# 1592
Chapter 1592: Heart's Trial
Above the ruins of Heavenly Court, a temporal rift suddenly tore open.
A grayish-white figure plummeted into the earth. When Zuo Qing and the others saw this, they froze for a moment before immediately scrambling toward him, propping themselves up with broken branches.
"Is that Wang Mian??" Wu "Old Dog" asked in confusion. "Didn't he go back to change history? Why did he fall from the sky?"
Zuo Qing's brow furrowed tightly as he crouched beside Wang Mian. Just as he was about to examine him, the latter broke into violent coughing.
"Cough, cough, cough……"
"Wang Mian, why did you come back? What happened?"
"It was An… cough… An Qingyu." Wang Mian weakly pushed himself up from the ground, looking up at the gradually closing rift in the sky. "He stood at the end of that timeline, warning me not to touch that line… then used time to wash me back."
"An Qingyu?"
Zuo Qing's brow furrowed even more deeply.
An Qingyu was the Gate of Truth—he could wield partial power of truth, which naturally included space and time… That meant, as long as the future An Qingyu guarded the timeline, they couldn't change this history? What was he thinking?!
While Zuo Qing was lost in thought, three streaks of light flew in from the distance. Wu "Old Dog" beside him brightened.
"It's the Celestial Venerables, the three Celestial Venerables have returned."
Above Heavenly Court, three Taoist figures materialized.
When the Celestial Venerable of the Way saw Heavenly Court reduced to ruins beneath him, his chest heaved violently. Boundless killing intent poured from his eyes.
"Heavenly Court… 【Chaos】, you beast!"
Yuanshi Tianzun frowned as he sensed the area, his expression easing slightly: "Fortunately, casualties are minimal. Only the palaces and some places where heavenly treasures were nurtured were destroyed… Let's rescue people quickly."
Yuanshi Tianzun and the Celestial Venerable of the Way dove down to Heavenly Court, beginning to rescue the fallen Gods of Great Xia and Human Apexes. Lingbao Tianzun stood alone in the air, looking down at the devastated Heavenly Court, his fists unconsciously clenching tight…
In the mist, 【Chaos】 had appeared alongside An Qingyu—in other words, An Qingyu had participated in this destruction of Heavenly Court?
As Lingbao Tianzun was about to descend to help with the rescue, his peripheral vision caught something, and confusion flickered in his eyes!
His form transformed into a streak of light, descending directly to the periphery of the empty void in Heavenly Court. Scattered yellow sand drifted in the air above the void—this place's original ground had been literally transformed into yellow sand, piercing through Heavenly Court.
"It's him…" Lingbao Tianzun murmured to himself.
Only An Qingyu's power to deconstruct all things could achieve this!
Lingbao Tianzun bent down and picked up a fragment of a blade hilt from the palace ruins. This hilt was very familiar to him—it belonged to a Night Watch Straight Blade—but the original blade body had mysteriously vanished.
He turned the hilt over. At the very bottom, two characters carved by someone were clearly visible:
—Cao Yuan.
Lingbao Tianzun's pupils contracted slightly.
……
"Still haven't found Qiyé?"
Zhou Ping, carrying a bloodstained sword on his back, walked to Zuo Qing's side and asked with concern.
After the three Celestial Venerables returned, the Celestial Venerable of the Way had used elixirs to save numerous critically injured Great Xia deities. Those with less severe injuries had basically regained their mobility.
Destroyed palaces could be rebuilt, shattered Heavenly Court could be repaired—these were not difficult tasks for Great Xia's deities who each had their own specialties. But strangely, after searching through the ruins for a long time, the deities and Human Apexes found no trace of Lin Qiye's soul.
Zuo Qing shook his head. "No, but since the Celestial Venerables are back, finding him shouldn't be difficult…"
Before Zuo Qing finished speaking, Yuanshi Tianzun's voice passed through the void and reached his ears.
"Found him."
Zuo Qing's eyes brightened. He hurried toward Yuanshi Tianzun's location, supporting himself with broken branches. Zhou Ping followed closely behind.
They arrived before the ruined Lingxiao Palace. Yuanshi Tianzun stood quietly in the ruins, surrounded by nothing but broken stones.
"Where is Lin Qiye?"
Yuanshi Tianzun didn't speak. He simply looked up toward the remaining fragment of the Lingxiao Palace's roof. A blurry figure stood there, staring blankly into the distance, motionless as a stone statue.
"What is he doing?" Zuo Qing asked, puzzled.
Yuanshi Tianzun's gaze toward Lin Qiye was complex. After a long moment, he slowly uttered two words:
"Heart's Trial."
"Heart's Trial?" Zhou Ping was confused. "What is that?"
"……" Zuo Qing directly ignored Zhou Ping's question, his brow furrowing. "He's breaking through the Heart's Trial? But doesn't he only have a soul body?"
"Soul and heart are interdependent. Even without a physical body, the Heart's Trial still exists." Yuanshi Tianzun explained. "After his soul drifted here, he must have seen something from the rooftop, causing the 'Heart's Trial' to descend…"
Zuo Qing seemed to realize something, his lips pressing together tightly.
He knew best what had triggered Lin Qiye's Heart's Trial. An Qingyu's betrayal and Cao Yuan's death—either of these alone was enough to greatly impact one's psyche. Moreover, it was An Qingyu who had personally killed Cao Yuan.
He had intended to, after Lin Qiye awakened, hide the connection between these two events, only saying that An Qingyu had been taken away by 【Chaos】 and Cao Yuan had fallen in battle… But he never expected Lin Qiye's soul to have witnessed everything from the roof of Lingxiao Palace.
As the captain of the 【Nightfall】 squad, watching his most trusted vice-captain betray him and kill Cao Yuan right before his eyes—how devastating was that?
"But even if he's breaking through the 'Heart's Trial,' shouldn't it just be a momentary fluctuation in emotion? Why would he freeze like that?" Zuo Qing asked, puzzled.
"A soul forcibly ejected from the body by external force is like a rootless duckweed, existing in a half-dreaming, half-awake state. It can see everything happening in the outside world, but the consciousness is blurred. It can only generate some reflexive emotions through the deepest本能 of the heart.
Ordinary people encountering a 'Heart's Trial' bottleneck only need a momentary emotional fluctuation to step into the ceiling realm. But in his state, it's different.
A fragile, blurred consciousness encountering an unprecedentedly intense emotional wave will instantly destroy his rationality. Like falling into an eternal nightmare, he would sink into the impact of the 'Heart's Trial.'"
Zuo Qing was stunned for a long moment. "You mean… he's trapped in the 'Heart's Trial'?"
"That's correct."
"Then what should we do?"
Yuanshi Tianzun helplessly shook his head. "The Heart's Trial disaster can only be overcome by oneself. Perhaps this is his destined tribulation… The only thing we can do is rebuild a physical body for him and guide his soul back into it."
"Like when you rebuilt my physical body?" Zhou Ping mused.
"In that case, Heavenly Court should have suitable bodies?"
Yuanshi Tianzun pondered for a moment, then helplessly sighed. He turned and walked toward the distance:
"This humble one must go retrieve something……"