"Mother is in the Immortal Realm."
Clutching the hairpin, Xu Ying felt this ancient memory surface, plucking at his heartstrings.
"Fang Songhuai once said that he pursued Mother all the way to the Fuqing World, where he lost all trace of her. How did Mother escape the pursuit and ascend to the Immortal Realm?"
He wanted to retrieve more memories, but five characters of the sixteen-character seal remained unbroken. Until those five characters were unraveled, unlocking all the memories of his first life would remain an uphill battle.
"The person who delivered the hairpin is very suspicious."
Xu Ying dredged up that specific memory, trying to make out the face of the one who had brought the hairpin, yet he still could not see clearly. He mused inwardly, "If Mother was in the Immortal Realm, then this person... For an ordinary immortal to descend, they must sever their own cultivation, and doing so even once incurs an immense cost. As for mortals, it is naturally impossible for them to travel back and forth between the mortal world and the Immortal Realm. Only figures within the Immortal Court—immortals holding vital posts—can travel between the two realms. Such as the Six Ministries of the Immortal Court. Yet even for the Six Ministries, coming and going between the mortal realm and the Immortal Realm is not something done on a whim. Otherwise, the lower realm would be crawling with descended immortal officials. Anyone capable of making a dedicated trip down to the lower realm just to deliver this hairpin to me in those days must have held an extraordinary status.
"Whether the person who ordered an immortal to descend and hand this hairpin to me was Mother remains unknown."
Xu Ying was lost in thought, murmuring, "If it was Mother, I certainly would have gone looking for her the moment I ascended to the Immortal Realm. But if it wasn't her, then whoever gave me this hairpin had ulterior motives... Xiyue, when you tried to assassinate me, I handed this hairpin to you?"
Xiyue nodded in confirmation. "I infiltrated the Ancient Helingdu Palace disguised as a servant. After going to great lengths to slip into the palace, I saw you playing with this hairpin. I launched a sudden lethal strike, but you dodged it. Seeing that my initial blow had failed, I was about to flee when you shoved this hairpin into my hand and let me go."
As she spoke, it suddenly struck her that back then, Xu Ying had possessed countless opportunities to kill her, yet he had stayed his hand.
At the time, she had thought Old Thief Xu spared her likely out of a guilty conscience. Reflecting on it now, her cursing him as disloyal and unrighteous might have been entirely misplaced.
Unease stirred in her heart. She stole a glance at Xu Ying, overcome with burning shame at the thought that she might have wronged him for more than forty thousand years.
Xu Ying twirled the hairpin in his fingers. After a moment of silence, he asked, "From the time I ascended to the Immortal Realm to the time I became Celestial Venerable Xu of the Ancient Helingdu Palace, how many years elapsed?"
Xiyue answered without hesitation, "Less than three hundred years. It took me three hundred years to cultivate past Master's level back then. Just as I ascended and began asking around for news of you, I heard that you had already become the Immortal Court's foremost hawk..." She swallowed the word "hound" before it could slip out.
"Three hundred years... I cultivated from a Human Immortal to an Immortal Monarch?"
Xu Ying jerked his head up, his eyes shining brightly. "Xiyue, how many years did you say you would need to amass enough resources to reach the Immortal King realm?"
Xiyue replied, "Occupying the Heavenly River and monopolizing the smuggling business, I would need to work for seventy thousand years to accumulate enough resources to become an Immortal King. And if I failed the breakthrough, I would have to save up for another seventy thousand years."
At this, she felt even more embarrassed.
Compared to other unaffiliated cultivators, she was already remarkable. It had taken her a mere forty-odd thousand years to become a Heavenly Immortal with prospects of striving for Immortal King. That achievement alone surpassed countless unaffiliated cultivators; even the vast majority of immortals holding posts in the Immortal Court could not hold a candle to her.
Yet compared to Xu Ying, she was utterly eclipsed.
Xu Ying asked, "And what about cultivating to Immortal Monarch?"
Xiyue shook her head. "Relying on the Heavenly River trade, reaching Heavenly Monarch would be impossible—it would take at least several hundred million years of work."
Xu Ying said, "Then how could I possibly have accumulated enough wealth to become an Immortal Monarch in just three hundred years?"
Xiyue said cautiously, "Master, do you still remember what those Immortal Kings and Immortal Monarchs you killed said about you selling your looks?"
Xu Ying shot her a glare. "That was their slander!"
