Similar to the Ascended Dark Profound Scolding Physique — Better Safe Than Sorry
Similar to the Ascended Dark Profound Scolding Physique — Better Safe Than Sorry
Inside the palace, all the servants had been dismissed, leaving it rather quiet.
Yet wisps of baleful qi seeped out from the Inner Universe, like crimson rays of light, carrying a thick, bloody stench.
Gu Changge couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
Although this aura was extremely faint, the entire Inner Universe was under his control—how could he possibly fail to sense it?
By his estimation, each suppression of the baleful qi should have lasted at least three months.
Yet this time, the duration had rapidly shrunk to a single month.
This could only mean that Chan Hongyi’s recovery speed had exceeded his expectations.
Of course, it was also possible that the many life Sources Gu Changge had collected during this period had contributed to her recovery.
So now he was considering whether he should appear inside and meet Chan Hongyi face to face.
Among the life Sources she had absorbed during this time, Gu Changge had tampered with quite a few of them, precisely to guard against her ferocity erupting.
That way, he would have countermeasures ready when the time came.
However, if he were to clash with Chan Hongyi now, the fluctuations from this place would inevitably spread out and draw the attention of the other forces and orthodoxies.
“The intensity of this baleful qi isn’t as deep as last time.”
“It seems the suppression wasn’t useless after all. Compared to last time, she’s probably a bit more lucid.”
Thinking this, Gu Changge narrowed his eyes and made his decision.
He then waved his hand, sending out streak after streak of runes. Vein-like patterns of the Great Dao spread out, sealing off the palace to prevent any aura from leaking out later.
After doing all this, spatial fluctuations appeared before him.
A silvery, radiant portal emerged, seemingly leading to another mystical world.
Gu Changge quickly stepped inside, his figure vanishing into it.
Ever since the Internal World had evolved into the Inner Universe, this space had undergone tremendous changes.
Divine peaks towered majestically, immortal islands gleamed brilliantly, and vast, boundless ancient forests stretched out endlessly.
Immortal trees and divine vines were countless, as if they had existed for innumerable epochs, ancient and weathered.
Dense immortal qi permeated the air, and in the depths lay a scene resembling an ancient Heavenly Court.
The Heavenly Palace was grand and magnificent, its palaces resplendent, breathtakingly beautiful and incomparably majestic.
At the four poles of heaven and earth stood palace pillars as tall as the sky itself.
Golden light blazed gloriously, the Great Dao rumbled mightily, holding up the firmament so it would not collapse.
Deep within heaven and earth, the sun, moon, and stars revolved, and one could even see ancient universes rotating one after another, emitting vast and boundless sounds.
Any living being that stepped into them would instantly be crushed to ash, body and bones shattered to dust.
That was the power of a vast and genuine world, surpassing any level of power in this world.
After entering the Inner Universe, Gu Changge did not linger. With a single thought, he had already appeared atop a mountain peak.
The summit was quite flat, with gusts of cold wind blowing through.
Not far away stood simple dwellings constructed of bamboo and wood, serene and elegant, with bluestone slabs floating in the void forming steps.
Beside the dwellings was a cold pool, into which a silver waterfall cascaded from high above, sending up sprays of silvery spray.
Extremely rare divine fish swished their tails within the cold pool.
Their palm-sized bodies were slender and crystalline, surging with astonishing vitality.
Farther away, there were also herb fields, fowl pens, and the like—peaceful and tranquil, like a simple, rustic paradise.
At a certain spot on the summit, there was also a crude bluestone slab and a peach tree that wasn’t particularly tall.
Upon arriving here and seeing this scene, Gu Changge’s expression grew somewhat complicated.
“Shifu.”
Seemingly sensing his arrival,
a woman in red pushed open the door of the dwelling and came out, somewhat delighted.
She was tall and slender, her dark hair cascading down, her face like polished jade, fair and delicate, ethereal as a being beyond the mortal dust.
Her palm-sized face was adorned with exquisite, flawless features, and her eyes were like black gemstones, shimmering with moving luster.
At this moment, she had her sleeves rolled up, revealing lotus-root-like snow-white wrists, and was in the middle of preparing a wild chicken.
“Did you arrange all of this?”
Gu Changge nodded, sweeping his gaze over the dwellings before him, as well as that bluestone slab and that peach tree, and asked with a calm expression.
His gaze was profound as it fell upon Chan Hongyi, as if trying to see straight through her.
Seeing Gu Changge’s expression, Chan Hongyi seemed to think she had displeased him.
