It is said that the sea of consciousness changes appearance according to its master’s personality.

Shu Tiantian’s was a beautiful medicinal field hung with tens of thousands of bills. Ji Wushu guessed that after receiving compensation and the bills vanished into smoke, it should have returned to birdsong and blossoming fragrance; as for his, it had been a thousand li of scorched earth, barren of a single blade of grass, red soil like cracked ground—a boundless apocalyptic landscape.

But now, villas rose from the flat ground one after another. The long-parched, cracked wasteland had vanished, replaced by little white flowers swaying their heads freely across mountains and plains.

They were clearly just offerings, the sort that would vanish into smoke with a flick of a finger—yet he did not act. Ink-black hair steeped in ghostly aura trailed to the ground; the young man who had sat up supported his forehead, licked his fangs, and unexpectedly could not help but start laughing.

At first a soft chuckle, in the end laughing until his full head of black hair trembled like flowing water.

In the past, this dragon had fought countless battles of life and death. Yet even when covered in wounds, he had to force himself to rise again and again from the brink of death, like every injured beast—he had to find a safe corner. Because he was a wandering ferocious beast. He had no friends, no family, no home. Relaxation meant death.

But this time, at the moment of victory, before finally destroying the cage and falling into slumber, this wounded ferocious beast thought—

If he died like this, then his final regret would probably be that his little flower, with cheeks flushed red, lips soft and… why hadn’t he taken a bite before dying?

In a sense, the little medical cultivator was a small sacrificial offering the Tianji Sect had prepared for him—she really was very appetizing to him.

Even in death, a ferocious beast would still crave that mouthful of sweetness.

But fortunately, he did not die.

He lay in the sea of flowers laughing for a while, then with interest plucked up a little figure that had already turned into a paper cutout. The little figure came alive, trembling as it stood up, only to be poked down again by his finger.

He flicked lightly, and the group of little paper figures began dancing before him again.

After tirelessly bullying the little paper Tiantian figures for a long time, after hearing “Big Poor Thing, wake up!” many times, he heard a call from afar—“Big Poor Thing, wake up!”

It was his flower.

He slowly poked the Tiantian little figures down with a finger, gathered all the paper pieces into his palm, and lay back in the sea of flowers, preparing to laze a bit longer.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

While Shu Tiantian was refining pills, the little black dragon—who had woken up at some unknown time—wrapped its tail around her finger, wanting to rub its broken dragon horn against the little medical cultivator. Who would have thought that before it even touched her, it froze.

—Its whiskers had knotted.

For the first time in his life, the Dragon God encountered such a thing. It circled around, trying to undo the knot. But the two whiskers Shu Tiantian had braided into extremely crude plaits—logically, two strands could only loosely twine together and could not even be braided tightly—yet the little black dragon had no patience at all. It looped around twice, trying to spin a few circles and slip out, but instead successfully tied itself into a beautiful bow on Shu Tiantian’s hand. After moving twice, it finally stiffly realized: it could not get out.

Dragon Bone Sword: Pff—hahahaha!!

The instant the Dragon Bone Sword burst into laughter, it felt the overwhelming pressure filling the air, the terrifying aura—its laughter cut off abruptly. Before it could sense its dog-bastard master’s gaze falling on it, the Dragon Bone Sword whooshed and plunged headfirst into the soil by itself.

The Dragon Bone Sword watched the little medical cultivator with gloating delight. When the Dragon God grew angry, even if not to the extent of corpses lying in millions or blood flowing for a thousand li, he would still give the culprit a taste of punishment.

And so it saw the Dragon God’s tail, extremely displeased, smack Shu Tiantian several times, golden-red vicious eyes staring darkly at the little medical cultivator.

Shu Tiantian guiltily untied the knotted whiskers, saying she would immediately cook his favorite noodles as an offering. The little black dragon nudged her with its horn in dissatisfaction.

That was all.

Dragon Bone Sword: …ah, ptooey.

At that moment, Shu Tiantian heard coughing from inside. She pushed the door open and entered, and sure enough saw that Ji Wushu had also awakened at some unknown time.

The beautiful Old Ancestor, pale-faced, struggled to rise. Shu Tiantian worried he might fall apart at any moment and hurried to support him. But the next instant, the Void Abyss Old Ancestor collapsed along with the motion.

