Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor

Chapter 1863: The Rich Librarian

Wang Wei squinted his eyes as an idea suddenly popped into his mind. He sighed so deeply that the duchess — who was still reeling from the shock of his previous words — glanced at him. "Why the deep sigh?"

"Fate truly works in mysterious ways," Wang Wei muttered.

"Hmm? Did something happen?"

"I know a way to verify this conjecture."

"Oh?"

He looked around before asking, "Is this place safe?"

"It is, but if you want, I can add extra layers of protection," the duchess proclaimed. She snapped her finger, and Wang Wei sensed a slight spatial tremor; however, besides that, he couldn’t detect anything else. Although he was currently just an avatar, the difference between the two was too vast. Suddenly, Wang Wei’s desire to sanctify intensified.

"I need to teleport something from my side."

The Erudite Duchess nodded before pointing her finger. A void tunnel slowly condensed in front of her, and after waiting a few seconds, a small golden sphere flew from the other side to land in Wang Wei’s palm.

"This is?" the duchess asked, glaring at a white jade bottle full of yellow sealing marks. The technique was eerily similar to hers, except for some Buddhist concepts added.

"Trinity Venerable’s blood," Wang Wei nodded.

"You’re the assassin who stabbed him? I thought he had killed you?"

Wang Wei smiled in response, fully displaying his handsome face and profound eyes that many women secretly found charming, but dared not approach him because of his and Wu Hong’s reputation. Unfortunately, he was facing a woman who was too ancient by even his standard, so the response was just a sigh.

"You are too bold," the duchess shook her head. She remembered when she was a little Paragon. In her wildest dream, she would have never dared look too long at a Primordial Chaos Saint, let alone attack one. But this young man even dared to plot against more than one Tribunal Lord. What has this world turned into? The more the Duchess reflected on it, the more she felt the word bold was not enough to describe such a crazy act.

"Well? Can you verify whether I’m correct or not?"

The Erudite Duchess held the jade bottle, lightly swirling around the blood. "By now, Trinity Venerable should have erased most of the traces in this blood." With his cautious personality, he would never leave such a fatal flaw.

Wang Wei nodded. After years of analyzing the data from the Heaven Splitting Holy Land and gaining a better understanding of Saints, he had long realized how stupid his previous plan was. Whether it was gathering information on the blood or using it to cast a curse of some kind, it would not have been as easy as he originally thought. Furthermore, the longer the time has passed, the less usable the blood will become.

"However, I should be able to retrieve some crucial information from it," the Duchess uttered. With a flicker of her wrist, another jade bottle materialized, but this one was blue. A black liquid flew out from the bottle before turning into a bubble, which the duchess calmly placed the drop of blood inside.

"What’s that?"

"Saliva," she replied. "To be specific, the saliva from a second-step Candle Dragon. Trinity Venerable is a master of Time Dao, but the Candle Dragon can be considered the Son of Time. After processing its saliva the right way, I can return the blood to the state before all the information is wiped out."

"Good thinking, but you should also watch out for the possibility of that bastard modifying his [Existence] to provide false information."

The Duchess’s body suddenly paused, "Thank you for reminding me." With a thought, another object teleported into her palm. With one glance, Wang Wei thought it resembled a rabbit’s tail.

"This is?" he asked.

"The tail of a second-step E’shou."

"The Deception Beast?" Wang Wei wasn’t too surprised to see creatures from the [Classic of Mountain and Sea] since that had been the case since he first started his cultivation journey. The easiest example is the Taotie.

"That’s right. It’s one of the best items to reveal deception," the Duchess nodded

Wang Wei suddenly started to caress his chin while deep in thought. Two things were flashing through his mind. Firstly, he wondered why this woman was so rich. The Primordial Timeline was supposed to be barren of Saint resources. Yet, the Duchess casually revealed two high-tier precious items, and what’s more, each of them sounds like they are rare even among second-step resources.

Secondly, he was greedy for that E’shou’s tail — not because of its ability. But because he finally found something that could counter his Heaven Deception Array. Wang Wei desperately wanted to study this thing to improve and even incorporate it into the array.

"With our relationship, she shouldn’t mind if I ask to borrow the tail to study for a while, right?" Wang Wei pondered. Exchanging it with the duchess was out of the question, but she shouldn’t mind a temporary loan.

