Chapter 708: Songs in the Years

Li Zihua's voice echoed through the Grand Domain of Sacrifice to the Moon, and wherever it reached, the void rumbled with incessant thunder. Yet, the residual face remained impassive. Despite facing this direction, its eyes remained closed.

Meanwhile, from the seven points on the ground where the Red Moon Divine Temple cultivators had gathered, shrill wails erupted. Li Zihua's voice carried an intent of utter annihilation for them. In an instant, the bodies of all Red Moon cultivators and the members of their allied forces began to tremble. Their skin spontaneously split open, revealing flesh and blood. This flesh and blood then quivered and peeled off their bones, piece by piece, accumulating on the ground into small mounds. What remained, ultimately, were their fleshless skulls.

At these seven locations, countless small mounds of flesh and bone were stacked one after another, too numerous to count. These countless small mounds of flesh and bone then coalesced into larger mountains of flesh and blood. Seven such mountains, colossal and awe-inspiring, radiated a tangible, bloody stench that rose into the sky like smoke signals, scarring the firmament like tears.

The residual divine face in the sky remained utterly unmoving.

Until... Li Zihua's own body began to tear apart. He was a deity now. His disintegration caused the heavens and earth to convulse, winds to surge, and clouds to gather. As His flesh and blood cascaded down, an eighth mountain of gore erupted from the ground beneath Him. It rose higher and higher. Countless masses of flesh and blood piled up, forming an ultimate peak. Its summit astonishingly reached the same height as the Red Moon star. Finally... after shedding all its flesh, Li Zihua's head drifted down to rest on the peak.

From beginning to end, His expression remained utterly detached, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. The moment His head touched the mountain of flesh and blood, His now hollow eyes turned towards the sky. And precisely at that moment, the residual divine face in the firmament slowly... opened its eyes! Unlike the scene that had manifested within Xu Qing's purple crystal, this time, it was the true opening of the residual divine face's eyes. As they slowly opened and closed, a profound calmness was revealed within their golden pupils.

With the descent of its gaze, the Grand Domain of Sacrifice to the Moon distorted and blurred. A rain of blood fell upon Li Zihua's mountain of flesh and blood. Doomsday had arrived upon the Plain of Repentance; this land... was being irrevocably altered. This transformation was irreversible. A peculiar substance, transcendent of all deities, surged forth across the Plain of Repentance, altering the land, altering all things, altering everything in this place. The entire Plain of Repentance was transforming into a new forbidden zone, giving birth to strange life forms within it. The mountain of flesh and blood was also rapidly becoming the lord of this forbidden zone, imbued with new life and consciousness.

At this very moment, all beings across the myriad races of the Wanggu Continent trembled. No matter their location, they could perceive the residual divine face and its act of opening its eyes. Countless negative emotions—fear, horror, panic—erupted across the Wanggu Continent. Furthermore, indistinct shadows of the Heavenly Dao appeared in the skies above the Wanggu Continent, seemingly attempting to resist and prevent this change. But it was futile; they could only emit silent wails, and some of them were already perishing. These were the one hundred thousand Heavenly Daos of the Wanggu Continent. They differed from the ninety-nine ancient Heavenly Daos, and each time the residual face opened its eyes, it meant their destruction.

The Red Moon star was similarly affected. Suspended above the Plain of Repentance, it lay directly within the gaze of the residual divine face. It was now trembling like never before, replicating the scene that had transpired when Xu Qing's purple crystal had summoned the residual face.

The first location a divine gaze falls upon becomes a Forbidden Zone.The second time, it's a Forbidden Land.The third time, it's a Divine Domain.And the fourth time... it is called the God Realm!

The Red Moon began to throb, flickering erratically along a single timeline. Subsequently, countless Red Moon stars appeared across myriad spaces and times. They intertwined and overlapped. After these countless occurrences, a scene that Xu Qing had not fully comprehended previously now manifested! Deep within these innumerable Red Moon stars, a hazy expanse emerged. This haziness rapidly expanded, ultimately covering an endless range and engulfing all the countless Red Moon stars. It transformed into an immeasurably vast face!

