From Blood Mage to Styx Ancestor

Chapter 397 Yu Xiyi

Modi led the two through the Zhen Dan Imperial Palace.

On both sides are vermilion-red palace walls, covered with a row of neat tiles, which are pleasing to the eye and also have the effect of deterring evil spirits.

If any ordinary evil spirits were to find themselves here, they would be instantly suppressed by the red walls, and would probably be reduced to ashes before being discovered by the palace guards.

This is only one corner of the palace's restrictions. Combined with the underground dragon veins, the layout of various buildings, and the palace maids and guards patrolling within the palace, the entire palace is like a giant altar.

Once you set foot on this land and are no longer protected by the dragon vein, spellcasters will be stripped of their spellcasting abilities, and even powerful warriors will become extremely weak.

This is still an altar without anyone in charge. If someone of sufficient stature were to preside over it, even an immortal would be trapped here.

"Aktosh really left a lot of good things for China." Modi made no attempt to hide his curiosity, his gaze casually sweeping over every corner of the palace.

He memorized the direction of the underground dragon veins, every rune carved on the palace walls, and the ceremonial ornaments placed in special locations.

Perhaps he can improve upon it and recreate this ancient altar on his own turf.

"The imperial city altar not only requires a specific layout, but also specific personnel, such as palace maids, guards, and civil and military officials, in order to maximize the activation of the altar."

Elena explained, "That imperial prime minister gave us a portion of our fortune, which is why we are protected by the dragon vein."

"Luck?" He glanced down, casually pulling out a wisp of yellow, dragon-like energy. "Is this it?"

"Yes, it can also be called dragon energy. It seems to be related to that Dragon Emperor."

The dragon energy struggled in his hand, occasionally trying to bite his fingers, but he firmly held its neck.

With a flick of his wrist, he crushed the dragon energy and stored it in his sleeve.

"Will you be able to use the dragon energy?" Su Youli asked.

"Just a quick thing." Mordy shrugged.

The three continued onward, and the guards who passed by seemed to be blinded by a ghost, ignoring them completely.

This eerie silence lasted all the way until they arrived outside the court and could hear the arguing coming from inside. Only then did Modi tear off the warp veil covering his body.

One of the imperial guards was startled to see them appear out of nowhere and instinctively raised his halberd to block the three of them.

"Halt...wait, who are you?"

He knew both Elena and Su Youli. The former was a descendant of the Dragon Emperor personally welcomed back by the Prime Minister, while the latter was, in name, her bodyguard.

He didn't recognize the man in the red robe in the middle; he was a complete stranger.

"Who are those people in front of us? Letting the two of them into the court at this hour is one thing, but why let a stranger in as well?"

The Imperial Guard cursed his colleagues inwardly, his eyes filled with vigilance, ready to strike at any moment.

The officials inside were having a meeting, and they absolutely could not let this "princess" know what they were discussing, let alone that strange man.

Even if he had a close relationship with that princess, he shouldn't have appeared in the palace so casually.

Moreover, the Imperial Guard thought to himself, "It won't be long before the General defeats the Prime Minister, and that so-called princess probably won't last much longer."

He was on the General's side, or rather, half of the Imperial Guards had been won over by the General.

With this in mind, the imperial guard called to his colleagues, intending for them to restrain the man in red.

There was a moment of silence around him; no one responded to his greeting, and no one stepped forward to do as he said.

"Huh? You're all deaf..."

""

The imperial guards turned around in confusion, only to see their colleagues still standing in the same spot, staring straight ahead.

Normally, he would praise their dedication, but now he only felt a chill run down his spine.

Because in their eyes, there were no three people at all; no, even he didn't exist.

"This is what you did."

He turned around abruptly, and the halberd in his hand pointed at the man as he moved, its blade gleaming with a chilling light.

Without hesitation or trying to get information out of him, he launched a direct attack on the man in the red robe.

The halberd stirred up a storm. Although the storm's range was compressed to the surrounding area due to the palace's restrictions, this did not affect the halberd's power.

The Imperial Guards were confident that even if the newcomer was an Immortal, they could easily behead him. With the support of the Imperial Palace's suppression, suppressing an Immortal would be no problem.

