Chapter 1602 — The Righteous Path of the World

Long Qilin set off at once for Binzhou, on the shore of the East Sea.

His speed was extraordinary. He had already been faster than Shen Mu to begin with, and in these years of bitter cultivation in the Beast Realm, striving to help Long Xiao build a civilization for the Beast Realm, he had undertaken many pioneering works and gained no small ability.

Shen Mu returned to Jingping seldom, but Long Qilin was from time to time summoned by Xue Hu'er and the others for old times' sake, and so the fruits of Jingping's reforms had not been lost on him either.

Long Qilin was now far more mature and steady than before, and bore the dignity of the Beast Realm's young lord. Along the way he pored over the records of Gong Tianzun's reincarnation body, from the cultivation methods Tao Xiufang had studied to the divine powers she had mastered, the directions of her research, and the whole record of her life's battles, all set down in exhaustive detail.

Ever since Shen Mu had discovered that Xiaotianzun's reincarnation body had entered Jingping and silently crept to the center of Jingping's power, a quiet surveillance and net had been spread against the reincarnation bodies of the Ten Tianzuns.

Long Qilin closed the file and looked down. He had already arrived at Binzhou.

Binzhou lay north of Jiangling, a divine city that had flourished in recent years.

A hundred years had passed since the last calamity of Jingping. In that century Jingping had been turned upside down; wealth grew ever greater, but so did its problems. Divine city after divine city grew larger, holding more and more people, yet a city cannot expand without end, and so other divine cities rose.

Binzhou was one of them, and one of the better developed, easing the population pressure on Jiangling. Many of the young liked to gather here.

Long Qilin came into the city and found the place where Tao Xiufang lived, only to see a great wedding feast in progress. On inquiry, he learned that Tao Xiufang's household had gained a child, and a hundred-day banquet was being held for the infant.

"Gong Tianzun's reincarnation body married? The file said nothing of this."

Long Qilin was astonished and inquired further. Tao Xiufang had married a divine-power wielder of Binzhou, not a great house; she had been married into it for two years.

"How could someone like Gong Tianzun marry? Could the man be the reincarnation of some Tianzun?"

He quietly slipped into the feast and used the Book of Life and Death to examine the master of the house, and found his origins clean; he was no reincarnation of a Tianzun.

The man's aptitude and comprehension were not of the heaven-topping sort, neither too good nor too poor. He could likely cultivate to the divine realm, but to accomplish anything world-shaking was unlikely.

Long Qilin pondered a while, then examined Tao Xiufang as well. She was indeed the reincarnation of one of Gong Tianzun's souls; there was no trick to it.

His expression turned strange. A Tianzun in her own right, why would she marry an ordinary man?

"Could this be an illusion of Gong Tianzun's?"

His divine consciousness was powerful, and his abilities had grown ever greater over the years. He looked closely: it was no illusion.

Tao Xiufang's cultivation was inferior to his; had it been an illusion, he would surely have seen through it.

Tao Xiufang also noticed Long Qilin among the guests; this man of strange appearance could hardly fail to draw attention.

"Long Pi, could you wait until tomorrow?" Her divine consciousness rippled into Long Qilin's mind.

Long Qilin nodded silently.

The hundred-day banquet was lively. Tao Xiufang, as mistress of the household, bustled about attending to guests before and behind, and held the child with every tenderness, as though all the heartlessness of her former life must be repaid in this life, on this infant.

Long Qilin remained at the banquet, watching quietly. When the feast dispersed, he left Binzhou and waited quietly outside the city.

The sun rose in the east, leaping up out of the sea.

The sea wind was cool, blowing through the youth's garments. He stood by the shore watching the sunrise, the light flushing his face red.

Tao Xiufang came up behind him, her expression complex. "The Creator is human too. Even one as exalted as I, a Tianzun, cannot escape the world's dust after reincarnation, and comes to have a mortal heart. Young lord of the Beast Realm, you have been sent to kill me, have you not?"

"Gong Tianzun was heartless and unrighteous. I never thought you would marry and become a mother."

Long Qilin turned around. "Had I known, I would not have taken this task. You do not seem like a Tianzun now; you seem more like a good wife and loving mother, and it makes it hard for me to strike. So I give you half a day to settle your affairs."

Tao Xiufang looked at him and said softly, "With the Heavenly Court's struggles for power gone, my heart is utterly still, and I have come to understand the love of mortals. Mutianzun killed me, but I do not wish for revenge, and I have no more longing for the Heavenly Court's power. Could the young lord of the Beast Realm show me mercy and let me be an ordinary person? I only wish to serve my husband and raise my children, and live out a plain, ordinary life."

It was hard for her to lower herself, yet now she lowered herself.

Long Qilin watched her with a calm face, and after a moment said, "The Cult Leader once taught me that one must not be too cruel to good people, nor too kind to bad people. That is not fairness; it is justice. To be too kind to the bad is to wrong the good and the ordinary folk they have harmed; to be too cruel to the good is to wrong the good deeds they have done. If you yourself cannot do those good deeds, why magnify the few blemishes on a good person?"

Tao Xiufang listened quietly.

Long Qilin went on, "I once asked him why he did not revive a certain old friend of his. He had the power, and the strength. He said that reviving the Great Venerable would make him remember the countless ordinary people who died at the Great Venerable's hands. The good the Great Venerable did before his death could not change the evil he had done in his life. Gong Tianzun, in your long years, there must have been many who begged you for mercy?"

Tao Xiufang nodded silently.

"Did you spare them?" Long Qilin pressed.

Tao Xiufang shook her head silently, then suddenly said, "For the sake of my little family, I will not sit and wait for death!"

Long Qilin saluted her. "Have you arranged a wet nurse for the child? If not, I can give you another half day."

Tao Xiufang returned the salute and shook her head. "It is arranged."

Long Qilin smiled. "Then, please make your move."

Tao Xiufang cried out, sprang up, and hurled all her strength and every divine power at him!

Boom!

The sea wind of the East Sea rose suddenly; great waves struck the shore, bursting with a world-shaking roar. Long Qilin walked west, not straight toward Binzhou but by a roundabout way.

He did not wish to enter Binzhou again.

Behind him, Tao Xiufang's corpse was swallowed by the waves.

"If Heaven had feeling, Heaven too would grow old; the righteous path of the mortal world is wrought of vicissitude."

He glanced back once. The waves of the East Sea were urgent. He turned his head away; ahead lay Mount Zhong of Jiangling, coiled like a dragon and crouched like a tiger.

Wind and rain were rising over Mount Zhong, and heaven and earth were one vast sallow grey.