Chapter 1685 - 1000: Primordial Times

"Egg hatches into larva, then becomes an adult insect. It takes a year, yet only adorns a few nights of moonlight. It’s often said that life is unfulfilling, but compared to other myriad creatures in this world, we are already quite fortunate."

Sui Yi spoke softly. The woman, however, laughed, "Fulfillment or not has never been related to the length of time. The summer cicada doesn’t know of winter but is aware of death. The sea turtle, burdened by a giant stone, stays in place for a thousand years without moving. Many things, like people drinking water, only they know if it’s hot or cold..."

Sui Yi turned to look at her.

"But people who drink alone often must not find their hearts at ease."

A heart that is not at ease, yet able to see through life’s years so clearly, how lonely must this person be?

The woman’s smile slightly constrained, watching Sui Yi, as fireflies fluttered between them, emitting specks of light.

She spoke.

"These fireflies’ most glorious seven days are only for seeking mates and reproduction, and then they wither and die. To us humans, it’s yielding to one’s desires. Do you think they find joy in this?"

This question is hard to answer.

Sui Yi instead smiled.

Such matters of human desire... having never experienced it, how could one speak of whether it’s joyful or not?

"In this world, to yield to one’s desires, without scruple, without bearing responsibility, living for life, dying for death... it may not be joyful, but it isn’t painful either."

The woman gazed at her deeply, "Then, perhaps truly the one who is not at ease is actually you?"

Unable to disregard, unable to not bear responsibilities, not living for oneself, not dying for oneself.

That is the High Priest.

And also Sui Yi.

"It’s me."

Sui Yi nodded, looking at the woman’s slightly raised eyebrows, "But I generally don’t drink."

Ha~

After all, are you saying I am too lonely drinking alone?

"Why does it seem like you came deliberately to ask for a drink?" The woman pointed a window with her fingertip, and she had already passed through the wall.

"However, I do not object."

Her brow slightly arched as well, a swipe of the finger, and a small wine table with a glass of heated liquor appeared.

"Sit."

Sui Yi sat down, just grabbing the small wine glass.

"We agreed not to drink, hmm?... Could it be meeting you twice also makes you one of my exceptions?"

The woman seemed determined to gain the upper hand here, or rather, she was too curious about this person.

Thus indulged the loneliness she was so familiar with.

"Yes, extraordinary."

Sui Yi took a light sip. What strong liquor; it burned with heartache.

Dared to answer like that...

The woman had one foot lightly resting on the floor, with one hand hanging there. Her ankle was slender and white, her foot quite delicate and fair, with exquisite curves, and her palm was similarly so, very long and graceful, holding the wine glass with a faint, carefree smile that carried an air of both uninhibitedness and allure.

"The reason it’s extraordinary, is it because you sensed his remains with me?"

She pulled apart a curtain without hesitation.

With a faint smile.

Sui Yi spun the small wine glass with her fingertips and said, "I can sense the aura. Isn’t it intentional from you? So, tonight, it was intentionally alluring me to accompany you in drinking?"

She turned her head, her lips curling, "Yes."

"Yet you still came, trusting I wouldn’t kill you?"

Sui Yi put down the wine glass and poured another cup of wine, "I’m confident I can leave unscathed from your grasp."

"Your words... truly displeasing... the Ice Venerable will surely be furious at you, or perhaps is already furious, right?"

Hmm... Sui Yi recalled a scene from last night.

"Just kidding, dare not overestimating myself."

The woman neither affirmed nor denied, her lightly lowered calf swayed slightly under the water stage. Her calf was so long, it unexpectedly touched the water below, causing a slight splashing sound.

"That child... is named Green Bean, right?"

"Hand her over to me."

Sui Yi: "Is that an order?"

"It’s a notification," the woman, holding her face with one hand, her eyes clear, said, "I am her aunt."

Aunt?

Sui Yi paused, "Not by blood?"

Hmm? A dark gleam passed through the woman’s eyes, "What, don’t believe I am of the Insect Clan?"

Sui Yi sensed the unfathomable depth in the other person’s eyes.

"Whether you’re from the Insect Clan or not, I don’t know, but you surely aren’t from this line of the Insect Clan... you lack the aura of the Primordial Times."

This time the woman’s expression slightly condensed, in her eyes like a tranquil lake stirred by moonlight.

"Perhaps you’re the grandest Immortal Being I’ve ever seen."

The grandest?

This Sui Yi did not deny, "Such past glory is not worth mentioning, moreover not necessarily glorious."

The woman turned her face, "It is said that after the world was born, the land was originally barren. On the Divine Court, the First Spirit created the Human Race. Wherever the Human Race settled, civilization began, dividing the barren land into the Bright World and the Primordial Ancient World. In the ancient times, life was absent, with only a single tree named Tai Yuan. Every nine thousand years it would blossom, and every nine thousand years it would bear fruit. Before blossoming, it first spawned the first insect egg in history, taking a thousand years to pupate and a thousand years to mature. After maturing, he named himself Salamander. Just one drop of his blood could spawn an insect clan...

The Human Race was flourishing and aggressive... Salamander was unwilling to concede, so he sacrificed ninety percent of his essence blood to create the Insect Clan, which outnumbered the Human Race, occupying more than half of the Primordial World... Perhaps the Human Race did not know that beyond the borderlands lay a world ruled by the Insect Clan... but one person knew."

