Unable to catch up, the three Xu Yings flew back one after another and landed at Xu Ying's side.
Xu Ying glared at them, but the three Xu Yings did not care in the slightest.
Xu Li barked, "What are you glaring at? We are you! Taking advantage of her distraction to hurt her was your idea too!"
With a thought, Xu Ying converted the three Xu Yings into three streams of primordial qi—Supreme Clarity, Jade Clarity, and High Clarity—and drew them back into his body.
Sifting through his thoughts, Xu Ying sighed inwardly. 'Ambushing Xiyue and trying to take back the four great treasures really was my idea. I truly am contemptible.'
He felt invigorated, entirely devoid of sorrow or self-reproach.
He had indeed remembered the red-clad woman's name, but not much else. As for what past experiences he had shared with Xiyue, none came to mind.
Piloting her immortal raft, Xiyue fled all the way out of the Northern Wilderness of the Ancestral Court where Xu Ying was. Looking back and seeing no sign of him giving chase, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She halted to tend to her wounds. Tearing her robes to expose her fair skin, she retrieved medicine bottles one by one from her Realm of Xiyi. Tilting her head back, she downed various immortal pills, then drew out several immortal herbs, plucking leaves or stems to ingest or smear across her injuries.
Possessing the immortal raft, Xiyue held a monopoly over the smuggling route across the Heavenly River. Any immortal wishing to descend to the mortal realm—or even retrieve someone from the mortal plane—had to go through her to travel between the immortal and mortal worlds.
Naturally, she drove hard bargains, extorting immortal pills, immortal elixirs, cultivation arts, divine abilities, immortal artifacts, and other treasures from these stowaways. Over the years, she had amassed considerable wealth.
Some of the immortal herbs she used to dress her wounds were rare treasures among treasures, the kind only found in the estates of Immortal Kings or Immortal Monarchs. Yet she possessed them in abundance. These remedies served various purposes, some even capable of mending Dao wounds within flesh, making them extraordinarily potent!
The three Xu Yings who had struck her earlier embodied his vicious, savage, and cruel aspects. Striking while her mind was thrown into disarray, they had severely wounded her, nearly taking her life.
Suppressing her injuries, Xiyue sat atop the immortal raft with her feet dangling over the edge. The raft drifted in midair, her red garments trailing behind it and fluttering in the breeze.
"The old scoundrel's skills mirror my own. Most of his power lies in the five great treasures behind him, which constitute his five outer realms. It is the same for me."
Xiyue's eyes flickered, and she murmured, "This time, his three incarnations ambushed me and nearly stripped away these four treasures. That means his weakness is identical to mine. If I strip him of his five great treasures, killing him will be far simpler."
Her condition gradually stabilized.
Just then, a colossal heaven-mending divine artifact rose into the air not far away. Dao patterns coiled over it like dragons, crawling across its surface, and Dao light radiated outward from within, gradually linking with the brilliance shed by other heaven-mending divine artifacts.
A white-robed scholar floated upward, observing the divine artifact to examine its operation.
Spotting the white-robed scholar, Xiyue was startled and moved to hide, but he suddenly turned his head, catching her before she could slip away.
Abandoning all pretense of concealment, she muttered, "Brat."
The white-robed scholar was none other than the Little Celestial Venerable. Walking toward her, he smiled. "It really is you. Senior Sister Xiyue..."
"Call me Martial Aunt Xi!" Xiyue snapped fiercely.
The Little Celestial Venerable sneered, "Your skills were learned from Master, and mine were learned from Master as well. On what basis are you the martial aunt and I the nephew?"
Xiyue sneered back, "On the basis that you never received his true legacy! On the basis that everything you learned was taught to you offhandedly! On the basis that you couldn't even master the Eight Desolations Sun Refining Furnace, the Chaotic Star Sea, the Sinking Star Divine Tree, or Reversing Heaven and Earth! Ergou, aren't you going to address your martial aunt?"
