Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

What she hoped to see was a gardener with a憨厚傻笑 (a kind of simple, honest smile) on his face, slowly walking towards her from the stairs.

I don't know how much time passed.

The tremors subsided.

Everything returned to silence, as if the terrifying shock just now was merely a dream.

goo-dong-

Duan Xingchen swallowed hard.

Her gaze remained fixed, yet a subtle tremor lingered as she stared at the corner, waiting.

Soon, she saw it—

A very conspicuous bald head.

That's right.

The tension in Duan Xingchen finally eased in the next second.

Because the one slowly walking up the steps was none other than Prince Gu.

However, the appearance of the senior disciple of Yuntian Academy was somewhat different at this moment. His upper body was completely naked, his cheeks were stained with a few smears of blood, and there were two shocking blood holes on his shoulders, as if they had been pierced by a spear.

The rest of his body also had wounds of varying sizes, making him look quite disheveled.

"Senior Brother!"

Duan Xingchen quickly went over, while Gu Wangjun frowned, endured the pain, took a few unsteady steps forward, then leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the ground.

This action startled Duan Xingchen, who immediately began to use his own internal energy to check Gu Wangjun's injuries.

"I am fine."

Seeing Duan Xingchen's worried and anxious expression, Gu Wangjun immediately revealed a reassuring smile, his tone quite gentle: "It's just a minor injury—"

"This is no small injury!" Duan Xingchen's tone suddenly became more serious. "Senior Brother, don't move. I'll heal you."

Gu Wangjun remained silent for a few seconds, gazing at Duan Xingchen's skillful technique, hesitated for a moment, and then smiled.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, junior sister."

"It's no trouble at all..."

Duan Xingchen shook his head, and then began to heal Gu Wangjun's injuries.

She herself knew some healing techniques, and with the blessing of her holy body, her pure and immaculate spiritual energy became an excellent healing medicine.

In addition, since King Gu himself has a strong physique, healing him is not too difficult.

However, those two huge bloody holes are a bit of a problem.

Duan Xingchen, while looking at the horrifying blood hole the size of a fist, couldn't help but say, "If this injury had happened to anyone else, they would probably have bled to death and fainted by now. Senior Brother, your physical body is truly tough."

"Hahaha—" Gu Wangjun chuckled twice, then said, "Actually, it's not so bad. That monk Xue Ling stabbed nearly a thousand times, but only got hit by these two. As for me, I threw three hundred punches, and he didn't dodge a single one."

Duan Xingchen: "…………"

In just that short period of time, my senior brother fought so many rounds against that Void Realm Blood Spirit...

No wonder there was such a deafening sound.

Back to the present—

With Duan Xingchen's current healing abilities, he was not yet able to completely heal the two huge blood holes. So, Duan Xingchen had no choice but to take out gauze from his storage ring and temporarily bandage Gu Wangjun's wounds.

Although the effect was minimal, it at least slightly concealed Gu Wangjun's naked body.

Duan Xingchen felt a little embarrassed constantly staring at his naked senior brother.

"So... there should be some here too."

Gu Wangjun stood up from the ground, his expression as calm and unhurried as ever.

Duan Xingchen knew what Gu Wangjun was talking about. After looking around, he immediately found what he expected.

A tattered scroll painting.

It lay quietly on the cold floor tiles, as if waiting for someone to pick it up.

However, the fragment of the fourth level seems to be the lower half of Qu Wenxue's body, unsurprisingly dressed in black armor, with blood-stained desert at her feet.

"This is the fourth one..."

Gu Wangjun put it away, then took the third fragment from Duan Xingchen and pieced it together with the fragments from the previous two fragments...

Although most of it has been pieced together, it is roughly possible to tell that this is a scroll depicting Qu Wenxue wearing armor and holding a long spear, standing tall in the desert.

However, the chest and abdomen parts are missing, which should be on the fifth floor.

"Is one more needed...?"

Duan Xingchen let out a long sigh, and then watched as Gu Wangjun put the scroll away.

Then—there is another important clue.

Having learned from his previous two experiences, Duan Xingchen decided to start searching directly this time.

The fourth floor is not a very large area, only a few dozen square meters, so searching it is not difficult.

Soon, Duan Xingchen and Gu Wangjun spotted that familiar thing in the corner—

Autobiography

"As expected, it's here too."

Gu Wangjun and Duan Xingchen exchanged a glance, and without hesitation, they immediately opened the book.

The first two pages are identical, so what's left are the ones I haven't had time to look at before—

Page 3.

wow-

As the pages turned, the first line of the ancient book, with its slightly gruesome words written in blood, came into view.

That passage was brief, yet astonishing.

"Entering the tower, I drew demonic energy into my body, hoping to use the opportunity of demonic possession to resurrect Xue'er. However, fate played a cruel trick on me. Xue'er refused to accept the demonic body and was willing to commit suicide on the spot. I stepped forward to stop her, but Xue'er pierced my heart with her sword."

"Did I do something wrong, Xue'er?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Subscriptions have been slow lately... Is everyone dissatisfied with the recent plot?

29. The Only Way

Liu Xunkong is dead.

He was pierced through the heart by Qu Wenxue's sword and died inside the Five-Jade Exquisite Pagoda.

If everything ends like this, then perhaps this immortal's tomb, this secret realm, and even this painting left inside the Five-Jeweled Pagoda...

All of them will cease to exist.

However, this did not end there.

Liu Xun Kong was indeed dead, killed by a sword through the heart. His body fell to the top of the Five-Colored Exquisite Pagoda, his eyes wide open. No matter how many years have passed, the shock, bitterness, and grief in his eyes could not be dispelled.

He watched as his beloved killed him.

"I don't understand why."

On the third page of that ancient autobiography, there is Liu Xunkong's bitter and incomprehensible voice.

He didn't understand why.

In his quest to find a way to reshape Qu Wenxue's physical body, he went so far as to venture alone into the Sword Sect, killing sword masters to extract their true essence and blood, for which he suffered numerous injuries.

In order to find a way to stabilize the soul, he crossed the heavens and did not close his eyes or eat for months, all in order to find the spirit of a hundred herbs.

To avoid being hunted down, he stayed away from taverns and luxury homes, considering himself a wanderer who could return home.

He betrayed his sect for her, threw himself into the River of Death for her, and even decayed his own body for her, drawing demonic energy into his body. He suffered daily torment and could not sleep at night.

Ultimately, he even personally destroyed the mentor who was like a second parent to him...

What he received in return was a sword strike that pierced his heart.

A flash of cold light, a splash of blood, and the exquisite demon tower remains, its walls still standing.

"I don't understand why."

He repeatedly wrote the same words on that old, yellowed paper.

Five times, ten times, twenty times, one hundred times...

countless.

Countless times.

The content from the third page onwards is almost entirely the same sentence.

But the text became increasingly distorted and unclear, as if... he had lost his original consciousness.

The piled-up words... were completely... like an unfathomable vortex, spinning, twisting, and swirling...

he died?

Dead people can't write.

Even without having its hands chopped off, the body lying motionless in the pool of blood could not possibly write these twisted, black hole-like words.

Liu Xun Kong did not die.

Not only did he not die, he also received a divine inheritance that ordinary people could never obtain.

The legacy of the impermanence of life and death.

"When I woke up, there was no one else in the Five-Jeweled Pagoda."

"Xue'er has disappeared; she has vanished from the surrounding area."

"I thought I was dead, but I wasn't. The impermanence of life and death brought me back to life, but the price... was complete demonic possession."