“Divine Continent blacklist?”
“Yes. After signing the Divine Continent blacklist, the three holy lands and the three heavenly dynasties have to honor this blacklist. Even if a sect or nation perishes, all the other sects and nations still have to obey this blacklist. This was something made with the nations’ and sects’ reputations. Every nation and sect will obey it. That’s why the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon will not take a step into the Divine Continent, no matter how strong she is,” the Unborn Man explained.
“Venerable Liu Nian mentioned Long Xiaoyue knelt for a long time in the Purple Bamboo Forest to birth Wanqing and Wanyu, despite having caused that person in the Purple Bamboo Forest to suffer. She was probably kneeling to the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, right? She knelt for so long to obtain the Heavenly Sage Fetus Protecting Water, suffering ridicule in the process,” Gu Hai recalled.
Crack!
The Unborn Man suddenly clenched his fist tightly in his sleeve.
“I know about that. That water initially belonged to a sect in the Divine Continent. That sect had a faint connection with Xiaoyue, but the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon had destroyed that sect and snatched that water away. Xiaoyue had no choice but to suffer that humiliation,” the Unborn Man said, his voice trembling slightly.
“Do you hate the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon?” Gu Hai looked at the Unborn Man.
“I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“Logically speaking, I should want to kill her for humiliating Xiaoyue. However, Xiaoyue chose this path. She preferred to suffer the humiliation to obtain the water and birth my two daughters. Rather, without her, Wanqing and Wanyu would not exist. I…” The Unborn Man’s voice quavered.
“You feel angry but cannot vent it?” The Mosquito Daoist looked at the Unborn Man.
“Hah…,” the Unborn Man sighed.
“Unborn Man, there’s no need to feel conflicted over this. That Heavenly Sage Fetus Protecting Water belonged to Long Xiaoyue’s friend in the first place. Without the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, would it be difficult to get the Heavenly Sage Fetus Protecting Water? No. Perhaps the other party would have delivered it to her without her needing to ask. So, Long Xiaoyue suffered humiliation only because the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon appeared; she had to kneel in the Purple Bamboo Forest for something rightfully hers,” Gu Hai said.
The Unborn Man trembled.
Perhaps the Unborn Man cared for his two daughters too much, which forced him to swallow his rage and frustrations. Those closely involved could not see clearly. When Gu Hai brought this up, the Unborn Man finally understood.
“Indeed! Indeed! Without the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, Xiaoyue would still have birthed Wanqing and Wanyu. Xiaoyue only suffered because the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon made her kneel for so long!” The Unborn Man’s voice suddenly chilled.
As his voice turned cold, his body emanated a strange, murderous intent that made Kong Xuan and the Mosquito Daoist shiver in shock. Then the two turned to Gu Hai.
Gu Hai gently shook his head, telling the two not to pursue the matter.
The Unborn Man hid something? Gu Hai had known about it long ago. When the Corpse Worm Heavenly Demon restrained Kong Xuan, the Mosquito Daoist, and Chang Ming in the Corpse Mound World, Gu Hai appeared and defeated the Corpse Worm Heavenly Demon while the Unborn Man dealt with the corpse worms.
Was it a coincidence that he collected all the corpse worms just as Gu Hai dealt with the Corpse Worm Heavenly Demon? The Unborn Man even apologized to Gu Hai after collecting the corpse worms.
Although it was just a minor detail, Gu Hai understood that the Unborn Man could have dealt with the corpse worms faster but had not.
Rather, the Unborn Man only cared about Gu Hai, his son-in-law in name, in the Han Imperial Dynasty. While polite to the others, he did not care about them.
“Your Reverence, this official has a lifespan ritual array that can partition Purple Bamboo Island,” the Unborn Man said.
“Partition Purple Bamboo Island?” Gu Hai echoed.
