"Nothing in this world is unavoidable. I cultivate at the Heaven Mending Pavilion, and now that I know about this, I'll resolve it," Di Yi said. He was very interested in the great calamity the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit had mentioned and wanted to see what sort of cycle it was.
"Really? Your Excellency Di Yi, you'll intervene?" The Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit, shuddered, as though it had glimpsed hope.
"If something like that really happens, I naturally won't stand by and do nothing." Di Yi nodded.
There was another reason, too: this world was unfamiliar to him. From what the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit had said, there were other great regions besides the Desolate Region where he currently was.
He felt it was necessary to visit those other great regions and seek more ways to heal himself.
It would only take a few more decades, a mere flick of the fingers to him.
"Then thank you, Your Excellency Di Yi!" The Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit, said that if he needed anything in the future, the pavilion would do its utmost to provide it-a plum returned for a peach.
"All right, let's leave that matter there." Di Yi changed the subject. "I heard you say earlier that the Elder Paranormal needs his sword to house his remnant soul. Does that mean he'll stop causing trouble as long as we retrieve it?"
"Yes. If his remnant soul is housed in his weapon, he may regain clarity, recover the spirit he possessed in life, and recognize himself," said the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. "But it isn't time for the Hundred Broken Mountains to open yet. That is a place where Primordial Divines and Saints shed their blood. It holds mysteries, and no outside force can open it."
"That's not a problem." Di Yi paid that difficulty no mind. This world was so fragile that he didn't believe there was anywhere he couldn't enter.
He said that if doing this would stop the Elder Paranormal from causing trouble, that was enough. He would naturally deal with the rest.
"Then should we prepare anything for you, Your Excellency Di Yi?" asked the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit.
"No need. Tell me where the Hundred Broken Mountains are, and I'll go there now," Di Yi replied. He needed no preparations; traveling light was enough for him.
"The Hundred Broken Mountains are very far from the Heaven Mending Pavilion. Let me send you part of the way, Your Excellency Di Yi," said the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. Di Yi was setting out to resolve a problem troubling the pavilion. As its Sacrificial Spirit, it would seem rather ungenerous if it did nothing at all.
The next moment, a swath of radiant light surged from where it grew. The sole Azure Gourd it had borne lit up, constructing a passage within the azure light.
"Void Crossing?" Di Yi instinctively applied his true understanding, immediately grasping what sort of method this was. It resembled the teleportation formations in the great cities he had passed through on his journey, only more advanced.
"Yes," replied the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. This was its Precious Technique; crossing the breadth of an ancient kingdom was nothing to it.
"That's quite a practical Precious Technique... Oh, wait a moment. I'll be right back." Di Yi had been about to step onto the passage, but then he remembered the Golden Hou still at his residence and decided to bring it along.
It wasn't that he wanted another source of fighting power. Rather, he knew the Golden Hou's temperament. Without his supervision, once it discovered he was gone, it would most likely cause even more trouble than the Elder Paranormal.
Before long, Di Yi brought the Golden Hou to the Ancient Courtyard. This time, however, only the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit remained there. Tao Ye was nowhere to be seen.
"This is... a Primordial Era terror, a Golden King of the True Hou!?" Although the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit couldn't see Di Yi, it could see the Golden Hou.
It was instantly stunned. As a being that had survived from ancient times to the present, it knew far more than others and understood exactly what origins lay behind that creature resembling a strange dog.
"A Primordial Era terror?" Di Yi was puzzled. "Isn't it a primordial remnant?"
"No, it absolutely cannot be a primordial remnant," the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit, denied. "What we call remnants are the mixed-blood descendants of pureblood beings,
"but it is unquestionably a pureblood being, and moreover, a first-generation individual with the purest blood. Unbelievable. With the Primordial Era gone and the ancient age ended, it should have become extinct, yet now it has appeared again. I truly don't know how it came into being." "It actually has such an extraordinary background?" Di Yi was surprised, but after thinking it over, he accepted it.
Through his studies at the Heaven Mending Pavilion, he had learned that lightning-type Precious Techniques were the hardest to master, representing the heavens.
Yet the Golden Hou could wield lightning at will and even develop its own Precious Technique. That alone was enough to show how extraordinary its bloodline was.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou couldn't understand what the withered vine before it was saying, but it had a feeling that it was being praised, so it let out a long, proud roar.
"By the way, I read something in the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Bone Scriptures. Even primordial remnants possess great intelligence. Though they cannot speak human language in beast form, they can communicate mentally." Di Yi stroked the Golden Hou, then seemed to think of something and asked, "But why can't it?"
"It is special. As a first-generation Golden King of the True Hou, its own bloodline is the beginning of everything," explained the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. "In other words, primordial remnants can communicate mentally because they possess the bloodline inheritance of pureblood beings, which contains fragments of understanding. It, however, has no such fragments. It must acquire everything itself as it grows."
"Then does that mean it needs to be taught before it can learn to communicate mentally?" Di Yi asked.
"It cannot be taught. It must acquire everything itself as it grows," said the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. "First-generation Golden Kings of the True Hou command lightning, and each individual follows a different path of growth."
"What do you mean?" Di Yi didn't understand.
"To put it simply, its mind is frequently 'struck' by lightning. This is both a tempering and a trial. The lightning contains information, and outside influences can hardly interfere," explained the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. "Once those 'strikes' open its mind, it will truly have matured. It will gain not only power from lightning, but knowledge as well, learning without a teacher."
"So that's how it is. No wonder I sometimes see it staring blankly, looking so adorably foolish." Di Yi understood.
"Roar?" The Golden Hou looked at Di Yi, its face endearingly guileless.
"All right, time to set out. I'll return as soon as possible." Di Yi tugged the Golden Hou's fur, signaling it to follow him onto the passage, where azure radiance shimmered and all sorts of intricate symbols rose and fell.
It was like walking through fragments of time. The images of the outside world reflected within the passage were intermittent, like one frozen painting after another, the layers of space in disarray.
Before long, azure light surged, and a luminous gateway appeared at the end of the passage. Forged from interwoven bone text and symbols, it was dazzlingly brilliant, as though divine radiance had been set aflame, like a window guiding light through the void.
To Di Yi, this experience was novel. Unfortunately, it was too brief. He never felt the temporal disorientation described in the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Bone Scriptures, in which Void Crossing seemed to take an entire lifetime.
A rain of light scattered, and the passage vanished. He and the Golden Hou appeared in an unfamiliar place.
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