My enemies became my companions

Chapter 722 Rejection (Two Chapters Combined)

Chen Yi suddenly opened his eyes.

The sword was drawn, but there was nothing in front of him; it landed in empty space.

Where did they go?

Chen Yi rubbed his head. He clearly remembered that the moment the sword pierced through, Wu Meng used his body to block the Pure Saintess who was about to step into the River of Time, and he himself took the opportunity to pierce through with the sword.

The feeling of that sword strike was incredibly real; the sensation of the blade tearing through obstacles seemed to linger on my fingertips.

But now... the place is deserted, with only emptiness and an indescribable sense of stillness, as if one were inside a giant piece of amber.

And here...

He looked around and found himself standing in a hall whose vastness and grandeur were beyond description.

Beneath your feet lies a smooth, mirror-like floor of gold bricks that stretches to the horizon.

The dome is high and distant, not a solid entity, but composed of flowing, gentle yet eternal radiance, as if sealing a soft sky within it.

All around stood colossal glass pillars, each requiring several people to encircle, their interiors seemingly flowing with liquid light, refracting a hazy and sacred glow. Countless eternal lamps floated in mid-air, burning silently, their flames as steady as frozen time, casting a warm and enduring light that illuminated the space with exquisite detail, yet strangely devoid of any trace of human presence.

Is this... the Ming Palace?

“Chen Yi, Chen… Zunming.”

A voice came from behind, calm and distant, revealing no emotion, yet carrying a knowing and detached air.

Chen Yi turned around abruptly, his muscles tensing instantly. He held Kang Jian horizontally in front of him, the tip of the sword trembling slightly, pointing towards the source of the sound.

He saw the Pure Saintess standing not far away, standing in the same bright hall as him.

She was still surrounded by light, but the light was no longer dazzling; instead, it appeared restrained and profound, blending into the splendor of the hall.

She had no wounds on her body, nor any signs of having just gone through a life-or-death battle. It was as if she had been standing there all along, waiting for his arrival.

Chen Yi's pupils contracted slightly, and he slowly asked, "You know my handwriting?"

The Holy Maiden's radiant expression seemed to tremble slightly, as if she were smiling, or perhaps experiencing some more complex emotion. "Your words hold a hidden meaning."

"Mystery?" Chen Yi twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing a cold smile, but the warning signs in his heart kept rising. He tried to sense the resentful demon lord beneath his feet and Xu Qi in the outside world, but found that all connections were cut off. The Ming Palace seemed to be a Sumeru world independent of the outside world.

"Respect the Bright One, and follow the will of the Bright One." The Pure Saintess spoke slowly, her voice echoing in the empty hall.

Chen Yi's mind raced, and various doubts welled up in his heart. He sneered and said sarcastically, "Why can't it be reversed and just 'Mingzun'?"

His words were a test, but also a counterattack, intended to disrupt the other party's rhythm.

However, upon hearing this, the Holy Maiden of Purity suddenly shone brighter.

She gazed at Chen Yi, her eyes seemingly piercing through his skin and reaching the depths of his soul.

“Mingzun,” her voice remained calm, “how could you possibly be Mingzun? Don’t you know your own origins?”

Before the words were even finished, the entire Ming Palace seemed to come alive. The light flowing from the giant glass pillars accelerated, the light from the dome cascaded down like a waterfall, and the flames of thousands of eternal lamps all tilted slightly toward Chen Yi.

It was as if the entire Ming Palace was rejecting him.

Chen Yi's hand holding the sword was as steady as a rock, and his heart skipped a beat.

After a long while, he laughed and said, "Now that you are still the master of the Ming Palace, it seems that the entire Ming Palace is rejecting me. Why bother with this pretense? Wu Meng has already stopped you, otherwise you wouldn't be wasting your breath talking to me here."

“…What you said is indeed true. Right now, we are stuck in the gaps between fragments of time, and we have gained a moment of peace, which is only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn,” the Pure Saintess slightly raised her hand, and the light flowed in her hand. “At that time, you did become a Bright Venerable for a moment, but that does not mean that the Bright Palace recognized you, because your origin is not so simple.”

Chen Yi frowned slightly and sneered, "My origins? Just an ordinary mortal."

Being in the Ming Palace, he had no choice but to remain still for the time being, as the Pure Saintess before him seemed unable to do anything to him for the time being.

