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Chapter 345 The Origins and Development of the Disaster

"Young master should rest now."

In the blink of an eye, night fell, and the stars and moon shone brightly.

Ji You, who was meditating at the tea ceremony, heard Ding Yao's call and gently opened her eyes.

He had just examined his own body and found it to be a complete mess, with horrifying marks still visible at the site of his injury.

And this was the result after three months of recuperation; he had no idea how his body had been completely drained at the beginning.

We should be more cautious about using the "wife remarries" formation in the future.

Ji You breathed a sigh of relief, then walked over to the wall and sat down on the bed.

Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu, their bare, snow-white feet touching, got off the made-up bed and helped him sit on it.

"The clothes should still be stored away properly."

"?"

Ding Yao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly noticed a pink undergarment under the pillow. She immediately reached out, grabbed it, and handed it to Zhuo Wanqiu with a slightly flushed face.

They followed the instructions of the Lord closely, never leaving his side, for fear that someone from the Heavenly Academy might harm him. So for the past three months, they have been taking turns guarding his bed, and sometimes they would change their clothes on the spot for convenience.

Zhuo Wanqiu took the undergarment and glanced at it, thinking to herself that her senior sister was going too far; she had already put hers away.

Seeing this, Ji You narrowed his eyes without showing any emotion, thinking to himself that these two girls must have done something inappropriate to me while I was unconscious. This reminded him of the only part of him that was still alive and well when he first woke up.

He was unaware at the time that if a thought arose in his mind, it must have been controlled by an external force.

After a good night's sleep, Ji You slowly woke up in the early morning. Dan Yangzi's first batch of pills was delivered and given to Ji You to take, with the pill's light acting as a catalyst.

As the medicine continued to penetrate his meridians, it reached every part of his body. Ji You gradually felt a warm current flowing through his body, and his body gradually felt more comfortable.

It took half an hour to activate the medicinal power. Danyangzi slowly withdrew the medicinal light from his palm: "Your body was originally weak and unable to resist the medicinal power, and the absorption was slow. But now that you have awakened and can eat on your own, the subsequent treatment time will be greatly shortened and the recovery speed will gradually accelerate."

Ji You clenched her fists, feeling a sharp pain in her arms: "But I still feel powerless, unable to hold onto anything, and my legs are also having difficulty supporting me."

“This has nothing to do with your injuries, but rather because you have been depleted for too long and your vital essence has been severely depleted. This can only be replenished slowly. Until then, I suggest you use a wheelchair.”

"In a wheelchair?"

Danyangzi stroked his long beard: "I have already asked the disciples in charge of the affairs office to go down the mountain to buy it, and it will be delivered in a while. Given your current state of loss, you must reduce any consumption."

Ji You shrugged, thinking to herself, "A wheelchair it is then."

After he cultivated his physical body, he always presented himself as a brute, looking like a guy with strong limbs but a simple mind. Perhaps sitting in a wheelchair would make him seem more profound and unfathomable.

After giving some other instructions, Danyangzi got up and left the Auspicious Hall.

Upon seeing this, Ding Yao, who was accompanying Ji You to the hospital, got up and began to help Ji You comb her hair and change her clothes.

Where is Wanqiu?

"Go get breakfast. I'll help you wash up first."

Ding Yao fetched water for him, adjusted the water temperature, and then stood aside with a handkerchief in her hand.

Before long, Zhuo Wanqiu returned to the hall with the food: "How is the young master's health?"

"I'll be a useless person for a while longer, and you'll have to work hard for the next few days."

"It's not hard work. Our job is to take care of the son-in-law."

Ji You took the handkerchief from Ding Yao and wiped her face, thinking to herself that their answers sounded rather happy.

The three then ate breakfast together. At this time, the disciple in charge of the affairs department brought over the wheelchair and a verbal order from Zuo Qiuyang, asking him to come to the Zizai Hall to meet him.

The disaster has passed, and Ji You almost lost his life trying to sever the last Heavenly Dao Sacrifice. He must know the whole story.

He had just woken up yesterday and asked about this matter, but You Yingqiu said he was not feeling well and should rest for the night and talk about it tomorrow. Now, the Lord of Zuoqiu probably asked him to meet for this very reason.

After the meal, Ji You sat in a wheelchair and was pushed out of the main hall by Ding Yao, heading towards Zizai Peak.

The wooden wheelchair moves very slowly, and it will bounce when it encounters a pit, and it will get stuck in slightly deeper ones.

"The roads to the Heavenly Academy are terrible, not at all as good as our Spirit Sword Mountain."

