Volume 4, Chapter 123 – Aftershocks

Feixiang Heaven had originally intended to take advantage of the moment and devour those remnant souls as well.

But after receiving Bai Xiang’s order at the last instant, the sword body shivered in midair, then grudgingly wriggled its way back into Bai Xiang’s hand, its blade twisting this way and that in the air.

Bai Xiang paid it no mind. She only gazed at those remnant souls from afar, and saw that after Zhu Yunsheng’s primary soul had died, the expressions on those soul-bodies suddenly came alive. One after another, as if waking from a great dream, they recovered the memories of their former lives in an instant.

Excitement, panic, self-reproach, hatred, relief…

Different emotions surfaced on every remnant soul’s face. Then, carrying those emotions, they all looked at Bai Xiang, at the blood-red vicious sword in her hand.

“You may choose for yourselves.”

Bai Xiang spoke plainly and raised her sword in a formal sword salute.

Two remnant souls were the first to respond. They were the two beautiful attendants who had stood by Zhu Yunsheng’s side earlier.

Their faces carried venom, disgust, and resolve. Without a shred of hesitation, they rushed at Bai Xiang, their soul-bodies colliding with the blood sword of their own accord. They were shredded apart, then devoured and absorbed by the sword.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The other remnant souls also made their choices. Without exception, they followed the example of those first two souls, flinging themselves onto Feixiang Heaven and letting it devour them. Not only were they willing to become Bai Xiang’s strength, they also passed fragments of memory to her.

“If you meet Brother Ali, tell him I’m sorry… Tell him not to wait for me anymore.”

“My mother must still be searching for me in Qingyu Heaven. If you happen to pass through there, please bring her word of me…”

“My daughter, Youyou…”

“I want nothing else! I only want you to kill them all and avenge me…!”

One powerful thought after another poured in, each even deeper than the consciousness of an Immortal Venerable.

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If an ordinary person were to bear ten such thoughts at once, either their head would explode on the spot or they would become a drooling idiot.

Yet Bai Xiang merely let a sharp glint pass through her eyes. In those uncanny golden pupils, that dark-gold sea of color stirred with barely a ripple.

She gave another salute to the empty air, withdrew the little yellow jade, placed it in another box, and tucked it back into the hollow of her chest. Then she descended to pick up the two broken sections of the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear, stored them in her storage jade token, and finally once more fled in the direction of Qiyun Circuit.

After she left, the dark clouds dispersed. The first ray of sunlight after the calamity once again shone upon the scorched peak, and the cold mists returned in rolling waves. It was as if the mortal world had regained its peace.

No one knew how much time passed before a crack suddenly split open in the void. A slovenly old man leaped out. His gray hair was a tangled mess, and his gray-white beard looked as though it had not been washed in decades, clumped together in knots. He had a huge bulbous wine-red nose, and as soon as he appeared, he began sniffing wildly through the air.

“So fragrant… so fragrant…!”

“It doesn’t stink at all anymore… not at all?”

As if drawn by something, his gaze darted around in every direction. His face wore a troubled, miserable expression, as though he were distressed by the sudden loss of a clue.

“How can it be gone?”

“How can it be gone?”

Muttering the same words over and over, he looked half-mad and half-senile.

When he finally failed to find any further trace, he casually slashed out with one hand. His fingernails aligned like blades and actually cut open the void. Then he jumped inside in a crazed stupor, letting the crack close behind him.

After the slovenly old man left, a middle-aged Daoist, a young woman, and a dragon-headed demon with the bearing of an immortal all arrived here one after another.

The middle-aged Daoist and the young woman happened to meet. The former gave the latter a slight nod. “Long time no see.”

The young woman did not return the courtesy. She merely fixed her gaze on the Daoist and asked, “You came too… Was it also to take part in the Dao-Void martial exercises?”

“No.” The Daoist shook his head, looking a little helplessly amused.

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“You know my temperament. I’ve never liked being bound by others.”

