On the other side.
Qi Heng, who had already reached the pinnacle and become one of the strongest beings between heaven and earth, sat on the Palace Lord's throne in the Yin Yang Immortal Palace, his brow furrowed.
This war was escalating, and even if one didn't wish to be involved, one might find themselves unable to avoid it in the end.
At this stage, even Qi Heng had few options.
He could choose to remain aloof, for he was a Great Luo Golden Immortal, but he would be unable to lead the entire Yin Yang Immortal Palace to escape this great calamity. Since avoidance was impossible, it was better to take the initiative and join the fray rather than being passively pushed into this unprecedented war by other immortal forces.
This way, at least the initiative would be in his own hands.
With a command from him, the entire Yin Yang Immortal Palace, and indeed the cultivation world of the Qi Kingdom, began to mobilize.
Immortals, in groups, gathered together, forming a vast and mighty army of immortals.
Clad in immortal armor and wielding immortal weapons, they began their campaign.
...
Another hundred years passed. Everything, with the passage of time, had moved on.
After this great war, the Yin Yang Immortal Palace dominated the entire immortal world, and the world's order gradually stabilized.
In this war, Qi Heng established his reputation as the foremost person in the world, the strongest in the immortal realm. His name resonated through the eight directions and four seas, known even to the most ordinary of immortals who had just entered the immortal world.
Time flowed by.
Another few hundred years had passed in the blink of an eye.
In these hundreds of years, the world had undergone tremendous changes, like vast seas turning into mulberry fields.
For the Yin Yang Immortal Palace itself, the changes over these centuries were astonishing.
During these hundreds of years, by plundering and exploiting the resources of the entire immortal world, the Yin Yang Immortal Palace developed rapidly, like a snowball rolling downhill, its power growing stronger with each passing moment.
Their pace of development struck fear into the hearts of many ambitious individuals, forcing them to suppress their ulterior motives lest they incur the wrath of the Yin Yang Immortal Palace.
...
By now, compared to hundreds of years ago, the Yin Yang Immortal Palace's sphere of influence was no longer limited to the Qi Kingdom. It now ruled over a dozen other countries and occupied the most prosperous central region of the continent.
The Yin Yang Immortal Palace had long since become a behemoth that no one could afford to ignore.
...
Yin Yang Immortal Palace Headquarters.
For hundreds of years, since the Yin Yang Immortal Palace ascended to the peak, this place had remained remarkably peaceful. No one dared to offend or provoke them.
The entire Yin Yang Immortal Palace seemed to have grown accustomed to this situation.
However, on this particular day, a stranger appeared outside the Yin Yang Immortal Palace.
It was a woman of striking beauty.
She wore a pink robe and was walking through the central core area of the Yin Yang Immortal Palace, leisurely exploring.
"So much has changed here over the past few hundred years..."
The woman walked slowly, gazing at the place that was both familiar and unfamiliar, her heart filled with a myriad of emotions.
To her, the Yin Yang Immortal Palace was not only more than ten times larger than it had been centuries ago, but its formations and restrictions had also become much more profound.
However, this was understandable, given the passage of several hundred years.
Walking alone within the Yin Yang Immortal Palace, the woman felt as though she had not returned to a place she had lived in for millennia, but had arrived somewhere else entirely.
Everything here seemed so strange, so different from what she remembered.
Sensing all this, she couldn't help but sigh silently, a soft lament escaping her lips.
She continued forward until she reached the grand hall where the Palace Lord resided, and then she stopped.
With her hands, the woman gently pushed open the hall doors.
Deep within the hall, a tall figure stood alone, seemingly waiting for someone's arrival.
It was a youth of unparalleled grace and exquisite features, appearing almost divine.
He stood there with his hands behind his back. As if sensing the sound of the door opening behind him, he turned and looked back.
As Qi Heng turned, the gazes of the man and woman met.
"Master, you've finally returned?"
Standing rooted to the spot, gazing at the familiar woman before him, Qi Heng's previously placid face finally showed a flicker of complex emotion.
"What's wrong? Does the Palace Lord think I was a deserter at a crucial moment?"
Liang Jingru's expression was also filled with complexity.
...
"Master, you're still as teasing as ever. After so many years, where have you been?"
