12 Meeting Is Destiny Parting Is Destiny

The innumerable mortals watching this scene from afar had already been shocked beyond what their minds could endure. But seeing the chief culprit of their woes being beaten so savagely, they snapped out of their torpor, and led by Qing Yun, they chanted.

"Beat him! Beat Him! Beat him!"

And beat he did. Venting his anger and their frustration in a flurry of blows that crashed onto Ba Zu's body and face like a waterfall. Battered, bloodied, and without dignity, Ba Zu had already lost the will to live. Thus, when Hou Hui hauled him up by the neck, he didn't bother struggling, saying nothing and simply awaiting his death.

"I do not like humiliating my foes. But you deserved a beating. I, however, respect your willpower, your determination, and the affection you bore for your subordinates. Considering those three things and the fact that you were probably twisted in infancy by your elders, I can send you into reincarnation!"

In fact from the moment Ba Zu shattered his immortal core, he was already dead. An immortal's body could not exist without its immortal core. It was its true heart. Thus, he was already fated to die in a matter of seconds. Only his soul could be preserved.

"Save your wretched solicitude! You have slain my subordinates! Destroyed my fate! Stepped on my dignity! And now what? You want me to be thankful for being allowed to reincarnate? Fart! Wash your neck! Although you cut our connection, my divine father will definitely hunt you down and avenge my death!"

Ba Zu howled with every fiber of his being. Hou Hui had nothing more to say and released his extreme yin fire which spread from his hand and quickly burned Ba Zu into nothingness.

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Meanwhile, in a distant immortal world, the master of the ba serpents, Si Wang She was sitting in meditation within his cultivation abode when suddenly, he felt his connection toward his son being wrestled away from him by the laws of fate. Not long afterward, Ba Zu's life plate had shattered.

"Who was it? Who dared murder the child of this god? Who?!"

Si Wang She roared in an earsplitting voice that shocked innumerable souls and spread his divine sense toward the starry sky.

"Lower heaven layer, Ancient Sea World! If this god cannot find the murderer, then be ready…to escort my son to hell!"

And in a terrifying beam of black light, he flew toward the starry sky!

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With Ba Zu's death, peace had finally returned to the Azure Cloud Empire. For an instant, the surviving mortals and cultivators could only stare dazed at the white-clothed immortal scholar who had just adverted their calamity with a formidable display of magical powers they could never hope to see within a lifetime.

Quickly, however, they snapped out of their torpor and in unison, knelt with deep veneration.

"Immortal sir, thank you!"

For besides their most heartfelt gratitude, what could they give?

With a wave of his hand, Hou Hui dispelled the flames and dao armament that surrounded him and cleansed the atmosphere from the traces of battle.

"No need to stand on ceremony. I merely did what my heart commanded."

Following his words, a formless wave of immortal qi spread toward the millions of kneeling citizens and raised them to their feet. Hou Hui's spiritual sense was now spreading across several thousand miles and locking on a pair of fleeing man and woman mounted on a celestial blue chariot whose speed far transcended that of the average immortal artifact. According to their direction of travel, he concluded that they were heading toward the Ancient Sea.

"I am an envoy of the Ancient Sea Senior. Your enemies have been slain. Your country is safe. It is time for you to return."

As soon as those words echoed within their minds, the duo abruptly stopped.

They were an attractive pair. The male, handsome, refined and dressed in a golden dragon robe, and the female beautiful, elegant and dressed in a luxurious purple silk dress. Looking at them, it was clear that they were a pair of siblings.

"Imperial brother, should we return? What if it's a trap?"

The woman asked with great concern.

"It is unlikely that the Ancient Sea senior possesses immortals to deploy. However, until now the life plate of the great elder is still intact. Moreover, that man suddenly stopping following us despite being so close to catching us can only mean that his subordinates came across a situation they could not handle and requested help. I conclude that they weren't the only immortals to descend on our world and that others of a different faction made a pact with the Ancient Sea senior to rescue us."

The Azure Cloud Emperor hypothesized. And hearing his words, his sister's guard toward that unknown immortal was lowered.

"I didn't think that the Ancient Sea Shuttle would one day bring such a terrifying disaster to our country."

