The throne that was once covered in rotting flesh now shone brightly, and Liu Xing realized that the Twelve Sun Armor might be stronger than he thought. Honestly, he still did not know the details of this armor, but the qi emitted from the throne would be of great help in saving Elder Yang Zhaoyan later, and perhaps in helping Hong'er out of her dying state.
The throne emitted a blinding yellow light for a moment, and Liu Xing thought that the armor would soon reveal itself. But not long after, while the rotten meat covering the throne was already melting and revealing a white and golden majestic throne, it stopped emitting qi and simply ceased its activity. It was like seeing a machine that began to rumble and would start, but suddenly stopped as if something had jammed inside.
"What? Why did it stop shining?" Yang Suyin looked around. "Where is the Twelve Sun Armor?"
Prince Yang Jinyan's expression, previously bright and full of hope, suddenly vanished. "Am I not worthy? Am I not worthy to be granted the Twelve Sun Armor?!"
"Perhaps it's not about worthiness," Liu Xing said, trying to remain calm. "Perhaps the amount of qi you sent was not sufficient. Hurry, send your qi to the throne again."
"Wait a minute, Hong'er," the prince muttered. Hong'er's breath and heartbeat began to slow, and blood started to pool beneath her.
Prince Yang Jinyan tried to send more qi into the throne. It indeed shone again, but like before, it stopped shining after a moment. Yang Suyin handed many pills to the prince, and the prince used them to send vast amounts of qi to the throne, but to no avail. The prince tried again, and even Yang Suyin began to help by sending his qi, but though the throne shone for a moment longer than before, there was no change. Liu Xing thought that perhaps his conjecture was wrong. Perhaps sending qi to the throne was not the way to reveal the Twelve Sun Armor. But for now, he refused to acknowledge that possibility.
"If it's qi, I have plenty," Liu Xing said, and not just normal qi either, but potent qi. If his potent qi could not make the Twelve Sun Armor reveal itself, then nothing would.
Liu Xing put his right hand on the prince's left shoulder. Yang Suyin sent his qi to the throne directly, but Liu Xing did not want to do that. After all, he was not from the Yang clan—who knew what complications might arise if he sent his qi directly? So he would send it to the prince. Extracting some qi from the Ethereal Pearl, he let it travel to his hand and into the prince. When his qi entered the prince's body, Prince Yang Jinyan jerked up and snapped his head toward Liu Xing with wide eyes and mouth agape.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and use it!" He wanted Prince Yang Jinyan to successfully save Hong'er. He knew what it felt like to lose someone close, and seeing the prince cry and beg stirred something inside himself. He wanted to see Prince Yang Jinyan succeed in saving Hong'er, wanted to see her come back from her dying state, and wanted to witness their happy reunion. For that, he would help them with everything he could.
The prince nodded, cycling his potent qi for a while, then dispersed it out of his body and sent it to the throne.
Usually, sending qi to other people is difficult. People can reject it, and there are matters of compatibility. But this was potent qi, and he doubted the prince would reject it when he needed it most. The process was as successful as he expected, and the potent qi bathed the gold and white throne before it absorbed all of it and began shining so brightly.
Before, it had looked like a little lamp in total darkness—a guiding light for those who were lost. Now, it shone so brilliantly it was as if the sun had descended into the night, illuminating everything. Seeing this, even his heartbeat began to race. He wondered what the Twelve Sun Armor would look like.
The throne began to tremble, then split open, revealing a hidden compartment below. He, Yang Jinyan, and Yang Suyin took a step to look into the compartment, but a moment later, something leaped from that compartment and floated above the split throne. Seeing this, Liu Xing's eyes widened, and his heartbeat began to race frantically with thousands of questions swirling inside his heart. It was armor, indeed, but not what he expected. Hell, he never thought he would see something like that at this moment!
"What? Where is it? Where is the Twelve Sun Armor?" Yang Suyin asked once again.