"A mortal?" The Holy Maiden of Purity shimmered with light. "Chen Yi, do you truly believe you are a mere mortal, and not a demon from beyond the realm?"

Chen Yi's pupils contracted slightly.

He wasn't surprised that his identity had been discovered, but rather that even the serene saintess before him seemed to know something.

Zhou Yitang had never made things clear to him before. Once, when he asked her if she was an extraterrestrial demon, she only said "yes and no," which was so vague that it inevitably made Chen Yi feel uneasy.

“Perhaps someone has revealed your origins, and you have heard about it, but in reality… I only have a vague understanding,” the Pure Saintess floated forward slightly, her invisible pressure distorting the surrounding light. “But what others dare not and cannot say, I can say.”

Chen Yi stared intently at the serene saintess before him.

The serene saintess took in his expression, and he seemed to be gradually drawn into her circle. Her voice suddenly became ethereal and distant.
"The reason you became a Mingzun for that instant was simply because you activated the Ming Palace. It has been a long time since anyone has been able to have a moment of enlightenment in the forbidden area of ​​the world of ignorance. You just happened to receive the call. But a true Mingzun is not a Mingzun without the Ming Palace."

Chen Yi lowered his eyes and said with amusement, "So, you're not the real Mingzun either?"

"There is no true enlightened one in the world."

Unexpectedly, the Holy Maiden of Purity gave an unbelievable answer.

Seeing Chen Yi frown, the Pure Saintess smiled again and slowly said:
"The enlightened one is not in the present, but in the future."

Chen Yi initially didn't understand the meaning, then his eyes widened suddenly, as if he suddenly understood something. The Pure Saintess continued slowly:
"This Ming Palace was built by the future Mingzun and cast into the long river of time."

Indeed, I am not the true Mingzun either. When I told Gongsun Guan the answer, he rebuked me for being disobedient and blasphemous. Now, I have taken the place of the Mingzun.

In the not-too-distant future, I will create the Bright Palace and dedicate it to my present self.

The Venerable One possesses the supernatural power to alter the river of time. According to the Pure Saintess, the future Venerable One could throw this temple into the river of time in the past to lay the foundation for his own existence. Logically, this is not impossible, and it could even be said to be a method consistent with that legendary realm.

After all, even Xu Qi could influence time to some extent, so it's not surprising that a true enlightened being could do even more incredible things.

Chen Yi stared at the Pure Saintess's face, which was filled with light, and an intuition told him that she was not lying at this moment.

These thoughts sent a chill down his spine. If this was true, then the so-called "Mingzun" lineage was shrouded in an even grander fog.

But then a thought popped into his head: Could this be the work of the Pure Saintess's "wish fulfillment" again? Had she unconsciously distorted reality, or rather, distorted his perception to create this seemingly reasonable explanation?
"Wish fulfillment?" The Pure Saintess seemed to see through his doubts, her radiance rippled slightly, like a silent laugh. "Here, in the heart of this Bright Palace, in the cracks of time, I did not use any supernatural powers."

She paused, her body radiating a strange certainty: "Whether you believe it or not is up to you, but the truth will not change because of your denial."

Chen Yi's mind raced, knowing that dwelling on it further was pointless, and he coldly said, "Whether you believe it or not, what does it have to do with you?"

He made up his mind that no matter what this woman was up to, the most important thing was to buy time.

The time it takes for an incense stick to burn is neither long nor short. The external situation changes in an instant. As long as we can hold out until this fragment of time reconnects with the outside world, let alone a true celestial being like Xu Qi, even the Lord of Resentment is enough.

As he asked the questions, he secretly channeled his sword intent.

The Holy Maiden's radiant face seemed to become clearer. She could sense Chen Yi's wariness, but she didn't care, or rather, this was within her expectations.

"All I want is this Bright Palace. We don't necessarily have to be enemies," her voice returned to its previous calm and distant tone. "But you might as well consider this: if you were the Bright Lord, could you bear the responsibility of restoring the world of ignorance?"

Chen Yi's understanding of the doctrines of the cult was actually superficial, mostly derived from the women around him, hearsay, and fragmentary readings.

He knew that what the Holy Maiden of Purity was referring to as "restoring the world of ignorance" was one of the core doctrines of the Church of Light and Darkness. Legend has it that when the true Venerable One of Light descends into the world, he will dispel all ignorance and darkness and bring eternal light and a pure land. This is roughly the same as the legends of Buddhist believers who hope for the birth of Maitreya to save the Saha world.