However, just a second later, his confident expression froze on his face.

He saw the silver halberd blade, imbued with a sharp aura, pierce into the man's body, but he felt no tearing sensation of flesh and blood, nor the tangible feeling of a sharp weapon piercing into flesh.

What he found even more unbelievable was that although the halberd had penetrated the red-robed man's body, there was no wound on its surface and no blood flowed out.

It was as if he was attacking only a phantom, an illusion, and that seemed to be the case.

"I bet you're doubting yourself, wondering why you can't attack me, right?"

Modi smiled and began to speak, revealing his inner thoughts and offering an explanation: "Contrary to what you think, I am not an illusion; it is you who has become the illusion. From the moment you saw me, your existence in this world was already dead."

A person who loses their existence will fall into a situation similar to his, where others cannot perceive his existence, and he cannot interfere with others.

"At the beginning, you will lose the power to be observed and to interfere with others," Mordy said with a smile. "At this stage, you can still interfere with some things other than the observer, and you will also be interfered with by the external environment."

"But everything you do will be corrected, and you will be forgotten by others."

No one will know what he did; everything he did will be corrected by the world itself, making these things seem reasonable to others.

Upon hearing this, the Imperial Guard's eyes contorted beneath his helmet, and without hesitation, he slammed his halberd down, smashing the hard blade onto the floor.

Bang.

The stone floor was immediately dented, and spiderweb-like cracks spread outward from the center of the dent. Fortunately, the palace's protective barriers prevented the damage from being too severe.

The other guards noticed this sudden change, frowned, and went forward to investigate.

"Quickly, quickly notice me!" the Imperial Guard shouted, appearing almost frantic.

After carefully examining the dent, the guard quickly stood up and said something that made the Imperial Guards feel as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

"The barrier has been in disrepair for years, and the disordered spiritual energy caused this damage. It shouldn't be a big problem. Just report it to the person in charge of maintenance and let them handle it."

"How did you come to this conclusion?! Check it again right now!" the Imperial Guard shouted, rushing forward to grab the guard's shoulder, but his hand passed right through the guard's body as if it had been molded.

Modi remained standing to the side, smiling, "Don't rush, this is only the first stage."

"After a period of time, you will enter the second stage. The more eager you are to interfere with the outside world, the faster you will enter this stage."

His words were like a demonic voice from the depths of hell, startling the Imperial Guards so much that their halberds, which should have been swung at the pillars, froze in mid-air.

"That's more like it... But at most it will only delay things a little longer, it won't change your fate."

Modi continued, "In the second stage, you will gradually lose the ability to feel external influences and will also lose the ability to interfere with the outside world."

"In the final third stage, you will no longer feel your own existence; in other words, you will die."

"What did you say?"

The Imperial Guards had ferocious expressions and bloodshot eyes, as if they wanted to skin Modi alive.

"You're the one who caused all of this. Why did you do it?"

The halberd blade was pointed at Modi again. Even though he knew he couldn't touch Modi at all, he still adopted this defensive stance out of instinct.

"You've seen who I came with, don't you know the answer?" Modi chuckled and explained to him in a talkative manner.

"Are you working for the Dragon Princess?" The Imperial Guard's face darkened, realizing that his collusion with the Grand General had been discovered.

"Perhaps quite the opposite."

Modi's words left him completely bewildered. If he wasn't the princess's man, could he be the general's man? But if that were the case, why would he have made a move?

Without giving him time to think, Mo Di added insult to injury: "As a member of the Imperial Guard, you've allied with the Grand General. What, are you also planning a coup at Chenqiao Mutiny and to seize the throne?"

What on earth is this guy talking about? What mutiny, what imperial coup? He's just siding with the general; he wouldn't dare have such thoughts.

Wait, if all of this is true, then why can this guy see me and communicate with me?

The Imperial Guard's eyes lit up, thinking he might have found a loophole in his words. Just as he was about to speak, Modi preemptively said, "You doubt my words and want to ask me why I can still see you, right?"

His face turned ugly again when he was interrupted. Normally, no one would dare to interrupt him.