Although Ding Yao was a cultivator and it didn't take much effort for her, she still couldn't help but mutter some complaints.

"It is said that this road has not been repaired for a hundred years. Since the disciples on the mountain go up and down the mountain, the need is not high. However, it really should be repaired."

Ji You murmured to himself, and then saw the current sect leader, You Yingqiu, coming from the cliff on the right. So he clasped his hands in a fist and bowed slowly.

Seeing this, You Yingqiu nodded gently.

The wheelchair continued to rumble along the rough road until it finally stopped in front of the Zizai Hall.

Zuo Qiuyang was already sitting in the main hall waiting for him. Upon seeing him arrive, he rose from the hall and asked, "How are your injuries?"

"Thanks to the Palace Master, my recovery is going quite well. Elder Danyangzi said that my injuries are no longer a big problem, but I have some deficiency that needs to be replenished."

"That's good."

Zuo Qiuyang led them into the hall, and then they sat down in the tea pavilion of the Zizai Hall: "Junior Sister, I heard that you asked about the investigation into the disaster yesterday?"

Ji You nodded: "Everything before was based on guesswork. I can't help but feel a little worried after waking up. I wonder if Lord Zuoqiu has captured anyone alive."

"They've caught him and interrogated him. The story differs slightly from what we told him at Cloud Mist Cliff, but not by much. You can find the details in the case file."

As Zuo Qiuyang spoke, he took out a thick stack of case files from his hand.

Ding Yao reached out and took it, placing it in front of Ji You. The paper, still smelling of ink, was slowly turned over as he moved his hand.

The first half consists of testimonies left by those who were captured alive, detailing the planning from the beginning until the outbreak of the zombie horde.

"The time is different?"

"Indeed, according to their testimonies, apart from the Chu family, the Li family, the Zhu family, and the Zhuang family, the other aristocratic families involved in this matter joined at different times."

Ji You turned her gaze back to the case file and carefully perused it.

The Du family, Bai family, Liu family and other century-old families were invited by the Chu family, Li family, Zhuang family and Zhu family at different times to work together on a great cause.

The reason they were invited was twofold: firstly, these aristocratic families already had excellent personal relationships; secondly, they all had grudges against the immortal sects or had always harbored ambitions.

Their activities at the time mainly revolved around Qiling, and that was the first site they explored.

However, just as they had guessed, they soon discovered that the relics of the remnants were not accepted by the Heavenly Dao.

They paid a heavy price for this, losing countless disciples. Then they began a long attempt to deceive the heavens and bring out the immortal destiny within.

According to them, the immortal opportunities within the ruins are highly inclusive of all things, as exemplified by the fruits brimming with the power of the Heavenly Dao.

Therefore, the key to taking the immortal destiny out lies in the container.

They tried every material they could find in Qingyun Tianxia, ​​and finally, by chance, discovered that the baby was the best container.

Upon seeing this, Ji You couldn't help but clench her fingers slightly, creating a crease in the paper.

Zuo Qiuyang glanced at the passage he was reading and said, "Infants are the power of new life, and are completely pure. I asked my junior sister, and she said that according to the definition of the Heavenly Dao in the Heavenly Secrets Technique, although the Heavenly Dao is supreme, it has no right to destroy new life. This is also the reason why they can bring the immortal destiny out."

"With the body of an infant, he shielded himself from the punishment of Heaven."

"good."

Ji You remained silent and continued flipping through the pages.

After discovering that infants could be used as containers, these demons prepared batch after batch of infants, used them to absorb immortal destiny, and then took them out to refine into elixirs for consumption.

But to their surprise, even with such great effort, the cultivators who took the pills would still turn into monsters like evil seeds, and might even face annihilation again when they reached a certain level.

So they began searching for different absorption methods, experimenting with cultivators who had little presence, in an attempt to circumvent this point.

This description wasn't very detailed, but it resolved a question that had been bothering Ji You: the differences between the evil species.

Li Ruilin, Tan Chen, and others, who had been searched for by Huang Yueniang for years, were unconscious, similar to ordinary evil beings.

However, the demons within the ruins, including members of the Bu family, were able to retain their senses.

There are also differences in combat strength and ferocity.

It seems that these are all results of different absorption experiments.

The following content was similar to what Chu Xian had said. After a long period of experimentation, they discovered a method to purify power using the spiritual essence of cultivators. They divided each Infant Core into several portions and nurtured monsters called Harvesters by continuously advancing and devouring them.

After several rounds of cleansing, the immortal destiny within the ruins gradually transformed into flesh and blood on the monsters, which were then absorbed by them through their blood and qi.

