7: Chapter 7 Cai Li Became a Cripple

Li Garden, spanning dozens of miles, was the private courtyard of Goddess Hua Caili. Although Goddess Hua Caili spent most of her life in the Eternal Pure Land, this courtyard that belonged solely to her had always been preserved.

Since returning from the Mist Sea, she had been staying here, not coming out to see anyone, and no one had disturbed her. Every day, besides cultivation, she thought of the man named Yun Che, missing the days they spent together.

As for how much trouble this relationship would bring her, or how to face her fiancé, Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi, she did not care about such things. In her mind, these were not things a "nineteen-year-old girl" should be concerned with.

At this moment, she was standing in the center of Li Garden, her gaze captivated by the several blooming Li Branch flowers. These Li Branch flowers grew lushly, their blossoms delicate and alluring, emitting waves of faint fragrance. The petals were light pink, gracefully shaped, resembling a dancing young girl; the stamens were golden, like bright stars embedded within.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled light and shadows that reflected onto the Li Branch flowers, adding a touch of poetry and romance. A gentle breeze brushed past, causing the flower branches to sway lightly, as if performing a graceful dance. The fragrance of the flowers overflowed, permeating the entire courtyard, making one feel intoxicated.

Suddenly, from afar, a middle-aged man arrived uninvited, flying to the scene; it was Sovereign Dian Luohou. In an instant, Sovereign Hua Fuchen and Sword Immortal Hua Qingying also arrived one after another, with her fiancé, Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi, following far behind.

"Fairy Caili, Uncle wants to ask you some things..."

Sovereign Dian Luohou stopped mid-sentence. He stared fixedly at Goddess Hua Caili, as if he had never known her before.

The Goddess Hua Caili before him had lost her primordial yin; she was no longer a maiden! At this moment, she lacked the shyness of a young girl but possessed a unique, distinct feminine charm.

Following the gaze of Sovereign Dian Luohou, Sovereign Hua Fuchen also discovered the source of the problem. Sovereign Hua Fuchen was also stunned. How could this be? What had Goddess Hua Caili experienced in the Mist Sea? He looked at Sword Immortal Hua Qingying with resentment. He was filled with anger—such a big matter, did she have to hide it even from him?

At this moment, no one cared about Goddess Hua Caili's cultivation at the third level of the Divine Extinction Realm.

The surroundings were silent, a dead silence!

Quiet, so quiet it made one's heart palpitate, made one's soul tremble!

...

"Ah—why?"

"Why is it like this..."

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching cry rang out, soaring into the clouds. It was the roar of Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi. At this moment, he looked like a wretch abandoned by the whole world, lying on the ground, wailing loudly.

The love of his life, the Zhetian Goddess he loved so devotedly, Fairy Caili, had become someone else's wife, yet he had been completely unaware. What a blow, what a setback! All beautiful expectations regarding love and marriage had shattered and crumbled...

When Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi was young, he suffered from a developmental deformity, with a head as large as a peck, and had been mocked and insulted by his peers and playmates countless times, but he had endured it all.

And later, his divine origin awakened, and he became a proud son of heaven in one fell swoop. Within the Senluo Divine Kingdom, below the Father God, and above billions of living beings.

He had always felt that he was very strong, but at this very moment, his will and his spirit were crushed in an instant, like a thousand-mile levee breaching, like a ten-thousand-fathom mountain collapsing!

Sovereign Dian Luohou had never seen his son, Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi, so heartbroken. He did not go to comfort him.

With a fierce look on his face, he suddenly struck out with a palm, and a violent force swept toward Goddess Hua Caili.

"Stop!"

Sovereign Hua Fuchen and Sword Immortal Hua Qingying tried to stop him almost simultaneously, but it was too late. Goddess Hua Caili flew into the air like a broken kite, flying several miles away before falling heavily to the ground. The place where she had been standing, the flowers and plants beside her, along with an entire mountain behind her, had all disappeared, leaving only a bottomless pit several miles wide in the ground.

"I'll fight you to the death!"

With a sudden sound, Sovereign Hua Fuchen, who was usually gentle and refined, drew his sword. In nearly ten thousand years, he had never been so uncomposed. Although Sovereign Dian Luohou's palm had struck Goddess Hua Caili, he felt as painful as if he had taken ten palms himself.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen unleashed three moves of the "Zhetian Sword Technique" in one breath, and a vast expanse of continuous sword light pierced toward Sovereign Dian Luohou.

Meanwhile, Sword Immortal Hua Qingying moved, flying rapidly toward Goddess Hua Caili.

Sovereign Dian Luohou was now a bit sober, feeling that his attack had been too heavy. Knowing he was no match for the combined efforts of Sovereign Hua Fuchen and Sword Immortal Hua Qingying, and being in the Zhetian Divine Kingdom, he dared not prolong the battle. He took out his giant axe, slashed horizontally to block Sovereign Hua Fuchen's sword momentum, then grabbed Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi and flew away, disappearing into the distant sky shortly after.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen followed closely behind, chasing after him like a madman.

