A Great Calamity, a Great Calamity.
Major events are usually preceded by omens, much like how heavy storm clouds always gather on the horizon before a torrential downpour.
According to True Monarch Liuyun Suyu, in Penglai, this was where the profound mysteries of the Karma Lineage lay.
Only with a cause can there be an effect, and an effect that has not yet materialized can be glimpsed in advance by tracing its cause.
And what lay before Gu Chengming right now was the very fruit he had obtained with his own hands from that Dream Moon Great Calamity after going through immense hardships.
The Dream Moon was currently floating quietly in his palm.
Gu Chengming secretly compared it with his other artifact, the Unborn Lotus, which was also forged from the remains of a Dao Throne, and it was not difficult to tell which was superior.
Although the Unborn Lotus was also miraculous, it was, after all, only forged from the wreckage of the Inverse Cause Lotus left behind by the Red Dust Immortal. The Dream Moon, on the other hand, was formed from half the authority of the genuine Heavenly Moon Dao Throne. In terms of origin and grade, it was more than a cut above the Unborn Lotus.
Over the next few days, Gu Chengming immersed himself in studying the Dream Moon.
And through this research, he actually managed to figure out quite a few of its secrets.
The core authority of the Dream Moon still revolved around the eight characters: “creating something from nothing, turning the illusory into reality.”
Simply put, it could manifest ephemeral obsessions, thoughts, and even memories into tangible, physical existences.
The previous senior had used this authority to completely replicate the long-destroyed Penglai Immortal Sect along with all its disciples, copying them so perfectly that even True Monarch Liuyun Suyu, who originally hailed from the sect, could not distinguish between the real and the fake.
However, such a heaven-defying authority did not come without a price. Turning illusion into reality required an increasingly staggering amount of source energy the grander the manifested reality was.
The senior had maintained a replicated Penglai for a thousand years precisely by constantly devouring the lives of those who entered the dream to make up for this deficit.
Now that the calamity aura had dispersed and the obsession was resolved, the Dream Moon was left with only the shell of half a Heavenly Moon Dao Throne. Its life-devouring effect had naturally vanished along with it, but fortunately, the authority to turn illusion into reality remained perfectly intact.
Gu Chengming did a rough deduction and immediately realized the wonderful uses of this artifact. From something as small as manifesting a wisp of sword intent into a tangible lethal strike, to something as grand as manifesting and reenacting the karma within a certain space, the applications of the Dream Moon were practically all-encompassing.
Once he thoroughly refined the Dream Moon in the future and mastered its authority, it would undoubtedly become another trump card in his hand.
Putting aside his research on the Dream Moon and the other Great Calamities that were bound to descend sooner or later, Gu Chengming actually had a rather leisurely time during this period.
And the only one who was somewhat dissatisfied with this leisure was probably Emperor Bai.
Come to think of it, among the successive events that had occurred recently, not a single one had left any room for Miss Hundred Bones Resonating to show off her skills.
The Dream Moon calamity was resolved through conquest and untying heart knots, with barely any physical combat from start to finish. The previous incidents were also mostly resolved through wit or conquest. The fist-to-flesh physical brawls that Miss Hundred Bones Resonating loved most—the kind of satisfying battles where she could thoroughly beat an enemy into a pulp—had not come her way even once.
Often, just as she was rubbing her hands together in the Sea of Consciousness, eager to make a grand entrance, the incident would already be over in a confusing blur.
In that sense, it was indeed rather unfair to our Miss Emperor Bai, who was always itching for a fight.
【Hundred Bones Resonating grumbled: Emperor Gu, this Emperor hasn't had a satisfying, full-on fight in a very, very long time. With this peerless body-tempering divine ability of mine, if I keep idling around like this, I'm afraid it's going to rot away.】
Listening to the aggrieved complaints echoing in his Sea of Consciousness, Gu Chengming also felt a bit bad.
As compensation, he found some free time to enter Hundred Bones Resonating's training ground inside the Laboratory of Love to spar a few times with this suffocated Emperor Bai.