She couldn’t help shrinking back a little and explained somewhat flusteredly, “I... I remembered that when I lived with Shifu before, it was just like this...”
Gu Changge nodded and said, “You were thoughtful.”
Hearing that Gu Changge wasn’t blaming her, Chan Hongyi seemed to quietly breathe a sigh of relief.
Then, ingratiatingly, she held out the cleaned wild chicken in her hands, a happy smile blooming on her pretty face as she said, “Shifu, Hongyi wants to make roast chicken for you.”
“When did you learn to do these things?”
Gu Changge walked over and reached out to wipe away a smudge of soot from her nose.
“It... it was the uncle who hunts at the foot of the mountain who taught me.”
At these words, Chan Hongyi suddenly grew somewhat uneasy, seemingly afraid that Gu Changge would scold her.
“Then why did you never tell me before?”
Gu Changge smiled and pinched her nose as he asked.
“Shifu, you would never let me learn these useless things.”
“I was afraid you’d scold me.”
Chan Hongyi lowered her eyes, a faint blush rising on her fair, pretty face as she explained.
“So that’s the image I have in your heart?”
Gu Changge seemed somewhat amused.
“No, no, no—Shifu, in my heart, you’re the person who treats me the best.”
Chan Hongyi hurriedly shook her head, like a rattle-drum.
“Is that so? Then today I’ll taste your cooking.”
Gu Changge smiled, his expression gentle.
“Mm-hmm!”
Joy surfaced on Chan Hongyi’s face as she turned to build a fire pit, the hem of her dress fluttering, her figure tall and slender.
As she turned her head, her dark hair spilled down from her shoulder, setting off her fair, flawless face all the more—exquisite beyond compare, a beauty already beyond what any words in this world could describe.
Gu Changge’s gaze was deep as he watched her bustling about on her own.
Then he shook his head lightly, waved his sleeve, and a radiance appeared before him as a stone table and stone stools materialized.
Fine wine and cups appeared, a rich fragrance of wine wafting out.
Soon, a fire was lit. The roast chicken, skewered on a bamboo stick, was held by Chan Hongyi, who kept turning it over the flames.
Golden drops of oil dripped down with sizzling sounds, and a rich aroma spread out, making one’s mouth water.
Chan Hongyi was very earnest, her eyes fixed on the roast chicken the whole time, the firelight reflecting on her pretty face with a warm glow.
Gu Changge’s gaze remained on her the entire time. He didn’t speak, seemingly content to wait for her to finish roasting the chicken.
“Shi... Shifu, the roast chicken is done.”
Finally, feeling the chicken was fully cooked, Chan Hongyi’s face lit up with a happy smile as she hurried over with it.
One could tell she had roasted it with great care—golden oil was still sizzling on its surface, brilliant radiance bursting forth.
After all, this roast chicken was no ordinary wild chicken to begin with.
The fact that Gu Changge had tossed it into the Inner Universe to be raised was enough to show it was anything but simple.
Dense spiritual qi interwove with radiant light, even conjuring phenomena in the void, as if a single bite could let a cultivator ascend as a Flying Immortal.
“It looks quite good.”
Gu Changge smiled as he took the roast chicken from Chan Hongyi’s hands, but he didn’t taste it.
Instead, he looked at her and asked, “Is there nothing you want to say to me?”
Chan Hongyi seemed not to understand what he meant, bewilderment surfacing in her eyes.
“Shi... Shifu, what do you mean?”
She shook her head and asked, somewhat puzzled.
However, Gu Changge didn’t explain. He simply smiled and began to taste the roast chicken she had made with her own hands.
He ate very earnestly and carefully, even in a leisurely manner, as if unwilling to let her painstaking efforts go to waste.
“I never expected you’d have such skill, Hongyi.”
As Gu Changge ate, he raised the white jade wine cup beside him, brought it to his lips for a sip, and admiration surfaced on his face.
“...”
At this moment, watching him eat the entire roast chicken without leaving a single scrap, not even a little bit remaining, Chan Hongyi couldn’t help but fall silent.
“Shifu, is it good?”
she asked.
“As long as it’s made by you, to me, it’s all delicious.”
Gu Changge smiled, then unhurriedly poured himself another cup of wine.
But before the cup reached his lips, a stream of black blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
Yet he seemed not to care—or rather, as if he had long anticipated it—his expression not changing in the slightest.
Unhurriedly, he took an embroidered handkerchief from his robes and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
However, the blood was like a reservoir with its floodgates opened—it simply couldn’t be stopped.
