bullyxtreme Chapter 198 The Truth Will Be Revealed Again (7)
Chapter 198 The Truth Will Be Revealed Again (7)
Mei Shiyu ventured alone into the underworld, through the eighteen levels of hell, battling from King Qin Guang in the first court to King Lun Zhuan in the tenth court.
They were invincible.
On the list of divine weapons, the Azure Frost Sword soared to ninth place, its sudden rise to prominence truly astounding.
Yantian Sect seized the opportunity to stir up public opinion, and everyone was speculating whether Mei Shiyu could win the final battle against the Ghost Emperor.
If they win, making it into the top three shouldn't be a problem.
Where there is speculation, there is debate; where there is debate, there is betting.
The Yantian Sect set up the betting pool, and people from all walks of life began to place their bets. Some bet that he would win, while others bet that he would definitely lose. After a day and a night of betting, the stakes of both sides were tied, with the losers slightly ahead.
However, Lin Qiutan of White Tiger City spent money like water, betting heavily that Mei Shiyu would definitely win. He single-handedly reversed the entire trend, and now the winning side has more than twice the chips of the losing side.
At the gambling table, the other three asked him why he did this, and he replied: "No reason, I'm not short of money."
The other three: We know you're rich, but that's not the point! The point is, why do you think Mei Shiyu is guaranteed to win?
Lin Qiu sighed: I don't think he's sure to win, but I do think he's sure to win.
The other three became even more suspicious.
Lin Qiu sighed and asked with a smile: Has the Palace Master not woken up yet?
The three shook their heads.
Normally, they would never approach the Taiji Palace, but with such a major event happening in the cultivation world and the Ghost Realm of Fengdu so lively, it would be unreasonable for the Four Symbols City not to get involved. So, for the first time in a few days, they took the initiative to go to Li Tingyun.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they approached the barrier outside the hall, they heard strange noises coming from inside.
If they heard correctly, it was wave after wave...
The sounds of snoring rose and fell.
Li Tingyun was sleeping very soundly.
The city lords did not act rashly, but kept a close eye on the Beijing News. Upon hearing about the gambling, they each placed their bets.
Xia Changfeng lost the bet: I placed it casually, it wasn't much money anyway, so if I lose, I lose, if I win, I win, it doesn't matter.
Xue Rendong won the bet: "My son Xue Shi, you have the air of a tyrant. You surrendered without even fighting? It's disgustingly cowardly!"
The Ghost Emperor might be just as pathetic as Xue Shi.
Fengdu is full of old bastards who live longer than turtles and shrink back faster than tortoises. No wonder they are being chased and chopped by Mei Shiyu!
That's it? He could do it too!
Ye Juechun chose "or" between winning and losing the bet, but since there was no other option, he decided not to participate.
The three of them combined didn't even amount to a fraction of what Lin Qiu had mentioned. Where did he get the conviction that Mei Shiyu "might not win, but definitely won't lose"? What does that mean? Is he deliberately being mysterious, playing a riddle?
Faced with a barrage of questions, Lin Qiu sighed and said: "If the Palace Master doesn't go out soon, I might really lose money."
Three pairs of eyes fell on him simultaneously: What nonsense! What does this have to do with the Palace Master?!
Speak of the devil, and he appears. Just as they were talking, Li Tingyun descended from the sky and kicked over the gambling table.
Lin Qiu was calm, Xue Rendong was surprised, Ye Juechun had sneaked away, and Xia Changfeng... was extremely annoyed.
Damn it, I already told you not to set up a gambling den in his Vermilion Bird City!
But they insisted that the south belongs to the fire element, which brings prosperity, good fortune, and wealth!
Doesn't the temple master also have a dog registered under his name for foster care?
It's booming! It's incredibly prosperous!
Xia Changfeng: I'll make you a damn fool!
Fortunately, Li Tingyun didn't make things difficult for him. He glanced at the Beijing News, his pupils dilated, and he vanished in an instant.
Lin Qiu was relieved; now he was guaranteed to break even.
Xia Changfeng: "Where did he go?"
Lin Qiu sighed, "Fengdu."
Xia Changfeng: How did you know?
Lin Qiu sighed, "If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself."
Xia Changfeng: "I'm not going."
His tone was unusually firm.
Lin Qiu sighed, "Ah, I almost forgot, you're not going to Fengdu."
"To enter the underworld, you must pass through Eternal Calamity Town. I've heard that cat demons roam everywhere in that town."
"You seem to really dislike cats... and foxes."
Xia Changfeng remained silent, neither admitting nor denying, his expression somewhat strange.
Lin Qiutan said this because every summer, Suzaku City holds a festival, and the demons of White Tiger City go to join the fun in droves. Only the cat demons and fox demons are timid and dare not enter the city, because there is a sign at the city gate that reads "Foxes and cats are not allowed to enter" all year round. There is no reason for this, but they dare not disobey.
The Four Symbols City is never short of excitement. There are grand ceremonies in spring, festivals in summer, hunting in autumn, and sacrificial rites in the dead of winter. In this place that is comparable to hell on earth, a group of demons and monsters live quite a life.
