Chapter 821: Immortal Descendant Level 6, The New Generation’s Successor
After Zhang Yu finished completely extracting the Grotto-Heaven force from the ancestor’s corpse, the body — which he had been unable to store before — was now easily absorbed into his Grotto-Heaven.
Just as with the previous times he had liberated an ancestor, Zhang Yu’s consciousness once again entered the other’s memory dream.
Watching the shifting, hazy lights and shadows, Fu Ji remarked, “Another TV series to watch. This must be the final episode, right? Finally, the grand finale.”
Curiosity welled up in Zhang Yu’s mind. “What is the identity of this corpse? Why did Senior Ying Xintian go to such lengths to hide it?”
As Zhang Yu pondered, the lights and shadows before him shifted, revealing a scene that felt strangely familiar.
“This is… the former mountain gate of the Myriad Laws Sect, isn’t it?”
Zhang Yu had seen similar scenes in previous memory dreams and recognized this as the location of the Myriad Laws Sect’s mountain gate during the Great Righteous-Demonic War.
Under Zhang Yu’s and the others’ watchful gaze, a young girl was practicing breathing techniques on a mountain peak, refining her magic power.
After completing her daily breathing exercises, the girl attended lectures on martial arts and Daoist arts. At night, she returned to her Immortal Abode to continue her cultivation alone.
Although she kept to herself, everyone in the Myriad Laws Sect seemed to know her, yet they subtly kept their distance.
One day, when the girl returned to her Immortal Abode, she found a man and a woman waiting for her.
The man had a cold, grim face, radiating a murderous aura.
The woman, in contrast, was stunningly beautiful with a gentle expression.
The girl exclaimed in surprise, “Dad! Mom! You’re back?”
The man remained silent, his expression icy. The woman smiled and said, “The Great Righteous-Demonic War is almost over. We won’t be gone for so long anymore.”
Fu Ji looked at the man and woman and said, “Ying Xintian and Yun Taizhen? They’re this girl’s parents? Could she be the child Yun Taizhen was pregnant with in Li Feng’s memory dream? If so, more than a decade must have passed since the events of Li Feng’s memories.”
Zhang Yu’s gaze flickered. “Senior Ying… hid his own daughter’s corpse here?”
In the days that followed, from Ying Yunyao’s perspective, Ying Xintian left early and returned late every day, his face perpetually expressionless, as if everyone owed him money. This made it difficult for her to feel close to him.
Yun Taizhen, on the other hand, got along wonderfully with Ying Yunyao. Within just a few days, they had become inseparable, sharing everything with each other.
In the following days, Ying Yunyao heard more and more news about the Great Righteous-Demonic War as she walked through the streets.
Although the Righteous Sects had held the upper hand in the war for over a decade, they had never managed to truly eradicate the Demonic Path sects.
Recently, however, rumors of the Demonic Path sects’ imminent surrender spread like wildfire, causing excitement to ripple through the entire Myriad Laws Sect.
But when Ying Yunyao returned to her Immortal Abode that day, she felt the air crackling with electricity from a great distance, sending shivers down her spine.
Upon entering, she found her parents locked in a fierce argument.
Ying Xintian’s face was contorted with murderous intent as he snarled, “Now is not the time to accept their surrender! We must continue the slaughter…”
Yun Taizhen pleaded earnestly, “Xintian, you can’t keep killing like this.”
Sensing Ying Yunyao’s arrival, they quickly switched to communicating via spiritual transmission. But the fiend energy in Ying Xintian’s eyes only intensified, making Ying Yunyao’s heart pound with fear.
She couldn’t understand why her father seemed unhappy about the Demonic Path’s surrender, even wanting to prolong the war.
Later, Ying Yunyao overheard numerous rumors and finally understood: Ying Xintian had lost too many of his fellow disciples to the Demonic Path. He refused to stop fighting until he had avenged them.
I heard he’s also been searching for a traitor named Qi Mengyun, vowing to tear her from limb to limb for revenge.
“Some people also say… that Father’s excessive killing over the years has caused him to slowly fall into the Demonic Path without even realizing it…”
Thinking of Ying Xintian’s perpetually cold and grim expression, Ying Yunyao couldn’t help but shiver. He seemed to be growing more terrifying by the day.