"If anything happens to Fairy Caili, I will make your entire clan pay with their lives."

After about a quarter of an hour, Sovereign Hua Fuchen realized he could not catch up to Sovereign Dian Luohou, and being concerned about Goddess Hua Caili's injuries, he turned around and flew back to the chaotic Li Garden.

From afar, he only saw Sword Immortal Hua Qingying sitting on the ground, holding Goddess Hua Caili in her arms, her right hand supporting her back, channeling energy to heal her.

At this moment, Goddess Hua Caili had no color on her face, blood stained the corners of her mouth, her breath was as thin as a thread, and her hair was disheveled; all the bones in her body were broken, and her chest was covered in blood she had vomited. Clearly, Sovereign Dian Luohou's palm had caused her extremely severe internal and external injuries.

Goddess Hua Caili had been born without a mother and had lived with Sword Immortal Hua Qingying since she was a child. In the eyes of this aunt, Sovereign Hua Fuchen could only be considered an outsider.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen's mood was extremely complex. He walked up to them and asked with heartbreak:

"How is she?"

Sword Immortal Hua Qingying sighed: "I have given her a Heavenly Jade Origin Pill, and her life is saved, but..."

Sovereign Hua Fuchen immediately became nervous and asked incoherently: "But... but what?"

"Her meridians are completely severed..." Sword Immortal Hua Qingying mustered great courage to say these four words. Two streams of clear tears flowed down her exquisite and beautiful face, and she continued with a sobbing tone:

"The profound energy damage at the level of a True God cannot be healed at all. I fear she will be a cripple in the future!"

The anger of a True God!

The strongest and most tyrannical "Heaven-Shaking Tyrant Profound Art" of the Senluo Divine Kingdom—how could Goddess Hua Caili, at the third level of the Divine Extinction Realm, withstand such a strike of extreme rage?

If it weren't for the fact that Sovereign Dian Luohou still retained a shred of sanity and held back, she would have long since had her soul destroyed.

Originally, Sovereign Hua Fuchen still harbored fantasies, hoping for a miracle, that Goddess Hua Caili could endure and escape such a huge blow. Now, Sword Immortal Hua Qingying's answer had shattered his illusions, and all hope had vanished into thin air.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen collapsed on the ground, sad to the extreme, covering his face and crying:

"How could this happen... What exactly happened?"

"Fairy Caili... I'm sorry... It's my incompetence... I didn't protect you well!"

"Fairy Caili... I... I am so sad..."

No one would have thought that this man sitting on the ground, covering his face and weeping like a baby, was the Sovereign of the Zhetian Divine Kingdom who had lived for countless tens of thousands of years.

Such a scene was truly too cruel. Sword Immortal Hua Qingying held Goddess Hua Caili, her eyes full of tears; Goddess Hua Caili, looking like a bloody mess in her arms, was unconscious; Sovereign Hua Fuchen lay on the ground, heartbroken, twitching non-stop.

After a long time, perhaps several hours, perhaps several days.

Finally, Sword Immortal Hua Qingying asked Sovereign Hua Fuchen:

"Do you not have anything you want to ask me?"

Sovereign Hua Fuchen slowly raised his head. His usual refined temperament was long gone; he looked haggard, his eyes dull and lifeless, and he said faintly:

"You never liked this marriage we arranged for Fairy Caili, you didn't like Divine Son Dian Jiuzhi, and now you have finally gotten your wish... Heh... Heh..."

Silence. Sword Immortal Hua Qingying did not speak. She had not expected things to turn out like this. A short half-month of trials in the Mist Sea had resolved her lifelong marriage, and now the rice was cooked; the tofu had fallen into the ash, and there was no way back.

However, she did not resist it in her heart. She liked this young man, Yun Che, and she knew that Fairy Caili liked him too. It was just that things had developed a bit too fast, and happiness had arrived too suddenly.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen knew his sister very well. Her talent was higher than his, and her ability was stronger than his. If she didn't want to tell you something, there was no way you could make her. But he still couldn't help but ask:

"Can you tell me who he is?"

Sword Immortal Hua Qingying hesitated for a moment. She did not answer his question directly but asked in return:

"Have you ever heard of someone who can simultaneously cultivate the five elemental powers of fire, water, lightning, wind, and earth?"

Sovereign Hua Fuchen was shocked. He desperately searched his memory of hundreds of thousands of years, and then answered in a tone he himself couldn't believe:

"Creator God Ni Xuan!"

Throughout history, in the nine heavens and ten lands, who else could cultivate five elemental powers simultaneously besides Creator God Ni Xuan? Even God Official Lingxian, who was most proficient in elemental powers among the four great God Officials and possessed special profound veins and divine inheritance, could only control three elemental powers at the same time.

A glimmer of confusion appeared in Sword Immortal Hua Qingying's eyes, and she smiled bitterly: "How is this possible? Absolutely impossible! He is only in his thirties..."

