Xu Ying followed her, taking in their surroundings. The sky of Weixu was polluted everywhere by the Immortal Dao, twisted into bizarre aberrations like an overturned paint palette—splashes of red, green, purple, blue, and yellow daubed across everything.
The Supreme Sovereign's skull was simply too massive. The space within was vaster than an entire world of the heavens. Floating in that expanse, the Supreme Sovereign's eyeball hung like an immense, awe-inspiring celestial body.
Xu Ying followed her around the side of this gargantuan eye. Misty vapors curled along its perimeter, and thick, mountain-like bundles of nerves connected to the orb.
Upon these nerve plexuses stood a few palaces. They had likely been the residences of the immortals assigned to guard this thing, though they were now deserted.
Xu Ying looked back. The abyss of Weixu was actively drawing power from those Qi Refiners, and waves of spiritual qi drifted up from its depths like clouds, nourishing this world.
"Cuoying, you said earlier that immortals like to dump things here. What exactly are they throwing down?" Xu Ying asked.
Suddenly, the sky split open. A streak of black light descended from the heavens, plummeting into the depths of Weixu.
The instant the black light fell, Xu Ying caught sight of its point of origin—the Immortal Realm!
Hua Cuoying said, "That very black light. My father told me that it's the stray thoughts distilled away by immortals, cast down into the mortal realm to manifest as heavenly fiends."
"Heavenly fiends?"
Xu Ying was thoroughly stunned and murmured, "Heavenly fiends are the stray thoughts refined out of immortals?"
His mind felt in a daze, finding it hard to accept.
Hua Cuoying said, "Once you ascend, you will understand that to keep their Great Dao pure, immortals must refine away their own stray thoughts. These stray thoughts are like impurities in your primordial qi. Not only do they hinder your cultivation and prowess, but they also impede your breakthrough to higher realms. If such stray thoughts accumulate too much, they will prevent you from advancing to the next realm altogether. That is why every immortal must distill and purge them."
"Yet how could immortals and heavenly fiends be one and the same?" Xu Ying murmured, still struggling to believe it.
To all living beings throughout the myriad heavens and worlds, "immortal" was an unsullied word. Countless people dreamed of attaining immortality, viewing immortals as stainless, pure, and holy as the Dao itself.
Yet to be abruptly told that these holy, Dao-like immortals shared the very same origin as the foulest, most sinister heavenly fiends was truly difficult to swallow!
Immortals and fiends were two sides of the same coin, just like a single person bearing two faces of good and evil.
As they flew past the nerve plexuses flanking the Supreme Sovereign's eyeball and drew closer, Xu Ying finally realized that the immortal corpses floating inside the massive eye were linked together by Dao chains, forming the structure of an array.
"Where did these floating immortal corpses come from?" Xu Ying asked.
Hua Cuoying glanced over. "They were the immortals who perished back then during the siege against you. Instead of letting them go to waste after death, they were used to set up the array here, which allows the Eye of the Supreme Sovereign of Weixu to be driven."
Having grown up in a place like Weixu, she had long grown accustomed to its values, regarding such sights without a second thought.
Yet Xu Ying was profoundly shaken.
Even though those immortals had died by his own hand, he felt a deep sorrow at how worthless their sacrifices were.
To throw one's life away for such an Immortal Realm was truly not worth it!
Hua Cuoying added, "Banished immortals only come here when this eye needs to be used; normally, no one sets foot in this place. Weixu is crawling with heavenly fiend thoughts. A single lapse of care, and you will be swarmed by them. Some of those fiends possess formidable power; if you are trapped, you will be devoured. Those heavenly fiends are constantly searching for hosts..."
Suddenly, a woman's voice rang out, screeching, "Hua Cuoying, you little bitch! You actually dare return to Weixu? You're courting death!"
Hua Cuoying hurriedly looked over and saw seven people emerging from a palace—four women and three men, all attired in the garb of the Hua family.
Her heart sank. Earlier, when the bizarre eye of Weixu flared up and seized the Qi Refiners of a world to serve as nourishment, she had known the perpetrators might not have left immediately, so she had waited half a day before sneaking in with Xu Ying.