“Yes. This lifespan ritual array can separate Purple Bamboo Island into sixty-four zones. These zones will not interact with each other. No matter what happens, the other zones will not know about it. While they are close, all they see and hear will be from a day ago,” the Unborn Man explained.
“Partition Purple Bamboo Island to make it easy for us to find Shangguan Hen?” Gu Hai asked with misgivings.
“Yes. It’s the Sixty-Four Hexagram Lifespan Ritual Array. Strictly speaking, I’m not permitted to use it yet. However, I’m willing to see the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon suffer for Xiaoyue’s past humiliation,” the Unborn Man said, his voice trembling somewhat.
“Alright. I’ll trouble you to lay the ritual array later,” Gu Hai said gravely.
The Unborn Man nodded.
“Of course, others cannot enter from the outside to prevent them from interfering with the lifespan ritual array,” the Unborn Man said.
Gu Hai nodded. “Mosquito Daoist, you guard the outside and prevent others from approaching. Simultaneously, investigate the Southern Sea Dragon Palace, in case they are locked up there. It is nearby, and your mosquito clones do not fear water. Check every place.”
“Yes!” the Mosquito Daoist answered.
“Kong Xuan, enter Purple Bamboo Island with us,” Gu Hai instructed.
“Yes!” Kong Xuan answered.
“Then wait while I lay the ritual array. It will take about two hours,” the Unborn Man explained.
“Alright!” Everyone nodded.
The Unborn Man started circling Purple Bamboo Island, laying a ritual array.
------
At the same time, Purple Bamboo Island:
Whoosh!
A figure soared into the sky. It was a burly man with a layer of intense wind around him.
“Hey? That is the Huang Heavenly Dynasty’s Fengbo?” Kong Xuan said in shock.
[TL Note: Fengbo likely corresponds to a Taoist deity of the wind by the same name. Here is the Wikipedia page on Fengbo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengbo_(deity).]
“Fengbo? Ji Dihong’s trusted official? Why is he on Purple Bamboo Island?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.
Gu Hai had seen a painting of Fengbo before, which allowed him to recognize Fengbo at a glance. This was Ji Dihong’s trusted man. How was the Huang Heavenly Dynasty connected to the Purple Bamboo Forest?
Far away, Fengbo flew into the sky. After turning his head to look at Purple Bamboo Island, he showed a cold smile before turning into a gust of wind vanishing into the horizon.
------
One day ago:
Fengbo arrived at Purple Bamboo Island. It was not just him; there was one other: the Myriad Age Daoist Sect’s Sect Master Heavenly Access.
“Fengbo, Ji Dihong is not lying to me, right?” Sect Master Heavenly Access looked coldly at Fengbo.
“Sect Master Heavenly Access, rest assured. Why would His Holy Eminence lie to you? Furthermore, didn’t I bring the Divine Dao Shaman Canon?” Fengbo smiled.
“The Divine Dao Shaman Canon? Humph! Would he be so kind as to give it to me?” Sect Master Heavenly Access said coldly.
“Not give, share. Opening the Divine Dao Shaman Canon is an extremely complicated process. If we are careless, we might destroy its content. Only the Yinyang energy of the Taiji Diagram is the most balanced, which makes it convenient for opening the Divine Dao Shaman Canon. However, it is as you saw. The words in there are a special shaman race script to prevent its content from leaking. Otherwise, Jiang Lianshan could have cultivated them all long ago, not stuck at trying to decipher them, right?” Fengbo smiled.
“Humph!” Sect Master Heavenly Access snorted coldly.
“Your Myriad Age Daoist Sect also has records of the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, right? The Heavenly Demon Holy Land rose up after the war between the shamans and animal spirits. The Purple Jade Heavenly Demon has studied the shaman race’s characters, so we can ask her to translate. After she translates it, the three of us will share in the Divine Dao Shaman Canon,” Fengbo said seriously.
Sect Master Heavenly Access frowned. Eventually, he nodded. “You had best not be lying to me. Otherwise, this sect master will not leave this be!”