Xiyue ventured tentatively, "Could it be that it wasn't slander? Shortly after I ascended to the Immortal Realm, I heard rumors that you were quite the gallant romantic, carrying on entangled affairs with many powerful fairy maidens, and that you were even Primordial Monarch's kept man..."
Xu Ying let out a cold snort. "I'm not even handsome..."
Xiyue chuckled. "Right now, Master is a youth. But back then, you were in your twenties. While your complexion wasn't fair, you were dignified, imposing, dashing, and possessed a masculine vigor that pale-faced men completely lack—a distinct charm all your own."
Xu Ying's expression softened slightly, and he asked in a gentler tone, "When I grow into my twenties, will I really look like that? You're not flattering me, are you?"
Xiyue shook her head. "This disciple speaks only the absolute truth, not a single lie. Otherwise, why would Primordial Monarch and the other female Immortal Kings hold you in such high regard and treat you so exceptionally? I heard that whenever you visited Primordial Monarch's estate, you didn't even need to be announced. It's clear that the matter of being her paramour..."
"Not another word about being a paramour!" Xu Ying snapped resolutely.
Ling Siyi, unable to contain herself, burst into giggles.
Xu Ying glared at her fiercely and adopted a solemn tone. "Cultivating to Immortal Monarch requires a territory as vast as an entire world. Is that something one can achieve just by living off women? You overestimate my charms, and you sorely underestimate women like Primordial Monarch!"
Xiyue hesitated, opening her mouth as if to speak, then stopping.
Ling Siyi said with a grin, "If I were Primordial Monarch, it wouldn't be impossible. Who knows? Maybe that would just be my taste!"
Xiyue grew wary. *Does this vixen want to become my master's wife?*
Xu Ying examined the hairpin he had crafted long ago and inquired, "When I handed this hairpin to you, did I say anything?"
Xiyue thought back and said, "Back then, you slid this hairpin into my hair and said just one sentence: 'Return it to me in the future.'"
Hearing this, Xu Ying felt a stir in his heart. He inspected the hairpin closely, but found no visible engravings or imprints.
He channeled a strand of primordial qi into it. The hairpin floated gently into the air, and from the dangling ruby, a string of glowing characters emerged.
It was a scripture—the ancestral method of the six secret depositories.
Xu Ying stared in mild surprise as he examined the text. Having already awakened his memories of the ancestral six secrets method, he was thoroughly familiar with it.
Yet the ancestral method inscribed within the hairpin differed slightly from what he had learned. Xu Ying read through it carefully, comparing the two. Aside from differences in phrasing and diction, there were also subtle variances in minor details.
The version within the hairpin carried an older charm—terse, concise, and obscure—whereas the method passed down to him by his father was far easier to comprehend and cultivate.
Certain minor nuances present in the hairpin's version were missing from the method his father had taught him, having been pruned and streamlined.
Xu Ying's eyes widened, and he whispered, "If I were to carve the ancestral method of the six secrets, I certainly wouldn't carve an ancient, obscure version; I would carve the version my father taught me. So why did I leave behind such a version in this hairpin? Where did this ancient ancestral method come from?"
He had suffered catastrophic upheaval in his childhood when Kunlun was destroyed and Xujiaping was flattened, separating him from his parents ever since. There was no way he could have obtained such an ancient version back then.
"Which means I actually obtained this ancient six secrets method in the Immortal Realm."
Xu Ying's brow twitched. He stowed the hairpin away, murmuring, "The six secrets of Kunlun's Xujiaping were not created by my father. The person who opened the six great other shores was someone else entirely."
Involuntarily, he recalled the words of the Commoner Emperor Wu, Shen Luo. Shen Luo had once said that he had visited the other shores and been trapped there, discovering that all six great other shores had been pioneered by a single individual. Shen Luo had seen the marks left behind by that pioneer.
"Could it be that this very person ordered an immortal to descend specifically to deliver the hairpin to me, using news of my mother to coerce me into ascending?"
Xu Ying pondered silently, *After ascending to the upper realm, I probably never saw Mother at all. Instead, under this person's arrangements, I built wide connections with influential figures in the Immortal Realm. This person was quietly promoting me, allowing me to attain achievements others could only dream of in a mere three hundred years, cultivating all the way to Immortal Monarch.
*Who on earth is this person?*
This person held his mother's life in their hands, coercing him into ascending to the Immortal Realm and obeying their commands.
