Heaven and earth are divided into three realms: the Ancient God Realm, the realm of immortals, demons, and ghosts, and the human realm. The Ancient God Realm is where the gods reside, revered by the four true gods: Ancient, Zhiyang, Baijue, and Tianqi.
Thirteen thousand years ago, the calamity of chaos descended upon the Three Realms. To prevent the chaos, the goddess Ancient sacrificed her life. The true god Tianqi, understanding the divine plan, set up a blood array of annihilation in the Abyssal Ridge Swamp, offering to sacrifice the lives of the three realms for the safety of Ancient.
To save the Three Realms, the goddess of stars and moons, Yue Mi, led a group of gods down to the mortal realm to stop Tianqi's blood array. However, she and the other gods mistakenly entered the array's center and perished in the blood formation. Their souls have since remained in the Abyssal Ridge Swamp, transformed into stone statues that watch over them in solitude.
Later, the calamity of chaos descended, Ancient sacrificed her life, and the Ancient God Realm was sealed. No one in the Three Realms remembers this event anymore.
Over sixty thousand years later, the ancient divine realm was revived, the Four True Gods returned to their positions, and everything returned to its former state. However, all traces of the Star-Moon Goddess were scattered across the vast divine realm, never to be seen again.
Before the Star-Moon Goddess's stone statue in the Sky Realm transformed into a galaxy, the final tear shed from her eyes became Tianqi's only unresolved thorn in his heart.
For sixty thousand years, immortals and demons battled relentlessly, regardless of weather conditions. For the first few thousand years, the two realms clamored with deep-seated hatred, their fury seemingly unstoppable even if the mountains crumbled and the earth and sky merged.
But this troubled situation was miraculously resolved when Supreme God Bai Jue was reduced to ash in the Abyssal Ridge Swamp. The Celestial Emperor and the Demon King didn't even issue a ceasefire to the Three Realms, and the immortal and demonic forces at the border between the two realms retreated in unison.
For decades, not to mention the immortal monarchs, even the belligerent demon monarchs had quietly retreated to their cave dwellings in the demon realm, unwilling to even take a single step beyond the boundary. Supreme God Bai Jue sacrificed his life to save the Three Realms. If they had continued their deadly battle in the lower realm, the three ancient gods of the Ancient God Realm would have struck them first.
Adhering to the principle of avoiding the enemy first, the two races finally rested.
This rest lasted fifty years.
Tianqi left the Ancient God Realm and idled in his palace on Ziyue Mountain for another fifty years.
Monsters are creatures that evolved from celestial species. Some monsters may have become uglier during their evolution, but most still possess a captivating beauty.
In the hundreds of thousands of years of the ancient calendar, Tianqi was the most outstanding. In the words of the gods of the Ancient Realm, his appearance was truly a gift from heaven and earth: a touch more would be excessive, a touch less would be lacking.
If the female immortals in the Ancient Realm who missed Bai Jue could queue outside the Peach Abyss Forest, then those who yearned for Tianqi would have been enough to circle the Ancient Realm. This grand spectacle sounded like a life of contentment, wishful thinking. Of course, these were just the sentimental words of veteran immortals and their disciples, chatting about anecdotes from the ancient past. But once this spread, few objected.
At the wedding of True God Bai Jue in the Sky Realm, hundreds of immortals and demons witnessed the awakening of True God Tianqi. That appearance, that incomparable demonic power, would have remained unforgettable for millennia.
So, even with True God Bai Jue's heroic sacrifice, the female immortals and demons of the Three Realms still discussed True God Tianqi most passionately.
It wasn't that these female immortals were ungrateful, but rather that True God Bai Jue and the man in the Pilgrimage Temple had a child. This corner was too solid, and no one dared to intrude. Thus, in the decades following the awakening of the gods of the ancient realm, Tianqi undisputedly became the most respected and honest bachelor in the Three Realms, Nine Provinces, and Eight Wastelands.
Yet, this bachelor had accomplished only two things in those fifty years.
The first was to return to Zhaixing Pavilion to see his old friend Shanggu.
The second was to search heaven and earth for Yuemi's soul.
