In the end, everyone went down the huge pit. Once they reached the bottom, there was no more wind. Only a thin veil of mist floated on the bones like a sea of clouds. Occasionally, stones scattered among the lush bone plants, which had not weathered after hundreds of millions of years, indicating that the stones were not ordinary things.
Due to the ten-day limit, they could only stay in the pit for half a day, so everyone hurried in search of the patterns on the bone plants, hoping to get a glimpse of the truth about ancient times. However, Jing Yue found that the patterns on the leaves had also changed, either faded until they were barely visible, or new patterns had emerged, at least ones that he had never seen last time.
These patterns might be simple or complex, and most of them couldn’t understand anything, but even a small part was enough to benefit the cultivators a lot.
When Jing Yue passed a clump of bone plants, he saw a leaf in the shape of a phoenix. The outline of the phoenix was blue and it was perched on a fiery red branch.
It was the blue phoenix clan! But Jing Yue hadn't seen it last time. The record he knew about the blue phoenix was found in a collapsed tower in the ruins. But just looking at this picture, he couldn’t find any useful information for the time being and simply wondered what that branch was.
Inside the jade pendant, the blue phoenix said anxiously, “It's the Soul Tree, Jing-jing! It's the Soul Tree! It's the mother tree where our blue phoenix clan lives!”
Jing Yue had never heard of the Soul Tree, which was probably extinct over the years.
The blue phoenix mourned, “The mother tree died tens of billions of years ago. Ji-ji has no home now.”
But it quickly cheered up and said loyally, “But with Jing-jing, Ji-ji will have a new home. Wherever Jing-jing is, Ji-ji's home will be there.”
Jing Yue was amused and was about to reply when he heard an exclamation ahead.
“Huh? There seem to be human characters written on this stone, but it's a pity that some of them aren’t clear now.”
“No way. Where?”
Several people were attracted over. Jing Yue wanted to follow and have a look but suddenly thought of something. His face unconsciously turned weird, and the tips of his ears burned red.
Sure enough, one person said hesitantly, “It seems to be… Jing… visit…”
“It seems to be the word ‘here’ in the middle.”
“Jing character is followed by Yuan character. Jing Yuan is here for a visit?”
“Did Daoist-Master Jing Yuan write this?”
“That’s right, ten thousand years ago, Daoist-Master Jing Yuan and the Dragon Ancestor came here together. It’s probably him.”
Hong Luan said politely to Liu Yun, “The Daoist-Master’s past encounter is really fascinating.”
Liu Yun peeked at Jing Yue, feeling indescribably awkward. “…You’re too kind.”
Jing Yue felt ashamed. When he came here back then, he learned a lot of ancient secrets. Inevitably agitated, he drew his sword and carved such a sentence on the stone in a moment of triumph. Not only him, but there should be a stone with Lei Jing's inscription on it too, and the two even taunted each other about it. But thinking about it afterward, Jing Yue regretted it a little, but in order to get back at Lei Jing, he didn't destroy it.
Unexpectedly, these traces of shame were still there.
In the jade pendant, the blue phoenix said quietly, “Jing-jing, so you used to be so silly.”
Jing Yue, “What do you mean? I don’t understand a word.”
The blue phoenix, “Also, although Ji-ji loves you the most, Ji-ji still wants to say that it's wrong to destroy cultural relics, not to mention cultural relics from tens of billions of years ago. You’ll be jailed for it.”
Jing Yue, “…”
Even Qin Yanzhi teased him via voice transmission, “The Daoist-Master is so cute.”
Jing Yue, “…”
He really wanted to defend himself but didn’t know what to say. For his idiotic behavior to be discovered by future generations, and some of them knew his current real self, it was really too shameful to think about it.
The blue phoenix, “Ji-ji understands you. It's like a celebrity pretending to be a fan on his profile page and praising himself by reviewing movies, and accidentally dropping his cover… Who are you?!”
The blue phoenix was in the middle of speaking when it suddenly exclaimed. At the same time, Jing Yue's divine consciousness was in severe pain, and his consciousness gradually became blurry.
His vision changed and he arrived in a cave.
Inside the cave, he saw a woman of the god race kneeling on the ground and begging the heavens. After a while, the woman suddenly smiled and caressed her belly, her eyes were full of tenderness.
