In an instant, countless scenes surged through Xu Ying's mind: from the two of them meeting and falling in love, to the sacrifice to the gods in Chaoge, the descent of the heavenly gods, and Xu Ying charging up the altar in open rebellion against the Shang.
The legend of the two of them formally began.
Pursued by Great Shang Qi Refiners and heavenly gods, the two fled alongside Jin Buyi. Growing stronger with every step of their flight, their bond grew deeper and deeper.
Although Xu Ying had already viewed this period within Jin Buyi's memories, that had been through another's eyes. Now, it was his own memories genuinely welling up within him.
Among them were many details Jin Buyi had forgotten or never known, but above all, there was the mutual devotion and support the two had shared over several thousand years.
Sitting amid the swirling mist of Penghu Hall, Xu Ying smiled unconsciously. He remembered the countless beautiful memories shared with Yan Bao'er; he remembered the solemn vows they had pledged to each other.
In their flight alongside Jin Buyi, though they faced endless hardships and weathered peril after peril, their love only deepened through it all.
They were the most powerful Qi Refiners of that era, accompanied by the swiftest creature alive in Jin Buyi. Even when the Great Shang Qi Refiners summoned heavenly gods and brought forth God King Xuanhao, they still could not capture them.
They even noticed the anomalies in the Heavenly Dao, rallying like-minded Qi Refiners to form an army that resisted the Great Shang and the Heavenly Dao.
Xu Ying was immersed in these sweet memories between them when the mist in the sky suddenly stirred. The Divine Mother's ordinary face covered half the heavens, her voice drifting down from above: "Young Master Xu, have you recalled your memories of returning to Penglai?"
At her words, countless scenes flipped backward like pages in Xu Ying's mind, finally arriving at the memories of Penglai.
"I will never let you grow old like this," Xu Ying said to Yan Bao'er.
By then, he was already the foremost Qi Refiner in all the heavens and realms, yet he still looked like a youth of fourteen or fifteen. Yan Bao'er, though possessing earth-shattering cultivation, could not remain ageless as he did.
Her youth was fading. Lately, she had been restless, unable to hide her worry whenever the subject arose.
Xu Ying had traveled everywhere searching for a method of immortality. He had journeyed to the Netherworld, searched Kunlun, and visited immortal sects across other worlds in pursuit of the Dao, but none possessed true immortality.
In the end, they arrived at Penglai and met the Immortal Master.
The Immortal Master had been warm and welcoming, heaping praise upon their heroic deeds and inviting them to stay on Penglai.
"Becoming an immortal of Penglai is not out of the question," the Immortal Master said with a troubled expression upon learning their plan. "However, Penglai's Heavenly Dao is incomplete, making it difficult to accommodate more immortals. I am clumsy; Penglai's Heavenly Dao was left behind by another, and I have yet to fully comprehend those Heavenly Dao runes. If Fellow Daoist Xu would help decipher them and perfect Penglai's Heavenly Dao, it will surely be able to embrace more immortals."
And so Xu Ying stayed behind, helping the Immortal Master decipher the Heavenly Dao runes upon the huabiao pillars.
Deep and inscrutable though those Heavenly Dao runes were, they posed no challenge to him. Deciphering them was effortless; the moment he saw them, it was as if he had already mastered them long ago, easily grasping their meanings and comprehending their principles.
Thus, he quickly deciphered the Heavenly Dao runes on the huabiao pillars completely.
The Immortal Master was overjoyed and told him, "Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Xu. I will surely honor my promise and make your esteemed wife an immortal of Penglai, granting her eternal life from now on."
Xu Ying relaxed and said to Yan Bao'er, "From this day forth, you need never worry about growing old again."
Yan Bao'er was equally delighted. Taking advantage of the peaceful days, she sewed baby clothes and shoes, saying, "All these years on the run, we never dared have a child. Now that we've settled in Penglai and stepped away from the world's affairs, it's time we had one."
Xu Ying hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.
Yet he knew that the Great Shang Qi Refiners' pursuit went far beyond retribution for disrupting the sacrifice to the heavens.
The Great Shang Qi Refiners pursued them to prevent him from breaking his seals; what they wanted was to utterly crush and slaughter them!
And behind the Great Shang Qi Refiners stood the Heavenly Dao world!
The seals of the Heavenly Dao world supported the Great Shang as it swallowed world after world, establishing an earthly kingdom of gods. The Great Shang hunted them down at the behest of the Heavenly Dao's seal.
Over the years, many heavenly gods had already fallen by the couple's hands, and they had even clashed multiple times with the God Kings among them!
Through those heavenly gods and God Kings, he learned that an exceptionally formidable seal lay upon him—a seal that locked away his supernatural powers from past lives, forcing him into reincarnation after reincarnation, changing identities every ten-odd years!
Throughout those years, he had been trying to unravel that seal.
He decided to pay a visit to the Divine Mother of Penglai.
He had always scoffed at divination and fortune-telling, so although he had heard of such a figure on Penglai, the thought of visiting had never crossed his mind before.
