The red flame was completely absorbed by the statue the moment Li Yuan turned around. More and more cracks appeared and rays of red light shot out from the crack. The red light carried the scent of blood; this scent was from Ge Hong.
These red lights seemed to contain powerful aura and spread out toward the scroll. However, at this moment, there were also many cracks under the statue’s eyes. When the red light came out from those cracks, there was an illusion.
It was as if… the celestial statue was crying two streams of blood…
“I…. was I wrong…” Li Yuan stared at the stone statue as he muttered to himself, and his eyes were filled with confusion.
Wang Lin’s eyes were cold. This Li Yuan was not dangerous. With only his peak late stage Ascendant cultivation, Wang Lin could easily win. However, there was a powerful aura coming from inside Li Yuan’s body, and the source of this was the slave imprint!
It was because of this aura that this person always gave off a mysterious aura.
Wang Lin was very wary of that power. He first noticed it when Li Yuan was explaining everything under the stone statue. That moment where Li Yuan convulsed and was soaked in sweat had a very different meaning in Wang Lin’s eyes.
At that moment, Wang Lin only kept this in mind. It wasn’t until Ge Hong’s gaze at the stone statue before death that Wang Lin felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him and he suddenly gained enlightenment.
The Ge family was the descendants of the celestial! As for the Li family, perhaps they really were innocent. It was all because their ancestors had boldly enter this place and received the slave imprint that caused the entire family to decline. Generations of the family contributed their cultivation and lifespans to slowly allow this indestructible celestial soul to recover.
The Li family may have really wanted to rebel, but it was obvious hat it had failed every time. It wasn’t until the Li family ancestor from tens of thousands of years ago did the Li family had a chance. However, the slave imprint that had nourished its master for tens of thousands of years had gathered enough for the soul hidden inside it to awaken. This was how the talented Li family ancestor appeared.
As a result, when the Li ancestor said that he was releasing the Li family from the slave imprint, he was, in fact, resurrecting his master.
Wang Lin had really thought that the failure tens of thousands of years ago was due to some problem with the Ge family. However, it wasn’t until he thought about why Li Yuan had to find him that he came to a different conclusion.
Li Yuan’s preparations were most likely very complete, and he couldn’t have planned on meeting him before entering the Celestial Realm. When Wang Lin saw the stone statue and understood the karma between the Li and Ge family, he suddenly understood.
It was because Li Yuan had seen the Karma Whip when he used in the battle against the Illusory Yin cultivator. This was why Li Yuan chose him.
The Karma Whip affected karma!
The failure tens of thousands of years ago was not because of the servant, the treasures, or the Ge family. It was because the celestial was unwilling to be revived this way. The celestial was unwilling to pay the price of the life of all his descendants to release the sealed soul.
It can be imagined that Ge Hong’s blood was not enough for the resurrection of a celestial. It was likely that outside the Celestial Realm, the Ge family was carrying out some kind of sacrifice with death as the price.
The karmic cause was the resurrection of the celestial statue. The karmic effect was the removal of the celestial soul resistance.
But how could the soul of a celestial be so simple? If Wang Lin were to use the Karma Whip, he himself would’ve been dragged into it, and even he didn’t know if he would survive.
If Wang Lin hadn’t appeared, Li Yuan would’ve still used other methods after the failure from the first time. However, even Li Yuan wasn’t sure if these methods would succeed, which was why he said he was 70% confident and 90% if he had the Karma Whip.
Wang Lin boldly speculated that this Li Yuan also had a karma-related treasure inside his bag!
This would explain why after failing tens of thousands of years ago, the Ge family used various methods to retain the three treasures. Instead of hiding them, they made the whole clan aware of the situation.
Their goal was to wait, wait for the second reincarnation of the slave imprint in the Li family.
This was why everything had gone so smoothly when Li Yuan went to the Ge family. However, Wang Lin remembered the way Li Yuan treated Ge Hong along the way. After constantly watching their interaction, it was as if Li Yuan was constantly changing personalities.
Adding on the change that happened to Li Yuan under the stone statue, Wang Lin confirmed his own speculation. Li Yuan’s real soul hadn’t died and still existed.
To be more accurate, there was exactly one soul inside Li Yuan’s body, but this soul had two different sides. One was the true Li Yuan and the other was the remnant soul inside the slave imprint.
The conflict between the two made it so Li Yuan couldn’t use the full power of his family’s restrictions. Everytime Li Yuan used a restriction, it would show signs of collapse. The 18 Plum Restriction was like this, and the black lines formed by the Annihilation Restriction was also like this.
After understanding all of this, Wang Lin stayed inside the Mountain and River Painting and silently stared at Li Yuan.
He felt that this Li Yuan was somewhat pitiful.
