Daughter of Destiny

Beneath the Blackwater Pool.

Pang Jian rode the giant python, diving downward as he thought about how to leave this place as quickly as possible.

As he neared the bottom of the pool, he saw a patch of silvery light, like shattered crystals scattered upon the ground.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered it was actually the silver net spread out across the floor.

Beyond that, the bamboo flute held in the hand of the man whose Golden Mask had been pierced also emitted a faint glow.

Pang Jian looked up, but failing to spot Hong Tai, he used his thoughts to command the python.

Understanding his intent, the Dark Giant Python carried him around the bottom of the pool to search for anything that might catch his eye.

He first went to the Silver Silk Giant Net and hoisted it up, discovering that the silver net was very light underwater; despite the Humanoid Monster having struggled against it for so long, not a single strand had snapped.

After rolling the net into a bundle and stowing it away, he picked up the arm-length bamboo flute, then searched the area around the corpses of the three Pulse-Opening Realm cultivators.

He obtained some silver shards and a few impure spirit stones, which he placed into the leather pouch taken from Jin Yang's corpse.

He also tore off the jade pendant carved with a Chi Dragon, which bore obvious cracks, intending to take it with him as well.

Perhaps because he used too much force, the severely damaged Chi Dragon Jade Pendant shattered on the spot.

Pang Jian casually discarded it.

He glanced at the Cicada Wing Swords scattered across the pool floor, finding that most of them were deformed and seemed to hold little value.

He sighed inwardly, thinking that had he known he could scavenge for spoils, he would have held back his strength earlier.

Determined to retreat from the Blackwater Pool, he wandered the bottom one last time but found no other items of value.

Feeling slightly regretful, he had no choice but to ride the python back to the stone door that stood slightly ajar. Seeing that Hong Tai still had not appeared, he opened the stone door with peace of mind.

After entering.

He placed the bag of spirit stones he had obtained from Ning Yao, along with all his previous gains, into his bamboo basket.

Once he had shouldered the heavy bamboo basket again and carefully secured the lid to ensure everything was in order, he stood before the stone door and looked at the python that had accompanied him in battle.

As he gazed at the python, the Dark Giant Python within its body also watched him gloomily with its pitch-black snake eyes.

After a moment of hesitation, Pang Jian suddenly reached out and patted the python's head in a friendly gesture before the stone door, asking in his heart, "Do you want to leave the Blackwater Pool with me?"

The python stared at him blankly, as if it did not know how to respond.

He smiled and said in his heart, "The stone passage is narrow, but if you let your beast soul leave your body, you should be able to pass through smoothly."

He knew that the entity currently inhabiting the body of this python—which had been kept by Hong Tai—was the true master of the Blackwater Pool, the very creator of the many beast bones and hunter remains at the bottom of the pool.

The giant python, which had been killed by the Phoenix Bone, was certainly no benevolent creature; over the years, it was unknown how many living beings it had corroded with its venom.

However, the fact that Pang Jian had been able to slaughter so many Dark Ghost cultivators this time was truly thanks to this giant python.

—Though he still did not understand why the giant python had been willing to help him.

Thinking that the python's true body had been pierced by the Phoenix Bone and only a remnant soul remained, he felt the creature had received its due punishment.

Therefore, he wanted to take this python, which had lost its true body, away from the sea of suffering that was the Blackwater Pool.

But his good intentions were not accepted by the Dark Giant Python.

Upon sensing his intent, the Dark Giant Python's obsidian-like snake eyes finally fell upon the Bronze Gate Pendant on his chest.

Having followed his thoughts at the bottom of the pool and retrieved its scattered remnant soul piece by piece, the Dark Giant Python now recalled many things.

Complex emotions flickered within its snake eyes.

Through the youth's warm palm, it could perceive his thoughts and feelings, knowing that the invitation he extended was incredibly sincere.

The youth had forgiven it for the evil deeds it had committed in the Blackwater Pool, genuinely wanted to take it away, and even felt a strange sense of... reliance on it.

But it could not accept for the time being.

Its gaze fell back onto the youth's face, and it shook its head gently at him before slithering away from the stone door.

Pang Jian sighed in his heart, watching blankly as it moved away from the stone door and swam toward its own corpse.

