Guide to the Rebirth of the Evil Woman in the Immortal Realm - Chapter 41

The God Realm: Lotus Pond of the Heavens

This place remained under heavy guard. Even the noble High Gods were not permitted to enter at will. Just as the divine soldiers were changing shifts, a wisp of wind brushed against their hardened armor and slipped through the gaps.

The wind was as light as a breath. It remained undetected even after entering the Lotus Pond. After passing through layers of guards and gliding over a golden radiance, the wind came to a halt. Starting from the feet, it slowly began to take form.

Those indifferent eyes shifted, taking in the sight of the seemingly endless lotus pond.

Wenren Yi stood on the lakeshore, feeling not the slightest guilt for trespassing into the God Realm’s most restricted forbidden zone. She observed the pond. The moment she materialized, she smelled a stench of blood and rotting flesh so pungent it was stifling.

The pond appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary lotus pond, filled with swaying lotus flowers and leaves. Aside from being immense—so vast the end was beyond sight—there was nothing special about it.

Wenren Yi felt a twinge of disappointment and found her recent restlessness laughable. She shook her head, preparing to walk along the shore to see if there was anything truly extraordinary. But the moment she moved, she suddenly heard a strange sound swimming against the current from the bottom of the lake. It sounded like a fish, specifically a massive fish with a skeletal frame as large as a mountain range.

She stopped in her tracks.

A bone-chilling aura surged from beneath the water. As it broke the waves, it let out a howling sound as sharp as a knife’s edge. Wenren Yi did not turn to look. She simply waited in silence until she heard the soft pitter-patter of water droplets falling onto the lake’s surface.

Drip.

A scarred, nearly transparent white hand clamped onto Wenren Yi’s ankle and suddenly tightened. She looked down.

Soaking in the water was not a fish, but a person with distinct limbs and features. More accurately, it was a woman. Her long, ink-black hair floated in the water. Her face was deathly pale, and she wore blood-stained green robes. Wenren Yi saw her lift her eyelids. Her eyes were a pale pink, resembling a spirit or a demon rather than an orthodox God or Immortal.

Her palm was freezing.

Wenren Yi tried to shake off her hand, but she had not expected the woman to possess such immense strength. Her nails sank deep into Wenren Yi’s skin, as if she intended to crush the ankle bone. Seeing the look of astonishment on Wenren Yi’s face, the woman soaking in the lotus pond smiled, revealing pointed teeth.

Looking at her pale, delicate face and her gentle, harmless pale-pink eyes, Wenren Yi was the first to speak. “Who are you?”

The woman gripped her ankle, wet hair clinging to the corners of her mouth. She mimicked Wenren Yi by staring back, then suddenly laughed even more joyfully. For some reason, Wenren Yi felt a sinister malice in that smile. It felt like being slowly coiled, inch by inch, by a cold python.

“Who am I?” The woman rested her hand on the shore, observing Wenren Yi’s face with great interest. “You do not know who I am?”

These words were strange. Wenren Yi had never entered the Lotus Pond of the Heavens. She only knew from fragmented rumors that a Lotus Mother resided here. But this person’s reaction was too bizarre. Her gaze was terrifyingly cold yet terrifyingly tender, as if she were dissecting a long-lost acquaintance.

The Lotus Mother suddenly released Wenren Yi’s ankle and submerged herself back into the water. She seemed imprisoned here, unable to step onto the shore. Moments ago, she had only raised her upper body above the surface.

Wenren Yi did not know how deep the pond was. The densely growing lotuses covered the entire surface, making it impossible to see the water itself. The moment the Lotus Mother dove back in, Wenren Yi’s pupils constricted. A wave of coldness climbed from the ankle the woman had grabbed, freezing her entire body.

It was the color of blood. The lake water was the color of blood.

This was no lotus pond at all. It was a blood pool where countless corpses had been laid to rest. The Lotus Mother swam beneath the surface filled with gore and rotting flesh. She looked happy, like a child who had finally found a toy. Just as Wenren Yi thought she would not reappear, the Lotus Mother suddenly poked her face out of the water again, smiling softly at Wenren Yi.

“You are so pitiful,” the Lotus Mother said, her raspy voice thick with undeniable malice. “I see it now. You are so pitiful.”

Wenren Yi looked at her pale face, speechless. Clearly, the most pitiful one here was the Lotus Mother. Trapped in the Lotus Pond for millions of years, never to see the light of day, living in a grotesque burial ground—her situation seemed ten million times more wretched than that of a High God. How could a radiant High God be pitiful?

Wenren Yi knew the woman was trying to provoke her and that she was lying, yet an increasing sense of unease filled her heart. She could not help but retort, “You are lying.”

“I am not lying.”

The Lotus Mother crinkled her pale-pink eyes, smiling brightly and innocently. She drifted around the edge of the shore like a water ghost, her seemingly slender and frail hands leaving palm prints on the bank.

“You do not even know you have been deceived,” she said, her eyes turning ghostly once more. “They push you along a tampered path like playing with ignorant insects, mocking you while watching coldly. You really are pitiful, Wenren Yi. I pity you.”

This was their first meeting. How could she know her name?

Wenren Yi stared blankly at the Lotus Mother’s gloating eyes. Just as she was about to speak, footsteps echoed from outside the pond. The Lotus Mother leaned against the shore, smiled, and mouthed: You cannot get out.

She grabbed Wenren Yi’s ankle again, her grip so strong the Narcissus Goddess stumbled. The Lotus Mother tilted her frail, harmless face up, but her voice was chillingly dark. “I owe your friend a favor. I will repay it to you today.”