After that, he felt his eyes go dark, his body was soaked in warm water, a force pushed him out, and there was the sound of a baby crying.
That cry came from him.
He saw the woman holding him in her arms and smiling at him. “My child, I’m going to name you Moon.”
He slowly grew up, crawling, walking, and talking. When he was ten years old, he was already very strong and could destroy a hill with one punch.
He was gradually surrounded by many children of the god race of the same age, and they participated in the clan selection together. He was recommended to the god temple and became the disciple of the master of the temple.
He practiced every day, all the time and a hundred thousand years passed in a blink of an eye.
He and many god races gathered in the temple, and the master of the temple ordered, “The calamity is approaching. The god race, demon race, dragon race, and phoenix race will fight for the throne of the world. Our god race is the only ruler of this world!”
In agitation, he blurted out, “Yes!”
After that, he came to the Bloody Lake with the god race army, put on his armor, and fought against the demon race for a full three thousand years.
He died under the sword of the demon race.
No, it wasn’t him! That was not the reality of what he experienced.
Jing Yue clutched his head in pain, while the other cultivators were startled by his reaction and didn't know what happened.
Qin Yanzhi hurriedly hugged Jing Yue, while the blue phoenix flew out from the jade pendant and was gesturing to him.
Qin Yanzhi, “Are you saying that someone is trying to take possession of him?”
The blue phoenix cried in anxiety. “There’s a third consciousness in Jing-jing’s soul-mind! It even wants to swallow Ji-ji! Jing-jing protected Ji-ji!”
Qin Yanzhi couldn't understand half of it, but he understood the most crucial point and immediately explored it with his divine consciousness. His move was very risky. If Jing Yue was on guard against him even the tiniest bit, with the strength of Jing Yue’s divine consciousness, Qin Yanzhi might suffer a serious backlash. If the possessor had swallowed Jing Yue’s divine consciousness, his actions would be tantamount to death.
But Qin Yanzhi wasn't afraid at all. Just as Jing Yue had confidence in him, he also had enough confidence in Jing Yue.
The moment he touched Jing Yue’s soul-mind, there was a brief moment of stagnation before he felt the other party opening up his soul-mind to him.
The moment the two merged, Qin Yanzhi felt numb all over. Even his soul trembled, and an unfamiliar impulse and desire almost burst out of his body. But he suppressed it forcibly, controlled his divine consciousness, and continued to merge with Jing Yue's soul-mind. Soon, he discovered two other consciousnesses.
One was very familiar, full of affection and reliance—which belonged to the blue phoenix.
But the other one was full of cold malice.
He controlled his divine consciousness, and hit that consciousness hard!
“Ah… mmph…”
Jing Yue's groans rang in his ears, and it was hard to tell whether it was pain or joy. Qin Yanzhi felt that the cold consciousness had completely disappeared, and he was surrounded by Jing Yue's soul-mind, so warm that he didn't want to leave.
The other party's soul-mind seemed to turn into filaments, entwining him, and sweeping over him like feathers. Qin Yanzhi's face was flushed, his breathing was heavy, and his body also underwent subtle changes, until he heard a childish voice in his consciousness, “Hooligan! Shameless! Hooligan, get out of Jing-jing!”
Qin Yanzhi froze slightly and quickly withdrew from Jing Yue's soul-mind.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that everyone was looking at them worriedly, obviously having no idea what happened. Liu Yun asked anxiously, “Is Laozu okay?”
Qin Yanzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, suppressed the restless desire in his body, and tried his best to calm himself down. “Everything’s fine now.”
At this moment, Jing Yue in his arms also woke up and moved slightly. Qin Yanzhi lowered his head immediately, and the two looked at each other but averted their gazes at the same time.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Many people heard it when Qin Yanzhi first started talking to the blue phoenix. Although they saw some oddness in the faces of the two and the atmosphere was very strange, they simply thought the two had fought a tough battle to get rid of the soul possessor, so they didn't think much about it.
Only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi knew what had just happened.
No, there was also the blue phoenix.
At this time, the blue phoenix was pecking and scratching at Qin Yanzhi, cursing angrily, “Hooligan! Shameless! You even want to consummate without the proper proceedings! Let Jing-jing go!”
