Chapter 994: The Flaw
Yun Che left, but the slight disturbance at the bottom of the Heavenly Lake did not calm for a long time.
Even a deity could not fully digest such a vast amount of memory in a short time, let alone completely comprehend it. The maiden within the ice remained silent, her consciousness entirely immersed in Yun Che's memories.
The Evil God… why did he possess Dark Profound Force?
Was it because of his union with Jie Tian Mo Di? Or was it…
The Heaven-Defying Demon-Slaying Sword?
Heaven-Defying?
Demon-Slaying?
Heaven-Defying—that was the name of Jie Tian Mo Di. The Heaven's Calamity Demon Clan under Jie Tian Mo Di was the only demon clan that could transform into a sword. The sword they transformed into was called the Heaven's Calamity Demon Sword. And the sword transformed from Jie Tian Mo Di herself… was called the Heaven's Calamity Demon God Sword, a blade of utmost darkness.
Demon-Slaying—that was the name of the sword transformed by the Sword Spirit Divine Clan. The "Demon-Slaying Sword" was feared by all demons. After the divine and demon clans went to war, the Sword Spirit Divine Clan was the first to be exterminated by the demon clan. Also, if I remember correctly, the sword transformed by the clan leader of the Sword Spirit Divine Clan was the Holy Spirit Demon-Slaying Sword, a blade of light.
The battle with Shiyue Mojun… his restraint of dark demonic power… it clearly reached the level of the Holy Spirit Demon-Slaying Sword!
And that great suppression of his demon soul… only the Heaven's Calamity Demon God Sword transformed by Jie Tian Mo Di herself could achieve it!
At that time, even when Yun Che exerted his full strength, his profound force and soul power were less than half of Shiyue Mojun's. Yet he was able to slay Shiyue Mojun, all because of the extraordinarily unnatural suppression of power and soul.
Clearly, they were completely opposite and mutually restraining, extreme existences… why did they coexist on the same sword? And the sword's glow was an eerie vermillion… That mysterious ark indeed belonged to the Sword Spirit Clan, but that girl named Hong'er, who possessed the "Heaven's Calamity" attribute—could she truly be the divine daughter of the Sword Spirit Divine Clan?
Wait! I remember… that mysterious ark was gifted to the Sword Spirit Divine Clan by the Evil God back then… Its ability to transform its own space and traverse space was inscribed by the Evil God using the Cosmic Thorn.
Cang Yun Continent… Jueyun Cliff… Dark Abyss…
Those ancient demon beasts…
And… that girl with only a quarter of her soul…
……………
The Dragon God said it sealed its daughter into the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword… So the rumor that the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword last appeared with the Dragon God Clan was true. Then the rumor that the Dragon God Clan, to prevent it from being seized by the demon clan, threw it into the Reincarnation Well should also be true… But why would it seal its daughter into the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword? That was a supremely holy sword, extremely difficult to interfere with. To seal its daughter's soul into it, even the Dragon God would have to pay a tremendous price…
Wait! The Reincarnation Well!?
Could it be…
…………………
…………………
Within Yun Che's memories, there was too much information that even the Ice Phoenix could not understand. She merged this information with her ancient memories and pondered, seeking, in a long silence…
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Yun Che swam upward even faster than he had dived down. Because he had unexpectedly encountered the surviving true body of the Ice Phoenix, he spent a bit more time at the bottom, which made his heart tighten slightly as he rapidly thought of countermeasures.
The pool water parted, and Yun Che flew out of Minghan Heavenly Lake, then froze.
Minghan Heavenly Lake was quiet… and crucially, it was empty. Looking around, he couldn't see a single person.
The entire Ice Phoenix Palace and Ice Phoenix Temple—over five thousand people—had all vanished!
Yun Che reached out and pressed his hand to his forehead… Although he had dived all the way to the bottom, from the time he entered to the time he came out, it was at most less than a quarter of an hour—not much longer than Mu Hanyi's dive. How could it be completely empty?
