You're the One Who's Sick

Inside the ancient mirror, the memories of the man seen from behind flooded into Qi Yuan's consciousness. "The son of a Yang God? And he's such useless trash?" The man's father truly was a Yang God. Yet the man himself was nothing more than a profligate heir who lived solely for drunken stupors and fleeting pleasures. Being a spoiled scion was bad enough, but he was exceptionally lustful to boot. Within the sacred land ruled by his father, countless women—and even men—had fallen victim to his depravities. Relying on his father's backing, the scion's audacity grew without restraint. Learning from somewhere that Moon Goddess Yuanjun was the greatest beauty in the Middle Three Heavens, he began mouthing foul, insolent slanders about her. Somehow, word of this reached Moon Goddess Yuanjun's ears. Reaching across several heavens, she struck directly and obliterated him. His father paid an exorbitant price and used the Yang God Dharma artifact, the Ancient Tiankun Mirror, to preserve and nurture a solitary wisp of his remnant soul. Yet his father also feared that Moon Goddess Yuanjun might discover the boy was still alive. Left with no choice, he cast the Ancient Tiankun Mirror down into the lower realms. Through a twist of fate and many wandering detours, it had ultimately found its way to the Canglan Realm. "The Upper Realm is actually this complicated?" Having assimilated the man's memories, Qi Yuan now possessed a much clearer understanding of the Upper Realm. The Upper Realm was not a single world, but an umbrella term for countless worlds. A sacred land overseen by a Yang God governed several, or even thousands, of worlds. Some worlds within the Upper Realm were actually weaker in overall strength than the Canglan Realm. Based on the density of spiritual energy, the Upper Realm was divided into Nine Heavens: the Lower Three Heavens, the Middle Three Heavens, and the Upper Three Heavens. Among them, the profligate scion possessed few memories of the Upper Three Heavens, knowing only that they were lands of perpetual warfare. The higher the heaven, the greater the strength of the sacred lands residing there. "The Moon Goddess Palace... the power Jin Li belongs to..." Qi Yuan murmured softly. He had hardly expected that killing a shadowy figure from behind would yield news about the Moon Goddess Palace. Moon Goddess Yuanjun was the supreme powerhouse of the Moon Goddess Palace. "I wonder what connection Master has with the Moon Goddess Palace," Qi Yuan mused with sighing emotion. His master, Ruan Yixi, had left behind the Moon Token, which was the token of Moon Goddess Palace. This indicated that Master Ruan Yixi also had deep ties to it. "Could it be... Master is Jin Li?" Qi Yuan ventured the guess, but immediately shook his head. Knowing Jin Li's temperament, if she knew it was him, she would have rushed to see him long ago. "Regardless, I seem to share an indissoluble bond with this Moon Goddess Palace. "Hey, shadowy scion, once I ascend to the Upper Realm to clean up its moral decay, I'll start with your father. "I'm a good-natured man at heart and can't bear the thought of an old white-haired parent mourning his dark-haired child. The least I can do is reunite the two of you." Qi Yuan's figure flickered as he emerged from the Ancient Tiankun Mirror. He narrowed his eyes at the ancient mirror before him. "If I hold onto this mirror, doesn't that mean... once I reach the Upper Realm, if I get close enough, his father will sense me? "I definitely can't lose this mirror!" The Ancient Tiankun Mirror was also a formidable treasure capable of nourishing divine souls. Otherwise, the man's remnant soul would never have survived. "Actually, I could place my Divine Infants inside this mirror. Maybe... the former me might awaken." In the Mortal Heart Realm, all the Innate Gods had transformed into his Divine Infants. They were themselves, but they were also Qi Yuan. At present, they remained in a deep slumber, unable to unleash their fullest might. Once the day of their formal awakening arrived, their original power would be restored. In fact, if Qi Yuan arrived in the Upper Realm and gave them sufficient time, these Divine Infants could even break through to the Yang God realm. Every one of them possessed limitless growth potential. "Collect," Qi Yuan barked with a wave of his sleeve. The Ancient Tiankun