Chapter 183: The Rebel
Chapter 183: The Rebel
“It’s over!”
While he was halfway on his journey, Tianjizi suddenly felt a violent shock in his heart. Seeing the Blood Cloud rapidly changing in the sky, he let out a long sigh and turned back to rush home.
Because he knew clearly that with the revival of Evil Qi, if they only relied on Tianyuanzi, there was no way to protect their territory at all.
Now, there was no chance to think about anything else; if they were going to die, it might as well be together.
On the way back, Tianjizi felt another massive tremor in the heavens and earth. Some World Guardian True Immortals were escaping, and judging by their locations, one was Chisongzi and the other was Yuqingzi.
“Heh heh!”
Tianjizi could only force a bitter smile and walked faster. But after a bit, he froze because he sensed some scattered Fortune of Heaven and Earth gathering toward him, which had never happened before. Fortune of Heaven and Earth was never that obedient.
So?
Was it related to the Calamity Qi on him?
Tianjizi could only guess so. As he rushed back, he actually collected 52 units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth.
Though this didn’t sound like much.
But it must be known, Chisongzi and Yuqingzi only suppressed 4000 units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth. After deducting what they stole, what scattered to the deep Illusory Realm, and what was absorbed by the Tribulation-Bearing Dragon or the welcoming Human Emperor, he could still gather 52 units, which was quite amazing.
Most importantly, Fortune of Heaven and Earth gathered at such a time could be legally taken without taxes, if he had an Immortal Artifact that could store it.
Luckily, Tianjizi had just such an Immortal Artifact on him, so he managed to legally keep 31 units out of the 52 units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth.
This was like earning in a thousand years.
So now he had 145 units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth, and Tianjizi suddenly felt a tiny bit of confidence for the future.
At the same time.
As the Evil God Muan took action, the first to suffer was that Demonic Dragon. It alone shouldered eighty percent of the pressure. Before, it could drag those six coffins around, but now it was pinned flat on the ground, getting punched and kicked in all sorts of ways. It couldn’t fight back, and even if it tried, it couldn’t win, feeling so frustrated it wanted to cry.
But suddenly, large amounts of scattered Fortune of Heaven and Earth appeared in the Mortal Realm. Those two World Guardian True Immortals of the Human Race had escaped.
The Demonic Dragon was quite jealous. It personally watched those two, who had cleaned themselves up, flee into the Illusory Realm, and personally saw them get crushed like little greens. But that had nothing to do with it, since it couldn’t move now and it couldn’t win a fight anyway.
So what to do?
Hmm, wait, wait!
The Demonic Dragon suddenly opened its eyes wide. It sensed huge amounts of scattered Fortune of Heaven and Earth rushing straight toward it.
One hundred units,
two hundred units,
five hundred units,
Damn!
Reaching a thousand units.
Damn, two thousand units.
So that’s how it was. The Demonic Dragon was thrilled. It instantly kept five hundred units as private money, totally legal. The rest, fifteen hundred units, turned back into public property for this land.
“Good luck hides bad luck, bad luck hides good luck; the world’s ways are unpredictable!”
The Demonic Dragon shed excited tears. This time, the travel cost shortfall was finally covered.
In a barren mountain area, Lingjingzi looked at his seven or eight mad disciples, his face blank.
They were all at Qi Refining Realm; within no time after the Evil Qi revival, they were invaded by Evil Qi.
“Master, master, please save them!”
Cao Yu begged desperately with over a dozen junior brothers and sisters. He was now at Nascent Soul Realm, but he couldn’t spare a hand to protect them all. Especially since they were in the barren mountains without a City Protection Array, and when Evil Qi surged, they couldn’t resist at all.
But their master, Lingjingzi, had no plan to act.
Farther away, the Scar-Faced Woman was waiting for Lingjingzi to flee. The three Veteran Deities and Demons had targeted him early. In her view, Lingjingzi was the easiest one to escape, and he had the richest treasures.
Meanwhile, Chisongzi and Yuqingzi seemed well settled and less likely to flee.
But she had misjudged.
Several hours passed, yet Lingjingzi still stood firm.
And if he didn’t flee or have even one strand of Calamity Qi, she couldn’t rob him.
“Am I stuck now?”
The Scar-Faced Woman felt doubtful. For real, Lingjingzi didn’t flee. He stubbornly watched his over ten disciples become Demon Men without intervening, clearly scared of getting any Calamity Qi.
After waiting forlornly for a day and a night, Lingjingzi led Cao Yu and the others directly toward Li Si’s territory, which made the Scar-Faced Woman so mad her nose twisted. She had never seen anyone so cautious.
“You jerk, you’re dead! I’m glued to you now! Do you think avoiding Calamity Qi means you’re safe?”
