Chapter 1090 — Seven Hundred Thousand Years of Slaughter

Que Feiyin's soul drifted in a daze, wafting and wandering, drawn by some nameless force to fly onward.

Before long, she saw in an expanse of darkness a vast Nether Sea surging, and in the midst of that sea stood a gateway more than half built. Beneath the gateway stood a handsome man with a gourd slung upon his back; a great many gnats came flying and dropped into the gourd.

"So you are here. " The handsome man saw her and could not help smiling, "This is your hundredth death.

After this, the Southern Emperor's divine soul will be sealed completely, never to wake again, and I shall have done all that Hao Tianzun entrusted to me.

" Que Feiyin was drawn toward that incomplete gateway, flew through it, and went off to be reborn. "These insects are truly not bad—worthy of the Heavenly Emperor's family treasure. Yet Hao Tianzun obtained so many fine treasures and gave me only a packet of insect eggs, stingy indeed!

" The handsome man was none other than Yin Tianzi.

He patted the gourd and fell into thought, "Primordial Divine Insects are too hard to rear. If I could use the Northern Emperor Xuanwu's Five-Thunder Jar to rear them, the might of the divine insects would surely be greatly increased!

The Northern Emperor is loath to give it to me, but Crown Prince Youming is a reckless hothead, rich and free-handed; perhaps I can get a Five-Thunder Jar out of him. . . " Suddenly he knit his brows, sensing that something was strange when Que Feiyin passed through the Nether Capital's Heavenly Gate—her final shred of consciousness had not been wiped away.

He was vaguely uneasy and murmured, "The last step was not completed, and I know not where the problem lies. .

. Well, next time, then. The Southern Emperor's divine soul has already turned foolish; killing her is no hard thing. Henceforth there is no need to spend much thought on her.

So stupid—the Primordial Divine Insects will suffice to kill her. " Que Feiyin's soul drifted on and on, and she knew that she was dead. Yet suddenly she felt that her mind was a little clearer, her thinking quicker than before, and she wondered to herself, "Could it be that after passing through that gateway just now, I have become cleverer?

" Ten months later, Que Feiyin was born, and the moment she came into the world she understood all the circumstances of her previous life. She remembered that she was Yue Tianzun's disciple, named Que Feiyin, and she remembered how she had died.

Yue Tianzun ordered her disciples to search for her, and after more than ten years of searching they had still not found her. Yet Que Feiyin had already found her own way to the Heavenly Court of the Empyrean, astonishing Yue Tianzun, who thought that her Vermilion Bird divine soul had awakened. Only, when Yue Tianzun examined her, Que Feiyin had still not awakened the Vermilion Bird divine soul.

Although Que Feiyin had grown much more intelligent, she was still not intelligent enough; it took her four or five hundred years to cultivate to the Divine Realm.

Having reached the Divine Realm, she found that humanity and the demigods had just gone to war. Que Feiyin charged onto the battlefield and had her life taken by a great mosquito. After death, Que Feiyin saw again that Nether Sea, that Nether Capital's Heavenly Gate, and passed through the gate.

No sooner had she passed through than she was startled—she had actually recalled the memories of yet another lifetime!

"How strange!

" Ten months later, the reborn Que Feiyin wore her hair in a pair of little braids stuck straight up, stood barely five feet tall, and was still a yellow-haired little chit; she took a boat all the way to the Heavenly Court and went hopping and skipping to seek Yue Tianzun.

Yue Tianzun tested her once more, and Que Feiyin had grown cleverer still. Clicking her tongue in wonder, she said, "Every time the Southern Emperor's reincarnated body dies, the veil of the womb thins by one degree.

What is the reason for this?

" Yet several hundred years later, Que Feiyin, who had long since become a deity, was on an expedition in a primal realm when a great mosquito appeared out of nowhere, clung to her body, and drained all the qi and blood from her, snuffing out her life in an instant. Still the Nether Sea, still the Nether Capital's Heavenly Gate.

Que Feiyin passed through the gate, joy surging in her heart: "Ah, I have awakened another lifetime's memories again! How very strange! " Strange to say, through the long ages from Longhan down to Jingping, Que Feiyin died again and again, and every time the manner of death was the same—bitten to death by mosquitoes that appeared out of nowhere—and with each death she awakened the memories of one earlier life.

She grew ever more keen-witted and began to think deeply on the art of avoiding death. Time and again she eluded those bizarre mosquitoes' killing attacks, and in each life she lived longer and longer, and her cultivation climbed higher and higher.

In the end, even the Primordial Divine Insects found it hard to kill this woman, and Yin Tianzi could only strike in person. Yue Tianzun warded off several tribulations for her, but Yin Tianzi was cunning, and there was always a moment when her guard slipped; thus Que Feiyin died at Yin Tianzi's hands. Later still, the reborn Que Feiyin had already mastered all of Yue Tianzun's arts, and she simply refused to study under Yue Tianzun, trying instead to dodge the tribulation on her own.

Yue Tianzun was deeply grieved, believing her truly dead, and could only give up. Yin Tianzi was sorely troubled, yet he too was relentless, searching everywhere for her whereabouts—only to be ambushed by Que Feiyin several times himself, nearly dying.

.

. .

On the Celestial Dragon Treasure Chariot, Yan'er was still somewhat worried and asked, "Young master, can that jade pendant really save my mother? " "Naturally it can.

" Shen Mu said, "The principle of his divine power cannot be hidden from me, and so I am using his hand to break his own seal.

Yet your mother still has to die. Yin Tianzi will still go to kill her, to complete the thoroughgoing seal upon her divine soul.

" He could not help smiling, "Every time your mother dies, the seal loosens once and unlocks the memories of one lifetime.

When she has died ninety-nine more times, she will be entirely clear-headed, and the Vermilion Bird divine soul will awaken. " Yan'er cried out in alarm, "My mother still has to die ninety-nine more times?

That will never do!

What if Yin Tianzi does not go on killing her—wouldn't that then—" "He will not. " Shen Mu said unhurriedly, "I know Yin Tianzi. That man is extremely obsessive and stubborn; a task not finished to flawless perfection he will never give up.

As long as your mother retains even a scrap of consciousness, he will do it again and again, until your mother's divine soul is utterly wiped away. He is such a man, and so I borrow his hand to break his seal. " Yan'er thought for a moment, then said, "That fellow has plenty of patience.

When he wanted the Five-Thunder Jar, he sent insects to bite at the Northern Emperor's gourd vine, and they bit away for several hundred thousand years. " Shen Mu smiled faintly, "From Longhan to the present age, there have been killing tribulations upon killing tribulations; the greatest in scale were the Longhan Primordial Tribulation, the Chiming Tribulation, the Shanghuang Tribulation, and the Kaihuang Tribulation.

Que Feiyin could hardly survive those successive great tribulations, yet because Yin Tianzi insists on perfection, he would, on the contrary, make sure that she did not dissipate into nothingness.