In the training ground, Miss Hundred Bones Resonating finally reclaimed some of her long-lost satisfaction.
She and Gu Chengming exchanged blows back and forth, each of her punches howling with wind. Her overjoyed expression was actually quite innocent and cute.
However, simple sparring did not seem to fully satisfy Miss Hundred Bones Resonating.
At the height of the fight, Miss Emperor Bai suddenly had an idea and proposed an agreement that made Gu Chengming quite wary.
Hundred Bones Resonating giggled as she approached Gu Chengming, looking up at him. “Emperor Gu! Just fighting back and forth like this is boring. Why don't we set a wager? Whoever wins gets to make the loser agree to one request, how about it?”
Gu Chengming didn't think much of it at first and agreed.
But he quickly realized in hindsight that he had fallen right into Emperor Bai's trap.
In the training ground of the Laboratory of Love, Hundred Bones Resonating naturally held the home-field advantage, and her attainment in the path of body tempering was second to none.
Although Gu Chengming had also achieved success in body tempering, in a pure physical brawl, it was no easy feat to firmly suppress the world's number one body-tempering cultivation technique.
Thus, the spar that was originally meant just to coax Hundred Bones Resonating naturally turned into an opportunity for Miss Hundred Bones Resonating to openly make demands.
And as for the demands this Miss Emperor Bai made...
Gu Chengming massaged his forehead, feeling that the tragic state of the past few days was simply too painful to put into words.
Using the excuse of making demands after winning, Hundred Bones Resonating had thoroughly drained him a total of nine times.
Every time she brought her little face close and demanded righteously, “This Emperor wants Emperor Gu to be intimate with this Emperor,” Gu Chengming felt a sense of helplessness, as if he were completely at her mercy.
In the end, Hundred Bones Resonating was fully satisfied: “Hehe, as expected, Emperor Gu is the best.”
This also made Gu Chengming highly suspicious that she had an ulterior motive all along.
And after witnessing Miss Hundred Bones Resonating successfully getting intimate with Gu Chengming time and time again using this method, the other cultivation technique ladies in his Sea of Consciousness also began to feel restless.
The first one who couldn't hold back was the Huiyuan Sword Manual. Seeing Hundred Bones Resonating succeed time and again, the Huiyuan Sword Manual approached in a soft, sweet voice, “Chengming, I want to spar too!”
Well then.
Gu Chengming naturally did not want to disappoint his harem of cultivation techniques who had accompanied him for so long.
Thus, in the spirit of spreading the love and treating everyone equally under the laws of the harem, Gu Chengming generously agreed to all the requests of the cultivation technique ladies.
During those few days, Gu Chengming truly lived a life that was somewhat self-indulgent and debauched.
It was during these self-indulgent, leisurely days that news from Director Zhou in the capital suddenly arrived out of the blue.
It was a letter written in rather bold terms.
And along with this bold love letter came another piece of news, which was Zhou Qingmu's Dao title.
As a newly ascended True Monarch, Zhou Qingmu had finally entered the stage of Name Erasure. She began to erase her birth name, establish her Dao title, and officially join the ranks of True Monarchs.
And the Dao title she had chosen for herself was True Monarch Zhou Shengdi.
Gu Chengming actually did not learn about this from the love letter, but from the casual gossip of several elders in the sect.
At the time, he happened to pass by the side hall where several Wenjian Sect elders were discussing matters, and heard them complaining merrily about the newly ascended True Monarch's Dao title.
“Have you heard? The new Dao title of Director Zhou from the Night Guard Division is True Monarch Zhou Shengdi.” One elder shook his head.
“True Monarch Zhou Shengdi?” Another elder muttered the name, curling his lip in disgust. “What kind of Dao title is that? It's got both 'Sheng' and 'Di' piled together so bluntly, lacking even a shred of artistic conception. Did she just slap it together to save trouble?”
The elders chimed in one after another, criticizing the Dao title to pieces.
