FIMA Ch176: Truth

Gu Siyuan showed not the slightest emotional change at Xiao Qi’s praise.

Because the meaning hidden in Xiao Qi’s words was terrifying enough.

If experts from the Spirit Realm truly came here, then what followed would likely be slaughter as easy as chopping melons and vegetables.

He looked at Xiao Qi and said calmly, “A ritual sacrifice? Then what if all of you are killed before the ritual succeeds?”

At those words, the eyes of the righteous cultivators all lit up.

That really was a good method. A ritual interrupted midway could naturally never summon any powerful expert.

“Heh heh heh… you’re welcome to try…”

Xiao Qi threw back his head and laughed at Gu Siyuan. Then, with a sweep of sleeve and hem, a huge floating gate suddenly appeared in front of everyone.

Only then did the crowd realize that although the Xiao family members seemed to be standing before them at a moderate distance, in truth they were all inside that invisible gate.

Gu Siyuan raised a brow. “The Lingting secret realm. So that’s how it is. You’ve been hiding inside the secret realm all along.”

“Hahaha…” Xiao Qi stood with his hands behind his back, his face full of triumphant delight. “I wonder—which will happen first? Will you break open the gate to the secret realm first, or will my sacrifice finish first?”

Gu Siyuan had already anticipated this situation, so his expression remained calm.

But the other righteous cultivators were furious enough to grind their teeth and curse aloud.

“Damn it!”

“Cowards!”

“One shell after another!”

“We just broke the city-protecting formation, and now this secret realm appears!”

Xiao Qi paid no attention to such idle abuse. The initiative was in his hands now, and he was completely at ease.

He turned his gaze back toward Gu Siyuan and continued, “Canglan Continent is truly too far from the Spirit Realm. Apart from that single ascension path, if one tries to leave through any other route, one will only lose oneself in the boundless storms of space. Back then, after the two of us chased your ancestors here, we were forced to stay behind. These ten thousand years have been truly difficult…”

Gu Siyuan said, “Two people? The other one—would that be the one in Demon Abyss?”

Xiao Qi nodded and sighed. “Once, I felt deep regret for him. He waited ten thousand years, did not hesitate to sever his own corpse, and sank into Demon Abyss to seal himself there, only to die at the hands of a yellow-mouthed brat like you. But now that I think of it, perhaps it was a kind of blessing.”

At least he had not lived long enough to experience the helplessness and agony of seeing hope destroyed.

Just then, a wind suddenly rose.

The layers of dark clouds overhead slowly dispersed. A tiny brightness appeared in sight, then rapidly expanded, until it became as radiant as the blazing sun.

In the next instant, an incomparably bright and broad pillar of light shot down from the heavens, perfectly enveloping those Xiao family members who were burning their bloodlines and spiritual power, as though some protection and summons from ancient times had descended upon them.

Seeing this, Xiao Qi’s eyes lit up brilliantly. “It succeeded.”

Everyone raised their heads to look into the sky.

At the far end of that distant light pillar, two faces slowly appeared—white-haired and white-bearded, with the bearing of immortals and sages.

The instant they met the eyes of those two figures, everyone’s bodies trembled involuntarily. Those gazes were far too cold, like still abysses unchanged for ten thousand years, as though some boundless and deeply threatening force was pressing down from above.

Xiao Qi let out a soft sigh. “It seems the family has not only failed to prosper all these years, but has actually declined. There isn’t even a single new Body Integration cultivator, and the Great Elder is gone too. I suppose his lifespan simply reached its end.”

The Body Integration stage was the realm after Divine Transformation. Depending on the exact level of cultivation, its lifespan generally ranged from ten thousand to twenty thousand years.

Xiao Qi had been in Canglan World for nearly ten thousand years—long enough for the lifespan of a Body Integration cultivator to run out.

“But even if there is only one, that is still more than enough to kill all of you.”

Xiao Qi’s voice carried absolute coldness and resolve.

At once, the faces of everyone present went pale.

Body Integration stood two full major realms above Nascent Soul, and the further cultivation progressed, the greater the difference in battle strength each realm brought.

