The next moment, the woman moved with graceful lotus steps, slender and willowy, as though she had stepped out of a mural. With every step, an icy purity and peerless Dao rhythm flowed around her. It was an extraordinarily profound movement technique, swift to the utmost, ghostlike as if she were teleporting, racing toward the foot of the Sacred Mountain.
Who was she? Once hailed as the foremost beauty of the Eastern Wasteland, every step she took was heart-stirring, swaying with exquisite grace, beautiful beyond compare.
"Celestial Immortal Steps!"
Madman let out a long sigh and spoke three words.
By a fortunate chance, he had once obtained a fragment of Nine Secrets: Xing.
The Heavenly Jade Saintess was naturally no ordinary woman either. Peerless and unparalleled, no one knew where she had obtained such an inheritance. The two had once exchanged a few moves, and Madman had lost by a slight margin.
It was not that Madman's Nine Secrets: Xing was weak, but that it was far too incomplete.
The Heavenly Jade Holy Land had once been incomparably powerful, daring to challenge Desolate Ancient Families. Its Holy Master and elders included no shortage of Saints. They had even mobilized their foundations and sought to enter the Immortal Domain as an entire sect, only to be reduced to ashes.
Back then, the Heavenly Jade Holy Land had used an attack on the Desolate Forbidden Land as a pretext. In truth, they had been lured in and used as a stone thrown to test the waters, probing the Immortal Domain fissure within the Desolate Forbidden Land. They had wanted their entire sect to ascend.
In the end, the Heavenly Jade Saintess became a Desolate Slave, while Madman obtained the inheritance of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist. The Dao Traces of that inheritance had instead saved his life, sending him beyond the boundaries of the Desolate Forbidden Land.
Naturally, Jiang Ming knew the origins of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist. This thing was an ancient heavenly technique from the Immortal Ancient Era—the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Technique. Shi Hao had later learned it, and it was also one of the inheritances of the Supreme Hall.
By that reasoning, the Heavenly Jade Holy Land had likely not merely been used as a weapon. They had ambitions of their own. Heavenly Jade represented supreme eminence; in ancient Chinese traditional culture, it implied vastness, loftiness, and sanctity, and was often used to symbolize emperors and sovereigns.
He suspected that this sect might have been a branch of the Supreme Hall. However, many of its inheritances had been severed, and they had wanted to enter the Desolate Forbidden Land to find the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist.
No matter what, when the Heavenly Jade Holy Land had gathered the strength of the entire holy land to attack the Desolate Forbidden Land, there had been something strange about it. They had even damaged an Emperor Armament.
That was right. Ruthless Empress had done it. No one had seen what happened, but the ancient supreme weapon inherited by the Heavenly Jade Holy Land had been smashed into fragments.
The Empress had even taken those fragments to refine her mask.
When Jiang Ming saw the Heavenly Jade Saintess chasing after them, he forcibly seized control of his body. To hell with everyone else—he was running.
Using the movement technique he had learned from Madman, he shot off in a blur, becoming like a fleeting fragment of time and vanishing from where he stood. When he appeared again, he was already more than ten li away.
He was fleeing for his life, nothing like Madman's leisurely stroll.
"Enough, enough. I'm leaving. I'll come see you... see all of you again someday."
Madman shook his head with a sigh. He glanced at the Heavenly Jade Saintess, who remained as peerlessly elegant as ever, and knew that she had already become a Desolate Slave. There was no point in staying any longer.
Back then, the foundations that the Heavenly Jade Holy Land had suppressed with an Emperor Armament, along with several Saints, had all turned to dust in the Desolate Forbidden Land. Even the Emperor Armament had shattered. He did not dare enter the Desolate Forbidden Land either.
"This fellow is even crazier than I am."
After Madman emerged from the Primordial Mountain Range, he saw that the demonic aura around Jiang Ming had vanished. His entire person seemed cleansed of all worldly dust, as still as an abyss and as imposing as a mountain, as elegant as sacred orchids and jade trees. Truly, a gentleman like jade upon the road, peerless in all the world.
Yet this man was arguing with himself. One person, one mouth, yet he could speak in three voices with completely different temperaments.
"I, Jiang Ming, am making this clear right now. From now on, I call the shots. Whoever the fuck refuses to listen, I'll draw my sword, stab through my own skull, and kill myself. At least I'll die quickly.
"More importantly, even if this body dies, it can only die by my hand."