At the Yunhua Sect stronghold, even though Li Si wasn’t controlling it, about fifteen hundred units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth flowed there automatically and entered the Yunhua Law Seal. This brought the total suppressed fortune to thirteen thousand five hundred units. Out of that, twelve thousand units were the basic foundation for balancing the Mortal Realm and the Illusory Realm. Any extra beyond that was reserve funds.
But elsewhere in the Mortal Realm, there was still the four thousand units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth suppressed by Tianjizi and Tianyuanzi, and the fifteen hundred units suppressed by the Tribulation-Bearing Dragon.
Overall, the Mortal Realm remained very stable.
And this was why Lingjingzi didn’t flee in the end. If the heavens and earth didn’t collapse, escaping couldn’t bring him bigger gains.
At the Heaven-Mending Sect, the current leader Ji Yuan requested a meeting with Shendanzi, who was in seclusion, because he suddenly discovered he had gained a hundred strands of Calamity Qi.
In fact, it wasn’t only him. The four top Void Refinement Realm masters who previously led the battle all had the same.
Bai Chu gained eighty strands of Calamity Qi.
Xu Shen gained a hundred and two strands of Calamity Qi.
Mi Zhou’er gained ninety-one strands of Calamity Qi.
Bai Chu was terrified, but Xu Shen and Mi Zhou’er didn’t care at all. Ji Yuan didn’t feel guilty, but he was uneasy, so he came for guidance.
“Calamity Qi comes from the grievances of heaven and earth, but it isn’t all bad.”
“You were born in this Mortal Realm. Your parents and ancestors lived on this land. How much grace did they get from heaven and earth?”
“Maybe you think nothing of it, or want to be ungrateful. Fine. Unseen rules in the world keep a record.”
“What goes in comes out; it’s all fair.”
“However, with Xu Shen, Mi Zhou’er, and Bai Chu all having Calamity Qi, it likely means the Mortal Realm is truly ending, picking the best from the worst.”
“But I’ll say this again: Don’t try to outsmart the world that raised you. If you leave, give your all first before you go. So, work hard at your tasks, but don’t slack on cultivation. Go now.”
“Thank you, master, for clearing things up. I have one more thing to ask.” Ji Yuan hesitated.
“Speak.”
“I got a hundred strands of Calamity Qi earlier, but later, for some reason, I got thirty-two units of Fortune of Heaven and Earth…”
“What!”
Shendanzi blew up. He couldn’t stay calm. It made no sense.
“What about the others?”
“Junior Brother Xu Shen got thirty-three units, Junior Sister Mi Zhou’er got twenty-seven units, Bai Chu got twenty-two units,” Ji Yuan rambled on, then was scared by his master’s flashing expression.
Was it such a big deal? Was it?
Shendanzi almost roared: Yes, a very big deal!
“Damn it.
If only he had gone out to command himself, now all the benefits were completely divided up.
It pained him greatly!”
——
In the blink of an eye, two days passed. Inside the Great Luo Immortal Artifact, Li Si did not even blink.
Because Zhao Qingxie’s process of reforging her Dao Foundation Immortal Body was too important and too educational.
He witnessed, from nothing, the successive condensation of seven Dao Hearts and the generation of Immortal Spirit energy. This held great significance for his future path as a True Cultivator.
If not here, but in the Mortal Realm, he would have been completely confident in advancing all five of his Nascent Souls to Divine Transformation in one go.
He might even push further, with hopes of reaching Void Refining.
The benefits were so immense that it was as if a path had been lit for Li Si all the way from Divine Transformation, Void Refining, Heavenly Tribulation, Great Ascension, to True Immortal.
The only regret was that Zhao Qingxie’s Mortal Tribulation ended perfectly.
She became Fairy Zhao once more.
Seven Dao Hearts perfected, nine Dao Bodies perfected—this was the perfect Dao Foundation. Now, Zhao Qingxie was the strongest True Immortal on the surface. With her current state, even a thousand years ago, she would have needed little preparation of the Fortune of Heaven and Earth to ascend—she would have been guaranteed.
Moreover, during this reforging of her Dao Foundation, she also perfected the Scripture of Heaven Mending. Combined with that Immortal Artifact, with every move, she suppressed the Great Luo Immortal Artifact and brought Li Si out of confinement, more than a day earlier than the scheduled three days.
Then, with a wave of her long sleeve, Zhao Qingxie took the now ownerless Great Luo Immortal Artifact into her possession. In the dark night, she was like a bright moon—cool, mysterious, exquisitely beautiful, without a trace of mortal aura.