On Canglan Continent, there had once been late-Foundation Establishment cultivators who, with top-grade artifacts, managed to hold off an early Golden Core cultivator for a short while. But dozens of late Golden Core cultivators were still no match for even one move from a Nascent Soul cultivator.

And compared to Nascent Soul or Divine Transformation, Body Integration cultivators held another terrifying advantage: they had begun to grasp the power of space. Within a certain range, they could tear open space itself and move with unbelievable speed. Even if Gu Siyuan had tens of thousands of thunderfire bombs, they still would not be able to hit them.

It was easy enough to imagine.

The instant those two Body Integration cultivators crossed through the passage and descended, blood and storm would sweep across Canglan Continent.

“You went so far as to use your own bodies as fuel to summon those two people here, all just to kill us and drag everyone down together?”

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes. “How did it ever reach this point?”

Xiao Qi said expressionlessly, “This war that began ten thousand years ago needs an ending. We may lose—but you are not allowed to win.”

Gu Siyuan replied coldly, “So you’re very pleased with the current ending?”

A twisted and excited smile curved Xiao Qi’s mouth. “Yes. Aren’t you happy? So many members of our Xiao family accompanying you lowly natives into hell together!”

“I’m not in love with you people, so why would dying together on the same day be anything to celebrate? Obviously being alive is better.”

At that moment, a mocking and utterly merciless voice cut straight across Xiao Qi’s excitement.

He turned his gaze.

Standing beside Gu Siyuan, Xie Xueyi was dressed in red, his face as cold and pale as snow, but on that beautiful face hung a thick, cutting sarcasm completely at odds with his looks.

Xiao Qi looked at him once and said, “Back then, I happened to pass through that little city and saw that you had some talent for cultivation, so I brought you back. Who would have thought you would fail to understand your place so badly? You even ruined my great plans.”

Xie Xueyi still sneered. “Are you failing too hard now? Is that why you enjoy reminiscing so much?”

The words were not polite in the slightest. Xiao Qi fell silent for a moment before finally saying, “True enough. There’s no point in talking about the past. What’s before us now is more interesting. So what if you did everything in your power to escape the secret realm back then? Did you ever imagine you’d face this situation today?”

Xie Xueyi grinned. “On the contrary, I’m so glad I escaped back then I could die happy. In fact, I only regret not escaping even earlier. Otherwise how could I ever have met my gege? If I’d stayed a virgin right up until death, that would’ve been true lifelong regret.”

“……”

Whether Xiao Qi or the righteous cultivators present, all fell briefly silent.

Mm. With a dao companion like this, Gu Siyuan’s ordinary days were probably quite lively.

Xiao Qi decided to give up on speaking with Xie Xueyi.

Lifting his eyes, he saw Gu Siyuan staring at the light-pillar passage in a daze.

Although the ritual had basically succeeded and the passage was now connected, the Spirit Realm and this world still lay unimaginably far apart. Even with sacrificial power bridging the distance, it would still take the two Body Integration experts a considerable amount of time to arrive here.

Xiao Qi could not resist continuing to chat with Gu Siyuan. “A normal sacrifice requires only a single Xiao bloodline. But as I said before, the Spirit Realm lies much too far from here, so the difficulty of sacrifice is correspondingly much greater. That is why, in addition to building the passage with the flesh and blood of these cultivators, we also need the bloodline and spiritual power of our entire Xiao clan to serve as a lamp—to light the road for our seniors.”

Listening to this description, Gu Siyuan imagined the scene.

These sacrificial Xiao family cultivators were like a lighthouse suddenly rising in the endless darkness of the void, pointing out a course. At first glance, it even seemed strangely warm and moving.

And yet, the price and the purpose behind it…

From this alone, one could see just how resolute Xiao Qi and the others of the Xiao family were in dragging everyone else down with them.

The righteous cultivators clearly understood this too, because all of them unconsciously turned their gazes toward Gu Siyuan.

It was a habit they had formed gradually over these days.

If the deadlock before them—one tied to the survival of the entire continent—could now be broken, then the only hope was Gu Siyuan.

“Do you have a way?”

