Battle of the Sky and Seas 3

The prophecy has come true, Huaiwen thought.

But this wasn't her real tribulation, she secretly thought.

Huaiwen had no strength to lift her hand. She felt her body losing blood continuously. She was extremely sleepy and wanted to fall into a deep sleep.

The lingering black energy within her body drifted out, turning azure upon reaching the Void Sea. Several strings of incantations shimmered around Huaiwen.

These are all things that have never happened before.

The stars above the sky began to twinkle, and the cherry blossom foxfire began to glow. Xuan Ye's already disastrous face suddenly turned ashen. Huai Wen instantly sensed the consequences of his actions.

"No...you...can't..." Huaiwen said, his face contorted in pain.

Xuan Ye was heartbroken: "Yes, we can live. Huai Wen, as long as you kill me, you can ascend to heaven and come back to life."

"Killing the demon will allow you to attain immortality, Huaiwen, and then you can live a good life in this world."

“If you… do this…” Huaiwen said, steeling his resolve, “I… will not only… for this lifetime… but I will… never… want you.”

Xuan Ye dared not move again. Tears streamed down his face, and the paleness began to fade. He sobbed, "Don't leave me...don't leave me..."

"It's a pity..." the Heavenly Emperor's voice rang out again, "It was supposed to be a happy ending, flying wing to wing. If it's going to be a tragedy... perhaps we should make it a little more romantic."

The incantations that should have surrounded Huaiwen suddenly transferred to Xuanye. Xuanye had no intention of driving away these incantations; he even felt that they were a memento left to him by Huaiwen.

"Lingshan Xuanye!" Nan Zhi shouted, "Don't accept it!"

Nan Zhi knew perfectly well what would happen to Xuan Ye if he were trapped by these incantations. Huai Wen shared the same fate as the Heavenly Lord, so the Heavenly Lord wouldn't kill her easily, but would only use her as a scapegoat. But Xuan Ye was different; he couldn't take the Heavenly Lord's place.

Once the cursed shackles are sealed, Ling Shan Xuan Ye, the legendary demon king feared by all, will no longer be a legend. He will truly appear, bringing eternal unrest to the world.

Under the control of the Heavenly Emperor, the Three Realms are forever hopeless.

Nan Zhi, half-submerged in seawater, struggled to crawl: "Lingshan Xuanye! Think about what Huaiwen's wish was! Even if it wasn't her wish, do you want to become the Heavenly Emperor's puppet? Do you want to destroy everything you have now and become a demon king who will be cursed for eternity?"

“I’m not popular anyway,” Xuan Ye replied.

“No!” Nan Zhi said, “You’ve never had the heart to hurt anyone since Lu Yuan, have you! Ling Shan Xuan Ye, do you know why you haven’t been hunted down by the God Realm? Because of you…”

Suddenly, Nan Zhi was speechless. She looked up in shock at the enormous cherry blossom foxfire. Xuan Ye's gaze was fixed on Huai Wen, whose body began to stiffen—a sign of impending death.

Lying in Xuan Ye's arms, Huai Wen watched the incantation swirling around him. She turned slightly to the side, looking up at the enormous cherry blossom foxfire burning in the air. With each falling petal, Xuan Ye grew weaker.

For more than two thousand years, the divine destinies of one strong and one weak should not be transferred or grafted onto others. Huaiwen took a deep breath, her eyelids were about to droop.

"Huaiwen, Huaiwen, Huaiwen—" Xuan Ye began to desperately call out Huaiwen's name.

"Ah Ling..." Huaiwen said finally, "Goodbye."

A gentle breeze swept through the empty sea, and the body vanished without a trace, leaving not a wisp of smoke, not a soul behind, not even a butterfly, not a single thing remained.

This should have been a blue sea, but there was a patch of blood red. Xuan Ye knelt in this blood red, the incantation began to spin faster, the formation had been set up, black energy began to surge from his body, and the cursed shackles were about to be placed on him.

Nan Zhi couldn't make a sound, and her legs wouldn't move. Nan Zhi's eyes darkened as she looked at her legs; she had never imagined this day would come.

Everything was beyond her expectations.

She remembered that when she first arrived at Mount Wu, the Imperial Preceptor asked her why she wanted to seek immortality and ask the Dao.

She would say it was because she wanted to live to be a hundred.

The Imperial Advisor smiled and said that everyone thinks that way.

Upon hearing this, she added, "Because I want everyone to be happy."

So today is the day she fulfills her promise to her past self. Nan Zhi took out a flask of wine hanging on her body. She smiled; she would never taste such fine wine again.

Nan Zhi closed her eyes, silently chanting incantations as her hands moved alternately. The incantations on Xuan Ye's body transferred to her, fiercely impacting her bindings. This caused Nan Zhi to suffer severe internal injuries, coughing up blood.

Xuan Ye turned his head and looked at Nan Zhi, who was being devoured by the incantation. The distraught woman gradually began to regain her senses. He didn't want Huai Wen to die like this; he wanted to fight to the death for her. He had said that long ago.

May Huaiwen's wish come true.

Xuan Ye stood up, grasped Wei Yuan in his hand, and flew over in two or three steps to cut off the spells that were sealing Nan Zhi's body.

"Look!" Nan Zhi finally shouted after being rescued!

Xuan Ye turned around, his pupils dilated, staring incredulously at the red-lined forest.

The red line in the seawater suddenly sprouted segments of red crystals, like bamboo shoots. Within those translucent red crystals, something was floating. If one were to look closely, one would discover that those floating things were humans, demons, or gods.

The humans, demons, and gods inside each crystal are all different.