This face was none other than the Scarlet Mother. The Red Moon stars from countless timelines and spaces that composed this face, with each instance of intertwining and overlapping, formed a micro-expression on it. These individual micro-expressions rendered the face astonishingly lifelike, as if truly animated! It seemed that every expression on this face represented the genesis of a thought, and consequently, a new spacetime would emerge based on that thought. Conversely, this was precisely why Red Moon stars appeared across multiple spacetimes. Different thoughts, in turn, caused more and more spacetimes to manifest. Akin to choices, it seemed that for this face, every decision led to the emergence of different spacetimes, which then evolved into new worlds based on that particular choice.

This was the God Realm.

At this moment, the Plain of Repentance became a Forbidden Zone, and the Red Moon star above it transformed into a God Realm! Thereupon, the eyes of the residual divine face slowly closed.

Meanwhile, within the Red Moon star, the Scarlet Mother was trembling. Li Zihua, in the process of being devoured by Her, maintained a gentle expression. After a single gaze at the suffering Scarlet Mother, he made a gesture. In the next instant, Xu Qing, the Captain, the Young Lord, and the others instantly vanished from the Red Moon star, reappearing outside the Plain of Repentance in the Grand Domain of Sacrifice to the Moon.

Almost immediately upon their departure, the Scarlet Mother's agonizing wails erupted into a storm, sweeping in all directions and causing the Moon Palace to collapse wherever it passed. The Scarlet Mother's body then disintegrated! The face of the God Realm also swiftly altered, no longer resembling the Scarlet Mother but becoming a blank visage devoid of features. While the Red Moon star had been transformed into a God Realm by the residual divine face, the Scarlet Mother was clearly unable to withstand such a profound change. It was as if a powerful tonic, if consumed beyond a certain limit, could become a deadly poison. Excess can be worse than insufficiency! Thus, She was collapsing, tearing apart, and perishing, Her wails growing shriller. And the Red Moon star was, at this very moment, vanishing!

Just then, the Ancient Spirit Emperor, still within the Moon Palace, revealed a greedy glint in His eyes. He lunged forward frantically, His body transforming into countless eyeballs, each containing a cavernous maw, which viciously devoured the disintegrating Scarlet Mother. The next instant, screams pierced the air, and numerous eyeballs exploded. However, a portion of them, after tearing into the Scarlet Mother's flesh, swiftly concealed themselves and vanished within the Moon Palace. In total, the flesh and blood consumed by the Ancient Spirit Emperor accounted for roughly one-tenth of the Scarlet Mother's entire form. He wasn't unwilling to continue, but He was simply unable to.

Simultaneously, Moonflame and Starflame, no longer caring for anything else, instantly drew near. They tore at the flesh, each seizing slightly more than one-tenth. While they desired to continue, the vanishing Red Moon star presented an immense danger to them. What truly compelled them to stop was Li Zihua's weak voice.

"Do not be greedy."

Moonflame and Starflame's eyes flickered. Without hesitation, they vanished instantly. The instant they departed, the Red Moon star on the firmament utterly blurred and faded, as if wiped away, dissipating into the vast sky.

And at the moment the Red Moon star dispersed, outside the Plain of Repentance in the Grand Domain of Sacrifice to the Moon, the Captain, whom Li Zihua had sent away, suddenly shuddered and collapsed, despite his body having already regenerated. He then rapidly reformed, his eyes gleaming with excitement. He quickly blinked three times at Xu Qing, who stood beside him with a solemn expression. Xu Qing's gaze swept over, and he instantly understood that the Captain was conveying the number three to him. However, he knew this was not the time for questions. In the sky, the Red Moon star had vanished, not only from the Grand Domain of Sacrifice to the Moon but from the entire Wanggu Continent as well. From that moment on, the Wanggu Continent would forever be missing one of its moons.

"It's still there..." Xu Qing murmured, looking up at the firmament. He possessed a fragment of the Red Moon's authority, which allowed him to vaguely perceive what others could not: the Red Moon, now a God Realm, existed in a place immensely distant from the Wanggu Continent.

