Chapter 2571 - Ulterior Motives for Positive Karma

The dome of heaven split. It seemed as if the entire Heaven-Combating Hidden Realm would soon collapse.

The silver-robed man stood in the air. His voice wasn’t loud, yet every word clearly reached the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool.

The churning waters instantly stilled, suddenly stagnant.

The blood-red liquid was translucent and as smooth as a mirror. That indistinct figure seemed to be emerging from the pool’s depths, drawing closer and closer to the surface.

Soon, that figure came into view, but she stopped just beneath the surface, not leaving the crimson liquid.

She was a woman in snow-white clothing, the fabric extraordinarily striking against the red backdrop. Her long hair was the vivid red of blood, and it floated on the surface of the pond like water plants.

“A single mistake can lead to defeat, yes, but why say we’re too late?” she said with great difficulty, as if she hadn’t spoken in a long time. “I don’t understand.”

The silver-robed man rubbed his nose. “Earlier, the Dipankara Buddha borrowed Su Yi’s hands to destroy his karmic tribulation, but that’s because at the time, Su Yi wasn’t overly terrifying.

“Things are different now. When I saw how slavishly obedient the Lucky Die was, I knew our chance had passed.” He sighed. “If we try to force it, I’m afraid you’ll die a horrible death.”

“What makes you say that?” The woman in white said icily from below the surface of the pond.

“Instinct,” said the man in silver. “You don’t have to accept my assessment, but I’m doing this for your own good.”

Whoosh!

The waters of the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool churned as the red-haired woman in white emerged.

She was tall and thin, and her clothes were whiter than snow. Her long, blood-red hair fell down to her waist, and her features were exquisitely perfect.

But her eyes were the most striking of all. They too were the color of blood, and they churned with mysterious, inscrutable, electric light, startling the heart and soul.

Even her body was swathed in hints of electric rain.

“I’m indeed not convinced.” The red-haired woman stood on the surface of the pond, eyes flashing like lightning as she looked at the silver-robed man. “I paid such a heavy price, but in the end, victory slipped through my fingers, all because of you... and now you’re telling me that it’s for my own good? Hah! Don’t you think that’s ridiculous?”

The silver-robed man furrowed his brow, his expression suddenly cold and indifferent. “When chaos fiends die, their source energies return to the primordial chaos, in turn becoming nourishment to help you recover and reawaken. You call that ‘paying a heavy price?’”

The woman instantly fell silent.

The man in silver robes continued, “You understand that full well. As an ancient fiend born of the primordial chaos, if you want to repair your damaged source energies, there’s only one way to go about it. You need to take the lives of other chaos fiends, sacrificing them to replenish yourself.”

“But you could never bring yourself to do it. Now, an outsider like Su Yi has done it for you. Surely you have nothing to complain about?”

The woman in white said coldly, “You... are far too hard-hearted!”

The silver-robed man laughed. “When you cultivate, you can’t forget to temper your heart. Even Su Yi realized that weak Dao Hearts are the lethal weak point of the chaos fiends, so why speak to me of hard-heartedness?

“Most of the chaos fiends of the Heaven-Combating Hidden Realm have perished, and their life force has fused into the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool. That’s what let you recover a portion of your energy and awaken earlier than expected. You couldn’t possibly be speaking to me like this otherwise. That’s a fact, and you have to acknowledge it!”

The woman in white stood there, her blood-red eyes flashing with imposing electricity. She didn’t say anything in response.

“Times have changed, Dou Tian. The God Domain no longer belongs to the chaos fiends,” said the silver-robed man, grief rising on his face. “Now that the Dark Days of Legend have begun, there are only two possible endings for the chaos fiends. Either you prove your Dao and achieve Eternity, or you... perish!”

The woman’s beautiful face shifted, and her brow furrowed. “And that’s why you disregarded the lives of the Heaven-Trampling Chaos King and the others?”

“That’s not all.” The silver-robed man shook his head. “How could I possibly have been so heartless? No, it’s that after weighing the advantages and disadvantages, I had no other choice.”

He sighed as if he found this an awful pity. “It’s just a shame I didn’t manage to invite Su Yi to the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool. If I had, we could have used his power to shatter your Karmic Tribulation.”

The red-haired woman in white was Dou Tian, the Heaven-Combating Ancient Fiend!

In the earliest days of the God Domain’s history, she went to the River of Destiny, only to meet with unexpected disaster. It left her racked with a Karmic tribulation, and upon her return to the God Domain, she’d had no choice but to enter the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool. That was the only way to keep her tribulation at bay!

This was similar to what had happened to the Dipankara Buddha and Qilin Ancient. The difference was that, as the most ancient of the chaos fiends, her Karmic Tribulation was unusual and especially hard to deal with.

“But there will be another opportunity later,” said the silver-robed man. “I agreed to save you and break your Karmic Tribulation. I naturally won’t go back on my word.”

The red-haired woman in white fell silent. “I don’t understand. You obviously know that Su Yi’s power of reincarnation can resolve my Karmic Tribulation, so why not ask him for help?”

The silver-robed man rubbed his forehead. “He and I are irreconcilable enemies. How could I owe him a favor? When you owe someone a favor, your heart is sure to soften when it comes time to determine life and death. It would ruin me.”