It's nothing more than the same old story about saving the world.

Chen Yi sneered inwardly. In his previous life, he had exhausted everything to repair the Heavenly Dao, and in the end, he died and his Dao disappeared, leaving Zhou Yitang alone to live as a widow on Yinjian Mountain.

In this life, he would never again risk his life for such a vague and uncertain mission.

His mind was clear, and he was not swayed by the seemingly lofty question from the Holy Maiden of Purity. Instead, he asked, "What does it matter to you whether I take it or not? If you can take this Ming Palace, then take it. Why waste your breath on me?"

The moment the words fell, the entire Ming Palace seemed to be stirred by an invisible hand, and a ripple of intense light rippled violently across it.

The light was no longer gentle, but carried a burning rage, like a desecrated sacred fire, surging towards Chen Yi. Although it did not attack directly, it clearly conveyed an extreme sense of rejection and disgust.

The radiance surrounding the Pure Saintess resonated with it. She smiled gently, her voice carrying a hint of understanding and pity: "You see, it's not me rejecting you, it's the Bright Palace... it's rejecting you, rejecting the extraterrestrial demons."

Chen Yi felt the scorching, hostile light rushing towards him, as if he were standing on the edge of a furnace, his skin stinging faintly. The muscles in his sword-wielding arm tensed, and the Houkang sword emitted a low hum, with wisps of dark sword intent emanating from it, forming a thin barrier around him, barely keeping out the blazing light.

The smooth, mirror-like gold brick floor beneath his feet clearly reflected his figure, which was no longer a pure human form. Countless tiny, twisted, dark tentacles seemed to sway silently along the edges of his outline, completely different from what he usually saw.

"Refuse?" Chen Yi's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Is the likes and dislikes of a dead object temple worth using as evidence? If it truly has a spirit, why doesn't it choose its own master instead of being held in the hands of a fake Venerable like you?"

The Holy Maiden of Purity paid no heed to his retort. The face illuminated by the concentrated light seemed to become clearer, and one could vaguely see the almost compassionate outline beneath it.

"It is not that I control it, but at this moment, only I can bear the mission it has dedicated to this period of time. Its rejection does not stem from my will, but from the fundamental conflict between your own existence and the laws of this place. Chen Yi, don't you understand? You are an extraterrestrial demon, to it as ice and snow are to the blazing sun, an existence destined to be at odds."

She slightly raised her hand, pointing to the radiance around her that was boiling with anger: "This is not a matter of like or dislike, but... an instinctive self-preservation. If you forcibly touch the throne, the consequences will be far beyond what you can bear."

Chen Yi gazed ahead and saw a majestic throne of light silently floating in the deepest part of the Ming Palace, where endless radiance converged. The throne seemed to be formed entirely from the purest light, resplendent in gold and jade, carved with countless profound and ineffable runes, and exuding an aura of eternal immortality.

It wasn't far away, only a hundred steps, but under the barrier of that vast light and invisible repulsion, it seemed as if it were separated by the ends of the earth, visible but unattainable.

This hall, which carries the will of the future enlightened one and has transcended time, is doing everything in its power to prevent him from getting close.

"Let's stop here, Chen Yi." The Pure Saintess's voice rang out again, carrying a calmness that was almost admonishing. "Leave the Bright Palace, and I swear on my own path that I will never be your enemy again today. We will keep to ourselves and not interfere with each other. What do you say? Not only that, but I will also protect you for hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. Losing one enemy and gaining one friend, is it not a difficult choice?"

Her suggestion sounded quite sincere and seemed to be the best option in these fragments of time.

However, Chen Yi turned a deaf ear.

All his attention was focused on the throne of light, as if it were the only focus.

He slowly raised the Houkang sword in his hand. The sword's restrained and extremely dark gray color contrasted sharply with the blazing light of the Ming Palace. The tip of the sword trembled slightly, not out of fear, but out of a moment of resolute determination.

"Reject me?" Chen Yi muttered under his breath, "Who do you think you are?"

Before he finished speaking, Chen Yi's aura suddenly erupted.

Suddenly, a sword was drawn.

He no longer suppressed it; the unfounded resentment contained within the sword's edge surged forth like a torrent bursting its banks, driven by the sword's intent.

A direct look at the emperor's seat.

Immediately, the entire Ming Palace trembled violently.

(End of this chapter)