Chapter 96 Three Thousand Lifetimes: The End of Dharma (Part 4) Let's Get Married...
With his palm outstretched, the blue screens of three thousand planes flew into the air at a chaotic speed. Just as Lou Su rushed over with eyes wide open, the platinum-gold flames viciously engulfed the three thousand planes. Without pausing for a moment, Lou Su reached out and grabbed at the raging flames.
The flames burned through his palms and surged fiercely toward his forearms. He seemed oblivious to the pain, the platinum-gold flames illuminating his stubborn brows. Yet, no matter the cost he paid, no matter how hard he tried, those three thousand planes left not even ashes.
Watching helplessly as his three thousand worlds were destroyed before his eyes, he felt as if all his strength had been drained away. He knelt on the ground, unable to move for a long time, his body trembling with despair, as he allowed the demon soldiers to surround him.
“Master,” Wu Xiutang’s voice was extremely gentle, his eyebrows raised with excitement, “Have you seen these on the astrological compass?”
His forearm was charred black, and flames shot up to his cheek. Lou Su finally raised his head, his eyes bloodshot. "So you knew all along that we were secretly in contact, but you held back, just to lure out the Three Thousand Worlds today. And when I thought success was within reach, you made me watch my hopes be crushed, didn't you?"
“I guessed you might have been suspicious for a while, but the Three Thousand Lifetimes are of great significance to Shi Xianxue. I thought you loved her and would at least spare our lives, but I didn’t expect—” He looked at Shi Xianxue, “that she holds no more place in your heart than this.”
He burst into laughter, stood up with a desolate expression, and felt the Chaos Pearl burning faintly in his chest. "As expected of my disciple, you are ruthless enough. Do you think this will make me stop? Wu Xiutang, we'll see."
Lou Su transformed into a wisp of green smoke and fled. Feng Yun was about to give chase, but Wu Xiutang raised his hand to stop him.
Death was too kind to him.
It would be better to undermine his spirit, crush his will, and disrupt his carefully planned scheme, so that all his years of scheming would be in vain, and he would deeply realize how incompetent he is.
"Wu Xiutang".
A voice that made him happy came from behind. Wu Xiutang casually raised his eyes and smiled gently at her: "Shi Xianxue, I am very happy today. Shall I take you to the human world to play?"
Shi Xianxue nodded, then quickly shook her head. Her eyes trembled, and her feigned composure was tinged with clumsy nervousness. "Wait a minute. I want to ask you, you were just trying to deceive Lou Su, weren't you? The real Three Thousand Worlds is still in your hands. Can you take it out? I'm not leaving now, just let me take a look."
"Why did you think the three thousand worlds just now were fake?" Wu Xiutang asked with a puzzled look. He stepped forward and took her cold hand. "Shi Xianxue, I hope you understand that in these three thousand worlds, only I am real, and only I love you the most."
With his palm close to her right cheek, the soft touch made Wu Xiutang unconsciously rub against it. "You should cherish me the most."
Shi Xianxue stared at him coldly, her mind buzzing, unable to think anymore. Her body was like a taut string, still clinging to the last glimmer of hope as she asked again, "Where is the Three Thousand Worlds?"
Wu Xiutang stared at her intently for a long time, then slowly a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
Compared to Lou Su, the betrayal of his beloved was even more heart-wrenching. He spoke with the intention of leaving both of them battered and bruised: "I have destroyed you completely. Your ability to repair you is utterly useless. There will be no more Three Thousand Lifetimes in this world. Your world now consists only of me, Shi Xianxue."
These words were like a blow to Shi Xianxue's head, completely waking her up. She suddenly broke free from his hand, her remaining divine power supporting her exhausted body.
She screamed at the top of her lungs, "Why! I'm asking you why! You knew perfectly well that was my home, where my family lived, why did you still destroy it! Do you love me or hate me!"
Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face as Shi Xianxue broke down, glaring at him with almost resentful eyes. "Why are you so obsessive? Why do you never respect me? Am I your puppet? Can't I have my own family and friends? Am I always supposed to put you first?!"
Wu Xiutang calmly withdrew his hand, but his dark eyes remained fixed on her: "You said you loved me, you gave me a name and made me human. How could a god of order who has become human still be accepted by the Heavenly Dao? I have nothing left, I only have you."
"So, this is the punishment master, Xianxue."
