363: Goddess of the Luo River, you win!

Luo Li had absolutely no airs of a Revered Master, plopping down right beside Shen Nian, hooking her arm around his shoulder, and deliberately pinching him, raising her eyebrows.

"You brat, you're getting buffer, aren't you? Your sword practice isn't up to par, but at least your physique is well-trained~"

"Revered Master..." Shen Nian was quite helpless, seemingly accustomed to her behavior. He then glanced at the precious sword in his arms, named Ninth, and whispered, "Regret... not really, just unwilling to accept it. I've worked so hard, does talent really determine everything..."

Putting everything else aside, as far as Ninth Mountain was concerned, if it came to diligence, Shen Nian was definitely number one!

On this point, even Luo Li had nothing to say.

"Oh my, why so silent? Cheer up~"

"Come on, let's drink, let's drink~"

"A good drunk relieves a thousand sorrows~"

Luo Li patted his back, her right hand picking up the wine gourd and waving it in front of Shen Nian, as if enticing him.

"Revered Master, it seems that in these five years, you haven't taught me any sword-related Divine Ability, nor have you shared any insights regarding the sword. Instead, you've only helped me train my tolerance for alcohol..." Shen Nian glanced sideways, raising an eyebrow as he suddenly spoke. He practiced only the techniques of his Heavenly Sword Sect, while Luo Li did nothing but drink and travel around, coming to watch him practice sword every few days...

"What are you saying!"

"What do you mean I haven't taught you!"

"Look, if it weren't for my guidance, would you have been able to train the Tianxuan Sword Technique to Major Achievement!"

"That thing, it's very difficult!" Luo Li said with her beautiful eyes feigning certainty, but her gaze flickered. In truth, she really didn't know how to teach Shen Nian the Dao of the sword; the main issue was that what she knew was too difficult. Let alone Shen Nian, no one in the entire Great Xia could learn it.

Shen Nian looked at Luo Li, couldn't help but smile, and snatched the wine gourd.

"Forget it..."

"Let's drink..."

After three rounds of drinks, night fell. The Revered Master and Disciple lay under the tree, watching the starry sky, with the wooden house right beside them. In these five years, this wasn't the first time they had gotten drunk outside.

"Good Disciple, if you only had one last day of life left, what would you most want to do?"

"Avenge my parents and slaughter the entire Yao Race!"

"That is very difficult. If the source cannot be resolved, how can you speak of slaughtering them all..."

"That's true, the Heavenly Demon Realm also has the legendary Immortal King..."

"Those are just minor issues."

"Revered Master, you've had too much to drink again..."

"Come, give Revered Master a massage..."

"How about we stop? It's been five years, haven't you had enough of pinching me?" Shen Nian said with a frown.

Luo Li glared and said, "No!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Nian closed his eyes in resignation. After being thoroughly embarrassed by the massage, he prepared to get up and return when...

"By the way, I might be going out for a while. You stay here at Ninth Mountain and don't wander around!" Luo Li said suddenly, looking at his back. Her eyes were blurry with intoxication, but she had long since noticed that Shen Nian's Death Qi was becoming thicker and thicker.

The fatal tribulation was approaching; his life would not last long~

This was destiny, something even Luo Li could hardly change. Even if she stayed by Shen Nian's side every moment, some mysterious entity would appear to lure her away...

There was perhaps only one possible solution.

To change it from the perspective of Luck...

Great Xia was already a place of chaotic heavens, and the power of destiny was slightly weaker here. If his Luck could be changed, there might truly be a glimmer of survival.

With this departure, Luo Li intended to find an item or a person that could alter Shen Nian's fate. After five years of getting along, she had long since accepted this Disciple from the bottom of her heart; he was the only family she had in this world. She never wanted to repeat the past, watching a loved one depart with her own eyes while being powerless, unable to do anything.

That sense of powerless despair was more suffocating than any other pain.

"Oh~"

Shen Nian only replied calmly; he just thought it was like always, that Revered Master would go out for a few days of wandering and then return...

He didn't expect that in the blink of an eye, a year would pass, and he would only receive her Jade Slip transmission, telling him to take in a Junior Sister named Xiao Qinger...

...

Boom!

Various memories shattered and scattered, the images manifesting in the silent Void Realm gradually faded. This was Luo Li's memory, drawn out by Candle Nine Nethers using some great and powerful secret technique. If it were normal times, he might not have been able to do it, but now, his body was entirely suppressed by Luo Li's Origin essence blood.

"If you touch him, I will surely slaughter your entire clan!" Luo Li's expression was cold and stern, nameless Sword Intent condensing in her eyes, and this starry sky began to tremble.

"Shen Family..."

"Oh~"

"So it is the descendant of your Senior Brother..."

"Even if you use every method to restrict him from raising his Realm, wanting to lower the impact of the Heavenly Fate Tribulation on him, it is a pity that destiny is hard to defy..."

"In the time you have lingered here, he has likely already experienced the life-and-death tribulation, and perhaps is no longer among the living..."

Upon hearing this, Luo Li's face turned terrifyingly cold, Imperial Fire spreading, but in her heart, the thought of returning to Ninth Mountain arose. She did not know what the passage of time here corresponded to in Great Xia; in her eyes, she had only been out for less than a moment.

"Hmm?"

"Interesting, Luo Shen, this is your goal, right?"

"Not bad. It is the first time I have been schemed against by a junior. You won..."

Upon hearing this, Luo Li was baffled, but she did not lower her guard at all.

At the same time.

Within the body of this giant snake, in a world opened up by great power.

Here, space and time were chaotic, years no longer cycled, and time had completely stopped. This place seemed not to belong to the Universe; it was a unique Realm where the river of the future shimmered and the imprints of the past rotated, impossible to fathom.

"Minor Achievement Innate Chaos Body..."

Sitting high on a magnificent white jade imperial chair, he appeared just like that. The white jade imperial chair was dilapidated, its gilded armrests cracked. Sitting on it was a figure—a dried corpse. He had not died, and after so many years, he had recovered much of his life essence. A pair of black-and-white pupils were so terrifying, blooming like two demonic lamps, or perhaps more like the evolution of the Yin and Yang paths in Reincarnation, corresponding to the two Laws of Time and Space.

When his eyes opened, this world had light; when his eyes closed, this world was plunged into darkness...

There was no wind, yet the blood-colored imperial robe fluttered, emitting an ancient aura. Worn on his now emaciated frame, it appeared quite comical and somewhat loose.

However, above his head, the blood-colored imperial crown flowed with the divine light of time and space, terrifyingly dense.

That voice emanated from his mouth, hoarse and cold, containing a flavor of icy ruthlessness.

It seemed that this unexpected ending did not cause even a ripple of emotion in him.

"Expend Origin, was it really just to trap me for a few years, allowing him to grow..."

"Then whose Reincarnation is he?"

He muttered to himself, firmly believing that this was some existence he had known in the past; otherwise, a normal Cultivator could never have such a cultivation speed.

His identity was self-evident!

One of the nine great Yao of the Mountains and Seas, Candle Yin!

In the Chaos Universe, there were far too many rumors about him. Some said he was the Zhuo Dragon, others called him the Fire Spirit, and some compared him to a Mountain God; those were all merely his Incarnations. In all the myriad worlds, his shadow existed everywhere!

"Forget it..."

"Who it is, it doesn't matter..."

...

Heavenly Abyss.

Time and space were instantly frozen.

"Little friend, shall we chat?"