Chapter 1238: The Great Heavenly Venerate's Immortal Body
Wind and thunder churned within the purple-gold vortex.
At the very bottom of the funnel-like vortex of energy cowered the panicked figure of the Xuanhuang Malevolence.
Countless faces, images of countless lives, flickered through the stormy vortex. They swirled like a hurricane, tearing at the Xuanhuang Malevolence.
As a result, its body twisted and blurred, its form growing indistinct.
"I am the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang! I am the father and mother of all you cultivators! How dare you treat me this way!"
"Again! And again! You humans... you all deserve to die!"
The Xuanhuang Malevolence roared.
Refusing to await its doom, the entity that once resembled Mr. Bai finally revealed its true face.
Each expression was different, yet none displayed a single positive emotion. Only madness, hatred, despair, and cruelty...
Every dark and twisted facet of mortal existence was on full display.
A tangible, black miasma erupted from its body, surging skyward to clash head-on with the swirling, thunderous power of the purple-gold vortex.
The soundless collision actually managed to halt Li Ping's Heaven and Earth Millstone for a fleeting moment.
Li Ping noticed that roughly a third of the entity's faces had swiveled in unison to fixate on him.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"
A shrill torrent of curses erupted, washing over them.
Xu Ke and the other two guardians protecting the array for Li Ping all frowned.
The force of the malevolent will was so great that it struck Saint Emperor Li Ping's blank face, causing the faint, blurry outlines of facial features to emerge.
Countless tentacles, covered in bluish-purple nodules, shot out from the monstrous shell, whipping about wildly as they tried to break free from the restraints of the Myriad Spirits Grand Array.
But this was a peerless grand array, the pinnacle of the Dissociation Disc's deductive power. How could it be broken so easily?
After a momentary pause, the purple-gold vortex resumed its slow, inexorable rotation.
The howling of wind and thunder grew even more intense.
Waves of human prayers now echoed from within, their resonance forming a unique rhythm that forcefully suppressed the Xuanhuang Malevolence's heaven-shaking roars.
"Ultimately, evil can never triumph over good."
"Look at the state of you. Are you even worthy of the title 'Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang'?!"
Li Ping's calm voice, tinged with mockery, cut through the cacophony of the clashing array and reached the Xuanhuang Malevolence's ears with perfect clarity.
"Damn you! And whose fault is that?!"
After a stunned moment, it flew into an absolute rage.
Clearly, even the Xuanhuang Malevolence itself could not accept that it had been reduced to such a pathetic state.
The body being crushed by the Heaven and Earth Millstone showed signs of rallying, a new surge of resistance building within it.
Li Ping, however, merely nodded, continuing to provoke the Xuanhuang Malevolence with his words while focusing his concentration on controlling the Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits Grand Array.
He drew the fragments stripped from the Xuanhuang Malevolence through the vortex, absorbing them into his own body.
A steady trickle of negative emotions flowed into Li Ping's consciousness.
The three guardians, seeing this, could not help but grow tense.
Being inside the array, they could feel the terrifying power of the Myriad Spirits Grand Array with absolute clarity.
Even after being sealed for millennia, this being was still a part of the world's Heavenly Dao. Yet before this array, it was utterly powerless to resist.
It rendered all their preparations useless. All they could do was watch as Saint Emperor Li Ping took center stage.
The more terrifying the array, the more their unease grew.
If the Saint Emperor were to be influenced by the malevolence and lose control...
The result would be a catastrophe far more terrible than the Xuanhuang Malevolence's escape.
Even with their immense confidence in the Saint Emperor's power, they couldn't help but feel a knot of tension.
After all, they were still inside the formation at this moment.
"Do not worry. I am fine," Li Ping's calm voice transmitted to them, as if sensing their wavering emotions.
His own willpower was formidable enough, but with the added protection of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra, it was impossible for the malevolence to corrupt his character. Moreover, he wasn't attempting to devour it in one violent gulp. Instead, he was using the Heaven and Earth Millstone to grind it down piece by piece, absorbing it gradually to minimize any side effects.
"Furthermore, the will of the hundreds of millions of citizens of the Great Qi is anchored to me."
"The collective will of countless beings can forge a divine spirit. This entity is merely a fragment of the original Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang. How could it possibly affect me?"
Li Ping's mind was a sea of tranquility.
