The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

"Soon, led by a Zheng family from overseas, they made contact with a disciple of the Witch Ancestor and planned to conduct a private transaction on the inheritance of high-level cultivation techniques between the two sides. They claimed that 'you and I are both enemies of the Witch-Slaying Alliance, so we should naturally help each other. This is not considered selling Tianliang secrets, nor is it a treasonous act.'"

"What is being traded?" Zhan Mohe had a bad feeling.

"Naturally, it's the complete manual of the Lifeblood Fusion Technique!"

Tuoba Wuchou sneered: "The transaction will be conducted in two parts. First, we will exchange the secret method for cultivating the 'Yin Yuan Body' in exchange for the first half of the Beast Taming Secret Technique. Once it is verified, we will give you another technique, the 'Tiger Servant Technique.' After you have it, we will give you the second half of the Fusion Secret Technique."

"The so-called Tiger's Lackey Technique is to forcibly control the bodies and meridians of one or two living people, erase their individual consciousness, and use their life essence and medicine to process and refine them into their own life essence, like a flying sword, which moves according to the practitioner's will, and the moves and techniques that can be used are much more complex."

"In fact, these tiger accomplices retain a part of their subconscious and have reproductive capabilities. In addition to serving as a source of multiple fusions and trials for the Boyan School, they can also be used to cultivate subordinate families that are passed down from generation to generation. While feeding back their main bloodline talents, they have no side effects whatsoever and there is absolutely no risk of rebellion."

“Practicing this technique to mend the ancestral laws of Tianliang is certainly not wrong, is it? Although the Tiger Servant Technique is quite evil, as long as it is not used on innocent civilians, it is still a skillful unorthodox transmission and not a big problem. However, revealing the foundation of our dynasty is undoubtedly a serious crime that shakes the foundation of Tianliang! It is enough to exterminate the entire clan!”

"Fortunately, I noticed something amiss before the transaction was even halfway through. I intercepted and killed the disciple's followers at the border, and eliminated the ringleader and those who were deeply involved in the case..."

"However, this sudden massacre alerted the Guiyi faction, who sent people to 'investigate' the cause and course of events and launched a covert attack!"

"Because I have always been regarded as one of the leaders of the Boyan faction, although no evidence could be found, the royal family also believed what they saw as the truth: this was just an internal cover-up, a ruthless means for me to monopolize the cultivation technique and prevent the news from being leaked!"

"During several meetings of their council of elders, the mysterious disappearances of some Tai Sui fusion individuals were even brought up, with suspicions that I had secretly transformed them into Tiger Accomplices to steal the latest results of extraterrestrial bloodline experiments. Various 'details' of the crimes also emerged..."

"Who was the mastermind, who was the accomplice, the time and place of the transaction and transfer, and even the 'content' of my secret conversation with the elder of the Boyan Sect were all fabricated in such a detailed manner that it was as if someone had actually listened to the whole thing from behind the screen, making it irrefutable evidence!"

"The royal family's fear of me was already deeply buried. Taking this opportunity, they further stripped me of half of my military power and handed over the defense of the three northern states to the trusted confidants of the Guiyi faction... At the same time, they intensified their exploration of the starry sky, hoping to completely suppress me, the 'unstable factor' with the highest cultivation and unparalleled combat power in Tianliang."

"Over the next six months, several of my 'insiders' in the Guiyi faction, my good brothers who had once risked their lives for me, all cut off contact... They didn't die, they just... stopped contacting me and were unwilling to continue 'cooperating'."

Tuoba Wuchou's voice was deep and abyss-like, as if his throat had been frozen by the cold wind: "When we met again, the awe in their eyes was still there, but there was a layer of barrier that I couldn't understand, as if it was covered with a layer of frosted glass. I could see the outline, but I couldn't feel the warmth."

"Without crucial sources of information, I could only plead and run around in vain, trying to use the conflict between the two factions to balance each other out, but all I got in return was one perfunctory response and deception after another! The sense of crisis was like a bone-deep sore, gnawing at my heart day and night."

