65: A pure heart harbors warmth, a butterfly recalls the past.

Above the ruins of Medicine King Valley, embers of Chaos Star Flame floated in the air like dark red stars, reflecting off the broken walls and debris. Jiang Linfeng stood upon the remaining base of the medicine king cauldron; the ruined Cauldron hummed lowly like a dying giant beast, and the medicinal Qi flowing from its cracks condensed into viscous "Glazed Tears," which corroded the scorched earth into wisps of green smoke upon dripping. Su Ningxue lay in his arms, the Jade Peach Blossom Mark on her chest rising and falling slightly. Every pulsation sent out visible ripples of vitality, and the ice-blue Death Qi within her body was dominantly compressed into a corner of her Dantian, letting out shrill screams.

"Star Flame... Soul Burn!" Jiang Linfeng barked softly, and the Star Flame on his left palm, which covered Su Ningxue's heart, surged violently! Red-gold Chaos light streams condensed into nine rotating "Ten-Thousand-Year Dao Seals," which slammed fiercely into her Dantian!

"Ugh—!"

Su Ningxue's waist arched violently, her slender neck tensing into a breathtaking curve! The ice-blue Death Qi exploded in her belly like a trapped beast, only to be pinned down and refined by those nine Dao Seals! Jade-colored radiance surged beneath her greyish skin, and an emerald light at the center of her brow lit up like a star! Phantoms of ten thousand plants and trees flickered and appeared on her naked, snowy back!

[Ding! Host's Chaos Life Origin injected!]

[Medicine King Sacred Rune Fusion at 99%! Chaos Ice Soul Star Body advancement threshold reached!]

[Warning: Abnormal life fluctuation detected within partner Su Ningxue (Consort Xue)! Energy Level: Chaos Grade!]

At this critical moment, a glaring notification pierced into Jiang Linfeng's Sea of Consciousness like an ice needle!

Abnormal life fluctuation? Chaos Grade?! At the very moment he was using his Origin Star Flame to forcibly elevate Consort Xue's Physique and eliminate the Death Qi and evil spirits?!

His Divine Thought, vast as the starry sky, instantly swept through every inch of Su Ningxue's flesh! It bypassed the frantically compressed ice-blue Death Qi and the surging power of the medicinal runes—finally locking onto the depths of Consort Xue's flat lower abdomen! A faint ice-blue star vortex, seemingly born at the dawn of the Grandmist, was slowly rotating! It greedily absorbed the Chaos Star Flame and medicinal power he was channeling. Deep within the star vortex, a speck of pure Chaos Source Power aura, so pure it made one's heart tremble, was quietly germinating! This aura... shared the same source as his Bloodline! It bore the unique imprint of Jiang Linfeng's Chaos Life Origin!

"Vile creature!" Jiang Baichuan roared from within the Cauldron's remains, his withered claws nearly crushing the tortoise shell. "How dare you use my Medicine King Origin... to nourish your vile seed?!"

Jiang Linfeng's pupils suddenly constricted! Amidst the broken moans of the girl in his arms, there was actually a faint... barely audible cheer from the life in her womb? His fingertip touched three inches below Su Ningxue's navel, and as he felt that blood-linked pulsation, a tremor exploded in his heart—one more profound than when his Burning Star Blast had shattered the medicinal mountain!

Consort Xue... in her womb... there was his, Jiang Linfeng's, offspring?!

This thought was like a thunderous bell, shaking his mind. The surging Star Flame in his hand instantly softened by thirty percent! The rotation of the nine Soul-Burning Dao Seals also stalled! The ice-blue Death Qi pinned in the Dantian took the opportunity to surge upward!

[Warning! Warning! Abnormal life fluctuation is restraining the host's Origin! Death Qi counterattack intensity at 100%!]

[Partner Su Ningxue's life signs are dropping rapidly!]

"Hmph!" A cold light exploded in Jiang Linfeng's eyes! The tremor in his heart transformed into an even more violent desire for control! "My Bloodline... is not something a filthy thing like you can touch?!" The Star Flame on his left palm suddenly contracted! It was no longer violently burning, but instead transformed into billions of warm golden silken threads, precisely piercing into that tiny ice-blue star vortex in Su Ningxue's abdomen!

Boom!

