Chapter 126: Phantoms of Mutual Existence

"Wuxiang! You've lost your mind!" Chunfeng raged.

"My master and junior sister have died tragically; what is there to celebrate?" the Senior Apprentice Brother said with a grim face.

"Isn't it wonderful that they are united in death? I even brought them a small gift." God Wuxiang pulled two large, red 'double happiness' characters from his sleeve and slapped them onto their chests. "Excellent! A perfect conclusion! Let them be buried together!"

Chunfeng, consumed by fury, brandished his twin maces and struck at God Wuxiang. "Wuxiang! You dare celebrate their deaths? This is outrageous!"

"They are dead; they have finally averted a catastrophe for the heavens and earth. Is that not something to celebrate?" God Wuxiang gently waved his folding fan and dodged the attack with ease.

"Celebrate my foot!" Chunfeng unleashed a flurry of strikes, all of which Wuxiang evaded effortlessly.

"Chunfeng, stop being so persistent!" God Wuxiang was getting annoyed.

"You gave that little crow her fake face, didn't you? All those terrible ideas were yours! If it weren't for you, they would have recognized each other long ago!" Chunfeng shouted as he fought.

"I have nowhere near as many wretched ideas as you, Chunfeng! If you keep this up, I won't be so polite!" God Wuxiang snapped.

"I'd like to see how a fortune-teller like you can be impolite!" Chunfeng retorted. God Wuxiang brandished his Soul-Divination Banner, and the two clashed. Maces met banner; waves of intense heat and howling winds erupted in the great hall. The two gods fought ferociously, moving from the hall to the grounds outside.

Chaos reigned inside the hall. Lu Xue cried out, "No! They cannot be buried together! I am the wife of God Yunxiao! It was a plan devised by me and Yunxiao for him to feign a false body to lure out Tiande and expose him to the world. Everything I did was to reveal Tiande's crimes! You cannot bury them together just because they died at the same time!"

"The junior disciple and Hanqing were master and apprentice, and there was no marriage contract; a joint burial is inappropriate. Hanqing loved Lu Xue. Since Lu Xue was helping Hanqing, I, Princess Changyang, have wronged her," Princess Changyang said.

"Changyang! We of the Jade Purity Realm do not recognize her as Lu Xue! You caused my master to lose his true love forty thousand years ago! Now that my master has fallen for my junior sister, you still want to tear them apart!" the Eleventh Apprentice Brother shouted in anger.

The disciples of the Jade Purity Realm echoed his sentiments.

"I, Changyang, speak only of facts and reason! I am fair and just! I have examined her with the Mirror of Two Lives; she is indeed Lu Xue! You of the Jade Purity Realm are bullying others with your power. Facts are facts; how dare you deny them!" Princess Changyang retorted sharply.

"Who knows where you got that broken mirror and that fake person! You are so intent on propping up this Lu Xue—could it be that you covet the power of our Jade Purity Realm once she takes her place?" the Eleventh Apprentice Brother yelled.

"You dead rabbit, how dare you criticize my mirror! Are you tired of living?" Princess Changyang lunged at the Eleventh Apprentice Brother, and they began to fight.

"You lot from the Nine Provinces and Four Seas only know how to bully us from the Five Hills and Eight Marshes, splashing such filth upon our Holy Maiden! Yunxiao is nothing but a hypocrite! A gentleman on the surface, a beast in secret! Inappropriately involved with his female disciple! We do not respect such a man! There is no need to show them any more face!" the Lord of Dayeze shouted. The people of the Five Hills and Eight Marshes grew restless...

"My master and junior sister sacrificed themselves for all living beings. Instead of being grateful, you spout such insolence. If we of the Nine Provinces don't teach you a lesson, you'll never know where the gates of the Jade Purity Realm stand!" The Senior Apprentice Brother drew his Clear Spring Sword and engaged the Lord of Dayeze.

The immortals split into two factions, neither yielding, and the battle intensified...

In the midst of the chaos, Xiaoxiaobai wept loudly, crying, "Mother!"

Off to the side, Tiande watched quietly, secretly using the Crown Prince's Seal to undo the Dragon-Sealing Seal of the Jade Purity Realm. It seemed the Five Hills and Eight Marshes were not aligned with the Nine Provinces and Four Seas. What better way to fish in troubled waters! Tiande broke the seal, transformed into a small snake, and hid on a roof beam. Seeing the battle raging, he slipped through a gap in the tiles and escaped outside. Wuxiang and Chunfeng were locked in a fierce struggle. Tiande realized that God Wuxiang was hiding his true strength; he had always thought this crafty god only knew how to tell fortunes and speak in riddles, yet his cultivation was not beneath Chunfeng’s. Chunfeng’s maces, infused with the divine power of the 'Dawn Spring Growth' palm, struck Wuxiang’s banner, the scorching heat setting the banner aflame. Wuxiang pulled back his large sleeve, extracting rows of golden 'True Face' incantations from the banner, which transformed into a golden chain that locked Chunfeng tight.

