The Lost Corner of the Diagram

"If the formation diagram is incomplete," Xiao Chen thought, "then the body must fill the gap." He had witnessed the true terror of the divine diagram—though mangled and broken, it had repelled the full killing intent of an Otherworld Ancestral God. Today, his body had been shattered, his soul ground to fragments, yet he had escaped all the same, thanks to that incomplete diagram.

The words of the mysterious old farmer stirred Xiao Chen awake from his meditation on the golden beach. "You saw the broken diagram in the past as well? Only a corner of it?"

"I returned to the previous civilization and joined that final battle. I did see a corner of the broken diagram. Five War Swords hung inverted around it, their power unmatched, sweeping all before them!"

By now the old farmer was drenched in blood, his graying temples stained crimson. His clothes had been torn to ribbons, and the battle suit beneath was in tatters. Horrific wounds still bled freely, and in many places the white bone beneath showed through—a sight that shocked the soul.

"Five War Swords and a corner of the diagram?" Xiao Chen rose to his feet. "Who wielded them?"

"I saw only five beams of sword-light shatter the heavens, and that corner of the diagram spanning the vault of the sky. I could see nothing else." The old farmer shook his head. There was a fist-sized hole in his chest where the divine-metal armor had been pulverized, surrounded by cracks radiating outward. Through it, one could dimly make out a shattered heart still beating.

"You did not see who controlled the swords and the diagram?" Xiao Chen was greatly surprised. He looked at the grievously wounded old farmer and asked, "Could your injuries... have been pierced by a War Sword?"

"No." The old farmer shook his head in dejection.

The five War Swords and that corner of the diagram, though terrifyingly powerful, had only flashed once and vanished. No one even knew which side had wielded them. History could not be changed. Though he had returned to the past, the outcome of that battle had long been sealed. The old farmer's mood was very low.

Just then, Keke's beautiful mother awakened. She sat up lazily from her rattan chair, her waist-length blue hair cascading down like a waterfall, framing her flawless, jade-white face and making her even more radiant.

"You returned to the past and encountered five War Swords and a corner of the diagram?" She stretched her supple waist and yawned. "How strange. Why is it that everyone who goes back to a pivotal moment in history sees the same thing?"

"What do you mean?" Xiao Chen looked puzzled.

Keke's mother stepped barefoot across the golden sand, her white feet like fine jade, and approached gracefully. "I myself entered the 'Return' and also saw that corner of the diagram and the five War Swords... But it seems only those who travel back in time can see them."

The old farmer's face changed. "Could the legend be true? That five War Swords were lost in the past..."

"Hmm?" Keke's mother's beautiful eyes lit up. "Though Keke's father never entered the Return, he once used a peerless divination art to infer that the War Swords cannot be gathered, that the complete formation diagram cannot manifest—because they seem to exist in different eras."

"In different eras?" Xiao Chen was startled. "So five of the War Swords and that corner of the diagram are lost in the past?"

If that was true, gathering all forty-nine War Swords was nearly impossible. Even returning to the past or leaping into the future could not alter significant history. Not long ago, he had tried to bring back the colossal stone bones in the Heavenly Emperor City, but had failed utterly. The great voice in the city had told him that moving the stone bones would interfere with the future—they were no ordinary objects.

"It seems it is true. I never thought the legend was real." As the old farmer spoke, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Mysterious and powerful, the old farmer had been pierced by a fearsome Ancestral God weapon when he returned to the past, suffering a grievous wound. Even for a being of his rank, an Ancestral God, the injury had not yet fully healed. The power of that single blow persisted even now—a testament to the strength and terror of the one who struck.

But the old farmer did not speak of the battle. To recount it would only add to the sorrow. He had returned to the past for a battle whose outcome was already decided, merely to settle a debt of the heart.

Keke's beautiful mother was already growing sleepy again. She yawned delicately and curled back onto her rattan chair. "Why hasn't my little treasure come back yet? Could that little creature really have unfinished business?"

"Ya-ya!"

Just then, a white light flashed within the Return Gate, and the snow-white little beast rushed out.

"Oh, my little treasure, you're finally back." Keke's mother rose happily and scooped Keke into her arms. "My child, did you resolve your unfinished business?"

"Ya-ya..." The snow-white little beast looked embarrassed. "I didn't have any unfinished business before, but now I really do. I—I—I ate too much. My belly hurts." Keke's voice grew softer and softer, until it was barely audible.

Everyone laughed. The little creature had gone back to the past just to enjoy spiritual delicacies—a most unusual sort of unfinished business.

Just then, Keke wriggled free of her blue-haired mother and handed Xiao Chen a bundle. "All spirit essences."

Xiao Chen took it naturally. Keke's mother pinched the little beast's nose. "My little treasure, you forgot your mother and gave all the good things to someone else?"

"Mother's palace is full of spirit essences. I could never finish them all. There's no need to give any." The snow-white little beast answered thus.

"You little rascal..." Keke's mother affectionately pinched her again. She swept her phoenix eyes across the group. "Is everyone back?"

"Just one missing—Jin Sanyi." The chubby Zhuge Liang answered. Though he had journeyed to the past, his figure had not changed at all.

Soon, a light flashed within the Return Gate, and Jin Sanyi emerged. But he was utterly unlike his usual carefree, boisterous self.

"Wuwu..."

The stutterer walked along, crying, his peach-blossom eyes swollen like two red peaches.

