Chapter 320

Chapter 320: True Feelings Exist in this World

"Su Mu, matters of the Everlasting City of Desolation are entrusted to you."

Ye Xu left one sentence and vanished from Heaven’s Secret Pavilion.

Su Mu sat calmly in his seat, his gaze flickering towards Li Ruoshui. "Come pour tea."

"You!"

Li Ruoshui’s eyes flashed with rage. A worthless bug at the Emperor Venerable’s Great Perfection dared to order her?

"Young lass," Su Mu stated lightly. "This venerable self has cultivated for millions of years. In terms of seniority, I far surpass you. I could have interacted with the founding master of your Taihao Heavenly Sect as equals. Having you pour tea for me is not demeaning you in the slightest."

"Who exactly are you?" Li Ruoshui demanded.

Su Mu ignored her.

Li Ruoshui obediently poured tea for him, her eyes shifting thoughtfully. She asked, "The young man just now, was he truly the Heavenly Emperor?"

When Ye Xu and Su Mu had conversed, they hadn’t hidden their words from Li Ruoshui’s avatar.

This avatar was trapped within Heaven’s Secret Pavilion and couldn’t communicate with her true self. Even letting her know certain things was useless.

Su Mu nodded.

Li Ruoshui was utterly stunned, unable to speak for a long while.

The Heavenly Emperor had truly been right before her eyes?

"Heavenly Emperor… Human Ancestor… Heaven’s Chosen…" Her expression deepened, gradually turning grave.

Once the Immortal Realm collapsed and the Innate Divine Beings descended, the world would plunge into absolute chaos.

Who then could step forth to reverse the tide?

Deep within the depths of Time and Space,

Ye Xu was assisting his Second Primordial Spirit Avatar in cultivation.

To cultivate the Immortal Golden Body, the first step was to disperse the physical flesh and forge a golden body using Virtue and Fortune. Over the past few days, the avatar had cultivated in the outside world, rewarding good, punishing evil, and upholding righteousness, amassing a preliminary store of sufficient virtue.

With Ye Xu’s aid, forging a Merit Golden Body was now entirely possible.

Streams of golden merit light coalesced. A handsome, extraordinary young man slowly took form.

Within the young man’s sea of consciousness, a Merit Dao Fruit hovered.

"For now, this is only the initial step of cultivation," Ye Xu murmured. "Later, I can establish temples in various places to receive Offerings of Incense and Fire, drawing on faith, fortune, and the power of merit."

His first goal was to build the reputation of his Second Primordial Spirit Avatar, transforming it into a deity revered in the mortal realm.

Only then could it unify the fortunes of the human race and even all postnatal beings, receive Offerings of Incense and Fire, and accumulate merit.

This process required long, gradual accumulation.

…

As time passed, information about the Everlasting City of Desolation spread throughout all realms.

Bai Muyue from the distant Temple of Ten Thousand Paths, Princess Qingluo Zhong Ling, and others had already heard the news and were rushing here.

On this day, Meng Huangliang and Meng Changan walked into Heaven’s Secret Pavilion.

Su Mu immediately stood up to welcome them.

"Daoist friend, the two of us had come from the Da Meng Clan to meet the Master," Meng Changan said with a kind face.

Su Mu asked, "Could the two Daoist friend be here for the Everlasting City of Desolation?"

"Indeed so."

Meng Changan nodded. "Moreover, we also wish to request instruction from the Master and entrust the Master to resolve our doubts."

Su Mu instructed Li Ruoshui, "Serve tea."

He looked at the two and said, "The Master is handling private matters; please wait for a moment."

As it involved deducing heavenly secrets, Su Mu was helpless.

"No problems." Meng Changan had the procedures for entering the Everlasting City of Desolation completed, and sat down with Meng Huangliang, patiently waiting for Ye Xu to appear.

After a stick of incense, Ye Xu released his Second Primordial Spirit Avatar from the Heaven’s Secret Pavilion, appearing before everyone.

Meng Changan immediately stood up, respectfully saying, "This junior Meng Changan pays respects to the Master."

Meng Huangliang also dared not be negligent and hurriedly performed a salute.

"Guests are welcome; the two of you need not stand on ceremony." Ye Xu helped the two up.

Meng Huangliang said, with a faint gleam in his eyes, "To be honest, this junior has come this time to request one thing from you, Senior. Since the son of heaven rebelled and the Heavenly Emperor disappeared, our clan was suppressed by the Purple Star Heavenly Court, and the clansmen died almost entirely."

"Nowadays, perhaps only the Ancestor remains, but he is also suppressed in the immortal prison."

"I hope Senior could help this junior discover whether the Ancestor is dead or alive?"

More than half a year ago, Meng Feixian had entrusted Ye Xu to inquire about it.

At that time, the Amitabha Immortal King was still present.

But after the scars of the heavens appeared, multitudes of immortals descended to the mortal realm; Meng Huangliang learned from a true immortal’s mouth that the immortal prison had also undergone a great chaos, though the specific details were unknown.

If not for that, Meng Huangliang would not have been asking again.

Ye Xu thought to himself, "System, how many heavenly secrets points does it require to inquire about the Amitabha Immortal King’s specific information?"

[Six million heavenly secrets points.]