The tall black-haired young man coughing with difficulty on her shoulder truly fit the definition of—

Big Poor Thing.

Shu Tiantian did not notice anything amiss at all. In a medical cultivator’s view, someone ruined to the extent of Big Poor Thing, sickly to the point of barely clinging to life, was more in line with medical common sense. She even let out a sigh of relief in her heart, helped the weakened Old Ancestor to sit by the bed, and with the gaze one would use toward an endangered species, asked the Old Ancestor whether he wanted noodles.

The long-haired young man gathered his black cloak around himself, the whole person looking frail yet ethereal. He had originally wanted to linger on the little medical cultivator a bit longer, but upon hearing this, he knew there was no hope. While coughing, he said he would not eat. He had already become a god—how could he eat the five grains and absorb the dregs of heaven and earth? It was enough for him to absorb a bit of spiritual qi.

After thinking about it, Shu Tiantian felt that made sense. She cooked a bowl each for the little black dragon and herself. Passing by the Old Ancestor’s room, she even asked once more, and sure enough, he still would not eat.

She placed the noodles before the shrine in the little dragon’s nest and lit three sticks of incense.

After becoming wealthy, the incense Shu Tiantian prepared for her portable Little Poor Thing deity were all the most expensive kind—rich and mellow in fragrance. Even in the Divine Realm, they would count as the Thai fragrant rice among incense. Sure enough, as soon as the scent reached him, the little black dragon in her hand poked its head out.

That miniature shrine, though small, was fully equipped; it already counted as a qualified temple.

The Dragon God temples in the mortal world had long since vanished. In three thousand years, this was the first Dragon God temple.

Although its size was: twenty square; unit: centimeters.

But when the temple appeared, the divine power on the brink of exhaustion received, for the first time in three thousand years, a thread of replenishment like a stream. Even Ji Wushu could not help but narrow his golden eyes.

The little black dragon immediately liked it, moved closer and climbed onto the shrine, inspected it once, then coiled upon the red velvet cushion and began enjoying its meal.

Threads of smoke drifted over, warm and fragrant. This unlucky god finally properly ate his first complete lunch after three thousand years.

Shu Tiantian reached out and poked the little black dragon. The little black dragon did not even lift its head while eating; it wrapped its tail around her randomly poking hand to signal the human not to move about, clearly showing how much it liked it.

The long-haired young man pinched a little paper figure in his hand and poked it back and forth, half-closing his red-gold eyes. He was obviously enjoying this offering immensely. Even the dragon tail of his true body could not help but coil around the little medical cultivator’s fingers.

The Dragon Bone Sword stood upright and, utterly perplexed, raised a question from the depths of its soul: Is this interesting?

The true body of the Void Abyss Old Ancestor continued rubbing against the little medical cultivator, using action to express: Interesting. Extremely interesting.

After all, this cunning sinful dragon knew very clearly that if the little medical cultivator found out about his true body, it was hard to say what her reaction would be. Would she still hold the dragon horn and sleep at night? Would she still kiss it whenever the mood struck?

More importantly, the great devil who slaughtered all directions, steady and reliable—how could his true body possibly be a little broken dragon that clung to the little medical cultivator all day wanting to rub and cuddle? How could it be that little broken god who had not eaten his fill for three thousand years?

Impossible, impossible.

He continued using his true body to rub against the little medical cultivator’s palm, his expression exceedingly content.

It was not that Shu Tiantian had noticed nothing at all. After all, when the dragon woke, he woke; when the dragon slept, he slept. Gods were not wholesale goods. But the Void Abyss Old Ancestor was too good at pretending. And though both injuries were severe, one was a shattered divine soul and the other a shattered body. Separated, they were already two pitiable, broken existences—if combined, could they still stand upright and cause mischief like the Void Abyss Old Ancestor?

That was too outrageous.

Shu Tiantian did not believe it. She firmly believed in her medical skills, and also in her materialist cultivation dialectics. Thus she only suspected briefly before dismissing the suspicion.

At this time, it had already been one month since the thousand-year calamity.

Relying on that bit of meager divine power, the condition of the Void Abyss Old Ancestor visibly improved. Though he still looked sickly, he was indeed recovering.

When Shu Tiantian mended his divine soul, she used the vitality-filled spiritual power of Withered Wood Meets Spring to piece it back together; there was effect. And the Great Creation Pill, over the course of a month, had allowed the large hole in the little black dragon’s body to grow flesh and bone. It was no longer the thin layer it once had been.

