Chapter 196: The Gravedigger of an Era, an Imperfect Ending!

"Clearly, our lifespans have reached a point that makes mortals shrink back in awe, so why is it that time is always insufficient?"

Above the old site of Wanglin Mountain, Gu Mingyue looked at the plain before her, feeling dazed in her heart for a moment.

In a trance, Gu Mingyue seemed to have returned once more to ten thousand years ago, returned to that time she could never forget.

Gu Nianmo and Gu Shengxi were both silent at this moment, but looking at their expressions, it was clear that the emotions in their hearts were now complex to the extreme.

As for Gu Jiangming, he looked at his three children before him, yet remained silent for a long while.

Perhaps Gu Jiangming himself knew in his heart, knew that he felt guilty toward Gu Nianmo and his siblings! "Let us begin!"

"Bring your mother and aunt back from the void; the path of the future must be walked by you yourselves..."

After a long silence, Gu Jiangming spoke again with a slow sigh.

Listening to Gu Jiangming's words, even though Gu Nianmo and his siblings still had many things they wanted to say, because it concerned their mother and the matter of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven returning to Heaven and Earth, the three siblings ultimately remained silent.

The father and his three children all acted in silence.

Gu Jiangming was only a Dream Bubble constructed from a sliver of True Spirit; in ordinary times, this sliver of True Spirit naturally did not possess much power.

But by borrowing the Heavenly Will and utilizing the Mana of Gu Nianmo and his siblings, Gu Jiangming broke through the Void with extreme ease.

Unlike when the Qilin Grotto-Heaven fell into the void and Heaven and Earth had to repeatedly suppress Gu Jiangming, this time, as the father and his three children broke through the Void, they did not cause even the slightest commotion.

It was as if the four of them were not breaking through the Void, but merely a layer of insignificant curtain cloth.

This was not because Heaven and Earth lacked the power to intervene, but because under the cover of the Heavenly Will, the Heavenly Net at the old site of Wanglin Mountain had already been blinded by the Heavenly Will.

To wield the Heavenly Will is to truly wield the Dao of Heaven, acting on behalf of Heaven!

Accompanied by a Void Portal the size of a doorway appearing at the old site of Wanglin Mountain, the thoughts of Gu Jiangming and the three siblings surged toward that void impatiently at this moment.

Their thoughts covered millions and billions of distances, yet in the places their thoughts covered, they could never find the corpses of Jiu Jiu and the others.

This sliver of Gu Jiangming's True Spirit could still sense the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, but ten thousand years had passed, and the Qilin Grotto-Heaven was already an unknown distance away from Heaven and Earth.

Even though Gu Jiangming was the Heavenly Lord of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, according to his calculations, it would likely take several decades to guide the Qilin Grotto-Heaven back.

But the helplessness was that this sliver of Gu Jiangming's True Spirit was already on the verge of dissipating...

In a flash, another three years of time slipped away.

In these past three years, the Void Portal on the old site of Wanglin Mountain had always existed, but Gu Jiangming's sliver of True Spirit, with the passage of time, was already about to become a wisp of ethereal cloud and smoke.

Whether it was Gu Nianmo or Gu Shengxi, they both knew, knew that their father's last sliver of True Spirit was also about to dissipate.

But what made the three siblings feel heavy in their hearts was that in these past three years, even though they had briefly stepped into the void, they had ultimately failed to find the corpses of Jiu Jiu and the others.

"They are perhaps within the Qilin Grotto-Heaven!"

"It will take another seventeen years for the Qilin Grotto-Heaven to draw close to Heaven and Earth, but clearly, I will dissipate completely in at most three to five months."

"Before I dissipate, I will completely stabilize this Void Portal."

"If you three siblings wait for the Qilin Grotto-Heaven to return, go into the Qilin Grotto-Heaven and look for your mother and aunt!"

"Remember, remember, you must bring back the corpses of your mother and the others!"

"We all carry great secrets; if you can bring back their corpses, we may have a day to meet again in the future."

"But if their corpses perish outside of Heaven and Earth, then in the future..."

Gu Jiangming's heart also held many nervous emotions; for the cultivation of an era, Gu Jiangming did not take it too much to heart.

But if the True Spirits of Jiu Jiu and the others were to be lost in the void, Gu Jiangming worried, worried that Jiu Jiu and the others might not be able to return to the future era...

This was the reason why Gu Jiangming's sliver of True Spirit would not dissipate, even if it meant bringing back the slivers of True Spirit of Jiu Jiu and the others.

