At the Best of Times, I Met the Best of You

Xu Ying's sword strike was resolute and domineering. The killing intent of the Zhuxian broken sword—one capable of annihilating all creation and remaking the primordial cosmos—surged with immense determination, poised to shatter everything before him! He already knew the weakness of the Immortal Emperor Supreme's Taicang Great Dao. Now that the emperor had trapped himself within the Ginseng Fruit Tree, it was the perfect opportunity to slay him! The Immortal Emperor used Primordial Monarch Zitong to shield against his lethal strike, but it could never stop him! In his heart, the woman he loved, Yuan Weiyang, had already died the moment Primordial Monarch Zitong awoke. Yet just as Xu Ying was about to pierce Primordial Monarch Zitong, another consciousness abruptly awakened deep within his heart, and an overwhelming surge of thoughts rushed forth. His hand trembled slightly. The sword qi veered around Primordial Monarch Zitong, sparing her life. With a gentle flick of the Heaven-Measuring Ruler in his hand, the ruler split from one into two, two into four, four into eight, continuously multiplying until the sky was filled with sword qi hurtling toward the Immortal Emperor. Even with the Immortal Emperor using Primordial Monarch Zitong as a shield, Xu Ying was entirely confident he could kill him! Bound to the Ginseng Fruit Tree, the Immortal Emperor was in a state that presented an exceedingly rare chance! His figure brushed past the young woman. At that moment, a branch of the Ginseng Fruit Tree whistled through the air, stabbing toward the back of Zitong's heart. Without hesitation, Xu Ying swung the Heaven-Measuring Ruler, severing the branch with a sharp slash. At that very instant, the boundless sword lights filling the sky faltered in disarray, allowing the Immortal Emperor Supreme, manipulating the Ginseng Fruit Tree, to shatter each strand of sword qi! "Xu! Ying!" Xu Ying roared in fury, his black hair bristling as murderous intent surged around him. "Do not stop me from winning!" Branches lunged one after another toward Primordial Monarch Zitong. Xu Ying clearly knew he should abandon her and charge at the nearby Immortal Emperor, yet his hands stubbornly refused to obey. The Heaven-Measuring Ruler struck out incessantly against the branches, fending off the emperor's onslaught. In terms of cultivation, he was no match for the Immortal Emperor at this moment. The emperor had already fused with the Ginseng Fruit Tree; each branch Xu Ying parried jolted his arms numb and tore open the webbing between his thumb and index finger. Clashing head-on like this meant certain defeat! *Bang!* Among his Three Pure Ones avatars, the white-robed Xu Ying was suddenly impaled by a branch. It dissolved into a wisp of white qi, but just as it tried to fly back into Xu Ying's body, dozens of branches whipped through the air, dispersing it completely. The other avatars and the human-skin Xu Ying rushed forward, intending to take the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and protect Primordial Monarch Zitong, but in the next breath, the yellow-robed and green-robed Xu Yings were blown apart, their yellow and green qis scattered into oblivion! The human-skin Xu Ying charged in, only to be entwined by branches and pinned fast, unable to move! "Xu Ying, this is a trap I laid targeting your reincarnations," the Immortal Emperor's leisurely voice sounded. "Forty-eight thousand years ago, you were already in the game. From your very first reincarnation with her, you two have been entangled across ten thousand lifetimes, weaving a net that grows heavier and heavier." Xu Ying suddenly reached out and seized Primordial Monarch Zitong's hand. With a powerful swing, he hoisted her onto his back and barked, "Hold on tight!" Using the ruler as a sword, he fought his way forward. Primordial Monarch Zitong wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, pressing quietly against his back as she listened to the frantic thumping of his heart. Xu Ying drew a long, deep breath. His inner power erupted with a roar as he drove the Zhuxian sword qi to its absolute limits, desperately parrying the branches surging toward her. He knew he had to carry this troublesome woman on his back and keep her safe. Only then would the first-life Xu Ying cease meddling with his emotions. Only then could he fight his way to the Immortal Emperor Supreme and slay the mastermind behind it all! "How marvelous love is. To love yet never possess—it drives people to madness." The Immortal Emperor's voice drifted from ahead. Half of the sovereign's body was fused with the fruit tree, leaving only half a face exposed; one half was immobilized, while the other wore a sneer, mocking Xu Ying's overestimation of his own strength. "You and Zitong fell in love across ten thousand lifetimes. Every time, you loved yet could not be together; every time you met, you lost each other. Across those ten thousand lives, that obsession deepened with every passing cycle." He laughed loudly. "When you had reincarnated a hundred times, the obsession was already potent enough to drag immortals into reincarnation! When you reached a thousand lifetimes, even a Heavenly Monarch would sink into ruin. After ten thousand lifetimes, even a Daluo Golden Immortal, even a Supreme, would find their jade bones dissolving and their cultivation crumbling away! How marvelous is that—" He raised his one free arm and threw his head back, shouting, "I do not need mastery over the Dao of Reincarnation! I do not need to comprehend its profundities! All I need to do is manipulate your fates, and I can deepen this curse!" Primordial Monarch Zitong gazed at the profile of Xu Ying's face. He was fighting with everything he had, intercepting every branch meant for her, the violent recoil pushing him beyond what he could endure. