Who is the emperor, or who is the culprit?
It was ten days later when I left Shuiyige.
I didn't know before that there was a Dizhuo Pond next to the Yunni Spring in Beixia Sixian.
It was actually a completely hidden place, isolated from the aura of the celestial realm above and cut off from information from all other realms below. Its interior was sealed off, while its exterior was filled with celestial power and a tangible void water area.
Xie Jinhui explored all the realms in the world, and only this pool could be called a perfect hiding place without any loopholes.
We arrived at the Dizhuo Pond and saw the trees all around us covered in ice crystals, their branches shrouded in mist, and the round, dew-kissed fruits hanging from the branches—all soft, cool, and translucent.
Although the rock formations on the shore are sharp and gray, I always felt that they should also be soft, delicate and smooth.
I glanced at this peculiar sight a few times.
In the past, I disliked the thick fog here, which was so intense that it would leave you covered in moisture, so I rarely ventured into the area.
If I didn't absolutely need to use it to do something important today, I still wouldn't bother coming here to suffer the unpleasantness of my clothes getting wet and my pantyhose sticking to them.
Xie Jinhui and I didn't linger too long in the fog. After passing through the white barrier, we plunged directly into the cool, blue waves of Dizhuo Pond.
If you happen to be here to fetch water for your garden, you will surely see Lord Xie and Goddess Yuanhe playing in the pond like mandarin ducks, a truly romantic sight.
Other deities would only think of us as a loving couple, enjoying the beauty of the moonlit night and the gentle breeze.
Little did we know that the next moment we would both sink to the bottom of the pool, leaving the surface as calm as ice.
Xie Jinhui had already made a decision. After using the Dizhuo Pool to erase his traces in the Immortal Realm, he summoned the Butterfly Dream Bell in the water.
We walked through the Butterfly Dream Bell Corridor while drying our fairy clothes.
Xie Jinhui stood beside the portal, while I recited the incantation for the Transfiguration spell.
Amidst the swirling celestial energy, my celestial body continuously dissipated, only to reassemble once more into an ordinary grasshopper devoid of any celestial energy fluctuations.
Xie Jinhui also transformed into a beam of light and entered my sea of consciousness.
The portal opened a crack, and I flapped my wings and flew out.
In the mortal realm below, under the blazing sun, I could hear the roar of my own wings, like the hoarse and dry chirping of cicadas in the sweltering heat of autumn.
Xie Jinhui guided me in my sea of consciousness. I saw the Soul Lock like a leash for a scoundrel, constantly pulling on him.
In the western sky above the sea of consciousness, a faint silver shadow was floating.
The jade stone engraved with Xie Jinhui seemed to hum some ancient ballad, like the soft sound of flowing water, which actually relieved my anxiety as a grasshopper roasted in the scorching sun.
In my mind, what was initially a continuous stretch of gray-blue mountain shadows has now transformed into a lush landscape of verdant mountains, abundant fruits and red flowers, vibrant yellow maples, and snow-covered hillsides, a scene of flourishing prosperity throughout the four seasons.
The jade stone is located in a valley surrounded by mountains.
Previously, this place was barren, but after Xie Jinhui came, clusters of colorful frost flowers bloomed and even spread out into a small stream.
And then, without me even realizing it, a waterfall cascaded down from the mountaintop, weaving a rainbow in my mind's eye.
Xie Jinhui said with great joy, "Yuanhe is very fond of me."
He influenced my consciousness, transforming it into a vast and vibrant pastoral landscape.
His sea of consciousness, from the first time I saw it until now, remains the same empty and desolate expanse.
It wasn't a place filled with yellow sand or swirling golden mist; it was just an empty space where, once you entered, you lost all sense of life and death, and had no feeling of coming or going.
Recently, there have been some changes inside; at least a peach grove has appeared, from which the sound of peach-bell hairpins can be heard.