A wave of melancholy washed over Xu Ying. He did not know the origin of Xujiaping's ancestral method; when he had been cast adrift into the world, he was merely a terrified child.
Even if he broke through the Imperial Monarch's seal and awakened all his memories, he could never know the true history of Xujiaping.
*Only Father knows the history of Xujiaping, but Father left Yingzhou and vanished without a trace...*
He let out a melancholy sigh. He could not even recall his father's face; the Imperial Monarch's seal constantly scrambled his recollections of his parents.
Xu Ying collected his thoughts and continued cleaning up the immortal dao contamination.
Xiyue and Ling Siyi stepped forward to assist, gathering the thousands of immortal corpses together with Xu Ying. Allowing so many immortal bodies to remain clustered here would inevitably invite chaos; sooner or later, some monster would be born from the cadavers to bring harm to the living.
As Xu Ying contemplated how to dispose of them, he suddenly realized there were still a dozen or so immortal corpses inside his Realm of Xiyi. He hastily brought them out.
He remembered where these corpses had come from: while influenced by the Six-Character Great Curse, he had slaughtered all the immortals on the ferry who sought to kill him, sparing only one. He had stowed their corpses in his Realm of Xiyi, intending to refine them into living treasures.
*I was far too wicked back then...*
Xu Ying shook his head, only to suddenly notice the thousands of immortal corpses heaped before him like a mountain.
A sudden jolt struck his heart. *Could it be that I'm still being influenced by the Imperial Monarch's six-character seal?*
Out of nowhere, a voice drifted over from afar. "Young Master Xu, you don't need these immortal corpses anymore, do you? They would be perfect for populating my Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain!"
Xu Ying's expression changed abruptly. Without a second thought, he summoned his nine great treasures, manifesting them as nine great realms, instantly pushing his cultivation to its absolute limit!
His footing shifted. Just moments ago, even when facing the concerted siege of Palace Lord Kaiyang and the others, he had strolled leisurely with effortless grace and composure.
Yet this single voice forced him to muster every ounce of vigilance!
Dense fog rolled in, and the vision of Xu Ying, Xiyue, and Ling Siyi was eclipsed by a colossal shadow within the mist. A tempestuous immortal dao power surged forward, shaking their cultivation bases and even throwing their divine consciousness into disarray.
Xu Ying mobilized his six cave-heavens. His divine consciousness turned ferocious, suppressing the immortal dao interference caused by the shadowy figure.
Xiyue and Ling Siyi regained their clarity. Amidst the mist loomed a gigantic silhouette, shadowy and indistinct, with countless red bristles fluttering in the haze.
"Heavenly Lord Pingnan!"
Xu Ying brandished the Purple Nether Saber, his other hand already gripping the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array Diagram, poised to activate both treasures at a moment's notice. If victory proved truly impossible, he would unleash the Extermination Immortal Array Diagram to alert the Imperial Monarch, baiting the monarch down to wage a life-and-death clash against the corpse immortal Pingnan!
A strategy of pitting the tiger against the wolf.
Yet Heavenly Lord Pingnan, shrouded in corpse mist, showed little hostility. "Young Master Xu, do not misunderstand. I only came because I sensed so many immortals meeting their ends, so I came to look for some fresh corpses to bolster my Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain. Leaving these bodies behind would only cause immortal dao contamination; you might as well hand them to me to prevent future troubles."
Xu Ying did not let down his guard in the slightest. "If Heavenly Lord wishes to take these corpses, so be it. But taking our lives will be as difficult as ascending to heaven! As you can see, I have regained my realms, and my current strength is far from what it used to be!"
Heavenly Lord Pingnan sounded surprised. "Young Master Xu, why speak like that? We are on the same front now, united in resisting the tyranny of the Immortal Realm. We are all one family."
Xu Ying was utterly flabbergasted. Turning to look at Xiyue and Ling Siyi, he asked, "Do you know anything about this?"
Xiyue guessed, "Maybe Er Gou recruited him?"
Xu Ying shook his head gently. Little Celestial Venerable could never recruit a ruthless monster of Heavenly Lord Pingnan's caliber.
Moreover, Heavenly Lord Pingnan had died in the battle of Zhenwu Temple; he was a mortal enemy of Imperial Monarch Zhenwu among the Four Saints of the Northern Pole.
Both were figures who bordered on the Supreme realm. Even in death, they wielded boundless battle prowess—hardly someone Little Celestial Venerable could enlist.
