“It's him again. Even if I deduce for others, it can indirectly affect my Heavenly Mystery Art!?”
Heavenly Mystery Great Emperor’s face grew increasingly grim, and for the first time, a deep sense of fear and solemnity appeared in his eyes.
“Not only that…”
He closed his eyes in meditation again, then suddenly opened them a moment later, letting out a sharp, low growl.
“Hmm? The other two Qianshing Discs have lost connection?”
“Lin Chen is dead too!?”
“There isn’t even a hint of Luck feedback; is this the end of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering?”
Heavenly Mystery Great Emperor’s body trembled, his chest heaving, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
The expression on his face was extremely complex.
“This is impossible! Absolutely impossible!”
“I clearly calculated it myself; they were all Sons of Destiny, possessing great Luck. Even if they encountered a tribulation, they should have escaped death.”
“I can still understand Chu Nan’s premature death due to Shen Lian.”
“But why did Lin Chen die so completely?”
“Moreover, Ye Qingyun’s Luck is the most prosperous, and now with such a significant loss of Luck, he probably won’t last much longer…”
“What exactly happened?”
He muttered to himself, as if in self-denial.
“Strange!”
“Strange!”
“How could this be!?”
“Could it be… that an unknown upheaval has occurred in the heavens?”
With this doubt, Heavenly Mystery Great Emperor once again raised his hands, purple light surged in his eyes, and the Grand Void Star Wheel in his hand slowly rotated, releasing myriad rays of starlight.
“I observe the celestial phenomena at night…”
A moment later.
His whole body shook, and he suddenly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, a vast star map was reflected.
And in the northernmost part of that star map, a dark and unclear Qi surged forth, vaguely pulling at the trajectories of myriad destinies.
“North of the heavens, an unparalleled Opportunity is about to appear in the Ancient Immortal Domain!”
“A great tribulation descends upon the world, and fortune rises and falls!”
“This journey… is fraught with ominous signs, definitely not an auspicious path.”
Heavenly Mystery Great Emperor sighed deeply, his face filled with bitterness and exhaustion.
He could clearly feel that the lingering Evil Demon Qi within his body had begun to shake his Life Origin.
His vitality was rapidly flowing away like water from a funnel.
Heavenly Mystery Great Emperor understood that if he didn't set off soon, after this slumber, he might truly only be able to transform into the Dao and sit in meditation, with no possibility of waking up again.
“Alas, things have come to this; I can only emerge and take a risk this time.”
“On the way, I’ll go see Ye Qingyun and see if he can have another turning point.”
“At the same time, I’ll search for other individuals with great Luck.”
“To serve as a backup… and grant them another great fortune!”
“But now that ominous signs have appeared…”
“If I want to survive, I must absolutely avoid direct conflict with that madwoman Su Hongye in this endeavor!”
…Ye Qingyun, alone and travel-worn, embarked on the road to the Central Province of the Ancient Immortal Domain.
After several days of rushing, his face was as calm as water, yet he could not conceal the heaviness in his eyes.
Along the way, he witnessed countless tragedies in the world.
The Central Province of the Ancient Immortal Domain, once a land of outstanding people and spiritual energy, had now transformed into a battlefield of purgatory, where blood and fire intertwined, resembling a scene from the apocalypse.
Mountains and rivers were shattered, the earth cracked, and ruins covered the wilderness.
Once prosperous immortal cities were now either reduced to scorched earth or deeply buried under piles of bones, a scene of utter devastation.
He once passed through a battlefield where the after-effects of Law had not yet dissipated; traces of Heaven-Defying Divine Ability were imprinted on the mountains, the earth was riddled with holes, and corpses lay strewn about.
Most were Mortals, but there were also Cultivators.
However, none were intact; all had been caught in the crossfire and died.
Some young children, their clothes stained with blood, stood numbly beside the corpses of their relatives, their eyes vacant and listless, as if they had forgotten how to cry.
An elderly man knelt before a ruined temple, beside him a pot that had long since grown cold, and behind him, no one.
Yet, he continued to add water to it, muttering incessantly:
“Be good, Daddy will have the water boiled soon; you wait, you’ll be able to drink it then…”
Ye Qingyun’s steps paused slightly, but in the end, he did not disturb the old man who had gone mad.
He passed a broken bridge and saw a group of crippled soldiers helping the wounded escape; their armor was tattered, but their eyes remained resolute, and they murmured softly, “Live… We must have someone live.”
And another time.
He traveled to a ruined city at night.
He saw several children, emaciated to skin and bones, sitting around a corpse, sharing rotten flesh.
That scene was deeply etched in his mind, causing him to toss and turn for several nights.
Vibrant lives were trampled like grass.
Dignity, order, the Immortal Dao… all collapsed in the face of this massacre carried out in the name of the strong.
Ye Qingyun remained silent, feeling as if his chest was blocked by a huge boulder.
He was no longer the youth with a calm heart, pursuing his own Dao.
At this moment, his heart held an indescribable complexity and sorrow.
He hated Jiang Ye.
He hated those high and mighty, immortal Dao lineages that disregarded the common people!
For the sake of so-called Heavenly and Earthly Opportunities and fortunes, they did not hesitate to unleash such a cruel catastrophe, causing all beings to wail in agony.
Was it merely for Heavenly and Earthly Opportunities!?
“Why is this world so unfair!?”
“I… truly wish to slaughter all of you…”
“If only I had the power…”
Ye Qingyun’s emotions grew increasingly agitated, and faintly, it seemed his Heart Demon could no longer be suppressed.
These past days, he had been trying hard to restrain himself.
Assessing the situation, not acting rashly.
He knew his own weakness, knew that confronting those behemoths head-on would be nothing more than a moth flying into a flame.
But the rage and hatred in his heart could never be quelled.
Now, seeing this scene, it became even more uncontrollable.
“The path of Cultivation… is truly Heaven-Defying, like sailing against the current!”
“Without seizing Opportunity, without contending for destiny, one cannot change fate, cannot protect loved ones, cannot achieve one’s desires…”
“Village Chief Grandpa, Grandpa Thin (Venerable), Granny Yun…”
“You once contended and seized… but in the end, you couldn’t save this suffering sea of humanity…”
“Is this path wrong?”
Ye Qingyun murmured, his voice tinged with desolation.
He had never claimed to be a Saint.
In Wangchen Village, watching those old people, even though they possessed the Great Dao and wielded Divine Ability, were unwilling to use their cultivation for slaughter, only to protect a pure land.
But now, that pure land was also swallowed by the flames of war.
“Perhaps, that path of justice, in the end, cannot resist the cruel Laws of this world…”
“The strong are respected? Survival of the fittest?”
He seemed ignorant of worldly affairs, but his heart was as clear as a mirror.
Perhaps, those Seniors in Fire Lotus City initially embarked on the path of Cultivation with the desire to save the world.
But as time passed and the world overturned, they had quietly changed.
They began to retreat, began to compromise… They entrusted the future to Ye Qingyun in the name of “justice.”
But in this, how could there not be a hint of “hope for revenge”?
Ye Qingyun did not blame them; instead, his heart felt sorrowful.
He knew that those elders truly cared for him and were willing to expend their remaining strength to cultivate him.
But it was also undeniable that they had placed too many, too heavy obsessions on him.
Ye Qingyun finally sighed and continued forward.