But in the past few days, while Shu Tiantian felt gratified at the improvement of Big and Little Poor Thing’s injuries, she could not help feeling that the Old Ancestor was a bit too quiet.

Based on Shu Tiantian’s understanding of Ji Wushu, when the Old Ancestor was quiet, he was definitely about to cause trouble. Last time they had agreed to secretly go to the auction house together—he not only killed the envoy from the Upper Realm, but also led her swaggering through the enemy camp.

Shu Tiantian had thought she more or less understood the personality of this world-destroying devil. But clearly, Shu Tiantian had misunderstood.

Recently, the Void Abyss Old Ancestor had not done anything major. He had only, from somewhere unknown, obtained many little fireflies and locked them inside a lantern that Shu Tiantian found extremely familiar.

At first it was still a lantern. Later, on a sudden whim, the Old Ancestor pinched the lantern into the shape of an eighteen-tiered exquisite pagoda and locked the little fireflies inside to play with them.

Playing with fireflies—very childlike.

The exquisite pagoda was crystal clear and extremely beautiful, especially after the fireflies flew inside—it was simply dreamlike and illusory.

Compared to this exquisite pagoda, Shu Tiantian’s handmade shrine looked like a piece of junk. Fortunately the little black dragon liked it so much it refused to come down, otherwise Shu Tiantian would have felt inferior.

But she rather envied that the Old Ancestor had this kind of skill and wanted to make one for the little black dragon too. Curious, she leaned over to watch and asked the Old Ancestor what this beautiful pagoda was called.

Void Abyss Old Ancestor: “Eighteen Layers of Hell.”

Shu Tiantian: =口=

【Childlike】

Maybe… it was just a frightening name?

She tested the function of the tower.

Void Abyss Old Ancestor said casually, “Inside are eighteen cycles of reincarnation. The divine souls that enter will experience eighteen lifetimes of reincarnation—love, anger, greed, hatred, obsession, and so on. In the end, layer by layer, they will be weakened, worn down, and die.”

So you just casually pinched and created something this devilish?

Shu Tiantian prepared to huddle together with the Dragon Bone Sword for warmth, but who would have thought the sword was extremely excited, circling the tower again and again. It split into many small swords and rushed inside in a swarm, chasing fireflies for fun.

Shu Tiantian could only hold the little black dragon tightly. Though afraid, she could not suppress her curiosity. She leaned closer to look and heard the little fireflies screaming and cursing, “Ji Wushu, you will die a terrible death!”

Shu Tiantian poked the eighteen-layered tower and only then belatedly remembered—this was when the Old Ancestor had slaughtered all directions during the thousand-year calamity and, along the way, had also captured the souls of those white-haired bird people.

Shu Tiantian noticed the key point and cleverly asked, “These divine souls of the Upper Realm bird people… can’t be easily killed, right?”

The last bird-person soul that had been captured had been electrocuted by the Old Ancestor for a long time before finally being destroyed.

So this time Ji Wushu planned to use the eighteen layers of hell to wear down these bird souls layer by layer?

The long-haired young man tapped with a finger, and the screaming souls were swept into one layer of the tower. Then he picked up a cup of tea and watched with interest, his tone casual:

“Have you heard of the flying leech, this kind of spirit insect?”

Having only heard of flying cockroaches, Shu Tiantian thought of the ordinary leeches she knew and nodded like a pecking chick.

Beautiful fingers pinched up a firefly and snapped it into the second layer of hell.

“The vitality absorbed by the miasma is indeed supplied to the Upper Realm. Vitality gives rise to spiritual qi, and thus the Upper Realm has such abundant spiritual qi that it forms a world of its own. But if the absorbed vitality is only used to supply spiritual qi, that would be far too wasteful.”

“The people of the Upper Realm are flying leeches. This vitality is like human blood.”

“When flying leeches die, as long as they are nourished with human blood, they can revive again. They are the most detestable insects in the cultivation world. But in a certain sense, as long as there is human blood to nourish them, leeches are almost impossible to truly kill.”

He pointed to the little fireflies inside the tower.

Even though their bodies had already been killed by him, and their divine souls crushed, they still remained alive inside the eighteen-layered tower. Only after passing through all eighteen layers would they be truly killed.

