Cannot touch him?
These words were too absurd, so absurd that Li Ye didn’t take them to heart at all. The wind from his blade rose as he charged straight at the man’s face.
Unexpectedly, the Heaven Dao Diviner stood motionless. Even as his blue-white robe embroidered with silver trigram patterns rippled with murderous energy, his sleeves billowing like sails, he merely gazed calmly at Li Ye.
Something wasn’t right.
With a flick of his wrist, Li Ye withdrew his force.
The killing energy whipped up by the Phoenix-Slaying Blade grazed the Heaven Dao Diviner’s cheek, leaving a bloody cut. He raised his hand to wipe it, and crimson blood bloomed on his fingertip.
At the same time, an identical cut appeared on Taihe Xianshi’s face—the same position, the same depth.
Li Ye half-closed his eyes and, after a long moment, let out a cold laugh: “Coward.”
He had linked his divine soul with Taihe Xianshi’s for fear of death.
…
…
The Heaven Dao Diviner wasn’t angry at all. He even smiled gently: “Before you came, I cast a divination to see if today he would return his soul to heaven and earth.”
As a diviner, one cannot divine one’s fate. Therefore, he had merged his divine soul with Taihe’s and divined Taihe’s fate instead.
It was an extremely clever but utterly shameless method.
With scorn in his eyes, Li Ye asked: “Would you like to divine again and see if I will do as you expect?”
“No need to divine again,” the Heaven Dao Diviner chuckled. “You won’t kill him.”
Earlier, when Zhen Huan Gong said Li Ye wouldn’t harbor murderous intent toward people of the Taihe Immortal Sect, he was somewhat skeptical. But now, observing Li Ye’s expression, the Heaven Dao Diviner was delighted to discover he had wagered correctly.
He truly wouldn’t harm Taihe.
Looking at Taihe with surprise, the Heaven Dao Diviner shook his head gently: “The powerful figures of this world are indeed all entangled by the word ’emotion.'”
Li Ye remained silent, standing quietly in place, his fire-red robe flowing like mountain ranges. He appeared to have calmed down.
However, before the smile on the Heaven Dao Diviner’s face could last long, an imperceptible killing intent shot directly toward his throat.
Cold sweat broke out on his back as the Heaven Dao Diviner hastily dodged, but he wasn’t quick enough. The side of his neck was sliced open, and fresh blood gushed forth.
The blood on Taihe Xianshi’s neck also soaked his collar.
“You…” His expression changed drastically as the Heaven Dao Diviner covered his wound, finally showing some panic. “Aren’t you afraid that if he dies, that girl by your side will hate you?”
“Eighty thousand years ago, you should have known I fear nothing.” Looking at him dispassionately, Li Ye’s eyes were even more contemptuous. “What is this thing called ’emotion’?”
He stepped forward, his voice deep and cold: “From the day you laid hands on Xie Ji, you should have divined that such a day would come.”
“When one wishes to condemn, pretexts are never lacking.” The Heaven Dao Diviner’s face darkened. “If you want to control the Nine Heavens, just say so. There’s no need to use Xie Ji as a pretext. But Li Ye, your temperament is too extreme. You cannot be the ruler of the Nine Heavens. Even if I die today, you won’t come to a good end.”
There was no need to listen to the latter part of his words. Li Ye only heard the first half, and the killing intent in his eyes intensified.
Xie Ji was not a pretext. She was his birth mother.
The movement of immortal energy was invisible in the air, but the Heaven Dao Diviner could feel it—thick murderous intent surging toward him. He summoned his defensive barrier, but in the face of this unpredictable immortal energy, it was insufficient.
He was reluctant to accept his fate, but there was nothing he could do.
If only he had known—he should have eliminated Li Ye tens of thousands of years ago.
Before his sigh could emerge, another layer of barrier suddenly enveloped his defensive barrier.
The Heaven Dao Diviner was startled. Turning his head, he saw Taihe Xianshi wiping the blood from his neck with one hand while forming a seal with the other to protect him.
His eyes flickered, and the Heaven Dao Diviner felt somewhat awkward.
Taihe was, after all, an ancient immortal of tens of thousands of years. In the past, to fill the vacancies in the immortal ranks caused by the scarcity of those born with divine status, he had voluntarily descended to the mortal realm to guide mortals in cultivation. Over the years, he had sent many immortals to the Nine Heavens. Under normal circumstances, he would have shown him some respect.
But today the situation was urgent. He had merged their divine souls without proper explanation, yet Taihe could still be magnanimous—truly a broad-minded individual.
“This place has now become a dead end. Would the Supreme God be willing to hear this old man’s words?” Taihe didn’t look at the Heaven Dao Diviner but spoke softly to Li Ye.
Li Ye was very impatient: “I am not your disciple. I don’t need to listen to your preaching.”
“Not so,” Taihe smiled faintly. “This old man merely recalled an old matter and wishes to share it with the Supreme God.”
Li Ye withdrew his sleeve, lowering his eyes listlessly.
Knowing he had consented, Taihe didn’t waste words and went straight to the point: “Before the Supreme God’s ascension, there was an inglorious incident in the Nine Heavens. A high-ranking being fell in love with a mortal woman and insisted on bringing her to the Nine Heavens to become an immortal. At that time, the immortals had differing opinions, even dividing into two factions, resulting in conflict.”
“This old man won’t elaborate on the process as it’s irrelevant to the Supreme God, but you might be interested in the woman’s final fate.”
What did a mortal woman’s fate have to do with him? Li Ye felt this old man was stalling for time and couldn’t help but raise his hand.
But before he could act, Taihe quickly said: “Seventy thousand years ago, that woman was executed outside the Heavenly Gate. The Heaven Dao Diviner personally carried out the sentence.”
“After her death, the controversy in the Nine Heavens subsided. Many even felt compassion, so they granted her divine status and recorded her in the annals of the Nine Heavens.”
Taihe Xianshi looked deeply at him, twirling the handle of his whisk: “Just now, hearing the Supreme God mention Xie Ji, I presume you are referring to that mortal woman.”
His hand paused in midair as Li Ye narrowed his eyes, looking at him with considerable bewilderment.
His birth mother was naturally an immortal born with divine status. What did this have to do with a mortal woman?
“If the Supreme God doesn’t believe me, you can verify it yourself,” Taihe said. “If you wish to act today because of other grievances, this old man has nothing to say. But if you’re being manipulated, I would ask the Supreme God to think thrice. If the Heaven Dao Diviner perishes, the Nine Heavens will surely fall into chaos. The common people will know no peace, mountains and rivers will be disturbed, the sun and moon will not flourish—truly a karmic sin.”
Instinct told Li Ye that this old man was deceiving him. How could there be errors in what he had personally investigated?
But the doubts that had long been buried in his heart suddenly seemed to resurface all at once.
For instance, if Xie Ji was his birth mother, how could she have been so weak as to be at the Heaven Dao Diviner’s mercy?
And how could he have never seen her face, even though he was born with memories?
He had been peacefully cultivating for tens of thousands of years. It seemed that just ten thousand years ago, he suddenly discovered he had a birth mother. Was that discovery guided, or truly a coincidence?
Noticing the softening of his expression, Taihe Xianshi let out a gentle sigh: “The Supreme God was born with a fiery temperament, but is not unreasonable. My disciple is close to the Supreme God. She should know something about this matter. Even if you don’t trust this old man, you can trust her.”
The mention of his disciple only caused the murderous aura around Li Ye to rise again.
He did not move to take the Heaven Dao Diviner’s life, but instead extended his fingers and seized him.