Soon it was gushing out of his mouth in great mouthfuls, dyeing the clean, plain white handkerchief pitch black.
Even his lapels were stained black, a horrifying pitch-black hue carrying a rotten, decaying aura.
“You knew all along?”
Watching this scene, all expression had now vanished from Chan Hongyi’s face, turning cold and emotionless as she stared at him.
Gu Changge nodded, his smile still as calm as a breeze over light clouds.
He wasn’t surprised, nor was there any ripple of emotion. “How could this little trick of yours possibly escape me?”
“Still, this caution of yours does gratify me somewhat.”
“Even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit. With your current strength, you actually went so far as to poison me to kill me.”
“It seems my years of teaching you weren’t wasted.”
As he spoke, he sighed, more blood uncontrollably welling out of his mouth, as if his injuries were quite severe.
“This is Demon-Transforming Water accumulated over countless epochs at the bottom of the Demon-Burying Abyss. No matter how heaven-defying your methods, how vast your divine powers, once struck by it, there is absolutely no chance of survival.”
Chan Hongyi’s eyes were utterly cold, without the slightest ripple of emotion, her tone merciless to the extreme.
She was completely different from how she had been just moments ago.
“So it’s Demon-Transforming Water. No wonder it hurts so much.”
Gu Changge smiled, his expression still as calm as ever, looking as if he couldn’t feel any pain at all.
“This pain doesn’t amount to one ten-thousandth of what I’ve endured all these years.”
Chan Hongyi’s face remained cold and emotionless, without any change.
Gu Changge still smiled and spoke lightly, “Didn’t you want to kill me for revenge?”
“Now I’m already poisoned, right here in front of you. Why don’t you dare? What’s there to hesitate about?”
“You can rest assured—I haven’t arranged any backup plans.”
Hearing these words, astonishing baleful qi suddenly surged in the depths of Chan Hongyi’s eyes.
“Do you want to be killed by me that badly?”
“You knew it was poisoned, and you still ate it?”
Her voice was bone-chillingly cold.
Gu Changge said indifferently, “Kill me, grant your wish—what’s wrong with that?”
“Do you think that after you kill me, the hatred between us will be over? Let me tell you—that’s impossible.”
“Knowing the road ahead is nothing but darkness, with no light left, why do you still give me hope again and again, only to shatter it time and time again?”
In Chan Hongyi’s eyes was sky-piercing baleful qi, scarlet spreading through them, her full head of dark hair whipping about—terrifying to the extreme.
“Is that so? Hope and darkness aren’t necessarily opposites.”
Gu Changge’s expression held no ripple.
“I will kill you, but not now. I’ll make you experience the despair I once felt, over and over again.”
“I’ll make you understand exactly what I’ve been through all these countless years.”
Chan Hongyi’s tone carried boundless cold. She abruptly extended a jade-white hand, striking out with a palm that tore open Gu Changge’s chest.
With a ripping sound, black blood splattered out.
Every bone was clearly visible, revealing a crystalline texture like divine gold, with Dao charm interwoven and Chaos Energy swirling around it.
Gu Changge looked at her calmly, making no move to resist, his eyes deep like an abyssal sea whose bottom could never be seen.
Chi— The next moment, the space of this Inner Universe was violently torn apart, a terrifying rift stretching across the edge of the sky.
Chan Hongyi stepped forward, her figure vanishing into it, and the sky-piercing baleful qi gradually subsided with her departure.
The enormous, terrifying rift healed along with it, and all fell deathly silent.
“In the end, she still didn’t strike the killing blow, did she?”
“That does surprise me a little.”
Gu Changge’s eyes were deep and calm as he watched Chan Hongyi disappear.
Only then did he lower his gaze to the wound that had nearly torn his entire body apart, his expression without the slightest ripple.
It was as if this injury hadn’t happened to him at all.
If Chan Hongyi had struck to kill just now, he could guarantee that the one to leave the Inner Universe in the end would definitely not have been her.
Soon, wisps of divine light emerged along the wound, stitching the split body back together like chains of life.
The horrifying injury rapidly healed.
After devouring the Nirvana Azure Lotus, Gu Changge was practically immortal.
No matter how severe the injury, given enough time, it could heal completely.
What troubled him somewhat now, though, was the toxicity of the Demon-Transforming Water.
Chan Hongyi clearly knew he could devour all things in this world, which naturally included all kinds of deadly poisons.
Yet she still chose to poison the roast chicken—enough to show just how domineering this Demon-Transforming Water was.