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and beads of sweat covered his brow. Zitong raised a hand to gently wipe away the sweat. Nestling quietly against his back, she said softly, "Put me down, Brother Ying." She recalled their chance encounter upon the Milky Way all those years ago. Two small boats crossing beneath the Magpie Bridge, rippling a river of starlight. There was no Cowherd, no Weaver Girl. Only the two of them. A casual glance back had branded each other's faces into their eyes. "Put me down," she whispered. "I'm ready." "...Two prodigious talents meeting beneath the Magpie Bridge, competing, understanding each other, falling in love! All orchestrated by my hand! The more brilliant your talents, the deeper your love, the heavier your obsession!" The Immortal Emperor laughed wildly, driving the Ginseng Fruit Tree to assault Zitong frantically. "Your obsession will drag each other into reincarnation forever—you entangling me, I entangling you, sinking for all eternity! You are like two birds sharing a single life: if one dies, the other dies too; if one revives, the other revives as well!" Xu Ying gritted his teeth. The recoil transmitting through the branches grew fiercer and fiercer, forcing blood into his throat and threatening to tear his internal organs to shreds! Yet he never once put Primordial Monarch Zitong down. If he put Zitong down and she died, he would fall into reincarnation along with her. Yet carrying her and fighting desperately to keep her safe was something he could not sustain for long. What was more, another Xu Ying lived within him—a Xu Ying who had always been asleep, who had now awakened yet still feigned slumber. As for himself, he was merely a twenty-one-year-long dream dreamt by that slumbering Xu Ying. If he failed to protect Zitong, that Xu Ying would truly awaken. When the dream broke, he would likely shatter like the other ten thousand dreams before him, reduced to a mere sliver of memory belonging to the first-life Xu Ying. "I don't want to die..." Xu Ying gripped the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler tightly. The skin on his arms burst open, dripping with blood, yet he still fought desperately to protect Zitong behind him, advancing toward the Immortal Emperor Supreme step by bloody step. Every footprint he left behind was filled with gore! All around, the branches of the Ginseng Fruit Tree stabbed frenziedly at Primordial Monarch Zitong, dragging his progress to a crawl. "I don't want to die in silence like Yuan Weiyang!" he roared. "Put me down, Brother Ying. You won't die." The girl on his back wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and whispered, "Do you remember? I promised you that I would save the best of myself for you. You will not fall into reincarnation." Suddenly, Xu Ying's right arm burst apart, and the Heaven-Measuring Ruler flew from his grip. *Squelch!* From behind him came the sound of something sharp piercing flesh. Then came one sickening puncture after another. Xu Ying's mind went blank. "Brother Ying, at the best of times, I met the best of you. I promised you that I would leave the best of myself to you, so I severed myself and left her behind." Resting against his back, the girl whispered softly, "After I die, even the Immortal Emperor cannot drag you into reincarnation. Because she is still alive. Put me down, Brother Ying. I am giving your Yuan Weiyang back to you..." Branch after branch of the Ginseng Fruit Tree pierced deep into her body on Xu Ying's back, leaves fluttering amid the scattering blossoms of blood. The girl's voice grew fainter, fading to a whisper: "There is no more reincarnation, Brother. The obsession ends with my lifetime. You two will live well..." Xu Ying stood frozen in place, eyes wide. Suddenly, something seemed to detonate within his mind. Memories and scenes from his first life surged like a tidal wave, drowning him. He remembered meeting beneath the Magpie Bridge on the Milky Way. He remembered meeting again, the contest between the two most brilliant youths, his playful teases, and the quiet budding of love. He remembered lying down at night with his hands behind his head, longing for the sound of her voice and the sight of her face. He remembered the tentative advances between two lovers—nervous, yet overflowing with joy and anticipation. From falling in love to cherishing each other, becoming confidants, becoming soulmates. "Zitong, at the best of times, I met the best of you." "Me too." "Get away from me, Xu Ying!" With his other hand clutching his head in agony, tears streaming uncontrollably from his eyes, Xu Ying roared, "Get away! I'm about to succeed! I don't want to die! Don't take over me! Don't erase me!" Yet more longing poured into his mind, more visions seizing his sight. He saw himself holding Fairy Zitong's hand, standing atop a cliff, looking out over mist-shrouded mountains and rivers. He told Zitong that he was about to defect from the Immortal Court, sever his cultivation realm, and descend to the mortal realm. "If I go, I might die," he told the girl. The young woman held his hand, warm and tender, her gaze carrying a power that set his heart at ease. "Go without fear. Whatever you do, I will support you. Even if you die, across a thousand lives or ten thousand, I will find you, and we will never be parted again!" Another memory rushed in. Stripped of all his memories, his flesh regenerated, his soul revived. His fate orchestrated for the first time, he became a slave boy in the Great Yu Dynasty of the Three Sovereigns