Chapter 183: Ereshkigal Opens the Underworld of Mount Li
To Rowe, a face like Gudako's carried an awkward kind of gravity.
Not because it belonged to some individual within the game, or even because it symbolized the game itself.
It meant something worse and better than that.
It meant countless players. Countless people who loved a world named after the moon.
Among them, naturally, had been Rowe, before his Transmigration. And also the Rowe that stood here now as Azure Heaven.
The past him was him.
The present him was still him.
Past and present aligned cleanly, like a proof that refused to break.
Of course, those emotions only flashed for a moment. Rowe remembered the long past, but he did not drown in it. It was history, and history was not a chain.
His control over himself was already too precise for nostalgia to become a weakness.
So his focus shifted, immediately, to what actually mattered.
The Stone Monkey before him had been born from the Eastern Sea.
There was no doubt what she was.
Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.
And Rowe, at this moment, was the Heavenly Emperor.
Which meant there was an obvious question.
Then.
"Do you want to hit me?"
The havoc in the Heavenly Palace was a myth that almost demanded to happen. If he was the Heavenly Emperor, was he destined to get beaten?
Or should he simply beat her first and end the legend before it started?
"Huh? Why would I hit you?" The red haired girl blinked, scratching at her hair, genuinely confused. "This is our first time meeting."
The Stone Monkey born through possession was clearly not as rampant as the original.
Her temperament was more restrained, more contained.
Rowe nodded as if he had discovered a truth about the universe.
"Indeed."
Then he added, with equal sincerity.
"And you cannot beat me."
The gap was absurd. Rowe could stand still and exhale and the newly born Great Sage would be erased.
"Tsk."
The monkey girl bared her fangs.
Restrained or not, she was still a monkey.
Rowe did not press her.
Instead, he looked down at the figure hiding behind him.
"As for this one, she has shown me kindness. How about we let her go?"
Wuzhiqi clutched his sleeve like it was a lifeline, eyes pleading.
Consort Yu scoffed.
Wuzhiqi flushed. Being mocked by an old acquaintance stung. But facing the Stone Monkey, she did not dare move.
The newly born Stone Monkey was not actually powerful yet. Born with nine apertures and a half immortal body, yes, but compared to Rowe, she was nothing. Compared even to Consort Yu, now a god king level Emperor, or to Wuzhiqi, a seasoned demon saint, she was still inferior.
Wuzhiqi feared her anyway.
Because the Stone Monkey was the manifestation of the main existence tied to the Eastern Sea divine stone.
Wuzhiqi was only a fragment.
A trunk and branch relationship far more absolute than any elemental opposition.
Of course, Wuzhiqi was not helpless. With the disparity in experience and standing, even as a fragment she was not truly incapable of fighting.
What she feared was the figure behind the Stone Monkey.
"I did not plan to do anything to her," the monkey girl said, floating in the air as if suspended in water. Her legs swayed up and down, tail wagging with a soft, furry swish. "I just thought she was too foolish. Walking around like that ruins my reputation."
She lifted her chin.
"Besides, Sister of Mount Li told me not to take her name. Just scare her a little."
"If it were not for your Sister of Mount Li, how could I be bullied like this?" Wuzhiqi blurted before she could stop herself.
"Is that so?" The monkey girl grinned. "Then do you want to try? Hehehe. I will go easy on you, okay?"
Wuzhiqi shrank back instantly.
Rowe's gaze lifted to the monkey girl.
"Mount Li's goddess, is it?"
The monkey girl put her hands on her hips and hummed.
"Sister of Mount Li is the most beautiful goddess in the world. She awakened me with her warm power."
Rowe knew the name.
Mount Li lay within Qin. A place of tomb clusters. A place where death condensed.
And also a place where the first shadow of morning appeared when the sun rose and fell.
In Qin belief, it was an Earth Mother, paired against Heaven.
The problem was simple.
That goddess should not exist.
There was a vacant seat, but no deity who met the standard to occupy it.
The Qin state was founded late. By then, the Age of Gods had already ended, and the immortals and gods had departed. No one would respond to Qin faith and take that position.