“If there were truly hope of remaining in the main world, I might have gone to compete for it.”

“But even if one wins this martial exercise, what one gets is only a place to serve those things like a dog.”

“I advise you to let go of it as well.”

“After all, the dead cannot return.”

The moment those words were spoken, a fierce light flared in the young woman’s eyes, and her jet-black hair gradually turned a vivid green.

“Aren’t you the one running around trying to revive Changlun?” The middle-aged Daoist showed no fear at all, meeting her gaze head-on. “So was I wrong to say it?”

“Changlun died for you and me,” the woman said to him, word by word. “How dare you judge this matter in that tone!?”

“Because no matter what we do, he can never come back again.”

The middle-aged Daoist cut her off.

“Do you understand?”

“There is no past-life memory in this world.”

“There is no reincarnation into another life.”

“There are no gods or buddhas.”

“And there is certainly no cycle of rebirth.”

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“All those ghostly and divine things are falsehoods, delusions, phenomena of Loss of Order brought about by the Void Tribulation.”

“So it is useless. Why waste your whole life trapped in the past?”

“Your bloodline was never pure to begin with. Unlike the other Exalted Saints, you do not enjoy such a long lifespan.”

“You have only a little more than five hundred years left. That is hardly better than the frail lifespan of human spirits. If you keep wasting it like this…”

“I don’t care,” the woman interrupted coldly.

“If there are no gods or buddhas, then I will become one myself.”

“If there is no reincarnation, then I will build one myself!”

After delivering those harsh words, the woman’s figure suddenly vanished, as though she had never been there at all.

But the scorched earth where she had stood changed. Affected by the period when her emotions had spiraled out of control, the soil suddenly sprouted a great many fresh shoots.

“Still as stubborn as ever…”

The middle-aged Daoist shook his head and sighed.

To try to forge a “reincarnation” would mean making a fundamental alteration to the primary order itself.

Had any being throughout all of history ever accomplished something like that?

At any rate, he could not think of a single name.

The only one he vaguely remembered was that young man from years ago who had tried to bring an end to the opposition between the two sides.

He had no idea what kind of madness had possessed him, that he had actually wanted the demon race and the human race to coexist and support one another, with slaughter and conflict no longer continuing.

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A moment’s thought was enough to know it was impossible, because the struggle between the two races did not arise from simple hatred. It did not arise because they “couldn’t stand” each other.

It came from their very nature.

The demon race represented the Void Tribulation. It represented Loss of Order.

The human race represented the primary order. It represented the preservation of order.

So long as this opposition of order existed for even a single day, the struggle could never truly be stilled.

How could an individual’s strength possibly achieve something like that?

If she insisted on doing it by force, she would probably meet the same tragic end as that young man did back then. Even the primary order itself would move to strike her down.

“Changlun was the same. Why did he insist on opposing the will of heaven?”

With another sigh, mists rolled in and covered the Daoist’s figure.

When they dispersed again, there was no one there. He had evidently also departed by fleeing away with great divine power.

About ten breaths later, the dragon-headed demon finally emerged trembling from the clouds. As he sniffed the bizarre aura in the air, he looked around in alarm and muttered, “No mistake… This is actually the scent of a Sage!”

As if he had suddenly thought of something terrifying, the dragon-headed demon did not dare calculate further. He hurriedly flew back the way he had come, disappearing into the clouds. There he became an enormous creature whose scales could only be glimpsed through the mottled cloud layers, roaring away into the sea of clouds.

Only after the place had fully quieted down did another change appear in that patch of lush green sprouts. A single blade of grass shot upward, transformed into green vines in a matter of moments, then gathered into the shape of a woman and changed her back into herself.

She once again looked toward where the middle-aged Daoist had stood before. Seeing that he was already gone, she let out a deeply disdainful snort.

Only then did she turn to look northeast, in the direction Bai Xiang had fled earlier, and leisurely flew after her along that path.