Countless images flashed across his mind in an instant.
When Qi Yuan opened his eyes again, he suddenly realized he was back in the Divine Light Sect, standing atop Seven Colors Peak.
"Am I... Is the game over?"
The game had ended with shocking suddenness.
Following that bird's departure, the sea of Root Demons had dissipated. Before Qi Yuan had even had the chance to see Canary and Ning Tao again, return home, or leave a few instructions for Zero-One, the game had terminated, sending him back to Canglan.
"Hey, are you kidding me? Leave if you must, but why did you take my Divine Infant with you?!"
Qi Yuan sorely wished he could blast that woman with an Explosive Bird-Killing Fist!
Granted, Qi Yuan was the one at fault first for lodging Wu Shi into her body.
Still, going by a certain line of reasoning:
Was her corpse lying right there entirely blameless?
Then again, considering Wu Shi's unique state, Qi Yuan let the matter drop. His nearly four thousand Divine Infants could find "grandsons" and "granddaughters" on both the Arch Star and the Origin Land to rush out as their grandparents. Wu Shi, however, was different. Only the body of that powerhouse above the Grand Ultimate Principle Realm within the ruins could serve as a host for her slow revival. One could say that without that powerhouse's body, it would have been nearly impossible for Wu Shi to awaken—or at the very least, her awakening would have taken an eternity.
"Sigh. I played a game and got a kidney harvested. Where can an honest man even seek justice?"
Qi Yuan felt utterly helpless.
Though strictly speaking, what had been harvested was a Divine Infant.
And though he truly had plenty of Divine Infants to spare, losing one remained an undeniable fact.
"Now, on top of having a mental illness to shock everyone, I'll need a disability certificate too. My buffs are fully stacked."
Qi Yuan decided he would go claim a disability certificate in a little while.
Immediately after, he looked inward to inspect himself, and a look of astonishment flitted across his eyes.
"I am now... in the Purple Mansion Realm?"
Upon returning from the game, Qi Yuan had indeed stepped into the Purple Mansion Realm.
Yes—the very first Purple Mansion in the Divine Light Sect since its founding.
"Wait... where is my Purple Mansion?"
Qi Yuan was deeply disappointed.
He had crossed the threshold of the Purple Mansion Realm, yet in a way, he hadn't entered at all. Because he had no Purple Mansion.
The place where his Purple Mansion ought to be was completely empty.
"My disability is getting a bit serious!"
Playing this game had turned him into a full-blown disabled person. One of his Divine Infants had been abducted, and his Purple Mansion was hollow as can be.
The only comforting silver lining was that the Innate Seed was simply too formidable. Nearly ninety-nine percent of the cultivation he had gained in the game had been brought back with him. His realm as a Myriad Dao Martial God remained intact, and his Yang God power was present as well. In truth, this breakthrough was monumental, surpassing every previous advancement.
"Since my Purple Mansion didn't form, does that mean my superpower hasn't activated either?"
With every major realm he broke through, Qi Yuan would awaken a new superpower: like the eyes that could view hidden information, the ears that could hear heart-voices and inexplicable murmurs, or the nose that could grow larger and longer.
This time, there was no change at all. That meant his Purple Mansion was not yet complete.
"Hmm... So all I'm lacking is a Netherworld?" Qi Yuan pondered.
He had the purple qi, but not the Netherworld.
Just then, Qi Yuan shifted his gaze to the quest reward. It was a straight, brush-shaped object, somewhat resembling a calligraphy brush. Its shaft was the color of dark ink, faintly bearing patterns of mountains and rivers.
"A proper brush."
Back in the Xuanyuan Forbidden Ground, he had encountered an improper brush shaped like a fox's tail called the Mad Brush, which had been exceedingly untoward.
"The Mountain and River Sheji Brush... I see now. I only need to find a painter to paint my Netherworld. Once that's done... my Purple Mansion will be complete."
The Mountain and River Sheji Brush was a supreme treasure. Dongjun had used this very brush to paint the Mountains and Seas Picture Scroll, weaving countless worlds. Now, the brush rested in his own hands.