After flying in the air for a while, the dark shadow of the entrance to the yellow-gray cave was finally projected through my bean-like eyes.
After Xie Jinhui and I escaped from the grasshopper's body, the interior of the cave had already been destroyed by a fire lit by candles.
I flew in through a crack next to the fallen rocks at the cave entrance, and the long-suppressed grass, wood ash, and rock fragments suddenly sprayed over me.
I turned dark, stirring up all sorts of dust, an uninvited guest breaking the tranquility of the dark creatures within the cave.
Moths scattered in a flurry, and a group of things crawled sideways across.
I broke through countless layers of dust and spiderwebs, and finally, in the sliver of light illuminated by Xie Jinhui, I returned to the place where I had been imprisoned.
As my immortal power circulated within me, I could clearly see all the scenery inside the cave.
At that time, the millions of burning candles turned into withered, hard, black lumps, piling up into various shapes resembling the claws and fangs of demons.
Flame marks are visible everywhere on the rock face, and vines struggle to climb up in the shadows.
Perhaps hidden within the mountain is a waterway that was re-established by a great fire.
I heard the hollow sound of water dripping from the mountain wall, seeping out from some dark crevices in the rocks.
All things choose to live among plants and trees, and rely on water for sustenance.
It seems that after a long period of time, this place will be revitalized.
I followed the rock wall from afar, flying into the heart of the cave and getting close to the cage.
I stood in deep thought, circling the transparent dome that was as tall as a person and as wide as two arms.
The fire burned everything beyond recognition, but the ice shield, crafted from the cold ice, remained completely unscathed.
Xie Jinhui said that it was not an ordinary thing and could not be destroyed by ordinary fire.
But the two charred, entwined grasshoppers inside the enclosure remained unchanged, instead of turning into two charred puddles inside the enclosure.
Xie Jinhui cleared up my doubts. He said, "When I came last time, they had indeed turned to ash, but I felt it was a pity that they had gone through life and death with Yuanhe.
They gathered the black ash together and pieced it back together into the posture we took when we died.
"Yuan'e, did it hurt when I bit you that time?"
I flew around a few times carrying this painful memory, and the buzzing of my wings was the response I sent back to my mind.
"It hurts, it hurts so much, but I don't blame you."
"Just don't bite me so hard next time."
"Since then, when have I ever bitten you!" Xie Jinhui feigned indignation.
"The first time you kissed me, hmph, you bit me right away."
I patted the cover with my antennae and whimpered, "It scared me so much that I instantly remembered the pain inside."
Xie Jinhui hissed as he savored the moment. After adjusting my gaze, he said sincerely, "I'm sorry."
Our purpose in coming here is not to investigate who bit whom or how much pain they felt, but to find out if any clues were left at the location where a body similar to the Holy Emperor's immortal body was once placed.
Fortunately, the stone bed where the body had been lying is still there, covered with a thick layer of dust, with the faint outline of a human figure emerging from the bottom.
Xie Jinhui arranged this investigation process so meticulously that no one could detect it.
The main reason is:
He suspected that the Holy Emperor Sheng in the Immortal Realm might not only be an imposter, but also a venomous spider weaving its web across the world.
If we provoke him, will he sense it instantly and immediately pull back?
Everything about the enemy is unknown; we can only proceed covertly...
He concealed his immortal form in the Dizhuo Pool to remove his aura, using the Butterfly Dream Bell as a passage, rather than directly venturing into the mortal realm.
Then, using the grasshopper transformation technique I learned from various secret books such as "The Myriad Manifestations of the Mysterious Observation," I concealed all my immortal power.
Xie Jinhui was hidden within my sea of consciousness, where I was unable to use my immortal power.
Therefore, his actions, spells, and all his behaviors were equivalent to reinforcing layers of secret barriers, making them impossible to perceive.
Just like now, as I gaze at that rectangular stone bed, Xie Jinhui is transmitting the images of the body he senses to me.
