Chapter 985 - 436: Yunluo’s Downfall

Inside the cave abode.

Clouds gather and disperse, raindrops fall and settle.

Amid the perpetual cycle of decline and revival of Mount Wu, amidst the heavy rains that fall as the clouds gather and scatter, Li An infused all the substances produced between his black and white millstone into Gu Xuening's body.

Not a single drop remained.

Ever since he became a Daluo Golden Immortal, his life-and-death millstone began producing a mysterious substance, intangible and formless. Through Li An's research, its level is even higher than the gray substance of the Evergreen Immortal Venerable.

Now, this was the next step in his plan.

The Evergreen Immortal Venerable had a grand scheme, using his reincarnated form to attract attention, but the real hidden hand was the gray substance. His gray substance could "parasitize" the Longevity White Mist and eventually convert all of it into gray substance.

Therefore, the Evergreen Immortal Venerable didn't care who in the world obtained all the Longevity White Mist.

Even if Yunluo Immortal Venerable unified the world, what of it? When he begins his sacrificial ceremony, the Evergreen Immortal Venerable will be reborn amidst his vast source of white mist, supplant him, and pluck all the fruits of victory.

And what Li An was doing now was using his life-and-death substance to parasitize the gray substance of the Evergreen Immortal Venerable!

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Yunluo is on the first level, the Evergreen Immortal Venerable on the second, while Li An was on the third.

...

"So weary, yet so beautiful."

Three days and nights later.

Gu Xuening lay on Li An's chest, looking down at him, her eyes filled with incomparable satisfaction and ease, as if just being with Li An like this, all concepts of immortality, invincibility, and the Immortal Dao, she could disregard them all.

Her expression inexplicably reminded Li An of another woman, a woman also surnamed Gu. They were not the same person, of course, but the feelings they held for Li An were identical.

Perhaps the heavens felt Li An owed that person, so they let another similar person appear in his life?

"I was so worried about you, thought you might not make it back..."

Gu Xuening said, "However, we may need to leave. I heard from Xu Ao that those from the Heaven Court are coming here; somehow, they're unleashing great power and have eliminated seventeen Taiyi Golden Immortals... Truly terrifying."

Li An gently held her, saying, "There's no need to fear, it's very safe here."

"How do you know? I've heard that a mysterious strongman is heading towards the Deceit Realm, having killed seventeen Daluo; Yunluo Palace won't be able to stop them."

She sighed.

Li An couldn't help but smile slightly. If she knew that the mysterious strongman was Li An himself standing before her, how would she react?

Yet, Li An had no intention of revealing all this to her.

"If Yunluo Palace is destroyed, where else can we flee to?"

Li An replied, "Just die here together, what's there to fear."

Gu Xuening smiled; indeed, she no longer felt any fear.

"Xu Ao, what do you plan to do with him?" Gu Xuening asked.

Li An replied, "I'll let him live."

With a wave of his hand, a secret chamber opened, revealing the unconscious Xu Ao before them, slowly waking.

"You... Xue Sword!"

Xu Ao exclaimed in surprise, "How did you get in here?"

Then he glanced at Gu Xuening, instantly furious, almost exploding: "You treacherous lovers, may you die a miserable death..."

While he was unconscious, they must have shamelessly been in the neighboring chamber...

But Li An calmly walked up to him, placing his hand gently on Xu Ao's forehead.

"No..."

Xu Ao was terrified, wanting to resist, but how could he? In an instant, he was refined into a puppet by Li An.

Li An still needed to hide here for some time, temporarily needing Xu Ao to prevent Yunluo Palace from noticing anything amiss.

With a wave of his hand, puppet Xu Ao respectfully bowed and then withdrew.

"This method..."

In Gu Xuening's eyes, a flicker of complexity could not be concealed.

She had never doubted before, but now, she certainly perceived something unusual...

Li An had grown too quickly.

Back when he was on Qingyuan Mountain, he was just an average person with low aptitude and firm Dao Heart, yet in less than a millennium, he's ascended like a shooting star, and now it seems he has already become a Daluo Golden Immortal?

Otherwise, how could he so easily pass through the Mountain Protection Array of Yunluo Palace without being noticed? How could he easily control Xu Ao, who was already a Taiyi Golden Immortal?

Even she couldn't help but wonder, in the war between the Deceit and Heaven Court, what role did her husband play?

All these questions pointed to a predetermined answer:

Her once disciple, now husband, surely has another identity and an even greater origin.

Perhaps everything he displayed on Qingyuan Mountain was intentionally done as a disguise?

But then she stopped thinking further, for what did it matter? Regardless of who Xue Sword was, where he came from, or what he wanted to do, his feelings for her were genuine. He once protected her at all costs and helped her obtain the Longevity White Mist...

Just as she told Xu Ao, Xue Sword is the only one in this world who truly loves, protects, and cares for her.

...

Li An paid no mind to the thousand thoughts in her mind and began his cultivation in seclusion again.

Now, within his Daluo World, he gathered the Dao Principles of seventeen Daluo Golden Immortals, which needed to be digested and absorbed one by one.

At the same time, within his body, he held nearly a quarter of the world's Longevity White Mist, which also required time to transform entirely into that intangible and formless mysterious substance.