Chapter 103 - Dilnaz's Reward

"Little Six?" Never in her massively long life had Dilnaz heard of such a silly name. A family nickname, perhaps? Not that it mattered. Dilnaz glanced at her "sword," former Commandant of the Imperial Guard, who showed the amnesiac man more reverence than he ever did Dilnaz or Agiri. Even a fool could see that the commandant knew precisely who they were dealing with, and put that person's status far above the Empyrean clan. Considering that the Armament clan existed to serve the Empyreans, such a reaction was more than problematic. 

Dilnaz also realized that she only knew what the sword allowed her to, and still ignored much of the Armament clan's true background. Her attention shifted back to Little Six, who glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. That golden hue captured Dilnaz's attention, but conjured an entirely different and loathsome picture in her mind. Her eyes narrowed, but convinced that, even at her best, she couldn't oppose this harmless youth, Dilnaz restrained herself. 

"If Emperors are not qualified to explore this place, who is? This is still Heaven," Dilnaz countered, but Little Six shook his head immediately. 

"True, the Emperor Realm doesn't have stages in the proper sense, but even among you guys, there's a hierarchy. How many Mandates you master determines your strength, yet even mysteries have their ladder. Thanks to the sword, you robbed the insight of several experts—received four extra mysteries at the profound enlightenment stage, and rushed them to Mandate level thanks to a Devil Stone. Four Mandates means a top tier Emperor. And if we add your original mystery, you got Five. 

You should have been pretty strong. But the shortcut you used made your foundation shallow. You can't display your Mandates' true strength and are too unstable to master your Devil Essence. At best, you're decent," Little Six gave a thorough appraisal. Dilnaz wasn't so self-imbued as to never imagine that experts above the Emperor-level existed, but to see someone speak of the Emperor-tier so casually still left a bitter taste in her mouth. But as she prepared to refute Little Six's words, a mental message from the commandant interrupted her. 

"Your Majesty, the First Emperor had the Mandate of Heaven, which made him invincible before all but the Serpent Emperor himself. But even if the two returned to life and stood here now, they'd kowtow without a second thought. One hand is too many fingers to count the people that dare misbehave in that man's presence. We're lucky that he is missing memories. If you want to leave this place alive, please restrain yourself," The commandant's pleading voice knocked Dilnaz back to reality. 

"I can hear you, you know. But I think I've always been a reasonable and tolerant man. Unless you owe me money, no need to be scared." With an instantaneous displacement, Little Six appeared before the two, still sitting crossed-legged. 

"Argh!" Dilnaz and the stoic commandant both leaped back, and terrified by Little Six's gentle smile, dared not step forward. "Scaredy-cats. But lady, you must be supremely ignorant or supremely confident to carry a direct descendant of a Preeminent House as your sword. Your bloodline is flawed too. So many problems. If someone doesn't step in, I'm not sure you can survive another century," Little Six said, and aimed one index at Dilnaz's forehead. A golden ray shot out, filling her mind with lost mnemonics. 

"This is an improved version of an ancient technique I learned by chance. I named it the Duality Severing Secret. It can solve all your problems, granted you're willing to pay the cost. Though, if you're not careful, or too greedy, it can easily become a nightmare. Consider it a 'Thank You for Trying" gift from yours truly. You're not strong enough to reach the end of this mausoleum and don't deserve the true reward. Try again after a few breakthroughs," Little Six explained, but as he prepared to send Dilnaz back whence she came, the Saint-Empress kowtowed, and in that bold and fearless voice of hers, exclaimed:

"Your Eminence, please take me as your disciple!"

Having not expected such an abrupt request, Little Six blinked for a moment, then gave Dilnaz the most memorable answer of her existence: "Eww…"

…

In the meantime, Harun and Jiyan enjoyed a moment of respite at the balcony of a watchtower, observing the city from a vantage point. Floating, luminous orbs of various shades brightened the districts, giving the night a mystical atmosphere. Relaxing in Harun's arms, Jiyan rested her head against his, and following a moment of tender silence, asked in a serious tone: "What do you plan to do after you win the war?" 

"Isn't that a tad bit early to ask? We have what, nine silver tokens? That's a far cry from 9,999," Harun replied. Gulseni and Sangar each had one silver token, which, added to the seven Harun received from the serpent lords, gave them a tiny total of nine. Though the mightiest sects probably controlled hundreds of tokens on average, the end-goal was still out of sight. 

"Moreover, I have a feeling that winning will only reveal more problems. After all, it seems to me that the Truth Scrying Grotto isn't dead-set on winning this war. If anything, they just give the other sects a push, letting them turn the oceans red, and make the world a slaughterhouse." 

"Macabre but true," Jiyan had to agree. 

"There is also the problem of who receives the Imperial Seal and the Mandate it contains." Harun added. It was only thanks to Jiyan and the system that Harun learned of the many troubles the Imperial Seal carried. In a nutshell, true Dao Emperors such as Heaven Warding and Agiri—who completed their Mandates without external forces—were immortals. Cosmic Tribulations couldn't claim their lives. 

However, once they seized the Mandate of Heaven, they lived on borrowed time, and after the ninth tribulation—perished without exception. Their souls then left for another place. Harun learned this from the system, and Jiyan confirmed it. This essentially meant that all those Emperor-level experts of the Holy Lands were competing for the right to become the invincible mortal of a few Cosmic Cycles. 

Needless to say, Harun had no interest in fusing with that type of time-ticking bomb, and needed someone to shoulder that for him. 

"But none of that matters now. I suppose that if everything went smoothly, and we didn't have to worry about Nakulas, Dream Seers and whatnot, I'd spend a thousand years...getting spoiled by you. Be careful though, I'm very high maintenance," Harun shamelessly replied.

"Just one thousand?" Jiyan frowned at the words. 

"Many thousands," Harun conceded, and lifted her chin for an impromptu smooch.

…

Later that night, Harun and Mehran got to less charming work. Weeping Soul ordered a complete retreat of all his spies across the Dark Stone city. Intercepting the order through one of his Golden Silkworms, Harun positioned his Desolate Corpse Guards at all exits, dressing them in Mehran's royal guard's cold iron armors to suppress the extreme heat emanating from them. 

None of the spies had reached the celestial level. All were common citizens seduced by the Soul Refining Hall's promises of endless wisdom and power. But while Harun had spotted some through the silkworms, he couldn't uproot the network in such a short time. Little did Weeping Soul expect that this move aimed at removing all traces of his sect's work from the Dark Stone City would instead expose all the pawns—the Desolate Corpses slaughtered 99%, and let the rest escape, as ordered by Harun.