“I know that many people have been swept up by external forces and can no longer turn back. But I did not expect that the real disaster would come so quickly. It was... a blood-red sunset, a blinding purple light streaked across the sky, and a burning meteorite with a long tail of flame crashed into the heart of the ancestral mountain!”

"When the smoke and dust cleared, a bubbling hot spring appeared where the meteorite had fallen. The water was milky white and incredibly rich in spiritual energy. Drinking or bathing in it could rejuvenate the body and bones, and even make the elderly regain their youthful hair and extend their lifespan by sixty years. It was thus named the 'Fountain of Youth'!"

"The royal family was overjoyed and immediately declared this to be irrefutable proof of 'divine blessing and divine right,' making the Unification Faction's position even more unshakeable. Conservatives like us, who always called for vigilance against extraterrestrial life, became completely out of place in the court and amidst the nationwide jubilation."

"Of course, such a treasure, located in the royal forbidden garden, cannot be shared by all the people. The royal family quickly mobilized a large army, under the pretext of 'protecting the sacred spring and preventing villains from coveting it,' and ordered the entire area to be sealed off layer by layer with overlapping formations, making it impossible for birds to fly over. Only a few direct descendants and meritorious members of the Guiyi faction were allowed to approach."

"But they were very 'generous' to me. Early the next morning, a eunuch brought thirty large vats, saying that His Majesty, mindful of my hard work and great achievements, had specially bestowed water from the divine spring upon me, so that I could take good care of my health and even take it back to the military camp to verify its effects."

The eunuch, with a forced smile, relayed the message: "His Majesty said that it is clearly a gift from heaven and earth, a divine blessing, yet the Marshal is always worried about a trap, suspecting this and that. Now, the spring water is yours to have tested... to see if there is any harm whatsoever. If there is truly a problem, I will personally dismantle this spring."

"Ha...test? I tested for three whole months. The army's best doctors, the most sophisticated talismans, the most cautious pharmacists... took turns, day and night! And the result?"

"It has been fed to dying warhorses, tested on hunting dogs with broken legs, and even been drunk and soaked in by people... From beginning to end, not a single problem was found. Warhorses could run with heavy loads, hunting dogs could chase rabbits and deer, and soldiers who drank from the spring were full of energy, and even their old injuries did not recur. The spring water is pure and immaculate, full of spiritual energy, and teeming with life!"

"So perfect...it's chilling!"

"It's like a hunter chasing a fox into a cave, only to find a bunch of sweet fruit inside—you know something's wrong, but you can't find any evidence."

"The moment I received the final result, I almost wavered, wondering if I had really made a mistake, if I had been too paranoid, and if I had failed to live up to this 'divine favor'?"

He suddenly clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white: "...But soon, I realized they had deceived me! They had deceived everyone! The core of the 'Fountain of Youth' was not pure spiritual liquid! Instead... it contained a crystal core no bigger than a longan, its entire surface shimmering with silvery-white starlight!"

"That is the true core of the meteorite! It is the most deadly part of the so-called 'greeting gift' from the extraterrestrial beings!"

"The royal family... or rather, the core leadership of the Guiyi Sect, have already secretly taken that crystal core! They call it the 'elixir of immortality'! Those who obtain it will not only see their cultivation advance by leaps and bounds, but also... have a lifespan that is almost infinite! Like true immortality! They will remain forever young, overlooking the rise and fall of time!"

"The Yuan royal family... has finally lost its temper!"

"Faced with the temptation of immortality, what imperial foundation, what bloodline inheritance, what threat from the stars, all become as insignificant as a feather! They used it!"

"And then... something even more terrible happened!"

Tuoba Wuchou spoke slowly and deliberately, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a bloody stench: "From a young age... I was a loner, and having grown up in the military, I didn't have many people I could truly call 'acquaintances,' 'friends,' or 'acquaintances.' But during that time... I watched them... change."

