Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

Chu Mingkong exhaled a bittersweet breath from the depths of his lungs, his voice growing hoarse:

"When I was a child, I wanted to eliminate some hidden dangers for Fengying, but in the end, my good intentions backfired and caused a long period of misunderstanding."

Now it's the same with you. I brought you back from the abyss beneath the East Sea, not to send you away at a time like this!

[Even if you don't send him away, Fengying will still be by your side.]

Chu Mingkong's lips were terribly dry, almost sticking together. He tore them apart:

"But in my eyes, Fengying is Fengying, and Yuehe, you are you!"

Empress Yueqi remained silent for a long time. The divine and Buddha cloud shadows above the heavy dark clouds began chanting scriptures and incantations. Golden light and incantations appeared all over the sky, suppressing Empress Yueqi and trying to take away the power she had absorbed first. Even her existence was within the absorption range.

The ancient crystal coffin transformed into a heavy sword resembling moonlight and frost, yet it bore a striking resemblance to the Lunar Eclipse Heavy Sword.

Empress Yueqi, sword in one hand and the Yin Shi Star Chart in the other, ignored the threat from the sky and continued:

Actually, you never meant well but did bad things. Fengying told you that, didn't she? You just felt like you did something wrong, but you actually helped her and me.

If you hadn't brought 'Moon River' here, this corpse alone, combined with the power of Yin Shi, wouldn't have been enough to deal with these guys. If 'Moon River' had remained forever in that abyss of the East Sea, these guys would have taken away the willpower of the Moon People, and everything about me would have disappeared. I would probably only have 'Shadow' left.

Therefore, from the past to the present, and even the 'future' you foresaw so early on, you have always been a help to me.

"You from the future are already by my side, so where did you from the past go?" Chu Mingkong raised his eyes, and the divine wrath descending from the clouds of gods and Buddhas was blocked by the great array formed by the Yin Time Star Chart.

Guess why these gods and Buddhas collect so much power? Because they cannot live forever, and neither can I...

From now on, take Qiu Chi to the Sword Dynasty. It's a pretty interesting place and worth visiting!

Alright, too much talk makes me sound cheap. In the past, I went to heaven alone and intercepted and severely injured four of those beings. This time they didn't come in their true forms, so I'll severely injure them again. Next time, it'll be your turn to try!

Empress Yueqi closed her eyes, her majestic and flawless imperial face turning towards the heavens. When she opened her eyes again, all the confusion and self-doubt that had entangled her in the past had vanished, replaced by a transcendent composure and unwavering determination.

With a single sword strike that pierces the moonlit night, the sky is clear and the night is bright, shattering all the laws of gods and Buddhas!

She raised her hand again, her slender hand covering the sky, her hand grasping the universe, taking all the gods and Buddhas into her palm, storing them in the Yin-Yang star chart, and then crushing them with her palm.

Even after establishing the Moonlit Empire, I was unable to ensure the people of the Moon lived in peace and prosperity, a regret I have held for a long time. Now that you have helped me achieve this, I will once again sow the seeds of disaster for these people of the Moon who sing my true name, thus settling a thousand-year-old regret in my heart.

Goodbye, Mingkong!

......

"Mingkong! Mingkong! Wake up!"

Hearing the call in his ear, Chu Mingkong opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, and he felt a sense of emptiness and loss in his heart.

When his vision finally cleared, he saw Feng Ying and Zuo Qiuchi, who had been guarding him, and two adorable little girls lying on his chest, shaking his head.

Hmm? There's another person who looks somewhat familiar?

Who is this again?

It seems to be Jiao'er's mother, Qiao'er, who turned into a female ghost due to her obsession?

She... she seems to have been revived along with that small town due to the Yin time, so why...?

As Little Dragon Girl swayed, her arms went limp, and her small body slumped onto his face with a thud, something brushing against his lips.

Chu Mingkong picked it up and looked at it—it was the sand he had obtained back then.

