Beyond the sky, in an indescribable, immeasurable place...
An endless, dense purple mist had been rising, forming a platform that carried two cottages. Standing before the left cottage was a linden tree, and before the right cottage was a clear pond. Blooming in the pond was a colorful lotus, surrounded by three to five broad leaves.
Under the linden tree, Priest Hua and Priest Mu sat, facing each other.
Priest Hua had been trembling slightly. On his skin, tiny spell symbols were twisting and moving, like thousands of ants crawling quickly under his skin. Weirdly, his face was transparent. Through his face, one could see another face, an incomparably beautiful face, without any features of gender.
As the lips of that beautiful face slightly opened, a strange voice echoed through the entire cloud platform.
"Give up, Hua, my friend… Open your heart, feel my power. I am Great Freedom. Feel my power, and merge with me. Your body will serve as our foundation. Merge with me, and we will become the strongest being in this world."
"We will be invincible… We will be able to do anything we want. You can have all you ever wanted."
"We will build a new sect, recruit countless adherents. All living creatures in this world will become our followers! Merge with me, and your dream will become like a tiny wish that we can easily make it come true!"
"Why are you still fighting back? You have already sensed my power, my greatness. Why are you still fighting?"
Seven-colored flame spurted out from Priest Hua’s pores. Priest Hua smiled bitterly to Priest Mu and said, "This is difficult. Brother, thank you for helping."
Priest Mu looked at Priest Hua, also with a bitterness on his face, and responded gently, "We are almost connected, so no need to thank me. This is indeed difficult and dangerous, but if you survive, you will improve largely."
Priest Hua nodded slowly. Same as Priest Mu, he completely ignored what that beautiful face inside him said. He waved his hand worryingly. Followed his move, the Huai Gate area appeared in a sphere of light, in the air.
"Brother, our plan…" Once Priest Hua began talking, his face twisted suddenly, and sweat dripped down his forehead in large drops. The cold and colorful sweat drops immediately became five-colored beads once they made contact with the air, then tinkled on the ground.
Great Freedom laughed, then pulled a face inside Priest Hua’s body and said, "Your plans are all ruined! Hehe, twenty-seven old Gong Gongs, all died, and you failed to get any of them alive. The eight senior ministers under Gong Gong’s command, how many of them have you managed to control by trying so hard?"
"Not to mention the fact that those strong water-kind spirit creatures, the ones you recruited earlier, who were supposed to serve your sect as guardians, were mostly killed. I’m afraid, the number of water-kind spirit creature that will end up in your hands will be less than ten percent of the number you estimated!"
"You also planned to seize this flood as an opportunity to protect human beings and preach your religion, but you failed in this too! You failed, completely! Your plans are all ruined by that boy named Ji Hao!"
"Ahyaya, Priest Hua, you are in an unstable condition right now, so you can’t lose your temper. Otherwise, well, just like this…"
Great Freedom burst into a high-pitched series of laughter as Priest Hua quivered intensely, spraying a mouthful of blood on Priest Mu’s chest, which turned into thumb-sized, colorful diamonds and scattered all over the ground.
Priest Mu reached out his hands, his fingers coiled in a bright green light. With a serious look, he pressed his fingers on Priest Hua’s temples.
Great Freedom’s face twitched instantly. He screamed shrilly, then that beautiful face inside Priest Hua’s body gradually faded. Priest Mu continued sending the green light into Priest Hua’s body. Together, the green light and strands of five-colored light inside Priest Hua’s body gradually suppressed Great Freedom.
"You can only suppress me, but can never kill me!" Great Freedom’s voice came from deep inside Priest Hua’s body, "I am no longer a sky devil. Hua, my friend, I am the obsession in your heart. I am your desire, and I am your evilness. I am generated from all evil intentions you have!"
"You can never get rid of me! One day, I will devour you!"
"Haha, when we finally merge, I will kill Priest Mu, and I will devour him too! I will become the only dominator of Pan Gu world!"
Great Freedom’s wild laughter faded. A few drops of cold sweat oozed out of Priest Mu’s forehead as he slowly took back his hands, straightened his body, and looked at Priest Hua with face wrinkled and eyebrows knitted. He said, "Brother, you should never lose your temper while fighting against this devil. Perhaps, you can try my great Dao of quietus."
Priest Hua gave a bitter grin, then helplessly shook his head and said, "Brother, if I tried your great Dao of quietus, my own Dao of evolvement would be broken. I would lose at least a half of my cultivation that I gained through countless centuries of effort. How could I?"
Sitting under the tree while facing each other, neither of them knew what else to say.
A long while later, Priest Mu said in a bland tone, "In this case, I will create a new, powerful magic, especially for restraining all kinds of sky devils. Hmm, evil things… Do they really believe that we can do nothing to them? It’s just that we have too many things to do, and no time to waste on them. But right now, I am enraged."
Priest Hua slowly nodded, his eyes filled with a faint intent of killing.
Together, they glanced at that light sphere in the air, which was showing the images of the Huai Gate area. "Then brother, what Gong Gong did this time is such a good opportunity. Are we really letting it go?" Abruptly, Priest Hua said aloud.
Priest Mu narrowed his eyes and responded blandly, "All our plans are ruined by Ji hao…That Great Freedom is a sky devil, but he was right. This time, our harvest will be even smaller than ten percent of our estimation. And the cause of all this… is Ji Hao."
Priest Mu sneered and continued, "Three months ago, Gong Gong escaped from the heaven with Wuzhi Qi’s help. I captured them myself and forced them to join our sect. I even consumed my own life-force for Gong Gong. I strengthened his body with the divine light emitted from my tree heart, and gave him an ‘invincible linden body’. So easily, he attained the result that is supposed to cost him hundreds of centuries of severe cultivation."
"I forced Gong Gong to give up on the flood, and make the whole thing personal. I ordered him to kill Ji Hao in the name of vengeance…Thus, not even Yu Yu can say a word about Ji Hao’s death when he returns." Curving down his lip corners, Priest Mu said in a low voice, with that bitterness remaining on his face.
Priest Hua smiled, then nodded slowly and said, "Brother, you can always solve a problem in a perfect way. Ji Hao, he has to die!"
Priest Mu nodded and responded coldly, "If he survives, he will attain immeasurable natural reward power and fortune when the flood is gone. The natural reward and fortune he earns will also land on Yu Yu and his sect. If that does happen, would our disciples still have a future?"