Standing outside the hall and listening to this round of complaints, Gu Chengming found it hilarious and couldn't help but complain internally.
Oh, impressive. Even True Monarch Zhou Shengdi gets hated on?
...
And Director Zhou, far away in the capital, did not seem satisfied with just sending Gu Chengming a love letter; she had also sent one to True Monarch Liuyun Suyu on the side.
Only, the one sent to True Monarch Liuyun Suyu lacked any tender or romantic sentiments, and instead dripped with showing off between the lines.
The letter subtly mentioned her various recent developments with young friend Gu, seemingly casually pointing out their increasingly intimate interactions, and ended with a highly concerned inquiry, asking if True Monarch Liuyun Suyu had made any new progress with the young friend lately.
Rather than an exchange of information between allies, this letter was more like a declaration of war.
Clutching the letter, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu felt a surge of anger in her heart.
Speaking of which, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu had actually been worrying about something lately.
Namely, how she should thank the young friend.
A while ago, it was the young friend who saw through the heart knot she kept buried deep inside, and went to great lengths to arrange that Mid-Autumn banquet on Osmanthus Mountain, finally allowing her to fulfill her long-cherished wish and personally bid farewell to Penglai.
This favor was truly immense.
Just as she was agonizing over this and unable to make up her mind, Zhou Qingmu's declaration of war arrived at the perfect moment.
She had originally thought that such matters could not be rushed and that it would be best to wait for a natural opportunity.
But looking at Zhou Qingmu's aggressive stance now, if she continued to drag things out so reservedly, she would probably be left far behind by Director Zhou.
She had lived for ten thousand years, and on the path of cultivation, she had always possessed a temperament that refused to yield to anyone.
How could she become so hesitant and timid when it came to this matter?
Thinking up to this point, the hesitation that had been tugging at True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's heart was finally provoked by this letter into a firm resolution.
When she entrusted him with her true name, she had already said everything that could be said, and the young friend had seriously agreed.
Now, between the two of them, only the final step remained.
—In that case, she would be the one to take that final step.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu took a deep breath. In her eyes, which were usually as calm as a deep well, a rare look of absolute, do-or-die determination ignited.
She carefully put away the declaration of war, which had played an indispensable role, actually feeling a subtle sense of gratitude in her heart.
...
That night, the moonlight was perfect.
Gu Chengming had just finished his daily research on the Dream Moon and was sitting cross-legged on his bed to regulate his breathing when he suddenly felt a ripple of spiritual energy in the courtyard.
Scanning with his divine sense, he saw a moon-white figure standing before his door under the moonlight.
Tonight, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu did not put on her usual air of a True Monarch. Her moon-white robes shimmered with a soft glow under the moonlight. Standing outside the threshold, though her expression still maintained a trace of her usual coldness, her slightly pursed lips betrayed her turbulent emotions.
“Senior?”
Gu Chengming was somewhat surprised. “It is so late, why has Senior come over?”
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu did not answer immediately, as if she were gathering her courage. Only then did she slowly step over the threshold, walking step by step toward Gu Chengming.
Moonlight filtered in through the window paper, bathing her entire body.
She looked down at Gu Chengming on the bed, her cold, moon-like eyes filled with a desperate determination.
“Young friend.”
She spoke softly, her voice a few degrees gentler than usual. “Since we parted on Osmanthus Mountain a while ago, you resolved the heart knot that had trapped me for a thousand years. I have been thinking all this time about how I should thank you for this immense favor.”
Gu Chengming was about to say that she was overstating it, but True Monarch Liuyun Suyu raised her hand to gently stop him.
“I have thought about it over and over again.” Meeting his gaze, she spoke the words that had been lingering in her heart for a long time. “Ordinary thank-you gifts are far too light. They are not worthy of the long-cherished wish you fulfilled for me.”
“So...”
At this point, she seemed to hesitate slightly, but in the end, her gaze turned firm, and she spoke as if casting all caution to the wind:
“So I think... I will offer myself to you as thanks.”
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