Wuxiang removed his mask... Behind the mask was a black hole—a vast, desolate universe with stars rotating within! It was identical to the black hole summoned by the Red Flame Demon Star!

The golden chain tightened. Chunfeng, in agony, collapsed to the ground. He struggled, lifting his head to see the corpse of the little crow, reaching out, but failing to grasp it. As the chains tightened, a tear fell from Chunfeng's eye. He sighed, "Little crow, see you in the next life..." His divine meridians were severed by the chains, and he vomited blood and died. God Chunfeng, with his ageless body and peerless beauty, died tragically under the Soul-Divination Banner, swallowed into the black hole of Wuxiang's face...

Tiande was stunned!

"Crown Prince! Come down! Don't be afraid!" God Wuxiang said.

Tiande carefully slid down from the roof and assumed his human form.

"Tiande! Pay for my disciple's life!" The Holy Mother of Danxia flew from the hall, brandishing the Vast Sea Bow, and fired an arrow at Tiande!

The arrow was swallowed into the face of God Wuxiang. Wuxiang waved his banner, and a golden light shattered the skull of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, the Holy Mother of Danxia. The Vast Sea Bow was snatched into Wuxiang's hand. "Tiande! You monster! I'll kill you!" Biyou cursed. God Wuxiang squeezed hard, snapping the bow in two, and Biyou’s soul was scattered...

"Xiaoqiao! My beloved concubine! See who you can love now!" Tiande laughed madly.

"Your subject, the true form of the Infinite Cauldron, pays respects to the Red Flame Demon King, the Master of Heaven and Earth!" God Wuxiang knelt before Tiande.

Tiande was shocked by Wuxiang's action. "What? You say I am the Red Flame Demon Star?"

"That Jiang Wu was merely a Greedy Wolf Star poisoned by the Greedy Wolf toxin! The true Master of Heaven and Earth, capable of melting the heavens and earth, is you, Your Highness!" God Wuxiang said.

"Really?" Tiande was both shocked and delighted.

"Naturally!" God Wuxiang retracted his banner.

Tiande seemed skeptical, fearing the crafty god was up to some trick. "Gather those scoundrels inside for me. The Heavenly Realm is due for a great cleansing!"

"As you command!" God Wuxiang opened his mask; a tremendous suction force emerged, and with the earth shaking, he swallowed the entire Jade Void Palace into his face.

Crown Prince Tiande laughed heartily. "So much for the 'Star of Prosperity'! They still ended up with no place to be buried! With the Crown Prince's Seal, I have nothing to fear from them!"

"The Crown Prince is the Master of Heaven and Earth; naturally, you have nothing to fear," Wuxiang praised.

"Haha! Correct! The Heavenly Emperor's Seal! Wuxiang! Come with me to receive the Seal! I shall be the Master of Heaven and Earth!" Tiande boasted.

Wuxiang bowed. "Yes!"

Crown Prince Tiande and Wuxiang arrived at the Mud Fish Marsh of Leixia. Tiande whistled, and a giant black-spotted mud fish flew out. Tiande summoned a precious sword and sliced open the fish’s belly. From the bloody entrails spilled a pearl-sized sphere created by a boundary barrier. He cast a spell to open the sphere, and inside lay the Heavenly Emperor, asleep!

"Wake up!" Tiande kicked the Emperor, but there was no reaction.

"Wake up!" The Emperor still did not wake. "You old fool! If you don't wake up, how can you pass the Heavenly Emperor's Seal to me? Wake up!" He kicked the Emperor so hard he hurt his own foot, and sat up with a start...

Before him was the peerless face of Chunfeng, his beautiful eyes staring at him... and kicking him.

"You! You! You aren't..." Tiande was speechless.

Chunfeng blinked. "What's wrong with me? Are you dreaming about me?"

"Dreaming?" Tiande couldn't react. He recalled:

God Wuxiang said to the corpses of Yunxiao and Yu Fei on the ground, "I brought a small gift from the Thirty-Third Heaven to celebrate for you two!" He pulled not two happiness characters from his sleeve, but a heart-protecting scale and a heart-linking feather.

"This is for you! This is for you!" Wuxiang placed them on their chests.

"Excellent! A perfect conclusion!" Wuxiang closed his fan and tapped their foreheads. The scale and feather returned to their places.