She had never anticipated that someone would still be lingering here.
Some of the seven hurried off to report back to the Hua family, while the rest charged forward murderously. The leading woman sneered, "Hua Cuoying, who would have thought you'd amount to anything? Not only did you steal the Immortal King's treasure, but you've also hooked up with a wild man!"
"Bah!"
The group spat in Xu Ying's direction, snapping resentfully, "A wild man!"
Hua Cuoying's murderous intent surged, and she giggled, "So it's Cousin Luoluo! Now that I'm gone, Cousin has really made a name for herself—actually put in charge of operating the Eye of the Supreme Sovereign!"
She bolted forward. With a sudden twist of her body, she bypassed the others, and a beam of rosy light shot from her hand, blasting the Hua family woman who had run off to report into oblivion.
Her form swayed, and hundreds of treasures burst forth from her court robes, swirling around her in a flurry as she engaged the others.
Hua Cuoying was ruthless and vicious. In little more than a dozen exchanges, she had slain six of the seven. Seeing things take a turn for the worse, Hua Luoluo, who possessed the strongest cultivation of the group, immediately spun around to flee.
Hua Cuoying rushed ahead, suppressing her beneath several hundred treasures and smashing her physical body to pieces. When Hua Luoluo's Primordial Spirit attempted to escape, she was caught in Hua Cuoying's grasp.
"Cousin Cuoying, spare me!" Hua Luoluo's Primordial Spirit shrieked frantically.
Hua Cuoying smiled sweetly. "Cousin Luoluo, we are cousins by blood. How could I ever kill you? Why did you activate the Eye of the Supreme Sovereign now? Wasn't it supposed to be several months from now?"
Hua Luoluo's Primordial Spirit dared not conceal the truth and confessed, "A guest from the Immortal Realm arrived bearing an imperial mandate, instructing us to punish the Fangdu world. It is said that a certain Qi Refiner from the Fangdu world killed the descendant of a great figure above. The great figure was enraged and demanded that these lawless ruffians be disciplined."
Hua Cuoying was astonished. "A guest from the Immortal Realm? Didn't the Immortal Realm always send down a golden proclamation in the past? Why did an envoy descend in person this time?"
Hua Luoluo said, "I don't know either. The envoy descended by imperial order and is currently staying at the Hua residence, having not yet returned."
"Cousin Luoluo, you can only blame your own ill fortune."
Hua Cuoying activated numerous treasures, obliterating her Primordial Spirit, and sighed apologetically, "I waited half a day before coming in, thinking you had all cleared out. Who knew you'd still be here? For the sake of my own life, I can only send you on your way!"
Having wiped them all out, she immediately returned to Xu Ying's side and said, "There is an envoy from the Immortal Realm right here in Weixu. The master of that envoy is the very entity backing both my father and the Ninth Immortal King—a truly terrifying figure."
She guided Xu Ying downward, adding, "Now that I've killed them, the Hua family will come investigate once they fail to return. This is no place to linger."
Xu Ying asked, "Who is the entity backing the Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King?"
He was intensely curious about the figure behind the two Immortal Kings. Back then, they had been ordered to intercept and kill him, but after their success, their credit was stolen by others, leaving them no choice but to seek shelter in Weixu.
The one who gave them trouble had clearly been the Imperial Monarch. Taking advantage of the campaign to purge Xu Ying, the Imperial Monarch had eliminated factions that refused to bend to his will, and the two Immortal Kings had been among the targets marked for removal. By getting rid of them, he could replace them with his own subordinates.
However, after the two Immortal Kings fell from grace, someone else had certainly stepped in to act as their patron, employing them to handle affairs in the lower realm.
Hua Cuoying said, "I don't know either. But my father said this figure possesses profound wisdom, great ambitions, and broad tolerance, far surpassing the Imperial Monarch. Serving him was a blessing in disguise."
The two of them hurried down toward the ground of Weixu. Hua Cuoying cautioned, "We cannot fly freely through the open air, but we cannot land on the ground either. Flying too high will make us targets for the heavenly fiends, and the fiends here are exceedingly formidable. Landing on the ground won't do either; in some places, the flesh and blood of the Supreme Sovereign are still alive. If you are caught by that flesh, even the secret arts of the Hua family and the Ninth Immortal King won't save you—you'll be devoured."