"It's very simple. I did something similar to myself, but unlike you, I can control the progress of the process."

Transformation? What is that?

One question after another flooded his mind, and the Imperial Guard felt a headache coming on, as if he were being manipulated.

He didn't even know why this person was still talking nonsense to him.

"This is a new experimental subject that I just came up with. Before you, there were seven palace maids and nine guards who became experimental subjects. Like you, they were all sent by the General."

Modi pulled out a pair of glasses from somewhere, put them on, and started recording some unknown data.

"You're the one who lasted the longest. The ones before me were completely unaware of their own existence as soon as they saw me, let alone be able to communicate with me."

"Perhaps it's because I'm an immortal." The Imperial Guard chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Although the number of immortals in the empire has increased significantly since the revival of spiritual energy, it's still not many."

"A resurgence of spiritual energy? Oh, so that's what Cintan calls the etheric tides."

Modi paused for a moment while writing.

"However, you're almost at your limit too. You'll soon enter the next stage and transform into Xi."

"hope? What is this?"

"Your second stage," he explained, "is that when a person dies, they become a ghost; when a ghost dies, they become a spirit; when a spirit dies, they become a stranger."

"hope, Yi, correspond to the first to third stages respectively."

The Imperial Guard took a deep breath and was somewhat surprised to find that he felt no fear, but after a moment, even that surprise disappeared.

The transformation of hope erased most of his emotions.

Since they don't feel fear of death and have no other special emotional support, they naturally won't have a strong will to live.

All that remained in his heart was a tiny, insignificant curiosity, and it was this curiosity that enabled him to ask his final question: "Why was he executed?"

"I don't know," Modi shook his head. "So far, I've only observed the existence of the 'Yi,' and I haven't observed anything beyond that."

Observing them wasn't too difficult; the real challenge lay in observing the later Greek and Yi peoples.

Even the Immortals cannot detect hope, and as a warp god, Mordi can currently only detect Yi's existence at most.

It was a rather eerie existence; they were remnants of some kind of information from the dead.

Most of the hope and Yi are not very dangerous, since most people cannot detect their existence.

But it is precisely the part that can be observed and interfere with the outside world that is most dangerous.

Because they mostly harbor some unresolved thoughts or emotions, they will act in accordance with these.

Fortunately, these dangerous individuals are not common; at least the Imperial Guard in front of Modi does not have the qualifications.

Unfortunately, Mordy has some means to artificially create them.

"Alright, you've asked all the questions you needed to ask. Now, come with me to meet that general."

The Imperial Guard, now transformed into Xi, nodded and uncontrollably walked behind Modi.

Behind him, indistinct figures, some visible and some invisible, awaited his arrival, before they went to meet the general they had once served.

These were all people that Modi killed along the way; they had all transformed into hope, and a small number had become Yi.

They all forgot their past and followed Modi only by instinct.

Now, this immortal royal guard has joined their ranks, and what awaits him is eternal service as a soldier.

"Alright, let's go."

Modi clapped his hands and glanced at the person next to him with a smile.

Elena's expression was complicated; she was glad she had restrained him beforehand.

Otherwise, the death toll might have been much higher than this.

"Then let's go."

She exhaled softly and strode towards the imperial court.

None of the guards at the gate noticed them, just like the others they encountered on the road.

Inside the hall, the officials' argument continued, revolving around the same few issues.

"The Dragon Descendants are His Majesty's heirs, the legitimate successors of China, and are rightfully entitled to inherit the throne."

"His Majesty's heir? Who can prove it? Based solely on your word?"

"The dragon vein acknowledged her; the day she arrived, the dragon vein trembled. Isn't that enough?"

"That's not enough. Who knows if you tampered with it, unless she can provide more reliable... proof, such as..."

'

The court fell silent for a moment as everyone looked at the military general.

"That's not realistic." The leading civil official lowered his eyes, but did not immediately reject the proposal.

"Only in this way can we prove that she is indeed the legitimate successor of the Chinese people." The military general sneered. "Otherwise, who can guarantee that she won't use the resources of our Chinese people to support that barbarian religious order she belongs to?"

"We must sever her ties with the barbarian cult; we must."