Chapter 98 It turns out she crossed space for...
Sheng Zhiyi stood there, stunned, watching Ji Fuguang leave the hermitage of the rogue cultivator and walk further and further away into the mountains and forests.
He was already a teenager, his body was starting to slender, his whole body was thin and long, but he was extremely thin, his wrist bones protruded like thin blades, his hair was disheveled, and his body was covered in blood.
She knew that he would have to continue to struggle to survive here.
Later, when the Tianyan Sect began accepting disciples, he started as a menial servant and gradually rose to become the sect's chief disciple.
Everyone saw him standing atop the mountains, but no one knew how he had emerged from the mud.
Ji Fuguang's figure receded into the distance, while Sheng Zhiyi remained rooted to the spot, left only with an indescribable, persistent ache in her heart.
He has come this far through countless hardships, not to be trapped by the incomplete divine formation, not to suffer the destruction of his demonic bones, and not to gain a bad reputation in the cultivation world.
When Ji Fuguang forcefully used his willpower to send her away, his resolute yet reluctant gaze overlapped with the wary and timid look in his eyes when he huddled in the corner as a child.
He cannot die.
This thought rose in her heart like wildfire, instantly overwhelming all the chaotic heartache and shock.
“Crossing space requires a powerful will…” Sheng Zhiyi murmured to herself, her eyes gradually hardening.
If Ji Fuguang can do it, so can she!
She closed her eyes, trying to recall the ancient and powerful energy that erupted from Ji Fuguang at the moment the temple collapsed—it was the most primal desire from the depths of his soul, an obsession that transcended all rules and constraints.
She wanted to see him.
She wanted to confirm his safety, to tell him that she had seen his past, that she... she understood him.
This idea grew wildly in her heart, but she felt that she was still missing a fulcrum, a coordinate that could anchor her in the space where Ji Fuguang was.
Just then, she felt a slight warmth in her chest.
Sheng Zhiyi suddenly remembered the drop of blood from her heart that she left behind when she stabbed Ji Fuguang at Yaoyue Lake!
In order to break the spell on the collar, she pierced Ji Fuguang's heart with the tip of her sword. Ji Fuguang did not dodge, and blood flowed from his heart.
She placed that drop of blood deep within the jade petal to block the detection of magic.
Sheng Zhiyi unleashed her spiritual power and slowly approached the blood droplet floating in mid-air.
The moment the blood droplet touched the spiritual energy, it first overflowed with intense demonic energy, fiercely resisting. Then, sensing her presence, the demonic energy gradually calmed down, though it continued to fluctuate, allowing the spiritual energy to envelop it.
Sheng Zhiyi felt a sudden pause, a complex mix of emotions welling up within her.
This drop of heart's blood gradually seeped into her dantian. Due to her strong will and guilt, it did not completely dissipate, but instead became a unique mark.
Sheng Zhiyi looked inward and indeed sensed a faint aura deep within her heart meridian that was the same as Ji Fuguang's.
“This is it!” A resolute glint flashed in Sheng Zhiyi’s eyes.
She used her fingers as a brush and her spiritual power as ink to draw lines in the air.
The drop of blood that originally belonged to Ji Fuguang was once again imbued with her spiritual power, floating in her dantian, emitting a faint light that contained the essence of his life.
She poured all her mental energy, all the emotions surging from knowing the truth—shock, guilt, heartache, and the lingering concern that even she herself had not fully understood—into it.
In an instant, many images of Ji Fuguang flashed through her mind.
When they first met, the white-robed swordsman stood with his hands behind his back, the hem of his robe embroidered with a sea-blue mountain pattern fluttering even without wind.
As she climbed Frostflower Peak, bathed in the silvery moonlight, Ji Fuguang appeared like a deity sitting high in a hall, coldly observing the world with unreadable expressions of joy and anger.
He saved her with a silver silk ribbon when she fell from Shuanghua Peak.
When he was surrounded by his fellow disciples in Qiyun City, he took action to punish them.
When she was on the verge of collapse after the spiritual root transplant, he helped her reconnect her spiritual veins, saving her from becoming a cripple.
...
She had never forgotten a single detail of her past with Ji Fuguang.
All the past events gradually faded away, leaving only one thought that became clearer and clearer.
She wanted to see him.
Suddenly, the blood in her dantian burst forth with a dazzling red light, intertwining with the boiling silver light of her willpower around her.
Space began to distort violently, and the scene before us cracked apart like a shattered mirror.
The powerful tearing force acted on her soul and body, even more intensely than when Ji Fuguang sent her away last time, as if it wanted to tear her to pieces alive.
But she gritted her teeth and persevered, with only one clear coordinate in her mind—the direction that drop of blood pointed to, the direction where Ji Fuguang was!
As the dizziness gradually subsided, Sheng Zhiyi fell heavily onto the cold, hard ground.
She immediately looked up, and the sight before her made her heart stop.
This is not a dilapidated cave, but a much older temple.
The dome hangs high, engraved with countless stars, and countless thick golden chains hang down from the void, wrapping around a figure in the center of the hall.
Ji Fuguang!
His eyes were tightly closed, his face was as pale as paper, and the surging demonic energy around him was tightly bound and purified by those golden chains, emitting a teeth-grinding "sizzling" sound.
Pure divine power flowed through the chains, forming a giant cocoon of light that imprisoned him within.
Divine power and demonic energy clashed wildly inside and outside his body, causing his brows to furrow even while he was unconscious, and his body to twitch slightly from time to time due to the intense pain.
