Chapter 69: The First Life

The moment Liu Changning rushed to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, she was greeted by the sight of shimmering arrows.

A man with red clothes and black hair tilted his head back, his chiseled jaw tense. As the arrows were released simultaneously, he reacted swiftly, leaping up from the red sandalwood chair. With a flick of his wrist, the fiery red whip lashed out, creating a series of sharp whip shadows in mid-air.

The whip’s tail swept across, and arrows flying from all directions fell to the ground with a “ping pong” sound, scattering around him, piling up to half an inch high in an instant.

The dark red silk robe was dyed a bright red with fresh blood. His half-bound, half-loose black hair fluttered in the strong wind, brushing against his porcelain-white face, staining it with blood.

The winter sun shone behind him, casting a bright light around him, making his face appear even more bewitching.

His long arm was pierced by arrows, and the small exposed section of his arm exuded strength and explosive power.

For a moment, the Hall of Supreme Harmony fell silent, with almost everyone’s gaze focused on the man amidst the sea of arrows. With countless arrows flying and the red whip flashing, the scene was too captivating, automatically shocking everyone’s hearts. At this moment, he was Pei Yuanshao, the most beautiful man in Jinfeng, and also the skilled imperial consort. Even if he burned out his life, he would still be the most brilliant blaze.

The heart-stirring beauty made people unconsciously hold their breath.

Another arrow hit his thigh, and Pei Yuanshao’s body swayed. He squinted his eyes, a flash of fatigue passing through. His body was almost at its limit!

His arms stubbornly swung down and up again…

He couldn’t die!

A cry of grief echoed deep in his soul: Phoenix… the last life of the Phoenix’s rebirth, he couldn’t die! He needed this life to be perfect!

Who was the Phoenix? Why rebirth? Why must there be hope?

Pei Yuanshao didn’t know, he only vaguely remembered, many years ago.

There was a voice, full of deep emotion, she said: “Do you believe me? Will you wait for me if you believe me?”

“Shao’er, be good! If you believe me, then wait for me, and I’ll tell you what the pan chang knot means?”

He thought, he must wait, even if he had only one last breath.

The air was filled with the fishy smell of blood. Liu Changning stood at the entrance of the hall, looking at the man with flying black hair, his eyes as dark as if they could drip ink.

Perhaps it wasn’t ink, but a call.

Liu Changning’s eyes suddenly filled with countless tears, the cry in her heart almost echoing the grief of that person.

Her tea-colored pupils began to change, the thin wound across her pupils becoming clearer, gradually converging into a miniature thin sword.

The thin sword flickered in the depths of her eyes, memories surging in an instant.

Fragments flew. He was him, him, him!

In the first life, he was the Wuqing Dao Ancestor who fell in the heavenly tribulation tens of thousands of years ago, the strange remnant soul in the Cangming sword. He said: “Don’t call me Ancestor, call me Ziyuan.”

In the second life, the Phoenix was reborn, he was the divine weapon Chitian who protected her soul under the thunder tribulation. He said: “Old Taoist Liu, let me send you out, alright? When we meet again, you must recognize me… If you don’t recognize me, I’ll force you, take my body and marry me!”

In the third life, she was Prime Minister Liu Cangyun, and he was the imperial consort Pei Ziyuan, strangers with no connection.

The most desperate life! The most familiar stranger, she draped him in red clothes, giving him the last dignity of being human.

That night, the star chart changed drastically, and a voice whispered sorrowfully in her ear: “Cangyun, the Phoenix only has three chances of rebirth. In the last life, I sacrificed never falling into reincarnation to gain a chance to reverse time and space for one life. Will you recognize me?”

Qilian, who entered with Liu Changning, led the guards in.

Liu Changning opened her dry lips and said hoarsely: “Kill!”

Swords clashed in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

She stepped on arrows as she approached, the wind drying the tears on her face.

The man in red, supporting himself with one hand on the ground, was covered in arrows.

He looked up at her, his lips curving with difficulty, and spoke in a hoarse voice: “I’ll be good… wait… wait for you, you said… marry… marry me”

His voice was broken and intermittent. After finishing, he panted for a long time, then spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, splattering on Liu Changning’s pure white robe, leaving a mottled pattern of red plum blossoms.

