Seeing the Grand Elder who looked like a youth in the courtyard, Chen Yan also revealed a smile.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Grand Elder Qi."
He said.
"Originally, it shouldn't have taken this long. I repeatedly ordered you to be summoned, but Yun Yichen blocked it every time, using the excuse that you were recently unwell."
Qi Yi said with a smile:
"After becoming the Sect Leader, his wings have indeed hardened... Back when he had just been accepted under my senior brother, he was only eight years old, and still spoke with a childish voice calling me Uncle Qi."
Qi Yi was Yun Yichen's martial uncle?
This was the first time Chen Yan had heard of such a thing.
"So, are you feeling better now?"
"The water of the Jieyou Abyss's pool was too cold, it was just a chill."
Chen Yan said.
Then, Chen Yan fixed his gaze on the index finger of Qi Yi's right hand.
Ye Xiu's ring was worn on it.
"There are still thirty-three days left."
Qi Yi slowly said this:
"You must have already heard from Xiao Bo'an, without Supreme Pivot Elder Li's Dao Domain to sever the karma for you, then thirty-three days later, what awaits you is a certain death outcome."
"I know."
"So, for the last thirty-three days of your life, what are your plans?"
Qi Yi asked again.
"Wait for death."
Chen Yan replied.
"Old Master Huo wants me to kill you."
"What does Grand Elder Qi plan to do?"
"You know."
Hearing this, Qi Yi laughed:
"You haven't disappointed me, Chen Yan. For Kongshan Sect to produce a prodigy like you should originally have been the greatest fortune for the sect in ten thousand years. It's just a pity you became entangled in too much karma you shouldn't have."
Qi Yi genuinely felt regret for Chen Yan.
"Grand Elder Qi's scheme is what truly leaves this disciple in awe."
Chen Yan said this.
"What's there to be in awe of? It's just placing bets on both sides, being cunning and slippery."
Qi Yi merely shook his head lightly.
Both Chen Yan and Qi Yi were fully aware of the metaphors in each other's words.
When heading to Taiyun City to investigate the true mastermind behind the destruction of the Immortal Gambling Den, Chen Yan had been pondering one question.
That was, how could Song Mingde, a mere outer court steward, have written that list which implicated the Peak Elders of the sect, and even the sect's Supreme Imperial Law Elder.
Originally, Chen Yan thought that Song Mingde, through letters passing through the outer court's Merit Hall, discovered the spirit stone deficit at the Mingxiao Peak ferry dock, then through Qiguan Jin, traced it to Yuanhua Mountain, thereby exposing the entire network behind it involving He Furen and Huo Mu, among others.
But this line of reasoning was quickly rejected by Chen Yan himself.
Because following this clue, even if Song Mingde had his own channels and informants within the inner court, at most he could only trace it to the General Affairs Office of Yuanhua Mountain, and would find it very difficult to trace it to He Furen's head.
Yet Song Mingde was originally just an ordinary outer court steward. He didn't even have a way to actively contact Qingchan Peak;
he could only convey information to Fu Qian by turning himself in and being locked up in the detention center.
Therefore, this could only represent one possibility.
Someone had been watching everything that happened all along and wanted to use Song Mingde's hand to convey some information to Qingchan Peak. The person who could obtain this information must be a close confidant of Huo Mu's side, a truly major figure.
This major figure was extremely cautious, leaving no traces, only using various clues to let Song Mingde connect this information, thereby arriving at an astonishing truth—the conspiracy of Supreme Imperial Law Elder Huo Mu.
The reason the Immortal Gambling Den in Taiyun City was annihilated was because Fu Qian feared this list would be leaked.
And the major figure behind it was the same.
That is, the true mastermind behind the destruction of the Immortal Gambling Den was that person close to Huo Mu, that major figure—
The Grand Elder of the Imperial Law Court, Qi Yi.
"This is the only path to survival calculated by Supreme Pivot Elder Li, and it is also your path to death."
Qi Yi said with a smile, then took off the ring from his hand and threw it to Chen Yan:
"Everything from now on, I leave to you."
Chen Yan watched the ring tracing a parabola through the air, then caught it in his hand.
"Leave what to me?"
He asked.
"I don't know, and Supreme Pivot Elder Li doesn't know either."
Qi Yi shook his head:
"This is a high-stakes gamble, and you are the only hope."
After saying this, Qi Yi turned and walked out of the courtyard.
"We'll meet again in hell someday."
This was the last sentence Grand Elder Qi left for Chen Yan.
Chen Yan stared at the ring in his hand.
He had nothing left to do.
Next, it was just waiting for the Outer Court Cataclysm thirty-three days later, to meet his certain death outcome.
...
Dao Domain.
A gaunt old man wearing outer court Daoist robes was sitting beside a simple thatched hut.
A waterfall splashed down from the mountain peak behind him, the wind passing through the waterfall blew through the forest and the gaunt old man's lapels.
"Supreme Pivot Elder Li."
A youth around thirty years old appeared beside this gaunt old man, bowing respectfully with a cupped-hand salute.
"How did it go?"
Li Haoran asked slowly without turning his head.
"I have already given him the ring."
Qi Yi said:
"What happens next depends entirely on himself."
"Mmm."
Li Haoran nodded.
Three thousand years ago, in the era when the path to immortality was severed, the still-unwilling Li Haoran attempted to spy on the secrets of heaven.
This peak great power of the Dao Union Realm, who had not yet ascended to immortality, nearly perished on the spot from just one glance.
But Li Haoran did not gain nothing.
Although this glance damaged his Dao foundation, making it impossible for him to ever ascend to immortality in this lifetime.
The backlash of karma against him indeed gave Li Haoran an understanding of causality far surpassing other great powers of the Dao Union Realm.
The secrets of heaven cannot be seen.
But Li Haoran gained the ability to spy on some of the causal destinies planted by human effort.
He saw the karma planted nine thousand years ago by Qingchan Peak's True Person Caiyun, Kong Yang.
That was the half-step Ascending to Immortality great demon of the Dao Union Realm that Kong Yang failed to slay back then and was sealed within the sect. It was destined to destroy the entire Kongshan Sect.
That's right, the entire Kongshan Sect would be destroyed by that half-step Ascending to Immortality great demon of the Dao Union Realm.
This is karma.
To reverse this karma, Li Haoran risked further damage to his Dao foundation and a fall in his realm, searching among countless destinies for the only path to survival.
That was to obscure the secrets of heaven and sever the karma.
Forcibly reversing destiny meant having to endure the backlash of karma.
The terrifying backlash brought by the cause planted by Kong Yang and the resulting effect could only be barely withstood by cultivators at the Dao Union Realm or above.
But if Li Haoran, already suffering from karma backlash, were to endure backlash again, the outcome would only be one.
Death.