The Shattered Bottle

Daofather Crimsonbright glanced at the immortal wine, the vessels, and the shattered black jade bottle on the table, then looked toward Ji Ning, who stood there woodenly. The look in Ji Ning's eyes made Daofather Crimsonbright shake his head.

“Alas.” He waved his sleeve and strode out.

“Master.”

As soon as Daofather Crimsonbright left Ji Ning's room, he ran into the Xia Emperor.

The Eight Dragons Cloudcity was, after all, the Xia Emperor's treasure. The Xia Emperor was second only to Daofather Crimsonbright in discovering what had happened.

“Master.” The Xia Emperor called out hurriedly.

“A defeat, a defeat.” Daofather Crimsonbright shook his head and sighed. “This Realm War has cost my Crimsonbright Realmverse countless lives. I thought that with the Divine Farmer’s aid, we might win this battle. Who would have imagined that Ji Ning’s Dao-companion, Yu Wei—a disciple of Lü Dongbin—was also a spy planted by the Seamless Gate? It has caused all our efforts to come to nothing!”

“Don’t we still have one more dose of the Divine Farmer’s Medicine?” The Xia Emperor said hurriedly.

“It’s useless.” Daofather Crimsonbright sighed. “Puppets like the Seamless Gate’s Heavenly God Puppets require a full hundred Celestial Immortals to operate. As for a Daofather Puppet, it only needs a single Pure Yang True Immortal, precisely because the Daofather Puppet contains a core formation that can convert the power of ‘Chaos Source Stones’ into chaotic force, granting it limitless strength… This Daofather Puppet has layer upon layer of internal defenses. Even if I were to attack it personally, whether with heartforce attacks or any other method, I couldn’t penetrate it. The Divine Farmer’s Medicine is equally incapable of penetrating a Daofather Puppet.”

“Now that Ji Ning’s dose is lost, we have only one dose left. The Seamless Gate’s Daofather Puppet will surely target it. If that puppet attacks, our side has no way to protect that remaining dose of medicine.”

Daofather Crimsonbright was helpless.

“Couldn’t a single dose of the Divine Farmer’s Medicine be split into two smaller portions?” The Xia Emperor asked.

“What do you take it for? It is a complete medicinal concoction. It cannot be divided. It is precisely because it is complete that it possesses such power.” Daofather Crimsonbright shook his head. “If it could be divided, I would have already split it into dozens or hundreds of portions long ago.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do?” The Xia Emperor’s voice was filled with anxiety and unwillingness.

He truly could not accept it.

His Grand Xia world. The world he had poured boundless effort into. The homeland of his bloodline, the ‘Xiamang clan’. Was it all going to be lost like this?

“There’s nothing to be done.” Daofather Crimsonbright shook his head. “We can only ask the Divine Farmer again and see if he has any other methods. But the Divine Farmer has already done more than enough. Alas… Ji Ning still has the antidote over there. Go and distribute the antidote. First, rescue the Pure Yang True Immortals and Celestial Immortals.”

“Yes.” The Xia Emperor nodded, then quickly added, “Master, please don’t blame Ji Ning. I could see through the door; he’s been completely stunned by the blow… The fact that his Dao-companion was a spy planted by the Seamless Gate is the hardest blow for Ji Ning of all. The woman he loved most was a spy, an enemy. Alas…”

“Of course I don’t blame him. Yu Wei was a spy, but Ji Ning is a warrior on our side.” Daofather Crimsonbright also turned to look through the door at Ji Ning. “I only hope Ji Ning isn’t too deeply hurt. Frostdance was killed by the man she loved most, and while Ji Ning didn’t die, the pain in his heart is probably not much different. Help him out a bit. Don’t let others blame Ji Ning. After all, he has only been cultivating for a short time.”

“Yes.” The Xia Emperor replied respectfully.

…

“What? Yu Wei was a spy?”

“She caused the deaths of so many immortals!”

“Brother Northmont is too pitiful. The woman he loved most turned out to be an enemy spy.”

“This Ji Ning is truly foolish. At such a critical moment, with something as precious as the Divine Farmer’s Medicine, how could he be so careless?”

Soon, the many Empyrean Gods and True Immortals in the Eight Dragons Cloudcity learned of the matter. None of them could accept it. Some were even somewhat angry at Ji Ning. But most felt he was more pitiable.

“It’s best if no one disturbs Ji Ning.” The Xia Emperor also prevented many from visiting him.

Only those with a truly deep friendship with Ji Ning went to see him.

True Immortal Dongyan looked in through the doorway.

“For something like this to happen to him.” True Immortal Dongyan sighed softly. “But from what I know, when a Seamless Gate spy’s identity is usually exposed, at that very moment they are often utterly ruthless, showing no mercy at all. This Yu Wei didn’t even kill Ji Ning…”

“Regardless, Yu Wei is dead.” The Xia Emperor nodded. “Ji Ning will definitely hate the Seamless Gate even more… This Seamless Gate truly stops at nothing. They have no bottom line whatsoever. They deserve to die.”

In the sky above the Grand Xia world.

A figure in a green robe, carrying an immortal sword on his back, gazed from afar at the Eight Dragons Cloudcity. There was grief in his eyes, and he sighed softly: “Foolish child.”

“She kept it hidden all along. I noticed she was hiding something, but I never imagined she was actually a spy of the Seamless Gate. Yet her nature was not evil.” Lü Dongbin’s eyes held sorrow. “At the very least, over all these years, with the trust Ji Ning had in her, she could have killed him long ago. And in the end, when she destroyed that black jade bottle, she didn’t harm Ji Ning at all.”

“Soul scattered and spirit extinguished?”

“She would rather die completely than let her soul return to the Seamless Gate?” Lü Dongbin shook his head.

