Proofreader: Papatonks
Zhuo Fan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they lost their edge.
The Child Sovereign nodded, “Again!”
“Sure!”
Zhuo Fan shouted as he smiled and went after the Child Sovereign. He still couldn’t touch him.
However, he no longer looked so stressed out, but casual as he went after Child Sovereign again and again.
He got so into it, Zhuo Fan forgot how many times he’d been doing it and instead enjoyed the game just for the fun of it.
Zhuo Fan ran all over the place, finally feeling that the Child Sovereign was almost within grasp.
Pa!
Zhuo Fan’s hand missed the Child Sovereign but then he grabbed out of reflex to his side, actually feeling flesh.
Zhuo Fan looked back at the Child Sovereign’s smile.
“I got you?”
“Congrats, you passed!” The congratulations no longer sounded childish, his face turning mature as he nodded.
Zhuo Fan said, “Passed… what?”
Then it hit him that he had been playing the Child Sovereign’s game to pass the third trial. He was just so engrossed that he forgot about anything else as he chased the Sovereign around.
“You’ve accepted the new change of pace, good.”
The Child Sovereign sighed, “Now wasn’t that fun playing a game? Wasn’t it great to forget all your worries?”
Zhuo Fan nodded.
The Child Sovereign sighed at the sky, “Kid, I’m the best talent in the world, having found my path since very young. Everyone thought I was the strongest human, their representative and hope. But I’ve become a Sovereign a hundred thousand years later than the other nine, the so-called last. Do you know why?”
“Please enlighten me, senior.” Zhuo Fan bowed.
The Child Sovereign continued, “Achieving success in youth means becoming the center of everyone’s hopes and responsibilities yet having scarce experience. No knowledge and no guidance had paused my cultivation at peak Saint for ages. In the end, all the other nine advanced, with only me left behind. I was confused, disillusioned, whining, dragging my feet and then shouted at the sky what more did it want. I’ve seen many famous masters, asking without shame for guidance. I’ve gone through trials and hardship, only to realize that what I lacked was living.”
“Living?”
“Yes, living.”
The Child Sovereign spoke, “At birth, we come into this world wanting nothing, no fame, no power, free and light. Only as we grow do we yearn for wealth and fame, pursuing lofty dreams while burdening ourselves with much more and more weights. Myself the most, being humanity’s top, I had heavy burdens on me, glory and duty. The joy and pain robbed me of plain living. So I’ve spent those hundred thousand years doing just that, living. I even acted as a child and played with other kids to mend the hole inside me and become a Sovereign. My path is that of average, returning to my roots.”
The Child Sovereign faced Zhuo Fan and patted his shoulder, “Brat, no human starts off burdened. All the worries you have are things you pick as you pursue your goal. By picking them up, you need to learn to also let go of them. Haven’t you done just that since now? Return to your roots, that of an innocent child. Observe the world and you will catch me.”
“I can’t thank you enough, senior.” Zhuo Fan bowed.
Child Sovereign smiled and pointed two fingers on Zhuo Fan’s forehead, flashing prismatic, “This is your proof to reach the Nether Sovereign’s seat of enlightenment. A harsher test awaits you!”
Zhuo Fan shuddered and felt a cool feeling taking over his heart, bringing him peace.
“Uh, Sovereign, where might the Nether Sovereign’s seat of enlightenment be?” Zhuo Fan bowed.
Child Sovereign smirked and pointed at a wooden horse, “Giddy up, it will take you there.”
“Uh, that…”
Zhuo Fan winced, “Sovereign, don’t you have anything normal instead of a toy? It’s too…”
“Not flashy enough? I got a wooden lion with a royal air if that’s more of your style.”
“T-that won’t be necessary.”
Zhuo Fan sighed, “It’s not gaudiness, just that going on a wooden toy to see the Nether Sovereign is a little lame.”
“What’s so lame about it? I always go over there like that.”
The Child Sovereign glared at him, “Didn’t I tell you to let go? You expect to reach your path clinging onto all those biases from the secular world? Fine, since you won’t go, go home!”
“No, no, no, I’ll take it!”
Zhuo Fan rushed to stop him, putting on a grimace as he got on the wooden horse. He struck a funny image, a grown man riding a children’s horse.
He still looked stylish though.
The Child Sovereign burst out laughing.
Zhuo Fan sighed, “Sovereign, you must be bored to death, using games to toy with me. But I can take it, for I respect my seniors.”
“Better keep that to yourself and have your last shred of decency, ha-ha-ha. Go!”
Pa!
Slapping the horse’s butt, the wooden horse shot forth like a shooting star. Zhuo Fan was gone before he knew it.
The Child Sovereign smiled, “This leaves the Nether Sovereign’s side. Old friend, it’s up to you now…”
Boom~
Cataclysmic explosions rumbled as the sky cracked and the Nether Sea boiled. Child Sovereign sighed.
“Heavenly Sovereign, you’re here.”
The Child Sovereign vanished.
He reappeared high in the sky along with three other figures.
They said with urgency, “How was it? Did he pass?”
“Isn’t it obvious since I’m here?”
The Child Sovereign looked at the sky and at the spreading cracks with clenched fists, “How long will it last?”
The trio shook their heads, “Heavenly Sovereign’s Divine Eye of the Void’s 2nd stage, Void Annihilation is designed to break barriers. With only one Sovereign path remaining, with the Nether Sovereign linking with the Nether Sea, I believe it would last at most one hour…”
“In other words, the Nether Sovereign must pass on his life and death path in this short time before all is for naught!” The Child Sovereign ended.
Dark clouds loomed in the horizon, with a minute light trailing among the gloomy weather…
“How’s this wooden horse so fast?”
The biting winds made Zhuo Fan’s ride unpleasant, shocked at the toy’s speed. In moments, he was on a bleak mountain, with a stone platform made up of three square meters black blocks. A wooden cross stood tall on the platform, with a familiar figure tied to it struggling to break free off those bonds.
“Qingcheng!”
Chu Qingcheng started and cheered, “Zhuo Fan… uh…”
The image of Zhuo Fan on the wooden horse left her speechless.
[Uh, just where did you find that weird ride?]
She then snapped out of it, “Zhuo Fan, help me!”
“I’m coming!”
Zhuo Fan shot off the horse before it landed, only to freeze on the spot the minute he touched the ground. He watched as gray mist floated from below and grabbed his legs.
Apocalyptic Thunderflame Eye!
Zhuo Fan let out the black thunderflame burning the gray mist and making it wail.
“You dare? Who is running amok in my seat of enlightenment?”