“Sect Master Heavenly Access, rest assured!” Fengbo smiled.
Fengbo and Sect Master Heavenly Access flew to Purple Bamboo Island, heading to a forest of purple bamboo in the center. There was a cluster of halls in that forest, and the largest had the words “Purple Bamboo Hall” on the signboard.
A group of people was waiting in the Purple Bamboo Hall’s plaza.
These people were all women dressed in white, looking extremely elegant and pure. Some held Buddhist prayer beads, and some held swords. It seemed they all cultivated differently. The leader was a gorgeous woman in a black brocade robe, with an enchanting smile. As she stood there, she could incite desire in ordinary men.
“Welcome, Fengbo! Welcome, Sect Master Heavenly Access!” the black-brocade-robed woman said with a faint smile.
As Sect Master Heavenly Access flew over, he narrowed his eyes. “What intense charm!”
Sect Master Heavenly Access’s mind was as firm as a rock. However, he unconsciously responded when he saw this woman. He immediately understood that this woman possessed a powerful charm cultivation. Then he extinguished that shred of desire in his heart.
“Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, thank you for your hospitality!” Fengbo smiled.
Thud!
Sect Master Heavenly Access and Fengbo landed in the Purple Bamboo Hall’s plaza.
The plaza was expansive, but there was a row of words on a large rock in the plaza. That rock had the words “Long Xiaoyue kowtowed here.”
Sect Master Heavenly Access glanced at that rock.
“Hah! Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, you truly harp on the past. Back then, you forced Long Xiaoyue to kneel here on this rock. After that, you sent someone to carve these words so you could reminisce about it?” Sect Master Heavenly Access said with narrowed eyes.
This woman is truly vindictive.
“I did not get someone to carve them. Rather, I had Long Xiaoyue do it herself. The words are pretty well done, so I kept them. I made a joke of myself before Sect Master Heavenly Access.” The Purple Jade Heavenly Demon smiled.
“A joke? Hah! How can it be? I can only say you are too smart. After the battle at the Rising Heaven Throne Hall, you discovered she would need the Lunar Fetus Sect’s help, so you made the first move, destroyed the Lunar Fetus Sect, and snatched away the Heavenly Sage Fetus Protecting Water. You even put on a pretense, making it look like you destroyed the sect before your battle with her,” Sect Master Heavenly Access marveled.
“Sect Master Heavenly Access, you know about this?” The Purple Jade Heavenly Demon frowned slightly.
“There happened to be a Myriad Age Daoist Sect disciple outside the Lunar Fetus Sect that day. However, it does not matter now. The Qian Heavenly Dynasty is already destroyed. So what if I know?” Sect Master Heavenly Access said indifferently.
“Long Xiaoyue humiliated me outside the Rising Heaven Throne Hall, causing me to be trapped in the Southern Sea for one thousand years—no, three thousand years. I only made her kneel for a while. So what? She was lucky I did not kill her,” the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon sneered.
“Kill her? Hah! You could only make her kneel for a while back then. Had you gone further, Long Zhanguo would have made a move,” Sect Master Heavenly Access scoffed.
Fengbo immediately tried to smooth things over. “Sect Master Heavenly Access, Purple Jade Heavenly Demon, what does Long Xiaoyue have to do with us? We had better work on translating the Divine Dao Shaman Canon.”
Sect Master Heavenly Access and the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon turned solemn as they nodded.
“Come in, please!” the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon invited.
Fengbo and Sect Master Heavenly Access entered the Purple Bamboo Hall with the Purple Jade Heavenly Demon.
There was a white-clad woman standing in the Purple Bamboo Hall. It was the White Emperor.
“Sect Master Heavenly Access, Fengbo, it has been a long time!” the White Emperor said with a faint smile.
“Huh?” The faces of Sect Master Heavenly Access and Fengbo sank.
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