Xue Rendong: "I also hate cats."
Lin Qiu sighed and remained silent for a moment.
Then I heard him say, "Cats eat fish."
Couldn't help but laugh.
Xue Rendong: "What are you laughing at?"
Lin Qiu sighed, "What's it to you?"
Xue Rendong: "You're clearly laughing at me."
Lin Qiu sighed, "Who said I'm laughing at you? Are you that ridiculous?"
Xue Rendong: "I'm not funny. Then what are you laughing at?"
Lin Qiu sighed, "What's it to you?"
Xia Changfeng couldn't stand the two of them.
Picking up the Beijing News from the ground, I looked at the rankings again and asked, "What level is Mei Shiyu at again?"
Lin Qiutan and Xue Rendong both shook their heads.
Ye Juechun, who had slipped away earlier, returned unnoticed and said quietly, "It's a mystery; no one knows."
Xia Changfeng: "What do you mean?"
Ye Juechun: "Mei Shiyu broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm a hundred years ago. Outsiders only know that he had a primordial spirit, and then there was no further movement. For the past hundred years, it seems that he has been stuck in the same place."
People often lament that the most regrettable thing in the world is that geniuses disappear and tend towards mediocrity.
But clearly, people love to worry about things that don't concern them.
Mei Shiyu's progress in cultivation level wasn't slow; it was incredibly fast.
Xia Changfeng pointed out the doubts: "The top ten of the Divine Weapon Ranking are all quite similar. Each of them is a grandmaster who can establish a sect. They are either at the Mahayana stage or the Integration stage. Their realms are not low and their cultivation is not weak."
"A hundred years ago, Mei Shiyu was still in the Nascent Soul stage. A hundred years later, he can already defeat cultivators in the Body Integration stage. In other words, in the past hundred years, he has successively broken through the three realms of Nascent Soul, Void Refinement, and Body Integration."
"Isn't it said that the later a cultivator goes, the more difficult it becomes? It takes more than ten years to form the Core Formation Realm, several decades to transform into the Divine Transformation Realm, and several hundred years to merge into the Body Realm. But he only took a hundred years to surpass the Body Merging Realm."
"This is just my guess. Mei Shiyu might not even be in the Integration Stage yet; he might have already entered the Mahayana Stage. Don't you think that's strange?"
Lin Qiutan and Xue Rendong both nodded.
At this moment, Ye Juechun spoke again:
"Although it's strange, it's normal. After all, there are precedents. Back then, the Palace Master's speed was only faster, not slower."
That's fine.
Geniuses are all freaks.
Even if it's bizarre, it's still normal.
That's what the four of them thought.
On the other hand, Mei Shiyu himself did not have such confidence.
He even fell into self-doubt at one point because of this.
His cultivation level improved so quickly that he thought he had cultivated a fake immortality.
He felt panicked because his cultivation level hadn't improved yet, but his realm had already broken through.
Cultivation level determines the lower limit of strength, while realm determines the upper limit of strength.
Cultivation is a gradual process of building up strength before unleashing it; while advancement in one's realm is like taking another step forward from a hundred-foot pole.
If one's cultivation level is lower than one's realm, one's foundation is easily unstable, leading to qi deviation and demonic possession; if one's realm is lower than one's cultivation level, one will limit oneself and stagnate.
Most cultivators suffer from the latter. They hone their skills for decades or even centuries, but they can't break through their cultivation level. Their cultivation is restricted to a fixed stage. No matter how hard they cultivate, it's all in vain, unless one day they suddenly have an epiphany and attain enlightenment in Longchang.
But many people never get that "epiphany" in their entire lives, and end up buried in the yellow earth and sand dunes, their bones turned to dust, with regret.
The situation during the plum rain season is particularly unique.
His path to immortality was originally smooth sailing with few obstacles. After reaching the Divine Transformation Realm, it was even faster, progressing through the Refinement of Emptiness, Integration of Body, and Great Ascension. He is now in the late Great Ascension stage and is only one step away from reaching the Tribulation Transcending Realm.
However, the speed at which he accumulated cultivation was far slower than the speed at which his realm improved.
This is tantamount to a child being "precocious but weak," which is a very dangerous situation.
Even Ren Pingsheng had never seen anything like it before, so he couldn't offer any specific guidance.
But Li Tingyun had this experience before.
He used to be like that too, his realm was rising rapidly, but his cultivation was lagging behind.
He cultivated both immortal and demonic arts. He cultivated immortality because of Yuanbao, and he cultivated demonic arts because of the Demon Abyss. He learned and explored both the immortal and demonic paths through trial and error.
Based on experience, the only solution is—
Fight!!!
For a long time, he was in a state of torn-up chaos, sometimes manic, sometimes confused, and in his most painful moments, he self-destructed several times.
Yes, self-destruction, several times.
When a person is in dire straits, they gamble everything they have, including their cultivation, realm, fortune, destiny, and even their entire path, concentrating all their power into one to destroy themselves; this is called "self-destruction."