Liu Changning caught his swaying body, lowered her head and nodded with difficulty, saying hoarsely: “Ziyuan, Chitian, Shao’er, I’ve come to marry you!”

Their hair intertwined, their breaths mingling, a tear from her eye fell onto his lips.

Cold and salty.

The blood-soaked man greedily extended his tongue, licked it, then closed his eyes. His breath was weak, arrows piercing his body.

Liu Changning didn’t even dare to pull them out, fearing blood would gush in.

She carefully avoided his wounds and picked him up horizontally. She kicked over the fallen Jing Huan.

Liu Changning carried the person in her arms, anxiously rushing out of the palace, leaping over eaves and walls, speeding towards Nanhua Temple.

The abbess of Nanhua Temple, Ningxin, had the ability to grow flesh from bones and bring the dead back to life.

If anyone had looked closely, they would have seen that Zhen Nan Wang, who had fallen in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, was now rapidly aging at an unbelievable speed, silver hair falling over his face, wrinkles appearing.

His limbs curled up, his appearance withered.

Where did the Emotion Demon have clan members? From beginning to end, there was only one person.

Not born, not dead, not destroyed, not vanished.

Using the seven emotions and six desires of the purest, kindest, strongest, and most positive Wuqing Dao cultivator in the mortal world as nourishment…

To nurture the demon seed, when the demon seed matures, it will have the power to destroy heaven and earth, becoming the master of the three realms!

But his… nourishment had been tampered with!

It wasn’t until Liu Cangyun extracted her seven emotions and six desires from him… at the moment the emotion gu was removed, that he understood. The obsessive desire for three lifetimes was a trap!

Jing Huan suddenly burst into laughter. Pei Ziyuan, the Phoenix of the Vermilion Bird clan, Pei Ziyuan, had played him for three lifetimes. Brilliant!

His hand, shriveled like a twig, couldn’t help but shakily applaud. In his aged eyes, hatred filled the depths.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony was in chaos, no one paid attention to Zhen Nan Wang’s transformation, and no one even noticed a figure flashing by, taking him out of the hall.

—

My name is Pei Ziyuan, and from the moment I was born, I was destined to be a person without emotions or desires.

My mother was originally a foundation-building disciple of the Reclusive Immortal Palace, and my father was the ancient divine beast, the Vermilion Bird.

The union of my parents was opposed by everyone due to their vastly different statuses. To be worthy of my father, my mother began to cultivate frantically, attempting to ascend to immortality.

One day, she happily held a scripture of the “Wuqing Dao” and went to Mount Dai to find my father.

When all hope seemed lost, a new path suddenly appeared. With this Dao method, my mother quickly broke through to the Golden Core stage.

That night, they thought marriage was just around the corner, not knowing it was the beginning of a future tragedy.

Of the three thousand great Daos, even the emotionless have emotions. Those who can ascend must hold onto one heart, with great compassion and great creation, to be able to safely pass through the tribulation of questioning the heart during ascension.

But this “Wuqing Dao” scripture was completely at odds with natural creation.

After my mother cultivated it, her seven emotions and six desires gradually faded. By the time she broke through to the Tribulation Crossing stage, the seven emotions and six desires were completely stripped from her body, and she became utterly devoid of feelings.

A hundred years later, my mother died under the lightning tribulation of the Tribulation Crossing stage.

And this Wuqing Dao scripture, like a curse, transferred to my meridians the moment my mother’s soul lamp extinguished.

My father was grief-stricken and spent a full hundred years investigating the truth.

But this truth was cruel beyond imagination.

The Wuqing Dao originated from an ancient incomplete scripture, created by the Demon God himself.

Later, during the great war between immortals and demons, because this scripture was evil and dangerous, anyone who could cultivate it would gradually lose their seven emotions and six desires.

The stripped seven emotions and six desires could nurture a demon seed with the power to destroy heaven and earth – the Emotion Demon. The Immortal Emperor at that time used his own spiritual power to seal it.