He was such a loyal servant that he was willing to do whatever it took in order for his master to revive!
Just like the image he saw through the illusion from the statue. When the master died, the servant standing at the tip of the sword looked back with vacant and sad eyes.
The master on the sword hilt was no longer there. It was as if he was the only one left in this world as stood on the sword tip…
Countless years of waiting and two attempts at resurrection, but ultimately he was still unable to escape.
Li Yuan stared at the statue and knelt on the ground.
“Master… I… Am I really wrong…”
More and more cracks appeared on the statue at this moment. As the cracks spread, the red light became even more intense. The red light under the statue’s eyes gathered together as if they were real tears of blood.
“Why aren’t you willing to wake up… I just want the sword hilt to no longer be empty. The master can always stand on the sword hilt and I can stand on the sword tip to help you battle the heavens and earth…” Li Yuan muttered to himself, and his eyes were filled with sorrow.
Wang Lin stood within the Mountain and River Painting as he silently watched this. He had no life and death grudge with Li Yuan. He let out a sigh and put away the Karma Whip.
“It was because of extreme paranoia that he became lost. After the first failure tens of thousands of years ago, his belief was unstable. Now that he has failed a second time, his faith has collapsed.”
More and more cracks appeared on the statue; even the stone sword with the servant on it was covered in cracks. Red light came from within the cracks and colored half the sky.
The stone released even more red light until it slowly extended outward and was absorbed by the scroll.
At the beginning, the scroll didn’t absorb much red light. However, as the statue released more and more red light, the scroll began to absorb the red light from the statue even faster.
In the end, the red lights seemed to link together and were rapidly pulled out from the statue. This scene caused the stunned Li Yuan to expose excitement in his eyes.
“Master…”
More and more red light appeared, but none of it leaked out and it was all absorbed by the scroll. The red light from the statue gradually dimmed as if all of it were released by the statue.
Finally, when the last ray of red light came out from the stone statue and into the scroll, the entire statue trembled. It was as if it had lost its soul and no longer had any intelligence. It now looked very ordinary.
The scroll that had absorbed all the red light emitted a bright light. A flame appeared at the corner of the scroll and slowly grew larger. The scroll began to burn from the edge.
It wasn’t just one edge, but all the edges of the scroll began burning at once. Green smoke came out from the burning scroll and didn’t dissipate.
As Li Yuan looked at this scene, the excitement in his eyes became even more intense.
Wang Lin’s eyes narrowed and he carefully observed.
The burning of the scroll slowly moved toward the center form the edges. The celestial on the sword hilt seemed to possess a soul at this moment and flickered inside the burning scroll.
In the end, the flame covered the entire scroll and soon the scroll became a pile of dust that was blown away by the wind.
The green smoke formed by the burning scroll wasn’t blown away by the wind but floated in the air. It then vaguely took the shape of a person.
This person’s figure was extremely blurry and his appearance couldn’t be clearly seen. However, Wang Lin clearly saw a sword formed by the green smoke under the person’s feet, and this person was standing on the sword hilt.
There was some smoke swaying near the sword hilt. It was difficult to see if it was the sword’s tassel… or just green smoke…
The person standing on the sword hilt rose into the air and waved his hand gently, summoning Li Yuan.
Li Yuan, who was standing on the ground, immediately trembled. A complex rune appeared on Li Yuan’s forehead. This was the slave imprint. As the imprint flickered, the remnant soul inside the slave imprint flew out into the sky and landed on the tip of the sword.
The green smoke charged into the sky and disappeared without a trace.
All of this seemed like an illusion. The real and unreal seemed to not exist and everything was but a dream.
Wang Lin’s expression was a bit confused as he looked at the statue that had lost its spirit. Then his gaze fell on the seal on its right hand and he fell into a trance…
It was still the same ancient Celestial Realm, still the celestial sword flying into the sky, and still the same two people on the sword. However, the difference this time was the sound that came from the celestial before he died.
“I’m dead, my soul extinguished…”
The statue collapsed into countless pieces of stone. It was now just a pile of debris…
Did the celestial die back then and all of this was a lonely dream formed by the remnant soul of the servant… Or was it really what Wang Lin had guessed before… There were some questions that Wang Lin wouldn’t be able to get satisfactory explanations for…
There was no answer… Just like how there was no way to tell if the green smoke was real or fake. Wang Lin thought that he knew everything, but when he saw the green smoke, everything felt fake.
Perhaps only the servant’s remnant soul was real, the only one that knew all the answers.
From this day onward, there was an extra sword made of green smoke in the Thunder Celestial Realm. There was a figure that stood at the tip as if it would last for a eternality…
“Where is this…” A weak voice came from Li Yuan’s mouth as he lied on the ground. He looked around until his gaze finally fell on Wang Lin.