Some crystals contain demons picking peaches; some contain people hoeing the ground; some contain gods perusing ancient texts... Every crystal presents the past, vivid people, vivid demons, and vivid gods.

They came into this world, and their lives should have followed their own paths.

It seemed that the Heavenly Lord within the Cherry Blossom Foxfire sensed something, and he attempted to shatter these red crystals and scrape them off the red line.

Huaiwen has already died in his place, and he has endured another tribulation. It's time for him to wrap things up. He will kill everyone who knows these things, until no one else knows. This is history that has never been told before.

"Bang—"

One after another, the red crystals began to burst, but these fragments did not fall into the sea; instead, they flew upwards. The twelve stars lit up one after another, illuminating the dark blue-purple sky.

"Oh no! All twelve constellations are lit up!" Nan Zhi exclaimed in alarm.

"Boom——"

The cherry blossom foxfire exploded, and Xuan Ye searched but could not find the Heavenly Lord. Soon, a group of little white figures appeared in the air, holding hands and swirling and dancing, making crisp sounds.

Then they saw sparks flash outside the circle formed by the little people.

Within the circle, they see only the void within, unable to see anything of its true nature.

The distant mountains were shrouded in mist and clouds, and a gentle morning breeze rustled through the fields—the wheat was ripe. The Heavenly Emperor gazed into the distance; the wheat fields stretched as far as the eye could see, as if the vast ocean of the heavens had been transformed into a wheat field.

He stepped forward a few paces, then hesitated for a moment before saying, "This is—the land of divine mandate?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

The voice came from behind Tianjun. He turned around and saw Fulin and Huaiwen in the wheat field. Tianjun chuckled and said, "It's quite a reunion for you two, master and disciple."

He stroked the bamboo slip and said, "Thanks to His Highness the Crown Prince."

The Heavenly Emperor looked closely and saw that the three of them were dressed in the same plain clothes, in the same wheat field. He wanted to laugh; three people destined by the gods, gathered in a wheat field. He thought this place of divine destiny was truly laughable.

Huaiwen gazed at Tianjun. She had arrived here a little earlier than Tianjun, but her master had already been in the wheat field for some time.

The first thing Huaiwen did upon seeing Fulin was not to ask why her master was there. Instead, she softly inquired, "Master, do you love all the people of this world?"

Fu Lin stood in the wheat field, nodded, and said softly, "I'm sorry, Huai Wen."

Huaiwen stood rooted to the spot. This god she had always revered had dragged her step by step into the mire. She remembered Liu Min saying that the human heart was unpredictable. She nodded and made a mental note of it. She thought she could distinguish between good and evil, but in the end, she was still being manipulated.

Why did you do this, Master?

He sighed deeply, "I'm sorry. I originally wanted to protect you, not to make you a scapegoat for His Highness the Crown Prince like me. Your destiny wasn't discovered at birth; it was only revealed after you killed the Scorpion Demon that I discovered it."

"To prevent you from being taken away by the Heavenly Lord, I told him that I wanted you to be my disciple. All my disciples will eventually go to the God Realm and be under his control, so he agreed. But your destiny is too strong. If I don't control you, you might become an immortal in just three days after arriving at Fengqin. So no matter how much you cultivate, you will never attain immortality."

Huaiwen choked back tears as he pressed, "Then why did you kill me, and then save me?"

Fu Lin replied with remorse, "Master never intended to kill you. It's just that the Heavenly Lord is about to undergo another tribulation, and he needs you as a scapegoat. I didn't want you to suffer the same fate as me, so I had to set a trap to separate your primordial spirit from your body. I hid you in Fengqin Mountain, intending to revive you once your aura changed."

"It's just that the Heavenly Lord is too strong; he discovered you very early on. Perhaps the Heavenly Lord felt that annihilating the opponent in one fell swoop was too boring. So he started playing this game of destiny with us. I had to set up many schemes, just so that you could live well."

"Whether it was when you fell into the tomb from the Clear Water Pool three hundred years ago, or now you are covered in curses and black energy, all of this is because the Heavenly Emperor wants to use your fate to bear the wrath of the millions of people of the former Yin Kingdom and the hatred of the people he betrayed."

“Pei Suqin was the first sacrifice made by the Heavenly Lord. You are the second. It’s just a pity that Pei Suqin was not the destined person, so the sacrifice failed, which led to everything that followed.”

"Among all these planned events, your relationship with Xuan Ye is the biggest variable. The Heavenly Lord knows this, and so do I. So the Heavenly Lord originally intended to use your reincarnation as a condition to coerce Xuan Ye into becoming his puppet. Unfortunately, Xuan Ye is very clever. He first caused trouble in the Divine Realm, using Pei Suqin's death as a wager, obtained the Heavenly Lord's promise, and spread the word throughout the Three Realms, stopping a great war and also ruining the Heavenly Lord's plan."

The truth gradually surfaced, like a series of interconnected rings, one after another, always entangled in the web of fate. The scent of wheat suddenly filled Huaiwen's nostrils; she stood in the wheat field, pondering for a long time.

"Master..." Huaiwen finally spoke after a long while, "Do you regret it?"

"I'm sorry... Huaiwen."

Huaiwen gazed at the distant, tranquil mountains for a long time before slowly asking, "Master... have you had a very difficult time these past thousand years?"

Fu Lin was stunned. He didn't know how to answer. He looked up at Huai Wen and listened to her continue, "But Master, it won't be me who forgives you."

A red spirit butterfly materialized in Huaiwen's palm, and he understood immediately upon touching the bamboo slip.

Fu Lin's eyes flickered, and he stepped forward to ask Huai Wen, "You've already..."

Huaiwen conjured another cherry blossom foxfire and said gently, "Master, I have family now."