Jing Yue, “…” He was really glad that Qin Yanzhi couldn't hear the blue phoenix.
As he was thinking, he heard Qin Yanzhi's voice transmission, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you.”
Jing Yue immediately interrupted. “I know. Let’s not talk about this. I’m fine.”
Qin Yanzhi, “…Okay.”
The two fell silent for a moment, and Jing Yue realized that he was still being hugged by Qin Yanzhi. He quickly stood up and adjusted his outer robe to cover up his embarrassment.
He wasn’t embarrassed about intertwining with Qin Yanzhi’s soul-mind but because this happened in full view. No matter how thick-skinned he was, he still couldn't bear it.
There was a brief moment where he almost lost it…
Qin Yanzhi, “Is the other consciousness in your soul-mind Ji-ji?”
Jing Yue suddenly heard Qin Yanzhi asking about this and remembered that the other party didn’t know the origins of the blue phoenix. So, he explained the reasons for his rebirth in detail and also eased his embarrassment by the way.
Qin Yanzhi looked down at the blue phoenix that was still biting the corner of his clothes and smiled. “If that's the case, it was born because of you, so it’s not wrong to see you as a father.”
Jing Yue, “…”
When Jing Yue finally regained his composure, he recounted what he saw when he was being possessed just now. “From this, it can be seen that the other party is a god race, most likely a remnant soul here. His consciousness recovered quickly, and sensing that I was a living being, he wanted to take possession of my body.”
Liu Yun, “If the other party really occupies Laozu's physical body, can he leave the secret realm?”
Jing Yue, “Yes, so we have to be more careful. Just now, the consciousness has…” He glanced at Qin Yanzhi, “It has been destroyed by Yanzhi and me, but I can’t guarantee if there are other similar remnant souls here.”
Even with his powerful divine consciousness, he could hardly withstand the soul-mind attack of the ancient gods and demons. Someone else might have been taken possession of without knowing it.
Thinking of this, he silently looked at everyone, feeling a little foreboding. But in order not to make everyone suspect each other, he didn't say anything in the end.
But even if he didn't mention it, others might not be able to think of it, and many people scowled.
Hong Luan simply said, “Are we still us?”
In the end, everyone went down the huge pit. Once they reached the bottom, there was no more wind. Only a thin veil of mist floated on the bones like a sea of clouds. Occasionally, stones scattered among the lush bone plants, which had not weathered after hundreds of millions of years, indicating that the stones were not ordinary things.
Due to the ten-day limit, they could only stay in the pit for half a day, so everyone hurried in search of the patterns on the bone plants, hoping to get a glimpse of the truth about ancient times. However, Jing Yue found that the patterns on the leaves had also changed, either faded until they were barely visible, or new patterns had emerged, at least ones that he had never seen last time.
These patterns might be simple or complex, and most of them couldn’t understand anything, but even a small part was enough to benefit the cultivators a lot.
When Jing Yue passed a clump of bone plants, he saw a leaf in the shape of a phoenix. The outline of the phoenix was blue and it was perched on a fiery red branch.
It was the blue phoenix clan! But Jing Yue hadn't seen it last time. The record he knew about the blue phoenix was found in a collapsed tower in the ruins. But just looking at this picture, he couldn’t find any useful information for the time being and simply wondered what that branch was.
Inside the jade pendant, the blue phoenix said anxiously, “It's the Soul Tree, Jing-jing! It's the Soul Tree! It's the mother tree where our blue phoenix clan lives!”
Jing Yue had never heard of the Soul Tree, which was probably extinct over the years.
The blue phoenix mourned, “The mother tree died tens of billions of years ago. Ji-ji has no home now.”
But it quickly cheered up and said loyally, “But with Jing-jing, Ji-ji will have a new home. Wherever Jing-jing is, Ji-ji's home will be there.”
Jing Yue was amused and was about to reply when he heard an exclamation ahead.
“Huh? There seem to be human characters written on this stone, but it's a pity that some of them aren’t clear now.”
“No way. Where?”
Several people were attracted over. Jing Yue wanted to follow and have a look but suddenly thought of something. His face unconsciously turned weird, and the tips of his ears burned red.
Sure enough, one person said hesitantly, “It seems to be… Jing… visit…”
“It seems to be the word ‘here’ in the middle.”
