Chapter 3485: Seventy-Two Petal Lotus
"Ten eons ago... actually, the exact time can no longer be verified. At that time, the still-unordained Xumi Saint Monk, under orders from the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, went to Haishi Xingwu to search for the legendary Eternal Flower, to serve as the artifact spirit of the Mirror of Fate."
"The so-called Eternal Flower refers to a miraculous bloom nourished by pure Eternal Dao energy, born of heaven and earth."
"Back then, this existed only in a prophecy of Nuwa, recorded in the *Nuwa Dao Jue*. In truth, since ancient times, no one had ever seen a real Eternal Flower."
"After a thousand years of arduous searching at Haishi Xingwu, the Saint Monk actually found two Eternal Flowers."
"One was the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus, representing time; the other was the Chaos Lotus, representing space."
"After being brought back to the Kunlun Realm, these two divine lotuses transformed into the artifact spirits of the Mirror of Fate, growing within the Fate Pool. It was the Saint Monk who taught them the cultivation methods of time and space. Moreover, it is said that the Saint Monk’s acquisition of vast amounts of Time Esoterica and Space Esoterica was aided by them."
"After the Great Venerable vanished, both the Zhang Clan and the Kunlun Realm suffered a bloody calamity."
"A mysterious strongman seized the opportunity to break into the Mirror of Fate, stealing the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus and destroying the Chaos Lotus. The Kunlun Realm cultivators who had been training within the Mirror of Fate all died horribly. What was once a sacred cultivation realm became the current Ghost Gate."
"It was that battle that plunged the once-prosperous Kunlun Realm into decline, with nearly all its top-tier experts slain. It only recovered several eons later with the rise of the Second Confucian Ancestor, Tai Shang, Wen Tianjun, and the Saint Monk."
Bore said, "This ancient mystery is known only to the older generation. I only learned a little of it from the Gatekeeper."
Mu Lingxi listened, captivated, and asked curiously, "Who exactly is the Gatekeeper? How does he know so much?"
Bore replied, "The Gatekeeper is a nephew of Tai Shang, a cultivator of the Fallen God Clan, known as Ying Sou."
"One hundred thousand years ago, the Hell Realm drove the Yellow Spring Star River, pressing mightily toward the Heavenly Court Universe. Full-scale war erupted. The Kunlun Realm, like the current Ancient Civilization Star Domain, bore the brunt, standing on the front line of the battlefield. At that critical juncture, Tai Shang and the others devised a series of plans."
"But no matter the plan, blocking the Yellow Spring Star River was the most urgent task."
"Thus, Wen Tianjun led the gods to charge into the Hell Realm, aiming to destroy the energy source of the Yellow Spring Star River. They went and never returned; not even their corpses wrapped in horsehide came back."
"As for Xumi Saint Monk, he handed the Mirror of Fate to Tai Shang, intending to set up a Starry Sky Grand Formation to resist the Yellow Spring Star River."
"Although the Mirror of Fate had suffered a great calamity, within its Rear Nine Layers, it contained vast Ancestor Divine Qi and Ancestor Rules. If drawn out, its power was beyond the imagination of ordinary gods. And Tai Shang’s formation mastery was the number one in the universe at that time!"
"But to draw out the Ancestor Divine Qi and Ancestor Rules from the Mirror of Fate, a powerful artifact spirit was needed. So, Ying Sou abandoned his physical body and transformed into the mirror spirit."
"As for what happened next, you already know. Although the Starry Sky Grand Formation was set up and blocked the Yellow Spring Star River, Tai Shang expended too much Spiritual Power, was captured, and suffered one hundred thousand years of torment and erosion in the Destiny Temple."
"The Mirror of Fate also endured brutal attacks. The artifact spirit was severely wounded, and vast amounts of Fate Esoterica were drained away by the Destiny Temple. Fortunately, the gods of the Heavenly Court arrived in time to save the Ghost Gate."
"Now, with the return of the Thunder Clan and the Heavenly Court’s loss of the Wuding Divine Sea Defense Line, the Ghost Gate has become the foremost defense against the Hell Realm and the Thunder Clan!"
Zhang Ruochen remained silent.