It circled around its own massive, dead snake skeleton, which lay scattered in a ring beside the Phoenix Bone, swimming back and forth.

It was deeply attached to its true snake body, as if it were unable to leave itself behind and did not understand its current predicament.

Pang Jian was suddenly moved, thinking to himself, "You are already dead."

The departing Dark Giant Python no longer had physical contact with him, and the distance between them was too great for it to hear his inner voice.

"So be it."

Pang Jian sighed to himself.

He understood that when the giant python shook its head, it had formally rejected his kindness, and once it slithered away, it would not return.

Filled with regret, the youth did not wait any longer. He pulled the stone door shut, turned around, and headed toward the deep, dark stone passage.

The stone door closed completely.

After Pang Jian had vanished entirely.

The Dark Giant Python, which had just settled down at the head of its true body, quietly swam back.

It stared with a pair of pitch-black, mysterious snake eyes, fixed unblinkingly upon a stone door that looked no different from the rest of the rock.

For a long, long time, neither the python body it had possessed nor its dark snake eyes moved even an inch.

The youth, who had ignored its past transgressions and remained ignorant of what it had once endured, had vanished into the passage behind the stone door, perhaps never to be seen again.

Yet, the youth's recent kindness and his heartfelt invitation had become an indelible brand deep within its beast soul.

In the gloomy stone passage.

When Pang Jian passed that stone chamber, he could no longer see the stone table, chairs, or bed inside, for the stone door had closed completely.

Holding the Dragon-Patterned Spear, he used the weapon to probe the path ahead, feeling his way forward.

--This was how he navigated the stone passage, of unknown depth.

At this moment, he could not help but recall the sudden, searing heat he had felt in his chest while riding on horseback with Shangguan Qin.

Combining this with his experience at the Blackwater Pool, he was certain that when Ning Yao went to the Indeterminate Ferry to search for remnants of the Blood Moon, he had been struck by a drop of Phoenix Marrow while standing before that Phoenix Bone.

The only reason he had remained unscathed was that the Bronze Tablet left to him by his father had absorbed the drop of Phoenix Marrow that should have transformed him into a monster!

Just as it had before!

Not long after that incident, he had suffered from a persistent high fever and eventually collapsed on the warhorse.

"The Phoenix Marrow this time, along with the blood-colored phoenix that surged out from the monster's body, will only be more ferocious. I hope the onset is slower this time; I hope I can hold on."

As he walked through the passage, he wondered about the origin of the bronze tablet, thinking of his father who had given it to him—did he know of this object's miraculous nature?

And where had his father obtained this bronze tablet in the first place?

His mind raced with thoughts as he continued to prod the ground with his spear, moving forward through the narrow, deep stone corridor.

Time slipped away rapidly.

He felt as though he had been in the stone passage for a very long time, yet he had not seen a single glimmer of light. The long, dark passage seemed to have no end.

After an unknown amount of time, Pang Jian finally felt that itching, burning sensation in his chest once again!

Having prepared himself mentally, Pang Jian felt it clearly this time: streams of strange energy were surging out from the bronze pendant pressed against his skin!

These streams of strange energy instantly permeated his sternum, flowing from his chest toward his waist and abdomen!

The stinging, numbing pain, like ten thousand ants gnawing at his bones, returned. His body temperature climbed steadily, and his head throbbed as if it were about to split open!

He knew immediately that he likely wouldn't last long this time either, and would fall unconscious just as he had before.

However, he had no idea if he would be able to wake up this time.

Anxious and uneasy, he comforted himself with the thought that since the skin on his chest and arms could breathe on its own, he wouldn't drown even if he passed out, and no living creature should be able to enter this hidden passage deep beneath the mountain.

If so, he should be safe after losing consciousness.

"Ugh!"

Just as the youth braced for the worst, he suddenly felt a coolness at his heart. He reached out and touched the jade-like lotus leaf.

The lotus leaf was cool and quietly emitted a glacial-green treasure light, illuminating the dark passage while lowering his internal temperature by several degrees.

Joy flickered in his eyes.

He had not expected that the lotus leaf, which Jin Yang had regarded as a treasure, would actually prove useful at a critical moment, preventing him from fainting immediately and allowing him to perceive the various changes within his body.

He gradually realized that the streams of miraculous power surging from the bronze tablet were coursing through all the bones in his body.