Because the vitality absorbed by the miasma was continuously supplying them with nourishment.

The shortening of a cultivator’s lifespan, the fall of a cultivator, the fading of a cultivator’s life—all fundamentally came from vitality. Withered Wood Meets Spring was creating vitality from nothing; but the people of the Upper Realm used miasma to absorb vitality—it was a great shifting of heaven and earth—taking another’s blood to continue one’s own life.

In the past, the miasma had tormented Ji Wushu and absorbed his vitality. So to him, the people of the Upper Realm were all leeches—including Yu Fenji. The only difference was big leeches and small leeches.

Shu Tiantian suddenly thought of something and almost immediately reacted—

So as long as the physical bodies of the Upper Realm people were destroyed, they only needed to wait until vitality was replenished… and they would revive again!

She almost clenched her palm tight.

Such surging vitality was taken to prolong the lives of those shameless scoundrels. And if even minor lackeys like the white-haired bird people required the torment of eighteen layers of hell before they would die, then what about Yu Fenji? What about the even more powerful figures of the Upper Realm?

Shu Tiantian did not dare think further.

After a long while, she came back to her senses and asked, “Yu Fenji… is he…?”

The long-haired young man gave a soft hum.

“He’s indeed not dead.”

Shu Tiantian had just begun to say something when she heard him say lightly, “So I’m going to hunt him down.”

The Void Abyss Old Ancestor extended his hand. From inside his sleeve, more than eighty Tiantian little paper figures all sprang up at once and obediently gathered over. The long-haired young man tapped them, and the little paper figures bounced away, hopping as they ran off.

Shu Tiantian guessed he had sent the little paper figures to find Yu Fenji’s divine soul.

But looking closely: …?

Her attention was immediately diverted. Her earlier indignation instantly turned into complaint—why was he using her little paper figures to find someone?

Couldn’t he change their appearance? Yet the Void Abyss Old Ancestor maliciously poked the little Tiantian paper figures again, knocking several of them down one by one.

Shu Tiantian reached out to stop his sinful hand, vigilantly escorting the little paper Tiantians to retreat safely before letting go.

She thought about it. As someone who had seen the memory orb of Tianji Sect’s founding ancestor Yu Fumie, Shu Tiantian naturally knew that the miasma had been devouring the Dragon God’s vitality for three thousand years—clearly, this ridiculous mechanism of absorbing the Dragon God’s vitality to nourish the Upper Realm had existed for a very long time.

If even cannon fodder like the bird people of the Upper Realm required so long to be worn down before dying, it was no surprise Yu Fenji was still alive. But what about Yu Fumie from back then?

Could Yu Fumie also still be alive because of this ridiculous mechanism?

Shu Tiantian had a very poor impression of that founding ancestor—kind-faced but black-hearted, ruthless and merciless. But she had to admit that compared to Yu Fenji, Yu Fumie had been far more formidable.

As someone who had read countless books, Shu Tiantian felt that an existence like Yu Fumie… what if—

But Ji Wushu said with complete certainty, “Impossible.”

Shu Tiantian thought villains die from carelessness and excessive talking—this rule should still be taken as a warning. And Yu Fumie sounded like a truly ruthless figure. We might as well boldly assume—

Then she saw the beautiful Old Ancestor smiling with refined gentleness, sipping tea and drinking water.

“So, I killed him one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one times.”

Precise down to the unit digit, perfectly demonstrating the professional standards of a great villain.

Shu Tiantian: …..

She was wrong. The Old Ancestor was a wolf among wolves—just a bit more ruthless than the ruthless.

She felt that if she and the little black dragon followed him, they still had a decent chance of survival.

But considering the dragon was a little broken dragon, and the Old Ancestor was also a broken devil, Shu Tiantian still, out of a healer’s professional ethics, asked how many times the Old Ancestor planned to kill Yu Fenji this time.

The answer was: kill him every time he appears.

Shu Tiantian was a bit worried the broken devil might fall apart halfway, but then she thought again—that was Yu Fenji, after all.

A poor fellow who had studied for a thousand years only to never take the final exam—such misfortune was once in ten thousand years.

And Yu Fenji, because he listened to his elder brother, had only learned a single move in all these thousand years. He likely had no time to learn anything new now. That one God-Slaying Sword technique that had no effect on the great devil—when he encountered Ji Wushu, wouldn’t he still be nothing more than someone to be grabbed and smashed into a mountainside?