Many things, Tai Shang had never mentioned to him.
Zhang Ruochen understood that this was because he was not yet strong enough. In Tai Shang’s eyes, he was still a junior who hadn’t grown up. His current priority was cultivation and self-improvement, not meddling in the games of the Heavens or digging into secrets he shouldn’t yet know.
It was too dangerous.
The more one knows, the more dangerous it becomes.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Who exactly stole the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus, and why was it stolen? Has no result been found to this day?"
Bore gently shook her head. "In truth, even Ying Sou isn’t very clear. There are two guesses. One is that the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus was actually destroyed along with the Chaos Lotus, which is why the Space-Time Chaos Lotus that later grew from the ashes possesses both time and space attributes."
"The second guess is that it was the work of the Destiny Temple. Because the theft of the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus occurred while Xumi Saint Monk was being entangled by Void Heaven. At the same time, that mysterious incident led to the loss of much Fate Esoterica."
"The current Destiny Temple holds more than half of the Fate Esoterica in the world, and this was not solely obtained from the battle against Tai Shang one hundred thousand years ago. It is more likely that both great calamities are connected to the Destiny Temple."
"So Ying Sou speculates that the Destiny Temple may have hidden, unknown strongmen. When the Great Venerable shattered the Destiny Temple back then, he might have been trying to force them out."
"Hidden strongmen?" Zhang Ruochen murmured.
Such speculation was too ethereal.
If the Destiny Temple truly had hidden strongmen, why didn’t they appear when the Dragon Lord rescued Tai Shang, or when the Remnant Lamp took the *Fate Heavenly Scripture*?
However, Zhang Ruochen always maintained extreme vigilance toward the Destiny Temple, not because of Feng Tian or Void Heaven, but because, during his journey across the River of Time via the Xumi Temple to cultivate the First-rank Sacred Intent, the Gate of Fate had appeared multiple times, with several ancestors of the Destiny Temple attacking him.
This was the working of heavenly mechanism, the auspicious and inauspicious signs calculated by fate.
Zhang Ruochen still remembered two instances when the Gate of Fate appeared: once repelled by the Second Confucian Ancestor, and once by the Heavenly Demon.
The master of the Destiny Temple during the Second Confucian Ancestor’s era was hard to deduce.
But the era of the Heavenly Demon was undoubtedly the Chaos Era.
And in the Chaos Era, the strongest were the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods, who held absolute dominion over the universe.
Zhang Ruochen had consulted historical records and found that only Baal, ranked second among the Supreme Four Pillars, had a significant connection to the Destiny Temple.
It could be imagined that over ten million years ago, it was Baal who calculated the abnormal fluctuations in the River of Time, detected an ill omen threatening the Destiny Temple or himself, and thus attacked Zhang Ruochen.
But he was blocked by the Heavenly Demon of that era.
Zhang Ruochen’s successful cultivation of the First-rank Divine Path was itself the result of the strongest beings of various eras protecting his path.
In the battle at the North Marsh Great Wall, among the Supreme Four Pillars, Zhang Ruochen only knew of Gai Mie and Qiang Shake’s whereabouts.
Gai Mie was suppressed by Fengdu Dadi and imprisoned in Fengdu Ghost City, where his divine soul and divine matter were constantly being eroded.
As for Baal...
Zhang Ruochen felt he needed to find someone to ask, to understand the specifics of the battle at the North Marsh Great Wall.
Old Drunkard had mentioned that fifty or sixty Chaos Era Demon Gods had awakened at the North Marsh Great Wall, and fewer than ten had escaped.
Each of these demon gods, at their peak, was a Heavens-level existence and could quickly return to their prime. Any one of them escaping was a tremendous threat.
Moreover, the Chaos Era Demon Gods themselves were a strange puzzle.
Fei Ma Wang and Xiang Chunan’s mysterious master were both among the Chaos Era Demon Gods, but they were not at the North Marsh Great Wall and had awakened much earlier.
The higher one’s cultivation, the more secrets one encountered. Zhang Ruochen increasingly felt the terror of this world. Vaguely, it seemed that some strange, sinister force truly existed, capable of breaking free from the constraints of heaven and earth’s rules.
