Death… and me

1260 To Reach The Pinnacle, One Must Construct The Raft To Cross The Material World

While Chu Yang was bidding farewell to Tie Butian in the Lower Three Heavens, another farewell was happening in the Nine Heavens Imperial Court.

The Demon Empress’ eyes were solemn as she watched Zi Xieqing in her white robes, under the escort of the Demon Palace’s guards, embark on her journey to the far south.

“I didn’t expect her to really be able to survive such a cruel and torturous rebirth.” There was respect in the eyes of the beautiful lady in white next to her. “Back then, I could only take six out of eighty-one times of soul separation in the Soul Separation Platform before I requested to stop…”

The Demon Empress’ imposing upturned eyes turned to her younger sister. “That’s because your heart was not determined at all. How would you ever be able to change from a demon into a human?”

A wave of shame came over the beautiful lady in white. “But this also shows how resolute and earth-shattering Zi Xieqing’s love toward that man she loves is. Now that she has finally gotten her wish, I am very comforted and happy for her. I only hope that she’ll be able to live the rest of her life with her loved one and be happy and content.”

“Hahaha…” In a rare move, the Demon Empress actually burst into loud laughter.

As she laughed, she looked at her own younger sister in amusement. “Meng Meng, you’re indeed still dreaming[1]… You’re just as naive as you were when you were younger. I’m really so amused; did you really think that this Zi Xieqing went through such torture because of a man?”

The beautiful lady in white was stunned. “What do you mean by that? Wasn’t it because of her man?”

“Perhaps that’s part of the reason but… it’s definitely not the main reason!” The Demon Empress’ eyes were deep and unreadable. “I can only say that this woman will be a very scary person in the future.”

“81 times of soul separation on the Soul Separation Platform; 81 times of having her heart crushed in the Heartbreak Spring; 81 times of being struck by the demon-destroying lightning in the Demon Forging Cave…”

There was a passive smile on the Demon Empress’ countenance. “She’s no simple woman.”

The beautiful lady in white asked in great perplexion, “Big Sister, is there some kind of secret in this?”

“Of course there is!” The Demon Empress answered solemnly, “You’ve also practiced the Heavenly Demon Secret Manual before. You should still remember the very first line in the manual.”

“Of course I do.” Without any hesitation, the beautiful lady in white recited, “The Heavenly Demons are born without any ability; the universe is our home. Should one desire to reach the pinnacle, one would need to construct the raft to cross the material world!”

“Yes, exactly. The raft to cross the material world!” The Demon Empress’ eyes gleamed.

“I don’t understand. Besides, I’ve always thought that there was not much meaning in these few lines.” The delicate brows of the beautiful lady in white were furrowed. “Moreover, a raft is something to be used in waters, but to reach the pinnacle means to head to elevated terrain. It doesn’t make sense at all. Perhaps our ancestors had written this without much thought just to give the lines rhythm!”

“Nonsense!” The Demon Empress rebuked her furiously. “Our ancestors only managed to create the Heavenly Demon Secret Manual after several thousand generations of research. Nothing inside it is without meaning!”

“Should one desire to reach the pinnacle, one would need to construct the raft to cross the material world!” The Demon Empress continued solemnly, “Once upon a time, a super expert had said, ‘The material world is but a sea of misery. Every human drifts and floats in it; there is no exception.'”

“Do you understand now?” The Demon Empress explained calmly, “The raft to cross the material world is a human body!”

“Why does our demon race need to transform into human form at the start of our cultivation journey? Moreover, why is this transformation the most crucial stage?” The Demon Empress explained, “Every human struggles within the sea of misery. But it is also only those humans who struggle within the sea of misery that can reach the shore on the other end of the sea of misery!”

“That is the origin of the raft to cross the material world!”

“Even our Heavenly Demon race would need to become humans first if we wish to reach that supreme pinnacle at the end! Only then can we try to achieve that pinnacle.” The Demon Empress lowered her glance and spoke detachedly.

“That is what ‘Should one desire to reach the pinnacle, one would need to construct the raft to cross the material world’ means!”

The beautiful lady in white widened her eyes in shock. “But… that information is only in the Heavenly Demon Secret Manual. Moreover, this manual is in the Nine Heavens Imperial Court and only our clan can cultivate it. If that’s really the reason why Zi Xieqing wanted to become human… Then how did she get to know of it?”

The contemplative Demon Empress replied, “I find this strange as well. However, Zi Xieqing is different from us. We can only construct the raft to cross the material world at the very last step. Besides, we would have to go through unimaginable dangers to do it. Yet she has already begun in the middle of her journey. In fact, she hasn’t even reached the mid-point yet…”

The Demon Empress turned to her younger sister and said, “Meng Meng, Zi Xieqing has just gone through the demon destruction process to become human, so she is currently in a weak state. If you are free, and since you get along so well with her, why don’t you go and protect her for a period of time?”

The beautiful lady in white nodded. “Alright!”

The sisters exchanged a smile of mutual understanding.

“Queen Mother, how about I go and protect Miss Zi?” As the voice drifted over, a young man in white suddenly appeared from behind. It was a dashing and attractive-looking young man.

“You? That won’t do!” The Demon Empress frowned. “Although Zi Xieqing didn’t do it entirely because of a man, he is definitely still part of the reason. If you go, she definitely would not take kindly to you. Instead, things will become worse.”

A flash crossed the young man’s eyes. Smiling, he replied, “If I can make her your daughter-in-law… Wouldn’t that be even better?”

The Demon Empress snapped furiously, “Preposterous! You’ve pestered her for so long since 70,000 years ago. She didn’t even have a man at that time and she had already rejected you. Now that her heart belongs to someone, do you think you’ll succeed?”