To Ying Yunyao’s relief, although her father wielded immense influence within the sect, he wasn’t omnipotent. He failed to prevent the end of the Great Righteous-Demonic War.
With the Demonic Sect’s formal surrender, the war concluded, and the world welcomed a long-awaited peace.
Ying Yunyao had expected her father to gradually return to normal after the war, but the opposite happened.
He seemed trapped in the conflict, unable to move on. He constantly warned others to be vigilant against Demonic Path Technology, meddling in every affair, and even…
“Monitor every single person and object in the entire sect to prevent the misuse of Demonic Path Technology…”
When Ying Yunyao recalled her father proposing this, she could only think he had gone completely mad.
That night in the Immortal Abode, her mother and father erupted into another argument.
Yun Taizhen’s voice rang out, “I am the master of the Demon Supervision Hall and the Heavenly Surveillance Hall! I decide how the Demonic Path is managed! The responsibility of ‘Righteous Use of Demonic Arts’ rests on my shoulders. It’s not your place to tell me how to manage the Demonic Path!”
Ying Xintian remained silent, but his eyes glinted with a ferocious light that terrified Ying Yunyao. She feared he would suddenly lash out and attack her mother.
In the following days, various factions and individuals came to visit Ying Xintian.
“Senior Brother, what is the meaning of this? Monitoring everyone? Including us?”
“Ying Xintian, have you gone mad? The Great Righteous-Demonic War is over!”
“If you’re short on money, just tell us. Don’t make such an ugly scene…”
Later, Ying Yunyao heard from many people that her father had created a Daoist art for convenient surveillance. He intended to secure the contract for the entire sect’s monitoring network, which was why he had made such a proposal.
Even as he faced widespread criticism, condemnation, and attacks, her father relentlessly pushed his agenda. This was the first time Ying Yunyao truly understood just how desperate her father was for money.
Ying Yunyao felt a deep disgust for this behavior, reeking of greed. She couldn’t comprehend how the war hero she once admired had suddenly transformed into this person.
When she heard that her father had lost a significant amount of money but was still stubbornly persisting, Ying Yunyao secretly shook her head in disapproval.
Ying Yunyao’s disgust for her father grew day by day. After Ying Xintian locked her in the Immortal Abode, forbidding her from leaving or seeing her mother, this disgust reached a new level.
But her father became even more frantic. He grew increasingly strict with Ying Yunyao, imposing rigid requirements on the medicinal pills and herbal meals she consumed daily, and inspecting her physical condition every day.
Staring into her father’s cold and ferocious gaze, Ying Yunyao gradually began to feel a sliver of fear.
One day, she saw her father standing behind her mother, his face filled with murderous intent, seemingly about to unleash his magic power. Ying Yunyao finally couldn’t hold back and stepped forward. “Dad! What are you doing?! Are you going to kill Mom?”
Ying Xintian had completely lost his mind. Ying Yunyao was now utterly certain of it.
The next day, she found an opportunity to sneak out of the Immortal Abode, intending to seek refuge with her mother, Yun Taizhen.
“Mom, Dad has gone mad!”
Looking at her stunningly beautiful mother, Ying Yunyao poured out all the grievances she had suffered recently in a single breath.
Yun Taizhen listened to her daughter’s account, silently comforting her. Then, she extended her index finger and gently pressed it against her forehead.
A bolt of thunderlight suddenly erupted, about to tear through the air and pierce Ying Yunyao’s body. But in the very next moment, someone blocked it with a bare hand.
Watching this unfold, Ying Yunyao felt a sharp pain in her forehead and goosebumps erupting all over her skin. She shot to her feet and stared at Yun Taizhen in disbelief. “Mom, what were you just doing?”
Then she looked at Ying Xintian, who had blocked the thunderbolt for her. She never imagined that the father she despised most would be the one to save her.
Yun Taizhen ignored Ying Yunyao, instead blowing on her fingertips and turning to Ying Xintian. “So you’ve been guarding her all along. Heh, how long can you keep this up? You’ve already missed too many opportunities and wasted too many resources protecting her. She’s holding you back.”
Ying Xintian stared coldly at Yun Taizhen. “Artificial flesh, artificial spiritual essence — all mass-produced from farmed humans. You couldn’t have hidden something like this alone. Who’s behind you?”