"The artifact isn't guilty. The greedy heart of those immortals is. Since we no longer need to seek help from the Ancient Sea senior, let's return!"

The Azure Cloud Emperor declared and in a beam of blue light, led the chariot toward the imperial city. What they saw upon arriving, however, quickly flabbergasted them. The damages sustained by the imperial city were much less than they had anticipated. Better yet, the corpses of dozens of gigantic immortals littered the ground!

Amidst the sky, there was a scholarly and refined young man exuding extraordinariness and immortality whose piercing black eyes had locked onto them.

"I assume you are the immortal senior who rescued our citizens from this catastrophe. You have my deepest gratitude."

The Azure Cloud Emperor said while clasping his hands in a deep, polite bow.

"You are too polite. This place is not suitable for discussion. Let's move to the palace."

Hou Hui replied and with a wave of his sleeve teleported the imperial siblings as well as the surviving Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator into one of the surviving rooms of the imperial palace. It was nothing grand, but it would do the trick.

The Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator who also turned out to be the great elder immediately rushed toward the siblings to check their health. And only after making sure that nothing had happened to them did he relax. In the meantime, Hou Hui observed the pair of siblings with incomparable interest.

"Birth truly determines destiny. If such a pair of cultivation talents were born in the Heavenly World, their future achievements would simply be limitless. Especially the man."

The Azure Cloud Emperor was merely one hundred years old, but he had already reached the early stage of the Immortal Core Realm. In a mortal world, that simply was astonishing. Even in the Heavenly World, a man with such cultivation speed could certainly become a Life Immortal in fifteen hundred years. Unfortunately, this wasn't the Heavenly World. The female was slightly worse but had still reached the peak of the Immortal Foundation Realm.

"Without accident, the two of you will reach the peak of Soul Transcendence in less than a thousand years. And the Life Immortal realm in fifteen hundred years at the worst. But if you choose to remain in this world, that will most likely be your limit."

Hou Hui casually stated.

"I am Qing Xuan Li, the Azure Cloud Emperor. This is my country and this world is my homeland. I shall never abandon either for personal gain. If stepping into immortality is my limit, I accept it."

Qing Xuan Li firmly declared.

"Very well. The reason why I wanted to meet you is merely to confirm something. The artifact that brought so many immortals to destroy your country. Is it a Divine Blood Artifact?"

Blood Artifacts were relics that could only be used by those of a particular bloodline. They were completely locked to outsiders and the only way for them to break the blood seal was to offer a massive blood sacrifice of the entire lineage to the artifact. Naturally, Divine Blood Artifacts were the most powerful of such relics.

The reason why Hou Hui was so confident in the artifact's nature was simple. Ba Zu was not only a Great Dao Immortal, but he was also a Path Immortal of extremely high talent and skills who would have achieved law wielding in due time. Just like his fight with Hou Hui showed, individuals of his level didn't seek or rely on artifacts because they didn't need them. Their own powers were their strongest weapons.

Yet, he had mustered such a large force to descend on a mortal world after who knows how many years of travel for the sake of one artifact? And on top of that had immediately begun slaughtering innumerable mortals? It would be odd if the answer wasn't a Divine Blood Artifact.

"Indeed. It's a relic of the Ancient Sea Country."

"Your majesty!"

"Imperial brother!"

"Xuan Nu, great elder, no need to be overcautious. If this immortal sir wants to take something from us, I'm afraid nothing could save us from his hands. However, since the Ancient Sea senior trusts him with our safety, we should have faith in his upright character."

As the master of the celestial chariot, Qing Xuan Li was well aware of how formidable one needed to be to teleport them from its back. Even that Ba Zu couldn't have achieved that. Furthermore, as soon as he laid eyes on him, he recognized Hou Hui as a man of good character.

"You are wrong. I am a hoodlum."

Hou Hui seriously stated.

And hearing those words, the eyes of the three pillars of the Azure Cloud Country impeccably widened.

"But a good hoodlum so worry not."

He quickly added, but his dumbfounded interlocutors no longer knew what to say.

A moment afterward, Qing Xuan Li regained his composure and with a firm nod, replied.

"Well, if you say so!"

"I actually have a transaction for you. You can choose to refuse or not, but I believe you will gain more than you will lose."

