Chapter 577: Grievances Hard to Discern, Words Shatter the Heart Devil

After his "archaeological exploration," Wang Sheng's life within Lishang's ancestral land became much more monotonous.

With nothing to do, he naturally focused on comprehending the Dao since his cultivation realm now exceeded his Daoist realm by far too much. He had to equalize his two realms again before he could ever hope to make any progress in his cultivation.

Even so, Wang Sheng felt a measure of relief.

Senior Sister should be arriving soon. Now that I'm at the late-stage True Immortal Realm, I won't have to fear Heavenly Immortals anymore for as long as I have Spiritless and my immortal armor.

Since the thirteen qi planets were located in a remote region without any Golden Immortals, Wang Sheng had essentially met the bare minimum amount of strength required to protect the girl he loved. He and Lishang could also join forces now to make the Xinghai Sect more stable and provide Earth's cultivators a stable cultivation environment.

For the sake of future development, it seemed he would have to treat Xinghai City as his main base.

Tan Lang and the five war slaves were dead, and Lin Feiyao had probably managed to move to the Northern Sky Region without being exposed as a traitor. Hence, Wang Sheng began planning to harass the Celestial Wind Sect again. No, he wouldn't just be harassing them anymore. He would be doing far more damage.

If he used Green Lotus Ultimate for a surprise attack, he could probably eliminate a Heavenly Immortal or two, further weakening the sect. However, he still had to worry about the North-River Sword Sect sending people to protect it, which would introduce many uncontrollable variables.

Wang Sheng pondered for a moment. Soon, he concluded that he shouldn't back the Celestial Wind Sect into a corner at this time.

For now, he could only clench his fist and focus on becoming strong enough to annihilate the Celestial Wind Sect before the North-River Sword Sect could send in its experts. Once enemy reinforcements arrived, he and his allies could simply hide in the ancient battlefield.

A powerful dragon was no match for a local snake[1]. What could the North-River Sword Sect possibly do?

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Unbeknownst to him, his relationship with the Celestial Wind Sect had already greatly shifted. The initiative was beginning to tilt gradually to his side.

"I wonder if the Celestial Wind Sect will take this chance to launch a large-scale attack on the Xinghai Sect."

With his finger, Wang Sheng traced "Yao" on the grass. The Xinghai Sect should be fine for as long as Yao Xingzi, the "fortune-telling" master, was around.

Though the sect master had inherited the legacy of the Old Man of Xinghai, it was unknown what kind of bearing the Old Man of Xinghai had when he was alive.

Boom!

"

Mm?

What was that sound?"

Under the tree, Wang Sheng stood up and looked toward where the noise had come from. Considering the small world showed no anomaly at all, the disturbance likely came from outside.

He was just about to go investigate it when a stone mirror flew over from afar, floated before Wang Sheng, and displayed the area outside. It seemed this place actually had external surveillance. However, considering the restriction mistook him for one of Nuwa's descendants, it didn't seem particularly clever.

The stone mirror showed an elderly Daoist with graying hair flying across a valley. Behind him, a ferocious beast closely followed. It was around seventy to eighty meters long and resembled a bat fiend.

The beast was extremely fast, forcing the elderly Daoist to rely on terrain and short-range flight maneuvers to dodge its attacks. He had already severely strained himself and was about to succumb to danger.

Upon confirming the elderly Daoist's identity, Wang Sheng immediately stood up and unhesitatingly headed toward the exit.

The forbidden land seemed to have sensed where he was going. A fissure opened in the sky, and two curtains of water slowly descended. Using Soaring Red Feathers, he swiftly flew straight through the gap and along the secret path that Lishang had followed to bring him into the forbidden land. Meanwhile, the opening behind him quickly closed.

There were too many ferocious beasts, some of which were even a little stronger than Heavenly Immortals. Still, all he could do now was avoid them as much as possible while planning his route into the shape of a "7."