"The Yuan Gao I knew... who would weep for the fallen soldiers on the front lines and drink strong liquor until dawn; the brother who once discussed swordsmanship with me on a snowy night until the east was bright, arguing heatedly over the flaw in the move 'Cold Star Points at the Moon,' and finally bursting into laughter... has vanished!"

“It wasn’t just him.” His voice began to tremble. “I also remember Princess Zhaohua, that little girl who once sneaked out of the palace during the ancestral worship ceremony to learn swordsmanship from me…”

"She always said that she wanted every child on the grasslands to have enough to eat and wear, so that they wouldn't have to cry their eyes out watching refugees freeze to death like she did when she was a child. But when I advised her to speak to His Majesty on her behalf, she simply pulled her luxurious fox fur coat tighter and said calmly, 'Marshal, you're too old. You don't understand the grand ambitions of young people.'"

“I even went to see my swordsmanship master, the old man who once said, ‘The heart of the sword should be like the North Star, unchanging through the ages.’ But that day, when he looked at the blood-written letter I presented, there was no anger in his eyes, only a kind of… indifference that was almost pity.”

“‘No worries,’ he patted my shoulder, his tone like he was coaxing a sulking child, ‘Great men don’t concern themselves with trifles. The weather is getting colder and we need new deities. These sacrifices are necessary costs. Look, the bloodline of the Wood Gallbladder Tai Sui has been stably passed down, and the Bone Armor Technique of the Armored Coffin Clan is about to be cracked.’”

“Give us another ten years, no, five years, and Tianliang will possess an army capable of sweeping across the world, establishing a true dynasty that lasts for eternity. At that time, who will remember these…trivial matters?” “I know…at that moment…I knew with absolute clarity…he…was no longer him! She…would no longer be her!”

Two streams of tears rolled down Tuoba Wuchou's face: "Even if their physical forms and memories remain, their hearts have been replaced. It's like a sharp sword with a different hilt; it can still kill, but it no longer belongs to its original master."

"Later... I began to recall the past scenes again and again, the dreams of old friends, their voices and smiles, their grand words, their compassionate feelings... They were completely out of place with these monsters in front of me, wearing human skin, with empty eyes, spouting grand ambitions and blessings from the stars!"

"I refuse to accept this! I refuse to believe in evil!"

"I've asked myself countless times—is it an illusion? Am I going crazy? Or... has the world really gone mad?"

"Finally... on a dark and starless night, I could no longer restrain myself. I sneaked into Zushan alone and captured a prince in the palace... Yuan Che, whom I was quite close to. I wanted to know what that 'elixir of immortality' had turned them into!"

“He was a child I watched grow up. He was gentle and loved music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. He was once ridiculed for not being able to bear hunting… But that night, when I subdued him and tore open his magnificent robe, I saw that beneath his chest, there was no longer flesh and blood! Instead… a translucent, purple-jade-colored exotic wood.”

"They throbbed and spread like living things, constantly oozing purple sap that eroded the remaining flesh! The sight... was eerily beautiful, chillingly cold! It was no longer human at all!"

"At that moment, I understood everything! What 'elixir of immortality'! It was clearly... an extraterrestrial demon that possessed and swapped souls! It was devouring and replacing them little by little! Turning them... into puppets in human skin! The accomplice of the Wood Gall Tai Sui!"

I asked him, "Yuan Che, do you still recognize me?"

He looked at me, his eyes vacant, but a stiff smile tugged at the corners of his mouth: "Uncle Tuoba...of course I recognize you. But...why do you stand in my way of the Yuan clan's eternal prosperity?"

"That voice...it was his voice, but the tone...it was as cold as ten thousand years of ice!"

I asked him, "Do you remember when your mother passed away, you held her and cried all night? Do you remember the first painting you ever made, the one of the sunset over the grasslands?"

He paused for a moment, his amethyst-like chest heaving slightly as if searching his memory, then answered in a completely flat tone: "I remember. But... that's all in the past. Now, I have a more important mission."

