Chapter 3091 - The Grudge Between Sword Sovereign City and Three Purities Temple

Chen Pu and the heart devil walked through the boundless wilderness shoulder-to-shoulder, their gait neither hurried nor slow.

“Those three old charlatans didn’t make trouble for you, did they?”

“No, our negotiations went fairly smoothly. It was just that when I left, they asked that I stay out of Three Purities Temple’s enmity with Sword Sovereign City.” Chen Pu laughed. “I refused.”

The heart devil glanced at him, then shook his head. “You should have agreed. The enmity between Sword Sovereign City and Three Purities Temple dates back to an ancient struggle for the Grand Dao in the All-Wonder Dominion. Your father was there to bear witness to it all.”

Chen Pu blinked in surprise. “Father didn’t participate in the battle?”

The heart devil shook his head. “It wasn’t just your father. The progenitors of Buddhism, Confucianism, and the Chaos Fiends didn’t participate either. About ten of them stayed out of it.”

The heart devil paused, then continued, “This was a struggle between the three old Daoists and me. None of us were willing to let others participate.”

Chen Pu paused, then probed, “Who won, Uncle?”

The heart devil sighed. “I fought them three to one, but I only just barely managed to come out ahead. It’s truly a bit embarrassing.”

Chen Pu wasn’t sure what to say. Uncle’s heart devil seems a bit... badly behaved for his age.

“All of that is ancient history. No need to bring it up,” the heart devil said with a soft sigh. “But it was then that our enmity became fully entrenched. Later, our grudge grew into conflict between Three Purities Temple and Sword Sovereign City.”

He shook his head, obviously unwilling to discuss the distant past any further, then changed the subject. “So, how’d you convince the three old farts to back down?”

Chen Pu sheepishly averted his gaze. “I just said that if Three Purities Temple disregards the rules of the Mountain of the Secluded Ones, they can’t blame me for kicking every last one of their Secluded Ones off the mountain.”

The heart devil froze, stunned, then laughed. “Impressive, kid! To think you’d dare threaten the three of them!”

But Chen Pu couldn’t bring himself to laugh. He said with grief, “They’re the ones who took things too far! Destroying Sword Sovereign City and the Eternal Pact was bad enough. Now, they’re trying to kill Uncle’s reincarnation. I... couldn’t stand to watch any more!”

There was no hiding his fury.

The heart devil teased, “Listen to yourself! Those who didn’t know any better would think I was as down-on-my-luck as a masterless dog.”

“A masterless dog...” Chen Pu’s gaze was dull and dejected. How terrifying was my uncle back then? He dominated the Far Shore throughout the ages with nothing but his sword!

The Three Purities, the Four Heavenly Ministers, the Five Elders and the Six Celestials... the progenitors of Confucianism, Daoism, and Demonism... none of them could obscure his brilliance!

Even Father called him his Daoist Brother and admired him deeply!

Moreover, Chen Pu knew that if his uncle hadn't fought his way into the All-Wonder Dominion and suppressed the supremely powerful Alpha Origin, the Far Shore of Destiny would have been completely doomed!

It was just a pity that only a handful of people were privy to these secrets.

But everything changed after his uncle entered the cycle of reincarnation. Sword Sovereign City was destroyed, and the Eternal Pact was destroyed. Now, there were even blind, arrogant fools brazen enough to slander and insult his uncle’s heart devil!

All of this left Chen Pu deeply displeased.

The heart devil just laughed. “Enough. I don’t need your pity, kid.”

Then, with a seemingly rueful sigh, he added, “If you’re standing on a tiny patch of ground, even if you fall flat on your face, you can get right back up and resume your journey with just a few quick pats on the butt.”

He gazed into the dome of heaven. “But what if you fall from the very pinnacle of this world?”

“Like an immortal plunged into the red dust of mundanity?” asked Chen Pu.

The heart devil shook his head. “No, it’d be hundreds or thousands of times crueler than that, like going from the highest heights to the humblest, lowest places in this world. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

“The drop in cultivation means little. So long as you’re alive, you can climb back to the summit, one step at a time.

“What really has the biggest impact is that when you fall into the abyss, everything you once possessed.... Will split and fall apart.

“When I passed, Sword Sovereign City was destroyed, and the Eternal Pact broke, and... my friends, disciples, and subordinates were all implicated, too.”

Chen Pu sighed. That was indeed the case. The moment his uncle was gone, everything changed!

But the heart devil was perfectly calm. He said casually, “I’m a heart devil. My original self and I diverged dramatically in our pursuit of the Grand Dao.

“Before my reincarnation, I knew that I had two paths to choose from: reincarnating to cultivate afresh, or pursuing the Dao of Balance. These two starkly different paths led to my existence as a heart devil.

“As I’m sure you can imagine, I’ve always opposed entering the cycle of reincarnation and re-cultivating because I knew that doing so risked not just my own life and Dao, but that of everyone connected to me. And indeed, Sword Sovereign City, the Eternal Pact, and my old friends... all fared badly in my absence.

