Chapter 134 She Killed One of Herself
The old ancestor was determined to die.
She hasn't been doing well lately; she's lost weight, and when you hold her, she's all skin and bones.
He was also having a terrible time, and he was worried about her. Knowing that she was planning to gain Han Ling's trust, he had no choice but to stop himself from going to see her.
He had actually tried. After she was severely injured by the lightning, knowing that Han Ling was secretly watching her, he simply played the role of a lovesick fool, using his own heart's blood to help her heal her wounds time and time again. And even though she couldn't bear it, she had to pretend not to care.
So afterwards, she deliberately provoked him. She could have told Fei Fei the truth directly, but instead she played the villain in an ambiguous way, making him guess and doubt.
He gently bit her lower lip: "You certainly have a whole repertoire of ways to torture people."
She let out a soft moan.
"It's not torture, it's clearly fun."
Whispering sweet nothings, she was now so charming and alluring that he couldn't get angry. After a lingering kiss, Duan Jiuyou, with his swollen lips, still said to Di Jiang with some resentment, "I didn't act well. I originally wanted to act out a scene of a demonic witch tormenting the righteous gods, but unfortunately you were too easy to catch. You neither struggled nor misunderstood me."
Di Jiang smiled lazily: "If you like this kind of drama, I'll play with you every day after I kill Han Ling."
A celibate immortal lord, a love-hate relationship, and even a scholar bewitched by a demoness—as long as she's interested, there's nothing he won't do.
Duan Jiuyou smiled like a cat that had just stolen some cream, without a trace of shyness on his face.
“I told you you were the best. Once things settle down in Tianjing, I’ll find some storybooks and we’ll act them out.”
"The best?" He was petty and picked on her again. "Who did you compare me to? Zhao Fengchen of Wujian Mountain, Fang Liansheng of Kunlun Mountain, Wen Xingyi of Yunxiao Temple, or Luling Pavilion..."
Seeing that he was about to recount her twelve immortal lovers again, she suppressed a laugh and nudged him.
"You know these people better than I do."
Di Jiang leaned against the small couch, maintaining a dashing demeanor even while sitting on the ground. He picked up the bottle of ointment again and took Duan Jiuyou's hand to apply the medicine to her.
He retorted sharply, "You have a bad memory, so I'll write it down for you so that you won't be unable to answer if someone asks you about it later, which would make you seem heartless and ungrateful."
Duan Jiuyou couldn't persuade him, so he obediently watched as he applied the medicine to himself. Although Di Jiang was joking, he was thinking about something else. He probably already had an answer to this matter, but he still hoped that it would be different from what he had expected.
He asked Jiuyou, "How did you manage to avoid falling into the demonic path?"
Duan Jiuyou had already developed inner demons at that time. Otherwise, half of Han Ling's demonic spirits would not have been able to enter her body smoothly. Even a highly skilled magician would not be able to control this, let alone Duan Jiuyou, who had never learned any methods to resist demonic energy.
Duan Jiuyou said, "This is a long story. Let's start with how I saw through Han Ling's conspiracy."
In fact, she had seen the so-called Heavenly Breath Mirror, which recorded the past of the Heavenly Realm, in the Emperor's Heavenly Origin Hall a long time ago.
She was young then and didn't know that the mirror was the Heavenly History Book; she just thought it was pretty and wanted to play with it.
"Unfortunately, the mirror was bound within the barrier by the Emperor. I didn't know how to break it, so I used brute force to break the barrier. Unexpectedly, the Emperor turned back halfway. In my panic, I accidentally smashed the mirror."
"So," Di Jiang said, "from the moment Han Ling took out that mirror, you knew he was making up a story?"
Duan Jiuyou explained, "The Emperor split the shattered Heavenly Mirror in two. He gave me one half and used the other to create a fake mirror, which was still kept within the barrier. This time, he brought the fake mirror down to the mortal realm and deliberately let Han Ling take it away. This was actually a way of implying to me that only half of what was shown in the mirror was real. I pretended to be possessed by a demon, and after Han Ling believed me, I pieced together the remaining fragments, and that's when I saw the complete truth. It turns out that the battle at the bottom of the sea wasn't because the gods conspired to cut off Father's four legs, but because it was Father's own choice. At that time, all four Heavenly Locks were broken, and the magic array was difficult to set up. Father put himself in the trap, and in the sea at the precipice, he declared with a resounding voice: 'I will sever my four legs to complete the magic array!'"
Di Jiang looked at Duan Jiuyou with heartache. No matter what the process was like, the final result was cruel for Jiuyou.
She repeatedly saw her father die for his cause in the illusions created by the Heavenly Mirror and Han Ling, and repeatedly accepted the fact that he was forever sunk to the bottom of the sea.
With a determined look in his eyes, Duan Jiuyou told Di Jiang, "My father was a true hero, worthy of heaven and earth and worthy of all living beings. My mother, like my father, died to slay the demon."
The gods, with great pain, severed their feet and used their immense power to set up another magic array, originally thinking they could kill Han Ling. Unexpectedly, this demon possessed the power to devour. Yan Lingxi arrived just then, using her Dharma form to break through the gods and using her own body as a blade to deliver a fatal blow to Han Ling.