Ling Siyi whispered, "I heard that Little Celestial Venerable recently recruited a batch of eccentric figures. Maybe he really is one of them."
Heavenly Lord Pingnan chuckled. "Having taken these immortal corpses, I won't accept your kindness for nothing. In a moment, I will take you to see someone—I guarantee you'll be bawling for your mother and father!"
Xu Ying's heart froze. *He wants to finish me off!*
In life, Heavenly Lord Pingnan had been a Heavenly Monarch vying for the Supreme throne. His cultivation and strength were terrifying beyond measure; Xu Ying had zero chance of winning against him.
Even in the Dao attainment he took the greatest pride in, Heavenly Lord Pingnan stood far above him.
Only a figure like Sword Lord Jinhe could contend with him, and even then, Jinhe would be hard-pressed.
Corpse mist surged around Heavenly Lord Pingnan, yet it bypassed the three of them, enveloping only the thousands of corpses.
Strangely enough, as the corpse mist enveloped the fallen immortals, one corpse after another opened its eyes, floating upward as breath returned to their bodies.
Heavenly Lord Pingnan let out a long, contented sigh. "These past few days, a bald donkey arrived at the Ancestral Court claiming he slew many immortal corpses in Yingzhou. I suspect he took the lives of my immortal subordinates. That bald fellow is exceedingly wicked; given the chance, I must teach him a lesson... Young Master Xu, hold steady!"
*Whoosh!*
The corpse mist billowed and winds howled as the cloud lifted Xu Ying, Xiyue, and Ling Siyi into the air, tearing through the sky!
Xiyue reacted decisively, summoning her immortal raft. Reaching out, she hauled Xu Ying onto the deck, and after a brief hesitation, pulled Ling Siyi aboard as well.
"Master, my immortal raft is peerless under heaven, the fastest vessel in the world! We can definitely escape!"
Brimming with confidence, she steered the raft to pierce through the void. In an instant, they shot out of the Ancestral Court's sky, hurtling through empty space. The immortal raft zipped past countless stars, moving faster and faster.
Yet all around them, dense mist remained thick as ever.
"Little girl, that's a fine boat. Was it crafted from the Jianmu tree or the Fusang tree?" Heavenly Lord Pingnan's voice drifted from ahead.
Xiyue's expression changed slightly, and she called out, "It was carved from the Xunmu tree!"
She veered sharply downward, plunging into the Netherworld the very next moment. The immortal raft traversed the Netherworld, crossing an unfathomable distance in the blink of an eye.
Yet the dense corpse mist still wrapped tightly around the vessel, rendering it impossible to fly out of its perimeter.
Xu Ying sighed in admiration. "A Heavenly Monarch who bordered on Supreme... His Dao attainment is truly unimaginable."
Heavenly Lord Pingnan was dead, and his cultivation base had not yet recovered to the level of a Heavenly Monarch, but his Dao attainment remained unimaginably profound.
Suddenly, Heavenly Lord Pingnan came to an abrupt halt. The corpse mist withdrew as he chuckled, "Here we are! Xu Ying, prepare to cry for your father and mother! I'm off!"
With that, the rolling corpse mist shot away through the air.
Standing on the deck of Xiyue's immortal raft, Xu Ying looked down to see Little Celestial Venerable's Hunyuan Palace directly beneath them. Behind the palace hung a column of purple qi that linked heaven and earth.
Just as he was about to head toward Hunyuan Palace, a scholar-like figure walked out from the halls. His temples were touched with gray. Striding outward, he smiled and called, "Brother Pingnan, you—"
He raised his head, catching sight of Xu Ying stepping down from the immortal raft.
Xu Ying stared at the scholar. In that instant, a tumult of emotions surged within him as countless childhood memories awakened, crashing over him like a tidal wave.
He remembered babbling his first words, his father lifting him high above his shoulders; he remembered falling ill and crying, his father's smiling face striving to cheer him up; he remembered the wooden switch in his father's hand whenever he misbehaved.
He remembered a loving father, and he remembered a strict father. He remembered that raging fire, and the sight of his father fighting with every ounce of his life to escort him safely out of Kunlun.
He remembered the face that, across ten thousand lifetimes, he had yearned to recall, yet which had always remained a blank slate.
At this moment, that blank face from his memories of ten thousand lifetimes merged seamlessly with the face of the scholar before him.
"Ah Ying, you haven't changed a bit—looking just like the day you fled Kunlun," Xu Jing said as he walked forward, his voice low and hoarse.
Chapter 468