Sui Yi unconsciously rubbed his fingers.

Shen Zhiyue.

"Perhaps, to the Primeval Spirit Dominator above the nine heavens, such a method of species propagation was destined to be dangerous and hard to control. So she took action, casting a curse, and a plague spread, turning ninety-nine percent of the Insect Clan into corpses overnight... The Salamander was stripped of his flesh and soul, but since he spawned the Tai Yuan Divine Tree, he could not be utterly destroyed nor enter reincarnation. Shen Zhiyue thus placed a series of seals within, weakening one layer of his soul with each passing century. For the strong of that era, the war never ended."

Sui Yi met her gaze and spoke: "Therefore, the Insect Clan collapsed, dwindling in the world, and he hid away. Later, he learned a secret from a person, and thus supported a family skilled in poisons, crafting a medicine using his Ancestral Insect Blood."

"Yes, this medicine was used on the later-born Second Spirit, indirectly leading to the subsequent war of extermination among the races such as gods and humans, with the First Spirit severely wounded and fallen, whereabouts unknown, and the Second Spirit entering the Ninefold Demon Tower..."

"Perhaps, at that time, even that person did not expect things to develop this way... And neither did the person who entrusted them for help."

Sui Yi frowned, "You know the Divine Eye Prophet, Yan Buyu?"

Bitterness filled her heart; when the Perfect Human Race was created, the medicine from the bath... was partly derived from the Salamander.

Later, the same medicine was used on her, and she stabbed Shen Zhiyue thereafter.

Interlinked, this is fate.

"Yes."

The woman twirled a fallen cherry blossom with her fingertips.

"Encountered by chance, a friendship amidst the vast sea."

"Every nine thousand years a bloom, that flower on the Tai Yuan Divine Tree is named Ling, for being born in the snow, and shortly after being stained with such vile karmic fate, forcefully wrenched from the Divine Tree by heaven and earth, withering in the human world... Thus named Xue Piao Ling."

"Yan Buyu was harmed by Xue Piao Ling."

"And you..... High Priest."

The woman looked at Sui Yi.

"If we could still share a drink upon meeting, I wonder if that would anger Shen Zhiyue to death."

Counting it, Salamander, Xue Piao Ling, Yan Buyu, Shen Zhiyue, High Priest, or even Jun Yuqing... and so on.

They are a fate interlinked with each other.

They influence each other’s destiny, pushing each other into the abyss.

But accounting for it, the High Priest and Shen Zhiyue stand supreme, yet because of the alliance of the three Taiyuan, she and Shen Zhiyue...

"In terms of harvest, you have avenged great vengeance," Sui Yi said lightly.

"Great vengeance? Perhaps not... Hurt the enemy a thousand times, but lose eight hundred oneself... The Divine Eye Clan was exterminated; Yan Buyu was sent into reincarnation by you, and Shen Zhiyue altered the curse on Salamander, making him peel and draw bones, unable to seek death, suffering a calamity every ten years... As for me.."

Xue Piao Ling tapped the one-square-foot area with her fingertip.

"This place, a cherry blossom tree, a small house, I’ve stayed here for nine thousand years. It is a seal."

"Fireflies... I haven’t seen them in nine thousand years."

"When I learned you were the High Priest, do you know what I thought?"

Sui Yi remained silent.

Xue Piao Ling smiled, "You’re right, born to live forever, doesn’t feel right."

These people... can’t die, so they’ve never been happy.

But who can kill them?

"In this world, the one who can kill everyone is Shen Zhiyue, and the one who can kill Shen Zhiyue is me. As for grudges, let bygones be bygones..."

"What if they can’t be bygones?" Xue Piao Ling closed her eyes, "Since nine thousand years ago until now, no one can control the blade in their hand, you know..."

"High Priest, when you awaken, yet another species-extermination war will have already begun."

Sui Yi turned his head and looked at her.

Xue Piao Ling raised her eyes, "And can you still find the position to fight for the Human Race? After personally killing her once, this time, will you help the Human Race, or the Divine Race? Or perhaps, destroy our ancient lineage first."

Is it a choice?

Three choices? Actually, it’s still two choices.

"Fight for the Human Race?"

Sui Yi countered, his voice cooler than the night, getting up, "I still will."

Xue Piao Ling was startled, then chuckled... "Seems like you and her...."

In the end, still became enemies, did they.

Brother, are you satisfied?

At that moment, Xue Piao Ling heard Sui Yi’s light and breezy voice.

"As long as the Human Race exists, the merit does not extinguish, she remains forever indestructible."

Xue Piao Ling’s expression shifted, finally becoming serene, so this was the reason the High Priest insisted on fighting for the Human Race back then.

Were Shen Zhiyue to destroy the Human Race, it would be destroying her own foundation, and the merit would disappear, bringing divine punishment...

But the High Priest knows, Shen Zhiyue herself couldn’t possibly not know, then why would she still take action against the Human Race?

Especially since she knows this is her brother Salamander’s plot.

For someone as proud as Shen Zhiyue, how could she willingly let others’ schemes succeed?

There must be a reason.

And now, the High Priest still makes the same choice, only back then that sword.....

Xue Piao Ling lowered her head and poured a cup of wine, "It seems like we’ve talked quite a bit about each other’s secrets, perhaps as preparation for a future battle?"

Yet Sui Yi placed both hands behind his back, standing under the cherry blossom tree, watching her.