Only now, Yan Bao'er's decision to have a child made him uneasy, and the thick shrouds surrounding his own origins prompted him to try his luck with the Divine Mother.
The Divine Mother in his memory looked identical to the Divine Mother of today; over ten thousand years had passed without changing her in the slightest.
Mist curled and drifted as the Divine Mother's voice echoed from within, revealing astounding scene after scene.
It showed Xu Ying severing his own cultivation, turning from immortal to mortal, fighting his way from the Immortal Realm back down to the mortal realm, and shattering the heavenly road.
Countless heavenly gods and self-severed immortals formed an army with fluttering banners and a forest of blades and spears, vigorous figures surging toward that youth who had descended from the Immortal Realm!
"In your first life, you were the villain spoken of by the world, destroying the heavenly road and severing ascension."
The Divine Mother's voice boomed like thunder from beyond the heavens. As the mist surged, the image of Xu Ying tearing down the heavenly road dispersed back into vapor, only to morph into yet another scene.
It was the scene of Xu Ying undergoing tribulation.
The tribulation clouds were pitch-black and the lightning blindingly bright. Below, the figure facing the tribulation seemed exceptionally tiny, yet his Primordial Spirit was towering and magnificent!
As scene after scene flashed by, the tribulation clouds grew larger and larger, blanketing an ever-wider expanse.
The image dissolved once more into mist, and the Divine Mother's voice resonated from within: "Time and again you faced tribulation, time and again you severed your cultivation and descended to the mortal realm, pushing the heavenly tribulation's power higher and higher each time. You are that very last ascendant, the great demon who created the super heavenly tribulation!"
"You walked out of Kunlun, avenged bloody grievances, slew immortals, and ascended once more."
As her voice sounded, the mist revealed the small silhouette of Xu Ying walking out of the Kunlun Sacred Mountain. Behind him, Kunlun was soaked in blood, the gods lay fallen, and flames soared into the sky.
"The Heavenly Dao seal could not execute you; Human Immortals, Earth Immortals, Heavenly Immortals, and Immortal Kings could not refine you; even when the Immortal Realm bestowed an Emperor's Supreme Treasure, it failed to destroy you completely."
The mist turned into scenes depicting gods and immortals dismembering Xu Ying's body, and all manner of Heavenly Dao divine artifacts and immortal treasures refining him!
Most striking among them was an immortal artifact—a divine purple saber extending down from the sky, one end rooted in the distant Immortal Realm, the other planted in the mortal world!
Its saber qi was so concentrated that even the Heavenly Dao seal retreated ten thousand li.
Yet even this saber could not extinguish Xu Ying's Indestructible True Spirit.
Through this, Xu Ying was refined until nothing remained but his Indestructible True Spirit!
"You were slain by immortals and gods, who stole your Six Secrets and every realm of your Realm of Xiyi to forge them into magical treasures."
The imagery shifted again, showing towering, imposing figures, each taking something from Xu Ying's body.
Their auras were grim and chilling, their faces veiled in shadow, and their presence bore down so heavily that heaven and earth trembled.
"Finally, an eighteen-character talisman descended from the Immortal Realm, sealing away your entire lifetime of cultivation, sealing your memories, sealing everything you were, and suppressing you within a tiny shrine."
The mist altered once more to show a small shrine, into which a demon-subduing talisman flew down from the Immortal Realm.
A towering, magnificent figure stepped forward and planted an arm-thick joss stick before the shrine. As incense smoke qi drifted toward it, the eighteen-character runes upon the talisman gradually lit up.
The gods and immortals who had just dismembered Xu Ying bowed down before this demon-subduing talisman. The eighteen characters shone ever brighter, sealing away everything of Xu Ying until only an oblivious youth remained.
Three Qi Refiners stepped forward and carried Xu Ying away, beginning his first cycle of reincarnation.
*I sought out the Divine Mother in the past, and back then, she already showed me these visions!*
Watching these scenes within his memories, Xu Ying felt his heart shudder. This memory within a memory hid far too many valuable truths: for instance, the Heavenly Dao gods who had sealed him were not the current God Kings, but deities far more ancient. Or the Emperor's Supreme Treasure, that purple qi divine saber—it hadn't returned to the Immortal Realm and likely still remained in the mortal world!
And then there was the eighteen-character talisman that suppressed him!
It was also from that time onward that Xu Ying had realized such a seal existed and began attempting to locate and unravel those eighteen runes!
*Yet how could the Divine Mother know all of this?*
Xu Ying was filled with shock and doubt. The scenes the Divine Mother revealed were as if she had witnessed them in person!
She displayed the forms of each heavenly god, the God Kings, and even the Emperor's Supreme Treasure!
Could what she showed truly be divined through fortune-telling and astrology?
*Unless she lived through it herself. But even that doesn't explain how she guided Dongyue to lay plans over twenty thousand years ago, ensuring Jin Buyi would become my companion and aid. Could it be that she can see over twenty thousand years into the future?*
Steadying his mind, Xu Ying set aside the mystery of the Divine Mother's origins for now and continued organizing his memories of Penglai.
