The two sides retreated, and once again, they were at an impasse.
“Very good,” Zhou Li said. “Now, we have the advantage. There’s no need to bargain with you any longer. Kill them.”
To Cha Ming’s surprise, however, one of the princes hesitated.
“They’re too strong,” the fourth prince, the bearer of the Sea God Shell, said. “Even with these Sea God Artifacts. If we fight, we’ll lose many Haijing royals. This is not in the best interest of Haijing City.”
“Come now, brother, surely we can do something about these pests,” the seventh prince said.
“We do not serve Zhou Li. We serve Haijing City,” the fourth prince said, cutting him off. “You’d best remember that.”
Cha Ming raised an eyebrow at those words. He’d thought they were united behind Zhou Li, but it seemed things weren’t so simple. Rather than a solid alliance, it looked like the South and some Haijing royals were simply using each other.
Zhou Li rolled his eyes. “I knew you would say that. Well, then, let me try to reason with your leader.” He swung out with his sword.
Cha Ming blinked as he realized that it was headed toward the dais with the crown. It was fast, too fast for him to stop, and before he knew it, a rift had appeared. But it hadn’t cut space—it severed karma. Gong Shuren, who had been busy attuning to the crown, suddenly stood up. Her face was pale, and her eyes wide.
“What have you done?” she asked, trembling.
“I severed your karma with the crown,” Zhou Li said impassively. “You can no longer attune with it, and the other two artifacts have been claimed. Accept your fate.”
Gong Shuren, not daring to believe what she’d heard, reached out to the Sea God Crown, only to be rebuffed by it. “Impossible,” she said, sinking down to her knees. Before they even hit the floor, however, Zhou Li struck out again. This time, he slashed toward Cha Ming, who felt a jolting pain as his Space-Time Camera, which had been humming along without any issues, stopped feeding the space-time lock on the third prince.
“Relax,” Zhou Li said to Cha Ming. “I could never cut your karma with the camera itself. I just severed its karma with the picture it took. With this, you can no longer stop the prince. If you try, I’ll repeat the process. Besides…” The golden crown, which had been almost completely overtaken by the blue tide of bloodline energy, suddenly glowed blue. “He’s done attuning. You can’t stop him now even if you wanted to.”
The glow was blinding, and Cha Ming resisted it with all his strength. It soon faded, revealing the third prince, who picked up the crown and placed it on his head. The moment he did, all the Haijing royals in the room quivered. They dropped to the floor in prostration.
“I don’t suppose I can trouble you to help me kill them?” Zhou Li asked, pointing to Cha Ming and the rest.
The third prince raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see why I should. Haijing is neutral. We’ve simply engaged in a facilitating relationship between our two factions, nothing more.”
He looked to Gong Shuren, who was still kneeling in disbelief. “Moreover, they are friends with my sister. According to tradition, she is my future empress, the one with the purest bloodline. It would be wrong to antagonize her by killing her friends, no?”
Zhou Li sighed and shook his head. “What a bittersweet victory.”
A soft gray light enveloped the third prince and the others as they left the chamber. They then heard a chime in their heads announcing the name of the new Sea God Emperor. Anyone who wanted to leave the Sea God Trials could now do so. Despite this freedom, Cha Ming and his friends remained to console the weeping princess.
They’d lost. Again.
Chapter 27: Frustration
Breathe, Cha Ming thought, trying his best to calm his tense nerves. Breathe, he thought again as he struggled to hold back his frustration. As he did, the events over the past six years replayed in his mind. The endless cycle of failure after failure cut at the meager thread of determination he still possessed.
Huxian looked at him, uncertain of what to do. The fox’s friends knew even less; they avoided Cha Ming and Huxian by keeping themselves entertained in a corner of the large room. Most of the light in the room had already faded, and all that remained was the soft golden glow from the face of the large clock behind the three daises.
Don’t dwell on what happened. Think of a way forward, Cha Ming thought. But he couldn’t help but think back. Ever since crippling his cultivation, his path to advancement had been blocked off repeatedly. But this latest defeat ate away at him like nothing before, as it affected not just himself but many people he cared about. An alliance between Haijing and the South would mean millions if not billions of lives would be lost.
Sure, he’d achieved many things in the process. Becoming an elder-level figure in five professions was praiseworthy. He was even a grand elder in one of them. Creating the Nirvana Pill, if but for a moment before the heavens destroyed it, was nothing short of a miracle. He’d even created a transcendent talisman, something that should never have been possible for someone at his level. But despite these small successes, he’d still failed.
He’d failed in protecting the Nirvana Pill. Further, the runic replacement for it would not be completed before he died. He didn’t have enough time. To make matters worse, the single portion of Water Source Marrow on this plane had been destroyed by the same spiteful man that had caused his predicament in the first place. No, he wasn’t a man, but a devil. He had to be a devil, for no one else
