Chapter 921: Secret In The Pond
Li Qiye didn’t mind the angered shadow as he explained: “I don’t blame you for blaming me. Honestly, I corrupted you back then by contaminating you with emotions. I’m guilty of that. All along, I’ve always wanted the item in this place, I won’t deny what I’ve done back then. If you want to blame me, then wait until the day you are free, then you can come at me at any time. At that moment, we won’t be betting or scheming against each other.” Li Qiye gently sighed after finishing.
The shadow contemplated in silence after hearing this. It seemed that it had accepted Li Qiye’s explanation.
Li Qiye sighed and slowly walked towards the pond. The shadow had no response and the dao runes on the ground didn’t shift at all. Without a doubt, it had implicitly given him permission to pass.
Without its permission, even an Immortal Emperor would be teleported outside once they set foot into these thick arrays of dao runes!
Standing next to the lake and looking down at the pond full of Provenance’s Splendor, Li Qiye immediately jumped in without the slightest hesitation.
He continued to sink after entering. This pond was very deep; after a long while of sinking, he finally saw the bottom.
There was a golden maelstrom at the base of the pond. It slowly swirled around as if it was the rhythm of this world.
It was unfathomable and seemed depthless. No one could tell where it led to.
Li Qiye floated above the maelstrom with rampant thoughts in his mind because there was a heaven-shattering secret regarding this matter. Moreover, this golden maelstrom was only a part of it.
However, time did not allow Li Qiye to contemplate at this moment. He took a deep breath and opened his sea of memories. With a series of explosions, a universal law that contained countless secrets flew out.
“Open!” The universal law pinned itself to the edge of the maelstrom. While Li Qiye’s hands were busy forming profound mudras, he shouted and a mantra flew out.
“Boom!” A mark emerged above the maelstrom, one that belonged to Li Qiye.
He had the chance to come here last time after defeating the blurred shadow. Because of this, he already had something amazing stored at the edge of the golden maelstrom. Naturally, this was something that only he was aware of.
“Go.” Li Qiye then hid another item in this mark. It disappeared inside and completely hid itself. At the same time, the mark also disappeared from the maelstrom so that no outsiders would ever find out what just happened.
After doing so, his thirteen palaces loudly blared and activated the Nirvana Heavens. The vessel of life and vessel of genesis emerged as well and poured down their endless blood energy and power.
“Let me help you so that you can come out in this generation!” Li Qiye poured his blood energy and life force into the maelstrom.
At the same time, a silver glimmer came out from his mind. He obtained this silver glimmer from the deepest location of the Ancestral Realm back then!
“Rumble!” Waves of golden swirls escaped from the maelstrom, causing the earth to spin. Right when these swirls erupted, a golden light flew into Li Qiye’s mind.
***’
The blurred shadow simply stood there and quietly watched the surging water in the pond. At this second, it was being itself, emotionless and unstained by the mundane world.
After a long time, Li Qiye climbed out of the pond with a splash.
He was very worn out at this moment and seemed that he would crumble at any time; his complexion was completely pale just like how his blood had been drained.
“Your endurance is pretty good, you haven’t fallen yet.” The blurred shadow coldly stared at Li Qiye without any emotion.
Li Qiye sat on his butt and smiled. However, due to his fatigued state, his smile was even uglier than crying. He leisurely said: “I have always endured till the very end, even in near-death situations.”
The shadow only glanced at him without saying anything.
“Before dying, how, how about I bring up one more request?” Li Qiye was heaving heavily, completely out of breath. He didn’t have the strength to speak at this moment, he was only holding on before breathing his last breath.
The shadow coldly said: “Speak.” It didn’t seem to want to argue or be angry at him.
“I, I don’t know what fortune the Death Seal will give me, but, but before my final breath, can you send me to the Mortal Emperor World? This… this shouldn’t be difficult… for you…” Before he could finish his words, he fell flat down on the ground.