“Jing character is followed by Yuan character. Jing Yuan is here for a visit?”
“Did Daoist-Master Jing Yuan write this?”
“That’s right, ten thousand years ago, Daoist-Master Jing Yuan and the Dragon Ancestor came here together. It’s probably him.”
Hong Luan said politely to Liu Yun, “The Daoist-Master’s past encounter is really fascinating.”
Liu Yun peeked at Jing Yue, feeling indescribably awkward. “…You’re too kind.”
Jing Yue felt ashamed. When he came here back then, he learned a lot of ancient secrets. Inevitably agitated, he drew his sword and carved such a sentence on the stone in a moment of triumph. Not only him, but there should be a stone with Lei Jing's inscription on it too, and the two even taunted each other about it. But thinking about it afterward, Jing Yue regretted it a little, but in order to get back at Lei Jing, he didn't destroy it.
Unexpectedly, these traces of shame were still there.
In the jade pendant, the blue phoenix said quietly, “Jing-jing, so you used to be so silly.”
Jing Yue, “What do you mean? I don’t understand a word.”
The blue phoenix, “Also, although Ji-ji loves you the most, Ji-ji still wants to say that it's wrong to destroy cultural relics, not to mention cultural relics from tens of billions of years ago. You’ll be jailed for it.”
Jing Yue, “…”
Even Qin Yanzhi teased him via voice transmission, “The Daoist-Master is so cute.”
Jing Yue, “…”
He really wanted to defend himself but didn’t know what to say. For his idiotic behavior to be discovered by future generations, and some of them knew his current real self, it was really too shameful to think about it.
The blue phoenix, “Ji-ji understands you. It's like a celebrity pretending to be a fan on his profile page and praising himself by reviewing movies, and accidentally dropping his cover… Who are you?!”
The blue phoenix was in the middle of speaking when it suddenly exclaimed. At the same time, Jing Yue's divine consciousness was in severe pain, and his consciousness gradually became blurry.
His vision changed and he arrived in a cave.
Inside the cave, he saw a woman of the god race kneeling on the ground and begging the heavens. After a while, the woman suddenly smiled and caressed her belly, her eyes were full of tenderness.
After that, he felt his eyes go dark, his body was soaked in warm water, a force pushed him out, and there was the sound of a baby crying.
That cry came from him.
He saw the woman holding him in her arms and smiling at him. “My child, I’m going to name you Moon.”
He slowly grew up, crawling, walking, and talking. When he was ten years old, he was already very strong and could destroy a hill with one punch.
He was gradually surrounded by many children of the god race of the same age, and they participated in the clan selection together. He was recommended to the god temple and became the disciple of the master of the temple.
He practiced every day, all the time and a hundred thousand years passed in a blink of an eye.
He and many god races gathered in the temple, and the master of the temple ordered, “The calamity is approaching. The god race, demon race, dragon race, and phoenix race will fight for the throne of the world. Our god race is the only ruler of this world!”
In agitation, he blurted out, “Yes!”
After that, he came to the Bloody Lake with the god race army, put on his armor, and fought against the demon race for a full three thousand years.
He died under the sword of the demon race.
No, it wasn’t him! That was not the reality of what he experienced.
Jing Yue clutched his head in pain, while the other cultivators were startled by his reaction and didn't know what happened.
Qin Yanzhi hurriedly hugged Jing Yue, while the blue phoenix flew out from the jade pendant and was gesturing to him.
Qin Yanzhi, “Are you saying that someone is trying to take possession of him?”
The blue phoenix cried in anxiety. “There’s a third consciousness in Jing-jing’s soul-mind! It even wants to swallow Ji-ji! Jing-jing protected Ji-ji!”
Qin Yanzhi couldn't understand half of it, but he understood the most crucial point and immediately explored it with his divine consciousness. His move was very risky. If Jing Yue was on guard against him even the tiniest bit, with the strength of Jing Yue’s divine consciousness, Qin Yanzhi might suffer a serious backlash. If the possessor had swallowed Jing Yue’s divine consciousness, his actions would be tantamount to death.
But Qin Yanzhi wasn't afraid at all. Just as Jing Yue had confidence in him, he also had enough confidence in Jing Yue.
The moment he touched Jing Yue’s soul-mind, there was a brief moment of stagnation before he felt the other party opening up his soul-mind to him.
