The girl in the cloth kept to herself for a long time before replying: “We’re not the only ones who have failed.”

“I know, so many people have tried in the past with great effort and determination. All ended with failure.” Li Qiye didn’t tease her this time, only nodding his head.

“This path is covered with bones and too many dead men to count.” She added.

“Would one be able to escape death by not taking this path?” Li Qiye chuckled: “Have enough people died just yet across the ages? Perhaps people live a different life but the final outcome will always be the same, returning to the earth as bones. Immortal Emperors and invincible characters, it doesn’t matter who you are, death will come. Even the lord of an epoch can’t avoid this either.” He said with a tinge of emotion.

“But so what if it is impossible to escape death? The world is still beautiful enough. Knowing that death is imminent, one should still fight to the end in order to see why the journey of life is so bright. After each golden era, more wise sages pave the road.” He ended with a comment full of determination and acceptance.

“But you think you alone can fight to the end?” She couldn’t help pouring cold water over his head: “Some people used the power of the entire world, only to become ashes. But you, you are alone. Success is not possible.”

“I will be because I am Li Qiye! That’s why I shall accomplish it.” He said with a smile.

“Hmph, delusions of grandeur.” She said coldly: “Among the epochs were people like you who have spent generations, searching for a method. In the end, none amounted to anything. Why are you so confident?”

“Because I am Li Qiye.” He leisurely repeated.

The girl had nothing to say. The word “egotistic” alone wasn’t enough to describe him.

“Whoosh!” Everything vanished where he was standing along with him. The spatial area here suddenly sank downward.

When Li Qiye could see again, he was standing in a blinding area, a room full of mirrors.

There were scintillating crystals everywhere of all kind of colors in the form of pillars. However, they weren’t crystal and seemed to be alive and breathing. A sort of liquid was also dripping from them.

This liquid was radiant with a strange and alluring light. The liquid beads fell to the ground and gathered into tiny streams that came together to form a puddle in an indentation on the ground.

Li Qiye stood by this puddle and found it to be surreal as if this was a dream because the water was sparkling and translucent to an unimaginable level.

A jade bottle was on top of the puddle. It was old, elegant, and had a softness to it. It seemed to be carved from the same piece of jade without any blemishes.

It didn’t sink despite being on the water surface. Strange enough, the water was actually crawling up the bottle before dripping inside. It seemed that this was the natural flow of the tiny streams.

Such a strange scene was happening here as if it was normal. Li Qiye looked at everything and said: “Cleansing Temporal Crystal. So you’re not here for a treasure, only to use this crystal to reform your body.”

“You know about it?” The girl was surprised.

Li Qiye answered with a smile: “There aren’t that many items that I don’t know. The Cleansing Temporal Crystal is indeed ancient, rumored to be a type of rock upon the creation of the world, extremely rare too. It took form in the deepest location of the main vein. People wouldn’t be able to know of its existence, let alone dig for it.”

He then looked around at the walls and said: “This whole place is formed in a natural manner, never been carved before. More importantly, it had severed from the ordinary temporal sphere and is now completely independent in a different realm. It would be apt to call this place Cleansing Temporal Sphere.”

With that, he stared at the piece of cloth again: “So this is what you all have done. Though you didn’t change this place at all, you still locked its space and time. This allowed it to be independent for who knows how many years? It didn’t matter how the world was changing and how many epochs have come and go, this place continued to exist.”

“Hmph, you know a lot.” The girl scowled after Li Qiye revealed their method.

“So this is the first step of your re-emergence to the world. Even though your calamity had passed, you still need to recreate and cleanse before coming out from the cloth.” He smiled at the girl.

“That’s right, in order for me to leave this cloth, I need a lot of time and an extremely pure crystal. That’s the only way to sever the curse.” She said coldly.

Li Qiye shifted his glance towards the floating bottle and said: “This bottle is incredible. It must have been personally created by a top master from your epoch. It could absorb essences here and remove any impurity, the best possible thing for cleansing.”

He then looked at the puddle full of water: “According to the records, it needs ten thousand years for the crystal to create one bead of liquid. There is enough liquid here to be a pond, all of this liquid is then further purified by the bottle, only the purest liquid is stored inside.”

“It’s definitely prime material. The liquid here can purify everything in this world - darkness, power, curses, and foulness.” He said slowly.

“I’ll be able to leave this cloth faster after removing my curse. That will be a good thing for you.” She said.

“That’s true, I won’t need to spend as much energy on this.” He replied: “However, I’m a little bit surprised. What was your past, who was it that hated you enough to use this method to imprison you, never letting you see the sun again for an eternity?”

“In my opinion, your current state isn’t because of the villainous heaven. It wouldn’t do something so tasteless. But then, which heaven-defying character made you into an ink spot on this cloth?”

“Hmph, none of your business.” She didn’t like talking about the past.

The girl indeed came from an ancient era. She used to be invincible but was cursed by someone else and trapped inside the yellow cloth. Moreover, this curse lasted for an eternity. Even though she was sealed for many years, the curse here was still enough to corrode the area around her. That eventually led to the destruction of the divine school. [1]

One could only imagine how terrible the person who did this to her back then must be on top of their deep hatred towards her.

“It really isn’t any of my business.” He shrugged in response: “But all have turned to ashes. Even if you had some deep desire for vengeance, you can’t carry it out anymore.”

She fell into silence. He was right, their epoch no longer existed. It had disappeared into the river of time. All the hatred in the past were gone now. That person had died long ago, there was no way for her to get revenge.

“Put me inside the bottle for purification.” She said coldly.

Li Qiye chuckled: “As you wish. I hope you will be able to come out soon with a new body.”

“Hmph, so that I can work for you, right?” She scowled.

“I won’t deny that.” He smiled and said: “Didn’t you say your cultivation method was extremely amazing? After you recreate your body, I want to widen my horizon.”

1. The sect where Li Qiye got it with the draco-bull