Chapter 12 Wishful Thinking

In the Daxia World, on an island in the North Sea.

Ji Ning was gazing at the scenery before him. Though it was winter, the internal heat of the island kept it spring-like year-round, with flowers in full bloom, beautiful indeed.

Senior apprentice-sister.

We are about to meet, and our family will be reunited. Ji Ning still remembered the scene of his senior apprentice-sister caressing her belly while watching him practice swordsmanship. That warm scene had vanished the moment she crushed the Shennong medicine and her soul scattered. Ji Ning had fought desperately, exhausted every means, and fortunately had cultivated the Nine-Angle Electric Serpent Escape Art, possessed formidable heartforce, and with the help of the ancient Fuxi who created the Luohou Formation for him, he had forced the Netherworld Gate to bow their heads.

At last, he had the chance to reunite with his senior apprentice-sister and his daughter Mingyue.

Hummm— A fluctuation descended.

Ji Ning shuddered and immediately turned to look.

At the end of the winding path in the distance stood a black-robed man, who strolled over leisurely with a smile: "This island is not bad, quite beautiful. Your second soul is still in the Zhulu Grand World, but your true body has appeared. It seems you have come out of the Moonfall Abyss."

"Yes," Ji Ning nodded.

"Impressive, impressive." The black-robed Godking nodded in admiration. "To be honest, Ji Ning, though we are enemies, it still surprises me that you emerged from the Moonfall Abyss in just six hundred years. Jueming was trapped there in ancient times and only came out in the Three Realms era."

Ji Ning said, "I have come out. Will you keep your promise?"

"Have you brought the treasures I asked for?" The black-robed Godking smiled. "As I said before, give me the treasures, and I will return your senior apprentice-sister Yu Wei's soul to you."

"I have brought them."

Ji Ning's heartbeat quickened despite his efforts to remain calm.

"I trust you on the other two treasures. What about the Iceheart Leaf?" said the black-robed Godking.

Ji Ning turned his hand over, and a crystalline, nearly translucent Iceheart Leaf floated above his palm.

"It truly is the Iceheart Leaf." The black-robed Godking examined it closely, his eyes faintly intoxicated. "So beautiful, just as in the legends. This is the first time I have seen an Iceheart Leaf with my own eyes. Alright, you can destroy it now."

"Destroy it?" Ji Ning's heart sank.

Destroy the Iceheart Leaf? What did that mean?

"Now that I have seen it, it is of no further use to me." The black-robed Godking looked at Ji Ning. "I merely wanted to see it."

"I have brought the treasures. Please return my senior apprentice-sister's soul," Ji Ning said hastily.

"Hahaha..." The black-robed Godking let out a piercing laugh, throwing his head back and laughing wildly, laughing as if tears were about to come. Then, shaking with laughter, he pointed at Ji Ning. "Ji Ning, Ji Ning, for all your talent as a peerless genius, haven't you understood all these years? Back then, I asked you to bring the Iceheart Leaf only to make you enter the Moonfall Abyss. That Iceheart Leaf, those other treasures—what are they to me, a Dao Ancestor? Even less to the entire Netherworld Gate. Did you think I cared about those three treasures?"

"What I wanted was for you to enter the Moonfall Abyss!"

"Though you came out in six hundred years, it is enough, enough. The infiltration of the Three Realms is complete. Now our Netherworld Gate and the Nuwa Camp are already at war in the Zhulu Grand World. The struggle for the fate of the world will be over before long; there is no need for further infiltration." The black-robed Godking laughed heartily. "If you had come out in just a hundred or two hundred years, I might have had to think of something. But six hundred years—you are no longer a threat."

"Not a threat at all."

"Our Netherworld Gate's war now involves vast armies, mighty and grand. What are you, a mere Celestial Immortal True God, and that shabby Luohou Formation, in the face of that?" The black-robed Godking laughed shrilly like a madman.

Having been forced to bow his head by Ji Ning back then, the black-robed Godking had long harbored murderous resentment. Though he could not act, seeing Ji Ning frantic and desperate would be more satisfying than killing him.

