About 1 week ago, immediately after the cultists had summoned the bunny-girl:
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High on the tallest mountain of the Nine Heavens Sect, an old white-haired daoist dressed in white-robes which was sporting a rather large fu-manchu moustache along with a menacing pointy beard suddenly opened his eyes, as something had disturbed his meditation.
"DISCIPLES! COME IN HERE QUICKLY! I DON'T CARE WHICH ONE OF YOU IS ON WATCH DUTY TODAY, BUT SOMEBODY GET DOWN HERE IMMEDIATELY!" The old daoist yelled.
"Yes Sect Master, what’s wrong?" A youth came rushing in.
"Something has shaken the stillness of the Heavenly Pond. See how the fallen peach-blossom petals swirl around each other, and then that huge catfish keeps bursting to the surface of the pond while trying to swallow them? That's a horribly bad Omen! When such a thing happens in the Everstill Heavenly Pond, it means something really bad has just occured! Go send an emergency message to all of the other Big Sects, and start preparing my Flying Boat. One of the Old Evils of the World is stirring up again, so the Ancient Covenant between the Large Sects and the Empires beckons us to take action once more. There are troubled times ahead, child!"
"Yes, Sect Master! We will go take care of the arrangements immediately!"
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Cinderspring Sect
The earth shook, sending rocks from the ceiling of his own private lava-chamber tumbling down into the lava pool below, rattling the old Sect Master from his slumber. He was getting too old for these sorts of annoying disturbances, he thought to himself. Unfortunately, the moment when he gazed into the lava pool below and noticed that the fallen rocks had formed a glowing-rock shape of a rabbit’s head, he immediately jumped up, and went to have a talk with the other Sect Masters. This was a sign that something horribly bad was about to occur.
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Forges of Bamm Sect
He felt it when the smithing hammer he was currently using cracked upon striking the blade that he was shaping. A Bad Omen indeed! He had not broken a smithing hammer in a couple of hundred years, not with his passive skills! This was something else altogether! Something very bad, but he did not know what yet. The Forge-Master immediately rushed out of his private quarters to alert the rest of the Sect Elders of the impending danger, while telling the younger disciples to get ready for a long trip.
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Philosopher's Pill Sect
The Pill Forge shook in front of him, as he struggled to stabilize the reaction within the cauldron before it blew up. After suppressing the volatile ingredients within with his own Qi, the batch did manage to finish in the end, but the outcome had been rather catastrophic, as all of the pills had all come out low-quality, and they all possessed something that resembled the shadow of a rabbit-head imprinted upon them. The old Alchemist Sect-Master immediately knew that something very wrong had happened somewhere across the world, since he had not produced a low-level pill batch in a few hundred years, and those rabbit shadows looked rather ominous.
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Black Hand Sect
The dark cloaked man had remained invisible on top of the house that belonged to his target for the last two days, just watching. The Noble that he was supposed to kill today was playing in the backyard of the mansion with his grandson, and they were tossing a leather ball around while having fun. He absolutely hated these sorts of jobs, especially when it came to traumatising a young child, but it had been specified within the contract, which unfortunately had been already paid for. Just as he was drawing his bow to unleash his arrow, the bow-string suddenly snapped, immediately cancelling the fatal shot. A shiver of sheer terror then ran across the hidden assassin’s back, like death was staring him in the eyes from all over, prompting him to immediately abandon the job. He had not sensed such a dreadful feeling in hundreds of years now. Something was very, very wrong.
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Sect of the Sun
The old Head Monk was cleaning up the statue of the 26th Buddha, when the entire face of the statue suddenly cracked, causing all of the plaster from which the statue had been constructed to fall down onto the floor and leave a residue which looked strangely similar to the face of a rabbit. An ominous feeling then penetrated the soul of the Monk, as he began to be assaulted by many visions of his Buddhist brethren being slaughtered and sacrificed under the sharpened bloody blades of laughing madmen somewhere within the borders of the three Empires, and then flashes of a bloodied rabbit-face which seemed to want to devour the whole world.
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Silverlake Sect
A large amount of bubbles suddenly rushed to the surface of the lake, carrying along with them a rather large amount of red clay, as they left on the surface of the water something which resembled the shape of a bloodied rabbit head. The rather sparsely-dressed fairy-maiden that had been tending to some nearby spirit-stone columns while bathing inside of the lake’s water immediately rushed into action, and then used her water purification techniques to clear away the red clay before it could pollute the sensitive manaxite columns and change their alignment to Earth Qi, but she had also gotten the message and had felt the unease. Evil walked the earth again.
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Floating Mountains of Tzun Sect
The sect master was letting himself be swept-up by the winds while abusing his own [Light As A Feather] skill. Making himself weigh almost nothing, the Sect Master simply loved to surf on the wind currents, and let himself be carried away in whichever direction they chose to go. Unfortunately, just as he was enjoying his wind ride, a sudden gust of strong winds violently blew him towards the ground, and then forcibly tossed him into a patch of trees.
