Chapter Old Fish took the [White Lotus Immortal Sword] and the leaf from the World Tree, then threw them into the well.
"What are you...?" Ye Qingyu tried to scoop these items back up.
"No no no...!" Old Fish quickly stopped him and said, "If you want to resurrect him, he"ll have to be baptized by the gate of life and death. How else would he be resurrected?"
"Is that it? Do we just throw these items in the well?" Ye Qingyu said doubtfully.
Old Fish laughed and said, "The Great Dao is simple. Great skills seem incompetent, great vocalists seldom raise their voices... the more simple something seems, the more complicated it actually is, while the things that seem complicated are actually made out of simple theories. The mouth of this well is the gate of life and death and it contains a power that even Emperors would not be able to fathom. Thus, how could anyone ever dream of controlling its power? Thus, the gate of life and death will have to make the decision whether or not to resurrect Liu Shaji. We can"t force it to make a decision."
Ye Qingyu was still rather doubtful but he had to admit that Old Fish"s words made sense.
Old Fish said, "Moreover, since Liu Shaji will be reborn, it does not mean that the Liu Shaji who will appear will be the same Liu Shaji you used to know. He might be slightly different, so you should be prepared."
Ye Qingyu"s brows arched and he asked, "What do you mean? What differences are you referring to?"
He suddenly had a bad feeling about Old Fish"s words.
"Just as flowers from the same stem might not be exact copies of each other, and just as a seed might not produce leaves that are exactly the same, it would be reasonable to think that Liu Shaji will probably be slightly different after emerging from the gate of life and death," Old Fish explained patiently.
Ye Qingyu suddenly felt as though he had been tricked by his old friend and said, "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Old Fish spread his hands out wide helplessly and said, "You"ll know what I mean soon enough."
"How long would this take?" Ye Qingyu asked as he looked at Old Fish.
Old Fish shook his head and said, "I"m not sure. As I"ve said, no one is able to control the power from the gate of life and death. I don"t know how long this would take myself."
"You..." Ye Qingyu suddenly realized that there were many problems with this plan. Old Fish didn"t seem to know much about the gate of life and death at all.
As they spoke, ripples suddenly appeared in the water and a small tree branch slowly emerged. This tree branch grew at a visible pace and climbed up the wall of the well to reach surface level. It continued to grow and new branches continued to spout from it. A part of these branches reached out to the sky while another part of these branches plunged into the white jadeite rock and tunneled into the depths of the rock.
Thirty minutes later, a magical tree that was several dozen meters tall and had a canopy that shrouded the surrounding hundreds of meters appeared in front of the group.
"Uh..." Ye Qingyu was extremely shocked.
He looked at Old Fish and at the Ferryman of the Netherworld; he noticed that they seemed to be rather taken aback as well. Evidently, none of them had expected to see this.
"This isn"t the World Tree," Old Fish said regretfully after he managed to move his mouth that had fallen open in shock.
This magical tree was not a mini version of the World Tree but instead, it was an odd tree that had never been seen before. A ray of silverish white light flickered in the middle of the tree canopy. This was the [White Lotus Immortal Sword] that had been thrown into the well earlier. It seemed like the sword was back in its scabbard and grew from the trunk of this strange tree. It was so tightly bound to this tree that it had become part of it.
"Whatever happens next will depend on how lucky Liu Shaji is," Old Fish said.
Liu Shaji"s soul was contained within the [White Lotus Immortal Sword] and the signs that they had witnessed seemed positive. It meant that the leaf from the World Tree and the [White Lotus Immortal Sword] were heading in a positive direction after being activated by the gate of life and death. The [White Lotus Immortal Sword] gave off mysterious rays of light that surged with abundant life force.
"Would this tree bear fruit? Should I expect to see a new Liu Shaji pop out from the fruit of this tree?" Ye Qingyu asked in confusion.
Old Fish plucked several leaves from this mysterious tree and examined them.
"We will be able to know the result only after some time has pa.s.sed," he finally concluded.
The Ferryman of the Netherworld agreed with his conclusion.
"Let"s wait a few more days then," Ye Qingyu said and decided to keep this tree under observation.
Three days later, a blood-colored bud bloomed on this strange tree.
Another three days pa.s.sed before the first petal of this blood-colored bud opened and it resembled a ball of burning blood. The end of the petal seemed almost intangible. It was elusive and was like smoke or mist.
"One part of his soul has returned," the Ferryman of the Netherworld said.
Ye Qingyu and Old Fish were stunned.
Did each petal on the bud signify a part of Liu Shaji"s soul?
It was said that men had three spiritual and seven physical souls, so this flower would only be complete after ten petals had opened from this bud. Would the newly resurrected Liu Shaji emerge from the fruit of this flower?
The second petal opened after another three days and it was an exact copy of the first petal—it seemed like smoke and mist, like a dream or a fantasy, as though another part of his soul had returned.
The third petal opened after another three days pa.s.sed.
Then, the fourth and the fifth petal...
However, no one was sure when the next petal would bloom.
Ye Qingyu finally sighed after he waited for a month. He knew that he didn"t have the luxury of time to continue waiting.
