Chapter 106: Conversation with the Winter Spirit

City of the Gods, the Divine Court, the Garden of Myriad Gods.

The Garden of Myriad Gods was a sacred divine realm completed only after the divine race had spent one hundred thousand years building it following the founding of the Divine Court. It stood as one of the Court’s two greatest holy domains, side by side with the famed Jasper Pool Divine Realm.

As one of the two great divine realms of the Divine Court, the Garden of Myriad Gods needed no praise for its jade pavilions, divine herbs, and spirit trees; the most awe-inspiring sights of all were the four gardens of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the four great divine gardens, answered to the four seasons above and the four earth spirits below. Free of the limits of space and time, they were everlasting and indestructible, a world unto themselves.

On ordinary days, as one of the Divine Court’s two great divine realms, only Divine Lords could come and go as they pleased.

Yet today, the four gardens were sealed off, and not even a first-rank Divine Lord was permitted entry.

As far as the eye could see, beyond the gates of the four gardens stood countless divine guards clad in sacred golden armor, arrayed in strict battle formation and staring unblinkingly ahead. Within a radius of ten thousand miles, powerful restraints of divine sense enveloped the area.

Should any deity dare approach the gardens, they would be detected in an instant by the all-pervasive divine sense, then annihilated by the army with overwhelming force.

The Imperial Guard of the Divine Emperor? The Divine Emperor has come to the four gardens!

Seeing the purple dragons emblazoned with regal authority upon the armor of the divine guards, the gods of the Divine Court instantly understood that these were the Divine Emperor’s personal imperial guards.

The Divine Emperor’s Guard traveled wherever the Divine Emperor went, always protecting him at his side.

Only the Divine Emperor’s Guard was permitted to wear armor embroidered with the purple dragon of the Divine Court’s fortune.

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the four great divine gardens, were linked together to form an immense four-season, four-spirit divine formation that sustained their existence and transformations.

At that moment, within the empty four divine gardens, two figures walked slowly through spring, summer, autumn, and winter without a word, as though everything were already understood in silence.

Before long, the two figures reached the Winter Spirit Divine Garden.

Snow filled the heavens, ice and frost blanketed the earth, and all things were silent; this was the Winter Spirit Divine Garden’s only image.

Southfall, robed in sacred dragon vestments, led Heaven Venerable Marvelous Speech, clad in a golden robe of fate, slowly up the highest cliff of the Winter Spirit Divine Garden, gazing down upon heaven and earth.

“By observing the transformations of existence among the four seasons and four spirits, have you gained any insight?”

On the icebound cliff, Southfall turned around and looked at Marvelous Speech Venerable before speaking at last.

Within Marvelous Speech Venerable’s golden eyes, green, crimson, yellow, and white divine radiance flowed in turn, utterly immersed in the comprehension of the seasonal transformations of existence.

Just as Marvelous Speech Venerable was deeply lost in that insight and unable to extricate herself, Southfall’s voice, calm as a passing wind, struck her mind like the solemn toll of great bells, awakening her at once.

Boom!

Green, crimson, yellow, and white divine lights wound around one another and burst from Marvelous Speech Venerable’s golden eyes, crashing toward the heavens and tearing a massive fissure through the Profound Cold Firmament of the Winter Spirit Divine Garden.

The enormous裂 in the Profound Cold Firmament caused the Winter Spirit Divine Garden to begin shaking and collapsing, as though the world itself might perish in the next instant.

Seeing this, Southfall lifted a hand and sent out a thread of Profound Cold Ice Qi toward the place where the great fissure had opened in the firmament.

A tiny wisp of Profound Cold Ice Qi flew into the sky, swelling larger and larger as it went, until at last it covered and merged with the crack in the Profound Cold Firmament.

After the Profound Cold Firmament absorbed the Profound Cold Ice Qi, the fissure upon it gradually vanished, and the Winter Spirit Divine Garden slowly returned to calm.

“I could not control my power for a moment. May Your Majesty forgive me!” Marvelous Speech Venerable said respectfully, bowing with clasped hands.

Southfall said calmly, “An unintentional lapse; what crime is there in that? Have you gained any insight?”

“Fate is ever-changing yet eternal, like the transformations of existence among the four seasons and four spirits,” Marvelous Speech Venerable said softly after a quiet period of reflection.

At those words, a faint smile finally appeared on Southfall’s face.

In that instant, the entire Winter Spirit Divine Garden seemed infected by Southfall’s smile, revealing boundless joy and no longer the cold indifference it had known before.

A thread of sunlight broke through the hardened icy clouds, and on the frozen ground, countless flowers began to grow and sway their slender forms as specks of green spread across the snow.

All of it was like a dream and yet not a dream, like mist and yet like lightning.

One thought to illuminate the world, one thought to make flowers bloom—nothing more than this.

And yet, in the end, all of it was only a dream.

When the smile faded, the cold clouds once again blocked the sunlight, the flowers withered in an instant, and ice and snow once more drowned the land.

The Winter Spirit Divine Garden returned, as always, to its snow-covered silence.

Marvelous Speech Venerable recovered from her brief daze and, after a moment’s thought, asked the question in her heart. “Your Majesty, I have visited the seasonal spirit gardens many times before, yet I have never had such an insight as today. May I ask why?”