His greatest challenge wasn't dealing with the 'malevolence' itself, but rather digesting the chaotic jumble of fragmented memories contained within it.
Most of them had been warped and blurred by millennia of despair...
...but these fragments were buried deep within its consciousness. Now, as its body was dismantled, they flooded into Li Ping's mind.
A torrent of fragmented scenes flashed through Li Ping's mind.
The details in most were impossible to discern.
But one particular memory surfaced again and again.
Clearly, this was a memory etched deep into the Xuanhuang Malevolence's being, one that had replayed itself countless times during its long years of imprisonment.
In the endless dark void.
A figure, speeding through the void, came to a sudden halt.
"Why have you stopped?"
...a voice from the memory asked.
Its original tone held a hint of relief, even joy.
But now, it was laced with confusion.
The white-robed figure, Mr. Bai, turned to gaze back into the distance.
His expression was a complex, shifting tapestry of emotions.
"What is it?"
In the dead silence that followed, the voice from the memory grew tinged with impatience.
"I cannot leave."
Finally, after taking a deep breath, Mr. Bai spoke slowly.
"Why not?"
"The calamity is already upon us. The tide cannot be turned. It's irreversible. Rather than stay there, we should head for the High Wall and take our chances. It's our only hope of survival." The voice from the memory was first stunned, filled with incomprehension, then grew urgent as it tried to dissuade him.
"With the protection of the first Great Heavenly Venerate's remains, and by using the explosive power of those immortal artifacts, together we have a very real chance of crossing the High Wall!"
"We've prepared for so long! How can you suddenly change your mind?!"
Even after all this time, Li Ping could feel the raw confusion and anger emanating from this splintered consciousness of the Heavenly Dao.
Mr. Bai, perhaps knowing he was in the wrong, remained silent.
"Say something!"
Only after the Heavenly Dao's outburst finally ceased did Mr. Bai slowly respond.
"That place... is my home."
"Everyone I've ever known, everyone I've ever heard of, the people I love and the people I hate... they've all lived their lives there."
"Now, it faces a calamity. I could just walk away. But what would happen to them?"
Mr. Bai asked quietly.
The Heavenly Dao simply couldn't comprehend Mr. Bai's sentiment. From its perspective, its own survival was paramount.
"As long as I exist, we can find another suitable world. We can give birth to a new Xuanhuang Realm."
"I can even recreate all the people you knew," it explained.
Mr. Bai simply chuckled and shook his head.
Without further hesitation, he turned and headed back toward the Xuanhuang Realm.
Seeing the situation spiraling out of its control, the Heavenly Dao grew increasingly agitated.
It pleaded with him.
But Mr. Bai turned a deaf ear. His mind was made up.
"I know you have treated me well."
"You always said I was his reincarnation."
"But I know that I am my own person."
"Su Bai. An ordinary mortal."
The Heavenly Dao's memory, warped by its mounting rage, grew unstable.
But Mr. Bai's words, though fragmented, remained perfectly clear.
"I never wanted to cultivate or become some immortal."
"I only wanted..."
"...to save the people I care about."
"I'm sorry."
"As for everything you've given me—the Great Heavenly Venerate's immortal body, the immortal artifacts..."
"...even this cultivation base... I will return it all to you."
Mr. Bai's voice was perfectly calm.
...
Boom!
The memory shattered like a bursting bubble.
Having inherited the Xuanhuang Malevolence's power, Li Ping felt its emotions as his own—the raw, searing fury of deceit and betrayal.
"Die! Just die!"
The Xuanhuang Malevolence's voice began to echo in his mind.
Even Li Ping's own aura wavered for a moment.
Within the array, the grotesque entity being crushed by the Heaven and Earth Millstone seemed to sense this change in Li Ping.
It shrieked, "Do you feel it?! Can you understand me now?!"
"This pain of being deceived, then sealed away for thousands of years!"
...
But its desperate plea was cut short by Li Ping's words.
"Right now, I am human."
"And so, the one I empathize with is the very person you despise."
"I believe Mr. Bai did the right thing."
"There are some things you will never understand. So..."
"...you can go in peace."
Li Ping's voice turned ice-cold.
The faint facial features that had emerged from the impact of the memories vanished once more.
An aura of cold, emotionless finality radiated from the faceless Saint Emperor.
Without a shred of hesitation, he accelerated the rotation of the Heaven and Earth Millstone.