At this point, he could still move a bit and spoke: “I’m, I’m telling you, we… we will still be able to meet again. At, at that time, it still won’t be late if y-you want to deal with me…”
With that, his life finally faded; he died before finishing his sentence!
The curse of the shadow was indeed very frightening. Although it didn’t destroy Li Qiye’s true fate, just one imprintation made sure that his death was unavoidable.
Alas, Li Qiye was very heaven-defying. He didn’t die immediately and actually withstood it until everything was over!
“Too much blabbering.” The shadow coldly uttered. A light began to move along with the dao runes.
“Buzz.” Li Qiye instantly disappeared inside the dao runes, teleporting him away in a flash! Although it didn’t say that it would do so, it still sent him off.
It was absent-minded afterward. The shadow was a universal law without any emotions. However, Li Qiye had stayed at this place for a very long time and taught it many things. Under Li Qiye’s influence, it gradually changed and was no longer a pure universal law!
Although it knew Li Qiye came with a goal and tricked it twice, it didn’t hate Li Qiye. Because of him, it was able to learn just how beautiful this world was! It understood much more things outside of universal laws and orders. It wasn’t able to derive or transform into such things!
The shadow eventually murmured: “I want to be a person, someone with emotions, just like those in his stories.” Li Qiye did not hear these words. This universal law without life wanted to see the outside world.
“Li Qiye, remember well. Once I am free, I’ll beat the crap out of you for tricking me!” The shadow laughed before disappearing.
***
After being sent outside, Li Qiye quickly crossed the void and entered the pathways between worlds. He was instantly brought into the territory of the Mortal Emperor World.
“Buzz!” His body lit up at this moment. A white flower emerged from his mind with eighteen petals. This was the Death Seal, one of the four great techniques from the Death Scripture.
Three of the petals were bright, signifying that Li Qiye had died three times. Outside of the death this time, he had died to Jian Wushuang once and another time back at the Beast Vein.
Li Qiye should have revived the moment the Death Seal appeared, but the seal didn’t immediately resurrect him. The light on the three petals began to move and turned into a fate loop!
The Death Seal had other effects outside of just revival once the number of deaths reached a particular amount.
One fate accumulated from three deaths, one item formed from six deaths, one life changed from nine deaths, and eighteen deaths to reach the high heavens!
This meant that after dying three times, the energy of death would turn into a fate loop, giving him a new fortune.
“Buzz!” After Li Qiye flew to the Mortal Emperor World, the Death Seal dragged him through the spatial fabric of the realms towards the Barren Earth. 1
Mortal Emperor World, Barren Earth! It was located in the southern region of this world and spanned endlessly.
As one of the five great realms, the territory here was no less impressive than that of the Eastern Hundred Cities or the Grand Middle Territory. Although it had the name Barren Earth, it was not a parched land. 2
It was completely wrong to think of this land as a desert because it was full of water sources. Many areas in this realm were even known for their fertileness!
Thus, very few people could explain the reason for the name. There were a variety of stories. One stated that during an ancient era, a war of the immortal level took place here. Immortals were able to incinerate the entire realm with a swing of their sleeve, scorching this great location.
Later on, under considerable efforts from supreme existences, they were able to turn this land back into a land of fish and rice. 3
1. Barren here can also mean crimson/barren/naked/bloody in nature/southern, but there are a few reasons why I chose crimson over barren in the early chapters. First, crimson is relatively safe before getting the details of the land. What if it was a lush land? Crimson can at least be the color of the mud. The second reason is due to a particular race in this place. Some names are always problematic to translate if the author doesn’t give sufficient details. This particular word 赤 is an example. Changing names for accuracy is something I do want to do for ED, but it can be troublesome with the current client. If the new website provides an easier outlet, then name changes will be carried out more often for older chapters.
2. Okay, nevermind, Barren wins. I initially had Crimson Earth for it like back then before getting to this paragraph. Translating can be so fun… I won’t be changing footnote 1 so that people can read my initial thoughts on this particular word.
3. Idiom for fertile and other synonyms.