After all, it was condensed from the baleful toxic qi within the Demon Lord’s True Blood itself, capable of transforming all demons in the world.
Although the Demon-Transforming Water couldn’t truly affect him, it still wore away at his Source somewhat. So after pondering for a moment, Gu Changge also left the Inner Universe.
“The restrictions in the palace show no signs of damage. It seems Chan Hongyi didn’t leave through here.”
Gu Changge swept a glance over the various arrangements within the palace. The runes he had planted earlier hadn’t changed much either.
This meant Chan Hongyi had torn open another space to leave, without alerting anyone else.
From this point alone, one could see that her mind had indeed recovered considerably—she was no longer as reckless as before.
Otherwise, no matter how strong she was, she would sooner or later be surrounded and destroyed, just like last time in the Divine City.
“Ah Da.”
After changing his clothes, Gu Changge summoned Ah Da, intending to order him to capture some people.
“Master.”
“You seem to be injured?”
Ah Da soon appeared, speaking respectfully.
But he was quite shocked—his senses were keen, and he detected the abnormality in Gu Changge.
His frame was now even more towering, radiance flowing over his Dark Iron Battle Armor, his whole being like a terrifying war god standing upon the mortal world.
After all, with the strength of the first heaven of the Quasi-Emperor Realm, he was an invincible fighting force rarely found anywhere along the Boundary Marker Sea today.
Gu Changge nodded and said, “A small accident occurred. Go capture ten Sacred Emperor Realm beings for me—any realm will do.”
“Yes, Master.”
Ah Da’s expression turned solemn. Receiving the order, he swiftly departed, his figure shrouded in hazy dark light as he stepped into the void and quickly vanished from this place.
“The Sources of ten Sacred Emperor Realm beings should be enough. With all the races of the Beyond gathered here now, including the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, they won’t be hard to find.”
Gu Changge murmured softly to himself, quickly setting the matter aside. The depletion from the Demon-Transforming Water actually didn’t affect him much.
He simply didn’t want his body to retain even the slightest loss.
In the days that followed, slaughter erupted once more along the Boundary Marker Sea, as a great army of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains came to kill.
Several supreme experts bearing artifacts manifested blurry, terrifying phantoms between heaven and earth.
Streak after streak of law fell like heavenly blades, forceful and sharp, striking fear and dread into all.
They planned a sneak attack, taking advantage of the darkened skies and sinking moon to deal a heavy blow to the many orthodoxies of the Beyond.
The leader was none other than a Sacred Emperor Realm ancestor of the Green Clan, seeking to rescue Lüluo, who had been captured by Gu Changge.
This battle erupted quickly—and ended just as quickly.
The great army of the Beyond assembled, drawn from every orthodoxy and force, practically endless, dense and innumerable, blotting out the sky.
Under such overwhelming power, even a sneak attack ended in crushing defeat. They quickly collapsed and fled—no other outcome was possible.
The several leading Sacred Emperor Realm beings were all suppressed.
But in this battle, some people noticed something amiss.
Another force seemed to be hiding in the shadows—several Sacred Emperor Realm experts from orthodoxies on the Beyond’s side were secretly murdered, their whereabouts unknown.
“The sneak attack was a feint—their true goal was to secretly murder our Sacred Emperor Realm experts!”
“These Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains really deserve to die! They actually dared to hide in the shadows—do they really think our great armies won’t flatten them?”
This incident provoked the fury of the many orthodoxies stationed along the Boundary Marker Sea, who believed the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains had long been plotting this.
The sneak attack was merely a smokescreen—their true aim was to kill their Sacred Emperor Realm beings.
This was enough to show that the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains side was hiding experts surpassing the Sacred Emperor Realm, who had yet to reveal themselves.
Once this news spread, it immediately provoked the Beyond’s wrath, and even more great armies began crossing the Boundary Marker Sea.
During this period, the deaths of Supreme Cave Heaven’s Mansion Lord Chu Hao and the others in the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains also caused quite a sensation.
Some said they had colluded with the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, attempting to annihilate the Beyond orthodoxies that had been searching for the Supreme Dao Diagram together with them.
Unfortunately, their plot was seen through, and they ultimately died miserable deaths there.
Others said they had fallen into an ambush by the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, unable to escape, and finally perished in a pool of blood.
Rumors abounded, true and false mixed together, impossible to distinguish.
With the new Mansion Lord of Supreme Cave Heaven dead miserably, the old Mansion Lord within the Beyond’s territories was enraged. He emerged with many experts, intending to come here and uncover the truth.