He suddenly recalled the blank in his consciousness when the Ice Phoenix read his memories… Could that blank have been several hours, or even several days? No way! With the Ice Phoenix's powerful soul force, reading memories shouldn't take that long…
"Hmph, coming out so quickly? It seems your guts aren't as big as I thought."
The voice, though neither light nor heavy, and a woman's voice at that, struck like thunderclaps in the depths of Yun Che's soul. Yun Che looked up like lightning… High above was a cold-gleaming ice dragon, its massive ice wings spreading to blot out the sky.
On the dragon's head, behind the ice mist, was a terrifying figure radiating overwhelming pressure, chilling to the touch.
"Sect… Master!"
Yun Che whispered, then his entire body stiffened, unable to speak further.
Such terrifying pressure…
Under the pressure of the Yinxue Realm King, all the elders, palace masters, and top disciples of the Ice Phoenix God Sect were trembling in fear. Now, facing the Yinxue Realm King alone, the intensity of this pressure was something he had never experienced before…
It felt as if his body, bones, and soul could be crushed to dust at any moment.
And this pressure was by no means deliberately released; it was simply her natural state… because she was at the Divine Lord realm, the highest existence in the entire Divine Realm.
Powerful enough to be a realm king in an upper-level star realm!
"How astonishing. Even I can only dive to a depth of about two thousand three hundred zhang, yet you managed to dive to a depth I couldn't even perceive. Hmph, aren't you going to explain to me how you did it?"
The Yinxue Realm King's voice was icy and flat. Yun Che took a light breath inwardly and prepared to give the explanation he had already thought up… But before he could speak, the Yinxue Realm King interrupted.
"Were you going to tell me that you don't know yourself, and emphasize that you couldn't even touch the cold water of the Heavenly Lake earlier, so I would think you have a special ice physique and talent that you yourself didn't know about?"
Yun Che's open mouth froze right there—because what the Yinxue Realm King said was exactly the same as the words he was about to say!!
"Those who dare to lie to me usually either die or wish they were dead. But you…" The Yinxue Realm King's voice suddenly grew heavier: "Someone like you, bearing the ancient Evil God's power, would be too great a waste to kill outright."
Yun Che felt as if struck by lightning, his vision exploding—
What did she say?
Evil… God!?
No! Impossible… The Evil God's power—apart from myself, Mo Li, and those ancient gods—no one could possibly recognize it! Although the Yinxue Realm King is terrifyingly strong, she is still a human… How could she know I have the Evil God's power?
Did I mishear, or…
Yun Che looked up. Though he tried his best to stay calm, his movements were still somewhat stiff: "Sect Master, what are you saying… I don't understand."
"Don't understand?" The Yinxue Realm King let out a cold, mocking laugh: "You told me yourself about your Evil God inheritance, and now you say you don't understand? Hah! Do you take me for a fool like yourself?!"
Yun Che froze completely: I… told her myself?!
How is that possible! The Evil God inheritance and my greatest secrets—how could I ever tell anyone!
"Don't bother thinking of excuses. I will now tell you one by one!"
Yun Che: "..."
The Yinxue Realm King said heavily: "Our sect's supreme profound art, the Ice Phoenix God-Sealing Canon, can only be cultivated with the foundation of Ice Phoenix power unless one possesses the legendary 'Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body' that can transcend laws. Yet you, without an Ice Phoenix soul or Ice Phoenix blood, have cultivated the Ice Phoenix God-Sealing Canon to the sixth level—that is by no means ordinary."
"Not only have you cultivated the Ice Phoenix God-Sealing Canon, you also possess Phoenix Flame Force and Golden Crow Flame Force, and can use them simultaneously without any mutual conflict. That, too, is by no means ordinary."
"..." Yun Che listened steadily… It seemed that Mu Bingyun had told her everything about him. But based on this alone, no one could possibly connect it to the "Evil God." Where was the problem?
"On your first day in the Yinxue Realm, with profound strength that had not yet entered the divine path, you defeated a profound practitioner who had entered the divine path. That, too, cannot be achieved by ordinary profound force."