It felt as if many burning phoenixes were soaring within his bones, frantically hammering at them and causing sparks to fly from within.

The fact that he had not fainted amidst the agonizing pain of his entire skeleton being tempered was entirely thanks to that lotus leaf.

He suddenly felt a sense of gratitude toward Jin Yang, thinking that although the man was dead, he had left behind a treasure.

He had not been happy for long, however, before he saw the glacial-green light emitted by the lotus leaf covering his heart grow increasingly dim.

The mysterious lotus leaf could not withstand the strange transformation within him, nor could it keep him conscious for long.

Before long, the strange power within the lotus leaf was exhausted. When it no longer released any light, the leaf suddenly shattered into many pieces under the water.

As the leaf shattered, Pang Jian realized that Jin Yang's original plan was actually unfeasible.

This somewhat mysterious lotus leaf could not block the power of a drop of Phoenix Marrow at all. If Jin Yang had truly absorbed a drop of Phoenix Marrow, he would have eventually turned into another monster.

Soon, the high temperature radiating from within him became increasingly ferocious.

Pang Jian lost consciousness once again.

The Second Realm.

Exhausted, Sun Bin brought Pang Lin through another teleportation, only to collapse limbs-splayed onto a floating, isolated island.

The sky was a clear, cloudless azure.

Four massive continents floated at the four corners of the firmament—southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest—dazzling and prominent.

Gazing at the familiar sky, Sun Bin sighed powerlessly. "Girl, I truly did my best."

On this beautiful, breezy day, a desperate Sun Bin prepared himself for death, gazing longingly at the azure firmament.

"Every escape artifact and technique I could muster, including my very essence and soul—everything that should have been used and even what shouldn't—I have exhausted! There is truly no other way; I cannot contact anyone else, and I have no strength left."

Sun Bin looked toward the sky as he explained, as if speaking to someone in the higher realms to prove he had not neglected his duty.

"Senior Sun, I don't blame you. I am just reluctant to leave my brother behind. Once I am gone, he will have no kin left in this world."

Pang Lin's delicate, ethereal face was filled with profound sorrow, her mind consumed by thoughts of her brother alone in the lower realm and how he would manage in the future.

"My brother never even had the chance to come up here and see this patch of blue sky."

"I had originally thought that I would work hard at my cultivation and return to bring him up here as well..."

Pang Lin murmured, crystalline tears welling in the corners of her eyes, her heart filled with the same despair as Sun Bin's.

In the world above, one could occasionally see the sun, a bright moon often graced the night sky, and countless Fanxing adorned the heavens.

Everything was so beautiful.

The days and nights above were so magnificent and colorful; it was a pity her brother would never have the chance to see them.

She felt a deep regret that Pang Jian had not been able to arrive.

"Swish!"

The bone that had been chasing her and Sun Bin for so long appeared once more like a flash of cold lightning.

This time, Sun Bin no longer had the strength to carry her or employ those miraculous methods to escape.

The Phoenix Bone radiated a crystalline, precious light, its countless tiny runes shimmering like diamonds as it came to a silent halt right before her.

Symbols resembling stars and crushed diamonds drifted away from the Phoenix Bone, whistling past her eyes as if displaying endless wonders and mysteries.

Far from assuming a posture of attack or assassination, the Phoenix Bone slowly nudged toward her chest, radiating a thought that implored her to touch it.

Pang Lin stood stunned for a long moment.

Under Sun Bin's dazed gaze, she curiously reached out with the pad of her right finger and gently touched the Phoenix Bone.

Instantly, a vast, sea-like ocean of knowledge flowed from her fingertip into her body.

Within the white bone, the countless tiny, diamond-like star symbols vanished one by one.

Sun Bin stared blankly, and only after a long, long time did he react, murmuring to himself, "So, it wasn't trying to hunt us down; it had its sights set on this girl."

The readers today are truly sharp; when Old Ni was writing the second chapter, many had already guessed that Azure Vulture was merely an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire, and that Pang Lin was the true lucky one.

Well, there is no such thing as fairness in this world; while the brother struggles and risks his life, the sister sits and waits for grace to chase her down.

It is just like the Purgatory World in the book, layer upon layer; those from the upper and lower levels are born different, much like the "social strata" of our own world—there has never been any fairness.