This is also why Duan Jiuyou rushed out to stop Di Jiang from breaking through the Ten Realms of Breaking Wind yesterday.
She knew that Han Ling possessed this power and worried that he would devour the Imperial Territory. Her deliberate act of pushing Han Ling aside was to weaken his demonic spirit.
Duan Jiuyou said, "After Mother turned into a sharp blade, she became the last seal that suppressed Han Ling's physical body and fell into a permanent slumber. The thirty-two gods present did not return to the Thirty-Third Heaven as later records say, but instead sacrificed their primordial spirits to save the innocent immortals and tens of thousands of soldiers from the five states and sixteen cities that had been devoured by Han Ling."
"That battle was too brutal. In order to stabilize the situation, Emperor Jiang Zhan could only lie and say that all the gods had returned and that he could descend to the mortal realm to destroy the demons if the war broke out again. He would then use his own cultivation to help the emperor succeed my father and kill the remaining demons."
At this point, Duan Jiuyou recalled something else and indignantly told Di Jiang, "Han Ling lied to me, claiming that my father was ostracized by the Heavenly Court and that he had been removed from the list of immortals, leaving no trace of his name in history. In reality, my parents are both righteous gods. Where would they get an immortal list? Their names are all clearly written in the divine register!"
"As for the Emperor, he did indeed enter the Path of Ruthlessness, but his original intention was not as twisted as Han Ling's. He simply wanted to become an assistant to his father and mother. He could be a person, or even a sword or a shield. It was an almost obsessive obsession, unrelated to jealousy or the ridicule of others. He just wanted to protect his family, and he was even a bit stubborn."
"And then this stubborn streak found me." Duan Jiuyou couldn't help but laugh. "He didn't know how to get along with me, and he always had a headache when he was with me. I asked him where my parents were, and at first, he probably didn't want me to carry that past burden. Plus, Han Ling was dead, and all the grudges were in the past, so he said my parents were lost. Di Jiang, listen to that, he said they were lost? Who can believe that? In the whole world, probably only someone with a mind like his, who has cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness, could say something like that. But he really wasn't good at expressing himself. During the time I lived with him, he almost never spoke to me on his own initiative. He was aloof, taciturn, and silent like a wall. I didn't like him then, and I thought he was really boring. Later, when I recalled the past in the Heavenly Breath Mirror, I realized that he had always been protecting me, especially when I got into trouble."
In her youth, she was mischievous, often breaking the treasures of the east family or damaging the artifacts of the west family. Each time, the emperor had to step in to clean up her mess.
"Then, the Emperor arrived."
Duan Jiuyou shifted his posture, sitting next to Di Jiang on the small couch: "My first impression of him was that he was thin and looked unwell. My second impression was that he was a crybaby; his eyes reddened the moment he saw me. I didn't understand why he cried then, but now I think he must have been thinking of my parents. Back then, Jiang Zhan didn't ask my father for that divine bone. Rather, when a great enemy was at hand, he happened to be undergoing tribulation. My father saw that he was frail and sickly, and worried that even if he survived the tribulation, he wouldn't be able to withstand the upcoming battle, so he gave him the divine bone. Jiang Zhan's magic was not weak; only he could activate the demon-subduing formation. When he killed Han Ling, he also exhausted all his energy. By the time I saw him, he was already emaciated."
But he ultimately felt guilty towards my father and towards me. He was very good to me, to the point of spoiling me, and never had the heart to restrain me. Half of the magical artifacts in my treasure bag were put in by him.
It seems in retrospect that summoning me to court was Emperor Zong's idea. I was too idle back then, unlearned and aimless, wandering around all day. My parents both considered it their duty to protect the Three Realms, but I had become a good-for-nothing. From Emperor Zong's perspective, I was truly useless. In order to bring me under his wing and cultivate my talents, he summoned me to court in the name of the Emperor, giving me the high-ranking status of a divine official. I was placed above the court officials and entrusted with important responsibilities. I seemed to have made some progress, but in reality, I was muddle-headed and blindly obedient. I roughly understood the principles: to protect the Three Realms and eliminate demons and uphold justice. However, I had no true love in my heart; I was just like a child dressed in adult clothes, imitating others and copying without understanding.
I had never understood why the Emperor would take away my painless bones, but recently I seem to have figured it out.
"My lifespan is endless, so I don't know the value of life. I dare to fight to the death without expecting anything in return. Only when I lose these protections and can still steadfastly guard the Three Realms will I be considered a true divine official."
After Duan Jiuyou finished speaking, he looked back at Dijiang and said with a little pride, "Don't you think I've grown up?"
Di Jiang gently stroked Duan Jiuyou's hand. She had grown up, but this growth came at a great cost to her.
She kept beating around the bush, seemingly saying a lot, but actually covering up the most important point: she didn't tell him how she controlled herself from falling into the demonic path.
She still possessed demonic energy, which was one of the reasons why Han Ling was willing to believe her. This demonic energy was suppressed within her body, like a colored inner core, releasing its proper aura and energy when she needed to use demonic energy to disguise herself.
Di Jiang said, "Jiuyou, you killed one of yourself, didn't you?"
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