Chapter 194 - Heaven’s Fate

In the Primordial Beginning Realm, an aged Golden Crow beat his wings and soared through the sky. Even the Supreme Yang Divine Fire enveloping him had grown old, glowing red like a setting sun.

Yuanqi sniffed himself. He probably smelled burnt by now. Master Jin forgot to rein in his flames again.

Zhu Chanchan’s eyes shone as she used Jin Buyi’s Supreme Yang Divine Fire to temper her Flying Peak. Dazhong hovered above Jin Buyi’s head, thoroughly enjoying being roasted.

Jin Buyi landed, drew in the flames around him, and closed his eyes for a nap.

Familiar with his habits, Yuanqi said, “Master Jin forgot why he was flying again. He’s probably sleepy and needs a rest. We can tell him when he wakes up.”

He paused, then added, “Besides, I’m all scorched. I need to activate my Mud-Pill grotto heaven to heal.”

They waited quietly for Jin Buyi to wake. Jin Buyi had carried them to the Heavenly Path, then found the Primordial Beginning Realm through the spiritual root of heaven and earth there and brought them into this world.

When Xu Ying was abducted, Jin Buyi had transformed one of his feathers into an avatar and sent it into the temporal and spatial rifts to track him down. After finding Xu Ying, the avatar had entered his brow and awakened his memories. Through this avatar, Jin Buyi could also see what Xu Ying saw and know where he had gone.

Unfortunately, Jin Buyi was so old that he kept forgetting things, delaying them considerably along the way.

Zhu Chanchan looked around in bewilderment. “Why is there no primordial qi anywhere in this world?”

She had barely spoken when an ancient seal slowly opened in the sky before them. Five-colored qi poured out from behind the seal.

Zhu Chanchan and Yuanqi stared blankly. Dazhong was just as bewildered. None of them had realized such a seal on heaven and earth existed here, let alone right in front of them.

Even more astonishing was the vast world that opened as the seal broke.

Magnificent mountains and rivers spread before them. Enormous divine weapons jutted from the wilderness at every angle, while waves of powerful, sinister energy surged toward them.

This had once been an ancient battlefield. Now it teemed with evil vitality.

“The underworld is invading this place too!” Yuanqi cried, immediately recognizing the ominous signs.

Here, the boundary between the underworld and the mortal realm had blurred. Nether qi seeped in, and ghosts crossed over to possess the skeletal remains of the fallen soldiers.

Catching the scent of the living, they charged toward the opening in the seal. The people of the Primordial Beginning Realm were far too weak to withstand their onslaught.

Yet dozens of powerful warriors stood between the underworld and the mortal realm. Their punches and kicks could shake heaven and earth as they fought relentlessly, holding the pass that led into the human world.

They were neither Qi Cultivators nor Exorcists. They did not even possess orthodox primordial qi within them. Yet their punches could strike a target dozens of li away, and a sweeping kick could snap a mountain peak. These were not divine abilities, yet they surpassed divine abilities!

By sheer force, these warriors held back the onslaught of monsters and ghosts!

Yuanqi and the others watched in open-mouthed amazement. The slaughter on the ancient battlefield startled Jin Buyi awake. His voice thundered in their ears. “Ah Ying, has the fighting started again? Have those heavenly gods caught up with us?”

He spread his wings and flew forward, showering the monsters with boundless, scorching flames. Then he dropped to the ground. Countless feathers became golden blades that whirled among the mountains and rivers, slicing through the monsters as easily as chopping vegetables!

Before long, Jin Buyi had carved a path several hundred li long, sweeping every monster and ghost from that entire stretch.

He beat his wings. The golden blades came whistling back, settling onto his body as feathers.

Yuanqi and the others hurried after him and explained what had happened. Only then did Jin Buyi remember what had happened before his nap.

“I thought it was that great battle during the Great Shang,” he said in a deep, muffled voice.

Just then, Martial Immortal Zhai led his people over to thank Jin Buyi.

Jin Buyi studied him. His old eyes were dim, and it took him a long while to make out Martial Immortal Zhai and the others. “I’ve seen you before. You know Xu Ying.”

Startled and uncertain, Martial Immortal Zhai questioned them for a while before learning they were Xu Ying’s friends.

“Xu Ying has gone to the Five-Color Immortal Mountain. He opened the seal, restoring the primordial qi of heaven and earth to the Primordial Beginning Realm.”

Martial Immortal Zhai pointed them in the right direction. “He probably went to the underworld.”

Jin Buyi thanked them and took flight, carrying Zhu Chanchan and the others. After a long while, they reached the Five-Color Immortal Mountain.

They landed on the mountain and met a white-haired old man who introduced himself as Heavenly Venerable Wu. Jin Buyi recognized him after a moment. The old man told them where Xu Ying had gone. “I sensed that someone was coercing him. He went that way.”

Jin Buyi set off again, flying in the direction Heavenly Venerable Wu had indicated. When Jin Buyi reached the Abyss of Cangwu, he remembered that his avatar had seen this great abyss through Xu Ying’s eyes. He laughed. “I remember! If we pass through this lake, there’ll be a huge eyeball in the sky.”

He beat his wings and plunged through the great lake in the Abyss of Cangwu. When he emerged on the other side, they did indeed see an eye as immense as a star. The eye turned toward them, and raging flames sprang up across the earth. Terrified, Yuanqi and the others urged him to leave at once.

Jin Buyi laughed. “Why should we fear that god?”

Despite his words, he flapped his wings and retreated to the Abyss of Cangwu. His mind grew muddled again, and he could no longer remember which way Xu Ying had fled. In his confusion, he carried Yuanqi and the others to the Underworld Court.

