Chapter Thirty-Four: The Fate of a Girl

He Changqi, for the future of the Benevolence Sect, activated the Boundless Heaven and Earth Formation, enveloping the entire Mount Benevolence in its protection. His primordial spirit’s expression changed—a tribulation cloud had appeared. His heart sank.

He thought to himself, “This demon fox’s childbirth has actually attracted a lightning tribulation. This is her weakest moment. If she or the child are harmed by the tribulation, my plan to unify the Thunderclap Continent will become nothing but a dream. Though I cannot directly interfere in a cultivator’s tribulation, I can at least reduce its power from the sidelines!”

With no time to waste, thunder rumbled from within the tribulation cloud, shaking heaven and earth. He Changqi’s primordial spirit formed a seal and spat out a dazzling golden sword. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged toward the sword, which quivered and transformed into a colossal blade that seemed to hold up the sky. His primordial spirit merged into the giant sword as a stream of light.

Cultivators at the Spirit-Refining Stage would comprehend a sliver of heaven’s law, usually refining their life-bound magical treasure alongside their spirit, until the two became one—thus forging the Spirit Treasure. He Changqi had refined his spirit using his life-bound Golden Scale Sword, achieving the Spirit-Refining Stage.

This sword, fused with his primordial spirit, could absorb the energies of heaven and earth without the need for further refinement, its power unmatched. The sword grew to a hundred feet, its oppressive might blasting open a ten-yard-wide path through the dark clouds, sunlight pouring down onto the giant blade.

With a swing, the golden sword’s shadow split the thundercloud in two. But after this blow, the sword’s brilliance dimmed, only to shine again as heaven and earth’s energy surged into it once more.

This was a great arcane art of the Spirit-Refining Stage, enabling one to command the energies of the world.

The tribulation cloud in the sky let out an enraged dragon’s roar. In response, silver light burst forth, and countless thunderballs coalesced into two thunder dragons. One lashed its head and tail, breathing a torrent of lightning toward He Changqi’s spirit-sword; thousands of thunderballs the size of bowls bombarded the Golden Scale Sword without pause.

The other thunder dragon opened its maw and spat a dense sheet of lightning at the mountain peak where Xiaoyue resided.

He Changqi let out a wild laugh. “So the tribulation’s spirit has formed! Lucky it’s just a minor thunder wyrm. Good! I’ll capture it and refine it into a treasure.”

The Golden Scale Sword shuddered and took on He Changqi’s appearance. He recited a strange incantation, forming a seal. A net woven of shining runes appeared in the sky, then vanished. An instant later, it manifested above the thunder wyrm and fell over it.

The thunder wyrm would not be so easily caught. It slashed with its claws, sending five blades of lightning at the net. The runes condensed, effortlessly deflecting the lightning blades. In a flash, the net enveloped the wyrm, the runes tightening inexorably around it.

No matter how the thunder wyrm struggled, it could not break free of the net. He Changqi laughed triumphantly and changed his seal: “Tribulation spirit, your resistance is futile. My Earth Net is a supreme spiritual treasure. Today, you cannot escape your fate!”

The net shrank rapidly, drawing the thunder wyrm into He Changqi’s hand. He smiled with satisfaction and murmured to himself, “The tribulation spirit must be refined within a day, or it will dissipate into spiritual energy and vanish. I have done all I can—now, it’s up to fate.”

With that, He Changqi’s primordial spirit flashed back into his body. He opened his eyes in an instant, drew forth the Earth Net, and began refining the tribulation spirit.

Meanwhile, countless bolts of lightning crashed against a hazy gray barrier. The barrier trembled but continued to ward off the lightning. The Boundless Heaven and Earth Formation not only concealed but also defended.

Xiaoyue was enduring the agony of childbirth. For cultivators, to seize the blessings of heaven and earth was to defy the heavens. If they also enjoyed mortal joys and fulfilled human duties, the heavens would inevitably abandon them. The higher their cultivation, the harsher the tribulations. Xiaoyue, at the Infant Transformation Stage, bore the bloodline of the Celestial Fox, and in her womb was a child carrying both the blood of the Evil Dragon and the Celestial Fox—such a being was fated to draw down heaven’s wrath.

But that was not all; childbirth itself was a tribulation. The slightest misstep could mean death and the end of the path.

Now Xiaoyue endured tremendous pain, yet she gritted her teeth, her whole body trembling. “Sister, whether or not you’ve returned to Ten Thousand Demons Mountain, I will give birth to my child, and then return to Ten Thousand Demons Mountain as planned, so we sisters may reunite. You will surely love my child. Perhaps then we will finally be together and never part again. What is love? Love is only a tool for human cultivators to harm us.”

With a cry of anguish, a beautiful infant was born. Xiaoyue took her baby in her arms—a lovely, luminous girl. She pressed a deep kiss to the child’s forehead and inscribed the word “Rose” on her back. Tears streamed down her face as she drew out a bloodline teleportation talisman, formed a seal, and activated a formation that enveloped the child. In a flash, the baby vanished from the secret chamber. Overcome by pain and weakness, Xiaoyue fainted.

In Xie Jiu’s cave, a formation suddenly flared to life, and a chubby, fair-skinned little girl appeared.

Xie Jiu had been anxiously awaiting this moment. To intervene under the nose of a Spirit-Refining cultivator was exceedingly dangerous. Fortunately, Xiaoyue’s tribulation had drawn He Changqi’s attention, and he was preoccupied with refining the tribulation spirit, giving Xie Jiu the opportunity he needed.

As soon as the formation activated, he embraced the child, gazing into her beautiful eyes as tears welled up in his own. He then formed a seal and sent out a bloodline teleportation talisman, sending a male infant with a Yin spiritual root—whom he had painstakingly found—into the secret chamber beside Xiaoyue.

With the child delivered, the lightning tribulation outside faded without a trace. The secret chamber’s door opened, and Li Qing slowly entered, a cold smile on his lips. He approached Xiaoyue, placed a Heaven-rooted infant at her side, took the Yin-rooted child into his arms, and quietly withdrew.

Xie Jiu cradled the girl, rose, and left the cave in a flash of light, vanishing beyond the horizon. He traveled thousands of miles in two days, at last stopping atop a mountain amidst a ten-thousand-mile expanse of dead, marshy wasteland. There, he sent a sound-transmission talisman and waited.

Within the mountain was a hidden world—a massive long-distance teleportation array. Xie Jiu placed a dozen superior spirit stones around it, affixed a teleportation talisman to himself, and formed a seal.

The array blazed with light, and in an instant, Xie Jiu vanished. A million miles away, in another distant formation, light flared and he staggered out, dizzy and disoriented. Though not his first time teleporting, such a vast distance still left him deeply unsettled.

His daughter slept sweetly in his arms, her eyes closed, her long lashes fluttering. His heart clenched, his hand trembled. “My child, I never wished for this either, but I cannot go against my heart. Perhaps I will regret this for the rest of my life, but now, I have no choice. The reason I am sending you away so quickly is that, if I wait any longer, I may not have the heart to do it.”

With a decisive bite of his lip, he sped off, his escape technique fully unleashed. Two days later, he had traveled another fifty thousand miles, stopping in a vast, lifeless marsh. He sent out a sound-transmission talisman and waited.

Thus concludes Chapter Thirty-Four of The Mortal Road to Immortality: The Girl’s Fate.