the parted sky; heaven and earth blazed bright, and the rows of scattered blood-colored clouds, under the glow of the divine dawn-light, gradually shed their fierce, cruel crimson, turning pure.

The radiance blazed fierce, stealing the spirit and grace of heaven and earth, vast and drifting, illuminating this broken world, as if it would shine through all the Heavenly Three Thousand Realms and make them resplendent.

It also added a touch of pure charm.

The blood-colored, bleeding earth trembled; the scarlet blood was purified, turning into resplendent light, like specks of starlight, rising from the ground, imbued with spirit, leaping between heaven and earth, lively and joyful — this world smashed to death burst forth with unprecedented vitality.

Fresh blood steamed, no longer gory, turning into starlight; corpses, like reversed meteors, shot skyward, becoming stars in the heavens, surviving in another form, in a different shape of life, once more guarding and shining upon the world.

Ancient gods were moved; the supreme beings of A thousand great worlds trembled, all fixing their gaze upon the parted firmament within.

At this moment, to those supreme beings, the resplendent divine dawn-light within the parted firmament was heaven, was earth.

This scene was terrifying, enough to startle gods and demons alike.

The divine dawn-light pierced through all the heavens and worlds; the beings of every realm felt their knees gradually bend, kneeling and prostrating, bowing their heads in submission, bearing reverence, bearing awe.

Not only beings — any life that gazed upon the divine dawn-light, facing the radiance of that gazed-upon light, felt a sense of smallness.

Gazes gathered upon the radiance of the divine dawn-light.

It was not blinding, appearing gentle; faintly visible within the parted firmament were figure after figure, truly like ancient gods, like the Shenming Mozun of antiquity, standing tall there; among them, the figure standing at the very front was majestic and upright, vigorous and ancient, and it was from him that the divine dawn-light radiated.

He made no move at all — merely because he descended upon this world, the light emitted by his own Dao had caused such a terrifying scene.

Looking closely.

Behind the parted firmament, where these figures stood, was not the sky; amid the swirling clouds and mist behind them, one could see floating islands suspended one after another, radiant and hazy, spiritual energy like rosy clouds and flowing water, coursing between the floating islands, forming mysterious patterns.

This place was extraordinarily sacred.

Divine light was everywhere, full of vitality; immortal air drifted, at times transforming into jade towers and crystal halls, at times into jade rabbits and rare birds.

"Gao Tianyuan?!"

This looked exactly like Gao Tianyuan, the dwelling of the gods in Japanese mythological fantasy — Professor Zhongtian, Tsuchimikado Xia Mei, and Tsuchimikado Kenji, steeped in Shinto and yokai studies, even Director Takahashi and the rest wanted to shout aloud, feeling thrilled and reverent.

Regardless of age or sex, who among them did not wish to become a lofty god? Now that they had glimpsed the dwelling of the gods, how could they not be thrilled, how could they not be awed, how could they not yearn.

If one could enter this dwelling, merely living there and drawing a breath of immortal air could extend one's life by a thousand years!

"White rabbits, jade birds — these are the most common divine creatures of Gao Tianyuan."

Professor Zhongtian pointed out the evidence that the scene was Gao Tianyuan.

Yet Professor Beishan held a different view, gesturing for everyone to look at the jade towers and crystal halls formed from the immortal air.

"Those buildings, though resembling ancient Japanese architecture, are more in keeping with the ancient architectural style of Hua Nation."

Examining closely, the crowd was stunned.

The ancient, elegant buildings conjured by the immortal air bore a striking resemblance to the architecture of Hua Nation's long-vanished ancient dynasties — plain yet weathered, grand yet exquisite.

In their astonishment and doubt, the floating islands wreathed in hazy mist within the parted firmament underwent a change; divine light flashed past, and one could see magnificent, imposing floating islands with halls scattered across them, and upon the largest floating island stood a heavenly stele.

The heavenly stele's aura was grand, as if it had endured through the ages.

Upon it were inscribed two great, wild, ancient Chinese characters.

"Chinese characters?" someone cried out, eyes wide.

Could Professor Beishan's guess be correct?

What had arrived was not Gao Tianyuan, but… a supreme existence from Hua Nation?

Director Takahashi's breath caught, his voice trembling:

"I remember that netizen who mysteriously vanished to this day, rumored to have been silenced, once said — Tamamo-no-Mae is connected to Hua Nation's ancient yokai Su Daji."

The crowd's hearts quivered, their scalps turning icy cold.

The terrifying supreme existence that had arrived came from a place with Hua Nation-style architecture — it was definitely connected to Hua Nation.

But why would a supreme existence act to help Japan?

If Su Daji was Tamamo-no-Mae, then everything made sense.

Su Daji had committed sins in Hua Nation, and now the supreme transcendent beings from Hua Nation had come in pursuit — so it was not that a supreme existence was helping Japan, only that they had come for Tamamo-no-Mae.

Now that the heavenly stele bore ancient Chinese characters, this was the best proof that the arrivals were supreme existences from Hua Nation.

"We can't confirm it's from Hua Nation just because the stele has Chinese characters."

Professor Beishan, who had earlier suggested that the divine floating-island world was not necessarily Gao Tianyuan, said briskly.

"In Japan's distant past, the writing was not katakana from the start; the characters actually used were Hua Nation's characters, because before Chinese characters were introduced, Japan had no writing of its own. The stele using Chinese characters might also mean the divine floating islands were inhabited by Japan's ancient supreme transcendent beings."

The crowd: "……"

What the hell — you deny it one moment, then affirm it the next, what kind of ghost is that? Are those divine floating islands Gao Tianyuan, or are they from Hua Nation?

Professor Beishan's attention was entirely on the Chinese characters on the heavenly stele; unhurriedly, he read out the two great ancient characters upon it.

"Abei."

Suffocating!

Everyone could feel nothing but a sense of suffocation.

Abe?!!

Director Takahashi's eyes went red, as if his head were engorged with blood, and he rasped in a low moan: "Abe… could it be…"

A name came to his mind.

At the same time, many others thought of it along with him, and recalling the recent extraordinary incident, that matter had involved these two characters.

Before they had time to think, a faint, world-weary sigh suddenly appeared out of nowhere in every person's mind.

As if an ancient deity were sighing, that kind of having lived through eternity, as if having witnessed the truth of the ages.

The next moment.

Under the gaze of tens of millions of pairs of eyes, within the parted heavens, the towering, upright, vigorous and ancient figure standing at the very front, divine radiance flickering, revealed his true appearance.

Wrapped in ancient garb, each strand of white hair carrying an otherworldly air and world-weariness, drifting upward, ethereal and transcendent, an eternal gentleness that had weathered the ages, warm and radiant as if bathed in it, like an immortal banished from the heavens descending to earth.

"Abe no Nakamaro!!"

Someone was frantically typing in astonishment online.

……