Ten years and then another ten years passed. More than a century slipped by…
The revolutionary cause of the Blood Incarnation blazed with vigor. From the Northern Plains to the Western Deserts, Southern Borders, Eastern Seas, and even the Central Province, the Resistance had spread its roots, while the Divine Emperor’s soldiers hunted them everywhere.
Yet every time, like wildfires that could never be fully stamped out, the resistance always rose again with the spring breeze.
Along the way, that fiendish offspring of yours had tried more than once to deploy the Heavenly Emperor’s Spirit-Locking Formation to hunt down the rebels, but Blood Incarnation always managed to block it with the Heaven-Deceiving Stone Disc.
Even when the Nascent Soul Lord personally took the field, apart from slaughtering a great number of rebel cultivators, they still failed to capture the core leader of the resistance—Mister Bai.
Gradually, the name of Mister Bai began to spread across the Five Regions and Two Heavens, carried on the lips of every cultivator yearning for freedom, and remembered by all people of wisdom.
Countless titles gathered around her—Immortal Savior, Banished Immortal Descending to the World, Lord of Morality!
And you, Su Bai, the peerless devil who publicly severed the path to immortality for the world, became known by all manner of dark names—Cataclysm of the Ages, Doom’s End, Demon Lord of Azure Sun.
Upon learning this news from outside, you could only laugh and cry at the same time.
Simulated year 1,111: The Blood Incarnation drained the vast sea of blood beneath the Northern Plains and forged a half-step Nascent Soul Daoist artifact—The Longevity Eclipse Banner!
That same year, you, still plagued by the body that had been developed into a “fluffy ball,” turned your focus to books. Though that fiend had burned many books after taking power, you still managed to collect a good number of surviving volumes by various means.
However, most of the books were about sealing cultivation, likely related to the myriad sealing arrays on your body, which were as redundant as a mountain of waste code.
Your offspring discovered your little hobby, but didn’t care. More precisely, your Blood Incarnation’s chaos in the Five Regions and Two Heavens had left this Nascent Soul Lord with no energy to spare for you.
“Absolute Immortal Stone? Sealing Immortal, Severing Spirit?”
“Severing all mana, spiritual energy, and divine sense—legend says such things are born only in the extreme yin, Yellow Springs, and Nine Netherworlds. They’re exceedingly rare. And paired with the Absolute Immortal Stone Nails is a method called ‘Sealing Immortal, Severing Spirit’.”
“Pierce one hundred and eight fixed acupoints with the Absolute Immortal Stone Nails, and it can sever the flow of power within, sealing all one’s cultivation.”
Su Bai subconsciously touched their lower abdomen, remembering how Su Xiaohei had once shot through it with a spear, its tip ground from Absolute Immortal Stone—grayish-white, with the texture of rock. Had you not been prepared, you might truly have fallen.
“But, why does this Absolute Immortal Stone look more and more like seafloor coral stone the longer I look at it…?” Su Bai muttered silently before turning back to their books.
D
Having just concluded a period of closed-door cultivation and successfully broken through from late-stage Nascent Soul to the Nascent Soul’s peak, Blood Incarnation was in high spirits. Suddenly, a man’s voice rang out from behind.
“Mister Bai, are you really not going to use the Demonic Blood Refining Grand Array to ascend to the Nascent Soul Lord?” A cultivator chased after, bringing several companions, his eyes brimming with hope.
Blood Incarnation turned, looking at those questioning eyes, brows deeply furrowed: “Is your only hope for me to break through to Nascent Soul Lord to pile up lives for it?”
Blood Incarnation’s question left the group speechless on the spot.
After a moment of silence, Zhang Qi—born with the Innate Auspicious Gold Dao Body and among the first group of children rescued by Blood Incarnation, now at early Nascent Soul—nodded earnestly. His voice was firm: “Yes, Mister Bai. We need you to become a Nascent Soul Lord. Demon Lord Azure Sun wields three Nascent Soul Daoist artifacts and controls the [Heavenly Demon Spirit-Locking Array]. His word is law, divine edicts upon his lips. If we can have another Nascent Soul Lord on our side, our chances increase.”
