Sword Monarch Jinhe and Heavenly Lord Pingnan closely followed the scholar with greying temples, passing through wave after wave and entering world after world, though they did not linger in any of them.
Sword Monarch Jinhe glanced at Heavenly Lord Pingnan, having no intention of fighting any further.
Melancholy weighed heavily upon his heart. He was an Immortal Monarch of the Immortal Realm; whether encircling Great Emperor Beiyin or suppressing the Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain, he had acted under orders, bound by duty, leaving him no choice.
Yet if even the Immortal Realm was not the so-called Immortal Realm, why should he obey the orders of the so-called Immortal Court?
He felt as though his guiding principles had suddenly crumbled and dissolved into disillusionment.
What he had once believed to be orthodox turned out not to be orthodox at all.
The boundary stele of the Earth Immortal Realm had dealt an even greater shock to Heavenly Lord Pingnan.
He had fought and died for the Immortal Realm, believing his death to be grand and noble. Denied just treatment after death, he had harbored towering resentment. But now he suddenly realized that he seemed to have died for the wrong cause—the Immortal Realm was not at all what he had believed it to be.
Both were in a daze. They had no idea where this scholar named Xu Jing was heading, nor why they were even following him; they only knew to keep pace behind him.
"Why are you following me?" The scholar, Xu Jing, turned his head and smiled. "You are free now. You can go wherever you please."
"Free?"
Sword Monarch Jinhe and Heavenly Lord Pingnan each gave a bitter smile. They were indeed free, but they had also lost their sense of direction, lost in bewilderment as to the purpose of their lives.
"Since you have nowhere to go, come with me to the Ancestral Court," the scholar Xu Jing said with a smile.
He stepped across a wave, and Sword Monarch Jinhe and Heavenly Lord Pingnan followed. The Yuanchu Great World came into view. More than half of this world had already been "demonized," its Great Dao twisted.
Seeing this, Heavenly Lord Pingnan was gripped by grief and indignation. In sorrowful anguish, he cried, "Back then, our soldiers and generals fought with all our might to eradicate the demonic miasma, yet the Immortal Realm couldn't even defend the domain we conquered for it!"
"What if the so-called demonic miasma was never demonic miasma to begin with?" the scholar Xu Jing turned back and asked with a smile.
Heavenly Lord Pingnan snorted, his expression darkening. He muttered under his breath, "This is the domain I conquered, you little brats..."
They traversed the Yuanchu Great World and arrived at the Boundless Sea of Fire, where they waited for a ferry.
The ferry arrived. Seeing them, the demon god aboard was startled, but obediently ferried them across the Boundless Sea of Fire.
As they passed the immortal tomb of True Lord Erlang, the tomb shook violently. The peerless ferocious entity suppressed within unleashed a tempest of menacing might, battering the tomb and destabilizing the Boundless Sea of Fire.
"I fear this immortal tomb can no longer suppress what lies inside Laojun's Eight Trigrams Furnace," the scholar Xu Jing said. "We can lend a hand so the tomb can hold it down a bit longer."
Heavenly Lord Pingnan said coldly, "I am a Heavenly Lord of the Immortal Realm, and True Lord Erlang is a demon monarch. Why should I help him suppress what is in Laojun's furnace? For all I know, the one sealed inside might be a fellow Daoist of my Immortal Realm!"
Xu Jing looked at him with a smile and gently guided him, "Does the Immortal Realm truly exist? If there is no Immortal Realm, where would demons come from?"
"You!"
Heavenly Lord Pingnan's corpse qi surged turbulently, yet he found himself at a loss for words.
Sword Monarch Jinhe offered up the Jinhe Sword and said, "The one in the tomb possesses pure righteousness; he is certainly no villain. I shall help him."
Heavenly Lord Pingnan snorted and activated his cultivation as well. Xu Jing smiled faintly, and behind him, six cave-heavens emerged—impossibly ancient, warping the starry sky.
Standing on the boat, all three unleashed their respective bodhimandas and cast their dharmic powers. In an instant, dazzling colors burst forth around the immortal tomb, suppressing the raging, baleful aura!
"You are an immortal!" Sword Monarch Jinhe and Heavenly Lord Pingnan blurted out in unison.
Just now, when he mobilized his bodhimanda and employed sealing divine arts, they were unmistakably methods of the Immortal Dao. Both immediately recognized that he was also an immortal—and one of exceedingly high cultivation!