Mirror instantly shrank and entered his dantian. "If I returned to the Blue Star right now, I'd definitely be an incredible surgeon. I could pull off any transplant operation!" Then a thought occurred to him. He didn't know the first thing about medical science, nor had he ever passed a licensing exam. Even if someone fell ill, he wouldn't have a clue what disease they had. Still, that was an easy fix. "If I become a doctor, whenever I see a patient, I'll just diagnose them with kidney deficiency!" You could never go wrong telling someone their kidneys were weak anyway. Qi Yuan felt immensely pleased with his own brilliance. "Get in," Qi Yuan commanded with another wave of his sleeve. As if hearing his order, all five thousand Divine Infants burrowed into the ancient mirror. At that moment, the mirror settled smoothly into Qi Yuan's dantian. Since the Ancient Tiankun Mirror had the effect of nourishing souls, he decided to leave the Divine Infants inside to rest and recuperate. Having finished this, Qi Yuan looked around at the corpses of the Yin Gods scattered across Phoenix Palace and furrowed his brow. "Fengtian Domain... is in terrible shape. All their Yin Gods are dead. "Doesn't that mean... there's a funeral feast to attend?" Qi Yuan felt a twinge of disappointment. The people of Fengtian Domain had a funeral banquet to enjoy, but he had to rush to the Dark Sun's headquarters and wouldn't even get to eat. *** An unknown world. A female doctor in a white lab coat looked at the young man before her, a touch of weary melancholy in her drowsy eyes. "Qi Yuan, remember to take your medicine on time." "I'm not sick, so I'm not taking medicine," said the Qi Yuan formed by the Innate Seed, answering without hesitation. At this moment, a gentle robot spoke up: "These are candies, not medicine. You're not sick." Only then did Qi Yuan sit down, a triumphant look spreading across his face. Suddenly, he carefully studied the female doctor's eyes, staring at them unblinkingly. For some reason, the doctor felt an abrupt wave of suffocating pressure, as though she were standing before one of those legendary, towering figures. The young man before her suddenly declared, "I'm not sick. You are the one who's sick." A smile surfaced on the female doctor's face; she took no heed of his words. "And what illness does your big sister have?" "You've been having nightmares lately!" The doctor's pen paused mid-stroke. A coincidence? Lately, she had indeed been plagued by nightmares. It had left her in poor condition throughout the week. She had assumed it was simply excessive work stress. "What did I dream about, then?" the doctor asked with a light laugh. She did not take Qi Yuan seriously. When his parents were carrying him, they had been attacked by a powerful foe, inflicting severe brain trauma on him while he was still a fetus. Raised socially by robots without a mother's tenderness or a father's guidance, his personality had grown exceptionally bizarre, accompanied by severe paranoid delusions. Naturally, the words of a psychiatric patient could not be taken as truth. How could he possibly know what she had dreamed? Besides, her dreams over the past few days had been extraordinarily bizarre and unsettling. She had never imagined she could dream of such a thing. "You dreamed of a... great red bird. Its feathers were stripped completely bare, leaving it dripping with blood. In the deep, pitch-black sky, it flew on and on, endlessly... yet its cries were filled with... profound joy!" Qi Yuan's voice was eerily calm. The female doctor gave a violent start. "What did you say?" She was truly shaken. Her dream had been identical to Qi Yuan's description! That bloody bird had cried out repeatedly, its calls ringing with bizarre elation. Even the sound of its cries had been peculiar. Phonetically, they sounded uncannily like "Chong Qi." Previously, she hadn't paid it any mind, but hearing Qi Yuan speak of it now... Could it be that matters were not as simple as she had assumed? Could "Chong Qi" mean "Reboot"? "Inflate"? Or perhaps "Pamper the Wife"? "That's why you're sick!" Qi Yuan sat on the chair, a faint, breezy smile playing on his lips. The female doctor was reeling in shock. She had no idea how Qi Yuan could have known about her dream. Yet... Qi Yuan was clearly just an ordinary person. Though many elites had emerged from among his