The Little Celestial Venerable laughed in exasperation. "I clearly learned even better arts! Besides, if I'm Ergou, then you're Dagou—you're still my senior sister!"
The two stared each other down, both wearing rather menacing expressions.
Xiyue did not bother arguing further. Scanning her surroundings, she said languidly, "Ergou has made something of himself lately, making quite a stir in the Ancestral Court. I'm happy for you."
Yet she looked not the least bit happy for him; instead, a look of envy crossed her face.
Hailing from the same master, seeing her junior brother fare better than herself left a bitter taste in her mouth.
The Little Celestial Venerable, however, was overjoyed and beamed. "To receive Senior Sister's approval makes me happy to death. Senior Sister, your face is contorting with jealousy. Rein it in a little."
Before him, Xiyue had no intention of holding back; she wanted him to see her envy.
—Only envy from his senior sister counted as the highest praise for the Little Celestial Venerable.
After all, Xiyue had once been another figure of idolization for him in his youth. For his former idol to envy his present achievements—the value of such praise was self-evident.
Suppressing his delight, the Little Celestial Venerable asked, "Senior Sister, are you still hunting down Master?"
"You call him Master again?"
Xiyue cast him a sidelong glance. "Didn't you used to call him Old Dog Xu? Didn't you hate him to the marrow, wishing you could butcher him? Ah, that's right. You encountered him long ago. Not only did you fail to kill him, he bought you off."
She sneered, "These heaven-mending divine artifacts—he's the one who helped you complete them, isn't he?"
Pointing at the Little Celestial Venerable, she shouted, "Have you forgotten how he abandoned you back then, tossing you aside like a stray dog? Everyone in the entire Ancestral Court was abandoned by him, discarded like a pack of wild dogs!"
The Little Celestial Venerable hesitated, then walked forward and stepped onto the immortal raft.
Xiyue glared at his feet, her gaze fierce and thoroughly displeased. "Get down! You're dirtying my vessel!"
Accustomed to being bullied by her since childhood, the Little Celestial Venerable stepped down at once. Only when his feet touched the ground below did he come to his senses: 'Why should I fear her? I am now the Little Celestial Venerable of the Ancestral Court, the foremost person here! My cultivation and strength have long surpassed hers! I could take on ten of her!'
Fierce though his thoughts were, he did not dare step onto the immortal raft again.
"Senior Sister, I don't believe Master is that kind of person,"
the Little Celestial Venerable mustered his courage and said. "Besides, he has suffered for over forty thousand years. Whatever grievances remain should be laid to rest."
Xiyue scoffed. "A woman's softness!"
She could not help but recall the past. Back then, Celestial Venerable Xu enjoyed boundless renown throughout the Ancestral Court, his fame topping the world. The Ancestral Court had been revitalized by his arrival, and countless people followed him.
She had been one of them.
She had even harbored faint, tender fantasies and longings. Yet one day, without a single word of explanation, Xu Ying abandoned everyone and ascended to the Immortal Realm.
When a woman's hatred took root, it was naturally far fiercer and longer-lasting than a man's.
Thus, she resolved to ascend, to become an immortal, and to enter the Immortal Realm as well!
It took her three centuries to finally cultivate her arts to a level approaching Xu Ying's back then, and to endure the heavenly tribulation and ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Only upon arriving in the Immortal Realm did she discover that a certain Xu had become the Immortal Realm's foremost hunting hound!
A certain Xu had risen high above, becoming the head of the Dipper Department, the agency utilized by the Immortal Court specifically to suppress dissidents—none other than Celestial Venerable Xu, Realized One Xu of the Three Realized Ones of the Central Dipper!
The old dog had even grown exceedingly close to a fair fairy of the Immortal Realm, their relationship whispered about as a romantic tale!
How could Xiao Xixian tolerate this?