"It's empty! Is that bastard Lihuo already got the original and the replica?" Prince Yang Jinyan's voice trembled, then morphed into rage. "I'll kill him! I'll kill him! I'll kill him!"
The throne slid back into position, hiding the compartment below, and the supposed Twelve Sun Armor floated atop it like a wicked spirit. "Both of you, calm down. The armor is floating right on top of the throne right now. It's just that you guys cannot see it!"
"Why?"
"It is shrouded by darkness!"
Liu Xing's voice rose to a high pitch at the end of the sentence. There was no way for the prince and Yang Suyin to understand the context, but even so, they widened their eyes. It had successfully made Liu Xing, a Purple Moon Sect disciple, panic. Even if they didn't understand the real meaning of it, they would understand what he felt right now.
The Twelve Sun Armor was a full-body armor without a helmet, instead having a floating crown atop it. It had some engravings that depicted a bird with twelve heads, as well as many subtle engravings on its surface depicting light and sun. It was majestic armor, but the darkness that shrouded it like black wisps of smoke also made it look like an evil armor born from the darkness itself. Seeing this darkness, Liu Xing wondered what the hell was the darkness doing in this empire? He never thought that his mission to help this empire would lead him to encounter another darkness!
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Who made this armor? How did he make it?" Liu Xing asked.
"It's the second emperor. He made it for his wife. He killed her, and the armor became cursed armor. Why? Is it important? More importantly, are you telling the truth? Is the Twelve Sun Armor really here? If so, we need to make it worn by Hong'er. It would heal her."
Liu Xing licked his lips. Thousands of questions floated in his brain, but he suppressed all of them to focus. This armor needed to be worn by Hong'er, but he had a bad feeling about it. This darkness should not have harmful properties. Hell, it should enhance the armor, or even be an integral part of it. But the mention of it being cursed made Liu Xing hesitate to let it be. Moreover, this darkness was something that needed to be eliminated.
"Wait a minute, I'll try something first."
"No! We need to make her wear it as soon as possible!" Prince Yang Jinyan said.
Liu Xing tried to calm down and needed to deal with Prince Yang Jinyan patiently. He was just worried about the girl, and Liu Xing understood that. He, too, wanted to help her. After all, there was no way he would let her die like that.
"I know, so that's why I'll give you a simple explanation. This armor is shrouded by something dark. I've tangled with this kind of darkness before, that's why it's invisible to you both. I only need less than a minute to try to extinguish that darkness from the armor."
Prince Yang Jinyan clenched both of his fists, as if wanting to kill him but trying to rein in his emotion, but he soon nodded. "Make it quick."
Liu Xing nodded. It should be fast. After all, while waiting for his response, he had already positioned his gun in front of the armor. The last time his gun came in contact with darkness, it absorbed the darkness. There was no noticeable change before, and hopefully, there would be no change this time too. After all, since this armor was said to be cursed, changes to his gun would probably be bad.
He controlled the tip of the gun to touch the armor, and like a swarm of moths finding light, the darkness shrouding the Twelve Sun Armor began to converge around his gun. The darkness began swirling around it, creating a ball that fully enveloped his gun. For a moment, Liu Xing felt that his connection to the gun was severed, and he panicked for a little bit. But soon, as if his gun didn't want to be drowned by that darkness, it began to absorb the darkness, almost like it was inhaling it.
Soon, it was over, and his gun floated, encased by his qi, bobbing a little bit like a soap bubble. The darkness that shrouded the Twelve Sun Armor was fully absorbed, revealing a gleaming white, red, and golden armor. The floating crown above looked like a white tiara for an empress, with twelve gleaming red gems adorning it.
"Twelve Sun Armor!" Prince Yang Jinyan shouted while pointing at it.
"It looks as if it materialized from nothing," Yang Suyin commented, his eyes wide as saucers. "What a beautiful armor."
