Chapter 45 I will definitely find you. Don't even think about getting rid of me, senior brother...
Amidst the chaos and noise, astonished faces surged toward the Lingxing Gate, while Xiao Huaiyuan, standing at the center, remained frozen in place, not moving for a long time.
Unbeknownst to others, in the brief interval of his endless fall, Fu Ming, with his last breath, uttered a long final farewell.
Weak words drifted in the wind.
“Junior brother, I came here for my own selfish reasons. I did not expect to get so involved with you. This is my fault.”
“I don’t want to drag you down. You know my identity will be exposed sooner or later. You have a bright future. Why associate with someone as infamous as me and invite trouble for nothing?”
"Whether you hate me or resent me, you can find another good match. We... shall part ways here."
Fu Ming spoke from the bottom of his heart.
Xiao Huaiyuan was different from him. His ancestors were illustrious, and he was born a favored son of heaven. He only suffered some grievances when he lived elsewhere as a child.
He understood that people empathize when they are most vulnerable, and it was probably the chick complex that made him mistakenly believe that this was affection.
But Fu Ming himself is neither gentle nor kind; he is selfish, vicious, and immoral, and he is constantly arguing and fighting with Xiao Huaiyuan. What is there to be lovable about him?
He spoke too quickly and too fast, leaving Xiao Huaiyuan no chance to interrupt, so Xiao Huaiyuan obediently listened quietly.
After the Golden Core self-destructed, Fu Ming's spiritual power dissipated, his body became as heavy as an ordinary person's, and even his eyelids drooped heavily.
For high-level cultivators, physical death is nothing compared to the complete annihilation of their soul. After their heart stops beating, their remnant soul will pull them back to the Immortal Palace, awaiting their main body to enter the secret realm and merge with their divided soul.
This is when the half of the pearl fruit comes into play.
Fu Ming fell into a stream teeming with water plants, his bones shattered. The faint remnant soul beside him was trying to return to his broken body, which would probably take some time.
That jade slip was of really good quality; it didn't break even after falling from a height of a thousand feet.
Just as the cool water was slowly cooling him down, a sinister whisper sounded in his ear:
"Senior brother, I will find you."
Xiao Huaiyuan repeated it again, reading each word with extreme emphasis.
"Don't even think about getting rid of me, senior brother. I will definitely find you."
...
Amidst the chaos outside, the disciples of the Tianyan Sect are still spontaneously patrolling the mountains to search for people.
"Junior Brother Ming, where are you—"
"Junior Brother Ming, are you still alive?!"
Jiang Jie clutched his forehead and wailed, "Ouch, Zhu Gan, why did you hit me for no reason?"
He had just been given a sharp rap on the head by Shenmu, who was walking ahead of him.
Shenmu, who bore a resemblance to Fu Ming, puffed out his cheeks in anger: "What are you talking about, death and life? Don't say such unlucky things!"
The reliable Li Xiang stepped in to smooth things over: "By the way, since you signed a master-servant contract with Junior Brother Ming, can you also sense where he is?"
"No way." Shenmu tried his best to spread his senses, even squeezing out two antenna-like leaves from his forehead, but he couldn't detect any echo: "The master-servant contract seems to be... broken."
"It's broken?" Li Xiang's thick eyebrows furrowed, and the others exchanged glances, all feeling a sense of foreboding.
This is common knowledge even among novice cultivators. The vast majority of contracts, except for those actively severed by one party or naturally dissolved, will only be broken upon the death of the contracting party.
Does Fu Ming really have the strength to voluntarily dissolve the master-servant contract?
"There's no need to be so pessimistic. The space on the Immortal Island is quite chaotic. Perhaps he's not even in Daiyu, which is why he can't sense it." As expected of someone with extensive knowledge, Miss Gu put everyone's minds at ease with just one sentence.
"That makes sense, that makes sense."
Among the group of humans and demons, only the fox with bald patches on its body kept its tail between its legs and remained silent.
It brought the person to the True Immortal Soul, so it certainly knew how likely Fu Ming was to survive.
Suddenly, someone grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up. It was a familiar technique, but much more painful. He howled in pain and looked up at the rude person.
He was a tall, handsome young man with deep black eyes and a cold, aloof demeanor. He seemed to be carved from a block of ice that had never melted in ten thousand years, which frightened the fox so much that it tucked its tail under its rear end even further.
This person was none other than Xiao Huaiyuan.
“You are a descendant of the Nine-Tailed Divine Fox under the command of Immortal Venerable Qian Yuan, and have served True Immortals for generations. You can move freely in the Immortal Palace. You have chosen him.”
Xiao Huaiyuan paused.
"What deal did he make with you?"
"I...I don't know! Oh, yes, it was my master who sent me. I don't know what they said." The fox shook its head repeatedly.
Xiao Huaiyuan silently increased the pressure on his hand, and the fox kept shrinking back, spitting out many shiny objects from its mouth.
The fox closed its eyes and shrieked, "He told me to give this to you. It was supposed to be given to you before you left."
Piles of colorful spirit cores of various elements lay on the soil, along with several large demon bones and a dozen or so milky-white seeds the size of fingernails. The most eye-catching item was a sachet embroidered with mandarin ducks, with two talismans serving as slips of paper beside it. Fu Ming hadn't brought any pen or ink, so he used his sword to carve characters into the talismans.
The first talisman reads: "Zhugan, the master-servant contract has been dissolved. I've selected one seed; the rest are returned to you to plant in Daiyu. You can bury the water and wood elemental cores in the soil, and the plants will grow faster. Don't eat people anymore; you'll suffer if the impurities aren't completely eliminated. The earth elemental core goes to Li Xiang, the wind elemental core to Jiang Jie, the metal elemental core to my master, and the rest you can distribute as you like."