“What should we do now?”

“What can we do?”

Gu Siyuan did not answer.

And his silence instantly made the atmosphere in the field even more tense.

Xie Xueyi narrowed his eyes slightly and reached out to grab Gu Siyuan by the wrist.

Then, suddenly, he lifted his head and smiled ingratiatingly at Xiao Qi. “Senior, why be so absolute? Even though you were indeed defeated, weren’t all those who died on the battlefield just pawns under your control anyway? Isn’t your big Xiao family still standing here all neat and whole?”

Xiao Qi looked at Xie Xueyi in surprise. After a moment, he gave a cold laugh. “So should I thank you, then?”

Xie Xueyi shook his head with generous friendliness. “No need to be so polite. But there’s no reason we can’t talk things out, is there? For example, right now, if you stop this suicidal sacrificial ritual immediately, then everyone present here can guarantee that we won’t hunt you down afterward. We absolutely won’t discriminate against you either. We’ll sincerely treat you as comrades, and everyone can live freely and happily together on Canglan Continent. Wouldn’t that be better?”

“Didn’t you just say it yourself? Most of your people were born here and cultivated here. They already count as native Canglan people. So why do we absolutely have to keep hurting each other…?”

The moment those words came out—

the field fell briefly silent.

The righteous cultivators exchanged glances and felt that, in fact, this strategy might not be bad at all.

“We all agree to it.”

Yet Xiao Qi only shook his head and laughed at Xie Xueyi. “Gu Siyuan is a clever man, and you’re very clever too. But we are not fools, so stop wasting time with these little tricks.”

A flicker passed through Xie Xueyi’s eyes, and he snapped back indignantly, “What kind of way is that to speak? I’m an extremely honest person. I never lie and never play tricks.”

“Hmph!”

The sacrificing Xiao family members almost all snorted in disdain together.

Xie Xueyi had lived here for many years before, and many of the Xiao clan knew him well.

Naturally, they knew exactly what kind of person he was. That mouth of his could probably sweet-talk the stars down from the heavens, and among every hundred sentences, no one knew whether even one was true.

Looking at him, Xiao Qi said flatly, “Stop wasting time. Instead of doing this, why not hurry up and say your final words to your dao companion?”

Xie Xueyi’s expression changed slightly.

But he quickly recovered and sighed with some regret. “Looks like I shouldn’t have handled the negotiation. We should’ve sent someone with thick brows and big eyes who looks honest.”

At that moment, the right hand he had on Gu Siyuan’s wrist suddenly grew warm, his fingers being clasped back and interlocked with Gu Siyuan’s.

Xie Xueyi turned around.

As steady and calm as ever, Gu Siyuan said, “There is no need to panic. I’m here.”

Xie Xueyi froze for a moment, then blinked and nodded heavily. “Mm.”

Just now, he had looked casual and unruly, as though joking, but only Gu Siyuan—whose wrist he had been holding—knew that Xie Xueyi’s arm had been trembling lightly all along, and that his palm was slick with sweat.

Cold sweat.

He wanted to do something for everyone.

He wanted to help Gu Siyuan bear part of the burden.

But at this moment, what he was honestly thinking was this: so what if those two so-called great powers came? With Gu Siyuan by his side, what did life or death matter?

At worst, they would die together.

Anyway, he had already slept with Gu Siyuan. This life couldn’t really be called a loss anymore.

Beside him, Gu Siyuan had absolutely no idea what sort of nonsense his dao companion’s mind was occupied with at such a tense moment.

He was only staring at the pillar-passage—and then suddenly narrowed his eyes.

Xiao Qi seemed to see through his intention and gave a contemptuous smile. “This passage contains both the Dao of space and the Dao of time. It is incomparably stable. Unless an immortal who has crossed tribulation personally arrives, then even if every one of you self-destructs here today, you still wouldn’t be able to damage it in the slightest.”

Gu Siyuan raised a brow. “I have no particular thoughts about the passage itself. But a passage has two ends: a starting point and an ending point. What happens if the ending point suddenly changes?”