"Young Xu, you and your wife are fated never to attain immortality in this lifetime."
The Divine Mother had warned him that the Great Shang's cavalry and legions of heavenly gods and God Kings were already marching toward Penglai. If they did not leave, they would be trapped there with no way out.
"This lifetime will bear no fruit. Look toward the future."
The Divine Mother had escorted him out of Mituo Temple.
Returning to his dwelling, Xu Ying immediately woke Jin Buyi and prepared to depart with Yan Bao'er.
Hearing the news, the Immortal Master rushed over, bewildered as to why Xu Ying was in such haste to leave. Xu Ying revealed the truth. Without trying to detain them, the Immortal Master said, "Penglai's strength is far from enough to contend with the celestial realm. Since you two have decided to leave, I will not stand in your way. For the kindness you have shown Penglai, everyone here, high and low, remains endlessly grateful!"
Xu Ying and his wife departed atop Jin Buyi.
Not long after leaving Penglai, they suffered an ambush. Someone struck from across the void with unfathomable divine power—an enemy more formidable than any they had ever encountered, far surpassing a God King!
Xu Ying, Jin Buyi, and Yan Bao'er were wounded in the assault and narrowly escaped with their lives, barely keeping ahead of the pursuing Great Shang cavalry and heavenly gods.
A few centuries later, Yan Bao'er finally grew old. Gray hair had frosted her head, turning her into a stooped old woman with faltering steps who could no longer keep pace with Xu Ying.
Her Primordial Spirit aged alongside her, its vital qi dissipating.
On her deathbed, she gripped Xu Ying's hand tightly.
"Brother, will there be a next life?"
Her voice was faint, a glimmer of hope shining in her clouded eyes. "I want to meet you again in the next life... by a bridge, by the waterside, in a marketplace, or as neighbors next door..."
Her vision dim, she strained to look at Xu Ying, striving to etch his features into her soul and her True Spirit so that even in the next life, she would never forget.
Xu Ying held her hand and smiled gently. "There will be. There will be a next life."
"In the next life, I will find you, no matter where you are in all the heavens and worlds."
Yan Bao'er passed away with a smile. Her Primordial Spirit collapsed, and her soul drifted into the Netherworld.
The long memories of the rest of that life consisted of Xu Ying and Jin Buyi roaming the myriad worlds, searching for Yan Bao'er's reincarnation.
After an unknown time, Xu Ying found trace of Yan Bao'er's reincarnation in the Yongning world.
It was a trap.
The news of Yan Bao'er's reincarnation having leaked had been a deliberate snare set just for him.
In those years, he and Jin Buyi had gathered the powerhouses of the myriad worlds to war against the Heavenly Dao world. Their rebellion had surged, felling heavenly gods left and right!
This ambush was bound to possess absolute, lethal means.
Xu Ying could even faintly sense that someone had descended from the Immortal Realm to orchestrate this deadly scheme against him.
Over those years, he had gradually deciphered parts of the eighteen-character talisman, seeking a way to break it.
He etched the method to break through the "Prison" character rune into Jin Buyi's memories.
*Fly. Do not stop.*
He said to Jin Buyi, "In the future, we will reunite."
"Why must you walk toward your death when you know it's a trap?" Jin Buyi asked in confusion.
Xu Ying walked toward the trap.
Because he had promised her: in the next life, no matter where she was in all the heavens and worlds, he would find her and be with her.
It was an eternal vow, a promise he would never break.
Jin Buyi took flight, carrying the hope of breaking his seal into the distant horizon.
Sooner or later, a future Xu Ying would find Jin Buyi, unseal his locked memories, and reclaim his formidable powers.
Sooner or later, such a Xu Ying would lead Jin Buyi into battle against their old enemies, avenging every past humiliation and grievance.
And sooner or later, such a Xu Ying would break free from his manipulated fate and grasp his destiny with his own hands!
Yet that was not the Xu Ying of that day.
The Xu Ying of that moment had to fulfill his promise to Yan Bao'er.
He stepped into the encirclement, tore through layers of immortal formations, and found his lover from his previous life, holding her tight in his arms.
The parting of their previous lifetime carried too much longing; he unsealed his lover's buried memories of their past life.
In his bid to break through the siege, his strength was finally exhausted, and he fell in battle. In the instant his physical body was pulverized, he saw Yan Bao'er's reincarnated self reaching out her hand to him.
"If there is a next life..."
If there is a next life.
Xu Ying's flesh and Primordial Spirit were erased by the formations. When the next life arrived, a bowl of Meng Po soup washed away all memories of his preceding existence.
Oblivious and bewildered, he was implanted with new memories by three Great Shang Qi Refiners and delivered to a family of strangers.
For the next seventeen thousand years, Xu Ying never once remembered Yan Bao'er.
Yet the two often crossed paths across the flow of time.
"Brother, it feels as though we've met in a past life," a young girl said to him with a smile.
Chapter 324