“My enemies gathered in swarms to surround and attack Sword Sovereign City. In the end, it was destroyed. There’s no telling how many of its cultivators died in battle! And the Eternal Pact I established was destroyed. Without it, the storm rising in the All-Wonder Dominion can enter the All-Profound Dominion unimpeded.... How ridiculous is that?”

A jeer tugged at his lips.

Chen Pu sighed. The Eternal Pact was a restriction limiting the experts of the Far Shore, but it was also like a barrier protecting the world from the wind and rain. It shielded every living being within its confines!

But most of those in the All-Profound Dominion didn’t understand. They saw the Eternal Pact as a cage and believed that the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City was trying to lord it over them and enslave the entire world!

Thus, as soon as he reincarnated, the Eternal Pact fell apart, and the barrier protecting the All-Profound Dominion collapsed.

The most ridiculous part was that a storm arose in the All-Wonder Dominion before the cultivators of the All-Profound Dominion could even celebrate their newfound freedom!

Without that barrier, the storm entered unimpeded, leading to endless cataclysms...

The thought only increased Chen Pu’s displeasure. “Would things have been different... if you hadn’t reincarnated?”

The heart devil laughed. “Who knows?”

Chen Pu couldn’t help but sink into thought, and for a time, the two of them walked in silence.

Then, suddenly, the heart devil said, “I used to think that reincarnating was a huge mistake. I couldn’t accept it!

“Before I met Su Yi, everything seemed to indicate that reincarnating had been an absurd, ludicrous, terrible choice.”

He stretched out his fingers, one per past life, as he rattled off examples. “My second incarnation, Jiang Wuchen, might have seemed impressive, but in the end, he never even became a Heavenly Sovereign.

“My third incarnation, Xiao Jian, was the one I thought most highly of. His Dao pointed directly to the very essence of Destiny, and his perception and grasp of the bigger picture were far grander than any Dao Ancestor. Unfortunately, the Book of Destiny both made him and destroyed him.

“My fourth incarnation, Yi Daoxuan, was plagued by karma and calamity. The pawns my old enemies placed in the God Domain destroyed him!

“My fifth incarnation wandered the world like a grain of millet floating aimlessly in a vast ocean, but there’s no denying that his personality was most like my original self’s. It’s a pity.

“My sixth incarnation, Wang Ye, had the personality and bearing most to my liking. Just listen to him! ‘The Dao is as lofty as the heavens, but my heart is like a sword. It can suppress the heavens until they’re just three feet tall!’ He had at least some measure of my magnificence! I found his misfortune the greatest pity.

“As for Shen Mu, my seventh incarnation... Forget it. He let a woman play him for a fool, and he died for his foolish love. He isn’t even worth discussing.

“And the Temple Master... judged simply by his character, there was no one else like him. He stood apart from the world, solitary and aloof.”

When it came time to discuss Su Xuanjun, the heart devil couldn’t hold back laughter. “My ninth incarnation was the most interesting of the lot. He managed to uncover the path of reincarnation all on his own. That’s what led to the current Su Yi.”

Su Yi and Su Xuanjun were one and the same, and they had been even before Su Yi started awakening Dao Imprints.

This was because Su Xuanjun was the first to master reincarnation since their first incarnation!

Chen Pu suddenly thought back to his encounter with Su Yi in the Human Realm.

He couldn’t help but laugh. “In this lifetime, Uncle has fused countless schools of thought and made them his own. His foundations, character, aspirations, and breadth of spirit... are all unparalleled in this world.”

The heart devil laughed derisively. “The kid isn’t as good as you made him out to be. He’s petty and constantly on guard against me!”

Chen Pu wasn’t sure what to say.

“But then, you’re not wrong.” A proud smirk tugged at the heart devil’s lips. “He is, after all, my reincarnation.”

Chen Pu couldn’t help but laugh. I can tell that Uncle’s heart devil is actually quite pleased with Su Yi.

“Never mind all that. Haven’t you realized that with every cultivation, my situation and cultivation got worse?” said the heart devil, continuing without waiting for Chen Pu to respond. “That’s the disadvantage of reincarnating. Those old bastards tried to interfere. As if destroying Sword Sovereign City and the Eternal Pact wasn’t bad enough, they tried to eliminate my reincarnation!

“And they succeeded, too, many times over. Which of my reincarnations didn’t die at least in part because of my enemies’ interference?

“They tried to do the same to Su Yi. Fortunately, he’s mastered reincarnation and earned the Sword of the Nine Hells’ recognition. Were that not the case...” The heart devil shook his head. “In any event, as my reincarnation, he rose from the lowest of the low, starting in the mundane world and rising steadily to reach his current heights. It really wasn’t easy, either!”

Chen Pu nodded.

Even disregarding the past, why did the recent storm in the Sea of Fate anger the heart devil so?

Many of the Secluded Ones found it hard to understand, but Chen Pu knew that it was out of concern for Su Yi. Had something happened to him.... Everything his uncle had worked for would be ruined!

There wasn’t much time left. Even if Su Yi had means of reincarnating again, it’d be too late!

That was what really enraged the heart devil.

Here, the heart devil suddenly asked, “Is there really no holding back the storm on the Far Shore any longer?”