She had repeatedly infiltrated the Dipper Department to assassinate Old Dog Xu, only for Xu Ying to evade every attempt. She herself barely escaped with her life each time, slipping past the Dipper Department's pursuit.
From then on, the Dipper Department hunted her everywhere. Unable to survive in the core of the Immortal Realm, she fled to the borderlands, where serendipity led her to become a smuggler running people across the Immortal Realm's borders.
Because of this, she gained a nickname: the Immortal Trafficker, Xiao Xixian.
Yet by the time Xiyue settled into her life in the Immortal Realm, the next news she heard of Xu Ying was that he was branded a rebel.
She searched for his whereabouts, only to discover that he had long fallen from grace.
When she tracked him down again, he had become a fool in the mortal world.
"I intended to kill him, but every time I went and saw how miserable his life was, saw him being toyed with like an idiot, I felt happier and more vindicated than if I had slaughtered him,"
Xiyue murmured. "My hatred for him stems from his betrayal of himself! So long as I saw him suffer, I felt that retribution had found him. And so I smuggled myself down to the mortal realm time and again just to see how he was doing. Every time I witnessed his pathetic state, I felt that the Heavenly Dao worked in cycles and justice was served. But this time, when I saw him doing better and better, I felt that the heavens were blind. If the heavens won't act, I will do it myself!"
Her fierce demeanor reminded the Little Celestial Venerable of the past.
Back then, when Xu Ying ascended, Xiyue was consumed by uncontrollable rage. She threw herself into cultivation like a madwoman, honing her skills and vowing to ascend to the Immortal Realm to demand answers from him. Unable to bear seeing his senior sister torment herself so, he had tried to comfort her, only for Xiyue to seize him by the collar and lift him into the air.
At that time, flames of fury burned in Xiyue's eyes as she snarled at him under her breath, "I will go up there and demand an explanation! I will not allow his reputation to be tarnished! I must find him, learn the truth, and tell our uncles and elders that he never betrayed us! And if he truly has turned traitor, I will strangle him with my own hands—do you understand?!"
She had hurled him to the ground. The Little Celestial Venerable would never forget that sight.
After a moment of silence, the Little Celestial Venerable said, "Senior Sister, when Master left us behind to ascend, could he have had hidden difficulties?"
"Hidden difficulties? Bullshit difficulties!"
Xiyue fumed. "I used to be as naive as you, imagining that after ascending, he would strive to reform this corrupt Immortal Realm! I thought that once he became an immortal official, he would look after the people of the lower realms and shield the Ancestral Court, freeing us from the stigma of demons! I thought he had hidden difficulties! But what did I see? When I infiltrated the Dipper Department and lurked outside his gates day after day, I saw him reveling in wine and women every single night, surrounded by different girls each day!"
Her fury raged like a wildfire. "When there were no women, he was leading troops to brutally crush rebel armies without mercy! He had long ceased to be the man he once was—he deserves to be chopped into mincemeat and fed to dogs!"
The Little Celestial Venerable wanted to defend Xu Ying, but having never ascended, he had not witnessed Xu Ying's deeds in the Immortal Realm, leaving him with no counterargument.
"Senior Sister, Celestial Venerable Xu of the first life is already dead,"
he said after a moment's thought. "Whether he was good or evil, whether he betrayed himself and his ideals, whether he had hidden difficulties—he is dead. The Xu Ying who lives now is not Celestial Venerable Xu, but a snake-catching youth. Senior Sister, stop this. Let it go."
Xiyue's killing intent flared, and she sneered, "If I refuse to stop, refuse to let it go, are you going to kill me?"
The Little Celestial Venerable shook his head. "You are my closest kin; how could I ever raise a hand against you? But Master is your closest kin as well."
Turning around to continue his work on the Heaven Mending Plan, he asked, "Do you truly have the heart to strike him down?"
Sitting on the immortal raft, Xiyue stared blankly into space, as if examining her own heart to see whether she truly possessed the resolve to deliver the fatal blow to Xu Ying.