***

Linyuan's journey had been extremely arduous.

The closer he was to Lishang's ancestral land, the more "unlucky" he became. Yao Xingzi had likely already performed rituals to divert Lishang's disaster to Linyuan, causing misfortune to strike him for no reason.

First, he got lost while flying through space. He then came across two Heavenly Immortals fighting. Not only was he forced to hide, but the aftershocks still nearly took half his life. He was also dragged into a dispute over a treasure while passing by a quiet planet, and his storage artifact vanished without a trace when he was about to pay for passage through Guimo.

Despite being a True Immortal, he still ended up having to spend more than a month on Guimo. Even then, he barely managed to scrape together fifty mid-grade Immortal Stones to pay the toll.

The unending misfortune made Linyuan anxious about not making it in time to support his disciple and Wang Sheng. However, it also made him feel relieved since it could mean that he had already diverted a portion of his disciple's calamity.

The more hardships he faced, the smoother things should be on his disciple's side.

After exhausting all efforts to cling to life, Linyuan finally reached the perimeter of Lishang's ancestral land. Tan Lang's grand array had already dispersed on its own by the time he arrived, which was the only boon he had gotten throughout his journey. It seemed to have exhausted its Spirit Stone foundation and failed to find any primal qi in space to replenish it.

Had it been similar to Guimo's grand array, which sustained itself by drawing primal qi from the primal qi passage, then Linyuan would have likely failed to reach his destination.

After observing the ancestral land from the outside for several days, Linyuan finally decided to enter it and investigate. He naturally didn't know the secret paths that kept people away from ferocious beasts, but since he had already come here before, he at least knew of a small trail that could avoid most of them.

He advanced cautiously for half the journey, avoiding several dangerous areas. Still, a ferocious beast inevitably found him, leading to the scene that Wang Sheng had seen in the stone mirror.

Linyuan tried his best to escape, but he soon sighed softly and thought,

this isn't so bad for a final resting place.

After dodging another savage pounce from the ferocious beast, Linyuan's face turned ashen. Having already resolved not to struggle much further, he calmly stood in an open area with no cover.

The bat-like ferocious beast twisted its head, let out a piercing shriek, and then dove down at extreme speed. Even then, Linyuan no longer attempted to evade.

At that moment, a clear shriek also echoed from behind him. Linyuan only froze slightly, yet it was long enough for it to shoot past overhead. When he looked up, his somewhat clouded old eyes reflected a mass of flames rapidly cutting through the air, within which a Golden Crow spread its wings and cried aloud.

The flames exploded, and Wang Sheng spiraled out from within. The greatsword in his hand bloomed with golden flames and stirred violent gusts of wind as he cleaved it down plainly onto the beast's head. With a dull boom, blood burst from the massive beast's forehead as it smashed straight toward the bottom of the canyon.

Right after, he swung his sword through the air and sent down seven hundred-meter-long sword energies. The brutal barrage slammed the beast into the ground.

Blood splattered everywhere. The beast let out shrill cries, yet it couldn't get back up.

However, after that burst of powerful attacks, waves of beastly roars began to echo from their surroundings. On the horizon, several enormous shadows even shot up into the sky and released astonishing pressure.

Wang Sheng dared not delay. He immediately dove down and grabbed Linyuan with his immortal power. Using Soaring Red Feathers, he flew back to the secret path and raced toward the pool.

Moments later, Linyuan stood before the pool in a daze. He turned his head toward Wang Sheng, who was hovering in the air and watching the ferocious beasts. Afterward, Linyuan slowly sat cross-legged and quietly regulated his breathing.

The elder also observed the ferocious beasts for a while and discovered that they each seemed to have fixed activity areas. Though they rushed into the air and circled their respective territories briefly, they didn't truly pursue Wang Sheng. They acted more like they were guarding the grounds for Nuwa's descendants.

Fortunately, he had not directly killed the ferocious bat earlier. After all, it counted as one of Lishang's... domesticated pets.