“Then why establish a positive karmic connection with him?” the woman asked with a frown.

The silver-robed man laughed. “To make

him

owe

me

a favor, naturally! I did him a good turn, so on the off chance I fail when the time comes for us to determine who lives and who dies, will he really be hard-hearted enough to kill him?

“....” The woman in white would never have guessed that this was his reason.

The silver-robed man continued, “Rather than establishing a positive karmic connection with him, I’d describe it as... ensuring that a thread of hope remains after we’ve fought, no matter the outcome!”

Boom!!

The dome of heaven split, and the sky collapsed on all sides.

The entire Heaven-Combating Hidden Realm shook violently as if it might collapse at any moment.

The silver-robed man looked up at the firmament, then said quietly, “Pipe down.”

An unbelievable scene followed. The split, collapsing hidden realm suddenly fell silent and still.

“With my abilities, I’ll at most be able to sustain the Heaven-Combating Hidden Realm for three years.” His gaze shifted to the Heaven-Combating Ancient Fiend. “Since the Dark Days of Legend have already begun, according to my divinations, a new balance of power will have taken shape by the time three years is up.”

“When the time comes, the curtains will open on the Battle for Order. That will be our chance to visit Red Pine Mountain on the Central Divine Continent.

“Within three years, you must emerge from the Chaos Fiend Blood Pool, or else... you won’t get another chance!”

......

The outside world, near the rim of the enormous pit.

“Elder Chi Xu died here earlier!”

“Have you figured out who did it?”

“We’re not sure.”

A group of Heavenly Yao Tower experts had gathered here, talking amongst themselves.

Their leader was a thin-faced yao cultivator with ink-black robes and eyes as sharp as swords. His whole body was shrouded in a glittering, golden power of the Laws.

Zhi Xun.

He was a high elder of Heavenly Yao Tower and a Half-Step Eternal.

Earlier, Elder Chi Xu of Heavenly Yao Tower had captured a group of outsider Master Gods as prey. He’d tossed them all into the pit.

But the silver-robed man had killed him before he could report back. His death had alerted his sect, and Zhi Xun had immediately led a group here to investigate.

Thus far, they’d learned nothing at all. They didn’t even know who the killer was.

“Whoever they are, anyone who dares to kill a member of Heavenly Yao Tower must be exterminated along with the rest of their family!” Zhi Xun’s eyes flashed with seething murderous intent.

This was the heart of the Barren Mountains of Divine Calamity, and Heavenly Yao Tower was one of its three spacetime forbidden zones.

Yet now, someone had slain one of their elders in what was essentially their territory. This was an unquestionable provocation!

“Ee?” Someone suddenly exclaimed. “It seems people are returning from the pit?”

This instantly drew the others’ attention. All of them looked over, and indeed, they caught faint hints of flashing lights shooting out of the pit’s depths!

Master God Zhi Xun and the others’ expressions shifted. It had been a while since the pit first appeared, but not one person had returned alive.

That included many of Heavenly Yao Tower’s Master Gods. THey’d gone to investigate, but there’d been no word from any of them.

Yet now, they spotted beams of light deep within the pit, and they were headed toward the outside world. Who

wouldn’t

have been astonished?

“Don’t do anything reckless. Let’s wait and figure out what’s happening!” Master God Zhi Xun said gravely.

“Understood!” The others assented.

Before long, rumbling rang out, and resplendent light whooshed out of the pit, dispersing the darkness, one after another.

“There’s so many of them!”

“Don’t tell me that everyone who went into the pit is returning at once?”

Many of the onlookers were startled. Judging by the beams of light, hundreds of people were returning from the world in the pit, all of them Undying Realm Master Gods!

As they conversed, the figures appeared in the outside world. Firelight shot into the firmament, shaking the sky.

This huge lineup of Master Gods illuminated the entire stretch of heaven and earth.

“We’re finally back!”

“This is wonderful!”

“I really didn’t think I’d ever make it back!”

Voices full of excitement, delight, and ruefulness rang out, one after another.

These were naturally Su Yi, the Heaven-Swallowing Toad Ancestor, Liao Yuanshan, and the others.

When Master God Zhi Xun and the other Heavenly Yao Tower experts saw this, they couldn’t help but gasp. This lineup was just too enormous; hundreds of Master Gods had gathered in one place, standing proud beneath the heavens. Their divine majesty alone was enough to bear down on heaven and earth, shaking everything around them.

But Zhi Xun was a Half-Step Eternal in his own right, so he remained relatively calm.

He could tell at a glance that these Master Gods all hailed from different camps. Their ranks included no small number of familiar faces, like Hong Taiyu of Five Lightning Temple and several Nine-Tribulation Master Gods from the Everlasting Palace.

There were even a few Master Gods from their Heavenly Yao Tower!!

But now, all of them had gathered behind a man in Daoist robes, like stars clustered around the moon. Together, they made it obvious just how incomparably transcendent the man’s status was.

Who is that guy?

Zhi Xun looked over, his heart full of confusion.

Don’t tell me that he’s the one who saved all the trapped experts from the pit?