He softly began.

"Although your Azure Cloud Empire possesses a Divine Blood Rank artifact, to you it's more of an ancient relic than a useful treasure. Without a minimum of Immortal Realm cultivation base, Divine Artifacts cannot be used. For that reason, you were completely helpless against Ba Zu."

He was right. Although they had the matching lineage, their cultivation base was far too low to direct a Divine Artifact. Otherwise, even if they couldn't use its full power, ten Ba Zu wouldn't be enough for them to fear.

"Worse, if Ba Zu can find records of that item, I'm afraid other god-children also can."

That was Qing Xuan Li's most important worry. The artifact had become a hot potato they simply couldn't get rid of and risked bringing them even greater calamities.

"Therefore, this is my offer. I will exchange it for three Tenth Grade Immortal Artifacts and will then publicly destroy it. I only need the fragments."

Qing Xuan Li's eyes beamed. He was definitely eager to get rid of the artifact in a manner that would destroy the hope of any potential invader. But he simply didn't have the ability to do so. He had considered beseeching the Ancient Sea's help, but as a remnant of the Ancient Sea Country, it wasn't likely to accept. If he could get rid of it and receive three immortal grade artifacts in its stead, he would definitely jump on the opportunity.

"Very well, I agree."

"You don't even want to know what kind of artifacts I want to offer or bargain for more benefits?"

"Frankly speaking, you are already doing us a great favor by removing that thing. And I believe you'll definitely not try to take advantage of us."

"Well said, let's complete the exchange."

With a wave of his hand, Hou Hui summoned three orbs of white light each containing a different treasure inside; a golden wheel, a silver spear, and a dark blue bell which all rippled with tremendous immortal qi. Every five hundred years, depending on his cultivation's progress, Hou Hui would receive a new batch of immortal grade artifacts from his uncle. Therefore, while he was greatly lacking in immortal jade and pills, he certainly didn't lack artifacts.

Seeing them, Qing Xuan Li didn't hesitate and retrieved a small, ordinary-looking bronze shuttle from his sleeve. Hou Hui made a grasping motion and the bronze shuttle turned into a beam of light and dived into his interspatial ring while the three immortal treasures flew toward Qing Xuan Li.

"Another question. Do you have any relationship with a certain Qing Yun?"

While unrelated people sharing the same surname was far from being uncommon, Hou Hui felt the situation to be too coincidental. Besides, he could feel a faint bloodline connection between them.

"I suppose you could call us distant relatives. Their ancestor was an imperial prince who attempted to steal the celestial chariot for himself, so he was demoted to the rank of commoner and expelled from the palace. However, our imperial family has always kept an eye on him and ensured the protection of his descendants. Until now of course…"

"Oh? So, you wouldn't mind me taking him as my disciple?"

The three Azure Cloud imperial clansmen were astonished. How did the rascal Qing Yun manage to catch the attention of that immortal senior?

"If Qing Yun can become your disciple, it is not only his good fortune but my Azure Cloud Empire's good fortune."

"Good. In a few minutes at the fastest, in a few hours at the latest, this world will tremble a little bit. Do not be startled. Also, I will destroy the Ancient Sea Shuttle before leaving this world."

With that said, Hou Hui vanished from the scene.

"What an eccentric immortal."

Qing Xuan Nu couldn't help but blurt out.

"Eccentric maybe, but with a righteous heart. I hope that one day we can repay his kindness."

"I'm afraid his battles are not the kind we can ever meddle in."

But as the brother and sister spoke, two beams of light flew toward their foreheads.

"Meeting is destiny. Parting is destiny. Since we are bound by fate, I shall give you some good fortune. Those are the mnemonics of the truth scripture I've created. If you ever succeed in reaching the peak of the Life Immortal Realm, cultivate it and it can help you open the road to Dao Revelation, Dao Threading, and perhaps even Dao Fusion. How far you go depends only on you. My friends are not many so I hope that one day you can soar beyond the starry sky and come find me for a drink."

For an instant, the siblings could only stare slack-jawed into the distance. But swiftly, they regained their composure and with great emotions, bowed.

"Thank you immortal senior! We swear not to disappoint your expectations!"