However, they didn’t anticipate that in order to return to the spirit realm, the demon clan would use the heart blood of generations of demon lords as a medium to break the seal on the Wuqing Dao scripture.

From five hundred years ago, they began searching throughout the three realms for someone who could cultivate the Wuqing Dao scripture, but to no avail.

Those chosen by the Wuqing Dao method must have pure thoughts, for only the purest and kindest are firm.

Because only those with pure and firm thoughts are suitable for cultivating the demon seed with their seven emotions and six desires.

In the three thousand worlds, there are many people, but those with pure hearts without impurities and possessing the most positive and negative physiques are extremely rare.

My mother, in order to improve her cultivation, entered the Qitian Secret Realm for training. She was ambushed and unwittingly entered a fake cave of an ancient powerhouse created by the demon clan, opening this long-sealed evil scripture.

The Wuqing Dao emerged. A disaster for the three realms!

After my mother’s death, my father sacrificed himself to enter the Demon Bone Cave.

He found the demon pool that nurtured the demon seed. The pool was indestructible, and the nourishment in it was the seven emotions and six desires of Wuqing Dao cultivators. The demon fetus was already being nurtured in it.

I was born a Wuqing Dao cultivator. It was like a brand, passing through my mother’s bloodline onto me. With her death, it transferred to me, automatically circulating in my meridians.

In this life, I reached the Nascent Soul stage in ten years, the Tribulation Crossing stage in a hundred years, and then died in the lightning tribulation.

But carrying the bloodline of the Vermilion Bird clan, I had three chances of rebirth through nirvana.

If I were to be reborn, the Wuqing Dao would operate in my new body, and the seven emotions and six desires would only further strengthen the nourishment of the demon fetus.

If the demon seed with the power to destroy heaven and earth were to be successfully nurtured, the years to come would be a living hell.

Almost all the Tribulation Crossing stage ancestors in the spirit realm intervened to prevent my nirvana rebirth, sealing my soul within the divine weapon Cangming, neither born nor destroyed, neither dead nor vanished, falling into slumber, and once again sealing the Wuqing Dao scripture.

In my soul state, I couldn’t cultivate, providing minimal nourishment for the demon fetus. The demon fetus couldn’t grow, and I was destined to fall into endless darkness for the sake of all living beings.

Time passed, seas turned to mulberry fields.

When I was awakened again, I sensed the aura of a fellow Wuqing Dao practitioner.

My half-lazy spiritual consciousness suddenly became alert. The woman who broke into the cave wore a white robe, her black hair half-loose, her cold eyes sweeping over.

Grabbing the hilt of Cangming, she said puzzledly: “Huh? There’s actually an iron sword in an immortal’s cave!”

I snorted heavily.

Unexpectedly, the visitor cautiously let go, and Cangming sword made a “ping pong” sound as it fell to the ground.

The visitor’s cold voice sounded again: “Who’s sneaking around? Come out!”

My snort caught in my throat, and I coughed. The person directed her spiritual sense to probe Cangming.

My soul, along with Cangming, smuggled into her dantian along her spiritual sense. This person had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, with her internal qi sea divided into two, black and white intertwined. The black side was the aura of the Wuqing Dao, while the white side was inscrutable.

Her body didn’t reject my soul. If she gave up control, I could freely manipulate her body!

Overjoyed! At that moment, there was only one thought in my mind: possession!

Having practiced the Wuqing Dao for many years, conscience wasn’t important to me. At that time, who cared about the world’s common people?

Sealed in Cangming for too many years, not seeing the light of day, neither dead nor alive, finally awakened, I wanted to see this world.

I used every means, to the utmost seduction, wanting to find her weakest moment of consciousness to possess her, but she was indestructible!

Boring, rigid, conservative, proper… a paragon of righteousness!

No loopholes at all!

It’s just a pity that having cultivated the Wuqing Dao, who could escape being manipulated by the Dao method.

At first, I laughed mockingly, then became slightly curious, and later…

When temptation was useless, I thought of the erotic picture books of the mortal world…

From then on, feelings gradually arose, unknown whereabouts, also without a place to land… not knowing right from wrong.

A hundred joys, a thousand worries…

It seemed I had emotions again!