Chapter 1545: The Great Heavenly Venerate's Past
Chapter 1545: The Great Heavenly Venerate's Past
"Before the Xuantian King burst onto the scene, the families established by the first-generation bloodline were among the most powerful in the Xuanhuang Realm."
"They rivaled even the most ancient sects. It was widely believed that their strength came not only from their True Immortal bloodline but also from the immortal treasures they supposedly stole when they fled from their ancestor's side."
The voice of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate was truly captivating.
It flowed like a clear mountain spring, as gentle as a soft breeze, seeping into the soul with a comforting warmth.
"From the sound of it, I imagine things didn't end well for the descendants of that first Great Heavenly Venerate."
"You are as perceptive as ever, Senior. When the Xuantian King returned from the Immortal World and swept across the Xuanhuang Realm with his twelve Law Kings, it was that very family of the first-generation bloodline who led the resistance. They intended to assume the title of alliance leader and rebuild their ancestor's great enterprise. To be fair, they possessed considerable power to rally the various factions, and at the outset, they caused the Xuantian King no small amount of trouble."
"However," she continued, "that was only because of the Xuantian King's misplaced compassion. Once he finally resolved himself, no one in the world could stand against him." The Great Heavenly Venerate seemed to harbor a unique sentiment for the Xuantian King; a slight tremor entered her voice as she spoke his name.
Li Fan's sharp senses detected that it wasn't mere admiration in her tone, but also a subtle undercurrent of resentment.
"To preserve the purity of their True Immortal bloodline, they permitted only unions between close relatives. They secretly rounded up exceptionally talented children, using forbidden arts to steal their gifts. They enslaved and controlled other cultivators with restrictive spells, forcing them to serve to the death. They even conducted regular mass sacrifices of living beings to stabilize their own bloodline... Their crimes were too numerous to list, each one more appalling than the last."
"In his fury, the Xuantian King reformed and suppressed every last member of that family..." the Great Heavenly Venerate recounted, her voice steady.
Unexpectedly, Li Fan raised a hand, cutting her off. "Enough digressions. Let's get back to the first Great Heavenly Venerate. If I'm not mistaken, his descent into mortality wasn't achieved by ordinary means. He preserved his immortal body, leaving himself an escape route. Correct? Should the opportunity arise, he could use that body to ascend from mortal to immortal once more."
"Truly worthy of someone entrusted with a great mission by the Immortal World—to move between the mortal and immortal realms with such ease, advancing or retreating at will."
"And that's why you painted such a worthless picture of him—to make me dismiss him entirely and thus conceal the existence of his immortal body..."
Li Fan's gaze grew cold.
Despite being exposed, the Great Heavenly Venerate showed no trace of panic. She simply met Li Fan's gaze with a placid expression, her silence a silent response.
Li Fan remained unfazed. "I could tell you were stalling for time. Looking for a way to escape my restraints..."
Li Fan's eyes flickered toward the horizon.
For the first time, the Great Heavenly Venerate's expression shifted.
Li Fan continued, "And why do you think I indulged you for so long? I was waiting for something, too."
The moment was right. Li Fan didn't hesitate.
The suppressed power of the Ink Death immortal soul erupted forth, engulfing the Great Heavenly Venerate in an instant.
The look of astonishment was frozen on her face as, in the next second, she became like a petrified statue.
All signs of life vanished.
Li Fan had not killed her. He had preserved a sliver of life within her body and soul.
He had simply used a powerful sealing technique, freezing her in time.
"Asking questions, word by word? How could that be as convenient as seeing it for myself?" Li Fan mused, shaking his head slightly.
He never made the mistake of blindly trusting a woman's words.
He had treated the Great Heavenly Venerate's entire tale as mere amusement.
To find out the truth, Li Fan would have to see for himself.
The only reason he hadn't acted sooner was her position as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.
The Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate was intrinsically linked to the stability of the Xuanhuang Realm. To recklessly injure or kill her could plunge the entire realm into chaos.
And chaos in the Xuanhuang Realm was the last thing Li Fan wanted.
After all, every one of his anchor points in this timeline was rooted here. Why would he destroy his own foundation?
Therefore, in the brief window where he had severed her connection to the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan used the might of a True Immortal to temporarily assume the authority of an acting Great Heavenly Venerate.
This ensured that removing her from her position would cause no harm to the Xuanhuang Realm. Only then did he make his move.
