Chapter Eighteen: A New Heaven, Turned by Sun and Moon

A single man, holding a city for twenty years?

Liu Ru tried to picture it, but no matter how she turned it over in her mind, she could not quite make out the shape of it.

“How did he hold it?” she could not help asking.

If one only defends and never attacks, then even a saint would likely struggle to endure such exhaustion.

“The same way anyone else defends a city,” Su Ziye said, meeting Liu Ru’s gaze. “For those twenty years, the Ye Ye Academy opened its doors as usual, took in new students as usual, held classes as usual, seemingly untouched by the war. In all of Ye Ye City, aside from Yue Yi, no one else took part in that conflict. In truth, one can imagine how many people would have wished to campaign beneath the banner of such a saint, yet Yue Yi refused them all, and his refusal admitted no argument.”

“Because, in a certain sense, all the people who wanted to help him together still could not compare to even a tenth of Yue Yi’s own strength.”

“That may sound a little abstract, so let me speak in terms of battle instead.”

“In the sixth month of the twentieth year of the Lan calendar, Ye Xuan Yin used the Third Trial as his pretext to summon an army of one hundred and fifty thousand, mingling them with the students who had come to take part in the examination, and launched a three-pronged assault by sea, land, and air against Ye Ye City.”

“That night, the stars fell like rain. Every invader who stepped into Ye Ye City was slain by meteors descending from the heavens, yet not a single ordinary student was harmed.”

“After that battle, Ye Xuan Yin was grievously weakened, and for a full three years he made no further attempt to attack Ye Ye City.”

“If Yue Yi was so powerful,” Liu Ru said, looking at Su Ziye, “then if the saint was so powerful, how did he die?”

Su Ziye took up the sentence she had not finished.

“Because he sought death.”

“Seek death?” Liu Ru said in disbelief.

She could not understand.

“Didn’t I tell you before? Saints can see visions of the future.” Su Ziye looked toward Ye Tower. “In the future Yue Yi saw, he was originally meant to crush all who dared oppose him with effortless ease. He would change from the guardian of all humanity into the demon king who suppressed everything under heaven. He would rule this land for ten thousand years, so long that even in the future he could see, no ending could be seen.”

“He loathed such a future. He loathed it from the moment he first saw it.”

“So when the branching of the future came, he chose without hesitation to alter the future he had seen: that he himself would be killed by his own disciple, and after killing his master, Ye Xuan Yin would become the undisputed Emperor Yuan Tai, ruling this land in his place and giving everyone a better future.”

“Was there no peaceful solution?” Liu Ru asked.

“No. Ye Xuan Yin had to become a hero, a hero capable of challenging a saint, so that he could unite everyone under his command and then build this empire. If, during that process, the man showed even the slightest weakness, everything could have been ruined.”

“And in the twenty-year siege, nearly half the families in the Lan Ye Empire had lost relatives to Yue Yi’s hand in that war. Yet the more that happened, the more everyone felt that the final conflict could never be settled peacefully. Only when the saint truly and completely died would those rebels find final peace and happiness.”

“At the same time, with the gradual collapse and disintegration of the age of saints, Yue Yi himself also began to grow weaker and older. Even the weakest saint could still easily tear apart an army of a million, but that day was at last drawing ever closer.”

“And in the longest winter before the Lan calendar, Ye Xuan Yin seemed to sense something.”

“He led his most elite guard corps in a surprise aerial strike against Ye Ye City, and on top of Ye Tower he met his teacher face to face.”

“No one knows what the pair of master and disciple spoke about then, but in the end, Ye Xuan Yin drew his sword and thrust it through Yue Yi’s chest. Thereafter, the saint turned into countless streams of radiant rain descending from the sky, then became snowflakes as light as goose feathers. The snowfall lasted a full three months, and on the day it finally ceased, Ye Xuan Yin officially ascended the throne in the Holy City of Lanlan, ending the age of saints and opening a new era for humankind.”

“For that reason, many also called Ye Xuan Yin the Godslayer.”

“And then, Dean Lin Xi represented Ye Ye Academy in surrendering, and Ye Ye City was henceforth incorporated into the empire’s territory. Marshal Lan Ying, hurrying back from the east, had time only to lash Ye Xuan Yin hard with his horsewhip, before entering Ye Ye Academy alone, never again to set foot outside the academy from that day on.”

As she spoke, Su Ziye turned back to look at Liu Ru.

“This was the life of Saint Yue Yi. After hearing it, do you know why I wanted to come here?”

“I think I do.” Liu Ru nodded. “But what kind of world did that saint truly want?”

“Perhaps a world that would become like Ye Ye Academy,” Su Ziye said calmly. “The saint once believed he could do it. With strength alone, he could cow the entire world, and then establish this academy. But to spread the academy across the whole world, even Yue Yi could not do it. Do you know why?”

Liu Ru shook her head. “No.”

“Because even a saint cannot conjure endless money and grain out of thin air. Ye Ye Academy survived only by relying on the supplies of all Ye Ye City, and Ye Ye City in turn depended on the saint’s supreme status to remain so detached from the world. To make the whole world become like the academy would be to make the whole world as prosperous and peaceful as Ye Ye City. That was something even Yue Yi could not do,” Su Ziye said evenly.

“So you can do it?” Liu Ru asked before she could stop herself.

At once, she regretted her words. “Forget it. I was just talking nonsense.”

“If I said I could, would you believe me?” Su Ziye was unconcerned, smiling as he spoke to her.

Liu Ru stared at him blankly and realized he did not seem to be joking. “Really?”

“Really,” Su Ziye said calmly. “In truth, Yue Yi made countless speculations and attempts, but once he established the Ten Great Heavenly Punishments, he had in fact already left himself no way back. He placed his final hope in the academy and in his disciples. And in truth, it was indeed his disciples and this academy that ultimately buried Yue Yi.”

“If you are willing to keep watching, I will show you how a world in which every person is a student of the academy can come to exist in this world.”

“Of course.” Su Ziye smiled at that. “Only, in the process…”

“Many people may die.”

“I feel now,” Liu Ru said with a sigh.

After hearing Su Ziye’s story,

in this instant,

“that death seems to have become nothing much at all.”