So Rowe was surprised.
Consort Yu, on the other hand, became vigilant immediately.
"Mount Li's goddess," she repeated, tone too calm. "Who is that?"
Rowe spread his hands.
"Do not know. Not familiar."
"Really, Heavenly Emperor?" Consort Yu leaned in. Her vermilion lips parted slightly, breath warm against his face. Now that she had stopped restraining her nature, her actions had become far more direct.
Rowe sighed.
"After I entered the Divine Land, were you not with me most of the time? What Mount Li goddess could I possibly know? Besides, Mount Li is in Guanzhong. That is within your western domain. You know there is no goddess there."
Consort Yu paused, then smiled as if allowing him to live.
"That seems right."
She tapped his chest lightly.
"Fine. I will let you off this time."
"You let me off," Rowe said, "but I do not intend to let you off."
Before she could step away, he pressed her head down, pulled her close, and kissed her.
Consort Yu stiffened.
"Mmph?"
Then she relaxed. She did not resist. Her eyes narrowed slightly, savoring it.
It might have been the first time Rowe had shown affection first.
Consort Yu looked very pleased with that fact.
Rowe also meant it as a statement.
He would not abandon her.
Human, god, immortal, saint. In the end, all of them sought peace of mind.
When they separated, her lips glistened slightly. Consort Yu exhaled, cheeks warm.
Wuzhiqi stared, dumbfounded.
The Stone Monkey scratched her head, not understanding what they had just done.
The Stone Monkey was born from a naturally formed divine stone. At birth, the planet had poured knowledge into her. She was not a pure star spirit like Consort Yu, but something closer to the planet itself, a semi innate existence.
Yet the planet had no emotion.
So she did not understand human affairs.
She did understand the conversation though, and her brows snapped down.
"Sister of Mount Li is not some fake goddess."
She was angry.
"I do not care if you are Heavenly Emperor or Heavenly Empress. Sister of Mount Li cannot be insulted."
She bared her teeth. Golden eyes lit. Red hair scattered into disarray.
If not for the possessed body she wore, she might have looked genuinely fierce.
As it was, the result was more like adorable outrage.
Rowe kept his expression steady.
"I did not mean to insult her. If what I said offended you, I apologize personally."
His voice remained even.
"However, it is also a fact that Mount Li has no goddess."
The monkey girl tried to keep being angry, but the apology jammed in her throat. The indignation had nowhere to go, and it left her looking uncomfortable instead.
Wuzhiqi also did not understand. She had seen the so called Mount Li goddess, and her strength had been real, at least stronger than Wuzhiqi.
But the Heavenly Emperor's words carried weight.
Could it be that was not truly Mount Li's goddess?
Rowe continued, calm as ever.
"The simplest way to resolve this is for you to take us to meet your Sister of Mount Li."
He tapped the corner of his own eye.
"Whether she is or is not, it will be obvious at a glance."
That was the real intent.
The instant the monkey girl mentioned Mount Li's goddess, Rowe had activated the Eye of Taiyi. The chaos core, curled atop Pan in the highest point of the thirty six heavens, scanned the Divine Land.
It found nothing.
It perceived nothing.
That alone was abnormal.
The Mount Li goddess might be a borrowed title, but the sister the Stone Monkey spoke of definitely existed.
If Heaven could not seize her existence at a glance, then she was not native to this land in the ordinary sense. Her nature had to be special.
An underworld deity, perhaps, or something intimately tied to human life and death, concealed deep within Human Order where even Heaven's sight could be resisted.
Rowe wanted to see her directly.
The monkey girl puffed her cheeks, golden eyes narrowing.
"Sister of Mount Li went to the Divine Land."
"She borrowed a fragment from the stone that birthed me. She said she was going to retrieve her own things."
"What things?"
"I do not know. She did not say."
Consort Yu suddenly looked west.
Wuzhiqi followed, gaze traveling along the surging path of the Wei River, toward the former Qin lands.
Rowe's brows lifted.