The problem is that this transformation process still has flaws.

First of all, the method of purifying it with the spiritual energy of a cultivator consumes an enormous amount of immortal potential. In the final stage, not even half of it can be retained.

More importantly, even if absorbed in this way, the power of annihilation will reappear when one reaches the Divine Travel Realm.

According to these people's speculations, the realm of divine travel can be directly linked to the Heavenly Dao, which may be why the secret was exposed.

In the testimony, this story takes a different turn, namely the Zheng family patriarch who appeared in Qiling.

At that time, the patriarch of the Zheng family was nearly two hundred years old and his lifespan was running out. He was unwilling to make such a tedious and lengthy attempt again. Instead, he felt that since he could not leave the ruins after absorbing the immortal destiny, ascending to immortality within the ruins was also a method.

In fact, he was forced into this risky move because his lifespan was constantly dwindling.

At that time, they had frequently entered and exited the ruins countless times, causing the evil species within the ruins to gradually become out of control. In particular, on the first day of the new year in the early Taiyuan era, the rampages of evil species in many places had already attracted the attention of the Immortal Sect.

Therefore, the other prominent families also agreed to the decision of the Zheng family patriarch.

To put it simply, the Zheng family patriarch wanted to seize the opportunity to ascend to immortality within the ruins, while they wanted to use this opportunity to erase any traces of their presence in Qiling and observe whether this method was feasible.

On the eve of the Qiling disaster, they used a batch of infants to absorb the immortal opportunities in Qiling and took them out, temporarily storing them in those ancient families.

As for the Zheng family patriarch, he began to directly absorb the immortal opportunities from the ruins, breaking through to the Immortal Realm. He then released a large number of evil seeds to lure the Immortal Sect to come.

In their plan, those high-quality cultivators would greedily absorb the contents of the ruins after entering.

The Zheng family patriarch could then refine them and soar to the heavens.

This approach is actually the same as their method of taking out the immortal destiny, distributing it among their disciples for purification, and finally having it devoured in stages.

In the end, however, the patriarch of the Zheng family failed to ascend, which also completely shattered everyone's idea that "ascension could be achieved through the ruins," and they began to seek other ways out.

This was the content of the first case file, which left Ji You pondering deeply after reading it.

The villains in this world are genuinely serious about their careers, unlike those who are brave but reckless.

"We had guessed that the Zheng family patriarch was risking his life because his lifespan was nearing its end, but we never expected that this was just one part of the whole story."

Seeing that he had finished reading the first book, Zuo Qiuyang couldn't help but speak to him.

After hearing this, Ji You raised his eyes, pondered for a while, and then said, "I actually already knew about the fact that babies can be used as containers."

"You know about this?"

"That's right. After the incident at Qiling, a group of refugees fled to Shengjing. One of their children saw a convoy transporting babies on the road, and I only learned about this incident from him by chance."

Zuo Qiuyang opened his mouth slightly after hearing this: "Why didn't you say so back then?"

Ji You put down the first case file: "If I had said it back then, perhaps there wouldn't be this incident of demons from the Immortal Realm fighting over the sacred artifact today, but perhaps all the infants in the world would have died back then."

Upon hearing this, Zuo Qiuyang fell silent.

He only cared that if they had known in advance that another group of people were transporting babies out of Qiling, the major immortal sects would have taken strict precautions, and this calamity might not have occurred.

But he overlooked the fact that anyone could become a monster in the face of temptation.

"Which one is the second one?" Ji You looked down at the table.

“This one,” Zuo Qiuyang pulled one out from among them, “is closely related to you in what follows.”

"?"

Ji You raised an eyebrow after hearing this, pondered for a moment, and then opened the document.

After reading only a few lines, he understood why Zuo Qiuyang said that the events that followed were related to him.

Because after the Qiling incident, those hiding in the shadows continued to plot, and one of the triggers was Chuhe.

According to the testimony, the Chu family did not send Chu He to the Heavenly Academy because, as outsiders claimed, they did not want to bind the whole family to the Xuan Yuan Immortal Mansion.

Their actual purpose was to send Chu He to see the Heavenly Book; to be precise, it was to send him to see the Heavenly Book.

Of the seven great immortal sects in the world, six are family-based, making it very difficult for outsiders to see the true form of the sacred artifact. The only exception is the Heavenly Academy.

The headmaster of the Heavenly Academy did not leave any offspring, nor did he exhibit xenophobia like other immortal sects.

Disciples like Lingxiu, who were personally instructed by him, had seen the true form of the Heavenly Book many times.

