Xiao Ruoyin's Choice, a Path to Life or a Path to Death
Xiao Ruoyin’s Choice, a Path to Life or a Path to Death
582 Xiao Ruoyin’s Choice, a Path to Life or a Path to Death — Seeking Subscriptions
Gu Changge’s expression was calm, his words simple, as if he were merely discussing some trivial, insignificant matter.
But at this moment, both Xiao Ruoyin and Jiang Chen fell into silence.
Jiang Chen already knew that the Xiao Ruoyin of today was no longer the Xiao Ruoyin he had once known.
She was the High Priestess of Destiny, the wielder of the Celestial Boat of Creation, who had once held supreme status within the Immortal Palace.
She had not come to this place out of old affection to save him, but because he was the reincarnation of the Celestial Boat of Creation, and she did not wish to watch him be destroyed by Gu Changge with her own eyes.
This caused a bitter curve to gradually form at the corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth, full of self-mockery.
Moreover, from beginning to end, Xiao Ruoyin had not looked at him even once, as if whether he existed or not was of no consequence whatsoever.
“I’ll give you time to consider, but don’t forget—even if you can save him and get him out of here today, from this day forward, the vast Beyond will no longer have a place for you.”
Gu Changge was still smiling faintly, seemingly unworried that Xiao Ruoyin would make any other choice.
“I understand.” Xiao Ruoyin nodded, then fell silent, her eyes gazing at Gu Changge with countless thoughts flashing through them.
She did not make her choice immediately.
However, there was one point on which Gu Changge was not wrong—even if she could rescue Jiang Chen today, from then on, the entire Beyond would have no place for her to stand.
Gu Changge’s power could be said to sweep across the entire Beyond; who would dare to casually offend him?
Jiang Chen was now carrying the black pot of being the Successor of Demonic Arts; no matter where he went, he would face a situation where the whole world was his enemy.
Unless she was powerful enough to shelter Jiang Chen indefinitely, all of this would become unrealistic.
What’s more, with her current strength, rescuing Jiang Chen was nearly impossible.
On the contrary, in the end, she would be buried here along with him.
Gu Changge giving her this choice was, in a sense, also leaving her a path to life.
“Have you thought it through?”
Gu Changge spoke unhurriedly, carrying a faint smile.
He had been watching the changes in Xiao Ruoyin’s expression all along, so he could naturally guess what she was planning in her heart.
She was hesitating, wavering. In this situation of certain death, anyone smart would know what choice to make.
Seeing that Xiao Ruoyin remained silent, the light in Jiang Chen’s eyes gradually dimmed.
He clenched his fists unwillingly, the bloodshot veins surfacing in his eyes making him look increasingly ferocious.
“I’m sorry. I don’t have many choices right now.”
Finally, Xiao Ruoyin spoke. She raised her eyes and, for the first time since arriving at this place, looked directly at Jiang Chen.
However, her words were filled with apology and helplessness.
“I misjudged you, Ruoyin. You’ve disappointed me too much.”
Although Jiang Chen could understand her choice, his heart was still filled with unwillingness and fury, and his eyes became incomparably cold.
This feeling, in his view, was no different from betrayal.
However, after Xiao Ruoyin finished saying those words to him, she did not speak again.
This forced Jiang Chen to swallow down all the many things he wanted to say, his heart full of resentment.
“Master... how can you do this...”
“If you do this, it’s no different from killing Jiang Chen.”
The Artifact Spirit of the Celestial Boat of Creation also wore an expression of disbelief at this moment, its voice trembling, unable to believe that Xiao Ruoyin would make such a choice.
This was not the master it knew at all.
That master was absolutely not so cold and heartless.
Xiao Ruoyin paid no mind to the words of the Celestial Boat of Creation’s Artifact Spirit, gently shaking her head in her heart.
She had, after all, merged memories with the original Xiao Ruoyin; she was not purely her.
If she wanted to obtain the complete Celestial Boat of Creation, Jiang Chen would have to be sacrificed sooner or later—it was only a matter of time.
If it happened later, he might still be able to preserve his spiritual intelligence and memories.
But as things stood now, it would basically end with his soul scattering into oblivion.
Xiao Ruoyin herself was not a soft-hearted person either. After making her decision, her expression returned to calm and natural.
As if everything before her eyes no longer had anything to do with her.
Gu Changge smiled, reached out to smooth a strand of hair by her ear, and said, “It seems I didn’t misjudge you after all. Smart people know how to seize opportunities.”
Hearing this, Xiao Ruoyin did not speak. She sighed inwardly, then informed Gu Changge of the method for refining the Celestial Boat of Creation.
Gu Changge had long known she would choose this way, so his expression did not change.
After obtaining this method, he did not attempt it directly, but first deduced it, finding nothing amiss.
The Celestial Boat of Creation itself was divided into two parts: one was the Artifact Spirit, and the other was the artifact itself.
And Jiang Chen was the artifact itself—only, an accident occurred during his reincarnation, and he transformed into a human, inheriting the immense Fortuity of the original Celestial Boat of Creation and becoming a Fortuitous One.
To obtain the complete Celestial Boat of Creation, one naturally had to use certain means to fuse Jiang Chen with the Artifact Spirit of the Celestial Boat of Creation, then refine it anew.