Li Fan had not forgotten the hostility she and the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao had shown him when he first arrived in this era.
"Now, let me see for myself."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. The Great Heavenly Venerate was an open book before him, and he began to turn the pages of her life, savoring every detail.
While Li Fan perused her memories, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao reacted to the Great Heavenly Venerate's sudden disconnection and Li Fan's usurpation of her role with instinctual caution and curiosity.
It was a response laced with confusion and questions.
Dark clouds gathered in the sky above.
A wave of consciousness, utterly immense compared to that of any ordinary cultivator, descended upon the mountaintop where Li Fan stood.
It felt as if heaven and earth had been inverted, the weight of the entire Xuanhuang Realm pressing down upon him.
Yet Li Fan merely snorted and stomped his foot.
In the next instant, the inverted world snapped back into place.
His spiritual sense surged skyward, instantly suppressing the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, which had dared to manifest its consciousness before him.
The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao of this era had not yet endured the great calamities to come, nor had it been eroded by other cultivation worlds. Its disposition was not yet so erratic.
Li Fan could bring even the twisted Heavenly Dao of the future to heel; dealing with its current, tamer version was child's play.
The oppressive might of a True Immortal, the nourishing vitality of immortal spiritual qi, the demonstration of the Ink Death immortal soul's all-devouring power...
After a combination of threats and incentives, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao promptly retreated, falling completely silent.
Only then did Li Fan return to examining the "book" before him.
The Great Heavenly Venerate was sealed, immobile as a pillar, her past memories frozen like pages in a book.
Though they were but countless frozen moments in time, they did not stop Li Fan from delving into her past.
The Great Heavenly Venerate's name was Yi Yutong. She was originally a common mortal in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Her family lived under the protection of the Xuantian Sect, and so they worshipped a faceless statue of the Xuantian God in their home. Although the sect later ordered all such statues to be collected and the worship to cease, Yi Yutong's parents, out of simple mortal gratitude, kept the statue hidden and continued to pray to it secretly day and night.
For a time, nothing happened. The Xuantian Sect's decree seemed to be a mere formality, as they never conducted any serious searches.
But one day, Yi Yutong awoke to a horrifying discovery: her parents had both died in their sleep.
The cause of their death was that their faces, like that of the Xuantian statue, had vanished. Without their features, they could not breathe and had suffocated in their sleep.
Fortunately, the bizarre transformation had occurred while they slept, so they had passed away peacefully, without pain.
Under the rule of the Xuantian Sect, the lives of mortals were valued.
The sudden death of a couple, especially one linked to a Xuantian statue, immediately caused a sensation.
People gossiped, confused and bewildered.
Why would worshipping the benevolent and compassionate Xuantian God bring about such a disaster?
The Xuantian Sect quickly sent people to quell the disturbance, explaining that the family had violated the Xuantian Edict by worshipping maliciously and had thus suffered a backlash.
Yi Yutong was brought before the Xuantian King.
To this day, Yi Yutong still remembered the look of sheer delight on the Xuantian King's face when he first saw her.
He took her into the sect and raised her.
It was only much later that Yi Yutong understood the reason for his delight.
He had found a worthy successor.
As a child, Yi Yutong had prayed alongside her parents before the faceless statue every day, yet she had remained completely unaffected.
According to the Xuantian King and her own speculation, she must have been subtly influenced by the faceless statue while still in the womb.
Not only did it not harm her, but she had been born safely, developing a natural affinity for the statue's power.
It was this unique inborn constitution that had saved her life during the later disaster, which in turn caught the Xuantian King's eye.
But being "noticed" didn't mean she received special treatment.
Perhaps it was to prevent others from discovering her peculiarity. In any case, Yi Yutong spent her early life growing up with the countless other orphans raised by the Xuantian Sect.
Aside from the Xuantian King's occasional secret visits to teach her cultivation techniques and check on her physical condition, her life was no different from that of the other orphans.
And so, Yi Yutong slowly grew into a young woman.
For some reason, her cultivation progressed far more slowly than her peers. Even though her innate talent was ten, even a hundred times greater than others, it was as if an invisible hand was constantly holding her down.
Her progress could only advance according to a predetermined schedule.
The mockery of her peers and the pressure from within the sect made Yi Yutong break down and cry countless times.
During her rare moments alone with the Xuantian King, she couldn't help but question him.