Besides, now that the thousand-year calamity had passed, Shu Tiantian felt that what Yu Fenji would crash into might not even be mountains anymore.

A candle for him.

So the question was—could the little paper Tiantians find Yu Fenji?

Anyone could guess that before reconnecting with the Upper Realm and receiving reinforcements, Yu Fenji would flee overnight at the mere sight of Ji Wushu, like a mouse seeing a cat—running as far as he possibly could.

But considering that the Eight Great Sects had fled faster than rabbits back then, Yu Fenji’s severely weakened divine soul probably had no time to find help. Who knew how far he had managed to run?

That very night, whether through divine sense or the little paper figures, the Void Abyss Old Ancestor discovered that Yu Fenji’s divine soul had already left Dongwu City. He promptly and rather hastily decided to go kill him, planning to depart Dongwu City the next morning.

Shu Tiantian thought for a while. She was fragile, and she did not want to be separated from the little black dragon. And in the eyes of others, her relationship with the Old Ancestor was one filled with unspoken and shy implications. But… she still raised her hand and said she wanted to go find the Spring of Vitality.

First, repairing Ji Wushu’s divine soul required the Spring of Vitality. Recently, after reviewing ancient texts, Shu Tiantian had also discovered that if the little black dragon soaked in the Spring of Vitality, it would recover faster. Second, to a medical cultivator, the existence of the Spring of Vitality was like sword cultivators hearing that a divine sword had appeared—whether or not one could obtain it, just basking in its immortal aura would be worth it. Shu Tiantian was determined to see it.

Besides, wasn’t searching for the Spring of Vitality along the way to the Alchemy Examination Assembly? The Alchemy Examination Assembly was the final stop of the Grand Assembly of Ten Thousand Sects, where medical cultivators from all over gathered…

But in Shu Tiantian’s understanding, the broken devil was a very peculiar existence. She felt that compared to using the Spring of Vitality to repair himself, he might be far more enthusiastic about burning himself out in his limited lifespan just to blow others up.

So if they truly had to part ways, Shu Tiantian was prepared.

But who knew—no sooner had her words left her mouth than the long-haired young man’s dim golden eyes fixed on her.

Shu Tiantian felt her scalp go numb under that gaze. She thought, you’re going to kill people—bringing a medical cultivator like me is useless anyway. Of course, I will take the little broken dragon with me, but why are you looking at me like I’m some heartless lover?

Who would have thought that the Void Abyss Old Ancestor, who just a moment ago had been filled with terrifying aura and talking about going to kill people, suddenly began coughing violently. His long hair trembled, his face turned pale.

Hesitantly, Shu Tiantian poured him a cup of water. She had barely come close when the weakened great devil collapsed directly, long hair cascading like flowing water, his tall body leaning entirely against Shu Tiantian’s shoulder, looking as though he could not even stand. His lips had lost all color, and he only managed to say—

“The Spring of Vitality can… save…”

Then he fainted again.

Shu Tiantian: …?

Save me? Save my life?

One moment he was about to slaughter all directions, the next he needed the Spring of Vitality to save his life? She felt suspicious. But when she examined his divine soul, it was still in that same shattered state—it did not look like pretense. Could it be that this god of slaughter had finally realized he could not go on like this forever and was finally struggling to survive?

She asked the little black dragon. The little black dragon nodded with certainty.

The Dragon Bone Sword dared not expose its dog-bastard master and said: different paths, same destination, different paths, same destination. You can kill someone along the way to find the Spring of Vitality—it doesn’t conflict. Why would you need to split up?

After questioning both the true body of the Void Abyss Old Ancestor and the bones of the Void Abyss Old Ancestor, she finally dispelled that tiny bit of suspicion.

She recalled the ending three thousand years later, where the Void Abyss Old Ancestor destroyed the world and killed himself. Suddenly she felt somewhat gratified: look, this unfortunate child finally has a bit of a will to live. Tearful.

This was the first flicker of survival instinct in the life of the world-destroying devil who could overturn heaven and earth. Of course it should be encouraged—strive to let the Old Ancestor endure for thousands upon thousands of years!

That was the logic, and Shu Tiantian accepted it well, but—

She tried, and the unconscious Old Ancestor was immensely strong. She struggled all night and still could not break free from his embrace.