Hearing Gu Jiangming's words, the three siblings looked at each other in dismay for a moment; they still did not quite understand Gu Jiangming's words, but as for Gu Mingyue, memories began to flicker in her mind—memories that did not belong to this era.

In the past, Gu Mingyue had only treated those memories as a grand dream.

But now, following Gu Jiangming's words, a thoughtful look appeared on Gu Mingyue's face.

Yet, at the same time, Gu Mingyue also realized, realized the importance of bringing back the corpses of her mother and the others from the void.

Seventy-seven days later, Gu Jiangming's last sliver of True Spirit could no longer hold on; in the sorrowful gaze of the three siblings, they watched helplessly as Gu Jiangming's last sliver of True Spirit began to disintegrate.

The Dream Bubble that had originally remained in small part now dissipated completely between Heaven and Earth.

Yet, after their grief, the three siblings stood firmly guarding before this Void Portal, waiting, waiting for the Qilin Grotto-Heaven to get as close as possible to the Heaven and Earth where they were.

As for Gu Jiangming, at the moment his last sliver of True Spirit dissipated, the Seek Immortality Interface turned once again.

In a space filled with flowing light and colors, Gu Jiangming seemed to roam in the long river of time; he saw, saw the days when he and Liu Moxuan treated each other with mutual respect, saw the scene where he cherished Wang Qinghe before she had taken human form.

And on the Seek Immortality Interface before Gu Jiangming, lines of text also began to flip.

【You have walked into an era before myths; this era is more ancient than myths and more distant than legends!】

【This is an era where ten thousand races contend, and unfortunately, you happened to be born in the worst of eras, an era where the ten thousand races treat the Human Race as rations.】

【You were born here and grew up here; you saw countless humans either fall as rations for the Demon Race or become servants and consumables for those same Human Race sects.】

【You do not know when, but a seed sprouted in your heart.】

【You feel that the world should not be like this!】

【You believe that the world should not look like this!】

【It is just that your power is too weak, so weak that in the face of such a world, you can only experience it and let time slip away.】

【But a seed will always have a day when it grows into a towering tree.】【After your first child, Gu Nianmo, was born, you embarked on a path no one had ever walked before; you traveled everywhere, you saw the whole world, and with the most incredible talent, you became one who attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment in the shortest time, becoming one of the strong in Heaven and Earth.】

【When you returned from your travels and looked again, you realized that your strength was still unable to make much change to this world.】

【But the thought of Great Harmony in your heart never changed; you spread your philosophy step by step, measured the territory of the Human Race step by step, and even spread your own cultivation techniques.】

【To the Human Race, you are a ray of dawn, a ray of dawn that tore through the dark curtain of the sky.】

【After you finished walking the territory of the Human Race, you already had a great reputation in this era before myths; the world calls you the Red Lotus Demon Venerable, and your strength and your slaughter make many of the Demon Race tremble with fear.】

【Your talent is destined to make you not lose to the era; even in this so-called declining era, you have walked an incredible path.】

【Ancient Supremes have long become unbelievable records in ancient books, but with your own divine abilities and talent, you have forcefully become a rare Supreme since the near-ancient times in this declining era.】

【Under your influence, the Human Race has begun to undergo earth-shaking changes.】

【The Human Race, once bullied, began to gain a foothold in this era and began to let the light of their wisdom bloom in this era.】

【Perhaps there are countless scenes among the Human Race that you find unbearable to look at, but the Human Race of this era is undoubtedly high-spirited, self-improving, and confident.】

【Your talent is peerless in the world, and your marriage is also the envy of others.】

【At a time you were unaware of, two hundred and twenty-one tribes once offered you beauties, but these beauties did not even get to see your face before being expelled from the Human Race territory by your romantic partner, Liu Moran.】

【You became a living legend; you sat in command in the Beidi of the Human Race, and Niankong Villa became a place looked up to by countless cultivators in the world.】

【You had four romantic partners and three offspring with innate visions; your life was perfect.】

【Yet, in the eyes of others, you were already a winner in life, but from beginning to end, you never let down your guard; you knew that right beside the Human Race's sleeping mat, there was another powerhouse who should not belong to this era.】

【In the eyes of others, you sat in command at Niankong Villa, acting as an Immortal on earth, but only you knew that from beginning to end, you never slacked off, seeking unceasingly on that path day after day.】

【Your peak battle against Zhou Kai of the Qilin Clan allowed the two of you to completely break the decline of the era.】

【You were the final afterglow of this era, which stretched so long that it was calculated in the billions of years; you allowed the Heavenly Human, who had already gone extinct, to walk from legend into reality.】

【After this Heaven and Earth had been in decline for exactly one million years, you were born, reaching the Heavenly Human Realm.】

