"Absolute rationality brings about a reason that will never crave power."
In the Qionghua Secret Realm, deep at the bottom of the colossal abyss hollowed out by the roots of the Meishen cherry tree, a woman's smiling voice echoed from the depths of the dark corridor. It sounded raspy and ancient.
"...Whenever a more suitable successor appears, every Pavilion Master hands over their authority without the slightest hesitation."
At this point, the ancient female voice paused for several breaths before continuing:
"Yet I truly never expected you to do it in this manner.
"If I recall correctly, I merely asked you to find me a stalk of Shengqi grass. I never asked you to prepare this Dusheng Grand Array, Tianyuan."
"..."
Concealed within the darkness, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master remained silent.
Seeing this, the ancient female voice let out a sigh touched with mild complaint:
"I made things abundantly clear: once I answered that calamity, all karma between myself and the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion was settled. If you helped me obtain the Shengqi grass, I would act on the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's behalf once—a fair exchange. Yet you stubbornly insisted on your own way."
"..." The darkness remained soundless.
Faced with this deathly silence, the owner of the voice seemed to sigh softly. Accompanied by the faint rustling of someone standing, soft, sluggish footsteps of bare feet padding against smooth stone echoed out.
*Tap.*
*Tap.*
*Tap.*
Her withered, shriveled figure drifted into view in the gloom, yet her tone remained youthful and nonchalant:
"I truly dislike dealing with you lot. It was so with the Pavilion Master of the past; it was so with that wretched Holy Son who inherited my karma; and it is the same with you. You ignore all counsel and trust only your own judgment. But looking at your grand display, you are thoroughly bent on dragging this old ancestor out to slave away for you again. What an utterly exasperating thing to do."
As she paced about muttering her complaints, specks of starlight emerged in the darkness. Swirling about her like fireflies, they illuminated a body as withered and desiccated as a mummified corpse, along with brittle white hair that trailed more than ten feet along the ground behind her.
By the light, the desiccated corpse turned her pale, cloudy eyes toward a spot not far away, where an ethereal woman in fluttering white robes sat cross-legged.
Tianyuan, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master.
Beneath her, drawn in fresh blood upon the stone floor, was an uncanny and intricate array diagram.
Seeing the female corpse rise to her feet, Tianyuan uttered her first words:
"Senior, you did not refuse this array, did you?"
Hearing this, the female corpse's body trembled slightly, as if finding it amusing. She countered:
"Why should I refuse? I quite like what that Xu Changtian once said: 'To hell with rights and responsibilities going hand in hand; doing less and taking more is what we ought to do.' If you are willing to give, I shall gladly accept. It isn't as though you can hold me accountable anyway."
Tianyuan's gaze was calm and detached. "If you truly intended to act so, you would not have spoken those words."
Looking at the woman's slightly pale complexion, the desiccated corpse could not help but curl her lips into a smile.
"Arguing about trivialities with you leads nowhere; after all, your kind will always cling stubbornly to your views. So why not tell me what on earth has happened across the realm that makes you feel you can no longer shoulder the weight of Pavilion Master in this era?"
"..."
Tianyuan did not reply. Amid the silence that followed the question, she slowly closed her eyes, pressed her slender fingers together, and formed an incantation hand seal.
The next instant—
*Hum——*
A violent reverberation instantly swept across the entire darkened space!
The intricate array patterns on the floor began to glow.
At first, they were mere points of light.
As the qi dynamic surged, the points of light spread rapidly,
connecting from dots into lines, and expanding from lines into planes.
In almost a single breath, the dark cavern was brilliantly illuminated by the light of the array!
Just then,
the starlight swirling around the desiccated corpse surged into her body like moths darting into a flame.
This was vitality—
vitality channeled through the medium of the Life and Death Chapter of the Heaven-Deducing Art.
One end stemmed from Tianyuan, while the other linked to the desiccated female corpse.
When the Source Qi inside the cavern reached a critical threshold, the specks of starlight accelerated their rotation, transforming into magnificent rings of radiance that cast a dazzling curtain of light, completely enveloping the corpse's form.
As if reviving the dead and growing flesh over bare bone, the ten-foot-long white hair swiftly took on streaks of ink-black that signified life. The deep wrinkles covering her skin smoothed away in rapid succession, and the shriveled muscles swelled back to fullness.
Time ticked away beneath the brilliant glow.
After the array flared with its most dazzling burst of light, the cavern instantly plunged back into darkness.
Yet a moment later,
a torrential qi dynamic swept through, causing the space to tremble.
A pair of radiant gold eyes slowly opened in the gloom, resembling stars in the night sky.
A young woman devoid of any clothing, boasting an alluring, curvaceous figure, spoke softly:
"When I answered that calamity, I never imagined I could return to life, much less in my original body."
"..." Tianyuan gave no answer.
Tianye directed her gaze toward the darkness nearby.
There, her hair turned snow-white and her vitality depleted, Tianyuan was already kneeling on the floor, her white skirt stained crimson by blood trickling from her five facial orifices.
This was one of the secret arts of the Life and Death Chapter of the Heaven-Deducing Art.
A sacrifice of life unique to the Pavilion Masters, Holy Sons, and Saintesses of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion.
Whenever the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion faced an existential crisis or the calamity of the Everlasting Night, the others would transfer their vitality without hesitation to the strongest practitioner of the Heaven-Deducing Art, granting that individual absolute power to confront the disaster.