Era. "My name is Xu Ying," he said with an honest smile to another slave girl. "What's your name?" "My name is Yingxiu." The slave girl seemed bright and cheerful. She looked him up and down, her brows like willow leaves, her eyes like clear autumn pools. "Brother, it feels as though I've seen you somewhere before." More memories flooded in like a deluge, drowning him wave after wave. "My name is Xiao Cui..." "My name is Yan Bao'er..." "My name is Qiu Yun..." "My name is Feng Xue'er..." The tide of memories rushed into the snake catcher from forty-eight thousand years later. The youth felt profound panic, and the memories resolved into one final sequence of images. "I am Yuan Weiyang," the young master said with a smile. "There aren't many in my family, just a younger sister born of the same mother. She looks seven or eight-tenths like me..." "I'm usually not like this, and we've only known each other for a day. But when I saw you, for some reason I felt as if I've known you for a long time—as if we've known each other across thousands, tens of thousands of lifetimes..." Carrying the corpse upon his back, Xu Ying walked forward. The Immortal Emperor's laughter turned into terror. "Why haven't you fallen into reincarnation? She's dead! You should have been swept up by the obsession and dragged into samsara!" Frantically pinching his fingers with one hand to deduce the karma behind it, the emperor screamed, "Curse you! Damn it all! That madwoman severed herself and left behind only the memories of her final reincarnation! She refined herself into an avatar! What a lunatic!" He madly spurred the Ginseng Fruit Tree. Myriads of branches and leaves lashed at Xu Ying, yet they could only graze past his body, unable to harm him in the slightest! The Immortal Emperor roared repeatedly, struggling to tear himself free from the Ginseng Fruit Tree. Xu Ying was severely injured and in an extremely volatile state; as long as the emperor could separate himself from the tree, victory was still within his grasp. Yet just as he tore desperately at the wood, Xu Ying had already arrived before him. "Xu Ying, I acknowledge your New Dao lineage," the Immortal Emperor said with sudden gravity. "I will make peace with you and help you promote the New Dao..." *Boom!* Xu Ying's fist smashed into half of his face, flattening it against the Ginseng Fruit Tree. The corner of the emperor's eye split open and broken teeth flew out as he yelled, "Xu Ying, don't do this! We are all mature adults—" *Boom!* Xu Ying hammered down another fist, even more vicious than the first, nearly driving half of the emperor's head into the wood. "There is no room for personal grudges between adults, Xu Ying! I am the Immortal Emperor! With me helping you promote the New Dao, you will be the Dao Ancestor! The Dao Ancestor...!" *Boom!* Xu Ying's expression was completely wooden. Fist after fist rained down, pounding the Immortal Emperor Supreme's head and body bit by bit into the Ginseng Fruit Tree, sending flesh and blood flying, shattering bones and snapping sinews. At first the Immortal Emperor could still speak, but gradually, words failed him. Xu Ying seized the Immortal Emperor Supreme by the hair, hauled him back out of the tree, and dug his fingers into the skull, ripping outward by brute force. Because the emperor's body was fused with the Ginseng Fruit Tree, pulling at his flesh did not extract the embedded half—it could only tear him in two down the middle! Yet the emperor's Supreme body was immensely tough; even with Xu Ying's immense strength, he could not rip it apart in one go, only tearing through it inch by agonizing inch. Half of the emperor's head had already been split open. In excruciating agony, the remaining half of his mouth parted in a bloodcurdling scream. Xu Ying tore downward with all his might, ripping the upper half of the emperor's body away from the tree. The emperor's screams became too horrifying to hear. Having torn off half the Immortal Emperor, with the victim no longer able to make a sound, Xu Ying pinned him to the ground and battered him with punch after punch. Blood soaked the earth. Just then, the light of the Returning Dao Jade Platter beamed down from above, humming as it bathed Xu Ying and blasted him backward through the air. "That is enough." Across the Heavenly Abyss, beings of supreme power rose one after another, descending from the heavens with boundless majesty. Strong practitioners of the Wondrous Realm stepped forward in force, clashing against the likes of the Void Sovereign, the Demon Ancestor, and the Last Lord of Ziwei! "What we need is a powerful Supreme—a controllable Supreme who shares our vision, a formidable entity who can stand with us against the Holy Venerable." Figures descended from the sky, radiant halos of divine light crowning the backs of their heads, so brilliant that their faces remained obscured. "Not an uncontrollable Dao Ancestor of the New Dao." Wearing a faint smile, one powerful entity slowly extended a hand of friendship toward the half of the Immortal Emperor Supreme lying on the ground. Another mighty being spread his fingers and struck out with a palm, sending the charging Xu Ying flying backward to smash against the cliff wall. Another person helped support the Immortal Emperor, placing him beside the Ginseng Fruit Tree so that his flesh could reconnect with the trunk. "We, the Six Supremes and Twelve Wondrous Ones, require an ally like Mingzun. Today, we officially welcome Fellow Daoist Mingzun into our fold as a ruler of the Three Realms!" Supreme treasures and Wondrous Realm treasures flew forth one after another, suppressing Xu Ying as he continued to struggle. "Fellow Daoist Mingzun, please, harvest."