"Mission? What mission?! To be loyal to the extraterrestrial demons and turn the entire Tianliang, the entire world, into their pasture?!"

Tuoba Wuchou roared, as if he wanted to unleash all his pent-up resentment.

He stopped answering and just looked at me with an almost pitying gaze, as if I were a stubborn fool.

"That night, I held his cold, half-timbered body and removed all the mutated parts! I cleansed it repeatedly with the purest primordial energy! Looking at his painfully distorted face and listening to the roars that no longer belonged to him, I sat in the cold wind of Zushan until dawn."

“I know… the Yuan Che I knew, the child who would cry for his mother and paint sunsets… is dead.”

"Make a decisive decision!"

Tuoba Wuchou suddenly looked up, his eyes no longer filled with confusion, only a resolute flame remained:

"For the sake of the cold weather, for the sake of the people still living on this land, those who can cry, laugh, feel pain, bleed, grieve for the dead, and pray for the living... true human beings! I can only... rebel!"

"Then, you quickly withdrew from Zushan, and with your former prestige, you swiftly gathered all your loyal retainers and the troops you could control, numbering about two million. You also secretly sent someone to reveal the existence of the 'elixir of immortality' in order to inspire your soldiers to fight for immortality."

Zhao Qing's voice rang out calmly, as if he were flipping through a dusty military report: "Although the palace has few people, their cultivation has greatly improved recently. Relying on the natural defenses of the ancestral land, the healing effects of the Fountain of Immortality, and the bewitching power of the promise of 'immortality' on some people, they have managed to withstand the raging tide of your army."

"The battle... grew increasingly fierce, ultimately leveling the entire ancestral land." She paused, then asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to add?"

“That’s right!” Tuoba Wuchou readily admitted: “The ancestral mountain… was originally much larger than it is now, with towering peaks and winding spiritual veins. Its area was more than ten times the size of the ruins it is today. It was because I learned a powerful void technique from beyond the realm and used a self-created ‘Hun Yuan Xing Zhen’ Dao Domain that I shattered it.”

"The royal family and the Guiyi Sect's five eighth-realm experts and twenty-seven seventh-realm peak experts, as well as the various tribes of the wasteland who led their armies to seize the 'elixir of immortality' amidst the chaos... a total of tens of millions of lives were lost in this repeated attack, turning into bone dust and debris that filled this basin!"

“Yuangao, Zhaohua, Beichen Sword Master, His Majesty… I severed their bodies and souls with my sword, destroying them along with the demons that parasitized them!”

The Primordial Star Trek? So he didn't just use his Peerless Wind and Rain Sword after all? Zhao Qing's heart stirred slightly, a strange sense of irony washing over him: a power originating from beyond the realm, destroying a civilization corrupted by it…

Zhan Mohe, who was standing to the side, remained silent for a long time. A complex and unfathomable light flashed in his eyes. Finally, he slowly spoke, asking a series of questions that pierced through the veil of grief and indignation like an ice pick: "But... you should know better than anyone that they... have not completely disappeared, right?"

"The erosion caused by the 'elixir of immortality' does not completely erase consciousness! It only replaces, merges with, and covers a portion of consciousness!"

"Yuan Gao's magnanimity, Zhao Hua's compassion, your master's swordsmanship, Yuan Che's gentleness... those memories are still there, those emotions... perhaps they have just been suppressed, distorted, or alienated a little? Like... like they have been covered with a thick layer of dust?"

"Can you bring yourself to do it, senior?" He stared directly into Tuoba Wuchou's bloodshot eyes and asked, word by word, "For the sake of so-called righteousness, for a 'possibly' brighter future, are you really willing to sever those... perhaps still tangible bonds?"

"How is this fundamentally different from the 'inhuman' claims that the Guiyi sect, which you despise, persecutes the innocent?"

"Could it be... just because their 'hearts' have changed, that once living 'people' have been completely reduced to 'objects' that can be eliminated?"

Even if... there might still be hope?!

...(End of chapter)