After a long silence, she murmured softly:
"'When Duke of Zhou feared the rumors, dread ran deep,
When Wang Mang showed reverence ere he dared to leap.
Had their lives been cut short while yet in that grace,
Who could ever have known the truth of their face?'
"I have already discerned his truth, so why would I lack the heart to strike him down? What's more..."
She fell silent.
What was more, to ensure this grand plan of slaying Xu succeeded, she had already notified many of Xu Ying's old friends. For instance, certain Realized Ones of the Dipper Department!
'Even if I fail to kill him, his old friends from the Dipper Department certainly will!'
***
In the Northern Wilderness.
Imperial Monarch Cangtian strolled over, radiating an air of calm detachment. "Fellow Daoist Xu, do you have some history with that woman?"
Xu Ying shook his head. "I don't recall, only that I recognized her. Where did Brother Dao go just now?"
Imperial Monarch Cangtian replied, "Admiring the scenery."
Xu Ying gave the middle-aged Taoist a penetrating look. Imperial Monarch Cangtian laughed heartily and brought up his previous boast. "If there's another ambush ahead, it's definitely meant for me. The leader of the Four Saints of the Northern Pole did not earn his title in vain!"
Yet as they walked along, the journey remained utterly peaceful, devoid of any ambushes.
Imperial Monarch Cangtian felt his face burning. Several times he stole glances upward, staring at the sky with deep suspicion.
'What's wrong with those fellows in the Immortal Realm? Have the Four Saints of the Northern Pole truly become yesterday's faded glory?'
Eventually, the two arrived in the vicinity of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court. Xu Ying looked around and saw toppled divine statues everywhere. These statues were exceedingly ancient; some were buried beneath heavy soil with only half their heads showing, while others had weathered until their features were entirely indiscernible.
Varying portions of their forms lay buried beneath the earth, and not the faintest trace of incense scent lingered upon them.
The incense belonging to these deities had long dispersed. No one remembered their names, no one worshipped them, and no one lit a stick of incense or burned a single paper offering for them.
The death of ancient gods was just that simple—often slipping away in obscurity, perishing in utter silence.
Xu Ying glanced at Imperial Monarch Cangtian. This monarch possessed an overwhelmingly dense aura of incense smoke qi and carried the title Ancestor of All Gods. Was he somehow connected to these ancient deities that had silently perished?
As if reading his thoughts, Imperial Monarch Cangtian spoke with distant eyes. "I hail from the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court. Though I bear the title Ancestor of All Gods outside, in truth I am not ancient enough to warrant it. Many of the stone statues on this desolate plain are far older than I. The true Ancestor of All Gods is the Ancestral God."
With a solemn expression, he continued, "He is the world's very first god. Legend has it that He is older even than the ancient eras, having appeared before humankind, the first deity to govern the Heavenly Dao, an innate object of faith. Formed from the Heavenly Dao, He is the ancestor of the Primordial Spirit; the Primordial Spirits cultivated by Qi Refiners were modeled after Him. He is the Ancestral God, the Primordial Spirit of all things in heaven and earth, the Primordial Spirit of the cosmos and the starry sky!"
Xu Ying felt a yearning stir within him, eager to meet this entity.
"Thus, the Ancestral God was never slain by the Immortal Realm. He cannot be killed,"
Imperial Monarch Cangtian sighed. "Yet His days are not easy either."
Channeling his divine power, he gathered soil into the shape of incense sticks, ignited the earthen incense, and placed it upon the ground of the Northern Wilderness.
He bowed deeply. In this world, no other god possessed the right to receive his prostration—except the Ancestral God.
Incense smoke qi drifted forth, converging between heaven and earth across the Northern Wilderness to form an incense gate.
Xu Ying watched the spectacle in amazement. Imperial Monarch Cangtian rose and led him through the portal.
Chapter 455