Qi Heng smiled at her words, sighed, and his tone finally softened.
...
Liang Jingru then recounted all that had happened to her over the past few centuries to Qi Heng.
It turned out that Liang Jingru had been trapped in a secret realm for years and had only recently emerged.
Just as Qi Heng was about to speak, a searing pain shot through his heart, and he couldn't help but cough several times.
A trickle of golden blood flowed from the corner of his lips down his neck, a stark and jarring sight.
Liang Jingru's expression changed instantly. She instinctively moved towards Qi Heng, grabbed his arm, and began to examine him.
...
"Damn it, boy, how did your body become so deteriorated?"
After examining him for a while, Liang Jingru's face darkened. Her eyes, filled with concern, were fixed on Qi Heng.
With cultivation reaching the realm of a Great Luo Golden Immortal, one was already beyond calamities, untainted by karma, and lived in harmony with heaven and earth for eternity.
"But how could such a grave injury appear on a Great Luo Golden Immortal?"
Moreover, the Yin Yang Immortal Palace had now become the master of the entire immortal world, its sole ruler, and Qi Heng was hailed as the foremost person in the immortal realm, known as the Immortal Ancestor.
With such power and status, how could he have sustained such a life-threatening injury?
"It's an old problem, Master. You don't need to worry."
Qi Heng shook his head, stopping Liang Jingru from attempting to heal him.
...
Qi Heng looked at Liang Jingru and said softly, "It's a lingering ailment from the war years, and it's never been resolved. It has only grown worse with time."
"Master, I know my own body. There's no medicine, no cure for it now."
...
"Is it really that serious? Don't lie to your master."
Liang Jingru frowned, looking at Qi Heng, her youngest disciple. She felt utterly helpless.
Qi Heng remained silent, merely nodding his head.
Liang Jingru's expression turned exceedingly grim.
...
"Was the war back then truly that brutal?"
After a long silence, Liang Jingru finally spoke.
"You could say that. There were simply too many enemies."
Qi Heng felt the warmth in his heart gradually fading. He coughed several times due to the sudden surge of emotion before recovering.
"None of those enemies from back then were simple. Each of them was a prodigy no less powerful than myself."
"There was a fierce battle every ten or twenty days. Before the wounds from one battle had even healed, the next one would begin."
In this immortal world, any overlord who could dominate a region was no ordinary individual.
Qi Heng's journey, leading the entire Yin Yang Immortal Palace through this almost apocalyptic chaos and ascending to the top, had not been easy.
Qi Heng was not the only destined one in the immortal world. Defeating all of them one by one, how could it have been easy?
The difficulties involved were far greater than others could imagine.
But then again, in a war that engulfed the entire immortal world, who had it easy?
At least he survived, which was more than those who perished.
It was precisely for this reason that Qi Heng himself never spoke of it.
His body had already sustained irreparable injuries from the continuous battles.
He was now like a candle in the wind, unable to withstand much further turmoil.
However, for Qi Heng, it didn't really matter. It was simply a matter of death.
His life had been glorious, and he had accomplished things that many would never achieve in a lifetime. He was destined to leave a mark in history, so what regrets could he have?
He appeared remarkably calm about it, feeling no unwillingness.
The only reason he had persisted until now was because he had a knot in his heart that remained untied, and he had been forcing himself to persevere.
Now that he saw his master was still safe and sound, that knot had automatically untied itself.
There was no longer any point in forcing himself to continue.
...
Gazing at the calm expression on Qi Heng's face, Liang Jingru fell silent for a long time.
Looking at him, her eyes held both guilt and sadness.
As his master, she had not extended a helping hand to him at his most critical moment.
Thinking of this, her mood grew heavy, a sense of inexplicable sorrow washing over her.
...
"Master, why must you be so sentimental? A true man faces death with dignity, whether on the battlefield or not. There's no need to grieve for me."
Qi Heng shook his head gently and said reassuringly, "Besides, I'm not dead yet. If you want to grieve, you can do so after I'm truly gone."
...
"You heartless little rascal! You're making me, an elder, send off my younger generation!"
"I thought I would send you off, but instead, I'm the one sending you off first. Oh, heavens, why must you do this?"
Liang Jingru's eyes were red and swollen as she roared at the sky.
...
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