The Heavenly Fiend Supreme watched the Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain and Sword Lord Jinhe vanish into the distance, then withdrew his gaze. Stepping over to Xu Ying, he frowned slightly. "Lord Xu, why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
In his eyes, the garments Xu Ying had visualized were completely nonexistent; they could not deceive his vision.
Seeing that Xu Ying truly had no clothing to produce, the Heavenly Fiend Supreme took out his own everyday garments—a jade belt, boots, and the like, draped in a red robe embroidered with a diagram of the Five Sacred Mountains and Three Divine Peaks. "Wear these for now. You can return them to me once you have your own."
Xu Ying expressed his thanks, put them on, and straightened them out. Seeing how dashing and heroic he looked in them, the Heavenly Fiend Supreme smiled. "They suit you quite well. Moreover, if you had Great Daos transformed into flowing sashes, you would appear even more spirited and celestial."
Xu Ying shook his head with a chuckle. "My cultivation has not yet reached that stage. I can only form Dao phenomena, or at most forge runes. I cannot yet manifest complete Great Daos."
The Heavenly Fiend Supreme said, "How many Dao methods have you comprehended? Yet you are shackled by realms. If one day you leap beyond realms and are no longer constrained by them, then the Dao methods you previously comprehended will become your greatest assets."
Xu Ying had been listening with a smile, but as he listened further, he found the words deeply insightful.
He truly understood far too many Great Daos. Leaving aside his cultivation in his first life, in this life alone, he had thoroughly mastered all the Heavenly Dao runes, received the inheritance of the Imperial Monarch, united with the Dao at the Dao Revelation Ground, attained great Dao enlightenment at Lihen, entered the Dao at the Jade Void Palace in the Kunlun Realm, comprehended the Dao at Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain, gleaned insights from the Twelve-Story Pavilion in the Nether Sea, and now completed his Dao union in the Xuanhuang Realm.
If nothing else, all of those places were the dojos of ancient beings—places where they had imprinted the Great Daos of heaven and earth!
What was engraved there was their understanding of the Dao!
Xu Ying had repeatedly united with the Dao, comprehended the Dao, and entered the Dao, piecing together the fragmented Great Dao imprints between heaven and earth. To say nothing of higher beings, an Immortal King certainly did not possess attainment like his!
Yet his realm remained at the Twelve-Story Pavilion Realm, not even having reached the Ascension Realm!
He knew so much, yet could not cross the barrier of realms to forge the Dao chains that only Immortal Kings could form.
For others, realms elevated their cultivation and power; for him, realms restricted his cultivation and power. The realms had become his encumbrance!
Previously, Xu Ying had never considered this. Only now, having been enlightened by the Heavenly Fiend Supreme, did it dawn on him.
"Yet if realms have become a restriction, where does the problem lie?" Xu Ying murmured to himself.
The Heavenly Fiend Supreme still maintained the demeanor of a kindly old man, smiling as he spoke: "Didn't you discover the problem long ago? Lord Xu, back when you spread the six secret depositories, didn't you already know that realms restricted not only you and me, but all the people of the world?"
He was speaking of Xu Ying's first life.
That Xu Ying was someone even he held in high esteem.
Xu Ying fell into contemplation.
The Heavenly Fiend Supreme continued to guide him: "For someone who has never practiced Qi Refining, his realm is plain and simple; he is merely a mortal. Let us call it the mortal realm. A mortal cultivating the mortal realm will remain a mortal for an entire lifetime. But if we add a supplement beyond the mortal realm—the Qi Refining realm—then the Qi Refining realm becomes something outside the mortal realm. Qi Refiners are far more powerful than mortals and master far more principles."
Xu Ying's eyes lit up. "If I use the six secret depositories to supplement the Qi Refining realm, then a Qi Refiner who masters the six secret depositories is far more powerful than an ordinary Qi Refiner. Such a Qi Refiner masters more principles than an ordinary Qi Refiner, and his realm can accommodate more principles."
The Heavenly Fiend Supreme laughed. "Lord Xu, what if Qi Refiners and the six secret depositories still cannot accommodate the principles you have mastered? Then, outside the realms of today, do other realms exist?"