In the direction they stared, a ray of light descended like the first rise of sun, striking a towering mountain peak.
On that mountain were countless graves.
Where nobles slept eternally.
Where commoners rested.
A burial ground for kings and a monument for mortals.
Mount Li.
The ancestral mountain of Qin.
Under that sunlight, the graves began to glow.
Ethereal blue flames ignited among them, spreading like a galaxy turned inside out.
Someone ascended.
A new god was being born.
Golden hair shimmered in the light.
A young girl draped in a red shawl stood above the graves, staring down at the mountain beneath her feet.
Ereshkigal.
Having stepped onto the Divine Land using the Eastern Sea divine stone, she felt a fierce resonance with this place.
Not only because the mountain resembled the environment of the underworld she once ruled, but because the seat here was closely linked to Rowe.
"This world is very special," Ereshkigal murmured, fingers brushing through the air as if tasting the Mystery.
The Age of Gods had ended.
Yet it continued in another shape.
High above, deep within Human Order, a colossal vessel stood between heaven and earth, vast enough to feel like a second sky.
Within it, she sensed countless powerful divinities, countless forces resonating with the planet itself.
And above them all, she sensed Rowe.
His position was connected to the mountain she stood on.
With that connection.
"I will definitely find you," Ereshkigal said, smiling.
This place did not reject her.
It answered her.
So she acted.
Above Mount Li, faint blue flame flickered.
Ereshkigal waved her hand and sank into the earth.
The leylines of Mount Li roared.
Under her authority, an Underworld began to manifest.
Not an invasion.
Not an occupation.
A foreign god arriving in a new land inevitably underwent assimilation.
Mount Li was a gathering place for the dead.
So the goddess of the underworld became the Mistress of Mount Li's underworld.
Ereshkigal embedded herself into the land.
Her given name remained. Her origin remained.
But now she anchored her existence into the Divine Land, following a fate that welcomed her.
It was not merely power.
It was Mystery moving upstream through time, pushing the traces of her existence into the past.
Of course, it had limits.
Even Ereshkigal could not force herself too far in a land where there were god kings and more than a few primordials.
She advanced only about a thousand years.
And history adjusted.
"The true name of Mount Li's goddess is Ai. After Ru Ai, a minister who helped Emperor Shaokang of Xia revive the dynasty, she attained enlightenment on Mount Li during the Shang era, manifested myriad wonders, and became a Mother Goddess."
"She was joined in marriage with Qin's ancestor, the manifestation of Azure Heaven."
Records of Qin.
Within Xianyang Palace, in the imperial library, those lines appeared on bamboo slips that recorded Qin history.
The people of Qin never noticed.
Only in the imperial palace, the First Emperor looked up at the sky, young face tightening into thought as his beard grew in and his presence became heavier with time.
Why does everyone want to be my ancestor?
He huffed.
"Once I build that colossal thing, I will settle accounts with all of you."
For Ying Zheng, nothing in the world surpassed one joy.
Building a mecha.
"What is the progress?" he asked without looking away from the sky.
Zhao Gao bowed and answered.
"We still have no clue."
He hesitated, then added, carefully.
"However, a young man arrived recently from the Eastern Sea. He wears azure wings, like an ancient qi refiner who has ascended."
"He claims he can help the Emperor forge it."
The First Emperor laughed, delighted.
"Excellent."
Azure Heaven.
Azure Heaven.
Ereshkigal opened her ruby like eyes.
Her lips curved.
"Rowe. I found you."
Following the connection between Qin Heaven and Qin Earth, she finally pinpointed him.
Then her expression shifted.
"The Eastern Sea?"
She blinked, astonished.
Back above the Eastern Sea, the monkey girl crossed her arms and lifted her chin smugly.
"I told you she really is Mount Li's goddess. You did not believe me."
Wuzhiqi stared in shock.
Consort Yu's posture tightened, alert.
Rowe, however, was momentarily stunned.
Ereshkigal?
She had been in the primordial High Heaven.
How was she here?
And she had become Mount Li's goddess?
.....
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