After crashing down through a couple of oaks and poplars, the Sect Master finally managed to regain his balance and stop his own erratic movements, only to notice that the branches of the trees he has just sheared in his fall now seemed to have arranged themselves into the comical picture of a huge rabbit's head with an evil grin upon its face. He had not taken a tumble like that for a few hundred years, so this must certainly be some sort of horrible Omen!
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Heaven-Piercing Nail
The middle aged man had remained balanced on his left leg on top of an earth-spike for the last 4 days without even flinching a single muscle. Another 40 more days of this, and then he would be able to switch to the other leg, he thought to himself right before the earth shook, and an avalanche of rocks fell from the mountainside right over him, knocking him down from his earth-spike. This couldn't be anything good! He had not lost his balance in such an embarrassing way in over three hundred years! Immediately after getting back on his feet, the Sect Master froze, as he spotted the four round rocks of precisely the exact size which had landed on the cardinal points right beside him. Death! A Bad Sign indeed!
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>>One day later...
The imperial missive reached the Ming Emperor's hands just as he was scolding his two eldest sons for having tried to kill each other once again. Ever since his youngest had died recently, it was like the entire family had gone crazy. Reading with trembling hands the summon which had been issued to the entire family by the Heavenly Progenitor, the Emperor of the Ming dynasty immediately shut the two Princes up, as he cut their monetary allowance for the entire following year without any mercy and told them to get prepared for the Grand Meeting of the Sects, as an Ancient Evil had seemingly been released upon the world once again, with a high probability of it being inside the borders of his own Empire. Oh, Heavens, grant the Ming Dynasty mercy, why did this thing have to happen during his reign? Stuff like this always ended up in tragedy one way or another!
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
>>
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The Forbidden City of the three Empires had a different location compared to its Earth-counterpart, which is in the middle of Beijing in the upper right corner in the country of China.
The Forbidden City's place on the Pangerran map was exactly where all of the three Empires intersected, and if we were to consider each of the Empires as one of the leaves of a trefoil clover, then the Forbidden City was exactly at the center of the clover, where the stem met the leaves.
It was also located in a mountainous area, because its most pertinent feature was that of being an “impregnable stronghold” perched up on a high-elevation flat-plateau surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, which prevented any wannabe invading army from directly reaching to the top unless they could fly somehow.
Instead of being a seat of power where the Emperors resided, the Old Forbidden City's main function was that of a retreat/getaway/backup location for all of the majors Sects and the three Empires when something nasty showed up, like for example, a recently released Ancient Evil.
About three days after all of the Big Sects had sounded the alarm, most of the Royal Houses of the three Empires, alongside with all of the Sect Heads and their direct disciples had already gathered inside the Forbidden Palace of the Old City, as most of the decorum and festivities for such a Grand Gathering had been kept to a minimum if not outright ignored, since this was an emergency that nobody had planned for, and nobody was really in the mood for that sort of stuff.
When all of the guests had arrived, the entire place still stank of lamp-oil, as it was obvious that all of the wooden frames had been recently painted with the stuff, to rejuvenate the material's surface. It was a common practice, a maintenance that was performed on the wood at regular intervals over the years, so none of the guests had felt that anything was wrong.
If anything, it looked like the organisers had paid attention to every detail, including the current state of the Forbidden Palace, which looked absolutely spotless, with all of the decorations and floors having been polished to a mirror-shine.
The Qin Empire, which was currently in its third year of “maintenance duty” for the city, a task which had been passed from one Empire to another every 5 years in a cycle, had seemed to spare no expenses when it had come down to the quality of this Gathering, as all of the servants and the services provided had turned out to be of an A+ quality, which had helped take some of the edge away from the panicked influx of guests.
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Of course, the entire lamp-oil treatment of the wood had been performed with the specific purpose to mask the smell which had been continuously emanating into the local atmosphere from the hundreds of tonnes of petroleum-oil barrels and similar volatile substances, like refined alcohol, that Prince Hongmu had been secretly storing beneath the entire Forbidden Palace over the last few months, as the containers were poised to give all of the guests an “explosive surprise” of immeasurable proportions.
About one mile away from the Forbidden Palace, behind a sturdy rock formation, Prince Hongmu was currently consulting with Ifritt.
"Why are we using these white and weirdly-moustachioed smiling masks anyway? They look creepy!" Price Hongmu asked Ifritt while frowning at the strange pointy mask that he had been given.
"Don’t complain. It took me a long time to recover these from where I last left them. Inspect one first before commenting."
"[Appraisal]. Oh...Huh...I see now…"
Fuy Gawkes Mask, [Legendary]
Description:
While worn, the item creates an aura around the user that increases the damage of any explosive effects within 1 mile radius by 1%. It also adds a 1% chance that some of the explosions might also convert into fireworks.
Created by [AN-ONI-MUZE] for another Blessed Child, this item has almost been forgotten by the passage of time.
"You should prepare yourself, Master, because even if we are a mile away from the target, this will still feel like the End Of The World. Use any sort of protective items that you have at hand, since you will most certainly need them if you don't want to wind up deaf or blind."
"Alright, I am ready!" The Prince activated a few of his royal defensive treasures.
