Chapter 1623: Aunt Encounters the Heavenly Doctor
Chapter 1623: Aunt Encounters the Heavenly Doctor
"With your talent, I can rest assured leaving it in your hands." Despite its words, the Immeasurable Wall's large eyeball still seemed somewhat reluctant.
Slowly and sluggishly, it finally revealed the 'Seize' character technique.
Seeing the Immeasurable Wall's reaction, Bai Shuyue found it odd. It hadn't even concealed a treasure as significant as the Dao Palace Sacred Plaque, so there was surely no reason to be secretive about a mere True Immortal Seal Character.
It wasn't until Bai Shuyue had fully comprehended the 'Seize' technique that she understood why.
With strokes as fluid as a dragon in flight, a shimmering golden True Immortal Seal Character materialized in the air in an instant.
The Immeasurable Wall's eye flickered; long before the 'Seize' character had even appeared, it had already retreated to a safe distance.
"Lady Bai! We agreed you would use the 'Seize' technique on that yellow-haired brat. Why are you aiming it at me now?"
Bai Shuyue didn't answer, merely waving her other hand with swift precision.
Like twin suns blazing in unison, they illuminated the heavens.
A look of panic filled the Immeasurable Wall's eye, and it retreated even farther.
"The characters for 'Detain' and 'Seize' are both unique seal characters of the Immortal Court, special tools it once used to suppress other immortals. When used in concert, they are like an army of celestial soldiers and generals arrayed for battle, their combined power several times greater than either character used alone."
"By unleashing these two characters, not only could I suppress and imprison the Immeasurable Wall, but I could also plunder its private hoard. The Dao Palace Sacred Plaque..."
For a fleeting moment, Bai Shuyue was genuinely tempted. But then, memories of her time spent with the Immeasurable Wall over the past several lives surfaced in her mind, one after another. In the end, she stayed her hand.
*Humans aren't made of stone,* she thought. *It has been my benefactor in this life, after all. I cannot repay its kindness with betrayal. I will wait for the next life. We can start over, with no ties between us and no debts owed. It won't be too late to act then.*
With that thought, the 'Detain' and 'Seize' characters wavered gently in the air before dissipating without a trace.
Bai Shuyue looked at the Immeasurable Wall, still cowering in the distance, and chuckled. "I was just getting a feel for my new abilities. Why so tense? We're companions who have faced life and death together. How could I ever harm you!"
The Immeasurable Wall watched her for a long moment, and only when it was certain that Bai Shuyue truly had no intention of attacking did it finally relax.
It put on a smug look. "That was merely a test. Since I dared to teach you these two characters, it stands to reason I have a way to counter them. If you had actually tried something, well... hmph."
Whether it was bluffing or not, Bai Shuyue silently committed its words to memory.
"Now that your abilities are perfected, it's time to find that brat and get our revenge! Making us suffer like that—it's outrageous!" the Immeasurable Wall exclaimed, buzzing with excitement. In its view, being humiliated by a mere mortal was utterly unacceptable. This stain on its honor had to be cleansed, or it would be a disgrace to its very origins at the Sage Lord's gate.
Bai Shuyue, however, was perfectly calm. "There's no need to go looking for him. We simply need to wait here. He'll come to us."
Bai Shuyue's premonition proved correct.
Ou Shangtian seemed to possess some special tracking technique, allowing him to pinpoint her and the Immeasurable Wall's location with ease, even from a great distance.
They had been lying in ambush for less than three days when they sensed Ou Shangtian's aura appear faintly on the horizon, rapidly drawing closer.
Strangely, however, just as Ou Shangtian was about to enter the kill zone, he stopped without any warning.
After a brief pause, he turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.
"Such sharp intuition!" Bai Shuyue exclaimed in astonishment. Hesitating no longer, she unleashed both True Immortal Seal Characters.
Countless golden chains and a colossal, pale hand materialized abruptly in the sky.
They converged, sealing Ou Shangtian within their grasp.
"Reverse Heaven and Earth!"
An enraged roar echoed as he tried to shatter the power of the seal characters. But under the influence of the 'Seize' technique, the light from the immortal bone within Ou Shangtian's body rapidly receded. In an instant, his extraordinary power vanished as if it had never existed. Empowered one moment, stripped of his advantage the next, Ou Shangtian became utterly ordinary.
As if plummeting from the heavens, stripped of the power granted by the two immortal artifacts, Ou Shangtian was easily suppressed and captured by Bai Shuyue. There was no suspense.
"Excellent! Let's see you chase us now, you little brat!"
The Immeasurable Wall, which had vanished during the fight, now reappeared, smugly brandishing dozens of tentacles. It shook the tightly bound Ou Shangtian back and forth.
"In a moment, I'm going to slowly carve that immortal bone out of you, inch by inch!" it hissed, its single eye pressing close to Ou Shangtian's cheek.
