"Double pupils were already a road to invincibility. Why borrow another's bone?"
With a sigh,
the Saintess of the Heaven Mending Sect drifted down.
Shi Yi had always been someone their Heaven Mending Sect valued.
Who would have thought he would suffer such a calamity and never recover?
So the Saintess had come in person to see whether the man before her still met their requirements.
But now, the light that had once shone in Shi Yi's eyes seemed to have vanished.
His former confidence was gone without a trace.
First, someone utterly unknown had trampled him underfoot in the Void God Realm.
Then some inexplicable power had struck, and someone had taken back his Supreme Bone.
These successive blows had placed enormous strain on this so-called young prodigy's pride.
Throughout his rise, he had never encountered setbacks like these.
Now, his heart blazed with fury.
The Saintess had meant those words to help him open his heart.
Unfortunately, he failed to reach any great awakening.
Instead, he took them as mockery.
"Shi Yi, you really don't need to..."
"Your Holiness, unless I defeat that man named Shi Xiu, I will never go to the Upper Realm!"
Wonderful.
The moment he said that, Shi Yi was as good as finished.
He was destined to become someone else's stepping stone.
But when someone trapped himself in a bull's horn,
no amount of fretting from outsiders would help unless he found his own way out.
Fairy Yuechan of the Heaven Mending Sect probably never dreamed
that her well-intentioned attempt to counsel him and lend him a hand
would achieve the exact opposite.
The viciousness in his eyes only grew stronger.
Especially after Shi Hao fused with the Supreme Bone again.
This so-called older cousin sensed it immediately.
There was nothing she could do.
As the Saintess of the Heaven Mending Sect,
she could hardly chatter on endlessly like some woman in the marketplace.
She could only leave him with, "Take care of yourself."
Then she returned to the Heaven Mending Sect to report.
"Someone, bring Yu Feng to me!"
As he watched the fairy leave,
Shi Yi's gaze turned exceptionally savage.
He resembled a wounded lion,
ready to unleash a frenzied revenge!
"Young master, I've investigated. Our clan's Senior Sister Yu Zimo was killed by Shi Xiu... Count me in for revenge!"
As one of the Rain Clan's few survivors,
Yu Feng might have lived a few more years if he had kept a low profile.
But he was another fellow unwilling to bow beneath anyone.
His own talent had already earned him a place in the Heaven Mending Pavilion.
Yet he secretly contacted outsiders such as Demon Spirit Lake, seemingly plotting against his own sect.
Now he wanted to join forces with Shi Yi to avenge Yu Zimo.
It seemed he wanted to snatch up every advantage.
How could there be such easy pickings in this world?
But as for the approaching danger,
Shi Xiu knew nothing at all.
This period was even one of the brightest moments of his life.
With the Willow Deity's help, his strength soon reached five grotto-heavens.
And Little One, who had recovered his Supreme Bone, advanced straight to the three grotto-heavens cultivation level.
After the whole of Stone Village learned about this,
everyone held Shi Xiu in the highest regard.
They practically regarded him as the successor to the village chief.
But the Willow Deity thought otherwise.
To possess the heavenly Dao treasure body and still have such a generous heart,
this boy was no creature destined to remain in a pond.
Perhaps the Heaven Mending Pavilion thought so too.
Through layer upon layer of connections, they actually enlisted the Fire Emperor's daughter, Huo Ling'er, to persuade him.
They wanted to drag a certain someone into their sect.
They really had gone to painstaking lengths!
And Huo Ling'er proved herself a good disciple.
She personally brought a group to the entrance of Stone Village, along with plenty of gifts.
"Your Highness, with your precious status, perhaps you should not go inside!"
Stone Village had not received outside visitors for a long time.
And the guest who arrived at its entrance today was someone of extraordinary standing.
She was actually the legendary Fire Kingdom Princess!
At once, the entire village erupted with excitement.
Everyone followed behind Shi Xiu, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Fire Kingdom Princess's splendor.
And Shi Hao, who had regained his Supreme Bone, was the liveliest of them all.
He had always been an optimist.
Now that he had taken back everything that belonged to him,
he was naturally in excellent spirits.