Could the Immortal truly exist?
What exactly did the Great Venerable know back then, and what was he searching for?
Bore said, "The second guess is indeed very unlikely. In fact, Ying Sou also mentioned a third guess at the time: that it was the work of the Thunder Punishment Heavenly Venerable."
"Because after the Great Venerable vanished, the Thunder Punishment Heavenly Venerable was the number one strongman in the world. There were very few cultivators who could break through the Ancestor Rule defenses of the Mirror of Fate, and he was certainly one of them."
"With the Thunder Punishment Heavenly Venerable re-emerging in such an inconceivable way, far exceeding his expected lifespan, the likelihood of him stealing the Seventy-Two Petal Lotus has greatly increased!"
Zhang Ruochen picked up his chopsticks again, lifted a piece of mutton, and put it into his mouth. "Let’s treat this as an interesting tale. With our current cultivation, we can’t reach such matters, nor can we interfere. Bore, after finishing this bowl of mutton soup, return to the Kunlun Realm."
Bore naturally understood why Zhang Ruochen was making such an arrangement and fell silent.
Zhang Ruochen looked at her. "It’s too dangerous. Besides, we’ve already made it clear: what the Mirror of Fate shows is all false, completely useless. Staying in the Destiny Temple no longer has any meaning!"
"Then what meaning does my life have?"
Bore murmured to herself.
Her voice was so faint it seemed only she could hear it.
Zhang Ruochen stopped his chopsticks.
She said, "My aspiration is to cultivate the Path of Fate, unravel the secrets of fate, and find a way to break destiny. Perhaps in the future, I won’t be able to help you, but this has long been etched into my heart. If I abandon this aspiration, abandon this path... where should I go? What meaning does my existence have? There’s no one left in the Kunlun Realm for me to care about..."
"Huang Yanchen is dead. I am now just a lonely ghost."
Zhang Ruochen didn’t know how to describe the pain in his heart. It felt as if his heart had been frozen in ice, about to solidify and shatter.
Mu Lingxi had thought herself extremely unfortunate, but at this moment, she realized how fortunate she was. In the Heavenly Court, she still had her adoptive father and master, and a large group of friends.
But Chen Jie truly had nothing left.
In this indescribably sorrowful atmosphere, a discordant voice rang out: "How about having a child?"
Bore was first stunned, then glared fiercely at Zhang Ruochen.
"Great, great! If Chen Jie has a child, she’ll naturally have family and companionship. This suggestion is really good! Leave the Destiny Temple. The Kunlun Realm is actually quite nice now." Mu Lingxi’s eyes widened with joy.
But Bore’s eyes only showed a brief flicker of light before turning dim again.
Zhang Ruochen said, "What’s wrong? Unwilling? Or worried about something? Is it about Nutian Shenzun?"
"My master has treated me well and has great expectations for me, hoping I will inherit the Nutian Divine Temple in the future." Bore said.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Actually, I’ve long wanted to visit Nutian Shenzun. There are many things only he can tell me the truth about."
Bore’s gaze fell on Mu Lingxi’s face. "Lingxi, why is the phoenix mark on your forehead burning?"
Mu Lingxi’s fair face had already turned scorching hot. She had been secretly circulating Divine Qi, but she couldn’t suppress the increasingly intense heat inside her body.
It felt like flames were burning within her.
She frowned, her slender neck flushed red, trying to maintain the composure befitting a god, and looked at Zhang Ruochen with a questioning glare. "What kind of meat are you boiling in this cauldron? Did you plan this all along? Don’t tell me you want me to go back to the Kunlun Realm and have a child too?"
Bore also sensed the abnormality in her own body and immediately released the Nether River, using Yin Nether Qi to refine the terrifying heat in her blood.
Zhang Ruochen rubbed his temples. "This meat is a great tonic. I wanted to help you improve your physical bodies and cultivation, treating it as an opportunity. But now that you mention it, I think the suggestion is quite good."
Mu Lingxi, being inexperienced in such matters, could no longer maintain her composure upon hearing this. Filled with shyness, she immediately fled outside the Past God Palace.
How hateful!
She wasn’t mentally prepared at all—how could he do this?
(Chapter End)