In the schemes of those sorcerers, Chu He, the second son of the Chu family, was sent in with the aim of gaining access to the sacred artifact.

They had already made all the arrangements in advance. Ji You remembered that there were even rumors that Chu He would definitely enter the inner courtyard, and that once he entered the inner courtyard, he would be taken as a personal disciple.

However, to prevent problems from arising, those sorcerers did not put all their eggs in one basket.

Besides Chu He as the main character, they also arranged Du Zhu and Bai Rulong as backup options to ensure everything went smoothly.

Upon seeing this, Ji You's thoughts were instantly drawn back to the time of the autumn battle.

At that time, the Qiling incident had just ended. Chuhe was taken home to preach, and Duzhu also suddenly went into seclusion. When he reappeared, his cultivation level had greatly increased.

But at that time, no one thought that a terrible disaster was hidden behind them.

"What was their purpose in sending Chu He to access the Heavenly Book?"

Zuo Qiuyang placed his hand on the table and spoke in a deep voice: "I think they already had the idea of ​​seizing the sacred artifact with the power of origin at that time. After all, the sacred artifact is connected to the Heavenly Dao, which may solve the power of annihilation brought about by the immortal destiny and resolve their long-standing predicament."

The plan seems somewhat simplistic now, but at the time it was considered flawless.

Because among the disciples of the Heavenly Academy in that generation, Chu He was the most talented.

Back then, the second son of the Chu family did not enter the Xuan Yuan Immortal Mansion but instead entered the Heavenly Academy, which attracted great attention in the Qingyun world.

With his innate talent for the Seven Apertures Body, Chu He was already considered a prodigy even before he was old enough to be seen as one of the most outstanding talents. In everyone's eyes, no one else could have entered the inner courtyard but him.

But no one could have imagined that in that very year, Cao Jingsong, an instructor at Tianshu Academy, brought back a student from Yuyang County who had completed his private studies.

What was even more unexpected was that the person made rapid progress as soon as he entered the Heavenly Book Academy. He first sensed the Heavenly Book, then broke through to the Profound Realm, and suppressed Chu He all the way.

At that time, the Chu family made many efforts, bribing officials at all levels and promising benefits, and finally sent Ji You to Qiling to his death.

However, they still didn't expect that Ji You, who was only at the peak of the lower three realms at the time, almost killed Gongshu Chou, who had already merged with the Dao. Not only did he bring back all the disciples of the Heavenly Academy, but he also rescued the Danzong siblings.

At the time, it seemed that all the actions of the Chu family were for Chu He's future and for the so-called integration of the Chu family into the Dao.

But now I realize that it was a seed of trouble that was cut short by Ji Yousheng before it could grow up.

Two and a half months ago, Zuo Qiuyang learned about Chu He's role from the Du family patriarch's interrogation. Even though he was at the peak of the Upper Five Realms and was indifferent to honor and disgrace, he couldn't help but tremble slightly after hearing it.

In other words, if it weren't for the emergence of such a brilliant and talented individual as him at the peak of the lower three realms in Fengzhou back then, disaster would have already befallen them.

"Five years ago, it was I who saved the Heavenly Academy from a calamity?" Ji You looked up at Zuo Qiuyang.

"Now it seems that this is indeed the case."

"Shouldn't we give them some money?"

Upon hearing this, Zuo Qiuyang's eyes trembled, and after a long silence, he took out two spirit stones from his sleeve.

"Therefore, not just anyone can join the Immortal Sect. With a sacred artifact, the Immortal Sect has an innate and transcendent status. But if someone who only looks at cultivation level and not morality enters the Immortal Sect, it's like a snake entering a rat's nest, extremely risky."

Ji You handed the spirit stone to Ding Yao, who was standing to the side, thinking to herself that compared to the cunning and scheming Chu family, greed for money seemed clean and pure.

After hearing this, Palace Master Zuoqiu spoke in a deep voice: "The sacred artifact has suppressed the world for many years. I never thought that someone would be so far-sighted as to think this far."

"Habit is a terrible thing. Once the immortal sect gets used to being high and mighty, they will subconsciously feel that everything is under their control."

"Indeed, we have placed too much faith in the sacred artifacts and have overlooked the fact that evil thoughts in people's hearts can also disrupt the heavens."

Ji You then picked up the third case file and gently opened it.

This part is more complex and intricately plotted, including the missing Dou Yuankong, the Bu family of the Dongping Mountains, and even the Heavenly Dao Gathering of that time.

Ji You had never understood how they could make the Heavenly Dao allow the relics to appear in the world, but now he had finally found the answer.

(Ask for monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)