Having said this, he summoned the Heavenly Fiend Imperial Monarch and the others, saying, "We are returning to our immortal domain. Lord Xu, we bid you farewell here."
Xu Ying inquired, "Dao Brother, now that the Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain has escaped Weixu, you too have the opportunity to leave. Are you truly not going?"
The Heavenly Fiend Supreme smiled. "If we leave Weixu, the heavenly fiends here will spiral completely out of control, forming a fiendish tide that will crash against everything. Moreover, we are heavenly fiends. If we leave Weixu, where could we go? Don't forget..."
He smiled faintly and added, "We are heavenly fiends after all. We possess benevolent thoughts, but malevolent thoughts will also erupt. The immortals of the Immortal Realm will continually sever new heavenly fiends and cast them into Weixu. Therefore, staying in Weixu is the best choice for us."
Xu Ying pondered this and found his words profoundly sensible.
He watched the Heavenly Fiend Supreme and the others depart, remaining floating alone in the sky. Turning his head to look back, he saw the Xuanhuang Realm overturned within Weixu.
Dark heaven and yellow earth—a stretch of palatial halls manifested between heaven and earth, where a Daoist was sweeping the grounds.
Xu Ying cast a distant glance at it and, without hesitation, turned to leave.
*Surviving on my own is already difficult enough, let alone shouldering other responsibilities.* He said in a low voice, "Fellow Daoist, if you seek something, you had best seek it from someone else."
The Daoist who was sweeping paused in his work, gazing in the direction of Xu Ying's departure with a pensive look.
Xu Ying arrived before the torrent of geomagnetic primordial power. By now, the Yellow Court other shore had drifted outside the eye socket of the Supreme skull. Before long, the geomagnetic torrent would break off, and he would lose the chance to travel to the other shore.
Whether he went to the other shore mattered little to Xu Ying; where he truly wished to go was Yingzhou!
The third immortal mountain he had brought down from the Immortal Realm surely held many secrets from his first life!
*After entering the Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain, I became separated from Hua Cuoying. I wonder if she is safe?*
Xu Ying looked all around. The situation back then had been far too chaotic; he had been pursued by the Five Extremes Immortal King, and he had no idea where Hua Cuoying had hidden. Still, many corpse kings and corpse immortals had charged toward the geomagnetic torrent back then—had she managed to evade them?
Suddenly, the geomagnetic torrent began to flicker intermittently. Hesitating for a moment, Xu Ying stepped resolutely into the geomagnetic flow, rushing toward the eye socket of the Supreme skull.
Opportunities were rare; if he failed to seize this one, there was no telling how long he would have to wait.
*Cuoying is from Weixu and knows its geography well. She should be fine!*
Xu Ying accelerated steadily until he transformed into a streak of flowing light. Before the geomagnetic torrent severed completely, he dashed through the Supreme skull's eye socket and plunged toward the Yellow Court other shore amid the collapsing flow.
On the other side, the Five Extremes Immortal King sped like lightning to Fengluan Ridge and entered the Hua family estate, only to find the surroundings in absolute shambles. The household was in turmoil, with numerous dead and wounded.
The Five Extremes Immortal King flew into a rage, grabbing a man and barking, "What happened?"
The man dared not conceal anything and hastily said, "The eldest young mistress came! She cleaned out Your Lordship's treasury! When we tried to stop her, she attacked and wounded us!"
Both shocked and furious, the Five Extremes Immortal King rushed before his treasury, his hands and feet turning ice-cold.
How did this place look anything like a treasury anymore?
The doors hung wide open, and everything within had been swept clean; not a single thing remained!
"My good daughter... truly my good daughter, my thoughtful little quilted jacket..."
The Five Extremes Immortal King spat out a mouthful of blood and demanded, "When did this happen?"
"Just a short while ago, less than an hour!"
"The little quilted jacket hasn't gone far!"
Boiling with murderous intent, the Five Extremes Immortal King was about to lead everyone in the Hua family to the mortal realm below to hunt down Hua Cuoying. Just then, the Ninth Immortal King rushed over and said, "The Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain has escaped Weixu! There is no need for us to descend to the lower realm!"