"Kill me or cut me to pieces, do whatever you want! Don't think for a second I'm afraid of you two villains!" Ou Shangtian retorted, utterly fearless as he cursed them.
Enraged, the Immeasurable Wall plunged five of its tentacles into Ou Shangtian's body and began to churn them violently.
The pain was so intense that Ou Shangtian nearly went into convulsions, but he clenched his jaw and endured it, refusing to make even the slightest sound, let alone cry out or beg for mercy.
This display of unyielding defiance only enraged the Immeasurable Wall further. It resorted to even crueler methods, determined to break the mortal boy's will.
In contrast, Bai Shuyue watched Ou Shangtian's defiance with a slight frown, a sense of unease stirring within her.
*Villains...?* she thought. *I never imagined someone would one day use that word to describe me.*
*Come to think of it, we were in the wrong first. We killed his father by mistake. Seeking revenge for one's parent is only natural. And this boy... even under such cruel torture, his will remains unbroken.*
*Yes, he's a good child, much like Li Fan.*
*Perhaps I should just give him a swift end.*
At this thought, Bai Shuyue interrupted the Immeasurable Wall's torment.
At her command, a tentacle instantly drained Ou Shangtian of his life force. After retrieving the two immortal artifacts from his body, Bai Shuyue prepared to depart.
She intended to find a safe place to study her recent gains.
However, she had not flown far before a powerful sense of unease washed over her.
She scanned her surroundings, alarmed and suspicious, but could find no source for her anxiety.
Yet, judging by the Immeasurable Wall's reaction, it was clearly not her imagination.
"Run! I think something is watching us!"
Bai Shuyue's expression turned grim as she fled with all her might. Yet the feeling of unease didn't diminish—it intensified.
Finally, nine golden needles descended from the heavens, arriving in an instant.
They surrounded Bai Shuyue, sealing off every possible escape route.
After a moment of shock, Bai Shuyue recovered and prepared to unleash the True Immortal Seal Characters once more.
But unexpectedly...
A pale hand appeared silently above her head.
It held a long golden needle, which it gently pressed into the crown of her head.
The golden needle slid into her flesh, piercing through her skull.
Her entire body seemed to freeze, the expression on her face locked in a mixture of shock and panic.
It was not just her body that was immobilized; even her thoughts were frozen solid.
The Immeasurable Wall, forgetting all camaraderie, let out a bizarre shriek and tried to flee.
But a soft snort cut its escape short.
Two fingers gently pinched the tile-like object.
The Immeasurable Wall trembled and struggled, and a blurry image of the Dao Palace Sacred Plaque flickered across its jade-like surface.
"Oh?"
A voice filled with both surprise and delight sounded out, and the Heavenly Doctor slowly materialized.
He quickly tapped his fingers across the surface of the Immeasurable Wall.
The image of the Dao Palace Sacred Plaque, which had been on the verge of breaking free, trembled slightly before sinking back into stillness. The Immeasurable Wall itself, much like Bai Shuyue, seemed to fall into a deep slumber.
The Heavenly Doctor gazed thoughtfully at the sealed woman and the artifact before him.
Not long ago, he had been searching for suitable world fragments near the Realm Fragment Great Wall, far below the High Wall. He never expected to suddenly sense the faint fluctuations of a True Immortal Seal Character emanating from the Xuanhuang Realm.
Although it wasn't the same character that had caused the catastrophe in the Tianfa Realm years ago, the Heavenly Doctor still decided he had to return and investigate.
The Xuanhuang Realm was too important; no mishaps could be permitted.
And when he sensed a second True Immortal Seal Character manifest shortly after, he quickened his pace back to the realm.
"The Xuanhuang Realm has been peaceful for a long time. For two True Immortal Seal Characters to manifest in such a short period... what could have happened?"
The Heavenly Doctor was filled with alarm and uncertainty.
By the time he arrived near the Xuanhuang Realm, the two True Immortal Seal Characters flared up once more.
The Heavenly Doctor followed the trail of power and locked onto the source of the characters.
"This jade artifact seems to be from the Immortal Realm. And that plaque that just appeared on its surface..."
"The Great Change Palace?"
The Heavenly Doctor's expression grew grave.
Although the Immeasurable Wall was clearly of extraordinary origin, the Heavenly Doctor fixed his attention on Bai Shuyue.
"In the final moment before she was sealed, this woman's thoughts were... odd."
"On the surface, she was shocked and terrified. But deep down, she was..."
The Heavenly Doctor frowned, circling the immobilized Bai Shuyue a few times, observing her closely.
"Completely unafraid?"
"Does she have some ace up her sleeve?"
The more he observed, the more certain he became of his intuition.
A series of golden needles of various lengths appeared, and the Heavenly Doctor prepared to conduct a more thorough examination of Bai Shuyue.
"If the Heavenly Demon were still here, this wouldn't be so troublesome. A pity his power is needed to suppress the Dharma Spreader."
