Upon hearing this, Zhang Mingyuan flipped his wrist and put away Dog Slaughterer.
“Why didn’t you just say so earlier?”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar nodded repeatedly.
“Yes, yes, yes. Worthy Brother is absolutely right. Your big brother here was just taking a nap and didn’t see clearly that it was you, Worthy Brother, who had graced me with your presence.”
While he spoke politely, he was cursing violently in his heart.
He was only acting this way because he was terrified of being tainted by the aura on that sword!
Damn it, he hadn’t recognized the origin of Dog Slaughterer before.
No wonder even the Great Dao had descended in person back then, forcing him to witness and certify the marriage of these two.
If Emperor Lan hadn’t been sharp-eyed enough to recognize this sword, the avatar probably would have thrown even more obstacles into their Heavenly Marriage trial, determined to make this kid pay the price for his “defiance of heaven.”
Thinking about it now, a cold sweat broke out across his back.
“Let me ask you, what exactly are the consequences of Su Jinxue forcibly reversing her ascension and downgrading to a Red Dust Immortal?”
Zhang Mingyuan paused, his voice trembling slightly.
“Is she... as I deduced, running out of time?”
The smile on the Heavenly Dao’s avatar’s face froze, and he sighed.
“Since Worthy Brother has already guessed, your big brother won’t hide it from you.”
“She forcibly shattered the Gate of Ascension and severed her path to ascension. Her Dao injury has already penetrated deep into her origin.”
“At most... she probably has no more than a hundred years of life left.”
A hundred years.
These words slammed heavily into Zhang Mingyuan’s mind, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
For mortals, a hundred years was a lifetime.
But for top cultivators like them, who could easily spend decades in a single seclusion, a hundred years was but a blink of an eye.
It was like water flowing down a creek, gone in an instant.
Zhang Mingyuan’s breathing grew heavy.
That foolish woman was bearing a fatal Dao injury all by herself, yet she still acted as if nothing was wrong just to accompany him.
A hundred years from now, would he have to watch her die in his arms?
Zhang Mingyuan lowered his head, clenching his fists so hard his knuckles turned white.
His nails dug deep into his palms, and fresh blood dripped through his fingers into the void.
An extremely violent, pitch-black energy began to rise from his body.
Blood vessels quickly webbed across his eyes as his sanity was rapidly consumed by madness.
Seeing this, the Heavenly Dao’s avatar nearly jumped in fright.
Holy crap! This kid is going to fall into madness!
If he succumbed to madness inside the Heavenly Dao space, how massive would the resulting karma be? That sword had already recognized this kid as its master. Although it currently looked rusty and completely devoid of aura, if its master went mad, there was no guaranteeing the sword wouldn’t go mad too!
Previously, this sword could hack at that ghostly thing, but now... it could hack at him! He definitely couldn’t withstand that!
“Worthy Brother! Worthy Brother, calm down!”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar waved his hands frantically.
“There is a cure! There is a cure for this! Don’t do anything rash!”
The black energy swirling around Zhang Mingyuan suddenly froze.
He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at the Heavenly Dao.
“What did you say?”
“I said there is a cure!”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar wiped away the non-existent cold sweat on his forehead.
“First, pull back your madness, and let’s talk this over nicely!”
Zhang Mingyuan gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the violent, raging energy inside his body.
“What is the cure?”
Seeing that his emotions had stabilized, the Heavenly Dao’s avatar finally breathed a sigh of relief and straightened his violet-gold robe.
“Actually, this kind of Dao injury is just like the ordinary Dao injuries you cultivators usually suffer. Given enough time and nourished by spiritual energy, it can be recovered. It is by no means absolutely irreversible.”
Zhang Mingyuan’s eyes lit up.
“However...”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar shifted his tone.
“Your wife is no ordinary cultivator; she is a Red Dust Immortal.”
“An ordinary cultivator’s spiritual energy is completely useless against a Red Dust Immortal’s Dao injury. It requires the nourishment of immortal Dao source energy.”
Zhang Mingyuan immediately caught the key point.
“So, as long as there is immortal Dao source energy, she can be cured?”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar shook his head.
“It’s not that simple.”
“After she suffered the Dao injury, she didn’t receive timely nourishment. Now, her dantian already has irreversible cracks.”
“Even if you pour immortal Dao source energy into her now, it will be like pouring water into a leaky sieve. She won’t be able to retain any of it.”
The hope that had just ignited in Zhang Mingyuan was instantly halved.
“So... there’s still no way to save her...” he murmured, his shoulders slumping.
After all that, it was still a dead end.
“Not necessarily.” The Heavenly Dao’s avatar stroked his chin, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“What is it?!” Zhang Mingyuan snapped his head up, his eyes lighting up once more.
This old bastard loved to drag things out. He really felt like giving him a good beating.
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar seemed to find it quite amusing to toy with someone else’s emotions, so he deliberately dragged out his words.
“That would be—”
He left the sentence hanging, waiting to enjoy Zhang Mingyuan’s anxious expression.
