Chapter 178 Chapter 178 "Help me."

The next day.

Lan Qi traveled in the royal carriage, with eight black unicorns with bared fangs and claws pulling the dark and wide chariot slowly along the royal capital's avenue.

The guards wearing heavy iron armor led the way, and the thirty-two city lords and most of the nobles followed behind the carriage with their heads bowed.

The team marched in a long and solemn manner. The heavy city gate opened and they headed towards the Holy Fire Altar of Mount Miduo, the sacred mountain of the Ye clan, located behind the royal capital.

…

Jiu Zhao completed the ceremony very well.

As a former goddess of the immortal race, rules and etiquette are ingrained in her bones.

On the huge bronze round altar that could accommodate dozens of people, the karmic fire symbolizing the underworld was suspended in mid-air. Jiu Zhao stood silently on the steps, holding her staff. The ancient karmic prayer that Lan Qi had taught her and recited no less than a hundred times came out of her mouth, and even the most conservative high priest could not find any mistakes.

Lan Qi stood on the right, and although he didn't look to the side, he was proud of her smooth and natural performance from the bottom of his heart.

The whole process lasted for an hour and a half.

At noon, Jiu Zhao watched calmly as the high priest ordered his men to throw several heads of defeated immortal generals, which had been preserved by secret methods, into the blazing fire as a way to report victory to heaven and earth. Then he and Lan Qi turned around and listened to the ceremonial officer announce the end of the worship ceremony.

At the bottom of the stairs, important officials and leaders stood at both ends.

After the ceremony, as usual, the monarch Lan Qi should go first.

It was a long time since the ceremonial officer finished speaking, but he still did not move.

Having been reminded by Zhu Yan in advance, Jiu Zhao knew that today's trip would not be so simple.

She stood quietly, her eyes focused on her nose, her nose focused on her heart, her head lowered. Suddenly, she heard a somewhat urgent voice from a distance:

"Your Majesty, when do you plan to have the future queen undergo the test of karmic fire?"

The owner of the voice was quite familiar. It was Yuling, the sister of the Eastern God King Zhaoyu who had not been seen for a long time.

The demons conquered Dongyuan, but Lan Qi still ordered Zhao Yu to take charge. He no longer had the title of God King, but became one of the thirty-two city lords.

A thousand years ago, under his arrangement, Yu Ling married the fifth city lord who came from the old tribe of Fenyehai.

Today, the brother and sister are in the limelight and are quite famous among the ministers.

Jiu Zhao was not surprised that Yu Ling, who was proud of her status and had a personal grudge against her, would jump out to oppose her.

What surprised her was Lan Qi's ambiguous attitude towards the test of karma fire.

She had already expressed her wishes yesterday, and Lan Qi looked closer to agreeing. However, he remained silent at the ceremony today, remaining silent in front of the important officials in the hall who were in urgent need of answers - as if he was waiting for someone to lose their patience and jump out.

If that is true.

So does the object that pops up meet his expectations?

Jiu Zhao glanced over and saw that Lan Qi had no expression on his face. Yu Ling's seemingly honest and bitter advice continued to reach his ears:

"Your Majesty, I dare not say who you will marry as your queen. However, the Immortal and Ye clans are sworn enemies. Even I, your servant, have undergone the tempering and purification of karmic fire before being truly accepted into the Burning Sea. Your Majesty and you share supreme power. If a woman with immortal blood were to take that position, it would be tantamount to betrayal. With war imminent, it would likely arouse public discontent."

The reason why Yu Ling spoke so frankly was not just because she was confident.

What's more, these words were what the ministers were thinking in their hearts, and the persuasion in the study of Jiwu Palace that day failed.

At this moment, before the sacred fire that symbolizes the ancestor of karma, he must give an explanation.

Lan Qi's expression remained indifferent. Without even glancing at Yu Ling, he said, "Jiu Zhaofang has just emerged from the Sunless Abyss. She's not in good health and needs careful nursing. Once she recovers, I'll have her undergo the Karmic Fire Purification. We still have some time before our wedding. Can't you wait even a moment?"

"I dare not."

Yu Ling knelt on the ground. "She is not of our race, so her heart must be different. Your Majesty was once a high and mighty fairy goddess, and she has always looked down on the Ye race. If even the ceremony of transformation into the Ye race is repeatedly delayed, it is hard for us to believe that she will not favor her own mother race if we meet in battle one day."

"Okay, Aling, His Majesty has his own considerations for everything he does.

"Whether you marry someone or not, it's all for the sake of Burning Sea's victory. Quickly apologize to His Majesty and leave."

