novelraw Chapter 1085: How Could There Be a Path to Immortality in This World? (93): Painting
Chapter 1085: How Could There Be a Path to Immortality in This World? (93): Painting
Time seemed to have frozen... everything stood still.
Huang Baifu’s voice trembled,
“It’s... not like this…”
Daoist Baijie, ever the wily old man, quickly offered comfort,
“Your Highness has shown great virtue! Baijie will never forget what you’ve done for our Divine Land Daoist World today! Rest assured, I’ll never speak of this incident.”
“It’s not like this…”
Huang Baifu’s arm fell limply. Facing everyone’s mixed expressions, he instinctively stepped back,
“It’s not like this…!”
“That punch truly was world-shaking—just as its name suggests, Heaven-Shattering Fist. Gongsun Wuwei sincerely concedes defeat. Brother, I salute you!”
Not far away, Gongsun Wuwei cupped his hands, humbled.Once again, Huang Baifu felt… like he had definitely lost something today.
“It’s not like this—!!!”
He grabbed his hair and let out a gut-wrenching scream. In that moment, his turbulent demonic energy erupted violently!
Amid his pain and anguish, the energy surged beyond comprehension—his Tiger King Pattern shone with dazzling golden light!
Then, centered on Huang Baifu, a tremendous force exploded outward!
The weakest among them, Jiang Zuo, was blasted by this energy and tumbled into the passage that the Valkyrie-Class Gaia had smashed open earlier.
“Not good! He’s lost control! The divine beast White Tiger’s power is rampaging!” Gong Fanxin noticed what was happening and cried out anxiously.
But just as she spoke, Huang Baifu suddenly shot forward—her voice seemed to be the trigger that the now-demonic Huang Baifu locked onto her!
“Don’t come near me!!”
Gong Fanxin screamed—not because she feared being pursued by a peerless expert, but because she definitely didn’t want to be pursued by a smelly one!
In that instant, Daoist Baijie dove into the passage where Jiang Zuo had fallen—he went to save him!
Meanwhile, Gong Fanxin frantically distanced herself. Huang Baifu’s punch landed squarely on the massive gate Da Zhe had previously cracked open with his sword!
With a metallic wail, the doors finally gave way under Huang Baifu’s demonic fist, bursting open!
Feeling that this place was insanely dangerous, Tai Yinzi, who had been pretending to be dead on the floor the entire time, seized the opportunity and slipped into the room beyond the gate—pure survival instinct!
Elsewhere, Gong Fanxin bolted toward Gongsun Wuwei.
“You wretched woman!! Don’t lead him over here!!” Gongsun Wuwei was furious.
“I don’t want to fight a smelly peerless expert either!!”
“Who cares?! You chased me for hundreds of years! And now you won’t even block poop for me—how dare you say you love me?!”
“I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!!”
As the two fled from the berserk Huang Baifu, they leapt and dodged, vanishing into the chaos.
...
...
Tai Yinzi poked his dog head out from the broken doorway. Seeing the utterly ruined corridor, he blinked, then quickly pulled his head back in.
“Sigh…”
He sighed and casually looked around the room… He didn’t know what to expect.
To him, the room looked unbelievably ordinary—luxurious, yes, but seemingly just a bedroom.
A woman’s bedroom, judging from the furniture, wardrobes, and a large bed… The carpet underfoot was soft to the touch.
Still, it puzzled Tai Yinzi—why was such an ordinary room so hard to break into? This whole place was bizarre.
He shook his head, about to leave, when something caught his eye—
A massive painting hanging somewhere in the room.
Tai Yinzi froze. He stared up at the painting, mouth agape.
In the painting, a girl sat on a chair, smiling sweetly. On her forehead, she wore an ornate headpiece—bearing the same emblem as the one on the metal doors!
The girl in the painting… was clearly a Gaia!
Or rather… she looked like a Gaia? Or maybe all the Gaias looked like her?
But that wasn’t what shocked Tai Yinzi the most.
What really stunned him—made him gasp—was the young man standing beside her.
The man wore clothing nearly identical to the girl’s, also had that same emblem on his headpiece, and the two stood closely, intimately.
But this young man…
“This is… Boss?!” Tai Yinzi’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“What the hell… is going on???”
...
...
Falling through the passage, Jiang Zuo screamed in terror—until he hit the floor hard, feeling like his bones were going to snap.
Thankfully, he was at least a cultivator with a toughened body. A normal person would’ve been crushed to pulp.
He groaned and got up—only to be completely stunned.
“This place is…”
To his shock, he’d somehow ended up back in the massive chamber with the Universal Material pool—the very place he had been before.
The massive robotic printing arms still loomed above, though many seemed damaged.
Above him stretched a long passageway—who knew how many levels it pierced through?
Jiang Zuo shivered, realizing he had landed inside the now-empty Universal Material pool…
Strangely, the pool had completely dried up!
“There’s no Universal Material left… Did that giant Gaia use it all up?”
Frowning, he noticed that though the pool was empty, one strange crystal remained near where he fell.
Fist-sized, faintly glowing with rainbow light—it caught his attention.
He picked it up instinctively and felt a moist sensation in his palm.
Opening his hand, he saw his skin coated with a fine, colorful, slightly wet powdery substance.
It seemed to be seeping out of the crystal!
“This is… Universal Material?”
Jiang Zuo rubbed his fingers in disbelief and stared at the crystal again.
“Could this thing… actually generate Universal Material?!”
“Jiang Zuo!”
Just then, Daoist Baijie’s voice came from above.
Startled, Jiang Zuo quickly stuffed the crystal into his robe and shouted,
“President! I’m fine!”
A moment later, Daoist Baijie landed beside him in the pool.