"So the issue is still... I need land, blueprints, and a painter?" Qi Yuan mused.
With a flick of his sleeve, seven PowerPoint presentations materialized before him. These seven presentations were the Netherworld design proposals given to him by that person on the Arch Star.
Qi Yuan casually glanced over them. "Cultivating to the Purple Mansion is way too difficult. How come other people just enter seclusion, explore a secret realm, gather enough resources, kick their legs, and pop straight into the Purple Mansion? Meanwhile, I have to go through all this hassle—buying land, hiring someone to design it, and finding another person to paint the blueprints!"
Qi Yuan felt thoroughly indignant. The world was simply too unfair.
"Alas, the hardships of the world are like the rushing waters of a river, gone never to return," Qi Yuan lamented.
Right then, a crisp, melodious voice sounded unexpectedly outside his classy, upscale concrete building.
"Senior Brother, have you ended your seclusion?"
The owner of the voice seemed to be speaking in hushed tones, afraid of disturbing someone in meditation, while also tinged with a thread of worry.
It was a voice Qi Yuan knew better than any other.
Clad in his red robe, he strode out from the upscale—yet slightly ill-suited to his status—concrete building.
"Junior Sister, how did you know I would emerge right now? And how did you know that I accidentally broke through to the Purple Mansion?"
Qi Yuan smiled faintly, his blood-red robe lending him the majestic air of a grand Purple Mansion cultivator.
Outside the door, the eyes of the graceful figure in the purple dress shrank in shock, like a gentle breeze rustling a lotus leaf, sending glistening water droplets scattering in all directions.
"Senior Brother, you're finally out! You've been in seclusion for two and a half years!" Joy and excitement filled Jiang Lingsu's eyes.
In her memory, although Senior Brother Qi Yuan frequently entered seclusion, he had never stayed in for very long. This time had dragged on quite a bit. As his junior sister, worrying and caring about her senior brother was perfectly normal, wasn't it?
Every day, she would come to Qi Yuan's door and call out softly to see if he had awakened, worried that some accident might have befallen him.
Now, seeing Qi Yuan appear, her face blossomed into a radiant smile.
"Two and a half years? That's quite a long time, and a rather unlucky number," Qi Yuan said nonchalantly.
His gaze naturally fell upon Jiang Lingsu, and his expression froze for a moment.
Beneath her violet silk dress, fair and supple skin was on full display. Pale purple ribbons tied into twin butterflies rested lightly on her luminous, snowy shoulders. Unlike the gowns she had worn before, this one featured far too many cutouts. Her bare back, partially shielded by her cascading hair, revealed a defined spinal groove framed on either side by smooth, porcelain skin that glowed with a delicate sheen, completely devoid of excess fat.
There were also two cutouts at the waist, revealing a slender midriff that one could encompass with a single hand, its contours sharply drawn. Further down, one could vaguely glimpse the curving silhouette where her waist met her hips. Higher up, generous, firm, and rounded curves stood in striking contrast to her slender waist—truly a case of a slender branch bearing bountiful fruit.
It was a far cry from Canary's pair of soft, inverted jade bowls, not even belonging to the same weight class.
Most importantly, there were two points that could not be spoken aloud.
Someone was right: purple possessed immense charm.
"Two and a half years have passed indeed. Your dressing style has undergone a massive shift, Junior Sister—grown quite bold and uninhibited. Mind you, 'bold' carries no negative connotation here." Qi Yuan had always been considerate with his words, always making sure to stack defensive buffs on himself first.
Jiang Lingsu's face flushed crimson. She put her hands on her hips. "I'm the only person on Seven Colors Peak, so what's there to be afraid of? Besides, Senior Brother, you have no idea how many bizarre things happened while you were in seclusion! More suns appeared in the sky, and now there are eleven of them! It's so hot, and I live here alone. Seven Colors Peak is protected by the formations you set up, so no one can enter without my permission, meaning nobody will see me. What's wrong with wearing something a little breezier? Humph, you've seen far breezier before, yet now you act all shy and evasive!"