"I'm punishing you for being two-faced, saying you love me on the surface while secretly plotting to leave me."
Shi Xianxue had completely lost her mind. She wanted to tell him that she had never thought of leaving him, that if she could come back the first time, she was confident that she could come back a second time, that she loved him and was determined to stay with him for life, but these words were now completely meaningless.
She was furious and screamed in a fit of despair, "Yes, I'm leaving you! Every day I'm with you feels suffocating. You're not as good as Brother Li, not as good as Zhe Yue, not as good as anyone else! I'd rather grow old alone than spend my life with someone like you. You hate me, then kill me! Kill me!"
"Shut up!" The backlash from destroying three thousand lifetimes surged up at this moment, and Wu Xiutang's temples throbbed as if something was about to overflow.
"I hate you! I hate you! You killed my mother, you destroyed everything I had, I hate you! I never want to see you again!"
With a delicate dagger thrust into her hand, Shi Xianxue stared into the young man's sinister eyes. He almost irresistibly guided the tip of the dagger in his hand toward his heart.
"Then kill me!" The blade pierced her flesh, but what hurt even more was the sharp, almost desperate pain in her heart. Wu Xiutang's deep eyes were fixed on her face, his tone threatening, "If you don't make a move, then wait to be imprisoned by me and become a caged bird."
Shi Xianxue had used up 60% of her repairing power for Song Qingshu, and with no divine bone regeneration, her divine soul was much lighter than that of a cotton tree. She was already at her limit, and the destruction of her three thousand lifetimes further crushed her last line of defense. Wu Xiutang's relentless pursuit caused her to lose her breath, and as the short sword continued to penetrate deeper, she suddenly broke free of her restraints, vomited a mouthful of thick black blood, and fainted.
The intense emotional fluctuations and excessive exertion caused her to develop a high fever in the middle of the night. Her mind was stuck in a quagmire from which she could not escape. Her eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand pounds and she could not open them no matter what she did. Her whole body was flushed red from the fever, and she began to talk nonsense.
Just as that will was about to take advantage of the situation, a hand with clearly defined veins grabbed her and, without saying a word, prepared to tear her away from it.
Shi Xianxue groaned in pain on the bed, her clothes and bedding almost soaked with sweat. However, a soothing spell quickly entered her mind, and Shi Xianxue's tightly furrowed face slowly relaxed. She threw herself into Wu Xiutang's arms as if she were clinging to a piece of driftwood.
"No, please don't do this... Mom, Mom, don't go, don't leave Xiaoxue."
I really want to strangle her and end it all.
She was no different from that woman; they always had someone more important than themselves, professing their love for him, but abandoning him without hesitation whenever the two conflicted.
He doesn't even have a place in my dreams.
Is he a dog? A dog that they can abandon at any time?
After failing again, the moonlight shone on his emotionless face. The unfortunate spirit huddled in the corner, trembling. He withdrew from the spirit palace, hugged the girl in his arms, and buried his face in her arms.
I still can't bear to let her die.
Wu Xiutang had been inside for a long time, and the flow of his aura was completely isolated within the barrier. Feng Yun couldn't even detect a trace of it. He sighed and then remembered that of the three great artifacts, only the Sun and Moon Guide was in their hands, while the Demon Subduing Sword and the Chaos Pearl were in the hands of the enemy.
The God of Order was fully aware of this, yet he still allowed them to leave and take the artifact. It's unclear whether he genuinely looked down on them or had an overconfidence in his own abilities.
The weather is unpredictable. From the perspective of the Demon Realm, the human territory is already covered by a thick layer of dark clouds, and in the middle of spring, another heavy snow is about to fall.
These extreme celestial phenomena are insignificant to the demon race, but they are a significant blow to the weak human race. It will probably not be long before they can no longer hold on.
However, no one can stop the arrival of the Dharma-ending Age. Anyone who wants to change it must bear the burden, just like the two people who tried to change it thousands of years ago, who were punished by heaven and their souls were scattered.
Ah, if only the creator god of this world still existed.
When Shi Xianxue woke up again, she became unusually quiet, as if she had lost her soul. She neither cried nor made a fuss, but lay limply on the bed, neither eating nor communicating with anyone. Her eyes were empty, as if she was declaring her determination in this way.
Even in the Demon Realm, the nights have stars and moon, and they are even clearer than in the human world. When Wu Xiutang arrived, Shi Xianxue was staring at the waning moon in a daze. Hearing the noise, she slowly turned her back.