Yun Taizhen chuckled. “Senior Brother, you never cease to amaze. You’ve only been back for such a short time, yet you’ve already uncovered even this.”
“Given your personality, you should have exposed this immediately. Why didn’t you? Let me guess… Senior Brother, you must have already realized, haven’t you? Exposing it is useless.”
“Because every high-ranking member who knows about this fully supports my actions. If you expose me… you’ll be making an enemy of the entire Myriad Laws Sect, of the world’s Righteous Path.”
Ying Xintian said, “I can kill you. The Great Righteous-Demonic War is over. The world will be fine even without you.”
Yun Taizhen sneered, “Kill me? With just you alone?”
“Or with her?”
Yun Taizhen pointed at Ying Yunyao. “She is indeed the first-generation artificial human I created, using the bloodline from before I established my Dao Lineage. But if you think that makes her a flaw in my lineage, you’re severely underestimating me…”
As Ying Xintian and Yun Taizhen clashed verbally, Ying Yunyao’s mind reeled.
What are you talking about? she thought frantically.
Farmed humans… artificial humans…
Ying Yunyao wanted to block it all out, but she couldn’t stop their unguarded conversation from drilling into her ears.
Ying Yunyao was no fool. Even from their fragmented conversation, she quickly pieced together the truth.
“So… the synthetic flesh is a lie? It’s all made from farmed humans?”
“Is that why Dad… was so concerned about the medicinal foods I ate? He didn’t want me to accidentally eat human flesh?”
“Mother is farming humans… Is that why his killing intent toward her grew stronger?”
“I’m an artificial human created by Mother… Is that why Father was so concerned about my health?”
“I’m a flaw in Mother’s Dao Lineage… Is that why she wants to kill me?”
In that moment, Ying Xintian appeared in Ying Yunyao’s eyes as a figure of righteous grandeur, radiating an imposing aura.
Meanwhile, Yun Taizhen seemed shrouded in demonic energy, her face a mask of sinister cruelty.
Is this… the Demonic Path? Ying Yunyao thought. Mother unknowingly became this…
“Is this still the same dream?” Fu Ji remarked, observing Ying Xintian and Yun Taizhen within the memory dream. “Their aesthetic styles switched instantly. Their auras are completely different now.”
Just then, Ying Xintian took another step forward. The overwhelming pressure he released caused the entire Immortal Abode to tremble, and the sea of clouds in the sky churned violently.
He looked at Yun Taizhen and said, word by word, “Taizhen, what on earth happened to you? Is someone behind you threatening you? Tell me, and I’ll help you.”
Yun Taizhen shook his head. “Senior Brother, I’m not being threatened or controlled. I’ve simply… come to understand.”
“Senior Brother, you should stop causing trouble within the sect. All this time you’ve been fighting, have you achieved anything?”
“It’s useless. The tide of the era is set. You can’t reverse it. If you force the issue… you’ll only end up shattered to pieces one day.”
Ying Xintian replied, “I was one of the initiators of the ‘Righteous Use of Demonic Arts.’ I bear an undeniable responsibility for this. I’m willing to be shattered to pieces if that’s what it takes.”
Beside them, Ying Yunyao’s heart trembled. Recalling her father’s actions since his return, she suddenly felt a wave of understanding.
When the negotiations between Ying Xintian and Yun Taizhen failed and Ying Yunyao was leaving with her father, she suddenly asked, “Dad… is this why you’re so wary of the Demonic Path? Is this why you didn’t want to accept their surrender back then and wanted to slaughter them all?”
Ying Xintian paused slightly and said, “I never wanted to slaughter the entire Demonic Path.”
“It’s just that… back then, after the Demonic Path surrendered, the Righteous Sects acted like starving wolves, scheming to carve up the Demonic Path’s assets and recruit their top talents for their own use.”
“Those top talents of the Demonic Path were all monstrously evil. Recklessly taking them in would inevitably spread demonic ideology and bring chaos to the Righteous Sects.”
“I had intended to eliminate such individuals before the Great Righteous-Demonic War ended, but unfortunately… I failed.”