He glanced around, frowned, but said nothing—just grabbed Jiang Zuo by the collar,
“Let’s go!”
He dragged Jiang Zuo back up. Soon, they returned to the previous area—fortunately, Da Zhe’s exit portal was still open.
Baijie’s expression lightened slightly. He shoved Jiang Zuo toward the portal and said firmly,
“Once you’re out, do not speak a word about the prince! If anything leaks from the Daoist or Demon realms, I’ll come straight to you!”
“U-Understood!!”
As for Huang Baifu’s explosive diarrhea moment… Jiang Zuo wouldn’t dare breathe a word. Who wants the entire White Tiger clan hunting them down?
Seeing Jiang Zuo vanish into the portal, Baijie finally sighed in relief.
However, Huang Baifu, Gongsun Wuwei, and Gong Fanxin were all gone—
And Da Zhe’s battle with the colossal Gaia? Who knew where it had gone.
Daoist Baijie could only estimate the position based on the sound he heard… He frowned. To him, the most important thing was still to evacuate all the Daoists and Demons from here.
But without Da Zhe, it was hard for Daoist Baijie to continue locating the others. As he contemplated this, he suddenly heard some strange noises.
It sounded like metal clashing against metal… or perhaps footsteps?
Daoist Baijie looked up toward the massive metal gate that had been broken open—and saw a strange mechanical dog slowly walking out.
This odd metal dog appeared to be the same one Jiang Zuo had been holding?
At this moment, it had something rolled up in its mouth—some kind of paper scroll.
When the mechanical dog spotted Daoist Baijie, it opened its mouth in surprise, dropping the scroll in a panic before quickly picking it back up again.
Daoist Baijie narrowed his eyes. He found the metal dog suspicious and began walking toward it.
Seeing Daoist Baijie approach, the metal dog—Tai Yinzi—was internally panicking, but managed to maintain a calm expression and even wagged its tail.
Daoist Baijie’s suspicion deepened. This was clearly no ordinary dog. Reaching out, he easily grabbed the dog into his hands—and then reached for the scroll in its mouth.
“Old man Baijie!”
A figure appeared like a ghost beside him, startling Daoist Baijie and making him instinctively halt his motion.
“Mr. Da Zhe!”
Da Zhe appeared with sword in hand, full of energy—though his clothes were noticeably torn in several places.
“Where’s Jiang Zuo?” Da Zhe asked quickly.
“He’s already been sent away,” Daoist Baijie replied immediately.
“Good… Huh, this dog… never mind, wait for me a bit longer!!” Da Zhe nodded, then charged back into the long passage he had previously carved out with his sword!
Daoist Baijie was shaken. Even someone as powerful as Da Zhe seemed to have had a hard time against that colossal Gaia?
Explosions and violent tremors echoed from ahead. Although Baijie couldn’t see the battle between Da Zhe and the Valkyrie-Class Gaia, just the intensity of the noise made his heart tremble.
This was just someone sent from “that place” to handle a simple request of his… Who exactly was their terrifying boss?
Daoist Baijie sighed inwardly. The power gap made it hard for him to focus on anything other than rescue.
He looked down at the metal dog in his hand, which was staring in the direction Da Zhe had gone—its eyes surprisingly full of… soulfulness? Was that… sorrow?
“What a spiritual little dog,” Baijie sighed. “Though made of metal, it's incredibly lively. The scroll in your mouth seems important… What is it, really?”
As he spoke, Daoist Baijie reached again for the scroll in Tai Yinzi’s mouth.
But Tai Yinzi bit down firmly and refused to let go, surprising Baijie.
“Tsk tsk… How curious.”
“Little priest! Out of the way!!”
Suddenly, Gong Fanxin’s panicked voice rang out from behind. Startled, Daoist Baijie released the scroll.
He looked up to see Gong Fanxin and Gongsun Wuwei charging toward him like they’d seen a ghost. Behind them, Huang Baifu surged forward, his entire body wrapped in overflowing demonic energy—so intense it had formed the silhouette of a White Tiger cloak around him!
Yet even this fierce aura couldn’t mask the faint but unmistakable stench coming from Huang Baifu’s pants. Seeing the strange stains on his clothes and the yellow-white substances trailing between his legs, Daoist Baijie shuddered.
Now he understood why even the once-feared Gong Fanxin and Gongsun Wuwei were running for their lives. Honestly, Baijie himself didn’t want to be touched by Huang Baifu either.
“Help me! You two, help me restrain the Crown Prince!” Baijie shouted.
Gong Fanxin paused, realizing they couldn’t keep running forever.
But the next moment, she exploded with fury:
“You tricked me, you little priest!!”
Because Daoist Baijie had already turned tail and… run away.
“Put me down…!”
Also, Tai Yinzi’s helpless wail echoed in the distance.
...
...
Inside the Leixia Ship’s main core, where the massive energy sphere and spinning metallic pillars resided—
In the control room, Count Drekeya stared hard at the battle between the Valkyrie-Class and Da Zhe, his eyes filled with increasing anxiety—his body was clearly struggling against the invasion of the skeletal hand’s power.
But beyond trying to stop Da Zhe, Count Drekeya could no longer afford to care about anything else.
Beneath the massive energy sphere, within a ruined and wrecked platform—
Buried in the metallic debris, the twisted body of the prototype Gaia suddenly showed signs of life. Her previously blank eyes flickered with a trace of clarity.
From her long purple hair, something dropped—a black circular ring.
The ring shattered into fragments as it hit the ground.
Her fingers twitched slightly… and the color slowly returned to her gaze.
The debris burying her was swept away. The prototype Gaia gently floated upward, her eyes still dazed yet gradually gaining clarity.
Lowering her head, she whispered in a faint mosquito-like voice—
“Bro…ther…”
(End of Chapter)