Immortal of the Nine Realms

In the Floating Pagoda Realm, in Jiangguang City, Fairy Yu stood before Empress Ci with a defiant expression.

Empress Ci lifted her red veil, revealing a smiling face. ”You’ll be staying with me from now on, little girl. The Floating Pagoda Realm may look worse than the Nine Mortal Realms, but the pleasures here won’t necessarily be fewer than in the Nine Mortal Realms.”

Fairy Yu snorted coldly but said nothing. She turned her gaze to Fang Chen. ”Lord, this is your solution? You think this will make me change back?”

”Of course not,” Fang Chen replied.

Fairy Yu froze for a moment, then burst into anger. ”Then why did you kill me and make me an Underworld True God!?”

Fang Chen smiled and replied, ”You carry memories of two lifetimes, your past life and this one. No matter who you were in your past life, you grew up in this one as Grand Xia’s Fairy Yu. You are still a complete individual—you are you. I don’t care anymore whether you change back or not. As long as the Little Yu I know exists and hasn’t truly disappeared, that is enough.”

Fairy Yu sneered. ”Who told you your Little Yu didn’t die? You’re too arrogant for your own good! Your Little Yu is dead—utterly dead! My name is Gu Shuang!”

”Then why do you still call me your lord?” Fang Chen asked.

Fairy Yu froze, dumbfounded.

Fang Chen nodded to Empress Ci. ”Keep an eye on her.”

Empress Ci nodded. ”Please be at ease, Young Master.”

Fairy Yu was transformed into an Underworld True God from a mere wandering soul, so her cultivation was as weak as an ant. With a first-transformation Ghost God like Empress Ci keeping tabs on her, no mistake could occur.

Seeing Fang Chen about to leave, Fairy Yu grew anxious. She suddenly said, ”Don’t you want to know about Wang Chongsong? Don’t you want to know about the Inverse Immortal Demonic Embryo?”

”You won’t tell me. Even if you do, your words can’t be trusted. You will only try to deceive me. I already know the general outline. For the details, I’ll ask Wang Chongsong when I find him,” Fang Chen responded, not looking back.

He soon disappeared.

Empress Ci chuckled softly. ”Little girl, it’s fine for couples to quarrel, but enough is enough. Where will you ever find a man as fine as the young master?”

”What do you know?” Fairy Yu glanced at her coldly, snorting. ”So how are you planning to deal with me?”

Empress Ci smiled warmly. ”I’ve been handling the business of Jiangguang City these past few years. Now that the young master commands more Ghost Gods, many matters no longer require that I, a first-transformation Ghost God, handle them. So I’ve been focusing more on aiding him in other ways. Stay with me—watch more, learn more. In the future, perhaps all this business will be handed to you.”

A sudden sense of defeat welled up inside Fairy Yu. She said no more.

***

By the Forgotten River, having sorted out the broad outline of events and probed from Fairy Yu the true meaning of the Inverse Immortal Demonic Embryo, Fang Chen felt inexplicably at ease.

What Wang Chongsong had experimented on was essentially a method to awaken their cognition. The Inverse Immortal Demonic Embryo altering personality was nothing more than the awakening of past-life memory.

As for the present life, the impact was slight. Fairy Yu’s change in temperament was the manifestation of two memories merging.

She might not be the same person exactly, but ”Fairy Yu” had not died either. For Fang Chen, that was enough. What he had feared was that she had been completely replaced. Fortunately, that hadn’t happened.

He calmed his drifting mind and sank quietly into the Forgotten River again. No sound touched his ears. Here, there was only endless silence.

He didn’t know how long he had been descending when he seemed to glimpse the countless wandering souls beneath the river.

Some had only just sunk. Some had lingered here for countless years. They endured torment day and night beneath the river, gnawed by snakes, insects, rats, and ants, facing endless deathly stillness.

The only blessing was that the river replenished their Underworld lifespan; they wouldn’t have to fear dying from its depletion.

And so, they clung to a shred of hope, waiting for the day someone remembered them and came to lead them out.

Fang Chen used to feel indifference toward these souls below. But now, when he looked at them again, there was a newfound softness in his eyes.

Most of those souls were likely true humans.

Back in ancient times, the Nine Mortal Realms, the Immortal Realm, and the Underworld teemed with countless living beings. Some of those who died came to the Underworld. Some lingered in the Mortal Realm until their lifespans ran out, and they disappeared. But there were also some who, with no one to guide them, did not wish to return to the Mortal Realm and chose instead to sink into the river.

Now these souls had become seeds in Fang Chen’s heart.

Unconsciously, in the deep, dark abyss of the Forgotten River, the wandering souls seemed to gleam faintly, like eternal stars in the cosmos.

Fang Chen gazed, enraptured, his thoughts drawn into those stars. Without realizing it, he merged into one of them.

He began to experience its life—and when it ended, he merged with another, then another, and another...

To the outside world, each star’s past life lasted only an instant. But to Fang Chen, it was as if he had lived an entire lifetime.

Soon, he could not remember how many lifetimes he had lived through the stars. He even began to forget his own identity.

A year passed in the outside world. To Fang Chen, it may have been tens of billions of unique lives.

In these lives—

He was a beggar.

He was a carefree young master.

He was a swordsman who lived in the martial world.

He was a scheming villain.

He was a soldier on the battlefield.

He was a mighty court minister.

He was a merchant.

He was a laborer.

He was a husband caring for his family.

He was a woman quarreling in the street.

In some lives, perhaps he later embarked on the immortal path. But by then, Fang Chen had already moved on, living another life.

Year after year, life after life.

He laughed and cursed.

He had raged at heaven’s injustice.

***

At the banks of the Forgotten River, several figures gathered—the old flood dragon, Yu Tingzhai, Li Wuwang, Huang Wuji, the Dangyin Mountain Lord, Taiyin Dragon King, True Monarch of Pan Mountain.

”The lord seems to be using the Forgotten River to reach the Dao Union Realm...” Yu Tingzhai murmured.

As the ancestor of the Yin Holy Sect, who had been traversing the Underworld since childhood, he understood well how terrifying the Forgotten River was. Even now, as a fourth-transformation immortal, he had never heard of any place in the Nine Mortal Realms that could compare to it.

The Forgotten River lay shrouded in a gauze of unfathomable mystery; behind its layers of fog lurked a beast capable of suppressing all.

”So what if he achieves Dao Union through the river?” said the old flood dragon, looking at Yu Tingzhai. ”For him, reaching Dao Union was never going to be a hurdle.”

Yu Tingzhai glanced at him and shook his head. ”You don’t understand.”

The old flood dragon had a superficial understanding of the Underworld, unlike his own.

Empress Ci had arrived quietly. Her bridal escort was absent. Only Fairy Yu stood at her side.

Empress Ci said, ”Elder, you don’t understand. If the lord can achieve Dao Union through the Forgotten River, it will be something unimaginably terrifying.”

When Fairy Yu heard that Fang Chen was using the Forgotten River to achieve Dao Union, disbelief swept across her face.