Chapter 543: Immortality, how is that not a kind of curse?

In Nezha's hands was a camera with the paint worn off, along with photographs that had turned yellow and faded.

Inside were the videos and memories of the time they accompanied Tang An back to the modern world and took photos at the amusement park.

There were also photos Tang An took on the journey to the West, capturing them unleashing their full power together to battle the gods and Buddhas of the heavens.

And there was the final video clip Tang An recorded on her own during the last journey to the West, as well as the final group photo of the four master and disciples.

It was clear that Nezha had been keeping that group photo with great care.

Yet as hundreds of years passed, the photo had been repaired by magic countless times. It was impossible to fix the faded gray-white, which looked exactly like the gloom in the depths of the three of them's hearts at this moment.

Yang Jian sat down beside Nezha, also leaning his back against the Purifying World Green Lotus.

He took the photo from Nezha's hand and, looking at Tang An's smiling face, could not help but be infected by her smile.

But as they smiled, the corners of their eyes turned red, and tears shimmered in their eye sockets.

"Master truly loved to smile in the past."

Recalling the old days, when Yang Jian first met Tang An, he was steady, deep in his schemes, and full of wariness toward her.

But gradually, the Judicial God, who was always stern and humorless, would occasionally smile from the heart.

And his forced steadiness, the pain of his broken family, were all gradually healed by Tang An.

It was she who let him save his mother, and she who let him find the self he had been as a child.

She made him no longer the steady, dull, and stern Yang Jian. Instead, he became a Yang Jian who could be devious and mischievous, who could be impulsive, and who possessed the vitality of a living person.

"Actually, it's not that Master couldn't bear to leave us; it's that we couldn't accept losing her forever."

He understood Tang An so well; he knew that the current situation had already achieved the best result she wanted.

She had long been tired, and she must have felt it was worth it to trade her own death for so many other lives.

Nezha took the photo from Yang Jian's hand and carefully stroked Tang An's cheek.

"I know, I know it all."

It was never that she couldn't let them go; it was that they couldn't let go of their own salvation.

But what could they do? She was the one ray of light he had managed to grasp in his dark life.

Having felt the warmth of that light, how could he be willing to fall back into the dark abyss?

"I tried to persuade myself to let go and accept this result."

"But Second Brother, I can't do it."

"Whenever I think that I will never see her again, I feel that immortality is a curse, a torment that lasts forever."

"I... I..."

Nezha helplessly hung his head and sobbed in a low voice, tears falling in large drops.

Yang Jian rested his hand on Nezha's shoulder and squeezed it hard.

"I believe Master will wake up; she definitely will."

Everyone was trying to find a way to awaken Tang An's consciousness.

Yet without exception, they all failed.

Because she had long since lost the will to survive; she already felt that this life was complete.

One day, five hundred years later.

"Jiuyue?"

Sun Wukong sensed Jiuyue's aura and flew over to greet her.

"Jiuyue, you..."

When she saw Jiuyue's appearance, she was startled.

When she saw Jiuyue five hundred years ago, she still looked like a young girl. Now, her face was aged and decrepit, her hair white; if not for the fact that her aura remained unchanged, Sun Wukong would not have recognized her at all.

Yang Jian also sensed Jiuyue's aura and teleported over.

"Who hurt you?" He thought Jiuyue had been harmed by someone in the Qingqiu Fox Clan.

Jiuyue shook her head, "I studied the Qingqiu Forbidden Technique and found a way to awaken Sister."

"It's just that the Forbidden Technique burns one's lifespan, so I look a bit older."

"I'll go find Sister first."

Jiuyue teleported into the Bamboo House and saw Nezha using his own heart-blood essence to nourish the Purifying World Green Lotus.

"Third Brother."

"I'm here."

Nezha was stunned for a moment, and a flicker of emotion ignited in his eyes, which had been like withered wood.

"You are..."

Jiuyue did not want to explain further; she sat down, spat out her Inner Pellet, and performed the Forbidden Technique, synchronizing her own visual memories into the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl.

"Monkey Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother, help me!"

The Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl was not something she, a little fox of only a few thousand years, could shake. Moreover, she was in a weakened state from burning her lifespan.

Sun Wukong and the others all channeled their Dharma Power into Jiuyue from behind, helping her break through a sliver of the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl's defenses.

But the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl had existed since before the world was created; even though the four of them struck at the same time, they were still unable to break it open.

Jiuyue's body could not withstand such immense Dharma Power and she vomited blood, yet she did not give up.

Because she knew this was the only way to awaken Tang An.

"Master Ancestor!"

She looked up at the sky, "Master Ancestor, help me!"

In the void, Tongtian Jiaozhu slowly raised his eyes.

Without saying a word of nonsense, he directly summoned the Four Swords to lend them a hand.

"Senior Brother."

At the same time, Tongtian Jiaozhu called out to Taishang Laojun, because after the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl was broken open, someone would still be needed to repair it.

This person, obviously, could be no one other than Taishang Laojun.

"Junior Brother, feel free to act."

The voice of Taishang Laojun appeared above Huashan.

The Four Swords—the Immortal Execution, Immortal Slaughter, Immortal Trap, and Immortal Annihilation—formed an offensive rotation like a drill, gouging the surface of the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl.

"Hum—"

"Clang! Clang!"

The Four Swords and the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl, one attacking and one defending, were long unable to determine a victor.

The four of them, however, had not given up; even Jiuyue, whose cultivation was the weakest, had not withdrawn her Inner Pellet.

Fortunately, with the support of Taishang Laojun, that powerful Immortal Pill Treasury, they could barely hold on for the time being.

One day, ten days, one hundred days...

One year, ten years, one hundred years...

Over a hundred years passed, yet they still had not given up, all of them having entered a state of simultaneously recovering and continuously channeling Dharma Power.

"Crack—"

"Snap..."

Suddenly, a faint sound appeared, causing the four of them to open their eyes almost simultaneously.

The Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl had cracked; it was a minuscule fissure, but for Jiuyue, that was enough.

"Sister, I'm sorry."

"I know you are tired, and I also know that I am using emotional blackmail to make you develop the will to live."

"But Sister, please forgive me just this once. I want to be selfish for once; even if it means tying you down, I want to tie you back."

"Just take pity on me and come out to take one more look."

"If even this cannot give you the conviction to live, then... I will accept it."

Using her own Inner Pellet as a guide, Jiuyue condensed a blood-red Talisman Seal and sent it into the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl, merging it into Tang An's Primordial Spirit.

As soon as the Talisman Seal was sent into the Fetal Pearl, they were sent flying by the counter-force of the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl.

Jiuyue propped herself up on her arms and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, her face pale; there was no trace left of the innocent little fox.

"It's done. It's done..."

She did not care about her own injuries, but instead wept with joy.