"Hmm?"

"What? Did you find something?" Wang Wei asked. He immediately activated his [Existence Observation Technique] to check the blood’s situation.

"Don’t," the duchess called, but it was too late. Wang Wei’s body exploded, turning into a blood mist that spread with the wind. The Erudite Duchess shook her head before pointing at him. Then, as if time were rewinding, Wang Wei’s body was swiftly reconstructed. However, his eye sockets were now empty, resembling two terrifying black holes.

"I was reckless," the avatar sighed.

"A Saint Will is fused with every aspect of his body, and that’s even more so at my level. You were indeed reckless," the Duchess nodded.

Wang Wei condensed a mirror to observe his face. "This avatar is ruined." The price of trying to heal this avatar was not worth it. Instead, it’s in his best interest to kill it, cut off the causality between the main body and recondense a new one.

"Alright, what did you find?" Wang Wei asked, deciding not to dwell too much on the gain and loss.

"You were correct. He has already condensed a Life and Limbo Ego. More importantly, there is one more set that is missing only one Ego to complete."

"Oh? What is it about?"

"I don’t know," she shook her head. This operation was not a complete success, despite her best efforts to retrieve as much information as possible. "However, I do know it’s connected to Qiyuan and his siblings. They are probably the last material to complete the set."

The space around the pavilion suddenly twisted due to a terrifying killing intent that was emitted from Wang Wei’s body. Realizing he had lost his composure, he exhaled deeply before saying, "My apology."

"No need," the Erudite Duchess waved her hand. The eternal truth of this universe is that everybody is a pawn of someone else. As long as a cultivator has value, higher beings will discover their existence and scheme against them; only useless people are not pawns, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Pawns still have values. So, if someone is not a pawn, it means they are disposable; they can be discarded at any moment or for any reason.

The duchess has also experienced being manipulated by higher beings, so she can sympathize, and even now, she cannot say for sure she has escaped such a fate. As such, she understood Wang Wei’s anger.

"Is it possible for us to curse him using this blood? Or even influence him in some way?"

"Unfortunately," the duchess shook her head. "If my primary Dao was Curse, or if you were a true Tribunal Lord, with your mastery of Karma, we might have had a chance, but now, it’s beyond our abilities."

"I see," Wang Wei sighed, slumping in his chair. The duchess glanced at him, and after hesitating briefly, she summoned a dark red feather. She immediately drew a rune on the feather. Then, the projection of majestic dark-red phoenix materialized from the feather. Wang Wei looked at her with a slightly tilted head.

"Feather from a Karmic Flame Phoenix."

"Another second-step treasure?"

"This one is technically a false second step material. The phoenix failed to condense her second Quintessence at the last meeting, but some of the power of that realm still resided in this feather."

"I thought our timeline was supposed to be barren with limited resources," Wang Wei asked. "Why are you so rich?"

"You consider that being rich?" the duchess sighed. Compared to the mountains of treasures she had when she was a Paragon, her wealth in the Saint Realm is truly meager.

"Compared to most, you are indeed wealthy."

"True."

"So, what’s the reason? Care to share the trick?"

"There is no trick. I’m old, ancient even, and many people throughout the Chaos Universe owe me karma. Although most of them die before they can repay it, a few have become Saints, and a handful even reached the same realm as me. Compared to how cruel other Saints treat their "pawns," I’m considered benevolent, and these people have no issue repaying the debt with their most valuable treasure."

"A long-term investment, huh?" Wang Wei nodded. Such a method is indeed a good path; the only issue is the time required. Most people cannot wait for that long. No, most people cannot accept someone whom they once considered an ant slowly becoming on par with them. As such, not many people try the duchess’ method, let alone achieve her level of success.

"I never asked what you were doing?"

The question came at the right time. The phoenix yanked a causality chain from the blood before slowly condensing it into a red crystal the size of a tennis ball. Then, it dispersed, reverting to its feather shape. Wang Wei noticed the luster on the feather had drastically decreased.

"With this, Qiyuan should have a better chance at escaping his fate," the Duchess stated as she handed him the crystal.

"Thank you."

"No problem," the duchess nodded.