Ying Yunyao asked again, “Dad… they say you wanted to seek revenge on someone named Qi Mengyun back then. Is that true?”
Ying Xintian replied, “Qi Mengyun… I did indeed want to kill her. But the reason I sought her out was that I discovered something deeply wrong with her. She… and certain individuals from other sects… seemed to have been deliberately manipulated, used as fuses to ignite the Great Righteous-Demonic War prematurely.”
“Unfortunately, once the war began, these people vanished one by one without a trace, and I was never able to find them.”
That night, Ying Yunyao and her father talked for a long time, resolving many past misunderstandings.
Thinking back on her mother’s current state, Ying Yunyao felt she finally understood Ying Xintian. He had been silently fighting the Demonic Path in his own way all along.
In her eyes, Ying Xintian now seemed larger than life.
“Dad,” Ying Yunyao said, “I want to help you.”
“Dad, let me help you.”
Ying Xintian replied, “Yun Taizhen and her faction are incredibly powerful. If you help me, you might have to oppose more than half of the Myriad Laws Sect. Countless people will turn against you, and you’ll find yourself unable to take a single step within the sect.”
Remembering Ying Xintian’s own ordeal, Ying Yunyao’s resolve wavered.
In the days that followed, Ying Yunyao watched, just as before, as Ying Xintian was isolated, marginalized, and misunderstood… yet he remained steadfast, stubbornly pursuing his plan to influence the Myriad Laws Sect.
Finally, Ying Yunyao couldn’t hold back any longer and asked, “Dad… why do you keep going? Even if you ignored all this, no one would blame you, right?”
Ying Xintian said, “It’s true that I don’t have to be the one to uphold the Righteous Path and stop the world from falling into the Demonic Path’s abyss.”
“But since I can do it and I want to do it, I simply do it.”
“Perhaps this is the arrogance of the powerful, the desire to impose one’s ideals upon the world, to make heaven and earth operate according to one’s will, to elevate one’s Dao Lineage above all else. Every powerful being in this world harbors such thoughts to some degree, and I am no exception.”
Ying Yunyao asked, “What if you fail?”
Ying Xintian replied, “Then I’ll leave it to the next generation. As long as there are successors, as long as the flame is passed down from one generation to the next, there will always be hope.”
Ying Yunyao said, “Dad, let me help you.”
This time, Ying Xintian looked into Ying Yunyao’s determined eyes and said nothing more, merely nodding. “Alright,” he said faintly.
A moment later, Ying Yunyao suddenly asked again, “Father… am I… considered your daughter?”
Ying Xintian replied calmly, “You are an artificial human. Yun Taizhen didn’t use my bloodline to create you. From a bloodline perspective, we have no father-daughter relationship.”
Just as Ying Yunyao’s face fell, Ying Xintian suddenly added, “But as long as you are willing to inherit my ideals, you are my successor. Bloodline is irrelevant.”
In the days that followed, Ying Yunyao remained by Ying Xintian’s side, dedicating herself to upholding the Righteous Path.
Meanwhile, the dream before Zhang Yu dissipated, replaced by lines of text, a final message from Ying Xintian.
“In the end, I still failed to protect Yunyao.”
“On her 28th birthday, Yun Taizhen assassinated her to mend the flaw in her Dao Lineage.”
“I searched everywhere for a way to resurrect her.”
“Later, at the Heavenly Demon Sect, I found a Daoist named Reincarnation, who helped me preserve Ying Yunyao’s True Spirit.”
“Then, in what was then the far west, I met the Desolate Ox for the first time. He claimed to be from another corner of the world and used his own flesh and blood to preserve a sliver of Yunyao’s life force.”
Reading these lines, Zhang Yu’s heart jolted. “Desolate Ox? He met the Desolate Ox Great Sage? The first time? From another corner of the world? …What does that mean?”
Zhang Yu hurriedly asked the Desolate Ox in his mind, but the Desolate Ox replied, “The memories I possess are primarily from the time of the Layered Kunxu. I don’t have this memory of meeting Ying Xintian.”
Meanwhile, Ying Xintian’s message continued.
“Despite all my efforts, I still couldn’t truly resurrect Yunyao. I could only communicate with her True Spirit for a brief moment each day.”
“I originally wanted to let her find peace.”