Clang—
A massive, rusty sword suddenly appeared right in front of the Heavenly Dao’s avatar’s nose.
The smile on the avatar’s face instantly froze.
“Ahem... That would be breaking and then rebuilding!”
He spoke at lightning speed.
“At the exact moment her dantian completely shatters, breed a brand-new dantian!”
With a flick of his wrist, Zhang Mingyuan retracted the sword.
“Keep talking.”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar swallowed hard and took two steps back to maintain a safe distance.
“But at that moment, she will be absolutely unable to circulate her own cultivation to shape the new dantian.”
“It must be done by someone closest to her—someone she trusts completely—who also possesses immortal Dao source energy. That person must use their own origin power to help her forge the dantian, bit by bit.”
“So, as long as I become an immortal, when her life is at its end, I can use my immortal Dao source energy to rebuild her dantian?”
Zhang Mingyuan stared at the Heavenly Dao, confirming his understanding.
“A teachable youth indeed.” The Heavenly Dao’s avatar nodded.
“Fantastic!”
Zhang Mingyuan slapped his thigh hard and jumped up in excitement.
There was a cure!
Little Xuexue didn’t have to die!
He had already reached the peak of the Mahayana Stage long ago, and with Su Jinxue’s company, he had even resolved his inner demons.
If he hadn’t been so busy getting married recently, he would have entered seclusion to break through long ago!
To him, this was not a difficult task at all.
Watching Zhang Mingyuan’s excitement, however, the Heavenly Dao’s avatar spoke again, his tone turning grave.
“Don’t celebrate too early.”
“Do you know what price you will have to pay for doing this?”
The smile on Zhang Mingyuan’s face faded slightly.
“What price?”
As long as he could save Su Jinxue, he would gladly give up his own life.
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar stared at him and said, word by word:
“The price is that you will lose all of your immortal Dao source energy.”
“You will revert to being a mortal cultivator once more, and... you will never have the chance to step onto the immortal path again for the rest of your life!”
A deathly silence descended upon the Heavenly Dao space once more.
Zhang Mingyuan was clearly stunned.
He stood frozen in place, motionless, as if processing this incredibly heavy piece of information.
Looking at his reaction, the Heavenly Dao’s avatar sighed inwardly.
Which cultivator didn’t value their Dao fruit more than their own life?
Becoming an immortal was the lifelong pursuit of countless billions of cultivators in the Xuanling Realm.
For the sake of ascension, the avatar had seen too many instances of fathers turning against sons, and husbands turning against wives.
To ask a supreme genius to abandon all hope of becoming an immortal and remain a mortal cultivator forever was more cruel than killing him.
“Hehe... So, you must think it over very carefully—” The Heavenly Dao’s avatar prepared to offer some advice.
But before he could finish, Zhang Mingyuan cut him off.
“Is that it??”
Zhang Mingyuan looked at the Heavenly Dao with an expression of pure disbelief.
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar was dumbfounded.
“What do you mean, ‘is that it’?”
He suspected he had misheard.
“Do you not understand the gravity of this?”
“You will never be able to become an immortal again! And you say, ‘is that it’?”
Was this kid’s brain fried by alcohol?
That was an Immortal status!
It meant eternal life, living as long as heaven and earth!
“I know,” Zhang Mingyuan scratched his ear, looking entirely nonchalant.
“But will I die?”
“No,” the Heavenly Dao’s avatar answered instinctively.
“Then that’s that!” Zhang Mingyuan spread his hands, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I won’t even die; I’m just losing my Immortal status. Is there even a need to think about it? Besides, when the Mahayana cultivators of the Xuanling Realm are nearing the end of their lifespans, they can just come to you to draw ‘origin’ to extend their lives anyway. At worst, my strength will just be a bit weaker, right?”
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar was completely dumbstruck.
He stared blankly at Zhang Mingyuan, his mind in complete disarray.
Was that how it worked?
Actually, that did make some sense.
His life would be intact, his Dao companion would be saved, and he just wouldn’t be able to become an immortal.
But he still felt like something was off...
Wait, no! That was an Immortal status! It was something countless people fought to the death for!
How did it sound like a common head of cabbage that could be discarded at will when coming from this kid’s mouth?
Yet... damn it, his words made so much sense that the avatar couldn’t even find a way to refute them.
The Heavenly Dao’s avatar stood frozen in place, falling into deep self-doubt.
As for Zhang Mingyuan, who had finally obtained a solution, his mood was incredibly bright, and even his drunkenness had completely vanished.
He cupped his hands to the Heavenly Dao, apologizing for his earlier rudeness and asking Big Brother Heavenly Dao to forgive him.
Then, grabbing the still-dazed Lingxuzi beside him, he said:
“Let’s go. I’m going back to enter seclusion! If I don’t attain my Immortal status, I swear I won’t return!”
Right at that moment, the Heavenly Dao’s avatar finally snapped out of his daze.
“Wait!”
Rate on N.U.