Time waits for no man.
If the Sky Emperor"s cronies noticed that he had disappeared for such a long period of time, the Sky Emperor might launch a counterattack, which would nullify all his previous efforts and countless others would suffer. The affairs of mankind were like a tide, and life was like water. Ye Qingyu was not an ambitious man who wanted to reign over all living creatures, but there seemed to be a net that enveloped him and tightened around him the more he struggled. Before he knew it, he had to bear a heavy burden.
He had to go back.
"Please send me back," Ye Qingyu turned to bow at the Ferryman of the Netherworld and handed over his fee even before the Ferryman could speak. Then, he said to Old Fish, "If you have time to spare, would you mind waiting here?"
"Ah?" Old Fish thought for a moment before he said, "Sure, I was on good terms with that fellow Liu Shaji myself and since I do have some spare time on my hands, I"ll just wait here. Haha, this is great!"
However, to their surprise, the Ferryman of the Netherworld shook its head and rejected the fee that Ye Qingyu had offered. "I can"t bring you out of this place," it said.
"What?" Ye Qingyu was stunned.
Old Fish was also a little dumbfounded, "What do you mean, you greedy old man? Please don"t scare me with such words... Hmm? Are you deliberately trying to exaggerate so as to make us hand over all our a.s.sets to you in our despair?"
It would be a nightmare if they couldn"t get out of the fog of eternity.
Although Ye Qingyu"s cultivation was so powerful that he had rewritten history, he wasn"t sure if he"d be able to emerge safely from the fog of eternity based on what he had seen earlier.
"You"ve entered from a place of death, so now, you"ll have to exit from the gate of life," the Ferryman of the Netherworld simply replied.
The gate of life and death was the place between life and death. Whoever entered from the gate of life will only be able to exit from the place of death, and vice versa. This was the universal law of the Great Dao of life and death and no one could defy this law. Ye Qingyu had relied on the Ferryman of the Netherworld"s personal Emperor weapon and the Yellow Springs, and pa.s.sed through the fog of eternity to arrive at the gate of life and death. It would be impossible to exit the way that they had entered, so they could only leave from the gate of life.
As for the gate of life...
"Are you saying that we have to jump into the well if we want to get out of here?" Old Fish suddenly paled as he stared at the well in front of him.
No one knew what dangers lurked in the well.
The Ferryman of the Netherworld nodded solemnly in agreement.
"Wait, since you managed to bring us here, this means that you"d be able to go back to where you came from. Why can"t you take us along with you?" Old Fish suddenly remembered that the Ferryman of the Netherworld would be able to steer the boat back.
"We are different," the Ferryman of the Netherworld said simply.
Old Fish was about to argue, but he immediately realized that the Ferryman of the Netherworld was speaking the truth. It was a scarecrow that straddled the place between life and death and it was the most fantastical creature in the world. It could neither live nor die and it could even be said that it transcended both life and death. Thus, it could freely defy the Dao of life and death without having to suffer any consequences.
He turned back to look at Ye Qingyu and they looked at each other in dismay.
"What"s inside the well?" Ye Qingyu asked.
The Ferryman of the Netherworld shook its head because it had never jumped into the well. Then, it said, "It won"t be dangerous. The well would lead to the place bursting with life and since it is part of this world, it won"t lead to any other worlds. Moreover, the place of life isn"t dangerous and even if you encounter any danger, you"re both strong enough to overcome it."
Old Fish grumbled in annoyance and felt that it had been tricked by this scarecrow.
"You can go ahead. I"ll guard this tree," the Ferryman of the Netherworld said. After all, this was a place of death and if a living creature like Old Fish spent too much time in this place, he would suffer from adverse effects.
Ye Qingyu thought about it and decided that this was the only option they could take.
He couldn"t blame the Ferryman of the Netherworld since no one questioned how they"d be returning before they set off; and to the Ferryman of the Netherworld, the well was definitely a plausible way to get out of that place.
"Let"s go!" Ye Qingyu said as he grabbed Bai Yuanxing and jumped into the well without any hesitation.
Old Fish stomped his feet and cursed at the Ferryman of the Netherworld before he pinched his nose and jumped into the well.
The water was tremendously cold.
The moment Ye Qingyu entered the well, he felt as though his body was about to freeze and break apart. He immediately exerted his Emperor qi, protecting Bai Yuanxing within, but when he opened his eyes to look around, he saw that everything around him was in monochromatic colours. There was no point of reference, so this was extremely bizarre. He lost his sense of direction and distance, as though nothing existed, or as though everything was part of nothingness...
He suddenly felt as though he had died.
Then, a strong force tore through his body.
He felt as though he were a fetus that was about to be pushed from his mother"s womb, and there was a constant force that pressed down on him. He could vaguely make out a speck of light ahead and pulled Bai Yuanxing along with him, as they tried to squeeze through that hole with all their might...
Then, there was a bright flash of light.
Ye Qingyu suddenly felt how the pressure lifted and found that he was in a brand new environment with Bai Yuanxing.
There was light all around them and they found themselves in a great hall.
Several familiar voices could also be heard.
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