The second talisman even had a very serious opening.
To my revered teacher:
Inside the sachet are the unopened Heart-Protecting Scales, Soul-Suppressing Pills, and talismans. I didn't use them, so I'm returning them to you. There's also half a Pearl Jade Fruit and a Pearl Jade Seed inside. Keep the fruit for your tribulation, and plant the seed on the Sect Leader Peak. This thing is very delicate, so don't kill it.
In fact, Fu Ming's tone was quite disrespectful to his elders, lacking any of the respectful language and etiquette that a junior should have, but no one noticed this at the moment.
"Junior Brother Ming really cares about us." Jiang Jie was so moved that he burst into tears, and his focus obviously shifted.
Xiao Huaiyuan frowned, his expression growing even colder.
This means she wants to distance herself from him.
Since you're unwilling to take responsibility, why bother coming back to provoke him? At this point, there's no point in settling things amicably.
"Sect Leader, may I ask how you entered this place? Has something happened outside?" Li Xiang was puzzled when he saw Xu Yan and other elders appearing in the secret realm.
"Yes, the secret realm passage reopened when Mingchen Golden Core self-destructed." After a brief explanation, Xiao Huaiyuan directed the elders and disciples to search separately: "We must find him alive or dead. Let's continue searching."
"Yes." The disciples of Tianyan Sect scattered like ants burrowing into a jungle.
The Grand Competition Secret Realm is becoming increasingly chaotic.
The gates to the secret realm opened wide, and there were no longer any requirements regarding the cultivation level of those who entered; cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage and even the Deity Transformation stage and above could enter. Apart from the Heavenly Evolution Sect, sects large and small sent people to search for treasure, turning these immortal islands into chaos.
But soon, they discovered a serious problem.
The ancient secret realm that has survived to this day is far too barren and too desolate.
After walking for half a day, they could only see some low-level demonic beasts at the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation stages, and there were no rare treasures to plunder.
Looking at the Heavenly Rankings again, apart from Ming Chen of the Heavenly Evolution Sect who topped the list with 30,000 points, none of the others had scores exceeding 10,000.
How can it be so shabby?
Back then, they couldn't even crack the top twenty without accumulating over 10,000 points. How come the secret realm has become so impoverished in just a short time?
Fu Ming deeply sympathized with this. Seeing his pseudonym firmly sitting at the top of the list, he was heartbroken: "You guys were given a chance but you didn't do it."
Fu Ming is currently in a Schrödinger-like state of being both dead and alive. His soul has been uploaded to the celestial palace in mid-air, and he can even control the movement of the celestial palace, thus being able to overlook the archipelago.
The Azure Sea of No Form was growing increasingly dark. Apart from Daiyu, there were hardly any living creatures on the other islands. Even the Yuanqiao Wind Wolves that had once tricked Fuming were reduced to only one or two, hiding in the mountains, completely devoid of the high spirits they once displayed when selecting his meat.
Although the spiritual energy remains abundant, it no longer gives birth to great demons or spiritual creatures.
Why is that?
Even without asking the system, he knew that all those side quests must have failed.
Fu Ming didn't have any grand ambitions to save the world, but he was still quite curious about the reason why this small world was becoming increasingly desolate, so he kindly consulted the remnant soul of a True Immortal who was refining his broken body.
"Respected Immortal Venerable, forgive me for not quite remembering your name. What exactly happened to this secret realm? Why is it so lifeless?"
The remnant soul of a true immortal, with an air of otherworldly grace, did not take offense at his disrespect and explained, "Oh, because this secret realm is incomplete, and 'I,' which supports the foundation of the secret realm, is collapsing."
Fu Ming: "Why did it collapse?"
The remnant soul said: "Human desires are insatiable, resentment breeds, life and death are injusticeful, and with greed, anger, and delusion, it will naturally collapse."
The wording was quite literary, but Fu Ming only had one key question to ask: "Once you've finished the fusion, will the secret realm be restored to its original state?"
The remnant soul wore a mysterious smile: "Not so, this is my duty, young friend. I will return to my main body with my body afterward, and at that time I will give the entire secret realm to you, hoping that you can save this world from its dire straits."
This immortal is quite outgoing; when did he agree to help?
"My true self discovered the secrets of ascension after successfully constructing this world."
That's okay too.
He's a dragon-like genius; how could he possibly let such an opportunity slip by? Fu Ming has a very flexible bottom line on this point.
"Soul-body fusion is no easy task; you'll probably have to stay here for a while longer."
"That's no problem, of course. By the way, shouldn't you also sort out your romantic entanglements, young friend?" the remnant soul subtly reminded him.
He had always been virtuous and had no romantic entanglements. At this moment, Fu Ming found his soul suddenly pulled back into his body, and a sharp pain and chilling sensation clung to him without warning, tormenting him so much that his waist trembled.
"You're still alive, right?"
The man who said this knelt down on Fu Ming, his large, well-defined hands cupping Fu Ming's chin, as if listening to his heartbeat or touching his breath.
Even now, with his senses dulled from his severe injuries, Fu Ming can still feel something warm brushing against his cold lips, touching them and then leaving.
Like a brief kiss.
Even if he were reduced to ashes, he wouldn't mistake this person for Xiao Huaiyuan. But how did he find him so quickly? This stream, which can only be found by crossing several spatial turbulences, isn't even in Daiyu.
A tremendous wave of emotion surged within Fu Ming's heart.
Xiao Huaiyuan actually found him (his body)!
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