Qi Yuan lifted his head and looked at the sky.
Good grief, eleven suns.
He felt it carefully. It was indeed a little hot, but only marginally so; the effect was mostly psychological.
"Looks like I need to find a divine archer to shoot one down!" Qi Yuan stared at the very first sun, a contemplative look appearing on his face.
There were simply too many ill-mannered people in this world. Couldn't that person see how crowded the suns already were here, yet they still rushed over? That fellow from Taihuang Palace was utterly devoid of manners.
"Senior Brother, according to what you said, the suns in the sky are Yang Gods projecting across the myriad heavens. Where in our Canglan Realm would we find such a divine archer? And if we were to shoot any down, we'd definitely have to shoot down the ones that came later!" Jiang Lingsu chuckled softly, her ample chest trembling slightly, stirring the senses.
Qi Yuan swallowed dryly. "The suns that arrived later are good and kind. Don't shoot those. If you're going to shoot one, shoot the first!"
Those later ones were his own Golden Cores; if someone shot them down, it would be downright awkward.
Jiang Lingsu's limpid eyes pooled with laughter. Perhaps because it had been so long since they last spoke, or perhaps because distance was the best beautifier, hearing her senior brother talk utter nonsense brought genuine joy to her heart.
"Can suns even be categorized as bad?" Jiang Lingsu played along with his nonsense.
"Of course. Look at the other ten suns—they're upright and proper, and clearly don't belong to the same crowd as that one. Obviously, that sun is a bad sun, which is why it's being ostracized!" Qi Yuan asserted with supreme confidence.
"Senior Brother is right." Jiang Lingsu drew closer, generously looping her arm around Qi Yuan's. Pulling him along, she said, "Senior Brother has been in seclusion for so long, you must be hungry. As luck would have it, I just finished making a meal, so out of the goodness of my heart, I'll let you have a taste!"
Suddenly, however, Jiang Lingsu glanced at Qi Yuan's blood-red robe, suspicion flashing in her eyes. "Senior Brother, if I remember correctly, you were wearing a green robe before entering seclusion. How did it suddenly turn red? And the cut of this robe isn't like anything you wore before either. You couldn't have finished your seclusion long ago and snuck out to fool around, only returning just now, could you?!"
As she spoke, she grew slightly indignant, her chest heaving.
"No, I merely changed skins in the game."
When Qi Yuan descended into the game, it was his true body, yet different in subtle ways.
"Changed skins?" Jiang Lingsu blinked. Hearing Qi Yuan's denial, she chose to believe him. Though her senior brother often seemed unreliable, in crucial moments he was remarkably dependable.
"Yes." Qi Yuan nodded. "Come on, let's go taste your culinary skills. While we're at it, I have a few things to ask you."
"What is it?" Jiang Lingsu asked, intrigued.
As a wealthy and beautiful young lady, this junior sister was exceptionally enthusiastic and generous toward Qi Yuan. Not only did she drop heaps of gold coins, but she also showered him with cultivation arts. As the saying went, behind every successful man was a woman silently supporting him. In Qi Yuan's case, it was his junior sister behind him, showering him with wealth.
"We'll talk over food." Qi Yuan lowered his head and caught another view he shouldn't have seen. "Junior Sister, perhaps you should put on a bit more clothes?"
A blush crept along Jiang Lingsu's ears, hiding beneath her dark tresses. Her courage flared. "It's not like you haven't seen it before, so what's there to fear?"
Often, once there was a first time, a second would inevitably follow.
"However..." Qi Yuan leaned close to Jiang Lingsu's ear and whispered a few words.
Jiang Lingsu's face instantly went scarlet. Her arms snapped up to cover herself, pressing against her chest and accentuating its generous curves as they trembled slightly.
"You... you didn't see anything!"
"I didn't. I've already forgotten," Qi Yuan said with utmost consideration.