The lunch was untouched and had gone completely cold. Wu Xiutang glanced at it indifferently, then dragged a chair over and sat down.
Moonlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the unbearable stillness of the room. Wu Xiutang gazed at that figure for a long time.
"Shi Xianxue, do you have a death wish?"
The figure seemed not to hear anything and did not move at all.
"Let's put it romantically, baby, do you want to die with me? To die together, to be together for all eternity." He suddenly chuckled, seemingly mocking her cowardice, "With me, the one who killed your mother?"
Shi Xianxue kept her eyes tightly closed.
The room fell silent again. Wu Xiutang touched the spot on his heart, and warm liquid flowed from his nose. He lowered his head.
At this moment, I'm actually glad that Shi Xianxue didn't see any of this, or perhaps she doesn't care about her own life or death at all.
He casually wiped the liquid from under his nose with a handkerchief, and spoke in the same tone as usual.
"Let's get married." Make a marriage contract, just like you and Li Fuchao did before, a proper wedding, announced to the world. "Let's choose a sunny day."
Even now, he is still damnably bothered by the fact that Shi Xianxue almost became the Crown Princess of Chaoyun. Jealousy and embarrassment are like an ever-expanding monster, tormenting him every moment, as if he is being dragged into an abyss by this sticky and dark emotion, and no one can save him.
"Don't even think about it!" Shi Xianxue couldn't listen anymore. She sat up and couldn't understand why Wu Xiutang could still ask her to marry him so casually after what had happened.
"Wu Xiutang, there's no future for us! It's impossible! You'd better let me go, or if there's another chance, I won't hold back!"
"Whatever you want." Wu Xiutang stood up, his hair standing up high, revealing his full forehead. His thin face was no longer covered by hair and was fully exposed to the moonlight, making his eyebrows look even more defined.
All he cares about is the result.
As the moon rises above the branches, the petals of the black lotus quietly unfold, filling the entire room with the delicate fragrance of lotus blossoms.
Large tears rolled down her cheeks. Shi Xianxue's heart meridian was damaged, and she had not eaten for many days. After she finished speaking, her breathing became rapid. She was panting heavily, and her face was pale.
"This is the last time I'll ask you, where are the three thousand lifetimes?"
--
Reaching the highest heavens is the highest realm of the sky and the highest level of cultivation. However, to dream of ascending to the heavens in one step requires luck, ambition, and strength.
In this time of war in the human realm, the season that should be warming up is instead filled with heavy snow. Many refugees have nowhere to escape and have no choice but to go up the mountain to seek the protection of sects.
A traitor with demonic bones emerged within the Qingyun Sect, who had already been removed from the list of the top ten immortal sects and placed on the blacklist. Ordinary people were not going to risk their lives, so a large wave of refugees flocked to the Nine Heavens Immortal Mansion.
"Why won't you let me in! Everyone in front of me got in, why can't I get in?!"
"Demons and monsters are rampant nowadays, crops are failing, and wars are raging everywhere. What difference is there between you driving us down the mountain and killing us? You still have the nerve to call yourselves immortals? I don't think you're any better than those demons."
"Let us in!"
The middle-aged man who spoke first tried to slip through the gap while they were arguing, but after he successfully passed through the transparent barrier, he suddenly stopped moving.
As his wife watched his stiff back, she was about to go forward when she saw him suddenly begin to tremble violently. His body was like a shattered porcelain vase, with hundreds of cracks growing wildly on his body. With a few splattering sounds, amidst her devastating screams, her husband, who had just been arguing his case, was blown into pieces of flesh and blood.
A cold and authoritative male voice came from the air.
"Anyone who causes trouble again will be treated the same way as this person."
After settling the refugees, the disciples began to whisper among themselves after they had taken in the mountains.
"It's been a long time since I've seen Junior Sister. She's usually so arrogant and can't stay quiet for a moment. She wants the whole world to revolve around her. But now, she's been a coward in the Battle of No Return Mountain. Even though the sect leader and the others have been trapped in the Demon Realm for so long, she's really kept her composure and hasn't even shown her face."
"Who says otherwise? After the sect leader and the others returned from the Demon Realm, they went into seclusion to recuperate. The eldest brother returned injured a few days ago, and after only one day of rest, he was already out of bed managing sect affairs. But the junior sister's courtyard gate is still tightly closed."