classmates, he was just an ordinary psychiatric patient. "What illness do I have, then?" she could not help but ask. "You have... kidney deficiency!" Qi Yuan replied in dead earnest. "..." The doctor was rendered completely speechless. As expected, one should never harbor expectations of a mental patient. Harboring doubts, she left a few instructions with the robot and departed Qi Yuan's home. In the spacious apartment, only Qi Yuan was left—or rather, Qi Yuan and a robot. Qi Yuan returned to his bedroom. His home was a standard three-bedroom, one-living-room unit left behind by his parents, who had died in battle. His bedroom covered around twenty square meters. Aside from a bed, a computer, and a wardrobe, it was sparsely furnished and held very few possessions. Suddenly, he clutched his head and crouched to the floor. "Reboot!" In his mind's eye, the image of a bird flying across the vault of heaven surged forth. At that moment, the pupils of both his eyes flushed crimson, webbed with bursting capillaries. The blood vessels grew denser and thicker, as if his eyeballs were about to bulge out and explode, terrifying to behold. Streaks of bloody tears trailed down beneath his eye sockets. *** Back in the Canglan Realm, Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes. "The Innate Seed... why does it feel like it's in bad shape? It's not going to die, is it?" Qi Yuan was momentarily taken aback. At present, he could not perceive what was happening to the Innate Seed in the game world. Once he crossed over, he would fully absorb everything there. Furthermore, the strength gained in that world would feed back into his true body in far greater measure than before. Yet right now, he sensed that the Innate Seed was in terrible condition, its vitality precariously fragile, on the verge of death. He immersed his consciousness into the game jade slip. Currently, the new game world was less than halfway loaded, and its icon had not yet fully formed. This game icon was slightly different from the previous ones. This time, the vague outline of a bird stripped of its skin could be seen. "Don't tell me the Innate Seed will already be dead by the time I enter the game. That would ruin everything," Qi Yuan muttered with a sigh. Since the game was still loading, he had no way to intervene. For now, he decided to put it out of his mind and deal with the Dark Sun first. He cast a glance at the corpses inside Phoenix Palace, hesitated no longer, and returned to the Dao Seeking Palace. "My Lord, you're back so soon?" Seeing Qi Yuan, Old Man Qishang wore an expression of sheer astonishment. How long had Qi Yuan even been gone? He was already back? Had nothing unexpected happened at Phoenix Palace? "An unexpected mishap occurred in Phoenix Palace!" Qi Yuan stated with a grim expression, a look of regret in his eyes. "Great Venerable Moli colluded with a mysterious powerhouse and slaughtered every single Yin God she had invited! "When I arrived, that mysterious powerhouse tried to pull the same trick and ambush me! "In the end, I counter-killed him, and Great Venerable Moli died by my hand as well! "Right now, Phoenix Palace is littered with the corpses of Yin Gods. Find some people to clean them up." Qi Yuan spoke briskly, giving Old Man Qishang a brief summary of what had transpired in Phoenix Palace. Hearing this, stormy waves surged through Old Man Qishang's heart. "They're... all dead?" "Yes, every last one of them. A shame, really. I have to leave for the Dark Sun and won't be able to attend their funeral feast. Remember to host a proper feast for them—make it grand and dignified." Old Man Qishang remained silent, numerous thoughts flashing through his mind. He felt somewhat suspicious of Qi Yuan's account. Great Venerable Moli colluded with a mysterious powerhouse? There were only so many supreme experts in this world. Where would so many mysterious powerhouses keep coming from? He even suspected that because those Yin Gods had offended the Blood-Robed Sword God last time, the Blood-Robed Sword God had simply wiped them all out in one fell swoop. At this thought, his dread toward the Blood-Robed Sword God deepened. Such a ruthless act was entirely within character for a god of slaughter like the Blood-Robed Sword God. After giving his instructions to Old Man Qishang, Qi Yuan spoke with Lord Feng within the Dao Seeking Palace, arranging