The Five Extremes Immortal King grunted coldly in fury. "That black-hearted wench took advantage of the chaos to ransack my treasury! I am going to descend in person and execute her!"
The Ninth Immortal King cautioned him, "Fellow Daoist, once you descend, you will no longer be an Immortal King. You might not be her match."
Hearing this, the Five Extremes Immortal King's heart jolted. It was true that Hua Cuoying's skills had been taught by him, and he knew them like the back of his hand; in a duel, she would inevitably fall by his hand. The crux, however, was that she had not been in Weixu all these years, but on Mount Penglai. What if she had learned far more formidable ultimate arts there?
*Impossible! I know the background of every immortal on Penglai. Meng Wuhuai, the Immortal Master, was envious of talent and abilities; none of the immortals who remained on Penglai could compare to him. There is no way that black-hearted little quilted jacket could have learned a technique more powerful than my Five Extremes Sky-Transcending Art!*
At this thought, the Five Extremes Immortal King told the Ninth Immortal King, "Dao Brother, if I cannot vent this foul rage, my Dao heart will never find peace. I will make a trip to the lower realm and personally discipline that unfilial daughter!"
The Ninth Immortal King hesitated for a moment, then said, "Go ahead. I will control Weixu to support you."
The Five Extremes Immortal King was profoundly grateful.
The Ninth Immortal King manipulated Weixu's strange eye to search for Hua Cuoying's whereabouts, discovering that the direction of her departure led straight to the Ancestral Court. He immediately directed the strange eye to monitor the Ancestral Court. The Five Extremes Immortal King flew out from beneath the eyelid and, in the next instant, arrived in the Ancestral Court.
Meanwhile, Xu Ying was inside the torrent of geomagnetic primordial power, riding the surge toward the Yellow Court other shore.
Looking back, he saw an unimaginably gigantic skull floating in the vast expanse of void.
Suddenly, the skull's one intact eye opened, then closed. It opened and closed again; with each opening and closing, a different world was reflected within its gaze.
After opening and closing several times, that Supreme eye actually reflected the scenery of the Ancestral Court!
Immediately afterward, a beam of light shot out from the eye, bearing a silhouette within it. With a *whoosh*, it vanished alongside the light, having entered the Ancestral Court!
"The Supreme truly possesses boundless, unfathomable divine powers," Xu Ying could not help but sigh in admiration as he stepped into the Yellow Court other shore.
In the Ancestral Court.
Hua Cuoying wore a bright smile, her steps light and brisk as she followed the footprints left behind by the divine beast Xuanwu, pursuing Penglai.
The girl in court dress murmured to herself, "Coming home this time earned me more than enough for a dowry. I can find a good family to marry into. Even if I can't marry out, it doesn't matter—I'll just become a patriarch myself and undergo tribulation to ascend! It's just that I left the Immortal Master behind in Weixu this time; I'm afraid things look grim for him. When I return to Penglai and Chu Xiangxiang asks, I'll tell her he's safe. After a few years, I'll tell her Immortal Master Xu has died, and her grief will be far less. I truly know how to comfort people."
"What a good daughter!" A faint sigh came from ahead. Hua Cuoying's heart skipped a beat, and looking up, she saw her father, the Five Extremes Immortal King, standing before her with a sorrowful expression.
Hua Cuoying's face changed instantly, and she called out timidly, "Father..."
The Five Extremes Immortal King glanced at her, murderous intent blazing within him. "Ying'er, you gave my Twelve-Story Pavilion to Xu Ying to win his favor, and now you have stolen the wealth I accumulated over half my life to give to him as well. What benefits did Xu Ying give you to make you cast aside our bond of father and daughter and commit such an act that enrages both heaven and earth?"
Hua Cuoying said, "Father, in the Heavenly Fiend Immortal Domain, I encountered the parts severed from you..."
"Die!"
Refusing to listen to her explanation, the Five Extremes Immortal King attacked directly. The moment he struck, he unleashed the Five Extremes Sky-Transcending Art with ruthless malice, sneering, "I created you, and I can destroy you!"
Hua Cuoying abruptly mobilized her primordial qi. A heavenly river seemed to hang suspended, swirling around her like an enormous dragon. When she struck with a wave of her hand, a weight like an entire heavenly river came crashing down, shattering his Five Extremes Sky-Transcending Force!
