1254 A Task
"Godkiller?"
Alex was surprised, but not as much as he should have been since he didn't know much about the being. Still, to have a name like Godkiller, he couldn't be a normal person.
Scarlet was the one truly shocked. "Wait, no. That can't be," she said. "Godkiller is supposed to have died already. He died in the Sky God's palace, didn't he?"
"Master faked his death to leave behind that life of his," Bai Jingshen said. "He was done with what he had wanted to do here and was only going to live the rest of his life in peace before it was time for him to leave."
"But, I suppose he failed in that aspect," Bai Jingshen chuckled a bit. "You see there was something I was quite curious about after I came back."
"I had been gone for over 5 thousand years and my wife had left this place vacant not long after that. Yet, not a single one dared send someone to check on this place to see what was going on."
"I only found out after I had my audience with the ancestors of my clan that the higher-ups all knew that my master had faked his death. They were simply too scared to not go along with it."
"It seemed they had also found out through some seers that he had arrived in this world too, but never left anywhere else," Bai Jingshen said. "So, they believed that it was him who killed me. That was why no one was sent to check on my absence or take revenge for my death."
"That is also why no one from any immortal realms dares come to this place to look for the senior. It's not because they don't know he's here. There are simply too many seers out there for him to hide from them. It's because to them, Godkiller is staying in this realm, and offending him with their arrival is the last thing any of them want to do."
"So, despite his wish to go back into the Immortal realms, the senior is in fact the safest in this world."
Alex thought he understood what was going on, but the information was still a bit too out of nowhere to get it all.
Scarlet, however, seemed to understand everything.
"No wonder," she thought. "Immortals used to come back from time to time, but I hear no one has come in the past 5 thousand years. It must be because of that too."
"Heh, they nearly didn't let me come back either," Bai Jingshen said. "I had to convince them that I was his disciple."
"How did you do it?" Scarlet asked.
"Simple. I defeated them in a battle," Bai Jingshen said.
"I see," Scarlet said blankly. She thought for a bit and wondered if she could still be angry. The one that had nearly killed them was Godkiller. She had got to meet the one and only Godkiller.
"How long do you think it will take you to ascend to the Immortal realm again?" Bai Jingshen asked. "You're quite weak right now."
"I'll be fine," Scarlet said. "There's no one stronger than me in my continent, so I'm fine."
"I see," Bai Jingshen said. "Well, that's good, but you should still speed up your cultivation as much as you can. Focus only on it for the next few years."
"Okay," Scarlet said with a weird expression.
"The same goes for you too," he said, turning to Alex. "No, it goes doubly for you. Your cultivation base is very weak right now for what you will need to do soon."
"What I will need to do?" Alex asked. "What will I need to do?"
"I have a task for you, and I want it done as soon as you can," Bai Jingshen said.
"He's the King of the Southern Continent. He won't work for you," Scarlet said. "If you want something done by him, you have to ask me first."
"Huh?" Bai Jingshen's eyes widened in surprise. "You're the King of the Southern Continent?"
"Yes, senior," Alex said.
"I see, no wonder you two were together," he said. "How did that happen, Nuanhuo?"
"I bonded with him shortly after I was reborn," she said. "Since I didn't want the burden of ruling alone, I made him a king so I could laze around."
"You bonded with him and didn't cancel the bond?" Bai Jingshen asked with a smile. "Then you must have sensed it too."
Scarlet hesitated a bit. He had been trying to not go fully into detail, but he was simply too good.
"Yes, I did," she said.
"Did you find out what it was?" he asked.
"He has a lesser body of the god that blessed us four heavenly beasts," she said with a sigh.
Bai Jingshen's eyes went wide in happiness. "I knew it," he said gleefully. "I'm now all but certain that you really are the one that my master told me about. Only you will be the person who can find out the truth of this world."
"The one Godkiller is waiting for?" Scarlet asked in surprise. "What does that mean?"
"I can't tell you, I'm afraid," Bai Jingshen said. "Master put some weird bind on me forbidding me from ever telling anyone anything about what I know of the truth. I only know that my master is waiting for someone who will understand the truth of this world, and I non believe that it is you."
Alex was taken aback a bit. The Godkiller was waiting for him? Why? What was the truth?
"How are you certain?" Scarlet asked.
"Senior Hei Yun told me before we left that even though I do not want any responsibility, the greatest one will be thrust upon me," Bai Jingshen said. "I never truly understood what he meant that day, but after coming back to this world and understanding what I must do, I now believe I understand."
"My responsibility is to train him and help him grow," Bai Jingshen said, gesturing to Alex. "That was part of the reason why I didn't immediately kill him when I first met him."
"K-kill me?" Alex was taken aback. "Why?"
"Why?" Bai Jingshen got angry. "I come back to this world after going for all of 2 days, only to find out that the granddaughter I only saw as an infant was dead, my great-grandchild was stolen away, and my woman left half dead in front of my own palace."
"Do you think I wouldn't be right to kill you?" Bai Jingshen asked.
Alex gulped a bit. There wasn't anything he could say to refute that.
"I only stopped because I saw how happy Pearl was with you. And… I remembered what my master told me after meeting you, so instead of killing you, I tested you a bit. You only live today because you survived my test back then," Bai Jingshen said.
"I see. I'm sorry senior, for everything that happened back then. I was worried everyone was going to send Pearl to his death by forcing him to go through the ritual and had to take him away."
"As for lady Ren, that was… I couldn't help her even if I wanted to. The Heavenly Judgment is not something I can stop," Alex said. "As for Pearl's mother, I only put her out of her misery at her request. I can't be said to be the one that killed her. Her killers—"
"Her killers are in the Eastern Continent, I know," Bai Jingshen said. "That's why I wanted you to find them. That was the task I was going to give you."
"Find her killers?" Alex asked. "Will I even be able to?"
"Isn't it obvious who her killers are?" Bai Jingshen asked with disdain on his face. "It's someone affiliated with the royal family of the Eastern Continent. The sword that had stabbed my Granddaughter has the insignia of the Azure Imperium. You just need to figure out who the sword belongs to."
Alex nodded. "I see, that does make sense," he thought. "But may I ask why you are giving me this task instead of doing it yourself? As you said, I'm weak right now, so you should be much faster at doing it all by yourself."
"I would if I could," Bai Jingshen said in an annoyed manner. "But I can't, that's why I am asking you to do it."
"You can't?" Alex asked with a surprised look. "Oh, right. I forgot you guys can't kill any humans."
"Oh I can kill them," Bai Jingshen said. "Our oaths have exceptions too where we can kill people. We were sent here to maintain peace in this land, which sometimes requires us to take lives as well."
"Then?" Alex got confused.
"It's not that I can't kill them, it's that I can't even reach them in the first place," Bai Jingshen said.
"What are you talking about?" Even Scarlet was confused by what she was hearing. "Just go and find the killers. What's so hard about that?"
Bai Jingshen turned toward her and said, "So Xuan Luhei and the senior aren't aware of this either, are they?" he asked.
"Aware of what?" Scarlet asked.
"It's understandable, even I only recently because confident that my first assessment was correct," he said.
"What are you talking about?" Scarlet asked angrily.
"I can't go to the Eastern Continent," he said. "Neither can you or the tortoise. Our oaths won't let us anymore."
"What are you—" Scarlet paused when she realized what he was talking about. Even Alex had an inkling of what might have happened.
"That's right," he said. "The ruler of the Eastern Continent, the Azure Dragon Qing Tianchui, is dead."