He only ever said, "Through slowness, one finds life. Through life, one finds victory. And victory is eternal life." The words were difficult for her to comprehend.
Her heart was filled with grievances.
But somehow, she endured it all.
At the age of twenty-nine, she finally achieved the Golden Core stage, officially stepping onto the path of a cultivator.
Though her progress had been slow, she could finally serve the sect.
Unfortunately, what came later...
One day, the sect was thrown into chaos.
Countless terrifyingly powerful auras invaded their grounds.
The Xuantian Sect, always so heavily guarded, found itself unable to mount a proper counterattack.
As a mere Golden Core cultivator, she could only go with the flow, fleeing for her life with the panicked crowds.
In the confusion, she thought she heard the Xuantian King's voice.
But the scene was too chaotic; she couldn't be sure if it was real or an illusion.
Outside the sect's grounds was a bloodbath, a slaughter orchestrated by countless cultivators. These sects, which had always seemed so loyal to the Xuantian Sect, now killed its disciples without a shred of mercy.
Fortunately, Yi Yutong was only a Golden Core cultivator and not an important figure within the sect.
Suffering grievous injuries, she managed a lucky escape.
Her wounds were too severe, and she soon lost consciousness.
During that time, she seemed to have a very long dream.
When she awoke...
She had, for some unknown reason, become the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.
In addition to the memories of past Heavenly Venerates and their records of the Xuanhuang Realm, there was also a final message from the Xuantian King.
It was, for the most part, his contingency plan.
If anything were to happen to him, the measures he had placed on Yi Yutong would activate.
She would automatically succeed him as the Great Heavenly Venerate.
Becoming the Great Heavenly Venerate was supposed to require passing a specific set of trials. But according to the Xuantian King, she had already passed them when she was very young, shortly after joining the sect.
She had been a candidate for the position ever since.
Of this, Yi Yutong had no memory at all.
She had been a mere Golden Core cultivator, yet she awoke to inherit the power of the Great Heavenly Venerate.
The ability to suppress Dao Integration cultivators with a mere flick of her wrist sent shivers down her spine.
The first thought that entered her mind was to seek revenge against the treacherous and shameless traitors of the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
But at that moment, a warning from her new position as Great Heavenly Venerate surfaced in her mind.
Once one becomes the Great Heavenly Venerate, one cannot kill the innocent out of personal grudges.
In other words, though she now wielded immense power, she could not even take revenge.
She couldn't even renounce the responsibility.
The brutal images of her companions, who had grown up alongside her, being slaughtered by the Ten Great Immortal Sects were still vivid in her mind.
To let go of that hatred, and even be forced to help and coordinate with the very sects that had replaced the Xuantian Sect to maintain the peace of the Xuanhuang Realm...
How could she possibly accept that?
She tried to fight against the restrictions placed upon her as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.
But faced with the punishment of a heart-fire that would burn her to ashes if she defied the rules, Yi Yutong was afraid.
She could not bring herself to ignore her own life for the sake of revenge.
This made her feel an immense sense of shame.
Every day as the Great Heavenly Venerate was an agony for Yi Yutong, a torment akin to hell.
Faced with the fawning requests for an audience from her detestable enemies, Yi Yutong could only refuse.
Out of sight, out of mind.
While managing the affairs to maintain the stability of the Xuanhuang Realm, Yi Yutong secretly searched for news of the Xuantian King.
She desperately wanted to return the title of Great Heavenly Venerate to him.
And then, she would openly seek her revenge on the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
But she traveled across the entire Xuanhuang Realm and found no trace of Xuanyuan Hong.
It seemed he had fallen in that turmoil.
However, a deep intuition told her that the Xuantian King was still alive.
So, all these years, Yi Yutong never gave up hope of finding him.
But...
She had once thought she would carry her hatred for the Ten Great Immortal Sects forever.
But time, in the end, has the power to heal all wounds.
Fifty years, a hundred years.
Eight hundred years, three thousand years.
As the long, slow years passed, the faces of her former companions blurred in her memory.
And the chief culprits of that turmoil, she didn't even need to act against them.
Most had already died of old age.
It was only then that Yi Yutong began to understand the words the Xuantian King had spoken to her so long ago.
"Through slowness, one finds life. Through life, one finds victory. And victory is eternal life."
Her desire for revenge slowly faded.
But the position of Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate was one Yi Yutong still yearned to be free of.
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