The moment the two merged, Qin Yanzhi felt numb all over. Even his soul trembled, and an unfamiliar impulse and desire almost burst out of his body. But he suppressed it forcibly, controlled his divine consciousness, and continued to merge with Jing Yue's soul-mind. Soon, he discovered two other consciousnesses.
One was very familiar, full of affection and reliance—which belonged to the blue phoenix.
But the other one was full of cold malice.
He controlled his divine consciousness, and hit that consciousness hard!
“Ah… mmph…”
Jing Yue's groans rang in his ears, and it was hard to tell whether it was pain or joy. Qin Yanzhi felt that the cold consciousness had completely disappeared, and he was surrounded by Jing Yue's soul-mind, so warm that he didn't want to leave.
The other party's soul-mind seemed to turn into filaments, entwining him, and sweeping over him like feathers. Qin Yanzhi's face was flushed, his breathing was heavy, and his body also underwent subtle changes, until he heard a childish voice in his consciousness, “Hooligan! Shameless! Hooligan, get out of Jing-jing!”
Qin Yanzhi froze slightly and quickly withdrew from Jing Yue's soul-mind.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that everyone was looking at them worriedly, obviously having no idea what happened. Liu Yun asked anxiously, “Is Laozu okay?”
Qin Yanzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, suppressed the restless desire in his body, and tried his best to calm himself down. “Everything’s fine now.”
At this moment, Jing Yue in his arms also woke up and moved slightly. Qin Yanzhi lowered his head immediately, and the two looked at each other but averted their gazes at the same time.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Many people heard it when Qin Yanzhi first started talking to the blue phoenix. Although they saw some oddness in the faces of the two and the atmosphere was very strange, they simply thought the two had fought a tough battle to get rid of the soul possessor, so they didn't think much about it.
Only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi knew what had just happened.
No, there was also the blue phoenix.
At this time, the blue phoenix was pecking and scratching at Qin Yanzhi, cursing angrily, “Hooligan! Shameless! You even want to consummate without the proper proceedings! Let Jing-jing go!”
Jing Yue, “…” He was really glad that Qin Yanzhi couldn't hear the blue phoenix.
As he was thinking, he heard Qin Yanzhi's voice transmission, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you.”
Jing Yue immediately interrupted. “I know. Let’s not talk about this. I’m fine.”
Qin Yanzhi, “…Okay.”
The two fell silent for a moment, and Jing Yue realized that he was still being hugged by Qin Yanzhi. He quickly stood up and adjusted his outer robe to cover up his embarrassment.
He wasn’t embarrassed about intertwining with Qin Yanzhi’s soul-mind but because this happened in full view. No matter how thick-skinned he was, he still couldn't bear it.
There was a brief moment where he almost lost it…
Qin Yanzhi, “Is the other consciousness in your soul-mind Ji-ji?”
Jing Yue suddenly heard Qin Yanzhi asking about this and remembered that the other party didn’t know the origins of the blue phoenix. So, he explained the reasons for his rebirth in detail and also eased his embarrassment by the way.
Qin Yanzhi looked down at the blue phoenix that was still biting the corner of his clothes and smiled. “If that's the case, it was born because of you, so it’s not wrong to see you as a father.”
Jing Yue, “…”
When Jing Yue finally regained his composure, he recounted what he saw when he was being possessed just now. “From this, it can be seen that the other party is a god race, most likely a remnant soul here. His consciousness recovered quickly, and sensing that I was a living being, he wanted to take possession of my body.”
Liu Yun, “If the other party really occupies Laozu's physical body, can he leave the secret realm?”
Jing Yue, “Yes, so we have to be more careful. Just now, the consciousness has…” He glanced at Qin Yanzhi, “It has been destroyed by Yanzhi and me, but I can’t guarantee if there are other similar remnant souls here.”
Even with his powerful divine consciousness, he could hardly withstand the soul-mind attack of the ancient gods and demons. Someone else might have been taken possession of without knowing it.
Thinking of this, he silently looked at everyone, feeling a little foreboding. But in order not to make everyone suspect each other, he didn't say anything in the end.
But even if he didn't mention it, others might not be able to think of it, and many people scowled.
Hong Luan simply said, “Are we still us?”