Was Joel left behind because of the Sands of Time?!

Then Yuehe wouldn't be...!

Suddenly, Chu Mingkong felt a line of small characters on the surface of the sand container. It was ancient Yueqi script, which Chu Mingkong could not read.

"Fengying, can you help me see what's written on this?"

Fengying picked it up with a puzzled look. Had there been any writing on it before? She frowned and asked:

"Even in the heavens, there are times of darkness."

Chapter 447 Seeing a Ghost!

This message gave Chu Mingkong tremendous motivation.

Does the celestial realm also have its dark times?

But isn't the Yin Time a time when past history is relived, and those who have been blessed by the power of vows are also recreated? Empress Yueqi doesn't have a Yueqi Empire to bless her during the Yin Time...

Wait a minute, Yuehe said that if those gods and Buddhas successfully devour her during this Yin time, all memories and ancient records about her will be wiped out. In other words, regardless of whether there are believers in the Heavenly Realm, as long as there are records about her, that will suffice...

Empress Yueqi once went to heaven to kill a great being who had seriously injured the heavenly realm. Could it be that she left behind her vow power because of this?

By the way, the people of Tianyu must know of Yuehe's existence. The old woman they saw next to the Yin Shi false gate clearly had a sense of fear towards Yuehe's appearance.

If that's the case, then the Heavenly Realm Yin Time makes sense. At that time, the one who appears during the Heavenly Realm Yin Time will be the peak Moon Empress!

But how to keep her here is another problem. Could the clue be on the Sands of Time...?

At least this is a definite clue, not just some headless chicken guessing.

But then another question arises: why does the Heavenly Realm experience Yin time?

Could it be that there's some internal strife at the top, like this harvesting?

Since regaining consciousness, Chu Mingkong has been sitting there in a daze, lost in thought.

The dim sunset on his body transformed into the clear moonlight of midnight. The evening breeze of late spring and early summer carried his thoughts far away, and the blades of grass that floated from his shoulders disappeared into the quiet night.

The woman beside him waited quietly, while the two little girls nestled peacefully against his broad chest.

It wasn't until the first rays of dawn shone on his sharply defined face, and the warmth of the sunlight dispelled the chill lingering from the night's cool breeze, that Chu Mingkong seemed to truly awaken. He stirred, twisted his stiff neck, and looked around.

"Have you been spacing out enough?" Feng Ying sat up, moved her beautiful legs in black stockings, and took the two little ones in his arms into her own.

"I'm a little...where am I?" Chu Mingkong actually recognized the place, but he couldn't quite believe it.

Beside him, Zuo Qiuchi stretched and said sleepily:

“Jin Di, next to the cellar where you brought Jiao’er back, you were already lying here when we first arrived.”

Normally, Zuo Qiuchi would never bother to explain, but mainly because he had been lying here all night and was not feeling well, with a sore back and aching waist, so he could only get up early to move around.

Chu Mingkong turned his gaze to Feng Ying, who nodded in agreement.

"That's right. There was no teleportation aura. You were the one who instructed us to bring the babies to Jin, but when we arrived, you had already been lying here for who knows how long."

He suddenly tapped his forehead, realizing he'd probably been thinking non-stop all night and his brain was a bit overloaded.

"To think I'd wake up here is quite frightening. I'm worried that I was actually having a very long dream, from when I obtained the Sands of Time to before reaching the Kunlun Ruins, it was all a dream..."

Thinking about it this way, Chu Mingkong really felt a little scared and immediately asked again:

"Fengying, don't try to fool me with jokes. Do you even know who Yuehe is? What happened in front of the Kunlun Sect wasn't a dream, was it? And what about everything that's happened from the East Sea until now!"

Although Feng Ying didn't know the specifics of what had happened, and even though she and Zuo Qiuchi, who had been hurriedly instructed to take the baby and run away, were eager to know what had happened, she still felt a little sorry for Chu Mingkong when she saw his current mood and state.

