đź“– Chapter 1084 - Allheaven Fears the Immortal!
Reality proved that this was indeed the case. Some time after he got married, the wealthy family finally uncovered Sun De’s past, but although they were utterly furious, what was done could not be undone. Moreover, Sun De’s fame had already spread not just to this town but to other surrounding towns and villages.
Thus, the wealthy family could only swallow down their anger and even had to spend a tidy sum to help Sun De cover up his real circumstances.
But in exchange, Sun De’s standing in his home plummeted. He, who lived the high life outside and was respected by all, was constantly rebuked and scolded when he returned to his house. However, he was willing to accept the scoldings. After all, he was the one who was at fault, and moreover, his wife was beautiful even when she was angry.
Sun De loved this beautiful wife of his from the bottom of his heart. Being able to marry such a wife, to him, was the blessing of several lifetimes.
Thus, Sun De put in his best to be filial to his in-laws and faithful to his wife. He decided to change himself and swore that he would never go to gambling dens or brothels in the future.
He even picked up his books again, intending to study hard while telling his story. He intended to pass the imperial examinations and turn his lies into truth. But although his father-in-law was somewhat mollified by his efforts, his beautiful wife didn’t take him seriously. Her temper became shorter and shorter, and her contemptuous eyes even held disgust when she looked at him.
But Sun De didn’t care. He felt that his sincerity would eventually make it through to her, and she would return to being as loving as she was when they first got married. However… fate seemed to look away from Sun De at this moment.
He finally finished telling his story.
“90 million kalpas formed a beginning and an end. Within this time, Dao rose and fell, the universe was created and destroyed, and the myriad stars vanished into nothingness… this was the first loop!
“The two Almighties that I talked about last time spent this entire loop fighting. With the end of the first loop and the beginning of the second, their battle was finally coming to an end. In the 90 million worlds, All’s incarnations were defeated over and over, and the throne of the Immortal leaned completely toward the other person. That person… had a name as well. He called himself… Ancient!”
Inside the teahouse, Sun De knocked the black wooden board in his hand on the table. The crisp knocking sound spread throughout the teahouse.
Even though there was a huge crowd, they were all paying close attention to Sun De, so the sound of the wooden board reverberated cleanly in their ears.
“Thus, the second loop began. In the first kalpa, the Never-Ending Dao Domain came into being, and in the second kalpa, the Vast Expanse Dao Domain appeared… The war between these two Dao Domains set off the battles of the second loop!
“Although the war between the Dao Domains didn’t start because of the two Almighties, its end was directly related to them. At that moment, the battle over the Immortal Throne suddenly had a turnabout!
“Ancient seemed to be winning, but he had underestimated All!
“Everything had gone according to All’s plan, a plan that had been in place since they first started fighting. A trap that had lasted 90 million kalpas! The reason All turned the void into a prison back then was precisely to compel Ancient to condemn the Heavenly Daos and force their fight to move to the stage of 90 million clones.
“In the battle of 90 million clones, All’s clones lost over and over, and ownership of the Immortal Throne seemed to be leaning toward Ancient. But all of this… was also All’s plan!
“All had been waiting… waiting for the end of the first loop, waiting for the chance that would arise when Ancient was sure of his victory!
“This chance appeared during the war between the two great Dao Domains at the beginning of the second loop! All died, and with his imminent victory, Ancient renamed himself Ancient-Immortal. At that moment, his 90 million clones formed by divine will returned to his body!
“But the moment the clones returned, before Ancient-Immortal could truly become the Immortal, a drastic change occurred!
“All… had not perished. Although his 90 million clones had been defeated, their karma had not dissipated. Sentiment between brothers, sentiment between man and woman, sentiment between master and disciple, sentiment between parent and child… Through the sentiment of 90 million lives, through the karma that Ancient-Immortal was unable to sever in time, All was like the dove occupying the magpie’s nest. He initiated… a possession!
“That’s right, All’s plot that spanned the entire first loop was never about the Immortal Throne. He had only one goal, and that was… the divine soul and body of Ancient-Immortal!
“Their goals were fundamentally different in the first place. Caught unawares, plotted against for 90 million kalpas… how could Ancient-Immortal not be defeated? The process of him recalling his divine will was none other than the process of All’s resurrection!