for men to invite True Monarch Dazhi to Qinghong City. By now, Qi Yuan had acquired enough cultivation arts. He planned to continue deducing the *Qi Yuan Scripture*. As for the path toward the Purple Mansion realm, he had a clear grasp of it. After all, while in the Liufeng Realm, he had already become a Sovereign. Yet as the saying went, three ordinary cobblers surpassed a Zhuge Liang. Qi Yuan felt it was still best to borrow True Monarch Dazhi's brilliant mind; perhaps it might bring unexpected benefits. Once all the arrangements were settled, Qi Yuan watched the lively preparations for the funeral feast in the Dao Seeking Palace, deep sorrow welling in his heart. This banquet... he was destined to miss. Still, he wasn't stupid. Before leaving, he stealthily pocketed a braised pig's trotter to eat on the road to the Dark Sun's headquarters. *** Youtian Domain. A branch of the Dao Seeking Palace. Over a hundred projections of Yin Gods sat within the hall. Most of these Yin Gods possessed the strength of Great Venerables, and even the weakest among them were Yin Gods of the Three Steps of Sky Treading. These Yin Gods practically represented all the major factions within the territory overseen by the Dao Seeking Palace. The Canglan Realm was divided into thirty-three domains, twenty of which fell under the reach of the Dao Seeking Palace. Aside from territories like the Central Heavenly Domain where the Dao Seeking Palace had not set foot, branches existed across all the other domains. At this moment, the Grand Palace Master of the Dao Seeking Palace wore a purple robe, his demeanor radiating an ethereal, transcendent grace. "Fellow Daoists, how do you view this Origin God Sharing Society?" Originally, regarding the Blood-Robed Sword God's desire to collect the world's cultivation arts, the Palace Master had been entirely dismissive. In his eyes, the Great Tribulation was irreversible. So what if the cultivation arts were tainted with poison? Did a mere Great Venerable truly think he could defy the Great Tribulation? If he wanted to challenge it, so be it; the Palace Master might even praise him for his commendable courage. However, getting involved himself, collecting the world's arts, and trading for the methods within the Origin God Sharing Society was something he refused to do. Furthermore, the Dark Sun had already dispatched the Four Generals of the Lei Family to execute the Blood-Robed Sword God. The Grand Palace Master had naturally assumed the Blood-Robed Sword God would never survive the ordeal. Under such circumstances, the Origin God Sharing Society's ambition to collect the world's arts was nothing more than a pipe dream, and sending a random emissary to brush them off had seemed more than sufficient. Yet to his utter shock, events had defied all expectations. The Blood-Robed Sword God had actually slain the Four Generals of the Lei Family! Each of the four had been a peak expert of the Six Steps of Sky Treading, yet the Blood-Robed Sword God had cut them all down. The Blood-Robed Sword God's strength had far exceeded his wildest estimations. With Mythological figures remaining in seclusion, the Blood-Robed Sword God was effectively the supreme power of the Canglan Realm. Thus, when Qi Yuan later dispatched Great Venerable Wujun to contact the Dao Seeking Palace, the Grand Palace Master gave him due respect and reached out to the leaders of numerous major factions. "The Blood-Robed Sword God possesses might comparable to a Mythological figure. Since he dares make a move against the Dark Sun, he must hold absolute confidence," an old man remarked with a genial smile. "This old man is willing to join the Origin God Sharing Society and offer a few meager cultivation arts as a gesture of support to the Blood-Robed Sword God." "I fear the Blood-Robed Sword God simply does not fathom the terror of the Dark Sun. "Though this is not the Central Heavenly Domain, the Dark Sun still has a Mythological figure presiding over it! "This old man will not wade into these muddy waters." The speaker was none other than the Head Society Master of the Divine Flower Society. The headquarters of the Divine Flower Society was likewise situated within the Youtian Domain. The moment the Head Society Master spoke, the atmosphere in the hall tightened noticeably, particularly among several Great Venerables hailing from the Youtian Domain.