Xiao Qi gave another cold laugh. “The starting point is in the Spirit Realm. The ending point is inside my secret realm. And just as I said before—if you have the ability, then try it. Let’s see whether you shatter the secret realm gate first, or whether my family seniors arrive here first.”

The gate to the secret realm carried the will of space itself upon it. It was even sturdier than the city-protecting formation of Xueling City that Gu Siyuan and the others had just conquered.

It had taken seven days to break the city’s formation. The secret realm gate would only take longer.

“Why would changing it require shattering it?” Gu Siyuan suddenly lifted his head and said softly, “Where I come from, there is one truth that has never yet been put into practice.”

“Hmph. A truth? What truth?” Xiao Qi sneered. “Can this truth help you change a hopeless situation?”

Gu Siyuan’s voice was low and firm. “Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the earth.”

“Gege, what’s the earth?”

Before Xiao Qi could continue mocking him, Xie Xueyi’s eyes had already widened in curiosity.

“The earth? You can think of it as a small world—one much larger than the Lingting secret realm,” Gu Siyuan said evenly. Then he continued, “There was never a chance to test that saying there. But in this cultivation world, perhaps it can be tried.”

Although Xie Xueyi still looked completely baffled, somehow his heart was no longer panicking at all.

Gu Siyuan pinched his cheek and sighed with feeling. “It’s wonderful that magical artifacts can be controlled so freely. It’s wonderful that cultivators can fly and rise into the sky. And it’s wonderful that we have so many people.”

Xie Xueyi puffed out his cheeks. “Mm-hmm. If gege says it’s good, then it’s good!”

Inside the secret realm, Xiao Qi stared at Gu Siyuan, his brows drawing high together, while a deeply unpleasant foreboding suddenly rose in his heart—because Gu Siyuan looked far too calm.

A person like Gu Siyuan would never casually say things unless he was absolutely certain.

…

Whoosh, whoosh… whoosh, whoosh!

The cries of countless flying artifacts filled the air, streak after streak of invisible killing force flashing through the dim sky.

And then, at a certain instant, those ordinarily arrogant offensive artifacts—sharp enough to split mountains and shatter stone—suddenly pressed tightly together under the control of their respective masters, forming an immeasurably vast giant dragon.

It rode the clouds and passed through wind, a dragon descending upon heaven and earth.

Even with Gu Siyuan’s divine sense, far stronger than anyone else alive in this world, he still could not see the end of that dragon-shaped chain of artifacts in a single glance.

But that was alright.

There was no need to see the end.

Standing beneath the Lingting secret realm, Gu Siyuan looked at the dragon’s starting point and said into the communication artifact at his waist, “Begin.”

“Alright.” On the other end, Xie Xueyi’s clear and pleasant voice came back.

In the very next instant, the vast and boundless artifact-dragon flickered lightly once.

A heaven-covering pressure came crashing downward.

Even the Xiao family inside the secret realm instantly felt their minds thrown into chaos.

Gu Siyuan smiled.

This was not ten thousand swords becoming a dragon.

This was a million. Ten million.

It was not merely huge and boundless.

More importantly, it bore the faith of more than half the cultivators on this continent.

It wanted to overturn heaven and earth.

It was capable of shifting heaven and earth.

A shrill metallic grinding filled the air.

That massive artifact finally truly began to move.

Its front end pressed against one point along the side of the entire Lingting secret realm, while beneath it lay countless of the strongest defensive artifacts on the entire continent, serving as the fulcrum.

And slowly, from below upward, it began to lift.

An indescribably powerful aura spread across heaven and earth.

Gu Siyuan’s gaze moved with its motion.

Inside the secret realm, Xiao Qi seemed to understand in an instant what they were trying to do.

His expression changed completely, and his whole body trembled as he screamed, “Impossible… impossible! How could such a thing be possible? You trash—Nascent Souls, Golden Cores, Foundation Establishments—you actually dare dream of shaking the Dao of space!”

“A small world can’t possibly be pushed away! It’s a small world!”

Gu Siyuan looked slightly up at him and said with his usual coldness, “Where I come from, there is another saying as well.”

“It’s called: a prophecy fulfilled.”

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