"Ok...then do the honours." Ifritt urged the young Prince.
*Sizzle*Woosh*
It took about 5 whole minutes before the Spark of Fire finally reached beneath the Forbidden Palace and then ignited the volatiles that had been stored beneath.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*
The wait had felt rather anti-climatic, but when the whole thing had finally exploded, it had knocked-down Prince Hongmu HARD on his ass, as the explosion had vaporized absolutely everything at the epicentre of the blast, and had turned the entire Forbidden Palace into nothing more than cinders and wooden toothpicks while also flattening all of the other buildings in the proximity for almost 50 miles in every direction.
Immediately after the explosion ended though, the Earthmother's Blessings began to yell notifications into Prince Hongmu’s mind, confirming that their plan had indeed succeeded.
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Heavenly-Crane
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Iron-Heart
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Night-Bump
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Clear-Rain
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Pebbles
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Ang
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Hori
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Om
System: Congratulations, you have slain Sect Master Shuming
System: Congratulations, you have slain Emperor Ming Di Huang
System: Congratulations, you have slain Emperor Han Tei Dugu
System: Congratulations, you have slain Emperor Qin Quan Sozen
System: Congratulations, you have slain Crown Prince Ming Mao-Jie
System: Congratulations, you have slain Crown Prince Han Delan
System: Congratulations, you have slain Crown Prince Qin Yazhu
System: Congratulations, you have slain Prince Ming Lating
System: Congratulations, you have slain Prince Han Yahui
System: Congratulations, you have slain Prince Qin Zhong
⊞ Tap here for 5437 more targets.
System: You have leveled up X30
System: You have earned the achievements [The Emperor Is Dead, Long Live The Emperor], [True Pyromaniac], [Arsonist], [Firestarter], [Sect-Master Slayer], [Emperor Slayer], [Prince Slayer], [Patricide], [Fratricide], [He Who Laughs Last], [Fuy Gawkes], [Are Those People Fireworks?], [Dances-With-Demons], [Victorious Schemer], [Revolutionary], [Destroyer Of The Forbidden City], [Mass Murderer], [B For Blast], [Usurper]
⊞ Tap here for 54 more achievements.
"Ahahahaha! Great! Superb! Stupendous! So many levels in one go!"
Sure enough, the Prince had immediately jumped from level 35 to 65 in a single go, breaking away from the supposed “shackles of mortality”.
When the Fire Demon had proposed the plan, the Prince had not been very sure about the whole thing, and it had cost him a very large fortune to procure all of those barrels of oil and other volatiles, then install that Anti-Dangersense Formation all around the Forbidden Palace.
But the payoff from the whole thing now looked to be surprisingly immense, since all of the three Empires were now served on a platter in front of his nose, with all of them available for the taking, as just about every other important figure-of-authority besides himself had all just died in the blast.
He had been even more amazed when he had heard that one of the random groups of Crazed Cultists that he had sent all across the world had actually managed to successfully execute a summoning ritual of that Grand Caliber a few days ago, as any ritual like that only had some odds in the proximity of 1-in-1000 when it came to actually working.
Before the news about the Ancient Evil had arrived, he had thought that he would have to wait for many years before something drastic-enough would occur in the world to require the gathering of all the “powers-that-be” from all of the Empires in a single place, yet that occasion had arrived sooner than expected.
It was now time for him to put on his “Heroic Saviour Face”, as he would proceed to unite all of the three Empires under the pretext of opposing the recently-escaped Ancient Evil, and then never leave the leadership position after the actual creature got vanquished.
Because in the end, the Prince knew it was only just a matter of time before some Hero got to the damn thing, and then banished it back to wherever it came from. Putting a bounty on the head of the creature would probably cost him even less than what he had spent on acquiring all of those barrels of volatiles, but now he had all of the three Empires' worth of territories to recuperate his losses from.
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Somewhere outside of the blast radius, after the entire explosion had settled down and the mushroom dust-cloud in the atmosphere had begun to drift away and dissipate, the Emperor of the Sun slowly reformed his black-skeleton body out of the very dirt, while still cursing in his mind. He had also been present at the gathering while wearing his Grand Templar Mortdecai persona, but that one had also been blown-up together with the rest of the Sect Masters and Emperors. His danger-senses had never activated, and that had probably been true for the rest of the people inside of the palace as well.
It was obvious that this had been very well thought-out and well prepared-for plan, especially the deployment of such a rare Dangersense-Avoidance method on a mass scale, but whatever moron was behind this entire explosion thing, he couldn't have picked a worse time in history to play such a card, as all of the Sects and the Empires would now begin to struggle and bicker over their successions, instead of focusing on the real problem, which was the newly released Ancient Evil.
Such folly of men that knew no bounds still amazed the Emperor of the Sun, even after so many thousands of years. It seemed like another period of darkness was going to fall upon the world once more, and that many Heroes would be needed to Save the Day.
It had been a smart move indeed on his part to come alone to this gathering, as all of his Templar boys were now fortunately still “alive”, unlike all of the Sect Masters which were now dust in the wind, so they would be able to help with the incoming crisis.