The first occurred on some glorious sunny day, as Tianqi watched Shanggu lazily limping on one leg, basking in the sun while waiting for Baijue. He suddenly gave up.
The two exchanged a smile, a tacit understanding between friends of tens of thousands of years.
He plucked a peach blossom from the Peach Abyss Forest at Yuemi's former residence, scooped a gourd of stream water beneath a peach tree, and then departed in a carefree manner, dressed in his ancient robes.
Watching him retreat from Zhaixing Pavilion, Shanggu suddenly recalled Yuemi's smile, winking and toasting at her from the porch long ago.
She closed her eyes and sighed softly. Those three carts of wine had been sealed in the Tianqi Temple for sixty thousand years.
After that day, Tianqi never returned to the Ancient God Realm.
Throughout the Three Realms, Tianqi could never find Yue Mi's soul, but he refused to give up. Before tearing through space and entering a dimensional rift to search for Yue Mi's remnant, he visited Daze Mountain to meet Ah Qi.
At that time, the most exalted yet unfortunate Lesser God in the universe had been raised by the Immortal Lords of Daze Mountain into Gu Xiaopang. Gu Xiaopang, content with his fate, reigned supreme in the Forbidden Valley of Daze Mountain, leading a carefree life. His only thought was to break the seal, find the Little Phoenix, and then stomp through the Three Realms and the Desolate Worlds, oblivious to the fate that awaited him.
Tianqi, having surveyed him, felt no longer concerned. He left Purple Moon Mountain and the Nine Nether Purgatory to the Three Fires and stepped into the rift of time and space.
From then on, there was no trace of Tianqi in the Three Realms.
Years passed again. Centuries? Millennia? Perhaps an untold number of years.
By the time Tianqi returned to Purple Moon Mountain, exhausted and desolate, the story of Yuanqi's transformation into ash, his fight against the demons and the salvation of the Three Realms, had long passed. The Three Realms had completely changed. Aside from a few long-lived immortals and demon kings, there were many more people and events he had never heard of.
He was a true god of the Ancient God Realm. No matter how things changed in the Three Realms, it ultimately had nothing to do with him.
Only Yuanqi's demise made him frown, but ultimately, his weathered eyes fell silent.
Everyone has their own fate. Born a god, how could Yuanqi's tribulations be any less than those of Shanggu and Baijue?
Tianqi glanced at the desolate Purple Moon Mountain before finally returning to the Ancient God Realm.
The number of people waiting for him in Zhaixing Pavilion had grown from one to four: Shanggu, Baijue, Zhiyang, and Xuanyi, who preferred to die of old age in the Nine Netherworld Purgatory rather than return to the Ancient God Realm.
Shanggu and Baijue's eyes grew more hushed, while Zhiyang remained as steady as a rock. Xuanyi, leaning against the corridor of Zhaixing Pavilion, cradling a wine jug, suddenly cast a fiery glance at Tianqi from afar.
Tianqi shuddered, retreated into Zhaixing Pavilion, and headed for Xingyue Mansion.
Facing the condemning gazes of the other three gods, Xuanyi shrugged, revealing a touch of humanity.
"After all, we're operating on his territory. I wanted to give him a heads-up so that my grand plan can proceed smoothly."
Even the Three Realms have been destroyed several times, so what major undertaking is beyond your control?
The other three thought, but didn't say it out loud.
What Xuanyi was about to do this time wasn't a bad thing, after all. Whether it was right or wrong would only be known in a few years.
A moment later, Tianqi appeared in the Peach Abyss Forest behind Xingyue Mansion.
He stood by the stream under the tree for a long time, and suddenly sat down against the half-broken ancient tree. Except for the gourd filled with water from the Peach Abyss Forest stream on his waist, there was nothing left by his side after thousands of years.
Shanggu, catching a glimpse of this scene from afar, felt a pang of sadness, whether for him or for Yue Mi, who had once leaned against the Zhaixing Pavilion and made distant promises to her.
She glanced at Bai Jue and suddenly spoke. "One year on your birthday, I sent you three carts of wine. Do you remember?"