Beneath their feet lay writhing flesh and blood.
Much of the flesh was crawling up enormous bone frameworks, accompanied by foul, decaying rivers of blood.
Xu Ying was filled with shock. The Supreme Sovereign's skull likely dated back to ancient times or even an era prior to that, having weathered countless ages of decay. How could its flesh and blood still be alive to this day?
He glanced around. In a place this treacherous, could the Yellow Court Mansion of the Dark Yellow Realm truly reside here?
He could not help harboring deep doubts.
Yet the Divine Mother possessed divine foresight. If she said the Yellow Court Mansion was here, then it was definitely here!
"Cuoying, you said earlier that the heavenly fiends in Weixu are all the evil thoughts and stray notions pruned away by immortals. Couldn't the immortals simply raise phoenixes?" Xu Ying asked. "Phoenixes are the natural predators of heavenly gods and heavenly fiends, capable of consuming them to increase their own strength. If they raised a flock of phoenixes, there would be no need to worry about heavenly fiends plaguing the world."
Hua Cuoying, guiding him toward the ground, burst into laughter at his words. "The grand Immortal Master Xu, a ferocious and terrifying figure whose very name makes my father turn pale, actually has such a naive side!"
Xu Ying said in frustration, "How is that naive? Isn't that a viable solution to the heavenly fiends?"
Hua Cuoying scoffed, "Within a heavenly fiend reside the stray thoughts and wicked intentions of an immortal. If a phoenix eats that fiend, it will learn what the immortal is thinking! As an immortal, how could you ever let others know the secrets of your heart? If a great figure dare let a phoenix eat the heavenly fiends they severed, then that great figure would not be far from ruin! Some powerful beings intentionally slice away part of their own cultivation when cutting off a fiend, precisely to bolster its strength so that it does not fear phoenixes. That way, they prevent their fiends from being eaten and their inner thoughts from being exposed!"
Xu Ying looked stunned. After a moment, he murmured, "Is that Immortal Realm truly an immortal realm? After crossing the tribulation and ascending, does one truly become an immortal?"
Hua Cuoying's expression grew solemn. "Immortal Master, your thoughts are exceedingly dangerous. Are you denying the validity of all immortals? If you were to ascend to the Immortal Realm and reveal such thoughts there, they would instantly brand you a rebel!"
Xu Ying retorted, somewhat indignant, "How do you know that having such thoughts makes me a rebel?"
Hua Cuoying was about to argue back when she suddenly froze. Wasn't Xu Ying already a rebel?
Her father, the Five Extremes Immortal King, had descended to the lower realm precisely to take part in the siege against this very rebel!
*This man has rebellion bred in his bones; he probably harbored these treasonous thoughts all the way back in his first life. He lacks any self-awareness—why am I even bothering to argue with him?* she thought to herself.
Then, the young woman's face clouded with gloom as she realized, *Now that I've ended up lumped together with him, haven't I become a rebel too?*
Before long, Fengluan Ridge and Diecui Valley came into Xu Ying's view, one after the other. These two locations stood out as anomalies in Weixu, appearing like lands of immortals—or rather, they were lands of immortals.
Yet the immortal lands created here by the Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King were far less expansive than Penglai, comprising only a few ridges and valleys.
Penglai had been brought down from the Immortal Realm by Xu Ying during his first life, vast beyond measure. Built into an immortal domain, it could pilfer resources from the Immortal Realm for cultivation, sustaining a massive host of immortals.
Fengluan Ridge and Diecui Valley, on the other hand, drew upon the spiritual qi harvested from those "fattened mortals" to sustain their paradise-like conditions.