Before Wenren Yi could resist, she was dragged into the flesh-choked pond by the Lotus Mother.

Glub, glub, glub.

Wenren Yi heard the sound of bubbles bursting near her ears. Thick lotus leaves covered her layer by layer. The Lotus Mother’s strength was terrifying, completely at odds with her fragile appearance. As the floating black hair brushed against Wenren Yi’s face, she realized the Lotus Mother was hiding her behind her own body.

A warm golden spiritual aura enveloped Wenren Yi, completely masking her presence. Her eyes widened in shock. Beneath this pond, there was actually something more.

She was too stunned to think, noticing several chains shimmering with a bloody luster. These chains, which bound the Lotus Mother, were wrapped in layers around her ankles. These were the God-Binding Chains of the highest grade in the God Realm. They had not even used these chains when they suppressed Wu Zhen on the Execution Platform back then. Why were they being used on the Lotus Mother now?

The footsteps drew closer.

Wenren Yi looked up and saw a pair of familiar boots. The owner of the boots stopped before the Lotus Mother without leaning down. The water was strangely cursed. Despite being a High God, Wenren Yi could not see the visitor’s face through the pond water.

But soon, she heard his voice. He spoke from a high position, sounding accustomed to this, calmly saying to the Lotus Mother on the shore, “Pardon the offense.”

It was Jie Fanyin.

The Lotus Mother did not speak. Jie Fanyin seemed used to her silence, assuming this Mother of Lotuses, who had been imprisoned forever, was a mute who did not understand human speech. Wenren Yi saw streaks of blood diffusing down from the surface. The stench grew heavier. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She felt nauseous with disgust, wishing she could rush out and hack everything in sight to pieces.

Jie Fanyin came and went quickly. Once the entrance to the Lotus Pond was completely sealed, Wenren Yi broke the surface. She saw that the heads of the lotus leaves near the shore had been snapped off and taken away. The stalks were oozing blood. The Lotus Mother smiled as she looked at the bleeding leaves. One of the fingers she had resting on the shore was missing.

They were harvesting the Lotus Mother’s bone and blood while she was alive.

Wenren Yi’s mind went blank. She had once suspected that those medicinal pills were made by stripping the spiritual energy and cultivation of the Lotus Mother, but she never imagined the reality would be ten thousand times more cruel.

The Lotus Mother leaned against the shore, smiling at the silent Wenren Yi as she climbed back onto land. Her tone was as gentle as if she were coaxing a child, sounding as if she were talking to herself, yet clearly meant for Wenren Yi. “Do not ever give me a chance to get out. If I do, I will kill everyone, including you.”

Shen Fuxin said, “I dreamed of an old friend.”

Ji Ting remained silent. Shen Fuxin looked as if she had just returned from a near-death experience. Her complexion was ghastly, and her eyes were unfocused.

“She,” Shen Fuxin paused, then suddenly looked up at Ji Ting. “Do you still remember your mother?”

Ji Ting thought for a moment and shook her head. She had forgotten too many things and still could not recall them. Even her own identity was something she had only remembered yesterday. The word “mother” was too ethereal. It sounded warm, but after a fleeting moment of comfort, it drifted away like a cloud she could not grasp.

Shen Fuxin leaned against the side of the cauldron, looking up at the vast river of stars above. After a long silence, she spoke her wish directly for the first time. “I want to find my mother.”

The pill, formed from the spiritual energy within the golden lotus, lay quietly in Shen Fuxin’s palm. It was pale gold, very light, and looked quite ordinary. However, Shen Fuxin did not dare underestimate this pill refined from her own body. She became more deeply aware of her uniqueness. She was like a filtration vessel, capable of quenching the impurities within a pill and condensing them into a pure essence.

And this time, the pain had vanished.

Was it because of the spiritual energy within the lotus? Shen Fuxin stared at the pill. The source of the energy was questionable, yet she felt an instinctive familiarity. Was it because the energy in the lotus was connected to the mother she had never met?

She stood up and knocked on Shen Sha’s door.

“This is for you,” Shen Fuxin said. “When you are ready, swallow it in front of us.”

Shen Sha did not hesitate, nor did she say a single word. She took the pill from Shen Fuxin’s hand, tilted her head back, and swallowed it. The moment the pill entered Shen Sha’s body, she suddenly doubled over and spat out a mouthful of turbid blood.

For the first time, Shen Sha’s current body felt the physical manifestation of spiritual energy. This was, after all, a mortal body, unlike the High God body she once possessed. Such powerful energy caused her excruciating pain. Her internal organs felt nearly pierced through. The energy within the pill felt like countless arrows shooting outward from within. In her daze, Shen Sha felt as though she were a sieve being riddled with holes.

However, once the first acupoint capable of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was opened, a second would follow.

Shen Fuxin stood at the door, not retreating a single step or even blinking. She let Shen Sha’s blood flow over the soles of her shoes. She wanted to watch and to see everything clearly. If it failed, she was prepared to cut open Shen Sha’s body to find the cause of the failure.

This version of Shen Fuxin felt familiar to Ji Ting. She was calm and cruel. Perhaps she was not that powerful yet, but one day she would be. She would grow to resemble her mother.

Glub, glub, glub.

The sound of bubbles bursting from ten thousand years ago echoed in Ji Ting’s ears. Her memories were nowhere to be found. She watched as Shen Fuxin helped Shen Sha up and forced her to begin meditating. She then closed her eyes slightly under the moonlight.