The court erupted into chaos. Dead Exorcist Immortals were sent out one after another, and even the divine statues that guarded the court were awakened. Controller Generals from across the land rushed to their aid when they heard the news. The Emperor of the Underworld Court, or what was left of him, trembled with fear, and he hastily summoned the jackdaws.

Carrying Yuanqi, Dazhong, and Zhu Chanchan, Jin Buyi stormed the court and nearly razed it to the ground. Even its guardian statues fell beneath his wings, which he wielded like blades!

Countless jackdaws flew in, bringing clouds of ash that filled the sky. The ash blotted out the heavens and engulfed the dark, blood-red sun overhead, dimming the sky.

Whoosh!

With a rush of wind, a Three-Legged Golden Crow, reduced to bones and feathers, flew before them, dragging the enormous sun behind it. It beat its wings and hovered in midair.

An imposing figure sat within the ashen sun. He spoke slowly. “It’s been a long time, Jin Buyi. Are you still searching for your master? I’ve seen him.”

Startled and uncertain, Jin Buyi tilted his head to study the skeletal Golden Crow. He longed to fly closer. Something about those bones felt familiar, as though they belonged to a close relative.

“Your master went that way.”

The figure within the ashen sun slowly rose to his feet, countless pieces of spirit money forming his body. He pointed in the direction Xu Ying had taken, his voice reverberating. “Go there, Jin Buyi. Do not disturb the peace of the underworld.”

Jin Buyi thanked him, then asked, “Who is that Golden Crow?”

The figure amid the ashes replied, “An ancestor of yours. How do you think a young barbarian boy living in a small village came to find you all those years ago?”

His voice was lofty and indifferent. “That boy was under surveillance. How could he have been lucky enough to find a Golden Crow’s egg?”

His words sent a chill through Dazhong. Yuanqi and Zhu Chanchan had never entered Jin Buyi’s memories and knew nothing of what had happened. Dazhong, though, had seen those memories with Xu Ying and watched Jin Buyi’s life from birth to old age.

Was Jin Buyi deliberately placed at Ah Ying’s side?

Dazhong trembled, clanging nervously. If Master Jin was deliberately placed there, then I, Master Zhong... Of course, no one could have arranged that for me. Not someone as formidable as me! But as for that stupid snake, someone must have planned out every last detail for him!

Jin Buyi took one long look at the Golden Crow’s bones, then flew away with Yuanqi and the others toward the Hell River.

They reached a mountain range, and Jin Buyi landed on a peak. Yuanqi thought he was tired and wanted to rest, but Jin Buyi lowered his head to examine a stream.

He said in his deep, muffled voice, “Ah Ying came here. Twice. I remember it clearly. Two people live here in seclusion. We shouldn’t disturb them.”

He spread his wings and took to the wind. Following the Hell River, he flew onward for a long while. Gradually, familiar mountains and rivers came into view. It seemed they had reached the region of the myriad mountains.

Yuanqi studied the scene carefully, then cried out in surprise, “Master Zhong, isn’t that Little Rocky Mountain down there in the middle of the Hell River, where you were stationed?”

Dazhong swept his divine sense downward. Sure enough, the peak below was Little Rocky Mountain, and the abandoned temple still stood atop it! Following the Hell River downstream, they had somehow flown all the way back to the abandoned temple on Little Rocky Mountain where Xu Ying and Dazhong had first met!

Utterly baffled, Yuanqi said, “Master Jin, Master Zhong, Ancestor Chanchan, we flew here from the Primordial Beginning Realm, didn’t we? We came all this way without crossing any barrier between worlds or passing through any spacetime passage. We just flew straight here, right?”

Zhu Chanchan nodded, puzzled. “What are you getting at?”

“Then the underworld, Yuanshou, and the Primordial Beginning Realm are all part of the same world, aren’t they?” Yuanqi said.

The realization stunned Zhu Chanchan and Dazhong. Only Jin Buyi, lost in thought, failed to register what Yuanqi had said.

Zhu Chanchan exclaimed, “That’s right! We flew straight here from the Primordial Beginning Realm!”

Jin Buyi folded his wings and landed on Little Rocky Mountain below. Looking warily around, he said, “A familiar presence is approaching.”

Waves of noise reached their ears, warping their thoughts and clouding their awareness. Someone was walking across the river surface. Spotting Jin Buyi from afar, he stopped.

The unbearable noise intensified, driving them toward a frenzy and threatening to strip away their self-control!

Jin Buyi tilted his head to study the figure. “Have I cut you before?”

After a moment, the figure resumed walking. He passed beside the rocky mountain and gave Jin Buyi a slight nod without making any hostile move. “You have.”

Dazhong, Yuanqi, and Zhu Chanchan watched, a sense of forbidden dread rising in their hearts. Behind him were countless identical figures!

He was not one person, but an entire multitude, too numerous to count!

“The Heretical Dao spirit imprisoned in the Land of Heavenly Retribution has come to Yuanshou as well!” Dazhong said gravely.

Zhu Chanchan stared after the retreating figure, her expression shifting between shock and uncertainty. She murmured, “Heaven's Fate. He is Heaven's Fate...”

Yuanqi looked at Heaven's Fate, stunned beyond words. Heaven's Fate? As in the one governing wealth and rank, life and death, misfortune and blessing?

Jin Buyi said evenly, “Nothing more than a fallen heavenly god. He is no longer an orthodox god, but a god of the heretical Dao. There must be another orthodox god of Heaven's Fate in the Heavenly Dao World.”

Zhu Chanchan’s expression was grave. “But a heretical god showing up in the mortal realm can’t possibly be a good thing!”

“Shall I cut him down?” Jin Buyi asked.