The star vortex was like a stellar embryo injected with Chaos Mother Qi, suddenly bursting with light! A flexible and warm, yet vast and noble purifying power suddenly spread from the inside out! The ice-blue Death Qi that was clinging to the edge of the star vortex, desperately trying to devour the Chaos Source Qi to pollute the fetus, was like ice meeting the sun of the Nine Heavens!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!

Ghastly green toxic smoke instantly evaporated! The Death Qi let out a silent shriek, and under the crushing weight of the more fundamental and pure Chaos Source Power, its speed of collapse and dissolution was a hundred times faster than Jiang Linfeng's external attack!

[Ding! Host's offspring information detected!]

[Target: Su Ningxue (Consort Xue)]

[Pregnancy confirmed! Gestation period: 7 weeks! Fetus information: Chaos Ice Soul Immortal Fetus (Embryonic) (80% inheritance) + Source Spirit Body Bloodline (100% inheritance)]

[Status: Autonomously stimulating Innate Chaos Source Power (weak), purifying maternal impurities! Potential: ∞!]

"Good... what a Chaos Immortal Fetus!" The star-river in Jiang Linfeng's eyes seemed to reverse as a pure sense of fatherly pride welled up for the first time! He looked down at Su Ningxue in his arms. The girl also seemed to feel the earth-shaking changes within her; her painfully furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and a faint, unconscious, weak, and holy smile even appeared at the corner of her pale lips. That was the resonance between the mother and her instinct!

"Since you know you are of my Bloodline, then guard your mother well!" Jiang Linfeng's Divine Thought slammed into the ice-blue star vortex like a decree! The nine Dao Seals no longer attacked the Death Qi, but instead transformed into an incredibly complex Chaos Guardian Divine Array, instantly branded onto the periphery of the ice-blue star vortex! The Immortal Fetus's respiration instantly became as stable as a mountain!

"By the power of the Immortal Fetus... Break!" Jiang Linfeng's right hand pressed down violently! He guided the pure purifying Source Power escaping from the fetus, transforming it into an invisible Chaos Dao Sword, and stabbed it fiercely into the deepest part of the ruined Cauldron's crack!

Chila—!!!!

The glazed-colored Core Origin was completely stripped away! The cracks on the Cauldron's body instantly spread to their limit!

"No... my Dao Foundation..." Jiang Baichuan's final remnant Soul let out a desperate shriek the moment the Core Origin left his body, like an old Dragon having its spine removed! His consciousness completely fell into endless darkness! The Medicine Cauldron's Foundation... was shattered!

...Within the rift of the endless Void Realm, Ice Soul Palace, Profound Ice Blood Pool.

Crimson blood water boiled and rolled, and dozens of pale Cauldron shells floated upon it like blood lotuses from Hell. Ning Yudie was soaked within, her long ice-blue hair stained with strands of eerie dark red. Her palm gripped a blood spike condensed from foul blood and devilish thoughts, and she was frantically stabbing the newborn, dark-gold blood pattern beneath her collarbone that seemed to squirm with life! Every puncture brought a Soul-piercing pain like ice crystal fragments! Blood flowed down her collarbone and merged into the pool water.

"Medicine King Sacred Rune... exclusive Medicine Cauldron..." A raspy whisper ground out from between her teeth. Fragments of the profound ice mirror floated above the blood water, reflecting the blurred image of Jiang Linfeng holding Su Ningxue in the Thatched Cottage and branding her with the saint rune, as well as the breathtakingly demonic beauty of the Jade Peach Blossom Mark as it flowed. That image was like billions of ice needles piercing into her devilish Soul! "He can treat a mere Cauldron like this... why... can it not be me?!"

"Chaos Immortal Fetus?!" The mirror suddenly flashed again with the shock and... tenderness?! that Jiang Linfeng had shown in his eyes when he examined Su Ningxue's abdomen, which she had captured in an instant, as well as the cold voice of the System's notification!

"Ah—!!" Extreme jealousy and a deeper sting exploded! Ning Yudie crushed the floating mirror fragments in one go! The sharp edges pierced deep into her palm!

Warm blood dripped into the pool, creating small ripples. As the sharp pain hit her palm, she looked down at the crimson flow; deep within her ice-blue eyes, the crimson bloodshot lines ignited by jealousy spread frantically, nearly filling her entire pupils!

However, just as these devilish thoughts were boiling and the fire of jealousy was burning through her sanity—

A translucent drop of blood, mixed with the aura of her own devilish Soul fragments, fell into the center of the churning dark-gold blood pattern.