Southfall replied with a question of his own. “Do you know what lies at the core of City of the Gods?”

“The Hall of the Gods!” Marvelous Speech Venerable’s golden eyes flashed with divine light as she answered in surprise. “Could it be that Your Majesty used the Hall of the Gods to reveal the laws to me?”

“Indeed. The entire City of the Gods is a living divine city, and its core is the Hall of the Gods.”

“So long as the Hall of the Gods is activated, the City of the Gods may be awakened. The Seasonal Spirit Gardens are no exception.”

“This Emperor activated the Hall of the Gods and filled the Seasonal Spirit Gardens with the power of law, only then allowing you to comprehend the law of fate.”

Looking at Marvelous Speech Venerable, Southfall calmly revealed this earth-shattering secret.

Hearing this and recalling the Divine Emperor’s Guard stationed outside the four spirit gardens, Marvelous Speech Venerable suddenly understood. “So that is why Your Majesty sealed the four gardens. Otherwise, the whole primordial world might learn this greatest secret of the divine race.”

“However, why did Your Majesty suddenly choose to reveal the laws to me and raise my cultivation? Why not reveal them to the Twelve Heavenly Venerables?” Marvelous Speech Venerable asked, fixing her gaze on Southfall as she slowly voiced the doubt in her heart.

“To reveal the laws to you has already consumed ten thousand years of the Hall of the Gods’ power. How could it be used again for the Twelve Heavenly Venerables?”

“As for why I singled you out to reveal the laws and raise your cultivation, it is because This Emperor intends to name you as heir and entrust the divine race and the Divine Court to you.”

Southfall’s golden eyes fixed on Marvelous Speech Venerable as he calmly stated his plan.

Yet every word he spoke struck Marvelous Speech Venerable’s mind like a hammer.

Hearing this, Marvelous Speech Venerable’s golden eyes widened uncontrollably as she looked at Southfall in disbelief.

Appoint her as heir? Entrust the divine race and the Divine Court to her?

What exactly was Southfall thinking? What was he trying to do?

Marvelous Speech Venerable sensed an ominous meaning in his words and frowned. “What do you mean, Your Majesty?”

“Do you still remember why the emissaries of the three clans came?” Southfall asked.

“The three clans sought nothing more than to observe the Grand Dao-Discourse Assembly. What has that to do with the divine race, and what has that to do with Your Majesty?” Marvelous Speech Venerable truly could not understand what Southfall was trying to say, and could only follow his words.

“Hmm.” Southfall gave a faint laugh. “What the three clans seek is far more than a mere Dao assembly. I fear that their true intent is hidden behind another purpose. Their words point toward This Emperor; that is their real reason for coming.”

“What?” Marvelous Speech Venerable cried out in alarm, then anxiously said, “Since Your Majesty knows their purpose, why not seize them and end future trouble at the root?”

By the time she uttered the last four words, killing intent already covered her beautiful face, and she spoke with fierce resolve.

“Hmph. If they mean to point at This Emperor, they must first see whether they possess that ability!”

Southfall’s golden eyes grew ever more brilliant and majestic.

“The three clans have come this time merely to draw This Emperor into the tribulation. Heh, they do not know that this is exactly what I desire.”

A mysterious smile appeared on Southfall’s face.

The more Marvelous Speech Venerable heard, the more bewildered she became, utterly unable to understand what Southfall was saying.

Southfall wanted to enter the tribulation? What tribulation? And why was it exactly what he desired?

“Your Majesty, what tribulation are you trying to enter?” Marvelous Speech Venerable asked, her golden eyes full of confusion as she looked at him in utter perplexity.

“Hahaha...” Hearing Marvelous Speech Venerable’s confusion, Southfall suddenly spread his arms and burst into wild laughter.

His laughter rolled like muffled thunder from the ninth heaven, echoing through the Winter Spirit Divine Garden and shaking the Four Spirit Gardens to their core.

Rumble...

The snowbound cliff where Southfall and Marvelous Speech Venerable stood was the first to collapse beneath the force of his laughter.

After the cliff shattered, the entire Winter Spirit Divine Garden began to tremble and crumble, as though heaven and earth were about to be destroyed.

At that moment, laughter became the only voice between heaven and earth.

Under Southfall’s wild laughter, even someone as powerful as Marvelous Speech Venerable could only grimly channel her divine power to shield herself from the piercing sound, lest she be shaken to death by his laughter.

Amid the wind and snow, Southfall stood proudly in the air, looking up at the firmament. His bearing was that of a god and a demon both, and he shouted in exhilaration, “This Emperor will undergo the Divine Sanctification Tribulation!”

...

The Winter Spirit conversation between the Divine Emperor Southfall and Marvelous Speech Venerable became known as one of the ten greatest secrets of the divine race.

No living being knew the content of their exchange, only that this conversation profoundly altered the course of the divine race and even the primordial world.

After the Winter Spirit conversation, the Divine Emperor Southfall departed from the Divine Court, and Marvelous Speech Venerable successfully took command of the authority of the divine race and the Divine Court, becoming the first supreme goddess in history.

—History of the God Clan: The Winter Spirit Conversation