The Godking of the Seamless Gate was capable of forcibly taking away the souls of those under his control. But Yu Wei had chosen to let her soul scatter and perish.

“The reason she shattered the black jade bottle was probably also to repay a debt of kindness.”

“I’ve long heard that many spies of the Seamless Gate are fanatically devoted to that Godking, willing to die for him. As expected of the Lord of All Demons’ disciple… his ability to manipulate the human heart is indeed remarkable. This foolish child destroyed the black jade bottle to repay the Godking’s kindness, and then killed herself, not wanting to leave Ji Ning with any lingering attachments?” Lü Dongbin had roamed the mortal world and witnessed countless partings and reunions, joys and sorrows. Naturally, he understood Yu Wei’s intentions.

She was simply a foolish girl.

She truly thought the Godking treated her well.

“To the Godking, she was nothing more than a slave soldier.” Lü Dongbin shook his head. “As for Ji Ning… alas…”

Lü Dongbin was also helpless.

Ji Ning did indeed possess extraordinary talent, displaying astonishing brilliance at the very start of the great calamity. But now, the most important person in Ji Ning’s heart had died and departed. This kind of blow… Lü Dongbin could do nothing about it. He could only rely on Ji Ning to get through it himself.

…

Beyond the Three Realms, at the edge of the endless void, lay the boundless chaos.

Chaos held infinite potential.

In ancient times, the chaos had given birth to a vast number of Fiendgods. Pangu, Nuwa, the Ancestral Dragon, the Phoenix, Zhulong, Daoist Threelives, Bodhi, Crimsonbright… one after another, they were born. And the most powerful of them all, Pangu, had directly split open Heaven and Earth, creating the vast ‘Primordial Pangu World,’ and had died in the process.

If another Pangu were to exist, they could open up another world in the chaos.

After all, the chaos was endless… Mother Nuwa had entered the boundless chaos and never returned.

In a region of chaos very close to the Three Realms.

“Whoosh~~~”

A patch of medicinal fields lay within the chaos. Beside the fields was a thatched cottage, and next to the cottage, two figures sat facing each other. One was the white-haired and white-bearded Patriarch Bodhi. The other wore simple clothes, his hair and beard were both quite unkempt. He looked like an old farmer in his fields, save for his eyes, which were vast and ancient, and could calm one’s heart.

He was one of the Three Sovereigns of Humanity: the Divine Farmer!

Among the Three Sovereigns, Suiren was the most ancient, while Fuxi wore the Eight Trigrams Daoist robe. Those two would strike anyone who saw them as extraordinary. Only the Divine Farmer was the most simple, appearing like an old fieldhand.

“This encounter will likely become a demon in your disciple’s heart.” The Divine Farmer personally poured tea for Bodhi. The tea was muddy, but it gave off an enticing fragrance.

“The Seamless Gate’s methods of infiltration are indeed formidable. There were simply no traces to follow.” Bodhi shook his head. “I carefully pondered Yu Wei’s past life and present life. It should be that her past life was too bitter, causing her to transform into a demon and slaughter wantonly. In that endless slaughter, she was likely controlled by her inner demons and was naturally guided, eventually becoming a chess piece of that Godking.”

“Mm.” The Divine Farmer nodded.

Knowing Yu Wei was a spy and then searching for the cause, they could naturally guess the reason.

But if they hadn’t known Yu Wei was a spy, they would have had no way of guessing. After all, there were far too many cultivators who slaughtered madly. And some became demonic due to mad slaughter, while others might simply have been guided by their inner demons during the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations. It was very difficult to tell just from the outside.

“Crimsonbright is going to lose this time.” The Divine Farmer shook his head. “Those two doses of medicine I just concocted were made from rare herbs I found in the chaos. The ingredients are difficult to come by. Although I am cultivating them in my fields and accelerating the flow of time, it will take at least another hundred years for a new batch to grow.”

“Once Crimsonbright loses, he will naturally withdraw his army from the Grand Xia world. What do you plan to do about your disciple?” The Divine Farmer asked.

At this moment, no life-or-death battle was taking place.

To retreat was simple. They could easily tear through the void and leave.

“Ji Ning has Threelives’ Starseizing Hand, he has talent in heartforce, and I believe his talent in the sword is even greater.” Bodhi sighed. “Ji Ning has the potential to grow into another ‘Houyi.’”

“Houyi?” The Divine Farmer nodded gently.

Houyi was a legend who had killed a Daofather while still an Empyrean God.

“The blow he has suffered is indeed heavy. But misfortune and fortune depend on each other. Perhaps it will also be a tempering for his Dao-heart.” Patriarch Bodhi shook his head. “This kind of matter, concerning the heart and emotions, can only rely on himself. I have no way to intervene.”

…

Inside the Eight Dragons Cloudcity.

Within Ji Ning’s room.

Ji Ning had already stood up. He began to clean the table, carefully putting away the immortal wine and vessels one by one. He also gathered the fragments of the black jade bottle.

“Ji Ning.”

“Old Eight.”

True Immortal Tonghe, True Immortal Ten Thousand Beasts, True Immortal Madman… they all arrived one after another.

“Don’t be sad.” True Immortal Ten Thousand Beasts patted Ji Ning on the shoulder and said hurriedly, “This kind of thing, no one could have predicted. Since Yu Wei was a spy, Old Eight, just forget about her. Don’t keep making things hard on yourself by letting it fester in your heart.”

“Forget it.” True Immortal Madman said softly, “When Thousand Needles died back then, I was also in unbearable pain. But what can be done about this kind of thing? You have to look forward. Forget it, it’ll make things easier.”

Ji Ning lifted his head to look at True Immortal Madman, his voice a little hoarse: “Seventh Brother, can you forget?”