【No one doubted your talent, and no one would question your achievements.】

【Countless living beings chanted your name and called out your honorific title; they said that you could lead this era to once again recreate the prosperous age of cultivation of the ancient era.】

【And you indeed did it!】

【You bore the surveillance of the Heavenly Net, allowing this era to experience a window of opportunity, and countless cultivators benefited because of you.】

【Ancient existences remaining from the previous era began to emerge, the geniuses of this era began to stand out, and the Supreme Realm was no longer just a record flowing only in ancient books.】

【But no one knew that you and this era were the final afterglow.】

【Three thousand years later, you told a massive lie, claiming that you were going to ascend to become an Immortal, to step past the Immortal Realm that countless cultivators throughout history had yearned for.】

【But in reality, you merely wanted to let the Qilin Grotto-Heaven escape from Heaven and Earth, and then verify a conjecture of yours.】

【But what you did not know was that what you wanted to do was destined to make you regret it.】

【Before ascending to become an Immortal, you saw the essence of Heaven and Earth, saw that Heavenly Net covering thirty million years, and saw the essence of the operation of the order of Heaven and Earth.】

【The Qilin Grotto-Heaven escaped the world as you wished, but at the same time, your four beloved wives were also plunged into the void.】

【Your heart was filled with grief, yet you held a trace of unwillingness; you sacrificed everything of your own Dao and struck the sky with your body.】

【Through a stroke of luck, you completed the final cornerstone of the last thirty million years; without your knowledge, you became the gravedigger of the era, and you transformed into a part of the Heavenly Net, overlooking Heaven and Earth for ten thousand years.】

【Ten thousand years later, your final trace of obsession returned to the earth; you took your offspring and opened a Void Portal at the former site of Wanglin Mountain, attempting to find and bring back the corpses of your four wives.】

【But you were too weak, so weak that you could not even see the day the Qilin Grotto-Heaven approached Heaven and Earth.】

【In the fourteenth year after you completely perished, Gu Mingyue walked into the Void Portal; she used your bloodline to sense the location of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, but for some unknown reason, the Qilin Grotto-Heaven could no longer continue to approach Heaven and Earth.】

【Stepping out of Heaven and Earth, Gu Mingyue had no choice but to barely step into the Heavenly Human Realm while clutching her incomplete Taiyin Dao Principle.】

【Without becoming a Heavenly Human, one cannot survive for long in the void.】

【But Gu Mingyue remembered what you said: she must find the corpses of her mother and the others.】

【After three years of walking in the void, Gu Mingyue finally followed the bloodline connection to find the Qilin Grotto-Heaven; in the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, she still found the corpses of Jiu Jiu, Liu Moran, Wang Qinghe, and Long Xi.】

【Gu Mingyue was excited to take their corpses and the Taiyi Stone back to Heaven and Earth, but Gu Mingyue forgot that she had already achieved the Heavenly Human Realm.】

【Under the coverage of the Heavenly Net, there is no need for a Heavenly Human who has already detached from Heaven and Earth to exist.】

【Gu Mingyue did not reach the Taiyin Star, but she was trapped in the void; she could only send the corpses of her mother and her aunts back to Heaven and Earth through the Void Portal.】

【Also sent back to Heaven and Earth was the Taiyi Stone...】

【But Gu Mingyue could only remain in the void; however, a Heavenly Human cannot survive for long in the void either, so she eventually walked into the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, guarding seven million seven hundred thousand miles of Heaven and Earth alone, acting as the only living being in this Heaven and Earth.】

【Gu Mingyue, who had always loved liveliness, fell into a long sleep in the Qilin Grotto-Heaven; her two older brothers were grief-stricken, and at the same time, for the first time, they felt a bit of resentment toward you, their father.】

【The rest of their lives were spent either searching for a way to bring back their little sister or searching for your whereabouts.】

【At the same time, they were also attempting to break through to the Heavenly Human Realm, but unfortunately, the Heavenly Net of the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations could only support three thousand Heavenly Human Dao Principles; Gu Nianmo stepped into the Heavenly Human Realm in the Great Wilderness, but could no longer walk into the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations.】

【After his older brother was stranded in the Great Wilderness and his younger sister fell into the void, Gu Shengxi completely turned into a mad Daoist.】

【He wandered the territory of the Human Race; he was sometimes ignorant and sometimes clear-headed; he did not know whether he should walk into the void or walk into the Great Wilderness to keep his older brother company.】

【Your offspring, Gu Shengxi, was trapped at the final step of the Heavenly Human Realm.】

【(End of this chapter)】