"Aiyo aiyo, is this the world's most dashing Jin Sanyi? Crying with his mouth wide open today? Haha... I'm dying of laughter!" The chubby Zhuge had no sympathy at all. He sat on the golden sand, pounding the ground with laughter, his white hair and fat jiggling together.

"Guan-guan... jujiu—none of your damn business!" The stutterer glared through his tears.

"Uncle Sanyi, what's wrong? Did someone beat you up in the past?" Dugu Shanshan blinked her big eyes and suppressed a smile. "Do you want me to go back and get even for you?"

"No, I'm not going back. Never again. Too heartbreaking." Jin Sanyi's tears and snot flowed freely as he howled at the sky. "Love is beautiful and fragrant when it blooms, but once corrupted, it turns to hate, sprouting poisonous thorns that wound others but first wound oneself."

"Aiyo, this world has gone mad. Even the self-styled 'one-night thirteen-times' stutterer is weeping over love!" Zhuge Liang roared with laughter, tears streaming from his eyes at Jin Sanyi's display.

"White-haired fatso, have you no sympathy? I'm about to cry myself to death..."

Jin Sanyi wailed loudly: "Love is beautiful, but it is also dangerous. Do not let love become hate. If love's fragrance has faded, it is better to scatter like smoke and vanish like clouds, than to wound yourself and others."

The chubby Zhuge wanted to mock him further, but seeing him in such a state, he swallowed his words.

"My brilliant, never-returning junior sister..." Jin Sanyi howled. "Sometimes the truth... should never be pursued. I, Jin Sanyi, have lived freely half my life—I never thought I would see such a day."

Seeing him like this, no one could bring themselves to tease him. Xiao Chen patted him on the shoulder. Ah Bing offered a few kind words. Dugu Shanshan even stepped forward and handed him a handkerchief.

"Youth does not last forever. There is not so much love for us to squander." Jin Sanyi spoke with great feeling. But the moment he took the handkerchief from Dugu Shanshan, he straightened his back and said, "I've decided. From now on, I will live well. Shanshan, thank you."

"Ah... thank me for what?!" Dugu Shanshan was startled. Ah Bing quickly stepped forward to stand between them.

The chubby Zhuge pounded the ground laughing. "I knew it. This stuttering lecher's nature is impossible to change. If he ever becomes devoted, the sun would rise in the north."

"Alas, I cannot let my junior sister down..." Jin Sanyi gazed at the sky and sighed. "She hoped I would live well. Since that is the case, I will follow my nature and live well. A vast world, free for my roaming."

"You mean you want to roam freely in the world of pleasure, don't you?" The chubby Zhuge stood up. "Pity this world will not be so colorful for much longer."

Ah Bing glared firmly and resolutely at Jin Sanyi, blocking his peach-blossom eyes from her daughter.

Clutching the Doomsday Halberd, Jin Sanyi turned back to Xiao Chen with regret in his eyes. "After learning the truth of the past, I was heartbroken. I wanted to see how you fell, to find some comfort for myself. But instead, I discovered something extraordinary."

Xiao Chen gave him a slap directly. "What kind of person are you? Hoping to see me fall for your own comfort? How can you be like this?"

Jin Sanyi's character was free and easy; he had completely recovered his usual demeanor. "Guess what I saw. When the False God Calamity concluded, I saw five War Swords and a corner of the diagram sweep across the sky. Their divine might truly shook heaven and earth."

"What? Another corner of the diagram..." Xiao Chen had heard this mentioned several times in just a short while. He was deeply moved. "So that corner of the diagram really is lost in the past. How can we retrieve it?"

Finally, the group left this place.

At parting, the snow-white little beast nestled in the blue-haired beauty's arms, reluctant to let go. "Ya-ya... I don't want to go."

"My treasure, you cannot stay here too long. This time, you opened a crack in the treasure box with the help of outsiders, so you did not receive the special gift your father and I prepared for you. When you have one foot in the Ancestral God realm and fully activate the power of Paradise Lost, come back here..."

The group returned to the front of Ancestral Dragon Village. The beam of light in the sky had vanished, and the wooden box in Keke's hand was completely closed.

The old farmer looked up at the Seven Demonic Diagrams in the sky, then at the black divine gate temporarily sealed with divine mud. "At most a few days, the divine gate will open again. Prepare for the great battle..."

With these words, he vanished entirely from between heaven and earth.

"Perhaps it is time to go to the Death World..."

Xiao Chen prepared to send the entire group into the Divine Village within the Death World to ensure their safety.

No sooner had they entered the Death World, still far from the Divine Village, than everyone felt an unmistakably unusual atmosphere!

"That is... an Ancestral Sovereign!"

Hundreds of li away, above the Divine Village, a snow-white skeleton floated motionless in the sky, its divine might overwhelming the world! Wherever his gaze fell, for ten thousand li around, every fire seed creature trembled and knelt down in worship.

The white bone in the sky was without doubt a being of the Ancestral God level. Though he did not deliberately release his terrifying aura, his mere presence made souls shudder.

"Has something changed in the Death World too? Why has another Ancestral Sovereign appeared, and in the outer regions?"

"He stands above the Divine Village. Could it be that the village has suffered a calamity?"

"The ancestors of the Divine Village walked deep into the Death Continent. After the Ancestral God Nuwa achieved rebirth from flesh and blood, she also left a divine imprint here... Perhaps they have returned."

The powerful Ancestral Sovereign in the sky shot two beams of light from his eye sockets, sweeping toward this place.