“But she…”
The ancestor’s corpse before him slowly opened its eyes. Ying Yunyao looked at Zhang Yu and smiled faintly. “You must be the successor Father chose, right?”
“When our memories connected in the dream, I saw some of yours as well.”
“You are indeed worthy of inheriting Father’s ideals.”
“Then…”
As she spoke, her mouth slowly opened, and a ray of blood-red light emerged.
“Father’s bloodline power, along with Yun Taizhen’s bloodline information… it’s all been stored within me.”
“Now, it’s time to pass it on to the new generation.”
“But once you inherit this, you will not only become Father’s successor but also Yun Taizhen’s sworn enemy.”
“Have you made your decision?”
Zhang Yu smiled and said, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
The next moment, as the blood-red light surged into Zhang Yu’s body, his Immortal Descendant trait shattered its restraints, finally reaching level 6.
Ying Yunyao’s True Spirit slowly dissipated. She looked at Zhang Yu with a final smile. “From this day on, you are Father’s new successor.”
“I leave the rest to you.”
At the same time, besides the Immortal Grotto-Heaven experiencing another explosive growth — its length, width, and height instantly breaking through to 10 kilometers — Zhang Yu also felt a connection form with the entire labyrinth outside the Grotto-Heaven.
In that instant, the entire labyrinth seemed to be under his gaze, linked to him by a mysterious connection.
Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Is it because this labyrinth was created by Senior Ying Xintian? Now that I’ve truly inherited his bloodline power, I can finally sense it?”
Zhang Yu felt he could now influence the entire labyrinth in various ways. But before he could experiment, he sensed another power surging within his body.
“Is this the bloodline power of Yun Taizhen?”
But the power vanished in a flash, seemingly too faint to perceive.
Zhang Yu then turned his attention to the Dao Seed Register. After a brief moment of contemplation, he understood the power of his level 6 Immortal Descendant trait.
As for his assessment of this level 6 Immortal Descendant, only one word came to Zhang Yu’s mind: “Strong!”
At the same time, he stepped out of the Immortal Grotto-Heaven. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he saw the giant corpse offering its congratulations.
Seeing Zhang Yu emerge and sensing the Grotto-Heaven power radiating from him, Ying Aikun roared in fury, “On what grounds?”
“Background, wealth, strength — in what way does Zhang Yu surpass me? On what grounds does he deserve the Immortal Legacy?”
In response to Ying Aikun’s outburst, the giant corpse said, “Perhaps it’s because he possesses a heart as pure as an Immortal Crystal. In Senior Ying’s eyes, that heart is more important than anything you mentioned.”
“Bullshit!”
Ying Aikun bellowed, taking a single step that tore through the void and instantly reappeared behind Zhang Yu.
In his eyes, would Zhang Yu even be considered a person without Bu Yingshu’s protection?
Without the ability to pilot the Immortal Shuttle, could Zhang Yu withstand even a single blow from him?
“The old bastard’s legacy isn’t so easy to claim!”
“He has just obtained the legacy’s power; he surely can’t wield it proficiently yet.”
“Then now’s the time!”
A cold glint flashed in Ying Aikun’s eyes as he made his decision. “While he’s still unsteady, I’ll seize back my Immortal Legacy!”
The current scene was perfect: the Spirit Realm was sealed off, isolating them from the outside world. With no interference from Bu Yingshu and no protection from the Immortal Shuttle, Zhang Yu was as defenseless as a chicken before him.
As this thought crossed his mind, Ying Aikun formed a Dao Seal with his hands, once again activating the power of the Cosmic Pot and aiming it at Zhang Yu.
An invisible Grotto-Heaven power swept toward Zhang Yu, but in the next moment, a deafening boom erupted, sending ripples spreading out in front of him.
At that instant, their two Grotto-Heavens collided violently. Ying Aikun felt as if his Cosmic Pot had slammed into a Minor Realm. His opponent’s Grotto-Heaven was so solid and unyielding that no matter how he manipulated his magic seals, he couldn’t budge it an inch.
Watching Ying Aikun strain with effort, Zhang Yu smiled faintly. “What tier of Spatial Magical Artifact do you think you’re wielding? How dare you clash it against my Immortal Grotto-Heaven?”