Like an unbreakable dam, he held back the torrent of malevolence.
Seeing this, the three guardians breathed a collective sigh of relief.
They had been genuinely afraid that the Saint Emperor would be corrupted.
Especially Yin Shangren.
He joked to Xu Ke, "You know, my fundamental nature isn't all that different from the Xuanhuang Malevolence."
"If he can devour that thing so easily, swallowing me would be child's play."
"I think I'll try to keep my distance from him from now on."
Xu Ke remained silent.
He gazed at the figure in the array, which seemed to be growing ever larger, a sense of uncertainty stirring in his heart.
He wondered if he had done the right thing by handing over the Xuanhuang Malevolence.
The purple-gold vortex continued to spin, the roar of wind and thunder growing ever louder.
Meanwhile, the struggles of the Xuanhuang Malevolence grew fainter and fainter.
It was only a matter of time before it was completely devoured.
As he absorbed and refined the power of the Heavenly Dao, the faceless Saint Emperor's imposing figure grew ever taller.
It was as if he would burst through the very sky of the Great Qi's small world and ascend to another realm.
Li Ping's image appeared across the heavens.
All the hundreds of millions of citizens of the Great Qi could now see the Saint Emperor's visage with perfect clarity.
The fervent spirit of the people reached its zenith.
The nation's condensed fortune instantly broke through the color purple, transforming into a dazzling, brilliant golden light.
Though it seemed destined to last for but a moment before falling back...
...Li Ping sensed it and keenly seized the fleeting opportunity.
With a gentle wave of his hand, he scattered a portion of the Xuanhuang Malevolence's power—absorbed and transformed by the Heaven and Earth Millstone—across the Great Qi's small world.
Countless specks of purple-gold light rained down upon the mortal world like a shower of celestial flowers.
From the perspective of the common people below, this was the rumored boon from the Saint Emperor they had heard about days before.
The purple-gold blossoms seemed to possess a natural, bewitching magic.
The people of the Great Qi, forgetting the Saint Emperor's solemn majesty, all reached out to touch them.
And as the purple-gold flowers entered their bodies, the resulting transformation brought them to their knees, crying out the Saint Emperor's glorious name.
The fortune of the Great Qi, already at its peak, was catalyzed, undergoing another transformation.
This time, amidst the thunderous, unified praise of the Great Qi's countless citizens, the once-unstable golden fortune solidified completely.
The cheers of millions shook the heavens.
The three guardians above were momentarily stunned by the spectacle.
"So this is the legendary 'one person attains the Dao, and even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven,' isn't it?" Yin Shangren mused.
Xu Ke found himself staring at the Saint Emperor's unmoving form, and for some reason, he saw a fleeting image of Mr. Bai.
"Perhaps I didn't make a mistake after all," Xu Ke thought.
Yi Shu of the Taiyan Sect, however, narrowed his eyes, seemingly performing some rapid deduction. A look of astonishment crossed his face.
The Heavenly Emperor Qi Canon had transformed, reaching its final realm and completely stabilizing.
With the balance of power shifted so dramatically, the Xuanhuang Malevolence no longer stood a chance.
"I will be waiting for you."
"You will share my fate in the end."
Before its consciousness faded completely, the Xuanhuang Malevolence offered one last, vicious curse.
Saint Emperor Li Ping ignored it, completely unmoved.
The Heaven and Earth Millstone came crashing down.
An endless stream of power from the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang flowed into his body.
Li Ping felt a shift within himself, as if an invisible shackle had shattered.
"The Longevity stage?"
"Or perhaps, an alternative form of it."
he mused.
...
Meanwhile.
In the space of the Deduction Jade at the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance headquarters.
The feedback from his clone's breakthrough had abruptly ceased the moment the Saint Emperor achieved the power of the Longevity stage.
As a result, it went unnoticed by the others in the space.
The Saint Emperor's breakthrough was something Li Fan had long anticipated.
What truly concerned Li Fan, however, were the memories he had gleaned from the Xuanhuang Malevolence.
"Immortal artifacts?"
"And the immortal body of the first Great Heavenly Venerate?"
Li Fan closed his eyes, concealing the shock within them.
"Mr. Bai's words... *I will return it all to you.* Does that mean those things are still somewhere in the Xuanhuang Realm?"
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