Liu Xing agreed. It is beautiful armor. But before he could appreciate it more, the armor and crown rushed toward Hong'er, who lay on the fleshy ground. As it moved, Liu Xing could clearly see that the armor was melting and transforming into a pure yellow light. It then bathed Hong'er with its warm and powerfull qi, making her float in the middle of the room.
Her robe began melting around her, revealing her naked body. But what interested Liu Xing the most was actually the lower side and left side of her body, which looked like they had been bitten by giant pink worms. Red blood began bubbling from her wounds, then these red bubbles transformed into meat growing fast around her wounds. An arm and a pair of feet began to sprout from it. The color was pinkish-red, like the skin of a delicate wound just healing, but a moment later it became pale white, the same color as the rest of her body.
When her body was whole again, Hong'er suddenly opened her eyes and gasped for breath, as if she had been drowning and had just successfully spat out all the water that flooded her lungs.
Seeing Hong'er alive and well, Prince Yang Jinyan's face was full of smiles, and happy tears fell from his eyes. Seeing him, Liu Xing couldn't help but smile. Liu Xing knew how important this girl was to the prince, and seeing him feel relieved by her well-being warmed his heart. It was a good outcome.
The yellow light that bathed her then began to swirl around her, causing her to float in a standing position. She solidified into a fine red dress with subtle embroidery of sun and bird symbols. A crown settled on her head, while matching red shoes formed on her feet.
Hong'er blinked several times, as if confused by what happened, then glanced at Prince Yang Jinyan, who was crying uncontrollably, and smiled. Her smile was warm, like that of the morning sun, and Liu Xing suspected Prince Yang Jinyan would feel like his whole body was blessed by blissful warmth.
"Hong'er, you're alive," Prince Yang Jinyan wiped his tears.
"Yes, it's because of you," she looked at Yang Suyin, nodded, then looked at Liu Xing and also smiled. "And you two." Her eyes came back to the prince. "The truth is, even while dying, I could still see and understand things around me. I could see you, my prince, crying and begging. It's not manly, you know—an emperor should always have dignity. But I think I cannot be mad about it, since you did it for me."
Some tears began to fall from Hong'er's eyes, and she tried to wipe them from her cheeks. Her eyes were red and glistening, as if she too felt immense relief by what happened.
"I know some rumors about both of you," Yang Suyin said, "but I never imagined your connection to be this strong."
"Yes," Yang Jinyan nodded, this time with back straight and chest puffed, trying to look like an emperor. "When this troubled time is over, I will become an emperor, and she will be my one and only wife."
Hong'er blinked several times, looking confused for a moment before she flashed a bright, goofy smile on her face. Liu Xing imagined that she must be happy about this. It was basically a proposal.
But while this was a happy moment, they needed to break it. After all, they were still in the middle of the fight. The Royal Barrier was still deployed, Elder Yang Zhaoyan was still under Wei Yi's control, and Yang Lihuo would still undergo a rebirth into something probably unholy.
As he thought like that, the castle suddenly trembled. A huge sound, as if a giant were walking, could be heard. It was accompanied by screeching and groaning of earth, as if the earth itself were opening its mouth. Liu Xing glanced at the people around him. Yang Jinyan clenched his hands and had a murderous expression. Yang Suyin narrowed his eyes, and Hong'er was looking aloof, airing a cold murderous aura. It was a stark contrast to their previous happy and warm expressions.
"Are you guys ready to fight again?" Liu Xing asked.
"Yes. We finally got Hong'er the Twelve Sun Armor. While it would not make her invincible, with her cultivation, she would be as strong as a Sun Refining cultivator," Yang Jinyan said.
"All right then, let's go. Our next destination is the Emperors' Tomb, and our mission is to save Elder Yang Zhaoyan. Do you guys agree?"
"Yes," the three of them nodded.
Yet, that goal would not end this battle.
This battle would only stop when only one side won. Either Liu Xing's side would win, or Wei Yi's side.
Only time could tell.