Seeing the Fire Kingdom Princess repeatedly insist that she wanted to see Shi Xiu,
he went straight up to her.
"Are you my big brother Shi Xiu's new fat girl? Compared to the last one, you're nothing special!"
He was referring to the Ruthless Great Emperor.
Compared with her, Huo Ling'er indeed fell far short in every respect.
But the Fire Kingdom Princess had come today on behalf of the Heaven Mending Pavilion.
When Shi Xiu failed to appear and Shi Hao popped out instead, the princess immediately grew displeased.
"Where did this little brat come from? I'm here to see Shi Xiu!"
This was Huo Ling'er and Shi Hao's first meeting.
It seemed quite different from the original story.
Perhaps that was because of a certain transmigrator!
A meeting like this might be better for both of them.
"Haha, is this your princess's dowry? It looks like there's a lot more than the last one brought!"
Shi Hao ignored Huo Ling'er.
He simply guessed according to his own logic.
Just look at how furious he made the Fire Kingdom Princess.
But she could hardly fly into a rage on someone else's doorstep.
All she could do was keep stamping her feet.
Yet the Fire Kingdom Princess did not know
that while she was ostensibly there to recruit someone for the Heaven Mending Pavilion,
His Majesty the Fire Emperor had another plan in mind.
Far away in the Fire Kingdom Ancestral Land,
the Fire Emperor was discussing an important matter with the Sacrificial Spirit, the Vermilion Bird.
It concerned the fate of their entire family!
"Honored Sacrificial Spirit, is your information true?"
"How could it be false? Do you not trust me?"
"I wouldn't dare. But does that boy really possess the heavenly Dao treasure body?"
"I sensed it during the struggle for the Mountain Treasure. There can be no mistake!"
"What about those mighty figures in the heavens?"
"Who cares? Those big shots settled the rules long ago. There's no rule saying one can only have a single Dao companion!"
"Very well. I shall announce it to the world at once!"
Huo Ling'er probably never dreamed
that Shi Xiu was actually the ideal match her father could not stop thinking about.
On the surface, he seemed to be asking Huo Ling'er to recruit Shi Xiu into the Heaven Mending Pavilion.
In truth, the Fire Emperor's real purpose was to recruit a son-in-law.
The gifts laid out at Stone Village's entrance were actually Huo Ling'er's dowry.
Sending the girl here was merely a way to let the young couple get better acquainted.
The Fire Emperor was one of the foremost supreme experts in this lower realm.
Becoming his son-in-law was practically equivalent to gaining limitless power.
Just as Huo Ling'er and Shi Hao remained embroiled in their squabble,
a fiery-red decree suddenly appeared above Stone Village.
Its great gilded characters instantly filled the sky.
And upon seeing the decree, the Willow Deity seemed to react most strongly.
"Boy, fortune has smiled on you. His Majesty the Fire Emperor wants you as his son-in-law. Those things at the village entrance are the betrothal gifts!"
At this sudden news,
Shi Xiu and Huo Ling'er were both stunned.
Shi Xiu had thought Huo Ling'er had come to invite him to join the Heaven Mending Pavilion.
Meanwhile, Huo Ling'er stood at the village entrance, covering her face and stamping her feet.
"Stupid Father! Bad Sacrificial Spirit! So you two teamed up to trick me! Hmph!"
Though she was beside herself with anger,
the Fire Kingdom Princess did not dare defy her father's decree.
After all, this was still an age when parents decided their children's marriages.
Moreover, the general accompanying her produced the Fire Emperor's secret decree as well.
He told Huo Ling'er outright that this man possessed the heavenly Dao treasure body.
But after hearing the news,
the men and women, young and old, of Stone Village erupted in jubilation.
Who would have thought their remote little mountain village would actually produce an imperial son-in-law?
Wouldn't that make them all relatives of the imperial family from now on?
But the Fire Emperor's move stirred towering waves throughout the lower realm.
The strongest reaction naturally came from Immortal Mountain.
They responded overnight, dispatching five groups straight to Stone Village.
Each group brought a breathtakingly beautiful woman of the Celestial Human Race from Immortal Mountain.
What were they trying to do...?
Before you continue