Sovereign Hua Fuchen seemed to understand her thoughts and said: "Perhaps he is a successor of Creator God Ni Xuan?"

"But, Creator God Ni Xuan perished in the Eternal Pure Land long ago. This is the Abyss of Nothingness. Even if he were the successor of Creator God Ni Xuan, he shouldn't have appeared here..."

Her train of thought became more and more chaotic and confused. She needed a reasonable explanation to convince herself, and she couldn't help but ask:

"Have people from the Eternal Pure Land ever come to the Abyss of Nothingness?"

Sovereign Hua Fuchen looked at her with a strange gaze and replied nonchalantly:

"Emperor Yuan, ourselves, and other races—don't our ancestors all come from the Eternal Pure Land? Also, according to historical records, at different times, there have indeed been living beings who jumped down from above the Abyss of Nothingness."

A flash of light crossed Sword Immortal Hua Qingying's eyes. She suddenly realized that although Yun Che seemed to have appeared out of thin air, there had been no trace of him in the Eternal Pure Land, the Six Great Divine Kingdoms, or the entire Abyss of Nothingness seven or eight months ago.

But that point in time roughly coincided with the time Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen went to the Eternal World. If one did not consider the influence of the time storm, it was about twenty days after Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen went to the Eternal World.

The more Sword Immortal Hua Qingying thought about it, the more incredible it seemed. Yun Che's words appeared in her mind again:

"My master is not actually a person of this era, and even... he is not a person, but a strand of unscattered remnant soul. Apart from me, he has no intersection with everything in this era. Therefore, his fame has never existed in this era."

"I have no home in this world... nor any parents or relatives."

"I have long been accustomed to loneliness and have long since dared not hope for friends and companions. Moreover, someone like Fairy Sister must be a star in the sky; with me... we are destined not to be people of the same world, so why get close."

Sword Immortal Hua Qingying suddenly had a wild thought.

Could Yun Che really be the successor of Creator God Ni Xuan?

He came from the Eternal Pure Land... So, the different worlds he kept talking about... are they the Eternal Pure Land?

Her train of thought continued to wander wildly.

If Yun Che really came from the Eternal Pure Land, then has he met Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen?

How is Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen now?

...

He didn't go to see Emperor Yuan first?!

They killed Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen... Vanguard Knight Mo Beichen is dead...

She felt it was necessary to re-evaluate Yun Che. Growing from the Divine Sovereign Realm to the Half-step Divine Destruction Realm in just half a year, simultaneously cultivating five elemental powers, mastering bright profound energy, possessing an astonishing dragon soul, and the forty-nine colorful heavenly thunders and black thunder pillars induced by the tribulation of the Half-step Divine Destruction Realm... Yes, such an astonishing genius could only come from the Eternal Pure Land, where he had obtained the inheritance of Creator God Ni Xuan.

Sovereign Hua Fuchen watched as deep rays of light flashed in Sword Immortal Hua Qingying's eyes, and swirls and ripples appeared and disappeared one after another. He knew she was thinking about some extremely important questions.

He did not disturb her. Until a long time later, when Sword Immortal Hua Qingying had recovered her composure and calmness, he asked calmly:

"Did you figure something out?"

"Yes!"

At this moment, Sword Immortal Hua Qingying had not only figured out Yun Che's identity, but a strong fire of hope had suddenly ignited in her heart. She said to Sovereign Hua Fuchen:

"There is one person who can save Fairy Caili."

Her mood could no longer be calm. She believed that that young man, the messenger from the Eternal Pure Land, who possessed bright profound energy and was the successor of Creator God Ni Xuan, had created too many miracles; he would definitely be able to save Fairy Caili. Even if everyone else could not heal Goddess Hua Caili's injuries, he definitely could.

She paused, and said to Sovereign Hua Fuchen with a firm gaze:

"I am going to find him!"

"Do you need me to go with you?" Sovereign Hua Fuchen asked with concern, his voice trembling with excitement. The complexion on his face had improved greatly. Hearing that there was someone who could save Goddess Hua Caili's injuries, he could no longer suppress his nervous and excited emotions.

"No need! I can go by myself."

Sword Immortal Hua Qingying answered while picking up Goddess Hua Caili, ready to set off. Then she seemed to remember something and turned back to say:

"Do not tell anyone about our conversation today. This is Fairy Caili's secret, concerning her future and happiness!"

"It is also my secret!"

"Also, do not go to trouble the Senluo Divine Kingdom for the time being. Let them fight with the Zhimeng Divine Kingdom. I want to watch them fight until blood flows like a river to relieve the hatred in my heart!"

After saying this, Sword Immortal Hua Qingying disappeared. Only Sovereign Hua Fuchen remained in place, deep in thought:

"Possessing five elemental powers, able to heal Fairy Caili's injuries—does such a divine person really exist in the Abyss of Nothingness?"

"And what about that Meng Jianyuan who knows the Zhetian Sword Technique?"