Beyond the Wanggu Continent, in the depths of the starry sky, lay an endless void... Countless vortices existed there, varying in size and color, each brilliant, slowly revolving. No one knew what this place was, and scarcely any cultivators had ever set foot there. Yet at this moment, amidst these countless vortices, another appeared, silently. Compared to the others, it was small and crimson.

Within this vortex was a blank face, composed of countless Red Moon stars from myriad timelines and spaces. At the center of this face's brow, there was a spacetime, and upon the Red Moon star within it, a golden flame burned. This was divine fire, originating neither from the Scarlet Mother nor from Li Zihua. Its aura suggested it belonged to the Red Moon Divine Son, the Fourth Son who governed death. Within the flame, there was an object: the core of this divine fire. It was an eyeball. An eye Xu Qing had previously seen within the Divine Son's secret hoard. It was... the Scarlet Mother's left eye.

At this moment, the Scarlet Mother's form slowly materialized within the pupil of this eye, growing progressively larger until it entirely filled the eyeball. Then, flesh and blood began to grow outward from the eyeball itself. The flesh and blood accumulated, gradually forming the Scarlet Mother's complete body. The Scarlet Mother opened Her eyes. Her previously hollow eyes now contained an eyeball in Her left socket. A vast power erupted from Her, spreading across this spacetime and affecting other timelines, attempting to alter everything. But in the next instant, a wail of agony escaped Her lips, and the spreading power was abruptly interrupted!

"Li Zihua..."

The Scarlet Mother's voice was filled with bitterness. The moment Her words left Her lips, Li Zihua's form appeared within Her left eye, rapidly filling the entire eyeball and then spreading throughout the Scarlet Mother's body. The Scarlet Mother trembled, attempting to resist, but it was futile. Her appearance gradually shifted; Her body transformed from female to male, until, ultimately, She assumed Li Zihua's likeness. Throughout this process, the Scarlet Mother's voice grew progressively more bitter, echoing throughout the Moon Palace.

"So this was your calculation all along...""You knew my plans long ago, and so you sacrificed your Fourth Son to set this trap for me.""Li Zihua, it wasn't that you didn't wish to become a god; rather, you were unwilling to shoulder the immense karma that comes with it. Thus, though you severed my mortal transcendence, you didn't truly slay me. Instead, you compelled me to ascend to godhood, and after I bore the heavy karma, you resurrected within me."

The Scarlet Mother's voice grew progressively weaker. Finally, having fully assumed Li Zihua's form, She closed Her eyes. Her voice faded into a lingering echo—of unwillingness, resentment, confusion, and ultimately, a sigh.

"Brother, I complete you..."

The Scarlet Mother fell.

After a long pause, His eyes slowly opened. Li Zihua had returned.

"Fourth Sister, the path of Radiant Heaven is flawed... and so is the path of Thick Earth.""Immortals and gods can, in fact... merge.""That is why I said, the mission endures."

Li Zihua murmured softly, looking up towards the distant Wanggu Continent. After a long moment, he raised a hand and clenched it. The Red Moon God Realm shrank before him, eventually transforming into a single eyeball, which he took and pressed into his right eye socket. Then, He turned and walked calmly into the depths of the void. Fading farther and farther away.

Only the sound of a nursery rhyme emanated from His lips, carrying an inexplicable tune that echoed through the void.

"Once there was a big doll, with a row of small dolls behind it. Ten dolls, six, seven, eight, with red eyes and gray hair, never speaking all day long. Older children saw it and called it 'A-Jia', younger children encountered it and felt no fear..."

"Until suddenly one day, the big doll fell ill and the second doll peered, the third doll bought medicine and the fifth doll brewed it, the sixth doll died and the seventh doll laughed, the eighth doll dug a pit and the ninth doll leaped, the tenth doll shed tears on the ground. I went to ask him why he cried..."

"The fourth doll is lost and won't return!"

The 'fourth doll' mentioned in this once-sung nursery rhyme might not refer to the Fourth Son of the Master, but possibly the Master's Fourth Sister...

The Cold Dew Scroll concludes here.

The new scroll is titled: Major Heat.