The peacemaker with ulterior motives is a role that Zhao Yu is used to playing.

He seemed to be scolding Yu Ling, but in fact he was revealing the most important point.

Lan Qi married her not out of love, but simply out of exploitation.

…

How do they view her?

I thought she was still the naive girl who couldn't live without love.

She thought that Lan Qi rescued her, set up the Lianli Palace to hide her, expelled the provocative female officials, and personally accompanied her on night tours. He treated love as a lie and set a trap to trick her into willingly marrying him and devoting the last bit of her blood to him.

They didn't want her to have a good life.

Even living in fantasy is not okay.

Today, I must use the righteousness of the Ye clan to frame Lan Qi and force him to personally give the order to throw her into the karmic fire.

Disappoint her.

Tell her to know her identity.

Make her realize that there is no one in this world that she can truly rely on.

After realizing this, Jiu Zhao suddenly wanted to laugh.

"So I have always been like this in your hearts."

She muttered to herself in a very low voice.

"What?"

Lan Qi didn't hear clearly for a moment, but he saw her figure leaning towards him, like a little animal walking alone in the wind and snow, looking for shelter.

"This world is so vast, I have nowhere else to go, and I have never said that I don't want to transform into a karma clan.

“It’s just that I’ve been tempered by the fire of karma and have narrowly escaped death. I’m weak, and Lan Qi has taken pity on me, so he postponed it for a few days.

"As a subject, why are you so aggressive towards your Majesty?

"If you want me to complete the test, I will jump down now."

Jiu Zhao has never had the chance to act like a green tea girl and pretend to be pitiful in her life.

But seeing the sudden change in the expression of Yu Ling, who was more cunning, he knew that he had a good talent in this area.

She took advantage of Lan Qi's body to cover her and quietly held his hand.

Then he sprinted back a few steps, jumped up, and like a moth flying into a flame, allowed the surging cold flames to devour him.

…

The pervasive coldness was the first thing Jiu Zhao felt.

Inside the karmic fire, it seems like another space isolated from the world.

She tried to look around, but all she saw was a faint blue flame emitting fluorescent dots. She could neither hear nor see the outside world.

Attracted by the only light source, Jiu Zhao couldn't help but look at the fluorescent light attached with flames twice.

The next moment, fluorescent light suddenly gathered towards her, and pale skeletons without flesh and blood jumped out from it.

Resentment, demonic energy, immortal spirits... various powers emanated from the empty eye sockets of the skull.

Jiu Zhao realized later that this should be the offering thrown into the karmic fire during every worship ceremony in the past.

The defeated immortals, the rebellious demons, and perhaps even the humans who were abducted by them from the Yunsheng world.

The skeleton opened its mouth, and the extremely cold flames burned her clothes, drilling into every part of her skin like a colony of ants devouring her.

Jiu Zhao's whole body stiffened for a moment, and then unspeakable pain rushed into her every bone.

“Try to relax your body and don’t resist the power of the karmic fire.

"Let it circulate throughout your body. The faster you accept it, the sooner the cleansing will be over."

Lan Qi's predecessors' experience was still fresh in his mind. Jiu Zhao gritted his teeth and adapted for a moment. He found that perhaps his body had already become accustomed to the pain of thunder punishment during his time in Wu Ri Yuan. The karmic fire torture that all the demons were so afraid of was not as hard to endure as he had imagined.

Since the pain wasn't so severe that she lost consciousness, she was determined to complete the purpose of her trip.

She summoned a young man with a human face and a dragon body from her spiritual altar.

She looked at him earnestly and said, "Wu Zhu, I need your strength... help me."

"Ha, it's a similar place again."

The young man chuckled, "Back then, it was just you and me inside the Phoenix Sacred Tree. I really miss those days.

"To die beneath the peony flowers, even as a ghost, one can still be romantic."

"Stop talking nonsense here. If you say another word, I'll be burned to ashes."

Jiu Zhao's hand made a gesture to slap him, his fingertips piercing through the illusion, touching only nothingness, "Power, will you lend it to me?"

"Between you and me, why bother mentioning the word 'borrow'? What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine."

Seeing Jiu Zhao's serious tone, Wu Zhu put away his unruly smile, his jaw slightly tightened, his expression serious, with a hint of gentle nostalgia, "It's great. After all these years, I can finally hold you again."

After he finished speaking, he opened his arms and embraced Jiu Zhao in his arms.

A light symbolizing power seeped out from the two people's touching bodies.

At first it was like a small stream, but the flow gradually became more powerful and eventually swallowed each other completely.