Chapter 1644: Is This My Fate?

Heavenly Art Palace:

While Kong and Lin Fan were busy with their own division, Xu Shi also found a way to intervene in the war. The Heavenly Art Division was a minor division composed of scholars and cultivators whose art achievements had entered the Dao. Glass Pen controlled the entire department, but Xu Shi successfully took control of the Music Department.

In the past few yuan epochs, her department has been composing a War Song that they prepared to use on the battlefield. There is already a version of a song with a similar effect from the Second Origin War that was updated, but Xu Shi was not satisfied with the final product. So, she was tweaking it. Her first idea was to take inspiration from her ’Obsession Song,’ but after considering that people fighting this war probably don’t have any obsession to win or protect their homeland, she changed her idea to focus on desire — the desire to win, and more importantly, the desire to survive the war.

Xu Shi strung her qin, each note manifesting Dao Rhymes. She was so focused that she did not notice someone else was in the room. Well, it wouldn’t have mattered even if Xu Shi was in full alert. Xu Shi worked on the song for a few hours before taking a break to rest.

"Human art is truly fascinating. Your race has even managed to create sounds on par with Mother’s natural melody."

"Who?" Xu Shi yelled as she summoned her Proven Dao Artifact. Her heart was racing as she tried to remain composed and in control of her emotions.

"No need to get excited. You wouldn’t have noticed if I wanted to harm you."

Xu Shi looked at the intruder: a beautiful woman with dark hair, clad in black robes, black shoes, and wearing black eyeliner and rouge on her lips, with a small black tattoo running over her left eye. "Who are you?"

"I am Siwangji, the Death Chaos Demon God."

Xu Shi frowned: "And why have you intruded on my privacy?"

"I wouldn’t have taken the risk if it wasn’t absolutely necessary," Siwangji explained. "I came for the safety of your husband and the entire Chaos Universe."

"About Fan’er? What exactly are you talking about?"

"Do you know why our race was imprisoned?"

"I can’t say I do."

"Don’t expect you to, since most of us don’t even know," Siwangji calmly said. "It all started with our youngest brother, Pangu. He was smart and careful, choosing to stay inside his eggs until he was perfect." Xu Shi frowned as she watched this woman lost in her memory.

"...After Pangu defeated all 3800 of us, not all of us died. Most of us remained in the form of a consciousness, broken spirit, or unwilling obsession. So, we watched the terrible battle between him and that agent of destruction. However, what happened in that battle is not important.

"The key to my visit is what happened right before Pangu awakened from his madness and redeemed himself by turning his body into a world." Siwangji paused briefly.

"I saw it with my own eyes: our eldest brother, Hundunxi, secretly took something from Pangu’s body, and after years of observing and calculating, I’m 90% sure that thing was responsible for Pangu’s madness. After that, you can guess what happened. Mother, or as you called her — Grand Dao — was suspicious of us, so she sealed us in the prison to purify whatever power Hundunxi took.

"Sadly, her efforts were in vain. Our big brother went to extreme lengths to hide whatever he stole, and now that we have escaped, he has hidden himself inside your husband to use him as a pawn for his return. We cannot allow him to reclaim his strength and use that power, or the entire Chaos Universe will suffer, just like it did under Pangu’s madness."

"Wait, you said one of you is inside my husband’s body?"

"Yes," Siwangji nodded. "Your husband has been turned into the perfect vessel to hide my brother’s from Mother’s sight."

"That would explain some of his strange behaviors," Xu Shi moaned softly. "But why are you telling me this? Why not report directly to your Mother?"

"I can’t."

"Why not?"

"..."

"If you want my help, we need to establish a certain level of trust."

Siwangji sighed. "I wasn’t careful enough, and Hundunxi discovered I was keeping an eye on him. He wanted to eliminate me, but luckily, I had a backup to spread his information if he did. However, he took a piece of my Origin Spirit. If I utter a word, he’ll kill me."

"So, your true intention is not to save my husband, or the Chaos Universe, but for me to help you recuperate your Origin Spirit," Xu Shi said calmly. "In the end, even the Death Chaos Demon God is afraid and cannot escape death. How ironic."

"Death will come to us all," Siwangji sighed deeply. "However, you’re wrong. I do care about the universe and its people. Despite how severely the trajectory of our lives was altered because of Pangu, my sister, Shenghuovi, and I were created to care for all sentient beings in the Chaos Universe. And unlike my siblings, I have no resentment toward the youngest or toward our mother."

"Is that so?" Xu Shi muttered. Her intuition told her that this Death Chaos Demon God was telling the truth. Of course, Xu Shi would not trust the latter merely because of her intuition. After all, Siwangji used to be a Saint, so Heavens only know what the latter is capable of.

"What do you say? Do you want to ally with me to stop these two?"

Xu Shi did not immediately answer. Instead, she looked in the distance, lost in thought. ’Is this my fate?’ For a while now, it seemed that the primary source of her destiny had been saving her husband from his own fate. It’s alright since they are companions and promised eternity with each other, regardless of the ups and downs. However, Xu Shi was hoping to have her own fate, her own destiny, independent of Lin Fan or anyone else, for that matter.

She sighed deeply: "I have a few questions."

"By all means."

"How dangerous is your brother?"

"Extremely."

"I mean, how powerful he was in his peak, and how much power can he use now?"

"He used to be a Grand Source Saint, which this period called Grand Dao Saint, which I may say, is quite offensive. However, in his current state, he can probably use the strength of a Second Origin Saint, or Tribunal Saint, for a short period. But, he’ll be exposed and probably directly executed by Mother."

Xu Shi groaned. "If he’s so powerful? How can all of you lose to Pangu? And why did he need to take the risk to steal that corruptant from him?"

"The difference between two Saints can be as vast as the Heavens and the Earth," Siwangji explained. "Pangu has reached the pinnacle, on the verge of entering the realm of [Detachment]." She sighed deeply with a look of longing. "That’s a realm even beyond Mother — a realm we all dream of."

The same look of longing flashed in Xu Shi’s eyes. Any cultivators with the slightest ambition will dream of transcendence.

"As to the answer to your second question? Well, I technically answered one part of it. First Brother was jealous of Pangu. He was born to be our leader, to be the best among us. However, the youngest displayed astonishing talent and even surpassed him. I remember when we celebrated Pangu for being the first to become a Grand Source Saint. First Brother tried to hide it, but our sisters, Desire and Emotions, noticed his jealousy and teased him. We all played it out as a joke back then, but we should have taken it more seriously.

"I believe he stole that power from Pangu because he thought it would grant him power on par with the youngest."

"It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that such a mighty race like the Chaos Demon God almost became extinct because one of you was jealous of another," Xu Shi shook her head.

"To be fair, we were a little jealous of him," Siwangji admitted. "He was the only one who received a direct visit from Mother; she even preached to him. However, no one else had the pedestal of being the first and leader of our family, so we did not mind too much about Pangu’s sudden rise."

"I kind of understand," Xu Shi nodded. "Alright, enough with the family drama. What exactly is your plan?"

"First Brother should be trying to recuperate his strength as soon as possible, and our goal is to stop or delay him. As long as I can return to the state of a True Origin Saint, I can deal with him."

"True Origin Saint?"

"Primordial Chaos Saint."

"Oh," Xu Shi nodded. "And what’s in it for me? And don’t say save my husband. As much as I love him, I will not involve myself with something of such scope and ramifications without any benefits."

"I appreciate much of Human Civilization, but I have so much disdain for how utilitarian you guys are — especially cultivators," Siwangji sighed deeply.

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