The scene before Yun Wuji transformed into an endless stretch of mountains piercing through the clouds, where celestial winds swept across the skies.
A white-robed man with his hands clasped behind his back was standing on the clouds and admiring the mountains. All of the world was beneath his feet.
He was the Creation God of Elements, Ni Xuan.
"Big Brother Ni Xuan!"
The clouds split open, and a young man also wearing a set of white robes rode the wind to him.
The young man looked incredibly handsome, but his long hair was in disarray, and his expression was indignant. The robe with mysterious divine runes circulating around it was damaged in multiple places as well. It was a terrible look to say the least.
"Mm… hmm?" Ni Xuan side-eyed him and felt his curiosity jumping from zero to eighty in an instant. "Oh ho? What in the world happened to you, boy? Have our adventures finally gotten you interested in women, and you decided to woo one of your stubborn old coot's concubines? Let me see… there it is! I knew there would be a shoe print on your butt!"
"What?? Where? Where? Ah… you're making fun of me again, big brother."
Mo Su sat down beside Ni Xuan without any decorum, eyes burning with so much indignation it looked like they might shoot fire. "I encountered a Devil Race woman on my way here and fought against her, but… but… she…!"
He covered his face, too embarrassed to speak of the outcome.
"Oh?" Ni Xuan exclaimed with two-fifths astonishment and three-fifths excitement. "You've attained great completion in the Ninety-Nine Heaven Breaking Swords, haven't you? There should be no one among your peers, be it in the God Race or the Devil Race, who can match you. Was your opponent a higher Devil God?"
Mo Su shook his head and lowered his head even more. "She… She… her life aura is similar to mine…"
Yun Wuji observed the scene calmly. He had read about this memory fragment in the novel, but seeing it in person felt completely different from merely reading it.
Mo Su got his ass handed to him and his head stepped on by Pan Xiaodie, the daughter of the Original Nether Devil Emperor, all because of his deep misconception about the Devil Race and his tendency to underestimate women.
To get back at her, he challenged her to a rematch five hundred years later at the same place, and Pan Xiaodie accepted without hesitation.
He boasted that it would take him no more than three hundred years to achieve perfection in the Great Way of the Buddha he had created.
Yun Wuji was very familiar with the Great Way of the Buddha. He personally cultivated it. In the God Realm, it was said that this art had been created by the Rage God, but in truth, it was invented by Mo Su and later passed down to his two Rage God followers, Big Rage and Small Rage.
The scene changed once more, revealing Mo Su sitting on a cloud with his body slumped to one side, his chin pressed deep into his chest as if he wished he could bury his head there out of sheer embarrassment.
He told Ni Xuan that this time he had brought Big Rage and Small Rage with him to the duel with Pan Xiaodie. He believed all devils were treacherous and deceitful, and he was certain she would bring a helper or two to tilt the odds in her favor. So he brought his two followers along, just in case.
However, she came alone, which made him the one who was treacherous and deceitful instead. To make matters worse, she beat his ass again, along with Big Rage and Small Rage.
He told Ni Xuan that this time, he had begged her for another fight.
In their next fight, he lost again and once more agreed to face her in another five hundred years.
The scene kept changing, showing how Mo Su lost each time. But the time they set for their matches grew shorter and shorter: three hundred years, two hundred years, one hundred years, fifty years, ten years, until they were fighting every year.
By then, the two had started developing feelings for each other.
The scene changed once again. This time, Mo Su told Ni Xuan that the Original Nether Devil Emperor had learned about their annual fights and forbade Pan Xiaodie from going.
Ni Xuan used his talk jutsu to make Mo Su realize his feelings for Pan Xiaodie and encouraged him to pursue her.
The memory fragments ended with a conversation between Jie Yuan and Ni Xuan.
...
When the memory fragment ended, Yun Wuji's vision returned to the world of his Profound Veins. The memory fragment he had just viewed scattered and faded. He stood there for a while, staring ahead, remembering something from the fragment that had left a deep impression on him.
It was not Mo Su's love for Pan Xiaodie or the racial prejudice between the Devils and Gods, but something far more important.
"Shit! Jie Yuan is really freaking hot! No wonder Ni Xuan gave up on Li Suo and married her!" Yun Wuji said, remembering the images of Jie Yuan in his mind. She was not as beautiful as Shen Xi or Qianye Ying'er, and she certainly was no match for Li Suo, yet she was still attractive in her own way. Her domineering and imperious temperament made her, in some sense, even more captivating.
It was not the first time he had seen her appearance, but still, she was hot. He rubbed his chin and muttered, "Should I, or should I not? That is the question."
Casting aside these not-so-healthy thoughts, Yun Wuji turned his attention to another memory fragment. As his consciousness touched it, his vision changed once again.
...
This time, what he saw was a vast world caught in a storm of disaster.
The sky roiled, the earth trembled, and countless cracks appeared in space at every moment, as if innumerable lightning bolts were violently tearing through heaven and earth.
Even across the vast distances, Yun Wuji could still make out the unique grayish-white hue of the sky, marking the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.
However, what unfolded within the God Realm of Absolute Beginning was a calamity of ancient times beyond the reach of ordinary mortals' imagination.