"Senior, what are you doing here?"

Wang Sheng descended from the air more than ten meters away from Linyuan. To avoid falling into their enemies' schemes, he carefully examined Linyuan's aura first. However, after quickly confirming the elder's identity, he took the initiative to move a bit closer.

"Lishang, she—"

Wang Sheng pointed toward the pool. "She's already attempting to break through."

He then realized a problem: it was easy to leave the forbidden land, but getting back in was far harder, since he had no way to open it from the outside.

Forget it. Waiting here isn't any different from waiting in there anyway. There are no ferocious beasts around the pool, which means it's fairly safe here.

Linyuan slowly exhaled and smiled. "That's good to hear. As long as you're all safe, then everything's okay. Did she see anything?"

A hint of hope and a trace of unease appeared in his eyes.

Wang Sheng originally wanted to tell him that Lishang had witnessed what had happened back then. However, he thought that such a revelation would make it difficult for Lishang to continue living freely in the Xinghai Sect. Wang Sheng wasn't sure how Linyuan would feel if he learned that Lishang's mother had actually planned that incident.

Sometimes, a little lie was more comforting than the truth.

Wang Sheng sighed. "On the way here, I probed her indirectly about that incident. She has probably gotten the gist of it, but based on how she answered, it doesn't seem like she intends to pursue the matter further.

"The dead are already gone. There is no need to mention what happened back then again. Senior, you didn't just save her. You also have the grace of raising her. Even if mistakes were made, they can offset each other. There is truly no need for you to blame yourself too much."

Linyuan smiled bitterly and sighed. "How can I not blame myself? The Holy Mother created us, yet I caused the death of her descendants. I only came here at the time to seek the secrets of the Primal Era, and I thought her race had long since vanished by then. I never expected to encounter Lishang's mother in labor and at her weakest.

"One of the people who came with me said that the Holy Mother's bloodline power could enhance one's aptitude. Hence, they tried to capture Lishang's mother, which is a monstrous sin. Even ten of my lives would not be enough to atone for it."

Wang Sheng nodded. Linyuan's ability to overthink things back then was truly on a whole different level.

"Before I came to your aid, I had been in the forbidden land for quite some time already. I even spent the past few months studying all the murals inside. Based on what I've learned, you weren't really the root cause of that incident, Senior.

Wang Sheng then briefly explained how Nuwa's kin had provoked heavenly might enough to strike them down with Supreme Divine Lightning and make the Great Dao abandon them.

"The truth is, you and the others back then became the vice sect master and her mother's tribulation without realizing it. However, the vice sect master had since relied on the protection of the Xinghai Sect and borrowed humanity's fortune. That was how she was able to break out of her shell and cultivate to this day.

"Your arrival back then can also be seen as a thread of survival for Nuwa's kin—one that the Great Dao had left behind within the unseen currents of fate. If you hadn't come, her mother would have still likely died doing everything she could to help Lishang. However, Vice Sect Master Lishang probably would've failed to hatch, causing her to suffer a miserable death. Nuwa's race would have truly been lost to the ages."

Linyuan was stunned. With his voice trembling, he confirmed, "Are you sure?"

Wang Sheng nodded solemnly. "Absolutely. Elder Linyuan, how could you know whether her mother felt resentment or gratitude toward you?"

"Back then, I..."

Wang Sheng's tone turned ethereal. "You made a mistake, but you didn't intentionally harm them. Ten thousand years of blaming yourself is already enough punishment. If you don't resolve your heart devil now, what good is holding onto it?"

His words pierced the elder's Dao Heart.

Linyuan trembled slightly. Within his Dao Heart, a shackle seemed to slowly dissipate. For the first time in ten thousand years, his Primordial Spirit unleashed a spiritual glow, and his aura began to rise steadily.

1. No matter how powerful one is, when entering someone else's territory, they should respect the local powers and rules. ☜