"Go, little disciples, go outside and call for your master and mistress to come back and get to work."

"We can call them back?" everyone asked in surprise.

"Give it a try, treat a dead horse as if it were still alive," God Wuxiang said.

"Besides 'mistress'... can we call them something else? It's a bit awkward..." the Eleventh Apprentice Brother said.

"Fine, just call them something, just get them back here!" Wuxiang said.

The group ran to the palace gate and shouted wildly...

"Master! Get to work! Come back!" Shi Jun shouted.

"Master! Come back and date later! I know many great places!" Kunpeng shouted.

"Junior Sister! Come back quickly! Lu Xue is kissing Master!" the Eleventh Apprentice Brother shouted.

The Fifteenth Apprentice Brother poked him and whispered, "Make it sound more serious!"

"Come back quickly! Lu Xue is stripping Master's clothes off!" the Eleventh Apprentice Brother shouted.

A streak of flowing light and fire descended from the sky in two paths!

Yunxiao, lying on the ground, was suddenly enveloped in white mist, which dissipated in a moment.

"Who said I wasn't doing my job?" Yunxiao asked, his voice stern.

Yu Fei, lying on the ground, burst into red flames and turned to ash. From the ashes, a white phoenix flew up, transformed into Yu Fei’s likeness, and descended slowly. "Who said she was stripping my husband's clothes?"

"Xiaoxiaobai... Xiaoxiaobai said so!" The disciples pointed at Xiaoxiaobai, who had just stopped crying, tears still hanging on his face in Biyou's arms.

Tiande recalled reality and exclaimed, "How is this possible!"

"We are the Stars of Prosperity bestowed by fate; reborn and immortal, shining with eternal life. Why would it be impossible?" Yunxiao said.

"You old foxes! Old foxes! I was calculated by this pair of fox spirits!" Tiande cursed.

*Slap! Slap!* Two slaps landed on Tiande's face. "What's wrong with being a fox spirit! Fox spirits are the best!" It was the Eleventh Apprentice Brother. It seemed criticizing foxes really struck a nerve.

"Let me go, and I'll release the Heavenly Emperor. Otherwise, you will never find him!" Tiande played his last card.

"Did you think you would have such a sweet dream of being the Master of Heaven and Earth for no reason?" Yunxiao laughed.

"You arranged it!" Tiande finally realized.

"Correct," Yunxiao said.

The dream-inducing spell that Elder Mingbo used to drug himself and confuse others had finally been put to good use for a benevolent cause.

"Little crow, what was I doing in Tiande's dream?" Chunfeng asked, leaning in curiously.

"Getting beaten up by God Wuxiang," I said with a giggle.

"Which one of you made up such an absurd thing? How could I be beaten by that fortune-telling Wuxiang?" Chunfeng said with disdain.

"Why don't you fight him now and see who wins," I laughed.

"Forget it, what if he takes off his mask and scares me? Who knows what's behind that mask... what if it's a face full of hair!" Chunfeng shivered.

"Junior Sister, was I in Tiande's dream? What did I do?" the Eleventh Apprentice Brother asked.

"You had a fight with Princess Changyang," I smiled.

"Impossible! How could I fight her? Junior Sister, the dream you made up is beneath standards, no, no..." the Eleventh Apprentice Brother said.

"Did you want me to create a scene of romance for you?" Yunxiao, standing to the side, said coldly without even looking at him.

I covered my mouth and smirked. He had been forced by Elder Mingbo to read so many scripts, and they had finally come in handy. In truth, if time hadn't been so pressing, a romantic scene wouldn't have been bad.

The Eleventh Apprentice Brother stuck out his tongue and quickly flattered him: "A great fight! One doesn't get to know each other without a fight! Fighting is a sign of affection! Master, your script is truly unique and creative! Better than any play outside! When you're free, Master, you should write scripts, and I'll go tell the stories! I'll tell everyone that Master is brilliant and peerless..."

Yunxiao glanced at him.

The Eleventh Apprentice Brother whispered to me, "If Master makes me clean the toilets when we get back, remember to put in a good word for me."

"What's in it for me?" I asked softly.

"If you help me ten thousand times, I'll call you Mistress," the Eleventh Apprentice Brother said.

"Eleventh Senior Brother, to get you to call me Mistress, I'll have to find a way to make you clean the toilets ten thousand times!" I laughed.

"Ah! Don't! Think of all the strength pills I gave you."

Tiande finally realized he had no way out. "I was calculated by you! Yunxiao! You didn't get off clean either! Your most beloved woman was tainted by Ming Zhong! And even bore a bastard! It will always be a shame for your Jade Purity Realm! Do you want me to tell everyone here about her experiences in the Netherworld!"