As he laughed wildly, the black-robed Godking watched Ji Ning, watching every expression on his face, hoping to find 'frenzy and despair' to satisfy his inner demon. Other cultivators feared inner demons, but the black-robed Godking, who cultivated the Dao of Heart Demons, was himself an incarnation of heart demons! His master was even the Heart Demon Sovereign.

He was disappointed.

Ji Ning just stood there, motionless.

Snap.

Something seemed to shatter in his heart.

The woman who always stood quietly aside, smiling happily as she watched him practice swordsmanship, would not return.

Pain!

Ji Ning felt his heart ache unbearably, ache as if he would go mad. He wanted to laugh, to roar. But no sound came out. Though he had been tormented by karmic fire for years, he had never cared. But this pain was a thousand, ten thousand times more terrible than the burning of karmic fire.

"Ha, ha..."

Suddenly, a dry laugh came from Ji Ning's mouth.

Like a child just learning to speak.

"Hahaha... hahaha..." Ji Ning laughed wildly, finally able to laugh, and tears finally flowed.

The black-robed Godking watched, satisfied. That was right, that was the normal reaction. Why had he shown no reaction for so long?

"Hahaha, I knew you were not to be trusted." Ji Ning's eyes reddened, bloodshot. He laughed wildly through tears. "I knew it. You, Godking, play with people's hearts, delude the Three Realms. How could your promise be trusted? Yet I still believed. I still entered the Moonfall Abyss, still did everything to come out quickly."

"I still came eagerly with the three treasures, knowing full well that your promise was almost worthless. But I came, because I held hope, a sliver of hope... hoping... hoping that senior apprentice-sister could return."

"Hoping she could return."

"Mingyue and I miss her. We want to be a family, just a family reunited."

"And you have shattered that sliver of hope, shattered it." Ji Ning laughed, trembling, laughing maniacally. "Hahaha, I really was wishful thinking, wishful thinking. All along, I deceived myself, deceived myself that I could still be with senior apprentice-sister. How ridiculous. I am a joke, a joke."

The black-robed Godking could feel the youth's heartbreak, his pain, his despair—the despair of a last hope extinguished.

The Godking was satisfied.

Relieved.

That was right, that was pain, that was heartbreak.

"You should have realized by now that in this calamity, a mere Celestial Immortal True God like you can no longer affect the overall situation. What matters now is the combined strength of many Celestial Immortals and True Gods. Still, I cherish talent." The Godking looked at Ji Ning. "I invite you again to join our Netherworld Gate. If you are willing, you can immediately be with your senior apprentice-sister. Don't you long to be with her? Don't you want your daughter, your family reunited? Join our Netherworld Gate, become one of us, and I will no longer scheme against you. I will treat you well. After all, you are a true genius among Celestial Immortals and True Gods. Though you cannot affect the final struggle for fate, you still have some use."

"If you join now, you can be reunited with your senior apprentice-sister. If not... she will be worthless, and I will kill her, scatter her soul, hahaha..."

"You have no other choice." The black-robed Godking looked at Ji Ning.

But Ji Ning was still bent over, laughing: "A joke, I am just a joke."

"Thank you." Ji Ning straightened up, looked at the black-robed Godking, and stared at him.

The black-robed Godking's heart skipped a beat.

What kind of gaze was that? A powerful heartforce usually makes one's gaze more fearsome. If a mortal went mad, he would not care, but Ji Ning's gaze, with his fourth-stage heartforce, made the black-robed Godking feel the boundless hatred and killing intent behind those eyes—hatred that all the waters of the Three Realms could not wash away.

It was a killing intent that penetrated the soul and true spirit.

"Thank you for shattering my hope, for shattering my wishful thinking. Thank you for making me hesitate no more. Let us take it slowly. There are still many days ahead. I will thank you properly." After speaking, Ji Ning turned and left, transforming into a streak of light and flying away.

"If you don't agree, your senior apprentice-sister will be useless. I will kill her!" the black-robed Godking shouted.

"If senior apprentice-sister dies, I will be the one who killed her!" Ji Ning's voice echoed through heaven and earth, but he had already left the Daxia World.