He was clearly using his powerful demonic energy to resist the purification of the divine array, but this process was tantamount to being slowly sliced to death.
"Ji Fuguang!"
Sheng Zhiyi was heartbroken and, disregarding her physical weakness, got up and rushed over.
However, as soon as she approached the area of the cocoon of light, she was pushed away by a gentle yet irresistible force.
As if sensing her presence and call, Ji Fuguang, inside the cocoon of light, trembled his eyelashes and opened his eyes with difficulty.
When he saw Sheng Zhiyi standing outside the cocoon of light, returning again, a fleeting, undisguised look of astonishment and a faint glimmer of light flashed in his deep eyes, but that glimmer was quickly replaced by a surging fierceness.
"Get out!" he growled hoarsely, his voice distorted with pain, yet filled with utter coldness and malice. "Sheng Zhiyi, what are you doing back here? To see how wretched I am, how I'm being slowly worn down by the power of the gods?!"
Sheng Zhiyi was taken aback by his sudden harsh words.
Seeing this, Ji Fuguang's narrow eyes grew even colder. "Get out! I don't want to see you!"
His already pale skin now looked even more bloodless, only the light in his eyes was as sharp as a knife.
“Is this funny, Ji Fuguang?” Sheng Zhiyi looked at him calmly, as if she hadn’t heard his harsh words at all. “You know you can’t fool me like this, it will only make you feel worse.”
Ji Fuguang glanced at the chains binding him and pursed his lips.
Because he had forced himself to speak, the golden light of the chains intensified, and the demonic energy dissipated even faster.
Sheng Zhiyi shook her head, a hint of helplessness in her expression: "You still like to make decisions on your own like this."
She stretched out her fingers, recounting the past events: "Forcibly destroying the system and leaving me behind, forcibly taking me to the Demon Palace, forcibly punishing me and then forcibly being kind to me, forcibly sending me to other dimensions..."
She raised her head, looked into Ji Fuguang's eyes, and said softly, "Now you're forcing me to leave again."
Ji Fuguang is just like that.
When you keep your distance from him, you can see his impeccable manners, which he has learned through experience. He is adept at dealing with people and his skills are smooth and sophisticated. In less than a century, he has managed to keep the entire Tianyan Sect completely under his control, and everyone admires and respects him.
But the closer you get to him, the more important he is to you, the more you can see his clumsy and inept side.
Because they have never experienced intimate relationships, they are at a loss and helpless, and can only treat those around them with the violence and control they witnessed in their earliest years.
The world has never provided him with the right examples, yet it criticizes him for doing things wrong.
“I saw it all… your past, everything about you…” Sheng Zhiyi stood there, looked up at Ji Fuguang.
Ji Fuguang's body trembled violently, a hint of panic flashing in his eyes, but it was quickly covered by a deeper sinister look: "So what if you see? Pity me? Or do you think that I, this demon who killed my parents and master, actually have a pitiful side? Put away your useless sympathy and go back to your cultivation world!"
“You think I’m showing you pity… then so be it!” Sheng Zhiyi stopped arguing and instead took a step forward, trying to find a weak point in the formation. Her expression was relaxed, even with a hint of a smile. “You used to always force me to advance and retreat. Now I’m going to forcefully save you.”
"Save me?" Ji Fuguang sneered, black blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "This is my destiny. Gods and demons are locked in a life-or-death struggle! Sheng Zhiyi, our paths were never meant to be crossed, so stop being so sentimental! Go now, or once I break free, the first one..."
"Okay, then let's wait until I rescue you. Good luck." Sheng Zhiyi completely ignored his words, nodded casually, and reached out her hand, trying to force out a trace of divine power from the sword spirit deep in her dantian.
Ji Fuguang shut his mouth, watching Sheng Zhiyi's actions with anger and helplessness, but a glimmer of light ignited in his eyes from an angle she couldn't see.
Just then—
"Buzz!"
Sheng Zhiyi's dantian suddenly felt hot, and the sword spirit that had been dormant for so long burst out with unprecedented light and excitement.
The golden light in the temple shone even brighter, as if something had been fully awakened. The golden light poured down from the dome, which was carved with magnificent runes, and became a beam that poured straight into Sheng Zhiyi's spiritual aperture.
In an instant, it was as if she had completely broken the seal deep within her soul. Divine power surged from her limbs and bones, completely filling her meridians. She felt completely filled, with so much divine power that it was almost overflowing.
From within the dome, a cold, majestic, and emotionless voice rang out, its echo reverberating throughout the temple:
"Goddess, your mission is not to save him, but... to slay the demon."
Sheng Zhiyi was struck dumb, her movements instantly freezing.
The voice continued, with an ancient indifference: "This is a divine secret that the gods have painstakingly divined. Demon Lord Ji Fuguang is the source of chaos and the initiator of the great calamity of heaven and earth. His very existence is a curse. Only by using the blood of the divine descendants and inheriting the will of the sword spirit to completely annihilate him can the catastrophe be averted."
"This mission has been imprinted on your soul since the day you were born into the divine race. It is also the curse you bear—love brings calamity, and a soft heart leads to the extinction of your race."
"Kill him, that's your innate...destiny."
"A hundred years of reincarnation, yet forever unchanged."
Sheng Zhiyi's face turned deathly pale. She staggered backward, staring incredulously at the dazzling yet icy divine light within her dantian.
So this is where the root of the so-called system tasks lies.
It turns out that she crossed space to come to his side not for a reunion, but to... carry out this final, cruel divine decree.
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