The scholar Xu Jing chuckled. "If you are immortals, naturally I am an immortal as well."
"However, how is it that I have never heard of an Immortal Monarch like you, nor ever seen you?" Sword Monarch Jinhe questioned. "If you were in the Immortal Realm, you would certainly be renowned. There is no way I wouldn't recognize you!"
For the past forty-some thousand years, no one had become an immortal, so this scholar Xu Jing could not possibly have ascended during this period. If he had ascended earlier and was an Immortal Monarch of the Immortal Realm, he would naturally be a prominent figure. Yet Jinhe had never heard of such a person in the Immortal Realm.
The scholar Xu Jing smiled. "I underwent my tribulation forty-eight thousand years ago."
"Impossible!"
Both shook their heads emphatically. The Great Villain had triggered the super heavenly tribulation, making tribulation transcendence extraordinarily difficult, and had severed the Heavenly Road, preventing anyone from ascending. It was utterly impossible for anyone to have undergone tribulation forty-eight thousand years ago!
"I underwent my tribulation in the Immortal Realm," the scholar Xu Jing said, "and it was also in the Immortal Realm that I achieved the rank of Immortal Monarch."
"Impossible!"
The two spoke in unison, startling the demon god punting the ferry into casting glance after glance at them.
Sword Monarch Jinhe said resolutely, "Even if you ascended forty-eight thousand years ago, you could never have become an Immortal Monarch! Once in the Immortal Realm, every step forward in cultivation requires illustrious merits. Without merit, there are no resources!"
Heavenly Lord Pingnan added, "A major reason I risked life and limb in the battle of the Ancestral Court was that I needed such military merits to earn more resources and more territory from the Immortal Realm so I could become a Supreme. Over the past forty-some thousand years, the Immortal Realm has been peaceful; you wouldn't have had any opportunity to earn merit."
Sword Monarch Jinhe nodded. "To advance from Human Immortal to Earth Immortal would already count as rapid progress."
The scholar Xu Jing chuckled. "Being in Yingzhou means being in the Immortal Realm."
With a smile on his face, he said, "I have an extraordinary son. He stole an immortal mountain named Yingzhou from the Immortal Realm, and it was there that I cultivated to become an Immortal Monarch."
Heavenly Lord Pingnan said, "Yingzhou is vast, and the resources of the entire mountain could indeed sustain you to become an Immortal Monarch. But if you wish to break through to Heavenly Lord, it falls somewhat short."
Sword Monarch Jinhe felt a stir in his heart. "Is this child of yours named Xu Ying?"
Xu Jing nodded gently, brimming with pride.
Sword Monarch Jinhe said, "Xu Ying was in Yingzhou just moments ago. I saw him."
The scholar Xu Jing grew intensely excited and asked in haste, "You saw him? He is in Yingzhou? Did he come looking for me?"
Sword Monarch Jinhe said, "He went looking for you, but failed to find you. He did not know you had left via the Heavenly Sea."
The scholar Xu Jing stood dazed. He had been cultivating in Yingzhou all this time, repeatedly attempting to slip into the Immortal Realm to look for Xu Ying. Yet after Xu Ying's ascension, he had never come down again.
"He came looking for me this time—has he already avenged Kunlun?" he inquired.
Sword Monarch Jinhe was taken aback and asked in confusion, "You cultivated in Yingzhou and never left? You didn't know? After stealing Yingzhou, he descended from the Immortal Realm, only to be ambushed along the way. His Undying True Spirit was suppressed for over forty thousand years."
The scholar Xu Jing stood frozen in place, motionless.
"I didn't know. He only told me to cultivate in Yingzhou, and leave everything outside to him..."
He suddenly let out a grief-stricken roar. From within the Boundless Sea of Fire, Tusita fire surged to the heavens—flames that mirrored his burning fury, brimming with sorrow and outrage as they detonated across the sky.
He had never understood why Xu Ying had never come looking for him in all these forty thousand years. Was he truly that busy, or had Xu Ying forgotten the Kunlun tragedy to enjoy comforts in the Immortal Realm?
Could it be because he was a rebel, and Xu Ying needed to avoid suspicion?
He had entertained countless guesses. Ultimately, after cultivating to the Immortal Monarch realm, he could sit still no longer and searched everywhere for a way to leave Yingzhou.