I see remnants here, the origins and history of the body.
The body was initially a wisp of air released from the bottle. Following the air from the bottle, I saw a pair of transparent, soft hands that were all show and no flesh.
The transparent object was hazy and indistinct, like a formless thing formed from water.
Lay the object flat, blow air into it, and knead it for a while.
Its body then swelled up into a shape resembling a piece of clothing, like a shadow puppet.
The water-shaped creature took steps, climbed onto the stone bed, and tried to put its body on and on.
The body merged with the water body's left foot and several other parts of skin, but it couldn't merge with other parts no matter what it tried.
Shui Shen lay on the stone bed, sometimes emitting joyful bubbling laughter, and sometimes clearly going crazy from impatience.
He was excited in the cave, impatiently repeating himself.
"It's not enough, it's not enough, the offspring of the spirits are still not enough."
More, more, the more the better.
Not enough...
Just a little more, and I could pull him off that chair…
The eerie, silent groaning sound carried a sinister, murky quality.
Suddenly, Shui Shen's entire body began to glow. He sat up excitedly, put on a hooded black coat, and rushed towards the cave entrance.
He shouted as he rushed forward, "I sensed it, I sensed it, a spirit, a spirit."
The black-robed monster gave me a strangely familiar feeling. I stared at the stone bed, which no longer had a body, and said to Xie Jinhui, "Follow him and see."
Xie Jinhui's method of reversal clung tightly to the body of the man in the black robe.
We followed the monster over mountains and down the mountain.
He covered his face as he walked through the ordinary people's market village.
Finally, the monster pounced into the golden wheat field, staring straight ahead at the pair of spirits it had identified, and plucked them.
...
I remember that on the day Xie Jinhui and I stayed in the human world, we looked back at this wheat field and tried to see who had taken us away.
But the scene abruptly ended, as if it had been erased by someone.
The monster that captured us has now been identified, but we still don't know what kind of thing it is.
He actually had the consciousness and the ability to erase the memory traces of both me and Xie Jinhui, the two high gods. He was truly powerful.
No wonder he was able to replace the Heavenly Emperor!
It seems too early to say that he replaced someone. If he didn't replace someone, is there another possibility that the Holy Emperor himself was a monster?
I wanted to deny it when I thought of it, but then I suddenly remembered.
Three hundred and twenty thousand years ago, Emperor Shengsheng was not the Heavenly Emperor of Destiny. What method did he use to gain the approval of the Tai Su Wu Nian Stone?
What exactly did he do?
These are all unresolved, chilling secrets.
Xie Jinhui continued to track the monster's movements, skipping over the process of extracting my and Xie Mazha's life essence.
I saw the monster, carrying the combined life essence, arrive at another cave. In that cave, a small grasshopper, its skin translucent and pale green, was soon born in a dripping pond.
The monster extracted half of the grasshopper's spiritual energy, summoned a body, and injected the spiritual energy into the body.
Before long, the grasshopper's spiritual energy was seen occupying the right shoulder of the body, slowly seeping in, as if it were merging with the body.
The water monster greedily and gleefully touched its invisible shoulder, muttering to itself.
"Great, it's useful."
Come on, little grasshopper.
The monster plucked a drop of water from his watery body, and with a gentle flick, the drop transformed into a massive whirlpool that seemed to lead to an abyss.
"Little grasshopper, go, go to the land where the world is divided and governed, and quietly replace the guardian beast there."
Help me, to replace him.
The little grasshopper leaped high into the air, its consciousness completely locked by the monster.
With a submissive and dazed look in its eyes, carrying the several scrolls of runes given to it by the monster, it hopped and skipped towards the vortex.
Immediately afterward, I heard the monster grit its teeth and curse in hatred.
"The Holy Emperor?"
Why are you the Heavenly Emperor? If you deserve it, I deserve it even more.
You treacherous scoundrel who harms your own flesh and blood!
"You're the one who should disappear!"
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