The group rested for a while and were about to leave when they saw their junior brother, whom they hadn't seen in a long time, returning from outside the mountain on his sword.
He has always been easy to manipulate. If they were still polite to him in the past because of Zhou Huang, as time went on, they figured out Zhou Zheyue's personality and found him to be extremely weak and not to understand the principle of relying on a powerful backer. Gradually, they naturally stopped being as outwardly respectful as they were to their junior sister.
One of them was the son of Elder Liu from the sect. In terms of status and position in the mountains, he was no less than Zhou Zheyue, and in fact, he was much older than Zhou Zheyue.
"Hey, isn't this Zhe Yue? What's wrong? You weren't there when Master and the others were in trouble, but now that we've finished all the work, you're trying to reap the benefits? Are you going to Zhou Xianzun to ask for credit now?"
Zhou Zheyue ignored him and walked past the group without expression.
The man, however, was relentless. His days of non-stop work had fueled his deep resentment, and he desperately needed someone to vent his anger on. "Hey! Senior brother, I'm talking to you! Why are you pretending not to hear me?! You truly have no mother's upbringing, no sense of hierarchy… ah!"
He was thrown away by an invisible force, his entire right arm was severed by some sharp weapon, and it fell alone several meters away. The intense pain and the extremely strong visual impact made his face turn pale, and he fainted the next moment.
Zhou Zheyue scanned the terrified faces of the group one by one: "Can I leave now, senior brother?"
The Nine Heavens Immortal Palace is like a majestic tower, with higher levels as you go up. The pavilion at the very top is a forbidden place for everyone in the palace.
So when Fu Zhen saw Zhou Zheyue, his first reaction was to draw his sword and shout, "You dare to come back!"
He stole the Chaos Pearl, helped the goddess escape, and betrayed his sect. Even with his relationship with Master Zhou, he cannot escape his responsibility.
Zhou Zheyue raised her eyes, her pupils like icy green gems, sending chills down anyone's spine at a glance. Gone was her former timidity. "Get out of my way!"
The Nine Heavens Immortal Palace is famous for its array mechanisms. The pavilions above the clouds are like hidden worlds. From the outside, it looks like a tiny space, but inside it can hold three Chaoyun Royal Cities. The number of treasures and magical artifacts inside is astonishing.
The air inside the pavilion is polluted, but the roof is made of glazed tiles to absorb the essence of the sun and moon. From the top of the pavilion, Lou Su can have a panoramic view of the scene inside.
They are setting up their formation.
The pavilion was essentially a miniature version of the Nine Nether Continent. They set up nine array eyes in nine directions on the continent, combining starlight to form a nine-star alignment. Several elders were each performing their duties, channeling spiritual energy into the array.
Zhou Huang appeared beside him at some point, his expression calm: "You're back."
Lou Su coldly observed everything without saying a word.
Zhou Huang seemed used to it all along, and chuckled, "It seems your plan has failed. So, shall we continue our cooperation?"
Lou Su's gaze fell on the square, transparent glass house, where ordinary people who thought they had been rescued could now rest easy. "These people are not enough. This is a great formation. To successfully activate the formation, the soul of the person in charge of the formation is needed."
Fu Zhen lowered his head and curled his fingers.
Lou Su looked at Fu Chunsheng at the very center of the formation and asked, "Is he really willing to do that?"
Zhou Huang: "If he were only being soft-hearted, he wouldn't have been able to hold onto this position. But does this formation truly possess such great power?"
"If you don't trust me, you can always find someone else."
Zhou Huang chuckled twice but said nothing. Zhe Yue was different now. There was still a lonely ghost from ancient times inside him. He was the first human to ascend to immortality. How could he not believe in him?
Zhou Huang looked at the formation.
The sky is clear, the earth is turbid; the clear air rises, the turbid air sinks. This is the law of survival in the world. However, with the arrival of the Dharma-ending Age, the cultivation of immortality has stagnated. In recent centuries, the core of the Nine Nether Continent has also become unstable, with strange events and phenomena occurring frequently. It is feared that in a few hundred years, this world will fall into complete collapse.
If the altar had been repaired according to their plan, they wouldn't have had to resort to such a desperate measure, and there would still be hope for the world. Blame it on that ignorant, selfish goddess.
He summoned Fu Zhen: "Go and bring Liu Wan here."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com