He tried to slip from Yingzhou into the Immortal Realm, but failed. He attempted to enter the six other shores, only to find nothing outside but the void, with nowhere to go.
He had not waited for the geomagnetic torrent between Yingzhou's Yellow Court other shore and Weixu; instead, before that happened, he discovered that Yingzhou's sea might lead to the outside world.
And so he departed Yingzhou.
He never imagined that this departure would cause him to miss their reunion as father and son.
Even less had he imagined that Xu Ying's failure to see him for forty-some thousand years was not a matter of unwillingness, but because his physical body and primordial spirit had been slain, his everything suppressed, turning him into an ageless immortal who wandered the mortal realm with his destiny manipulated.
Punting the boat, the demon god finally brought the ferry to the opposite shore of the Boundless Sea of Fire.
At the shore, the divine beast Xuanwu was carrying Penglai toward them. Floating above Penglai Immortal Mountain, Shenpo smiled as she looked at the scholar Xu Jing aboard the ferry.
Yingzhou was too vast, possessing the breadth of a world. With Sword Monarch Jinhe and Heavenly Lord Pingnan gone, only corpse immortals and corpse ghosts remained here. With the aid of Buddhist Child Jijue, Xu Ying had regained his wits; Buddhist light circulated behind his head, making him resemble a youthful Buddha devoted wholly to goodness.
Jijue worried that he might "relapse," so he hung the Buddha Ancestor's prayer beads around Xu Ying's neck, telling him to channel them constantly.
"Grasp the prayer beads with your left hand. Whenever a stray thought stirs in your mind, flick a bead... Unforgivable damnation!"
Murderous intent radiating from him, Jijue suddenly hurled out a beam of Buddhist light, blasting a cluster of corpse immortals into utter oblivion. Then he trotted back, his face beaming with Buddhist radiance, and said to Xu Ying, "Heaven values the preservation of life. Benefactor Ah Ying, you must devote your heart to the Buddha and remain peaceful like me so you won't be swayed by the great curse... Transcendence!"
*Boom!*
In the distance, ghost immortals detonated amidst the resounding Buddhist hymns, scattering into wisps of green smoke.
Xu Ying could not help feeling that Jijue's so-called "peacefulness" was somewhat unreliable. This monk had delicate, handsome features, yet wherever he went, rivers of blood flowed. Of course, those who died were corpse immortals and ghost immortals formed from resentful immortal corpses, so it could still be considered ridding the world of evil.
If these corpse immortals and ghost immortals escaped Weixu, they would certainly cause immense destruction; how could the Qi Refiners of the myriad heavens and worlds ever withstand them?
Right at that moment, the sky suddenly trembled incessantly. Yingzhou shook like the hand of a drunkard. From the depths of the earth, brilliant rays of multi-colored light erupted and soared skyward, converging into a stream in midair!
That multi-colored light was produced by geomagnetic primal force erupting from the Earth's bowels. Drawn by the power of the Sea of Chaos, it gradually coalesced into a torrent hundreds of li wide, surging straight toward the Chaos other shore!
Xu Ying gazed into the distance toward the Chaos other shore. A thought stirred within him, and he said, "Jijue, I need to make a trip to the Chaos other shore to search for the traces left behind by my first life!"
Dreading that Xu Ying might be taken over by the great curse if left alone, Buddhist Child Jijue hurriedly said, "I will go with you!"
Xu Ying took to the air, plunging into the geomagnetic torrent one after the other with Jijue, heading for the Chaos other shore.
At the same time, numerous corpse immortals and ghost immortals took to the sky as well, flying toward the Chaos other shore.
Trapped in Yingzhou with no known path of escape, and deprived of Heavenly Lord Pingnan's Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain, they would only gradually weaken, decay, and ultimately perish.
Therefore, they too had to find a way out.
Seeing this, Jijue immediately charged forward, trading blows with those corpse immortals and corpse ghosts within the geomagnetic torrent.
Several corpse lords among the torrent were formidable in strength and lunged at Jijue. Although Jijue's cultivation and prowess were inferior to theirs, his Buddhist dharma countered them perfectly, allowing him to contend with them by leveraging the torrent of geomagnetic primal force.
Xu Ying could not intervene. He considered using the prayer beads, but feared that doing so would allow the Imperial Monarch's sealing curse to take advantage of him, so he could only press forward.
That Chaos other shore was shrouded in a sea of fire, its original appearance no longer recognizable; only the Chaos Mud Pill Palace stood tall amidst the chaotic immortal fire.