The young man replied dejectedly, “But… There’s no harm in trying.”

The Demon Empress said furiously, “How many times have you tried? Not even knowing to retaliate when a woman beats you up; how did I come to have a son like you…”

“Being beaten up by a beauty is a kind of pleasure…” explained the young man weakly. “I’ll try one last time.”

Ignoring him, the Demon Empress turned away. “Meng Meng, I’ll leave this to you.”

The young man turned and pleaded, “Aunt, do put in a few good words for me. I’ll go over when I’m free.”

The beautiful lady in white let out a wry laugh in response.

……

In the Middle Three Heavens.

In that mysterious cave.

The brothers had already gone into seclusion for a very long time, so much so that even Mo Tianji had lost count of the days.

It had to be said that these days were no doubt dull and boring, as well as extremely hard to tolerate.

Everyone here was a hot-blooded young man. Though it was still alright in the beginning, now that they could see that enormous dragon made up of spiritual energy of the universe slowly decreasing in size and gradually disappearing, everyone started to become more and more restless.

Something finally happened on this day.

During cultivation time, they naturally had to practice their cultivation. But once they were free, everyone chatted with each other without any reservations.

Under the coercion of all the brothers, the romantic history of the perpetually cold and distant Gu Duxing and Gu Miaoling had been repeated for a total of seven times. Ji Mo’s romantic history had also been repeated tens of times.

No one was tired of listening to the recounts of how Huyan Aobo had abused Ji Mo.

As for Ao Xieyun and Xie Danqiong, everyone had also… dug out their entire life history from the point where they were old enough to climb trees and poke at birds nests.

As it went on, the topics gradually became heavier and heavier.

At the topic of in-clan wars and brothers falling out and becoming enemies, everyone sighed in unison.

Ji Mo was the only one who remained cheerful. “What’s the big deal? Isn’t it just a fight… Let me express how I think nothing of it.”

The moment he said that, everyone looked at him in contempt.

Ji Mo and Ji Zhu had also fought with each other because of the position of the clan leader. However, these two lazy bums were fighting with each other in order to escape being the clan leader, rather than overpower and profit.

The two brothers could contest each other for the title of the laziest person…

Compared to the other few clans, it was practically a world of difference.

Gu Duxing’s mood was a tad worse than him. Now, he had also truly experienced the benefits brought about by Chu Yang killing off the two Gu brothers. Thus, his emotions were not that affected.

Ao Xieyun had fought with his cousins from the paternal side of his family. Most of them had been killed by these brothers of his, with some of them even executed by his father.

Luo Kedi and Luo Kewu didn’t reach such a stage.

Xie Danqiong had been acknowledged since he was young and there was no one to fight with him over anything. In comparison, he had it the easiest.

The one who felt the most terrible among them was Mo Tianji.

Mo Tianji had once fought tooth and nail with Mo Tianyun for a very long period of time.

Here, the dimension was sealed off and far away from the hustle and bustle of the material world. Mo Tianji’s spirits gradually turned quiet and calm. Within this calm and quiet, he pondered over everything that had happened in his life and contemplated over everything that… made him happy and sad.

He thought of how Mo Tianyun had taken care of him when they were young…

When he was bullied, the young Mo Tianyun had always stood up for him. “Who dares bully my second younger brother?!”

At that time… He was so secure and had relied on him so much… But when was it that the two brothers had turned into this state where they fought each other to the death…

Although Mo Tianyun was proven to be an illegitimate child and not a descendant of the direct bloodline in the end…

The one whom Mo Tianji thought of and couldn’t forget was still his Big Brother from back then.

He had eventually died; in the struggle and fight against him. He had once been very happy and very relieved because of his death; but now, when he recalled all these things vividly, how was it that he couldn’t get rid of that sense of melancholy in his heart?

If he had not changed back then, I wouldn’t have fought with him at all! Why did he have to change!

Sometimes, the more intelligent someone was, the more they tended to push themselves into a corner over something irrelevant.

Mo Tianji’s technique of having the world in his grasp required a crystal clear heart and to have a constant and unchanging heart at all times; what he had to avoid the most was a heart in disorder.

The moment his heart was in disorder, it couldn’t be stopped!

On this day…

When everyone was practicing, they suddenly heard a deafening cry. “Big Brother! Why did you become like this?!”

Everyone was shocked, only to see Mo Tianji spurting a mouthful of blood before he coughed up even more blood. Then, he collapsed to the ground.

Blood drained from everyone’s countenances.

Everyone had already exceeded Martial Saint-level by now. That huge solid mass of spiritual energy of the universe had been fully absorbed by everyone. At such a crucial point and at such a high level of cultivation, nobody expected at all that Mo Tianji would suddenly lose his mind to his inner demons.

Gu Duxing was the first to react. He immediately dashed over to behind Mo Tianji and pressed his hand against his back. He transfused internal energy into him without stopping but he could sense that Mo Tianji’s meridians had already turned into a mess within him. Gu Duxing’s power wasn’t enough to regain control.

“All of you, come here!” bellowed Gu Duxing.

Ji Mo, Luo Kedi and Xie Danqiong immediately came over to help.

“The divine dragon’s energy within him is in a mess.” Gu Duxing’s forehead was covered in perspiration. “This situation… is terrible!”

Back when they had first gone into seclusion, Mo Tianji had once warned Gu Duxing — With so many young and strong men going into seclusion, once enough time passed, something would definitely go wrong.

As such, the two of them had done a great deal of preparation for this and even discussed a fair number of solutions.

Everything had been going well thus far; Gu Duxing’s heart was already somewhat at ease about this. But he never would have expected that the one having problems now would actually be Mo Tianji, the one who should have posed the least possibility of problems!

[1] ‘Meng’, the character for her name, means ‘dream’