“As for the mortals…” He took a deep breath, summoned his courage, and looked straight at the blue-robed Daoist before him. “This is a necessary sacrifice.”
“You all think so too?” Blood Incarnation’s gaze swept over the other two men and one woman, all top cultivators among [Eclipse Sun].
“Yes, Mister Bai. It’s for the greater good,” Sun Lianshi nodded emphatically.
D
The other two male cultivators also nodded silently, showing their agreement.
Blood Incarnation sighed softly: “Hearing you say this really does tempt me. After all, to become a Nascent Soul Lord, to live for six thousand years, to break free from the world and wander as you wish—how many geniuses throughout history have failed to reach this realm?”
“But…” Her eyes swept over the four once more, gentle and calm, but with a clarity that cut to the heart. “Some things are absolutely forbidden. This is my bottom line. My red line.”
She looked at the four before her, children she had raised with her own hands, her expression grave and earnest: “[Eclipse Sun] was founded so that cultivators might have the freedom to walk the path of immortality, so that mortals might have the right to gaze freely at the stars. This is the promise I made you, and one I will uphold with my life.”
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“But, Mister Bai, in the grand scheme, this is the most beneficial…” Sun Lianshi tried to persuade again, but the blue-robed Daoist waved her hand to halt her words.
Blood Incarnation looked at Sun Lianshi: “Lianshi, if there were a mission that required you and Zhang Qi to pretend to be Daoist companions, would you do it?”
“For the sake of the Five Regions and Two Heavens, for [Eclipse Sun], I would,” Sun Lianshi nodded.
Blood Incarnation continued: “If this mission lasted a whole year, requiring you two to live in a mortal village, farming together and acting as a loving couple before others, would you do it?”
Sun Lianshi thought for a moment, then nodded: “Though I’d be reluctant, if it was Mister Bai’s mission, I’d do it.”
“And if the mission required you and Zhang Qi to truly live as husband and wife?”
The moment she finished, Zhang Qi’s face flushed red, the two other men exchanged excited glances, and Sun Lianshi opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
“What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others,” said Blood Incarnation. “I cannot force others to sacrifice for me. I have neither the right nor the qualification. Some matters cannot be decided for the greater good alone. If someone shouts, ‘at any cost,’ it’s usually others who pay the price.”
After her words fell, silence and deep thought settled in once again. The four understood what Mister Bai meant.
As if to steel them for facing a Nascent Soul Lord, Blood Incarnation spoke again.
“You need not worry. There’s someone of ours in the Azure Emperor Divine Palace. She’s nearly equal to the Demon Lord Azure Sun and will lead us to ultimate victory.”
“Why not you?” Zhang Qi pleaded, unwilling to give up, gazing at the blue-robed Daoist. “You founded [Eclipse Sun]. You brought us together. ‘Though we have no robes, we stand side by side as brothers and sisters.’ Mister Bai, we all hope you will lead us to the final victory.”
“Me? Maybe.”
“In the end, whether it’s me, her, or someone else who destroys the Azure Emperor Divine Palace and overthrows the regime, it’s all the same.”
“But whoever it is,” Blood Incarnation pointed outside the window, where farmers could be seen tending their fields in the distance. “We all come from among them, and in the end, we all return to them. Even an Honored Immortal of the Dao is no exception. Compared to gods or demons, I see myself more as a human being—one who just happens to possess a Nascent Soul.”
With these words, Mister Bai departed, leaving the four to watch the blue-robed Daoist’s distant back. Zhang Qi couldn’t help but mutter, “To give cultivators the freedom to pursue immortality, to let mortals gaze freely at the stars, to give all living beings in the Five Regions and Two Heavens hope for a happy future…”
“You are a great flag-bearer. Even at the height of your brilliance, you have never forgotten your mission to wave the banner. What you wanted us to remember was never yourself, but this flag that stands for freedom.”