Standing beside her, Li Si suddenly felt a bit inferior. It wasn’t about his psychology, but Zhao Qingxie, having attained the perfect Dao Foundation and perfect True Immortal realm, was like a scorching sun. Unless one was a Great Luotian Immortal, who would dare to look directly at her?
So, in that moment, he suddenly understood what Zhao Qingxie had said before. She really would leave.
Hou Yi couldn’t keep Chang’e, and he couldn’t keep his Fairy Zhao either.
“I will take you with me.”
“This Mortal Realm has ten years left. I can help you reach the True Immortal realm. Then, we will ascend together.”
“Wandering in the Mist is meaningless and offers no way out.”
Zhao Qingxie actively took Li Si’s hand and spoke softly.
Li Si was naturally extremely willing. It wasn’t easy; after so much effort, he had finally unlocked a new achievement.
A woman three thousand years his senior, now ranking among the immortals!
But as soon as he thought this, a line of information coldly appeared.
“If you ascend to the Land of Infinite Vastness, the Fate Forge risks being seen through and taken. Please keep a low profile, accumulate strength. Do not say you were not warned.”
Li Si was stunned. It was the first time he saw that the Fate Forge had a weakness, but that wasn’t the main point.
“Can’t you stay?” Li Si didn’t even know how he managed to say those words.
“Strive to cross, strive to cross. If you don’t strive, you will be left behind. I now have the most perfect Dao Foundation Immortal Body, but here, corroded by the Mist every day, I cannot maintain this state forever. Maybe in a few hundred or a few thousand years, wandering, my realm will fall, my Dao Heart destroyed. I will become an old woman again, and you will become an Old Man. We will both be aged and weak. Do you think that’s romantic? No, I can assure you, we would regret missing this best opportunity today.”
“Li Si, you gave me this chance, and I will give you the chance to ascend. When we ascend to the Land of Infinite Vastness, we will still fight side by side, cultivate together, and seek the Great Perfection. Why would you refuse such a good opportunity?”
Zhao Qingxie was very puzzled. Any normal person would know what choice to make.
But Li Si had a bitter reason he couldn’t speak. Should he reveal the secret of the Fate Forge?
“It seems you’ve made your decision.” Zhao Qingxie looked at Li Si.
Li Si nodded painfully. “I’m sorry to disappoint you. I don’t want to ascend for now, and I don’t want to hold you back. Please go ahead and ascend.”
“Does my current state put too much pressure on you?”
“No.”
“Do you dislike me for being too beautiful?”
“How could that be?”
“Do you like Xia Xiaowan?”
“Ah? No! I’ve never even seen her real face.”
“If you saw her, would you like her?”
“No, no, no. I’m an upright person. Hey, I’m saying, Fairy Sister, just go. While everything is perfect now, don’t worry about me. I have a tough life; I won’t die.”
“Say that again.”
“What? Oh, Fairy Sister, I wish you a smooth journey and early attainment of the Great Perfection.”
“I’m not going.”
“Ah? Don’t be willful!” Li Si was greatly surprised.
“My seven Dao Hearts are perfected; I can be as willful as I want.”
“But if you don’t go to the Land of Infinite Vastness, how will you attain the Great Perfection?”
Zhao Qingxie didn’t speak, but she never let go of Li Si’s hand.
Her hand was soft as if boneless, holding it felt like holding the whole world. A faint fragrance lingered by his nose, making Li Si completely intoxicated. He no longer cared about the answer, but then Zhao Qingxie’s voice sounded in his ear again.
“Humans are not grass or trees; who can be without emotion?”
“Heavenly Dao forgets emotions, blessing all living beings.”
“Supreme forgets emotions, attaining utmost fairness.”
“You, little Li Si, know to be grateful to heaven and earth, willing to live and die with this land. How could I be less than you?”
“Strive to cross, strive to cross—let others strive. I, Zhao Qingxie, am willing to be a rebel for this heaven and earth that gave me life, raised me, provided me a place to stand, and allowed me to grow.”
“I also don’t want to let down the 793,625 disciples of the Floating Cloud Sect who died in battle.”
“I am their founding ancestor, their teacher, their grand-teacher, and also their comrade, sibling. I led them in battle for a thousand years. Now they are all dead, and I should leave? Even with my seven Dao Hearts perfected, I still have a conscience that cannot be deceived!”
Zhao Qingxie’s hand gripped tighter and tighter.
“Thank you, Li Si, for not letting me make a huge mistake.”
“Although my Mortal Tribulation is gone, I am still willing… as long as you don’t dislike me.”
Li Si was completely bewildered. Fairy Zhao’s ability to imagine things was too rich, right? Clearly, I said nothing…
Also, why would I dislike?
Only a fool would dislike!
But from now on, please call me the great Li Si.