"You damned bastard! I knew you'd bite the hand that feeds you. What makes you worthy of the Immortal Bone? If not for the Heavenly Venerable's orders, do you really think I'd want to teach you? Every day, it's nothing but finding your parents! You're a white-eyed wolf who'll never learn loyalty, no matter how well we feed you! I'd love nothing more than to dig out your Immortal Bone and give it to my nephew!" Qin Fa roared, his face twisted with malice.
A Middle Corpse, representing the enjoyment of fine flavors and bearing the power of wrath, occupied Qin Fa's body.
"See? Those are his real thoughts. You saw it yourself just now-it provokes you into spilling what's on your mind." Chen Yao glanced at the ashen-faced Qin Hao, then turned to Qin Fa, whose spittle was flying everywhere.
Qin Hao had just tried it himself and spectacularly blown up at Shi Hao. Considering the repercussions, Chen Yao had even blocked everyone nearby from hearing Qin Hao's words.
Let the Desolate Heaven Emperor suffer a little. It was enough for him alone to hear it.
Then, at Chen Yao's urging, Qin Hao tried the move on some people from Immortal Mountain, influencing them with the Three Corpses Chen Yao had activated within him. To keep him from accusing Chen Yao of tampering with the results, they even invited Immortal Mountain's Qin Yifan to inspect it.
Once his suspicions were dispelled, Qin Hao gave it a try. The results were spectacular.
Almost everyone on Immortal Mountain who appeared friendly toward him actually despised him and hoped to lure him into making mistakes that would disqualify him from inheriting the Immortal Bone. They had deliberately encouraged him to become arrogant, overbearing, and contemptuous of everyone, convinced that he would one day be invincible beneath heaven, hoping he would suffer a crushing setback as a result. Success would be ideal, but even if they failed, they would still have Qin Hao's goodwill.
This was a tacit understanding, concealed exceptionally well. The other factions outside Qin Yining's camp all harbored the same intentions and employed the same tactics. Only now did they discover that they were not alone in pretending to dote on him-everyone had been pretending.
Everywhere he looked, there were actors.
And so Qin Hao's face had turned utterly ashen. He could not accept the truth.
"Junior! You tampered with us! Who doesn't have a few dark thoughts? Judge people by their hearts, and no one in this world is perfect!" Once the Three Corpses God subsided, Qin Fa returned to normal and stubbornly argued back.
"Let me see. You have something in Immortal Mountain's treasury. Ah, the Heart-Questioning Bell. A magical treasure made using Mind-Reading." With the Reincarnation Disk's help, Chen Yao now possessed extraordinary power-though it was mainly the Reincarnation Disk doing the work-and summoned the treasure from afar.
"Now this isn't mine. It belongs to you. Want to give it a try?" Chen Yao looked at Qin Fa and shook the bell.
Expressionless, Qin Hao took the bell and continued testing.
A long while later, the moderates of Immortal Mountain were all watching with looks of amusement as that group had their true colors exposed.
Qin Hao slumped to the ground, utterly disillusioned.
Fake. It was all fake. These people who encouraged me every day were all trying to praise me to my ruin. If they succeeded, they could destroy me. If they failed, they could still win my favor.
Never in his life had he suffered such a grievous hurt.
In the end, with Five Elements Mountain suppressed, the people of Immortal Mountain could only smile as they saw their guests off, no matter how disgruntled they were. They agreed to imprison Qin Fa and the others, then watched helplessly as the Willow Deity sealed their channel of communication with the Upper Realm, and even sealed Immortal Mountain itself before leaving openly and unhurriedly. No news could escape this place, much less reach the Upper Realm.
Amid his endless disillusionment, Qin Hao was led to the legendary Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land.
He was even more astonished than the Great Demon God. After all, Shi Zhongtian was actually less knowledgeable than he was, so he understood far more deeply just how absurdly wealthy Stone Village was.
He even watched in shock as a Phoenix egg rolled past him.
At the far end of the village, a new bird's nest had appeared, holding an enormous, perfectly rounded golden egg marked with black patterns.
"Mother!" Kunpeng Son had already learned of Kun Peng's resurrection from Sky Desolation. Tears filled his eyes as he threw himself toward the giant egg, a wanderer finally home after so many years.