For a reigning Pavilion Master to personally become the sacrifice was likely a first in the history of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion.
Sensing the familiar, surging power within her body, Tianye's slender figure floated into the air. Stepping through the void, she arrived beside the weakened woman, looked down at her, and sighed softly:
"Why bother?"
Saying this, Tianye lowered her glowing, golden eyes to gaze at her own fair, tender palm, murmuring:
"Back then, I sealed my divine soul within the Meishen cherry tree with Dao charms in search of a way to survive the calamity. Over twenty thousand years, my true memories were ground to pieces. That dreamlike illusion left me unable to tell whether I was Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou..."
Tianyuan lifted her eyelids to look at the girl hovering before her, her pale gold eyes frail yet resolute.
"That does not matter. What matters is that you, Senior, are 'Tianyan.'"
Tianye did not deny the identity. Instead, she said:
"I have already broken free from the State of Divine Emptiness. It can no longer shackle me."
Tianyuan drew a feeble, deep breath.
"The Heaven-Deducing Art spares none of us. You will be no exception, Senior."
Hearing these rather strange words, Tianye showed no surprise. She curled her lips into a faint smile:
"For you to speak such treasonous words... is it because your vitality is exhausted, causing your State of Divine Emptiness to shatter?"
Tianyuan was silent for a moment. Forcing her body upward, she rose to her feet and met the gaze of the naked girl before her on equal terms.
"I have lived my entire life for the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. The Heaven-Deducing Art merely helps me make the correct decisions more effectively."
As she spoke, another trail of blood seeped from the corner of Tianyuan's mouth.
"In accordance with what the ancestors recorded, I have already awakened Tianyan's State of Divine Emptiness..."
Tianye cut her off again. Crossing her arms over her chest, she rested a hand beneath her cheek, tapping a slender finger lightly against her skin.
"Don't look as though you're entrusting your legacy to me. I never agreed to your plea. Besides, aren't you worried... that I might defect directly to the enemy?"
Tianyuan did not hesitate in the slightest.
"...Even if you broke free from the State of Divine Emptiness, Senior, it will always leave something behind in the depths of your heart."
Tianye fell silent for a few moments, then laughed. It was as if she were laughing at an ant trying to shake a tree, yet she did not deny it:
"...You are right. It will always leave something behind."
"The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion needs you right now, Senior..."
"Do you mind giving me some clothes first?"
"..." Tianyuan fell silent.
Tianye smiled brightly. She raised a delicate hand and gave it a small wave, displaying the Sumeru ring on her right hand. "Twenty thousand years is too long; my clothes have long since turned to dust."
Without a word, Tianyuan retrieved a Pavilion Master's robe directly from her own Sumeru ring.
A look of amusement flickered across Tianye's golden eyes, yet she did not refuse.
She lazily slipped the loose, wide robe over her frame. Fair skin was laid bare in broad swaths, her full bosom half-revealed, and her long, shapely legs peeked out with every motion. What should have been a sacred, snow-white robe carried the alluring air of an enchantress when worn by her.
Tying the ribbon at her waist, Tianye spoke once more:
"I don't particularly care for white, but I doubt you carry any other clothes, so this will have to do for now."
As she spoke, the bewitching girl with trailing hair raised a slender finger and pointed toward the woman before her.
With her gesture,
specks of golden light manifested and converged into a pure white lotus that bloomed beneath Tianyuan's feet.
Two entirely unrelated Dao charms—Spatial Art and Sealing—blended seamlessly together at this moment, their surging aura causing the surrounding space to tremble faintly!
Tianyuan frowned and surveyed her surroundings.
Tianye's voice was gentle and smiling:
"Do not resist."
With those words,
Tianye lightly clenched her palm.
*Hum——*
With a ringing vibration, a roaring wave of air surged forth. The blooming lotus instantly snapped shut and merged into Tianyuan's body.
Upon sensing her current state, Tianyuan—whose State of Divine Emptiness had dissipated—let a look of genuine wonder emerge from beneath her lashes for the very first time.
*To think such a technique exists in this world...*
The moment the art took effect, everything within her body had halted, locked by the 'Tianyan' before her at the exact threshold before her death.
And one had to remember: the transference of life only transferred vitality. Her cultivation remained at the pinnacle of the Saint realm.
Having accomplished all of this, Tianye merely dusted off her hands casually and chuckled:
"The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion is no longer what it once was. A transition of the Pavilion Master's authority will inevitably cause upheaval, and I have no desire to deal with the pavilion's tedious, mundane affairs. So you cannot die just yet."
A strange glint flickered in Tianyuan's eyes.
"Senior, does this mean you have agreed?"
"More or less."
Tianye's eyes curved in a smile. Crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head to rest against her palm, she said:
"Don't misunderstand, though. I am not doing this for the sake of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. To a large extent, it is simply out of personal interest."
Perceiving the mood of the Tianye before her, Tianyuan asked softly:
"Personal interest?"
Tianye cast a sidelong glance at her and said:
"Now that I finally possess a body again, I naturally cannot continue as a mere spectator. I will enter the board once more, take part in this calamity, and then..."
At this point,
the girl in white, looking more bewitching than any demoness, suddenly burst into soft laughter. A beguiling radiance shone in her eyes, and her smile blossomed like a flower:
"...personally end the one who started this calamity.
"Or,
"be personally slain by the one who started it!"
Chapter 751