“But Ancient-Immortal was himself an extraordinary being. Despite being unable to stop the return of his divine will and allowing All to resurrect through his body and soul, he wasn’t completely defeated. A single strand of divine will escaped, not returning to Ancient-Immortal’s self that had been occupied by All but instead piercing the void and fleeing to… the battlefield where the Vast Expanse Dao Domain and Never-Ending Dao Domain were waging war!
“The escape of that one strand of divine will meant that although All obtained Ancient-Immortal’s body and soul, his soul was still incomplete, and so was the Immortal Throne. And so, All, who had renamed himself Allheaven in anticipation of his final victory, still couldn’t be considered the true Immortal. Moreover, because they shared a common source, Ancient-Immortal’s remnant soul became… Allheaven’s only flaw!
“But because this remnant soul was too fragmented, it quickly became muddled, as if it was about to forget who it was. However, Ancient was an Almighty who had existed since time immemorial. With the last bit of consciousness in his remnant soul, he launched a heaven-shaking magic. It was… a curse, a curse that would span the entirety of the second loop!
“If Allheaven died, then Ancient would continue to exist. But if Ancient died, then Allheaven would be destroyed!
“This curse would be in effect until the end of the second loop. Since then, there was the saying… Allheaven fears the Immortal! And since then, the true Immortal Throne… has remained empty!” When Sun De spoke to this point, he knocked the black wooden board in his hand on the table again. The crisp noise caused the mesmerized listeners to unconsciously let out a breath.
“But the story… still isn’t over!” Sun De sighed with emotion. When he saw all of this in his dream, he was completely enthralled, as if his own innumerable lifetimes were contained in the story.
“The Never-Ending Dao Domain of the second loop’s first kalpa was extremely formidable. Naturally, for them to launch a war of extermination against the Vast Expanse Dao Domain, they were certain of their victory!
“And reality proved them correct. The Vast Expanse Dao Domain, which had flourished for a period of time, suffered a complete defeat. Its living beings were plunged into misery and suffering before perishing completely. Since then, it drifted through the infinite starry sky like a ghost from hell. Sometimes, living beings would draw near and enter, and endless weeping could be heard from within!
“As for the Never-Ending Dao Domain, although it won out in the end, it, too, had no future. Because Ancient’s remnant soul had escaped there, the entire Dao Domain was obliterated by the infuriated Allheaven. Then, he sealed Ancient’s remnant soul into the fragments, forming a stele. He placed the stele in the depths of the starry sky to be suppressed for all time, becoming nothing more than a legend!
“Allheaven couldn’t destroy Ancient, and he didn’t dare to fuse with the remnant soul that harbored a malicious curse. But what he could do… was wait, wait until the second loop came to an end and the curse expired. That would be the moment for him to devour the remnant soul, fill in his flaws, and finally become the one and only Immortal!
“Over the course of the second loop… several figures rose up one after another. Obsession driven, the Devil forgoes reincarnation; fate bound, the Demon seals the heavens between the mountains and seas; the Eternal Will arises from parts unknown; Half-God Half-Immortal reverses heaven and earth!” Sun De’s soft words marked the end of his story.
Even long after he had finished speaking, the teahouse was completely silent. Along with the dark clouds in the sky, the atmosphere in the silent teahouse was a little melancholy.
After a while, Sun De sighed softly and caressed the black wooden board in his hand. Lifting it up high, he brought it down once again on the table.
Bam!
The knocking sound seemed to be even clearer than before, and as it spread, the dazed listeners woke up one after another. However, their gazes were still slightly blank; obviously, it would take a bit of time for them to truly extricate themselves from the story of All and Ancient.
Right now, even Sun De was in an uncanny mood. Silently rising to his feet, he bowed deeply to the listeners all around him and walked out of the teahouse…
As he walked on a street in the small town, Sun De’s eyes were also filled with a sense of loss. The story of All and Ancient was over, but the story of Sun De had just begun. He didn’t know what he could rely on now to maintain his income, maintain his prestige outside, and maintain the single trace of respect his wife still had toward him.
Because… half a month ago, after the story in his dream ended, no new stories had appeared.
As he walked along in a silent daze, Sun De felt extremely uneasy. He instinctively put his hands into his clothes and took out the black wooden board, lightly stroking its dark surface…
“If my dreams don’t bring me stories, then I can create my own! I can also take the exam and raise my prestige that way. Everything will be fine. Sun De, you can do it!!” Sun De took a deep breath, and his eyes lit up with hope.
But at that moment, rain began falling from the cloudy sky. The raindrops that fell on Sun De’s body were cold, so very cold… as if washing away all his hopes and dreams.