"Now we wait for the great calamity. Anyone who comes down to harvest living beings will be killed. Not one will be spared." The Willow Deity set Sky Desolation down and spoke with commanding force.
Having achieved alternative immortalization, she could sweep through virtually all of the present Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. As long as the Flawed Immortal Kings in those restricted areas did not emerge, she was invincible.
The tremendous shock had left Qin Hao unable to recover. He withdrew into himself to readjust his outlook. He no longer threw so many little tantrums at Shi Hao, instead reflecting on just how many bad habits he had acquired through being spoiled.
To vent his frustration, Qin Hao began challenging the prodigies in Stone Village.
First, he sought out his older brother Shi Hao and was defeated in a single move. Then he challenged Chen Yao and was once again defeated in a single move. Against Aman, he was still subdued with one hand. Finally, he even challenged Lun Zhuan, whom he considered an "ordinary, obscure prodigy."
Lun Zhuan, who was deeply frustrated over losing the Reincarnation Disk, repeatedly crushed him with the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art.
Unsurprisingly, Qin Hao's composure shattered. He huddled in a corner of the village, muttering that Immortal Mountain had ruined him and that he had been raised into a useless wreck.
Shi Ziling, his wife, and the Great Demon God did not know whether to laugh or cry, and kept comforting him.
Still, it was a good thing. After this round of demolition and rebuilding, Qin Hao was no longer so attached to Immortal Mountain or so resistant toward Shi Hao, and he valued his family bonds much more.
"Only your family will trust and protect you unconditionally." Qin Hao etched those words firmly into his heart.
Time passed, and the great calamity finally began.
The sky suddenly turned pitch-black, and the stars fell, alarming the living beings of the Eight Regions. The powerful among them desperately fled the ground, only to discover that it was an illusion. By doing so, they had exposed themselves and invited a fatal calamity.
The two-cornered Reincarnation Disk fragment, the dead shell of the Bell of Wuzhong, and a two-story bone tower hovered above the Eight Regions, coldly looking down upon everything.
Order Divine Chains descended from the heavens, coiling toward the various experts who had risen into the sky or were still hiding in corners.
At that very moment, the Pitch-Black Great Halberd swept across the firmament, severing every Order Divine Chain. Golden willow leaves shot back up along the chains in a counterattack.
One sect leader after another, intent on harvesting this medicinal field, had the crown of their head pierced through and died on the spot!
Sky Desolation severed the connections to the three magical artifacts, while willow branches wrapped around them and dragged them down.
"You dare!"
"How dare you!"
"Sky Desolation?!"
Three shocked cries rang out. The Willow Deity's figure stood high in the heavens, suppressing all three magical artifacts with one hand. She swung Sky Desolation and slashed straight into the Upper Realm!
Splurt! The controller of the Reincarnation Disk, a Supreme, exploded inside his cave abode.
Boom! The controller of the Bell of Wuzhong was pierced by the halberd and burst apart within the restricted area, escaping only by relying on a death-substitution talisman.
The Yin-Yang Daoist met the Willow Deity's gaze directly. "Was it you who destroyed one of my divine kingdoms?"
The Yin-Yang Daoist, who was in the Supreme Realm, tried to flee, but her gaze locked onto him. Vast immortal might descended, crushing him to ash.
"An immortal? No, the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit?!" A voice came from the restricted area. It belonged to the one who possessed the dead shell of the Bell of Wuzhong.
"Fellow Daoist, relics of Immortal Ancient are steeped in karma. The reckoning approaches. Please think twice." The Willow Deity spoke, directly confronting the Flawed Immortal King within the restricted area. She could unleash her nirvana power and return to the Immortal King level at any time, while the other party feared the great reckoning and had no desire to emerge. It was precisely because she understood the intricacies involved that she dared act so openly in the lower realm. The same had been true in the original story: these kings had no intention of making an enemy of her, and had not informed Ao Sheng even when she appeared in the lower realm.
Sure enough, that king immediately relinquished his hold. "It has been a long time, fellow Daoist. An artifact of the Primeval Ancient World should naturally return to its rightful owner. I am willing to forge a bond of goodwill."
"Thank you, fellow Daoist." The Willow Deity did not attack again, sparing the Supreme who was still reeling from fright.
The other sect leaders, who had only just descended to the lower realm and had no intention of harvesting lives, merely seeking opportunities, froze in midair as they stared at that terrifying figure.
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