Ni Xuan's long hair was disheveled, his once unparalleled face now tinged with gray and marred by a gruesome tapestry of wounds. His outer garments, as if freshly pulled from a pool of blood, were soaked in crimson.
He rose slowly, his movements labored, like those of a withered old man. But almost immediately, he collapsed heavily to his knees, the blood of the Creation God gushing from countless wounds across his body and soaking the earth beneath him.
Before him stood a tall man clad in golden robes, his features sharp and precise, like the edge of a sword. At first glance, his face radiated the unmistakable essence of righteousness. Before this face, no law could be broken, no rule trampled, no fault forgiven, and no sin allowed to exist.
He was the leader of the Four Creation Gods, the supreme being of the era: the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor, Mo E.
In his hand, he held a large sword. Its blade was the color of antique bronze, dull and without edge, lacking any imposing presence. Even in the mortal realm, it would be nothing more than a piece of ordinary iron, unworthy of a glance from any profound practitioner.
However, it bore a terrifying name: the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword.
He held the Ancestral Sword, standing motionless between heaven and earth. Even as the sky crumbled and the earth sank, and storms raged around him, he remained as unmoved as a towering mountain. His gaze fell indifferently on the blood-soaked Creation God of Elements, Ni Xuan, his expression unchanging from beginning to end.
"To defeat me, you actually used the might of the Ancestral Sword a second time." Ni Xuan's voice was hoarse, almost unrecognizable to the Creation God. "Is this also what you call 'righteousness'?"
A mortal wielding the Ancestral Sword's might would have their entire lifespan drained instantly, while a True God using it would expend ninety percent of their lifespan in a single strike.
Even a being as powerful as a Creation God would still consume thirty percent of their lifespan to unleash the Ancestral Sword's might.
This was his second time using the Ancestral Sword, and his lifespan had already been reduced by sixty percent.
Yet he showed no hesitation, and not an ounce of regret. Ni Xuan could not comprehend Mo E's obsession.
Just as he could not understand why Mo E had to kill Mo Su.
He was clearly his most beloved son, his Heaven Punishing Crown Prince, the chosen inheritor of his power and will.
Even if Mo Su had violated a taboo, his crime did not warrant death, and certainly not execution at his own hands.
"You killed Mo Su, harmed Jie Yuan, and kidnapped my daughter. Now it is my turn," Ni Xuan said, laughing miserably, his pale face etched with hopeless dejection. "Go ahead."
Mo E replied, his voice light as smoke drifting above the clouds. "Though I hate you, I have no reason to kill you."
"Heh!" Ni Xuan chuckled softly. "You can execute anyone who rebels against your 'righteous path' without mercy, even your own son, the one you have showered with love and hope. Much less someone like me, who dares to defy you."
The wind whipped strands of Mo E's hair across his face, carrying a profound sense of sorrow. He did not raise his sword, and no aura radiated from him. After a long silence, he spoke slowly, in a tone entirely unfamiliar to Ni Xuan. "Ni Xuan, do you know how much I have envied you?"
'Finally, the mystery is going to be solved?' Yun Wuji observed the following scene.
Mo E began speaking, telling Ni Xuan that he was born to be free and unrestrained. He would never allow himself to be bound by any existing rules and sought to rebel against and change any laws and status quo he deemed rigid, absurd, unfair, or wrong.
He told him that the world needed a Creation God like Ni Xuan because the evolution of the world and the passage of time required constant change. The old rules had to be broken again and again, and the filth and shackles of each era needed to be eliminated.
Mo E then said that the world needed someone to constantly change it, but it also needed someone to hold it together.
A balance had to be maintained to prevent the order and laws from spiraling out of control, and that person was him, Mo E.
The Ancestral Goddess created the world based on 'balance', and it began with balance. Without balance, humans falter, and without balance, the world is destined to collapse.
So, at the beginning of the world, there were four Creation Gods and four Devil Emperors, not eight Creator Gods or eight Devil Emperors.
The world was divided and ruled by the two races, with Devils in the northern half and Gods in the southern half. Each side dominated its own territory while repelling and restraining the other, forging a long-standing equilibrium.
Mo E did not hate the Devils, but he had to act that way to maintain the balance. Everything in the world is subject to change, but that balance cannot be. Otherwise, if he truly hated the Devils as much as people claimed, why had he not used the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword to eliminate the Devil Emperors and led the Gods to exterminate the Devils?
Ni Xuan could not accept his reasoning. He wanted the Devils and Gods to integrate with each other, not repel one another.
Mo E agreed with his view, but he disagreed with Ni Xuan starting with it. He believed that any major change should begin with small trials, and certainly not with a Creation God and Devil Emperor, and definitely not with Mo Su.
Ni Xuan was shocked by Mo E's words. This was very different from the Mo E he knew, yet he still could not understand why Mo E had been so cruel as to try to kill Mo Su.
Mo E did not answer his question. Instead, he began speaking about the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword and the Evil Infant, the ultimate form of power that existed in this world.
He began explaining the truth about the two profound artifacts. Turning to Ni Xuan, he asked, "Do you know why these beings, possessing supreme power, are given such ominous names as 'Heaven Punishing' and 'Myriad Tribulations'?"
...
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