Chapter 442: He Won’t Spare Them

Hearing this, Lu Sangjiu felt as if many pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, a sense of sudden clarity washing over her.

But as she thought it over, something still seemed odd. "Since he’d already sealed the World Origin, Xie Ningyuan was already unable to return to the Upper Realm. Why would he go to the trouble of creating Ye Zhiyao?"

Gu Jue smiled. "Because he was afraid."

Lu Sangjiu instinctively pressed, "Afraid of what?"

Before Gu Jue could answer, Xie Ningyuan spoke. "...Afraid of me."

Xie Ningyuan was someone who had overshadowed Ji Li for hundreds of years. Merely sealing the World Origin of this realm without killing Xie Ningyuan completely—how could that possibly be enough?

What if he found a way back to the Immortal Spirit Realm and learned that the Xuantian Sect had been destroyed? He would undoubtedly seek revenge.

In the eyes of others, a single, powerless Xie Ningyuan was a joke. It was impossible for him to pose a threat to two Major Sects and so many High-level cultivators.

But for Ji Li, only with Xie Ningyuan dead could he truly be at ease.

To kill him, Ji Li had even considered destroying this Magic Treasure, completely wiping the Spirit Void Realm from existence.

But annihilating the living beings of an entire realm was a grievous sin that would surely incur heavenly retribution.

Even someone as crazed as Ji Li didn’t dare to commit such an act lightly.

And so, after long deliberation, he finally came up with a plan.

He used the portion of the Heavenly Dao Authority he controlled to create a "Child of Fortune" in the Spirit Void Realm—none other than Ye Zhiyao.

He wrote a "script" for her, having her steal the fortune of others along the way until she held the entire Spirit Void Realm’s great fortune in her hands.

In addition, he deliberately leaked information to He Guang, guiding him to stir up chaos and orchestrate a massacre in the Spirit Void Realm.

He hadn’t lied to He Guang. In the Spirit Void Realm, with its World Origin sealed, the only way to send a single person to the Upper Realm through Ascension was to kill enough Cultivators, allowing their fortune and Spiritual Energy to return to the world.

But... unfortunately for He Guang, in the script Ji Li had written, the one destined for Ascension was not him, but Ye Zhiyao.

He Guang had schemed his entire life, only to be paving the way for someone else.

The reason he used He Guang’s hand for this, rather than Ye Zhiyao’s, was that instigating slaughter would accumulate a heavy burden of sin.

Ye Zhiyao was the one who would carry the great fortune to the Upper Realm and deliver it all into Ji Li’s hands. It wouldn’t do for her to be tainted by sin; otherwise, she would never pass the Heavenly Tribulation, and the entire plan would be for naught.

The great fortune of a minor world like this was a powerful tonic even for Upper Realm Cultivators.

Through this scheme, Ji Li would not only obtain this powerful tonic from Ye Zhiyao to enhance his cultivation but also utterly ruin the Spirit Void Realm.

With its World Origin sealed and its great fortune lost, the Spirit Void Realm would inevitably be downgraded, and truly, no one would ever be able to achieve Ascension from it again.

Ji Li had calculated everything perfectly. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t expected Yuan Xin to also choose someone: Lu Sangjiu.

Lu Sangjiu should have died during her Heavenly Tribulation, but Xie Ningyuan’s Bodhi Pearl saved her life. Yuan Xin then showed her Ye Zhiyao’s "script," guiding her to fight against Ye Zhiyao.

All this time, Lu Sangjiu had thought she was determined to kill Ye Zhiyao for her own sake. She never knew that from the very beginning, she had been carrying the fate of the entire Spirit Void Realm on her shoulders!

Xie Ningyuan was not native to the Spirit Void Realm and was thus less controlled by the Heavenly Dao. Coupled with Yuan Xin’s deliberate protection, Ji Li knew from the start that he couldn’t touch him, so he hadn’t included him in the "script."

But by a twist of fate, Xie Ningyuan was drawn into the conflict because of Lu Sangjiu, completely ruining Ji Li’s scheme.

So, Ji Li tried to win Lu Sangjiu over, wanting her to replace Ye Zhiyao and continue his plan.

Unfortunately, Lu Sangjiu rejected the temptation.

And after realizing that Lu Sangjiu, by defying heaven and changing her own fate, was gradually slipping from the Heavenly Dao’s control, Ji Li had an idea: he could have Lu Sangjiu kill Xie Ningyuan directly.

As long as Xie Ningyuan was dead, whether he got the world’s fortune or not didn’t really matter as much.

Unfortunately, Lu Sangjiu refused again.

With all his painstaking efforts washed away because of Lu Sangjiu, how could Ji Li not hate her?

This led to him later sending his own Maid to the Spirit Void Realm, intending to personally eliminate the trouble that was Lu Sangjiu.

Unfortunately, that failed too.

After Gu Jue finished his explanation, Lu Sangjiu suddenly felt a little embarrassed. *Ahem*... ’Even though it wasn’t intentional at first, from Ji Li’s perspective, I guess I really am pretty infuriating.’

She figured that, in Ji Li’s heart right now, his desire to kill her was probably about equal to his desire to kill Xie Ningyuan.

This led her to another puzzle. "What about after that? Why did Ji Li suddenly go quiet?"

"Whether it was during my Tribulation Crossing or when I killed Ye Zhiyao, he doesn’t seem to have interfered at all."

"That’s not right, is it? He should be desperate to kill me. It can’t be that just because his plan failed, he kindly decided to let us off the hook completely, right?"

This time, however, Gu Jue couldn’t provide an answer.

He shook his head and said, "Everything I’ve told you so far comes from the memories Yuan Xin passed down to me—things she witnessed as a Magic Treasure or sensed as the Heavenly Dao."

"But she is dead now, and I am not yet like her, able to sense things beyond the Spirit Void Realm as a Magic Treasure."

"And the part of the Heavenly Dao Authority that Ji Li controls has been inactive for a long time, so I can’t guess what he’s thinking or what he’s planning to do now."

"The only thing I can be certain of is..." Gu Jue looked seriously at Xie Ningyuan and Lu Sangjiu. "He will definitely not let you go."

Lu Sangjiu already knew this herself. Although she hadn’t dealt with Ji Li much, it was obvious the man was narrow-minded and vengeful over the smallest slight. He would never let them go.

She glanced at Xie Ningyuan. "What do you think?"

Xie Ningyuan was much quieter than Lu Sangjiu. He had remained silent throughout Gu Jue’s explanation, his thoughts unreadable.

Her question made his eyes stir, but instead of answering her, he asked Gu Jue a question of his own.

"Did Yuan Xin tell you? If I ascend to the Upper Realm, will my cultivation be restored to its original Daluo Golden Immortal level, or will I be just an Earth Immortal like everyone else who ascends?"

"Daluo Golden Immortal," Gu Jue answered without hesitation. "The moment you return to the Immortal Spirit Realm, both your cultivation and your memories will be restored."

"Moreover, if you can successfully return to the Immortal Spirit Realm, it means you have passed your tribulation and your mental state has caught up. There’s a high probability you’ll even be directly promoted to the Immortal King Level."

He paused, then added, "Ji Li is currently an Immortal King."

Xie Ningyuan nodded in understanding. "But... it takes time to advance from Daluo Golden Immortal to Immortal King. If he timed it right and laid in wait for me before my Ascension, he should be able to kill me before I can even draw down the Heavenly Tribulation, correct?"