Jiang Ming was furious as he declared his sovereignty. He was done playing. No one could make him fall into demonic cultivation, and no one could make him enter the Desolate Forbidden Land. He was hysterically ready to flip the table at any moment.
"What joy is there in life? What fear is there in death?"
Jiang Ming from his previous life spoke coldly.
"We still have Tingting, and our biological father is still alive in this world. How can we speak so lightly of life and death?
"Besides, Lingzhi's vengeance has not yet been fully exacted. Keeping death on your lips is the behavior of a coward."
Jiang Ming from this life roared angrily.
"So, all of you listen to me. I decide everything. I have my own plans and my own sense of measure. Listen to me, and everything will pass. One day, I can achieve all the people and things you desire most in your hearts.
"And I'm not falling into demonic cultivation anymore."
The primary personality, Jiang Ming, spoke in a tone that allowed no discussion or doubt.
Divine light gleamed in Madman's cloudy old eyes as he stared hard at Jiang Ming. "This man is far too crazy."
"Hahaha—being crazy is good, crazy is good.
"Wuwuwu—what joy is there in life, what suffering is there in death? When all splendor fades, everything is empty. Off I go, off I go—"
Madman suddenly cried, then laughed, crazed and deranged. Dao Patterns appeared beneath his feet, and with one step, he crossed a hundred li and left directly.
"When the song ends, all scatter—it is all but a dream. When all splendor fades, everything is empty.
"Things remain, but people have changed; all matters come to rest. Before words can be spoken, tears begin to flow."
Watching Madman's departing back, Jiang Ming could not help thinking of a poem by Li Qingzhao. He pieced together a few lines and let out a long sigh.
Madman sighed that he was mad.
He lamented that Madman was mad.
So who was truly mad?
Off he went. He would continue cultivating in seclusion and wait for the plot to begin. In this Golden Age, the Golden Crow Emperor should forget about becoming an emperor. Even if he did, would he not just end up tragically beaten by Ye Fan? Jiang Ming might as well become an emperor himself.
A member of the Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage becoming a Great Emperor.
It seemed there had never been such a precedent. The original plot appeared to contain no record of it.
It was as rare as a member of the Saint Body Lineage becoming a Great Emperor. There had only been Ye Fan.
As for the feud between the Heavenly Tyrant Body and the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, it came down to the fact that one mountain could not accommodate two tigers. Two invincible physiques capable of contending with Great Emperors had clashed head-on generation after generation, eventually turning into hatred.
Moreover, the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body Lineage was righteous and benevolent, with the common people in their hearts. They deserved the title of Human Saint Body.
The Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage, on the other hand, was selfish and self-serving. They clung to Tyrant Body Planet, tyrannized others, and remained frogs at the bottom of a well. Three old Tyrant Bodies were still alive, though they might as well have been dead. They had utterly ruined the Tyrant Body Lineage's reputation, becoming parasites of heaven and earth like the old monsters of forbidden lands, prolonging their lives with the origin essence of all living beings.
Since that was the case, Jiang Ming would restore the Heavenly Tyrant Body's name. As for the original Tyrant Body Lineage, he would infiltrate them and personally deal with them. Those who deserved to die would die, and those who needed to be restrained would be restrained. They were all part of the Tyrant Body Lineage, after all. For the glory of the Tyrant Body Lineage, the old had to go for the new to come.
If the old Tyrant Bodies did not die, how could a new Tyrant Body become a Great Emperor?
So they should all fulfill Jiang Ming's wishes!
He would directly sacrifice the entire old Tyrant Body Lineage. That should be enough to support the cultivation resources he needed through the late Saint realm.
What opportunities on the Starry Sky Ancient Road could compare to the benefits brought by the Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage's sacrifice?
They would die for a worthy cause.
Just like Saiyan Planet in Dragon Pearl. After Planet Vegeta was destroyed, the infamous Saiyan Lineage's reputation improved instead.
With Son Goku and his descendants, that was already enough.
Therefore, no matter how foul the Tyrant Body Lineage's reputation was, it would merely be another Saiyan Planet. Its disappearance would actually be a good thing.
Only after destruction could there be rebirth.
Just as Jiang Ming was making rough plans for the future,
At the boundary of the Desolate Forbidden Land, a white-clad figure stood there. Her robes fluttered in the wind, her bearing peerless, her hollow gaze fixed on the distance. She resembled a beautiful statue without a soul.
Suddenly, the figure who looked like the Moon Palace Immortal lightly took a step forward. She had actually crossed beyond the boundaries of the Desolate Forbidden Land.