"The two Daoist friends only need to pay one hundred million heavenly secrets points to immediately know all the information about the Amitabha Immortal King," Ye Xu said to Meng Huangliang with a laugh.

Meng Huangliang immediately took out the items he had prepared in advance and handed them to Ye Xu.

"Exchange."

[Congratulate Host, obtain one hundred and twenty million heavenly secrets points.]

"Inquire immediately."

Ding!

Name: Meng Mituo.

Identity: Ancestor of Da Meng Clan, Daoist title: Amitabha Immortal King.

Cultivation: Immortal King cultivation, Great Perfection.

Techniques: Da Meng Mituo Sutra.

Divine Abilities: …

Information: Chaos erupted in the immortal prison. The prison hunters, primordial beings, went berserk, devouring Amitabha Immortal King, who had already perished.

Ye Xu meticulously organized the dense stream of information onto a jade slip.

"You two Daoist friends, please accept my condolences," Ye Xu sighed softly as he handed the jade slip to the two men.

Bang!

Upon hearing this, Meng Huangliang dropped the jade slip from his hand and slumped to the floor. Raised under the guidance of Amitabha Immortal King, who was like a father and master to him since childhood, he found it unbearable to accept the news of his death.

Meng Changan too was overcome, tears tracing the lines of his aged face.

Both men trusted Ye Xu’s capabilities implicitly, not even glancing at the jade slip initially.

It was only moments later that Meng Huangliang and Meng Changan finally examined the jade slip.

"Prison hunters…" Meng Huangliang’s face turned grim. Prison hunters were primordial beings, survivors from the Primordial Era itself. When the Heavenly Emperor forged the immortal prison, he used the very body of a prison hunter as the cage.

Feeding on the blood, flesh, and vital energy of prisoners, the prison hunters possessed terrifying strength, long having reached the pinnacle level of an Immortal Venerable.

The upheaval caused by the scars of the heavens had thrown the rules of the Immortal Realm into chaos, shrouding the entire realm.

It was evident that the prison hunters had been affected by this chaos, driving them to madness.

How could an Immortal King possibly preserve his life within the belly of a primordial being, whose power rivaled a Great Perfection Immortal Venerable?

"The passing of Amitabha Immortal King can also be seen as a form of release," Ye Xu consoled them.

"Master speaks truly."

Though his heart felt as though cut by knives, Meng Huangliang had to acknowledge the truth in Ye Xu’s words.

Compared to enduring relentless torment day after day within the immortal prison, death was, for Amitabha Immortal King, truly a liberation.

"Master, we shall take our leave now."

Meng Changan helped Meng Huangliang to his feet, and they staggered unsteadily out of Heaven’s Secret Pavilion.

"True affection exists in this world as well," Su Mu sighed, touched by their grief. "Someone like him, cultivating to the Immortal King realm yet still capable of such profound feeling, is exceedingly rare in this world."

"Are you not also one such person, Daoist friend?" Ye Xu teased.

Su Mu’s aged face flushed red.

His love for Yue Lingxi had endured through millions of years, unbroken and only grown firmer.

"Just focus on your work diligently," Ye Xu said. "When the time comes, I’ll have the Formless Demon Lord take you along to the Everlasting City of Desolation. It’ll broaden your horizons."

"That was precisely my intention," Su Mu chuckled.

Before Ye Xu, Su Mu felt little restraint.

The longer the two spent together, the more their relationship resembled one between friends, devoid of any formality typical of superior and subordinate.

Ye Xu was entirely content with this.

After all, given his status, power, and reputation, finding a friend was an extraordinarily rare thing.

The days passed steadily.

With true immortals arriving from various realms, the threshold of five hundred people was breached within mere six days.

But Ye Xu was in no rush.

The deadline he had set was ten days. With another four days to go, surely more true immortals would join.

"Daoist brother, I have a message from Gu Daojin!"

The sun rose anew, signaling another day.

Su Mu, both amused and exasperated, handed Gu Daojin’s message to Ye Xu.

"I held out for seven days, but I simply can’t bear it any longer!

Master… Senior… Brother… Big Bro…

Could you please grant me, this little brother, permission to also go have a stroll around the Everlasting City of Desolation?"

Gu Daojin’s words were simple and blunt.

He wanted to go to the Everlasting City of Desolation.

"I knew it. That old fellow couldn’t hold back," Su Mu couldn’t help but laugh. Although Gu Daojin wasn’t currently at liberty, his passion for archaeological digs hadn’t diminished one bit.

With the emergence of the Everlasting City of Desolation, how could someone of his temperament possibly restrain himself?

"Holding out for seven days is quite impressive in itself," Ye Xu burst out laughing.

He could almost picture just how frantic Gu Daojin must have been.

Probably no different from ants on a hot pan.

"Approved," Ye Xu said with a smile.

The Star Yuan system was now fully constructed and functioning autonomously, no longer requiring constant supervision at the various branches.

Ye Xu was not an overly strict person either.

He had always planned, after the matters concerning the Everlasting City of Desolation were concluded, for the Formless Demon Lord to take Su Mu and Gu Daojin there together. As for the Seven Immortals of Cloud Capital, their cultivation base was too low, and they hadn’t accumulated sufficient merit.

Sending them along would surely incur dissatisfaction from Emperor Venerable Four Extremes.

As the Master, he naturally had to be fair and impartial.