The Five Extremes Immortal King felt an invincible power crushing down upon him, forcing him to stagger backward in shock and fury.
*What technique is she using? This isn't an immortal art; it's a demonic art from an ancient era! She has fallen into the demonic path!*
Hua Cuoying pressed her attack. In just a brief moment, father and daughter exchanged several blows. The Five Extremes Immortal King suffered a crushing defeat, his throat seized in Hua Cuoying's grip.
Despair filled the Five Extremes Immortal King's heart. The art this girl had learned on Penglai was definitely superior to Immortal King arts; otherwise, he could never have been defeated so swiftly and utterly!
"Father, in the Heavenly Fiend Immortal Domain, I encountered both the benevolent and malevolent thoughts you severed."
Hua Cuoying hesitated for a moment, then released his throat, saying dejectedly, "I only wanted to draw your attention. I only wanted you to return to the time before you severed your benevolent thoughts. If you can welcome back the you from the Heavenly Fiend Immortal Domain, I will definitely return all the treasures. I will even steal back the Twelve-Story Pavilion from Immortal Master Xu..."
Right then, the sky split open and Weixu reappeared. The towering figure of the Ninth Immortal King reached down with a massive hand. The Five Extremes Immortal King hastily shouted, "Brother Nine, get rid of this black-hearted daughter for me! Treat it as though I never fathered her!"
Hua Cuoying retreated despondently, staying far out of the Ninth Immortal King's reach.
The Ninth Immortal King rescued the Five Extremes Immortal King. Once back in Weixu, the Five Extremes Immortal King remained unreconciled, glaring around. "Vile wench, don't let me ever find you!"
On the other side, Xu Ying followed the long torrent of geomagnetic primordial power and arrived at the Yellow Court other shore.
Xuanhuang immortal fire burned everywhere across this place. This flame was extraordinary; even immortals who arrived here had to tread with utmost caution, sealing their sensory faculties to avoid having the immortal fire scorch their internal organs and Primordial Spirits.
"The immortal fire here was set by me."
Xu Ying walked through the flames. There were still a few Qi Refiners possessed by heavenly fiends here, but the heat had forced them to seal their eyes, ears, mouths, noses, and every pore on their bodies; burning to death was only a matter of time.
Xu Ying arrived before the towering Yellow Court Mansion. The mansion was an immortal artifact he had forged based on the Dao methods he had comprehended in the Xuanhuang Realm. The gates of this artifact were sealed; without a unique unsealing method, they could not be opened.
Looking at the shifting, evolving immortal Dao runes on the gate, a segment of memory suddenly surfaced in Xu Ying's mind—the precise method to dispel the gate's seal.
He raised his palm, where various immortal Dao runes leaped to life, pressing forward layer upon layer to interlock with the runes on the gate.
The gate immediately receded and vanished from sight.
Xu Ying stepped into the Yellow Court Mansion. The fragrance of immortal herbs permeated the air, and a massive immortal furnace was gathering the immortal herbs of this place. An intoxicating aroma of medicine wafted from the furnace vessel.
This furnace vessel had also been forged by Xu Ying in his first life, crafted into a receptacle capable of absorbing the power of heaven and earth to refine divine consciousness immortal medicine.
When Nuo masters opened the Yellow Court Secret Depository and the Yellow Court cave-heaven reeled in divine consciousness immortal medicine, it all originated from this very vessel.
And the immortal medicine within the furnace vessel came from the world where the Yellow Court Mansion resided. Why could the power of heaven and earth here be refined into divine consciousness immortal medicine?
Xu Ying raised his hand and gently caressed the colossal furnace. The runes upon it included both immortal Dao runes and patterns of strange beasts, extraordinarily intricate and concealing the profound mysteries of the Dao.
Now, he was already able to understand the immortal Dao runes and strange beast patterns upon it. *The me of the first life must have been curious as well: Why does the other shore possess such power? Why is my Xu family called the Undying People, wielding power like this?*
Xu Ying stepped out of the Yellow Court Mansion and murmured softly, "Today, I should finally be able to explore the mysteries of this other shore!"
Chapter 428