Bai Jue paused for a moment, then nodded. "Of course."
"I spent ten years scouring the Three Realms for three carts of precious wine for you. Why did you leave the Divine Realm the day after I delivered it?"
Zhiyang and Xuanyi, standing nearby, pricked up their ears, their eyes full of gossip, glancing at Shanggu and Bai Jue.
When had such a matter ever happened?
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Bai Jue's usually composed face. He turned his eyes away, his voice low, but the three in the Zhaixing Pavilion heard it clearly.
"That day, three carts of precious wine were also delivered to the Apocalypse Temple."
Even sixty thousand years later, these words still smacked of jealousy.
"Oh~" Xuan Yi drawled, looking towards Peach Garden, his face radiating pure gloating. "During my absence from the Divine Realm, you youngsters have had quite the time."
Zhi Yang winked at Xuan Yi, telling him not to add fuel to the fire. The Demon God snorted, wishing he could hold up a megaphone and shout about the Four True Gods' scandals throughout the Divine Realm.
"It wasn't me," Shang Gu said, her eyes etched with resignation. "The precious wine in the Apocalypse Hall wasn't my gift."
Bai Jue paused, as if suddenly realizing something, and glanced towards the Peach Garden Forest. This time, however, his gaze wasn't towards Apocalypse, but towards the Xingyue Mansion beyond.
He turned back to look at Shang Gu.
Shanggu nodded. "Back then, I didn't know Yue Mi sent three carts of precious wine to the Tianqi Temple on your birthday."
"Tianqi..." Seeing Bai Jue's silence, even Zhiyang, who usually avoided gossiping about the gods' private affairs, couldn't help but ask, "Didn't he know?"
Shanggu shook her head and said slowly, "As far as I know, he didn't know."
Shanggu lowered her eyes. "After that, the Chaos Tribulation began."
At this, a momentary silence fell in the Zhaixing Pavilion.
Over sixty thousand years had passed, and the most tragic and unspeakable event of the Chaos Tribulation was Yue Mi's death.
Otherwise, Tianqi wouldn't have been so obsessed with searching for Yue Mi's soul for so many years.
The four of them lost interest in enjoying the scenery and wine. Shanggu took Bai Jue back to the Pilgrimage Temple. Xuanyi pulled Zhiyang along, muttering about his "big event," completely devoid of the cold and world-weary attitude he had held in the Nine Netherworld Purgatory.
After a long moment, Tianqi, leaning against an ancient tree in the Peach Abyss Forest, finally opened his eyes. He gazed at the gurgling stream for a long moment, the Xingyue Mansion reflected in it looking particularly desolate.
He suddenly let out a long laugh. "So that's how it is."
But that smile was tinged with unexplained bitterness and guilt.
He had thought he only owed his best friend his life, but it turned out he also owed her a love affair from sixty thousand years ago.
Perhaps even longer than sixty thousand years. Yue Mi was gone, and no one knew what she had done, what she had loved, what she had sacrificed.
Just like the three carts of precious wine sealed in his temple, he hadn't drunk a single sip in all these years.
Tianqi stood up, not glancing at the Xingyue Mansion again, and walked out of the Peach Abyss Forest.
A brilliant star streaked across the sky above the Divine Realm, its mighty divine power shaking the surroundings. The scattered Divine Realm gods looked up in wonder, only to see a half-foot-wide rift tearing through the Divine Realm's barrier, revealing the vast power of the demonic god.
The most honest bachelor in the ancient divine realm has returned?
Before the goddesses could rejoice, the power of the demon god had already vanished into the horizon, not even a trace of divine power remained.
Gone again? How many years will it take this time?
The goddesses sighed, no longer daring to hope to marry the wanderer in the Temple of Apocalypse.
In the Star-Picking Pavilion, Shanggu and Baijue watched Tianqi disappear at the end of the divine realm.
Baijue looked at Shanggu.
"It's been sixty thousand years. Why did you tell him so suddenly?"
"If Yue Mi could return to the world one day..." Shanggu's voice was distant and nostalgic.
"She must have hoped that the person who found her was Tianqi."
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