Li Tingyun dared to play this game because he knew that with the Chaos Primordial Qi as a safety net, he could always start over.
Such extreme maneuvers would be too much for anyone else to handle, even with a hundred lives!
In other words, Li Tingyun's experience is of no reference value for Mei Shiyu in solving his own problems.
Being below one's cultivation level, or even "far" below it, is less a difficult problem and more a life-threatening one.
Mei Shiyu used to be alone and very anxious, and Li Tingyun, after seeing the rankings in the Beijing News, also realized this...
They are both very panicked now.
What alarmed them even more was that when Li Tingyun "picked up" Mei Shiyu at the brink of death, he discovered that Mei Shiyu's cultivation level had improved again.
Mei Shiyu had been keeping a low profile, trying his best to suppress his abilities and not improve too quickly. If the other cultivators knew this, they would probably be driven mad with jealousy. Others painstakingly worked for that little bit of progress, but he was afraid of overflowing and desperately concealed his sharpness, preferring to take a few more steps back.
As a result, in order to retrieve the Fenjing Sword, he ventured into Hell and single-handedly fought the Ten Kings of Hell. It would be strange if he didn't improve after such "training" himself in such a short time. Fortunately, he didn't fight to the end and didn't have to fight the Emperor of Fengdu.
The Ghost Emperor chased after Li Tingyun out of the Ghost Gate, and the moment he saw Li Tingyun, he turned and left, as if he had made up his mind.
Mei Shiyu mistook Li Tingyun for an innocent person who had accidentally wandered into this place of trouble, and dragged him along as they ran. Finally, exhausted, she collapsed into his arms. The moment Li Tingyun caught her, he realized something was wrong.
Mei Shiyu was already in the process of undergoing tribulation at this time.
But there wasn't even a tribulation lightning strike!
He looked up at the vast blue sky, which was clear and blue.
The weather is great, but my mood is terrible.
Normally, once cultivators reach the Integration Stage, they will frequently encounter numerous calamities and tribulations. Therefore, most powerful figures in the cultivation world are in seclusion, trying to avoid going out as much as possible.
Li Tingyun himself is an exception. It is unknown whether it is because he encountered too many tribulations in his childhood, making any subsequent major obstacles seem insignificant, or whether Heaven simply let him grow up freely, but since he reached the peak of his strength, he has not experienced a single "tribulation".
Everyone was hoping that the heavens would send down a bolt of lightning to strike him dead or take him away. His abilities far exceeded the limits of humanity; in theory, the heavens should have noticed him long ago, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to send down ninety-nine bolts of lightning to chase and strike him for eighty-one days. But he has remained carefree until now, without any problems, traveling safely and smoothly every day.
It’s really annoying!
Now there's another exception.
Like him, Mei Shiyu had never experienced a single tribulation.
What does this mean? Li Tingyun couldn't say for sure.
But this at least means that the test Heaven is giving them is very special. If it's not a tribulation of lightning, then what could it be? Inner demons? Karmic obstacles? Wind and fire? Surely it can't be a tribulation of love?!
Li Tingyun shuddered, and his hands holding Mei Shiyu trembled three times.
probably not.
A love tribulation—at least there must be love, affection, and closeness. Is that even possible for Mei Shiyu? He's just a block of stone that won't open his eyes!
Li Tingyun genuinely hoped that he could become an immortal. In the end, the human world was too bitter, and hell was definitely not a good place either. Perhaps the Nine Heavens, which no one had ever seen, was his final and best destination.
As for himself, whether he becomes an immortal or a demon, Li Tingyun doesn't care. Even if he can't become an immortal or a demon, he doesn't care.
If he is destined to face a tribulation of love, and he must sever the root of love in order to achieve the Ninefold Success, then he has no intention of breaking the tribulation; he will neither hide, nor escape, nor attempt to overcome it.
He didn't treat the emotional tribulation as a tribulation.
Mei Shiyu was not his calamity, but his destiny. They were too destined to be together. When he was twelve, eight, and even one year old, their destiny began and ended. They met and parted, and then met again. It was just that they were destined to be together but not to be together.
Ren Pingsheng said that being short-tempered and sentimental is a sign of weakness, and indeed, he was that kind of weak-willed.
Among the myriad beings in the world, some die for wealth, some for lust, some for desires, and some for ideals. In the end, they all die for what their hearts desire. So why can't they die for love?
For the person who holds the most important place in my heart, even if it means climbing a mountain nine ren high and failing at the last step, it's worth it. I'd even risk my life to repay my confidant, and that would be enough.
In Li Tingyun's view, the best ending would be for Mei Shiyu to achieve a happy ending. As for himself, he didn't think about so much. The only thing he wanted to do was to take revenge, take revenge, take revenge, regardless of the consequences, even if it meant destroying the world.
He didn't care about his fate, so he acted without restraint.
I will never accept my fate.
Until this day, he uncontrollably struck Mei Shiyu on the side of her neck with a Yin-Yang spell.
He seemed to hear fate mocking him with a half-smile.