Chapter 1098
In a dark corner of Divine Moon Skycity was a man in a white robe, sitting on a platform with his daughter in his arms. He gently stroked her head as she counted the stars in the sky.
"There are so many. Is every one of them a sun, Daddy?" Little You asked.
"That's right," Bodhi answered.
"So our home, the Ninefold Hell, used to be one of those shining stars before it lost its nova source, right?"
"It wasn't a nova source, but a stellunar source. Our ancestors descended from the empyrean fiendgod race. Even though we weren't that strong, we were at least among the many others in the astralscape of order."
"Oh, I get it now!" She leaned into his chest and rubbed her eyes. "I'm a little tired."
"Then sleep. Sweet dreams."
"But I have so many more questions."
"Then ask them before you go to sleep."
"Okay! You said you would make your final move when you reached the Constellation stage. Are you there yet?"
"Almost. I'm only a hair's breadth away. Maybe I'll reach it tonight, tomorrow, or maybe in a few more days. Daddy will be completely different by then."
He pinched her cheek and looked at the city. "The divine moonrace thinks that my killings are overboard, but they don't know it's only the first act." His time hadn't truly come yet.
"We're still afraid that Li Tianming will expose our identities, right?"
"That's right. If our kin is gone, getting the stellunar source won't mean much."
"We wanted him dead this entire time, but we couldn't find the chance. Now he's far more powerful, and he's even using the imperial guide to control the divine moonrace. He'll be even harder to deal with now."
"Don't worry. As long as he has hope, he won't drag us down. I helped him buy some time today. When I make my breakthrough, I’ll kill him and Sovereign Xi both as soon as possible. After that, nobody in the Divine Moon Realm will be able to stop me. I understand fusion formations, and when the time comes, our race will finally be able to rise again after two hundred thousand years." His eyes were filled with hope and ambition.
"We have to end his life in the fastest and most cruel way possible to avenge Mommy and Big Brother." Little You's eyes were filled with boundless hate.
"That's right. I only held back to make him relax his guard and focus on the sovereign. Eventually, the opportunity to kill him will come for sure. When he's gone, the other billion specters will no longer have to worry. We can deal with Sovereign Xi after that."
"We must act really fast, right?"
"Yes. First, we can't let Orderia react. Second, we can't have the divine moonrace turn their attention to the Ninefold Hell. Once we destroy the Divine Moon Realm and transfer its stellunar source to Ninefold Hell, we can leave this place and the Flameyellow Continent. We’ll roam the realm of chaos and find our home there."
"Home?" She began tearing up. "Even if we find it, Mommy and Big Brother are gone."
"They'll be with us the whole way, Little You." He gave her a deep hug.
"Little You, you are the most important thing in my life, more than anything else. I’ll make the best environment for you to live and grow in." Those didn't sound like the words of a murderous demon.
"Daddy, it's all good now. I'm back with you, right? Even though Li Tianming plotted against us and caused us to harbor this grudge, he didn't treat me badly. He even returned me to you as he promised he would," she said earnestly.
"Truly a just man. I'll leave his corpse in one piece when the time comes." He would never forget the sight of the woman he loved dead at the doors of his palace. In that sense, he was no different from Tianming. They were parallel to each other, both of them sides of the same coin, tethered to both sides of the same continent. But fate wouldn’t allow them to coexist with each other.
"Sometimes justice is a fool's errand." A hint of deviousness flashed across Bodhi's eyes. He didn't think that Tianming would return his weakness to him just like that. "Is he a fool?"
Little You shook her head as she recalled Tianming and the twenty thousand divine moonrace corpses falling like rain. She would never think of someone like that as just. "Daddy, I want to sleep now. Sing me a lullaby," she said, stretching lazily.
"Alright, I'll do just that," he said as he delightedly pinched her nose. Eventually, she slowly began to doze off.
All of a sudden, she opened her eyes wide like she was drowning and clutched at Bodhi's clothes. Her face suddenly turned pale as she began sweating. "Daddy... Daddy...."
Her voice seemed faint as her whole body shook. Her eyes even rolled back and her lips were turning purple at a rapid pace. She shriveled up in his embrace and breathed laboriously.
"Little You, what's going on?" Bodhi began panicking as his eyes turned bloodshot.
But soon, Little You returned to normal. She clutched her chest and sobbed, "It hurts... inside...."
"How could this be?" He couldn't find any sign of injury.
"It hurt like that time," she said in a panicked voice.
"When?"
"When that big sister captured me...."
"The one by Li Tianming's side?" Bodhi began to feel his killing intent rising.
"I think she... placed something in my body...."
Bodhi comforted her and stood up. "I knew he wouldn't let you go so easily. Little You, let's go."
"Where to?"
"The compound we were at during the day. This is a signal. Looks like they failed.”
......
The power of the stellunar source surged everywhere, even in the normal residential compound. When Bodhi pushed open the door and entered, he didn't see Tianming, but a girl in a light blue dress standing in a corner. Her eyes seemed empty, like the most ancient of abysses. It radiated perpetual solace. Those eyes looked like they had seen countless eras before the time of humans.
"Where's Li Tianming?" Bodhi asked.
"Sovereign Xi captured him after she killed the imperial guide," Feiling said.
"She's that cold? Impressive." He brought Little You to her and looked at her intently. "Is this the curse you cast?"
"Yes."
"Undo the curse you cast or you're dead."