With this thought, the Heavenly Doctor took a needle, preparing to insert it between Bai Shuyue's eyebrows.
Just as the needle was about to pierce her skin...
A crisp snap of fingers quietly echoed through the world.
The Heavenly Doctor's movements instantly stopped.
The expression on his face, just like Bai Shuyue's, was frozen in place.
In fact, it wasn't just the Heavenly Doctor.
The entire Xuanhuang Realm had fallen into a state of absolute stillness at the sound of that soft snap.
Li Fan's figure appeared on the scene.
He surveyed the frozen scene and shook his head slightly. "Good thing I was so cautious back then. Otherwise, this would have been a dead end."
"But it doesn't matter. Aunt, I'm here to help you!"
Li Fan took hold of the Heavenly Doctor's hand and forced the un-inserted needle viciously into its target.
In that instant, he cemented the scene, completing the terrifying tableau.
And then...
"Return to Truth!"
Project Sanctification, Twenty-Eighth Life!
Bai Shuyue awoke with a start, wrenched from a nightmare from which she could not recover for a long, long time.
The shock she felt this time was even more profound than what she had experienced during her first "rebirth."
She subconsciously touched the top of her head, where the phantom pain had yet to fade.
After the golden needle had pierced her, her consciousness had been frozen. She didn't know exactly how she had died.
But vague, terrifying images still lingered in her mind.
Being treated like an object, her entire body riddled with golden needles.
And later, being dismembered into countless pieces...
Even as blurry, residual memories from a past life, recalling them now made Bai Shuyue's face turn deathly pale.
"Retch..."
She instinctively doubled over, vomiting uncontrollably.
Her body trembled violently, refusing to stop.
Several months passed, and still, she had not recovered.
In the end, although Bai Shuyue had accumulated over twenty lifetimes of spirituality and become supremely talented...
...her life experience had not kept pace with her innate gifts.
A normal death was one thing, but after her encounter with the Heavenly Doctor and the inhuman torment that followed in her last life...
Bai Shuyue was afraid.
She was unwilling, too scared, and had no desire to ever venture into the Xuanhuang Realm again.
"The Xuanhuang Realm... it's simply too dangerous, too horrifying."
"It might be better to just live an honest life as a mortal emperor in the Great Xuan."
Once this thought took root, it spread like wildfire, impossible to extinguish.
Bai Shuyue didn't even dare to speculate on the true identity of the figure who had appeared at the very end of her previous life.
She buried her head in the sand, choosing to escape.
His aunt's reaction was, of course, entirely within Li Fan's expectations.
After all, he was the one who had personally implanted those images in her mind.
"This is her inner demon."
"As long as she overcomes this, the sky will be the limit, and nothing will hold her back. No matter what dangers she faces in the future, she will never again feel discouraged or fall into despair. She will always press bravely forward."
"But if she can't..."
"Heh, with my help, how could she possibly fail?"
To help Bai Shuyue break free from her inner demon, it was time for Li Fan to take the stage.
During the months Bai Shuyue lay bedridden with terror, Li Fan, acting completely out of character, tended to her tirelessly and without complaint.
Slowly, the color returned to Bai Shuyue's cheeks.
But Li Fan, from overexertion, grew thinner by the day.
Still, he forced a smile, not wanting to worry her.
Until...
"Aunt, lunch is ready. I learned a new dish—bean rice and vegetable soup. Come and try it." Li Fan entered Bai Shuyue's room carrying a wooden tray laden with food.
Bai Shuyue looked up at him, her heart aching at the sight, and was just about to speak.
But she watched as Li Fan, his steps unsteady, lost his balance and collapsed.
The porcelain bowls shattered, the sound striking Bai Shuyue's heart like a clap of thunder.
"Li Fan!"
The roles were reversed. Now, it was Li Fan who was bedridden.
"This is an illness brought on by exhaustion. The vital decay has set in early." Bai Shuyue, now a master of medicine, diagnosed the cause of Li Fan's collapse at a glance.
A pang of guilt shot through her. "If I hadn't been cowering in fear, shutting out the world... Li Fan wouldn't have ended up like this. He's only twenty years old!"
She stayed by Li Fan's side through the final chapter of his life. Six months later, Bai Shuyue stood before his grave, her expression etched with sorrow.
It had been a long time since she had tasted the bitterness of an elder burying the young.
But through this experience, Bai Shuyue finally understood that even after more than twenty cycles of rebirth, the bond of family that had seemed to weaken had, in truth, not diminished in the slightest.
Li Fan would always be the nephew who was like her own flesh and blood.
And she was still the only family Li Fan had in this world to rely on.
"Li Fan, it's alright."
"Aunt is coming to find you now."
Before Li Fan's grave, Bai Shuyue took her own life.
Thus began the twenty-ninth life of Project Sanctification.
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