Hua Cuoying gazed toward Fengluan Ridge from afar and hesitated, thinking to herself, *If I were to shout that Xu Ying is right here, everyone in the Hua family would be drawn away by him. Then I could slip into the Hua residence and loot my old father's wealth down to the last penny. Once my old father and Xu Ying wound each other severely, I could swoop in, snatch the five great immortal treasures on Xu Ying, and go establish my own sect across the myriad heavens and worlds as a founding ancestor. With so many treasures, crossing the tribulation and ascending would be a breeze.*
After a moment's hesitation, she did not go through with it. Her time on Mount Penglai had been carefree. Her bonds with Chu Xiangxiang and Gushe had been genuine and warm, free from intrigue and scheming.
The Divine Mother had taken them traveling all around, teaching them ancient immortal arts. She had experienced far more laughter during this period than she ever had in the Hua family, making her cherish the memory deeply.
Hua Cuoying gritted her teeth and departed alongside Xu Ying, thinking to herself, *This time, I'll first lead Xu Ying to find that blasted Dark Yellow Realm. Once he finds it, I'll lure heavenly fiends over to trap him. Then I'll go tell the Hua family that Xu Ying is pinned down here, allowing me to take the opportunity to plunder the Hua residence. That way, once the heavenly fiends finish off both my old father and Young Master Xu, I can come back and scavenge their treasures. Getting my hands on treasures like that will leave my conscience clear!*
The two of them hurried away.
Meanwhile, at the Hua family estate on Fengluan Ridge, the Five Extremes Immortal King was acting with the utmost deference, entertaining a young nobleman clad in white with a brocade belt. The Ninth Immortal King and Nalan Du were also present to keep him company.
The young master was poised and elegant, his complexion as pristine as jade, possessing fair and delicate features. He was an immortal who had descended from above.
"Young Master Ningqing, you have descended to deliver an imperial mandate and now wish to venture deep into Weixu. Without this old man personally leading the way, I fear the perils will be manifold," the Five Extremes Immortal King said after a moment's hesitation. "The depths of Weixu lie outside our jurisdiction. Even ghosts and gods struggle to cross that domain—it is the realm where heavenly fiends dwell."
The poised and elegant Young Master Ningqing smiled. "I heard that in the past, an immortal was demoted to the lower realm and banished to Weixu to suppress the heavenly fiends and prevent upheaval. That immortal was an entity known as the Sword Lord of the Golden River. Is he still in Weixu?"
The Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King exchanged a glance. The former said, "Young Master Ningqing may not be aware, but the Sword Lord of the Golden River was not sent to suppress the heavenly fiends; he bears a different, weightier duty."
Young Master Ningqing was surprised. "I would gladly hear the details."
The Five Extremes Immortal King hesitated, then said, "Brother Nine, you tell him."
The Ninth Immortal King hesitated for a moment before asking, "Has Young Master Ningqing noticed that Weixu shares certain characteristics with the Immortal Realm?"
Young Master Ningqing nodded slightly. "When I arrived, I too found it somewhat strange. This place truly bears similarities to the Immortal Realm. In fact, both of you Immortal Kings are able to preserve your Immortal King cultivation in Weixu! What is the cause of this?"
The Ninth Immortal King explained, "Originally, Weixu was not a dumping ground for heavenly fiends, but a peculiar space formed from the head of a Supreme Sovereign. Later, when the Immortal Realm waged a campaign against the demonic realm, countless immortals fell in battle. Their corpses could hardly be brought back to the Immortal Realm, could they? Land in the Immortal Realm is worth more than its weight in gold; where would there be room to bury them all? And so, some of the immortal corpses were left in the demonic realm to suppress the Demonic Dao."
Pausing briefly, he continued, "While others were cast down into Weixu. The number of fallen immortals was so vast that they formed an Immortal Domain of Corpse Ghosts right here. The Sword Lord of the Golden River was assigned to suppress that very place."
Young Master Ningqing asked in surprise, "Since they were immortals who died fighting for the Immortal Realm and the myriad living beings of the heavens, they must have possessed unyielding righteousness that would not wane even in death. Why would there be any need to suppress them?"
The expressions of both the Ninth Immortal King and the Five Extremes Immortal King turned somewhat unnatural.
The Five Extremes Immortal King stammered, "They felt that they had given their lives for the Immortal Realm yet received no fair treatment after death, and so... their remains harbor immense resentment."
Chapter 417