Who knew? Since he put on an act, he would keep it up to the very end.
Li Qingshan’s expression drifted with uncertainty. “Did you know this, first senior sister? You caught my eye the first time I saw you. There was once a woman I wanted to marry. She was not as powerful or dazzling as you. She was not even as beautiful as you, yet in the end, I let her down.”
Chao Tianjiao felt strangely bitter. She could not help but ask, “So I’m her replacement?”
“Of course not. I don’t want any replacements, nor do I want to let anyone else down.” Li Qingshan seemed lonely. “As a result, even when I was interested in you, I refused to get close to you. However, I couldn’t bear to be looked down upon by the woman I liked, which was why I bickered with you. Please don’t blame me.”
Chao Tianjiao grabbed him by the throat and raised an eyebrow. “Do you think I’ll believe your lies?” Then she let go again in dejection. “Sigh, we’re both going to die soon anyway. You’ve taken advantage of me, so let’s just say it’s my bad luck. You can stop with the nonsense here. Be content. You sure are shameless!”
Li Qingshan smiled and cheered up. “Yeah, I think something is still lacking. You still don’t have enough resources. After all, you’re trying to traverse the boundary between mortality and immortality.” He poured all the power he had built up in his Yin Soul into her Yang Soul.
Harvesting yin to replenish yang and harvesting yang to replenish yin were eternal concepts of dual cultivation, but it often came with force, deception, and temptation. It would lead to unavoidable hatred and sins too, so attempting this shortcut would often lead to damnation, which was why it was viewed as a wicked path.
There was only one exception—when one side sacrificed themselves unconditionally, giving up their life and their power to the other willingly.
Like right now!
Chao Tianjiao shuddered inside. She was in disbelief. “What are you trying to do?”
Li Qingshan smiled. “Keeping my promise.” The power in his Yin Soul rapidly flowed away, and his figure gradually blurred.
The poplars and willows on the river bank and the glowing light of spring all became surreal. The dream began to collapse.
At this very moment, the power within his Yin Soul was a power of rebirth.
Chao Tianjiao’s heart ached. She said furiously, “I don’t need your pity!” She tried to reject Li Qingshan’s power, but she failed. She had stopped being in charge of the dream a long time ago.
“It’s not pity. If only one of us can survive, I hope it is you.”
Li Qingshan smiled as he extended his half-transparent hand and touched her face gently, just like what happened in the deepest dream.
“Live and forget me…”
Chao Tianjiao extended her hand, but she grabbed nothing. The dream collapsed completely, and she returned to the chaos. New power welled up in her body, but she felt like her heart had been torn to pieces. The dreams echoed through her head endlessly.
“Qingshan…”
With a boom, yin and yang merged as one, and the Origin Soul had been condensed.
The seven stars lined up, turning into the form of a turtle and a snake. They shined brightly, illuminating a true path of xuanwu, soaring through the abyss and reaching the realm of Human Immortal.
This was where the path of mortals and the path of immortals separated.
That was originally a new life that she had been anticipating for all this time, but she simply stood where she was blankly. She had witnessed wars and grown accustomed to death, yet only now did she suddenly understand what a parting in life and death meant.
Boom!
A clap of thunder rumbled through the demonic egg of chaos as if it was urging her.
She pressed down on her chest. Her heart thumped away, like she had been reborn. She had lost much of her harshness and gained a hint of tenderness.
Pulling herself together with her valiant bearing, her gaze became determined again, setting down this path resolutely and confronting the heavenly tribulation.
“I will leave, but I definitely won’t forget you!”
……
“Pft… hahahaha!”
At the bottom of the stone tower, Li Qingshan keeled over as he rolled around on the ground in laughter. He had even begun crying from laughter. His prank had succeeded, so of course, he had to laugh to his heart’s content.
“Chao Tianjiao, oh Chao Tianjiao, no matter how crafty you are, I still got you! My acting has been thoroughly tested, so forget about seeing through it! Hahahaha!”
“Qingshan?” Noticing the disturbance, Xiao An made her way down from upstairs. She was puzzled. “What happened?”
“Let me tell you…”
Li Qingshan told her about everything that happened, like how they infiltrated Cold Blood pass and how they were ambushed, but he refused to mention how he had misled Chao Tianjiao. Anyway, he just said it was a moment of life or death, and she had suggested it herself. As for the part regarding the dual cultivation, it was not particularly child-friendly, so he saved a lot of the details.
As for the confession of true love in the end, that was truly a masterpiece, something that should be written up and framed.
“You must have deceived her!” Xiao An only took a single glance at his expression and basically guessed what had happened.
“How could I? I’m basically a saint of love. I’ve sacrificed myself to help her achieve what she wanted.”
“Were you serious?” Xiao An curled her lip.
“How could I have been? My Yin Soul was beyond saving anyway. I comprehended how to cultivate, so I might as well help her achieve her goal. Though, I don’t think she’ll be able to survive.”
Li Qingshan shook his head. Not to mention the fact that he had not undergone the fifth heavenly tribulation, but even if he did, it was impossible for him to destroy the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous. Who knew how deep their scheme ran.
“Then, do you hope that she can survive?”
“Yeah.” A day as partners, a hundred days of attachment. They had spent far more than just “a day” between them, so he still had some feelings of attachment to her.
Perhaps he simply wanted to see her expression back then, or perhaps he wanted her to survive. Who knew?
“You’ve lied to her like this. She’ll never spare you.”
Li Qingshan shivered. When she was only a Human Sovereign, she was already such a difficult opponent. If she became a Human Immortal…
“Haha, how can you make it past the sixth heavenly tribulation, the gulf between mortality and immortality, so easily? She’s probably been cleaved to death by lightning already, or she’s suffered from cultivation deviation, or she’s been killed by the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous.”
In Cold Blood pass, the surroundings responded. Thunder rumbled, and great flakes of snow flew.
Yin Zhe’s expression changed. “The sixth heavenly tribulation!”
The other Demon Sovereigns all rushed back too. “She’s triggered the sixth heavenly tribulation? How can that be possible!”
They were all stuck at the same realm. They understood just how difficult this stage was. It was no longer an issue of whether they could undergo the tribulation successfully. Instead, they were completely incapable of overcoming the bottleneck and triggering the heavenly tribulation.
When Demon Sovereigns took one step further, they would gain the nature of a god, becoming half-gods known as Heretic Gods. They would stand above billions of demonfolk, only below the twelve Demon Gods. Even the twelve Demon Gods would try to rope them in. In the chaotic and brutal Demon domain, they could finally find some peace. It was the realm that all Demon Sovereigns dreamt of.
Chao Tianjiao had actually triggered the heavenly tribulation in the Demon domain while she was trapped in the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous. It was truly unexpected.
“She probably has an Origin Soul pill. Hmph, she’ll never succeed with how hasty she is! If I had the Origin Soul pill… even if I give it to you, you won’t be bold enough to ingest it!”
Ying Zhe’s face sank. He bellowed out furiously, “Shut up, all of you! Activate the formation immediately and kill her!”
Even if her chances of successfully undergoing the tribulation were almost non-existent, if she actually managed to succeed, then not only would their ambush fail, but Black Cloud city would gain an additional Human Immortal instead. It would even be one that practised the path of xuanwu. Probably even the Demon Gods would be left furious, and their lives would be in danger.