Seeing this, Jiang Lingsu gritted her teeth in embarrassment, stomping her feet in frustration, yet she couldn't find an excuse to take a bite out of him. Whirling around, she transformed into an arc of light and vanished.
Watching her leave, Qi Yuan recalled the past when his junior sister had given him a cultivation technique. Back then, he had said he would cover for her in the future. She had replied that she didn't need any cover.
"Turns out Junior Sister really doesn't need a cover."
A crude pun tumbled straight out of Qi Yuan's mouth.
***
"A painter?"
Jiang Lingsu sat upright on a bamboo chair. This time, she was dressed far from breezily, bundled up so securely that without the aid of Daoist techniques, she would have broken out in a sweat long ago.
"Yes, I need a painter to draw out my Netherworld," Qi Yuan said casually.
Though Qi Yuan could technically draw, his artistic skill was remarkably mediocre. For such tasks, it was best left to a professional. Other people had already made the PowerPoint presentations; surely he didn't have to draw the illustrations himself as well. All he needed was to synthesize his concepts with others' architectural designs to plan out the Netherworld. Having someone skilled with a brush would suffice.
Things like this were trivial matters. Qi Yuan couldn't be bothered to search for a painter himself, so since his junior sister could find one, he left it to her. As long as the brushwork was up to par, it would be fine.
The most pressing matter at hand, of course, was the Great Tribulation. Resolving the Great Tribulation and finding a painter to depict the Netherworld would proceed in tandem.
"If it's a painter you want, I actually know of one. She isn't the most famous, but she is definitely the most bizarre. She lives in the Bamboo Forest Sea of Helan Continent in the Eastern Lands. Our Jiang Clan conducts some business there, and when I was young, I met her once," Jiang Lingsu recalled.
She began pondering the painter's eccentricities, expecting Qi Yuan to ask what made her so strange, as most people would.
"Oh? Is her brushwork good? Is she better than me?"
As Qi Yuan spoke, he immediately sketched a picture of a phoenix pecking at rice.
"Look. How does her skill compare to mine?"
Jiang Lingsu couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle. "Senior Brother, this drawing of a chick pecking at rice is quite hilarious."
"You're still laughing? Can't you tell this is a phoenix? And what this phoenix is eating is rice from your house!" Qi Yuan pointed at the grains. "See that? It's identical to your family's rice."
"How does it look identical at all!" Jiang Lingsu felt the rice didn't look the least bit like her clan's spirit rice.
"It doesn't just look like it—it is!" At Qi Yuan's words, a large hen broke free from the painting, flapping its stubby wings and darting straight into Jiang Lingsu's kitchen, where it seized her rice and began pecking at it frantically.
The hen looked rather scruffy, boasting an utterly bizarre shape.
Seeing this, Jiang Lingsu's eyes widened. "Senior Brother, you're being way too childish!"
Ignoring the chicken gorging on rice, she said softly, "Her skill is almost certainly better than yours. If nothing else, bringing things vividly to life would be no problem at all for her."
Her senior brother's drawing wasn't just beginner-level; it was abstract to the point that it looked nothing like a phoenix... only a chicken.
"In that case, let's find some time to pay her a visit. Along the way, though, I must formulate a detailed, meticulous, and unprecedented grand plan. If any mundane chores come up, I'll leave them to you!"
Qi Yuan's gaze turned solemn, his eyes brimming with gravity.
After all these years, he could finally lay down an airtight, flawless plan to confront the Great Tribulation. As long as he eliminated the Great Tribulation, the atmosphere of the Canglan Realm would change, and he would no longer have to live in daily anxiety, suffering nightmares about becoming someone else's nourishment. Moreover, he would be able to shatter the world's shackles, ascend to the Upper Realm, reunite with Jin Li, and find his master!
Such a magnificent plan had to be comprehensive, meticulous, and completely invulnerable.
"What kind of grand plan?" Jiang Lingsu looked at Qi Yuan, a trace of admiration in her eyes.
Sure enough, a man looked most attractive when he was serious. Whenever Senior Brother contemplated something, his charm increased by leaps and bounds.
Chapter 381