She chose to explain this to him in the easiest way possible:

"Kitty, do you want to eat Daddy's fried tomato strips with potato sauce? That's for breakfast later."

The cat was already awake, but it was acting like a lazy bum, clinging to Feng Ying and refusing to get up. However, when it heard that the breakfast was so bad, it shook its head in grievance.

"No, I don't want to eat it! It's awful! Even worse than the sweet rice cakes Daddy eats!"

Chu Mingkong was stunned for a moment, then smiled and realized it was indeed not a dream.

Yuehe was also there for the Sweet Baba incident.

He quickly touched his sleeve again. It seemed that Bai Niang had not been sent with them and should still be in the Immortal Treasure Pavilion protecting the women.

If the remains of Empress Yueqi are no match for those divine and Buddha shadows, would it be better for Bai Niang to step in again?

Even if Bai Niang comes to the rescue and gains the upper hand, she probably won't be able to change some fundamental things, such as the Yin period ending eventually, or Yuehe continuing to be lost.

Although I tried my best to comfort her at the time, some of her mindset was still difficult to change completely.

Forget it, I won't think about these trivial things anymore...

Chu Mingkong's gaze turned to Qiao'er, Jiao'er's birth mother.

Her appearance is different from when she was a female ghost or a married woman. She looks younger. She is indeed a mortal with no cultivation and no ability to regain her youth. Why does she look like an unmarried daughter of a merchant family?

Zuo Qiuchi yawned and explained:

"I don't know if it's because this place is filled with resentment, or what, but when we arrived, the town had changed in many ways!"

One moment it's the county town, the next it's another small town. I stand in front of the brothel, my feet still, while the girls in front of me keep changing. I wonder if it's a recreation of the places where the townspeople used to live. I feel that the eerie atmosphere is even stronger now than at the beginning.

Just then, Jiao'er discovered her mother's old courtyard. Without doing anything, she simply brought her out, but the power within the sand was somewhat diminished at that time.

Is there still a chance to preserve the existence of Yin Shi with the help of some special means? And since Qiao'er is an ordinary person, it might be much simpler for her.

As for what Zuo Qiuchi said about the strong Yin energy, it was mostly because Empress Yueqi had absorbed the Yin celestial phenomena and even swallowed up the projections of those gods and Buddhas.

"Qiao'er, do you still know about your daughter Jiao'er, and what happened afterward?"

Facing Chu Mingkong's gaze, Qiao'er seemed somewhat flustered. She glanced at Jiao'er, and then said with a mixture of excitement and complexity:

"I remember, but it all seems like a dream. I went through a period of hardship, but even in that experience, there was a radiance of my own—that radiance was in my beloved child..."

I...I can't believe it's true! This young woman actually has the chance to see her daughter again!

It seems she still remembers those things: her husband who killed his fiancée as soon as he came ashore, and the dark experience of the Prince of Jin massacring the town. It's hard to say whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

Chu Mingkong stood up, rousing himself slightly. He pulled Qiao'er, who was about to kowtow in gratitude, to her feet and said:

"No need. If I hadn't helped you and Jiao'er this time, I wouldn't have known how powerful Shi Zhi Sha is. I would be the one feeling depressed and distressed now."

Therefore, I helped you, and you helped me. Moreover, Jiao'er has helped soothe this little jealous cat many times these days, so there's no need to thank me.

"Let's go back and meet up. We just left Xiling not long ago, and now we're back in this area again. Damn it!"

Chapter 448 Looking Back

Zuo Qiuchi had many complaints about turning back. When he came over to see for himself, he found his treacherous disciple, who looked like a reincarnated devil, lying there, and then nothing else happened.

It felt like a wasted trip, even though I knew in my heart that nothing was wrong, but this back-and-forth migration inevitably made my lazy temper flare up.