Reaching the Mud Pill Palace, the Daoist method to open the palace doors unconsciously surfaced in Xu Ying's mind. His hands promptly formed various immortal talismans and seal imprints, pressing them onto the palace doors.
The palace doors slid back.
Stepping inside the Mud Pill Palace, Xu Ying saw that there was indeed an immortal furnace here as well, though on a far larger scale than the one in the Yellow Court Mansion.
From the top of the furnace vessel, a strand of chaotic qi drifted downward, drawn precisely into this furnace.
Presumably, this was the raw material for the Mud Pill Palace's immortal elixir of longevity!
"This single strand of Chaos Qi nourished countless Nuo masters and Nuo Immortals, granting them longevity. Likewise, this very strand of Chaos Qi led to countless Nuo masters and Nuo Immortals being harvested like chives."
Xu Ying sighed inwardly, unconsciously recalling what had happened in Yuanshou.
With his current extraordinary vision, he examined the various seals and diagrams etched upon the immortal furnace's surface, quickly grasping the Immortal Dao mysteries they represented.
He had no idea where he had originally comprehended the refinement method for the Chaos Mud Pill Palace, which was why he had come to the Chaos other shore to seek clues.
"My first life ascended to immortality seven times and descended to the mortal realm seven times. He must have experienced so much and visited vastly more places than I have. Perhaps he encountered a being who attained the Dao through Chaos somewhere, comprehended the refinement method of the Mud Pill Palace from that person, and thus created this place to refine Chaos Qi into immortal elixir."
Xu Ying pondered as he studied the intricate mysteries of the immortal furnace's imprints.
Gradually, he realized something was amiss.
"The immortal dao runes and Ancestral Court dao patterns used on this furnace are all things I learned before. They are merely used in a blended fashion."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered, and he murmured, "In other words, for the Chaos Mud Pill Palace, I didn't comprehend the bodhimanda of any being cultivating the Dao of Chaos. Instead, using methods I had previously learned, I refined this Chaos immortal furnace myself to refine Chaos Qi into immortal elixir."
Reaching this conclusion, Xu Ying exhaled a breath of turbid air and muttered, "I was too amazing. But being that amazing makes things very difficult for me."
A severe headache washed over him. His first life had not found any Chaos bodhimanda and had nothing to copy from. Thus, exhausting all his lifelong knowledge and relying on his own supreme wisdom, he had actually conjured something from nothing, creating out of thin air a method to refine Chaos Qi into immortal elixir! With this method, he forged the Chaos immortal furnace and built the Mud Pill Palace, benefiting all Nuo masters under heaven.
Yet this presented Xu Ying with a difficult conundrum. Previously, he had been able to open the other five Immortal Realm cave-heavens by contemplating the bodhimandas of powerful entities from ancient eras, learning the Daos of those ancient paragons, and thereby intuiting the Immortal Realm cave-heavens.
Now, the road had been carved by himself, the Dao forged by himself—there was nothing for him to copy!
Xu Ying sighed, turned around, and walked out of the Mud Pill Palace. Closing the doors, he stepped out of the sea of fire.
He prepared to give up.
His first life had not yet comprehended a Chaos bodhimanda and could not open an Immortal Realm cave-heaven; he had merely forged the Mud Pill Palace and refined Chaos Qi.
He had not yet fully awakened the memories of his first life; to comprehend a Chaos bodhimanda upon this foundation was virtually impossible!
He stepped into the geomagnetic torrent, where dazzling rays of multicolored geomagnetic divine light flashed past his eyes.
Xu Ying suddenly halted and looked back toward the Chaos other shore.
The Sea of Chaos was boundless and infinite. The other shore looked like a leaf drifting on the sea, and the Mud Pill Palace was like a solitary spark of fire upon the leaf.
He hesitated for a moment, then sat down right in the geomagnetic torrent, muttering to himself, "The me of my first life could conjure something from nothing and invent a method to refine Chaos Qi. He is me, and I am also me. Could it be that I fall short of myself?"
Widening his eyes, he observed the Sea of Chaos at close range, verifying one by one the insights he had gained over the past few years from contemplating the bodhimandas of various ancient beings. Unawares, several days passed.
Suddenly, the torrent of geomagnetic primal force shuddered violently and snapped with a thunderous roar.
Chapter 435