"When you broke through here earlier, with your profound energy completely dispersed, the cold energy here couldn't harm you at all. Instead, you completed the divine path breakthrough in just one hour, and at the moment of breakthrough, you attracted all the ice spirits… Without an elemental power extreme enough to surpass reason, these things could not have happened."
"Your dive thousands of zhang deep into Minghan Heavenly Lake is even more proof of this."
The Yinxue Realm King's tone shifted again, becoming even more shocking: "If it were only these things, of course they could be explained as extraordinary talent. No one would think of the 'Evil God.' After all, geniuses appear in every era; those who possess two or three types of divine power are rare but do exist, and those with multiple attributes of profound force are even more common… The most crucial point: in this world, there has never been a transmission from the level of a Creation God. No one would just connect the power on you to the Evil God, a Creation God."
"But you just had to reveal the Star God Remnant Shadow!"
Yun Che jerked his head up, his heart shaken violently… In that instant, he suddenly realized something.
"Do you know why the Star God Remnant Shadow is called the Star God Remnant Shadow? Because it is a star god profound art that only the Twelve Star Gods of the Star God Realm can cultivate! The one who taught you to cultivate the Star God Remnant Shadow could only be one of the Twelve Star Gods!"
"And the purpose of your arrival in the Divine Realm was precisely to find Tiansha Xingshen!"
"Eight years ago, there was a rumor that Tiansha Xingshen obtained some kind of Evil God inheritance in the Southern Divine Region, was subsequently poisoned with Godslayer Desolation Poison, and has already fallen… This is not a little-known secret; it was a matter that shook the entire Divine Realm, known to all!"
Yun Che opened his mouth, left speechless for a long time.
"You risked danger to come here, only to see Tiansha Xingshen again. This shows that your bond must be deep. Such a bond does not form overnight. So those eight years of Tiansha Xingshen's disappearance were very likely spent with you. Then, combining the abnormal profound force and elemental control on you, the Evil God's title as the Elemental Creation God, and the rumor that Tiansha Xingshen obtained some kind of Evil God inheritance…"
"It was easy for me to guess that you carry the Evil God's inheritance!"
"If your Star God Remnant Shadow is exposed to others, it may very well provoke them to investigate. If word reaches the Star God Realm, they will surely pursue which star god taught you. If they trace the connection between you and Tiansha Xingshen, combined with your abnormal profound force and elemental control—if I could guess it, they have no reason not to guess!"
"Not only would they guess at the Evil God's power you bear, they might even guess that you have the Heavenly Poison Pearl! Because the poison Tiansha Xingshen suffered back then was the Godslayer Desolation Poison!"
"By then, what will be your fate? And what will be the fate of the planet you hail from?"
"Hiss…" Cold sweat poured down Yun Che's forehead.
———————————— [Major Correction: A super huge bug appeared in the previous chapter! I mistakenly wrote "Heaven-Defying World Scripture" instead of "Ancestral Divine Art"! This is the most serious bug ever! The Ancestral Divine Art is the divine art left by the ancient Primordial Divine, divided into three fragments. As for the Heaven-Defying World Scripture, it's an inexplicable thing deciphered from the black jade that fell from Shiyue Mojun by Xiao Lingxi. What it is—the Golden Crow Soul Spirit doesn't know, the Ice Phoenix doesn't know, Yun Che doesn't know, and even I don't know!! It has absolutely no connection to the Ancestral Divine Art!! Absolutely not!!] [As for why I wrote them mixed up… probably because their pinyin… uh, probably because their characters look very similar. Definitely not because they have any connection. Absolutely not! Absolutely not!! Absolutely not!!! I've said it three times, so you must firmly believe this!] [o(╥﹏╥)o (sobbing)] [A couple days ago I said I was going to get out of the cold, and a lot of people mocked me for not being able to afford air conditioning. You people, ah... hehehe... you know too much!!] [I'm going to fix my car. Today should be just this half chapter. As if I would add an extra chapter because of the biggest bug ever!!]