This process, to call it complicated, was not really complicated—it just took some time.
“Ruoyin, do you really want to help Gu Changge kill me?”
Jiang Chen had witnessed with his own eyes the entire process of Xiao Ruoyin transmitting the method of refining the Celestial Boat of Creation to Gu Changge.
At this moment, his heart ached as if twisted, as if ten thousand blades were cutting him apart.
Xiao Ruoyin did not say much. Her expression was very calm, as if she had not heard what Jiang Chen said at all.
Such bone-deep coldness made Jiang Chen laugh miserably, utterly despairing and disappointed.
Honglonglong—
Streaks of divine radiance and black thunderbolts flashed past, as if piercing through the firmament, tearing through the cosmos.
And at this moment, atop the Platform, Ji Shengchu and the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage were still locked in battle, inseparable, their momentum shaking the heavens.
Wisps of Chaos Energy exploded, spreading and billowing in all directions. At this moment, even the void shattered into countless fragments, silently annihilating.
By now, the two had fought to a frenzied peak, long since with no attention to spare for anything else.
Even the conversation between Jiang Chen and Gu Changge—they had no mind to listen to it.
Having reached their level of cultivation, although they were no longer at their peak, the fluctuations of their exchanges were still terrifyingly dreadful.
Even a True Daoist before them would tremble with fear, not daring to approach.
Although Jiang Chen was disappointed in Xiao Ruoyin to the extreme, at this moment he still held a thread of hope in his heart, feeling that the Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor might have the ability to resolve today’s predicament and reverse the overall situation.
He placed his last hope on the Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor.
But at this moment, a terrifying black light suddenly emerged, like a peerless great sun rising from behind Gu Changge, brilliant and soul-seizing, carrying a forbidden power that could devour the heavens.
“What is this...”
Jiang Chen felt his very soul was about to be devoured by that black light, and his entire body couldn’t help but tremble.
Honglonglong—
The void quivered, as if it would be crushed beneath this pitch-black great sun.
Even the Chaos Energy that had scattered about collapsed and broke apart at this moment, devoured into it.
It was a palm-sized black flask, as if condensed from Grand Runes one after another.
From it hung cascading waterfalls of divine chains of order, hualala, rushing toward the two figures on the Platform ahead, as if to drown them both together.
In the deeper reaches, monstrous grey mist swept in, blotting out the sky and sun, accompanied by terrifying howling sounds, instantly swallowing up this entire place.
Gu Changge stepped forward and made his move, taking advantage of the opportunity of the two’s battle, intending to profit as the fisherman.
“This is...”
The Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor and the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage, who were battling atop the Platform, were disturbed by this, and their expressions changed drastically.
The two of them sensed this terrifying fluctuation almost immediately, and then recognized that Grand Flask, their faces changing even further, filled with shock and disbelief.
“Impossible...”
The Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage had no time to be enraged by Gu Changge’s sudden attack; his face was filled with fear, as if he had witnessed some inconceivable sight.
He was born in the Immortal Epoch and was well-informed, so he naturally knew what this Grand Flask signified.
That was... a forbidden object.
However, he did not know that this object was not condensed from runes, but truly existed.
“No matter what your origins are, for scheming against this old man today, you must pay the price.”
At this moment, the Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor reacted, glaring at Gu Changge who had struck at them, and roared in fury.
He was like a great furnace capable of melting heaven and earth, displaying invincible techniques, supremely yang and unyielding, wide-open and overwhelming, his blood qi surging to the heavens, valiant as a god, seeking to break the Dao with sheer force, attempting to shake apart the divine light of order flooding toward him.
He was incomparably powerful; even though his oil lamp was nearly burnt dry and he had fought the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage for so long, he still exuded an invincible aura.
Gu Changge’s expression was calm and without ripples. He had no intention of sparing the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage just because the latter had done him a small favor earlier.
In his eyes, if the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage made it out alive, he would instead become a hidden danger.
Better to leave him here forever, burying everything that happened in Kun Mountain along with him.
What’s more, the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage’s cultivation at his peak was no weaker than the Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor.
To leave such a fine resource unused would be unjustifiable.
The next moment, an extremely terrifying aura swept out from within the underground palace.
The pitch-black Grand Flask hovered above Gu Changge’s head, like a black hole, its mouth profound and bottomless at a glance.
This was a peerless devouring power, unimaginable, as if all the heavens and myriad ages could be swallowed into it.
From within, black beams of light like mountain ranges burst forth one after another, connecting toward the Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage and the Ji Family’s Founding Ancestor, seeking to draw the two of them into the flask.
Hualala—
However, the two’s methods were extremely terrifying. The Feathered-Robe Daoist Sage offered up a Daoist diagram, which hung suspended above his head.
That Daoist diagram trembled, and a divine mountain rushed out, crashing toward the Grand Flask, exuding an ancient, immortal aura.
But the next moment, as the black light cascaded down and the grey mist surged in, the divine mountains collapsed one after another, turning to ash, utterly unable to resist for even a moment.
Gu Changge’s expression was calm as he struck forward. Dao Artifacts surfaced in his hands one after another—a purple flask, a golden Dao sword, an exquisite treasure fan... their radiance brilliant, beginning to revive, with unparalleled, world-suppressing auras surging forth like great waves, pressing down toward the front.