Buzz—!!!

The blood pattern suddenly came to life! Like a sleeping ancient giant python opening its eyelids! An unspeakable flow of coldness, vastness, and a sense of grief and endless yearning born from the very Origin of life slammed into the core of Ning Yudie's crumbling devilish Soul along the blood pattern!

It was not an attack!

It was not a curse!

It was... a call wrapped in layers of blood and hatred, long forgotten under the dust of eternal ages!

A scene that absolutely should not exist deep in her memories, like a shattered ten-thousand-year glacier, crashed into her consciousness—

Chaos first opened, Grandmist yet undecided! A pure Chaos Fire Seed was born in the void, burning weakly yet stubbornly. Beside the fire seed, born in companionship, was a piece of flawless ice soul mystic crystal! The fire seed was newly born, blazing and violent; every dissipation of its power caused the crystal to be covered in cracks. Yet the crystal endured in silence, using its own extreme cold power to silently restrain the fire seed's out-of-control flames, and even did not hesitate to shatter a corner of its own Origin to transform into ice essence to nourish the newborn fire spirit... all just to protect him... from being consumed by his own Chaos power!

The scene shattered! The aura of ice and fire intertwined! The obsession to protect until death! That fire seed's aura... that will to protect even at the cost of self-destruction...!

"Lin... feng... Bro... ther...?" A tender, timid call, as crisp as the cracking of ice crystals, escaped from Ning Yudie's blood-stained lips without warning! It was like an echo from the most distant past life, carrying an unforgettable attachment and sorrow!

Boom—!!!

The ice soul divine talisman at her brow vibrated violently! The crimson bloodshot lines spawned by jealousy and hatred melted away like ice and snow! Ice-blue reoccupied her eyes! But this time, it was no longer cold and malicious, but rather a thick, inseparable confusion, endless grief, and... a love that had suddenly awakened like a tsunami, enough to tear apart the devilish Soul itself!

Past life! She was the piece of ice soul mystic crystal that was born alongside him when Chaos first opened! She was the existence that had once willingly shattered her Origin to protect the fire spirit! Deep within the core of her devilish Soul lay the pure, untainted, and extreme protective love of the ice soul mystic crystal for the Chaos Fire Seed!

Ning Yudie stiffly lowered her head and looked at her own reflection in the blood pool. In the mirror, that distorted and malicious face now had its Devilish Qi faded; her long ice-blue hair regained some of its clear luster, and at the crack of the ice soul divine talisman on her brow, a drop of Ice Soul Origin, as pure as it was at the beginning, quietly condensed! And the hatred and jealousy for Jiang Linfeng that had just driven her mad now seemed like a shattered mirror! What was revealed beneath the fragments... was all... love?! The love and memories of her past and present lives collided, devoured, and fused with each other!

"Heh... Hahaha..." Tears mixed with blood fell as Ning Yudie let out a low, broken laugh; within that laughter was an earth-shaking Awakening of despair. "I hate you... so it turns out... it's only... because... I've always... been in love with you?" She suddenly looked up toward Medicine King Valley, the hatred in her ice-blue eyes completely replaced by a more blazing, more distorted possessiveness and regret!

The blood patterns spread frantically beneath her collarbone, greedily devouring the vitality of the devilish blood in the pool, yet deep in their core, they were quietly branded with the Chaos aura belonging to Jiang Linfeng, awakened by the memories of her past life. Ning Yudie's jade hand gently caressed her heart, feeling the overwhelming tearing pain and the surging love from her past life memories intertwining; her cherry lips actually hooked into a cold and sorrowful curve.

"Brother Linfeng... you can only have one exclusive Medicine Cauldron..." She stared into the void in the direction of Medicine King Valley, and deep within her ice-blue pupils, the pure love of her past life and the distorted devilish nature of her current life were completely entangled, becoming indistinguishable from each other, "...Then... it can only... be... me!"

"When the blood patterns complete this filthy devilish body of mine..." Her fingertip cut her skin, using devilish blood to sketch a profound ice pattern on her chest; the pattern was seventy percent similar to the Jade Peach Blossom Mark on Su Ningxue's chest, only it contained endless cold ice and crimson, "This Palace... will definitely have you personally... brand upon my heart... the Medicine King Sacred Seal... that belongs only to you... Jiang Linfeng!"